our september was verrrrry uneventful. no trips. no adventures. just regular life. well. regular-ish. you know. because we are still in coranavirus covid quarantine pandemic lockdown.
school has continued to be more of a “just keep up with math and wordly wise and listen to me do one chapter of a read aloud and then you can have the rest of the day to do whatever you like” situation.
ruby is a strict teacher. 
manuscript writing. not her favorite. 
singapore math on the floor requires a mask.
i met up with my pal heather, to celebrate her last day as a stay at home mom, for lunch at the porch. i haven’t been there since way before the pandemic, and i was distraught to find my favorite menu item was missing. so i went with these flautas which were obviously delicious, but not “tostadas teddy” delicious.
we also met up with heather and her girls at the drive-in for a viewing of harry and the hendersons. it’s actually just a parking lot for a run down old mall and a second run movie theater. the movie theater now shows the second (or third or twentieth) run movies on the side of their building, capitalizing on the new social distancing world we live in. the kids had a lot of fun and maybe even tolerated an old eighties classic. and i got to relive the time i met john lithgow.
september also brought the return of in person dance classes. anna was soooo excited. she has moved up to the next age group, so she should stop being so grumpy about the immature younger kids. speaking of younger kids, hazel decided that she wanted to do ballet this year, so she is now in the class anna was in, but she takes it VERY seriously. she loves it and is very cute.
in garden news. ugh. that’s all i can say. my tomatoes continue to grow out of control. this bed is about 4′ x 10′ and the tomatoes are planted along the back row. this tangled mass is as tall as me and is still getting new growth and flowers. but very few tomatoes ever materialize. and the ones that do are prone to holes or rotting before they ripen. it’s october 1st as i type this and i am not sure what happened and/or what to do differently. i am still getting jalapenos like crazy. and butternut squash. and my other peppers are starting to come in. it’s just very strange. very 2020-ish.
there was occasional fun with friends. but, with everyone back to school, it’s a lot harder to find social time for the kiddos. we always love hanging out with our crazy friends the lewises. and ike got to have a sleepover birthday party with his two longtime pals, josiah and alden.
we’ve sort of had a hiatus from the kitchen. i don’t know why. attempts at better diets. various children with various food requirements/preferences. i don’t know. but with fall rolling in. and great british baking show back for another season, it’s as good a time as any to get back to baking. starting with snickerdoodles.
september also brought the long awaited football season. the bills team this year is very exciting and with tom brady out of the division, things are feeling really optimistic. the kids are even a little excited about watching and hazel has requested a josh allen jersey for christmas. derek has been doing a good job of keeping me fed with delicious fall and/or football themed comfort foods.
we staged this. 
sleepy bills mafia. 
chili and gluten free corn bread. 
WINGS!
we had a rough month pertaining to the chickens. when we ordered 15 way back in the spring, we fully expected to lose a few, since they are notoriously bad at living. but, here they are, almost full grown and things have gone well. we even began to free range them. but, one day, i was on the deck, with my morning coffee, when i heard a distinct “cock a doodle doo”. we had noticed that one chicken had started to look more like a rooster, but we have had such good luck with the sexing by the place we order them from, we just thought we were wrong. but, alas. our welsummer, who we chose for it’s dark chocolate colored eggs, is a rooster, which is a bummer. but not as much of a bummer as what happened next.
well. we don’t actually know what happened next. we just noticed that our two light brahmas (frodo and samwise) were missing. we looked all over for evidence. most predators don’t carry off chickens with no evidence of trauma. we never found anything, so we crossed our fingers that something spooked them and they would return, but that never happened. so. we are down to 13 chickens, but only 12 hens. and the brahmas were our favorites. so, we are bummed.
nightly headcount. 
feeding mealworms.
and now. for some completely random moments from the longest month of all time.
lots of blanket forts. 
not even sure what’s happening here. 
night reader. 
new to me vintage quilt that derek got for me at an auction where i’m thankful he didn’t get coronavirus. 
basting assistant. 
bathtime. a rare occurrence. 
time for halloween movies. 
and time for fireplace fires! 
fun story. we had a mildew infestation in the camper. so. that’s been lovely. 
breakfast is better on a quilt while watching paw patrol. 
cutie amphibian collectors.
movie night.
and lastly. as always. some ruby pics. first with humans. then without.
and that’s september, folks.
(and can we just take a moment to appreciate that i’m all caught up on my blog? i’d promise to try to keep it up, but we all know that’s not happening.)
Congratulations of catching up on this monumental task! Ruby is the greatest, except for your other kids, of course. Enjoy being caught-up for a while.