Work before play, except not all day

The boys are helping a bit today. We set the timer for 18 minutes of play time and when it beeps, they come help with a task for about 18 minutes. We've been going back and forth like this a couple times but I think it might backfire after lunch. We'll see. The great thing is we were working together. They hate it before they do it, but they don't seem to mind too much after.

I got some extra help with laundry from emptying the dryer to loading the washer to sweeping the floors and shaking out the rugs. Daddy got extra help with collecting the garbages and putting in new bags and then both boys helped Daddy to rake the leaves outside. I love it when work turns into play.

I'm trying to convince the boys that play after work is so much sweeter because there's no obligation hanging over your head -- but I guess I'm still trying to practice that myself.

Then of course they had to jump in the leaves, even if they were wet and slimy. And then they took turns burying themselves and popping out like leaf monsters! Do you see the hand? And then two? Watch out!

Things have warmed up a bit around here. As you can see, our rosemary is still going strong near the house, as the other flowers pretty much bit it with the last frost.

The boys asked for waffles this morning after Dave trotted off to class and I was still a sleepy head. (Well, we were up talking to 1am.) Anyway, I got up and faced my cluttered kitchen and promptly started creating a bigger mess.

We still had a bit of pumpkin pie filling from the other day so I added it, along with lots of cinnamon and ginger and vanilla... YUM. Pumpkin Waffles! Dave was relieved when he got home. Not much sleep for him. We're in the final stretch facilitating our Musical Theatare class, so there's a lot of panic in the air for the students and that weighs on us too.

I also made a very strange, good soup yesterday. I cleaned out the fridge. It had rutabaga, carrots, yam, rosemary, onion, dill, cumin, cardamon, coriander, eggplant, apple, yukon mashed potatoes, sherry, ginger, garlic, tumeric, salt, pepper, pepper flakes, lemon pepper, left over rib meat, a handful of cranberries, sage, breakfast sausage, apples and... (hold on to your hat) bananas. Yes. As you can imagine, it was pretty spicy and the bananas added just the right sweet-mellowness to the stew. I had four helpings.