Another (Few) Years of Dickens...

I laughed when I saw this post the other day. That was from 2007. I took a break from reading through my Charles Dickens collection. A two year break it turned out to be. I did read some of his Christmas Stories last year, but dove back in full force this summer. I have completed Dombey and Son and Little Dorritt and am currently three fourths of the way through Bleak House. As they average 1200 pages, it takes a bit more time and thought to read than say, the Mitford series I reread last month. I do read and nurse the baby at the same time when it works out.

Dombey & Son has been my least favorite so far. Not that it isn't wonderfully written. It is just a sadder story to me. I adored Little Dorritt and begged Sweetheart to get the movie when I finished. We both loved it. Do watch it if you can!

All this Dickens led to watching an old BBC version of Bleak House that we've had for years but hadn't seen. Now we own the new version as well. *ahem* Both are good, but the newer version is filmed in a more up to date fashion and very well done as well as being easier to follow with better audio. It is an amazing story. I will be a bit sad to finish reading it.

I think next I will venture off to The Curiosity Shop for a visit. By then it will probably be time to finish up the Christmas Stories. As my set of books is quite old and worn I sewed, a book cover that I can put on each book as I read them. I hope this will help them to last longer.

Though at over 135 years old, I think they've paid their dues, don't you? Maybe I'll get a picture of the cover I made taken and posted soon. As computer time varies wildly these days, we'll just have to see. I am keeping quite busy these days and loving it all. Well, except the crying. And I am a wee bit tired today. Therefore, I am going to sign off for now wishing you all the best. Maybe I can get a few more pages read...

What are you reading???? Do tell!

Living Life

I feel like we've been so busy living life that blogging about it has been set aside.
We've been to Berry Patch Farms more times than I can count. It's closer than any grocery store so it is easy to run up the road for eggs and fresh produce as needed. (We live on the far east side of Denver.)
Since I only head to the regular grocery store once a month to stock up on bulk foods and meat it's so great to have something close for the fresh things. Don't know what I'll do when they close for winter! They'll be open until Thanksgiving, but then closed until late spring/early summer.
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We'll try to head to the zoo a few more times before it gets too cold. The Denver Zoo really is nice. We fed the Lorikeets on our last trip there. My Mom played hooky from work and went with us. It was a great day.

They are giving each other kisses in the picture above. Something they do all the time that just melts this Mommy's heart.

Pumpkin loves to see all the animals and Dumpling likes to be pushed along in the stroller eating snacks. I'm not sure he much cares about the animals yet, but he sure likes going along for the ride. When he finishes what's on his tray he starts finishing up whatever Pumpkin has left behind.



We went up to Estes Park two weekends ago just to enjoy an Autumn drive. I wasn't able to get any really good pictures of the color in the mountains, but we had a lovely day. The barn picture at the top of the page was from that drive.

We stopped along the way at the Miller Farms where Pumpkin was able to see a few of his friends. They had painted a bunch of old cars and a truck to look like the characters from "Cars". (In case you hadn't noticed the reoccurring toy in almost every picture of Pumpkin--this boy loves Lightning Mc Queen. He goes everywhere with us from Target to picking up wheat at Nadine's today. If he's not in Pumpkin's hands, he close by!)

They've also got a bunch of old tractors and even a small plane out on display and for the kids to climb all over. Apparently, they have a bunch of other rides and things for the kids, but we didn't actually go inside. We were quite entertained for free just in their parking lot!

When we got to Estes we walked along by the river and found a place to have our picnic lunch. Pumpkin and Sweetheart threw tons of rocks in the river, a favorite pastime of theirs.

After lunch, we headed back down the road until we found some National Forest access signs and drove along the back roads.

Sweet Dreams, Little One.

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Our garden has been actually growing things (besides weeds) this year. Here are some pictures of what we'll be harvesting soon. We're trying to let everything go as long as possible, but it is likely that we'll have a hard frost this weekend.

We've got quite a few Hubbard Squashes which I'm planning to substitute for pumpkin in a bunch of recipes. I think I'll need to do up some Spice "Pumpkin" Butter and more "Pumpkin" Bread and maybe some pies. These things are huge! We've also got more Birdhouse Gourds than there are birds around here.

A few things, I can't even identify. That thing that looks kind of like a peach pumpkin is another type of Hubbard Squash, I think, and I have no idea where the striped thing came from. I only planted the seeds from a squash I bought a few years ago for Pumpkin's baby food. Who knows what happened? I was hoping for pumpkins, but only ended up with one dark green one. Maybe next year's garden will go better!

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I've been reading along quite a few things. I'm doing the Northanger Abbey read-a-long and finished up Pride & Prejudice. I read Persuasion just before that and must say I like it more and more with each reading. It may soon be my favorite Austen book.

I also checked out a bunch of books the other day from the library. I printed out everyone's suggestions and got as many as I could find. If I couldn't find the specific book someone suggested, but found another book by the same other I checked it out. I'm now in the middle of three or four of them. It's good. I'll also take the time to track down some of the titles from other libraries and try to read as many as I can. I really appreciate your ideas and suggestions! Maybe I can get my act together and do some reviews on them. Maybe.

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I made Janna's Curry Chicken recipe yesterday. Oh, yum!! It was a cloudy, cool day here in Denver, just perfect to have something cooking in the crockpot. Do try it yourself! It is soooo good. I meant to set aside one piece of chicken for lunch today with a friend, but forgot to take it out yesterday and it ended up in the Curry Chicken as well. I felt odd serving a guest leftovers, but she didn't seem to mind. Good thing, as it was really all I had! We fed the two older boys noodles and cheese, which made them happy. Dumpling plowed through another good serving of the Curry Chicken. He has good taste!

I had planned to make the Curry Chicken yesterday so that we could enjoy the leftovers tonight before I was to go to the Homecoming football game with Janna and CL. Now, I'm not sure Janna is going and it is awfully cold out. Plus, Sweetheart is likely to be working late so I don't think it will all work out. Besides it is Friday and in our house Friday night is Movie Night and I'd hate to miss that. Last week I asked Pumpkin what, besides "Cars", he'd like to watch. He very matter of factly replied, Cranford." Of course! What two year old isn't fond of Elizabeth Gaskell and BBC movies? We watched "Cranford" and both boys watched with great attention and enjoyment.

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This post was even longer as I had added a bunch of pictures of Sweetheart and I as we finally got to go away for our tenth anniversary celebration last weekend. However, I messed up on the html for the pictures and gave up. Our anniversary itself was the week I miscarried in July. Not a good time to celebrate. We had already planned time away in August, but had to reschedule after my Mom fell. Everything came together though, finally, and we had a delightful time away. Maybe another post will work, besides, I think this one has enough pictures!

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I hope you are having a delightful day, wherever you happen to be. I'm off to make a pot of tea and wash up the dishes from lunch before the boys get up from their naps. I'm going to leave the page to The Button Willow Chronicles open to enjoy her music as I head off to putter around the kitchen. If you've never stopped by TBWC, you're in for a real treat. It's full of wondrous stories and quotes and pictures of all my favorite things. Go on, take a look, just be sure to come back here again to visit soon!

Rainy Day

We had such a lovely, rainy afternoon today. We had run errands in the morning and then returned after lunch. I was awakened during my nap by the rain and thunder. I continued to doze off and on for awhile just enjoying the sound of the rain on my window. Eventually, I got up to discover Sweetheart had made a pot of tea, so I relaxed a little longer with my tea, a few tea biscuits and The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Then Pumpkin woke from his nap and we were off and running again!

Sweetheart came from from work a week ago with the entire "Little House" series for me that he found at the thrift store on the way home from work. I've been enjoying rereading them. I love the entire series. I used to have the set when I was teaching, but had not been able to find them again when I looked last month. That's okay, the set he bought me is in much better condition than the one I had. Aren't the simple things in life just wonderful?

Victorian clip art courtesy of Averyl's Attic: http://www.averyl.com/attic