Welcome, Cooler Weather

I love Fall. I am so happy it is finally here. Our week passed without anything monumental happening on the home front. Outside our door, history is marching on, and much of it is sad and alarming as we watch our very democracy standing on shaky ground. It is made even more alarming as we work our way through our government course by a George Mason University professor on The Great Courses Plus website. Realizing how our government administration is threatening our democracy leaves me with a very heavy heart. We are left to just do our best to have peaceful, healthy and successful days. There is nothing more we can do.

Anne dressed up our sweet cats in our pumpkin costume. Not surprisingly, Salem was more cooperative about the whole affair than Rosie. They are both just the cutest and fill our days with so much laughter.

Things continue to move very slowly on the job market front for Elijah. It is rough out there as the economy struggles to move forward. His job coach is doing a great job of staying in contact with him, and they are working on plans.

Elijah had a very nice time at the birthday party he attended last weekend. The participants sat on the porch and had a lovely dinner prepared by the father (who was a chef in another career). They talked, laughed and had socially distant races up and down the sidewalk in the dark. It was a simple and fun event for all. 

With the cooler weather comes family board game nights. It just naturally happens every year and I love it. Game night happens almost every night and is always loud and fun. Below are the games we played this week. I enjoyed Snake Oil and Superfight the best. 

Anne is concentrating on her U.S. History II and Government course right now. She is doing three lessons a day so that she can hopefully finish by next week. Once this course is completed, she will only have English IV, Fashion Design, Latin I and Sign Language III (SL is two-thirds done) complete. She is moving along. She also started her research paper on family gardens and did a week's worth of Latin lessons. Lastly, she attended all six of her dance classes (in person and on Zoom). In two weeks she starts a seventh class with the return of Cecchetti ballet class. 

My major accomplishment was painting our bedroom ceiling this week. The crisp white made a huge improvement from the dingy tannish color that was there. I am just loving all of the projects I am getting done. I am also following an adapted version of The FlyLady cleaning system, and it is doing wonders for some of the neglected corners of my home. The next projects are laying wallpaper inside my crystal cupboard and maybe a new backsplash on the kitchen wall. However, I think next week is going to be preparing the house and front gardens for fall.

We have decided to have a Halloween or somewhat scary theme for our movie night through Halloween. This week, Anne picked Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children. I have picked The Goonies for next week. It should be a fun theme, at least until it is Tim's turn. He likes scary movies much more than the rest of us.

What we ate this week for dinner ~ 

• Grilled burgers
• Herb chicken tortellini
• Roasted chicken and garden green beans
• Red beans and rice
• Take out pizza
• Left overs night

Our cats love their water fountain. They drink plenty and we only have to add water to it every few days and change the filter once a month. Otherwise, they have clean, fresh running water all the time.

Blessings, Dawn