We had a fun fall weekend again! We went to the fall craft festival in our town which I adore. The weather was pure autumnal majesty! Brisk and drizzly in the morning, with some sunshine in the afternoon to show off the gorgeous changing leaves. I think this past weekend was the foliage peak though it gets better every day. I definitely annoy my children by pointing out all the beautiful leaves on the drives from school and activities but I just can’t help it. I want everyone to see what I’m seeing! If someone could invent Lexi-goggles they’d help make every tree look decked out in full autumn splendor. Sometimes it makes me wish I could paint!
Speaking of hobbies Julius just started piano lessons! He has been desperate to learn an instrument and I actually never played an instrument (unless you count keyboard when I was 6). He may end up in my shoes, but at least he can say he tried! Hopefully though he’ll find something he loves. Though I think he has too many activities. I feel like he’s only 6 and we spend a large amount of time driving him (and even Patricia) to and from lessons. I fully expected this to happen, I guess I just didn’t realize how exhausting it would be… On that same note, we gave Patricia the option to stay home and play while Julius was at his soccer game and she said she absolutely wanted to go watch him. I love that. Patricia is a lot of things, but she’s nothing if not a loyal sister.
Well I think I mentioned a bunch of my friends from Intel in Hudson retired or left and I finally (after postponing due to covid) held a little gathering. The gatherings originally started out as a mindfulness book club about 7 years ago. We’d read a book then discuss it over snacks. The first one we held in the Intel cafeteria after work and a bunch of folks saw us and joined us. The next one a few months later had more people and less books but just as much (or more) fun. We continued this until the pandemic which put a damper on things. Eventually it restarted, swapping off at different peoples’ houses. (And Jay made up some acronym “AHSOM” to sound like “awesome” though now we can’t remember what it actually stands for.) I never got to host one with all the children chaos in my life, so this time I was finally able to!
It’s evolved into a potluck type thing so everyone brought something. Just in case I did a sandwich bar, which I figured would be easy and filling, since it’s around dinnertime. My plan was to bake a loaf or two of sourdough and a bunch of sourdough pitas but I screwed up and overproofed the pita dough. I turned it into sourdough focaccia which was alright, but definitely not as good as the pitas! People ended up bringing vegan chili, pickles, a veggie platter, a bunch of desserts and drinks so we had quite a spread. We couldn’t fit all of it on the table!
I hosted in the screen porch (because I love the screen porch) though there were so many people everyone could barely fit out there! We had a great time though and it was nice to see so many friends to wish them farewell. At the party only 3 of us were actually still staying at Intel (slightly depressing)!
