Quick Takes: The Pumpkin Edition

Seven snippets of life right now, in no particular order.

1. Thomas loves preschool.
   LOVES it.  He prays each night for Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. LaVassar, and always introduces me to his friends in his class.  Mrs. L shared about how caring he is in class -- especially when his classmates are upset or sad. 
2. First field trip to the pumpkins!
   He had his first field trip on the same day Jonathan and I left for Leavenworth...it was a FULL day!  We headed over to Schilter's, rode the tractor-pulled wagon, met all the baby animals, climbed on the haystacks, and found the perfect Thomas-sized pumpkin.  John Paul had a great time too, just following his big brother. 
3. The rain has brought fall to the farm.
   Nothing like the east coast, but every day I am grateful that our garage will be finished soon and the mud problems inherent on the farm will be dramatically lessened this winter -- which makes my heart happy with six little shoes that will be running around in it!
4. Loving Zeus, the generator.
   We had our first power outage for about eight hours...and I'll tell you...it was pretty fabulous to wait about 20 seconds and have Zeus roar to life on his own!  I literally teared up when I realized that we could still flush the toilets.  THAT makes this mommy happy.
5. Life has not slowed down at all.
   It's the crazy fun pace of fall leading into Christmas: balancing the farm, photography, the boys, and Relay...in addition to growing this tiny human.  I am finding myself forcing myself to slow down a bit, and to plan ahead as much as possible.  But having sent more than a dozen Finian Road Christmas projects to the printer already gives me a great sense of peace in terms of staying ahead of the game!
6. Fall baking.
   Pumpkin bread, apple muffins, lots of tasty deliciousness.  I have a 40 pound box of apples calling my name in the kitchen...hopefully just after Halloween, I'll answer their call.  Looking forward to freezing some goodies as well to savor when 3.0 arrives!
7. Life right now with the boys...borrowed from my Facebook wall:
   Within the first three minutes of walking in the door at home, Thomas greets me with this:
   "What did you bring me? Where did you go to? We're having a dance party. I built a fort. Is the baby still in your tummy? Is he growing? Is he coming out now? Oh, not now? Soon? Not yet? When is he going to be here? Is he this big (holding hands 3 feet apart)? Not that big? Did you know I'm going to hold him? I'm going to make him happy. He will start crying but I will make him feel better. I will teach him how to say words like hot dog and corn dog. He can't say them yet, but he'll learn. Papa's a good sharer, did you know that? John Paul pooped 3 times for Papa. Papa's glad you're home now. Did you know John Paul's your sweet baby? He is, isn't he?"
   
   
   Quotables from Jonathan Sprouffske:
   "About time you showed up!"