oh, hit me up!

 Pumpkin spice, love love love it.  The sugar part though, ugh.  On a trip to the park last week, we stopped at Starbucks, and I decided to get two pumps of pumpkin in my iced Americano, I would not get the normal, which is SIX.  Char ordered pumpkin cold foam on hers, and guess what?  Mine came with it too.  Well.  I didn't really want the extra sugar, but shh, it was SO good.  

To satisfy this all encompassing pumpkin passion, I buy a bag of Starbucks pumpkin spice coffee every fall.  I can mix a scoop with some regular coffee, make a pour over that's not overpowering, just a nice strong hint of pumpkin spice.  

Today's the first one of the year, and it's extra special because today I went to Trader Joe's with Mariel.  There is such a thing as Salted Maple Cold Foam.  There was one can left, so I bought it.  It only has two grams of sugar, but that's if you get the full 85 servings from the can, ha.  Anyway, I added some to my pumpkin spice coffee, and it's SO good without being sugary or over-flavored.  

Camille went with us to T.J's, and summed it up like this:  We made it worthwhile to come here without getting too much junk we don't need.   That is always the hope.  One bag of chocolate chips, two bags of their movie theater popcorn, one container of milk chocolate peanut butter cups (the cashier said the dark ones are better...), two bags of orange chicken, one half gallon whole milk chocolate milk, Ezekial bread, the gummy sea creatures (no artificial dyes), Halloween spooky bats and cats, one can coconut cream for the dairy free coconut cream pie I am going to make for Emily, one vanilla pumpkin candle...not too bad.  

Yesterday, I wasted four dollars.  I made a double batch of pie dough, for four crusts, all at once in the food processor.  Well.  The bottom dough totally overmixed and turned gummy, the top butter didn't go to the bottom and get mixed, so I got my scraper in there and tried to fix things up...turned into one big gooy mess.  I wrapped it into four disks, put it in the refrigerator, then decided to just admit it, I wasted four bucks...on that entire pound of butter.  

See, I saved money by making my own chicken stock with the chicken carcasses, so you win some, you lose some.

Pot pie...chicken pot pie...doesn't it sound yummy?  I'm going to remake the pie crust.  Tomorrow won't be a good day to make it though, as I'm going out to lunch for my sister's birthday:). 

In a few hours, I'm going to meet Emily at a place to get a new stove, for her, not for me.  I found it on Marketplace for her, so I sure hope it works well.  Most of the time, it is well worth it to get things second hand.  (I asked the guy, he said it works, I believe him.). 

Going out and about with Mariel this morning got me thinking.  When she was seventeen years old:

She was the fourth child...

Emily, the oldest, was out of the house...she went out west for six months, lived at a friend's and at my parents while she was in nursing school, went to Norway for a year, ect...Abigail went to college for four years and was super busy with that...Benjamin went to college before he went into the Army, and honestly, at that time was more of a hindrance than a help around here.  Then there was Mariel.  Then Joseph, who...well, he wasn't much help, although he was a good kid and no trouble.  Then Aaron, who was a super good student, then Molly, Sam, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire...and I was due for Camille....so it was around the time I started this blog...Mariel was 17, and had 12 younger siblings.  

I apologized to her today, for all that she went through.  She went to public school, and was in chorus and ran cross country, and was in band and went to youth activities, so she had her own life.  But when she was home, it was busy here, and she was organized and helpful.  She loved to cut coupons and shop with me, and she liked to cook and bake.  I did work hard not to rely too much on any of the kids, to spread around the chores, but she did A LOT.  She was always so responsible, and thorough, and tidy.    

Anyway.  Here's a totally different subject...Orange Guy is a huge brat, he was trying to get Sunny to play:

And...these are not my cookies, but I would like for them to be...aren't they lovely?  They do embody autumn, and I bet they taste good too.  You all have a really good afternoon...