five finds friday. (apple season is the best. and more.)

Second week of school.

I’m still struggling to find a decent writing life/work/teaching school balance.

It is hard.

Also hard? Managing money. You guys – August is a pricey month.

That is all.

funny

London and I were driving home from her last driving school session. (!) And we were talking about all of the possibilities that independent driving will eventually bring. Driving to math class. Driving siblings to practices. Driving on errands for me.

And the wide scope of new babysitting jobs that this opens the door for.  (Trust me, I know that parents adore a babysitter who can drive herself to their house.)

At which point, my sixteen year old daughter sighs and says seriously, “I wish I could baby-sit Calvin.”

I glance at her.

And I don’t know why it clicked, but I guess it did because I asked, “You mean as in Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes?”

She nods. “Yes. He seems so adorable and hilarious.”

So. You know. My kid wants to babysit a drawing.

fashionable

I literally have no fashionable advice or words this week.

Shoot, this week I wore the same outfit two days in a row more than once.

One day I only changed because I knew I’d see the same person I had seen the day before.

However, I will use this space to shamelessly share some cute photos.

flavorful

It’s Honey Crisp season.

It’s apple season.

Or – as we like to think of it – it’s cider donuts and apple slush season.

It’s just the best.

From now until very late fall, we are lucky enough to live within a short drive to the best apples around.

And you better believe we will take full advantage of that privilege.

Come visit!

faithful

Year after year, we keep visiting the same orchard. On our last visit, I was chatting with the lady I have seen behind the counter for more than an actual decade.  She was telling me about how her children were babies when she began that job and how now they are high school or college graduates and work there with her.

And I’ve been driving up that mountain to that same lovely view and buying the same apples and the same apple slushes and the same hot donuts with the same kids year after year after year.

I found this old photo of a visit just a few years ago and already everyone in this photo looks so different.

I’m bringing back grandkids this year.

Isn’t it a gift to have the opportunity to revisit favorites with your favorites?

feels

It has been a long week.  And there has been chatter in our house about dislike of this history book, an argument over who gets to use the computer first, sighs of disgust over the amount of paint someone used or the ink pen they stole from someone else’s desk.

Conversations that have taken place at a more than appropriate volume.

Back and forth that feels unloving and certainly not thoughtful.

(So much so that I actually had the kids all draw names of a sibling so we could practice being secretly kind to them all week. Not that it’s been incredibly effective – but I had to try a different route, for the love.)

However, perhaps all is not lost.

Tuesday is Trash Day.

It was after bedtime, during tuck in, that it was noted that the trash had, in fact, not been pulled down to the curb.

I said nothing and assumed I’d conquer it after I finished tuck in.

I made my rounds and peered outside. 

Two trash cans sitting on the curb.

I didn’t ask anyone and it had been taken care of.

So – maybe we’ll be okay. Maybe. Right?

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