Weekend Update: A Mum Mishmash

 A little update on previous posts and what's been going on in my life:

Last weekend, we went to the Barberton Mum Festival. I had always heard about it, but had never been. It's an annual event held near a lake. They had a lot of pretty autumn colored mums like the ones above.

The theme was Paradise and included two of these flamingos. I'm glad we finally went, but it wasn't as grand as I'd imagined it to be. I think the online photos with drones make it seem a lot bigger than it actually was. It really only took about 10 minutes to walk around and see the flowers. Plus, it was noisy with a lot of fair food type of trucks and craft tents set up.

The previous weekend, we went to my favorite orchard. How gorgeous is this? It was likely our last hot day of the year. We sat outside and did flights of their hard ciders. My favorite was the Home Slice, which tasted just like apple pie.

Over Labor Day weekend, we hosted a memorial celebration for my husband's aunt, who passed away in January. She would have been 100 in July. Some cousins came up from Cincinnati and we had a nice day remembering a woman whose scientific discoveries in the field of diabetes changed many lives, as well as being a woman pioneer in medicine.

Some of you may remember my post about Middle Child and the digestive issues she had been facing. We tried eliminating the usual culprits like dairy, gluten, and wheat. After keeping a food diary for months, we finally determined that cruciferous vegetables were causing the majority of her misery. This coincided with my effort to make healthier meals for the family, including kale salads and substituting rice, pasta, and potatoes with broccoli and cauliflower rice. Once again, I seem to cause more harm than good with my healthy eating habits!

My son and his wife are doing well and visit us every other month or so. They have been doing a lot of traveling. So far this year, they've visited New River Gorge National Park, Chicago, Hershey Park and Philadelphia, and Portland. I'm jealous!

In August, we had a blessed event. On our 35th wedding anniversary, our third grandchild was born! I spent two nights/three days taking care of my soon-to-be 4 year old grandson and soon-to-be 2 year old granddaughter. (All 3 of her children were born in August) Can I just say that taking care of two toddlers at my age is a lot harder than it was when I was in my 20's?? I told my husband that it would have made for good reality tv. It was non-stop over there! I'd take the younger one up for her nap, and no sooner would I have her diaper off to change it than my grandson would call to me from downstairs that he needed to use the potty, but the gate was shut. Or I'd be in the bathroom applying a bandaid to my grandson, when my granddaughter would call out to me that her shirt was all wet because I didn't screw on the lid to her cup properly. A comedy of errors, let me tell you.

Her is my daughter face timing her kids in the hospital, with their first look at their new sister.

This is without a doubt my favorite picture in the entire universe. 

Happy Fall, Y'All!