Category: Photo of the week

“No amount of regret changes the past.
No amount of anxiety changes the future.
But any amount of gratitude changes the present.” – unknown

Thanksgiving cooks. Yep, that’s a lot of chefs in the kitchen but we all got along. And for anyone wondering, yes, that’s Mr. D making his famous medium water. I’m so grateful for a houseful of family and friends I adore and love!

It was parent-teacher conference week so the kids had the week off school and got creative doing other things. I’m so grateful for downtime with kids.

Cooper breaking the Thanksgiving boundaries — but fortunately after the meal. I’m so grateful, he wasn’t a gobbler!

(quote from Enlightened Mind 622 – Any Amount of Gratitude)

“Each one of us can make a difference. Together we make change.” – Barbara Mikulski

The rope team for fixing the roof.

Haircuts. Mr. D just got a professional haircut but wanted to touch it up – for himself and also for Cooper.

Giraffes and gadgets. Mr. D was certain he wanted to buy that drinking helmet from our neighborhood gag gift store. Thank goodness it fits a spindrift can. 🙂

I love this sign of the week. And a little more of our stunning sunrise on Friday morning with a layer of Mr. Rainier visible under the clouds.

“Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of us.” – Mary Oliver

We’ve reached the time of year where when the weather is nice, we need to get out and enjoy it. So we did a little magnet fishing and bike riding.

And then when it started raining, switched to indoor trampolines and chess.

In this pairing, the theme is when the student becomes the teacher. Miss O is teaching Mr. D a little piano. And Cooper is teaching the cat to beg for dinner.

The sign of the week and a little more cuteness from Cooper.

Quote for this post comes from creating by Real Life of an MSW

“The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls.” – Edgar Allen Poe

This post is dedicated to all the fun of Halloween!

Our costumes. Nobody even batted an eye at the alien abduction in progress at the hardware store. And Miss O’s tshirt spells it out – I’m a goldfish.

Mr. D’s 1st grade class had a field trip to Bob’s Corn and Pumpkin patch. Miss O missed out on field trips in Kindergarten and 1st grade because of Covid so I let her come to this one. She made the most of it!

Kids in sheep’s clothing. Dogs in kid’s clothing. This is the week for trading our skins!

100% Halloween from the sign of the week to my neighbor’s skeletons.

(Featured photo is mine of sunrise lighting up Mt. Rainier)

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice but there must never be a time we fail to protest.” – Elie Wiesel

We had a great time at the No Kings march. It was upbeat, interesting, and we were with great friends. The quote for this post comes from my friend, Katie’s sign.

Cooper and the cat hold their own kind of protest when service is too slow. Our daisies in the candlelight kind of give off a Space Needle vibe.

Cooper being his most helpful self. In the first photo, he was watching some workers in a bucket truck. I think he saw the Louvre heist news and wanted to make sure he was being a good witness. In the second, he’s helping me replace the water filter in the fridge.

School might not be a vacation – but it was a pretty fun pre-Halloween week that involved decorating monster cookies.

“Knowledge without wisdom is like water without sand.” – African proverb

I’m so grateful we were able to spend a weekend at our favorite beach on Whidbey Island.

Edge of the water pose

Beach fun

Using our sticks

The sign of the week and Cooper NOT eating a train as it goes by. I guess he’s finally growing up! I wouldn’t count on it though… 🙂

“Gotta move different when you want different.” – unknown

Miss O and Mr. D participated in their school move-a-thon this past week.

Of course, move-a-thons are just what I call normal days in our house.

Except Cooper and the cat don’t always participate.

The sign of the week – and my young creators.

“Sometimes I think that ideas float through the atmosphere like huge squishy pumpkins, waiting for heads to drop on.” Neil Gaiman

Mr. D recently saw some Halloween decorations put up at a friend’s house and said, “Yay, Halloween!! I’ve been waiting for it for years!” So for anyone who has been waiting YEARS for Halloween, this week’s photos are for you!

Waiting and pumpkin carving

Our Halloween decorations

Trying out the alien carrying a boy Halloween costume and a rainbow. Or it that the afterburn of the alien ship? 🙂

Or local grocery store soda display. And in a lovely bit of synchronicity this week, one of my favorite quotes is sign of the week and was also mentioned in a post on Writing from the Heart with Brian, Trying My Best.

(featured photo is mine – doesn’t that cloud look like a rocket?)

“Just living isn’t enough,” said the butterfly. One must also have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. ” – Hans Christian Anderson

This week was a rollercoaster because both of my kids got sick. Nothing serious thankfully, just back to school crud.

But we still managed to squeeze in some time magnet fishing – something my kids had seen on YouTube. We made our own set-up by tying a magnet to a rope but the magnet wasn’t strong enough (or our lake doesn’t have enough metal stuff in it) to pull anything back up.

But we did enjoy biking there and back. Michelle Oram (Boomer Eco Crusader) recently posted a great post, The Benefits of Walkable Neighborhoods that included a link to a Realtor.ca site that will give your neighborhood a walking/transit/biking score. Seattle has a good scores for walking and biking: 87 on walking, 96 on biking.

While we were down at our little local lake on day 2 of our magnet fishing adventures, it became clear that someone was filming a dating show. First a shirtless guy paddled a girl (seen as a spec in the distance in the first photo) on his paddleboard to a nearby dock. And it wasn’t really a shirtless kinda day.

Then the two cameras and sound setup that we were wondering about started to make more sense when they clearly zeroed in on the couple. As my sister said, “Dating is hard enough. Who’d want to do it while being filmed?”

We trimmed some trees. Cooper helped. 🙂

The sign of the week. Maybe Mr. D is demonstrating the result of walking into a closet?