Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and Other Sunday Happenings

Today was the perfect combination of laziness and productiveness. I slept in and woke up to breakfast in bed (A+ for the hubby). Then the Mr. and I lazed around for a while, watching TV. I spent a majority of the early afternoon making Christmas cards. I have about 1/3 of them finished and have the makings for the rest underway. I made a late afternoon trip to the Commissary to get groceries for the next couple of weeks. Apparently, not many people are out and about here on Sunday evenings. The traffic there and back was nearly non-existent. The Commissary had a fair amount of shoppers, but not nearly as many people as it normally does. It looks like Sunday evenings will be my new shopping time.

After I got home, I decided to get to some chores. I organized and wiped down the fridge before putting groceries away. Then I did a few loads of laundry, changed the sheets, straightened up the living room, and wiped down the bathroom. My darling hubs gets another A+ for cleaning the kitchen while I was shopping!

Mike finished his finals for his two online courses today. He will have a break from classes for about a month before he starts again. He's been doing really well managing work and school. I know he's got a lot on his plate, so I do not ask very much of him when he's at home. He usually takes the initiative to pitch in when he can which is much appreciated.

I've been in a baking mood this month. I found a delicious recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies that was recently posted by Your Wishcake. These cookies are amazing! Who knew pumpkin and chocolate could be so good together?! They are so light and fluffy too. I made them last week, but they got burnt on the bottom. I had a feeling it was because I used parchment paper instead of greasing the pan. I gave it another go today, but greased the pan instead of using parchment paper. They were perfect. I think I will bring these (along with a broccoli/cheese/rice casserole) to Thanksgiving dinner.

More baked goods to be sent to work with Mike. Better that they go straight to his co-workers thighs than mine...

...but I have to have just a couple before they are sent away...

That's about it for this weekend. Oh, we did have game night again on Saturday (looks like it's a weekly thing for sure). The teams were girls against guys for both games and we lost both times. INCONCEIVABLE (yep... a Princess Bride reference). We are definitely going to have to correct this next week!

Burn, Baby, Burn!

In trying to find positive things about living in Illinois, I found that I was quite taken by the changing of the seasons. Autumn here is nothing short of spectacular. Driving down long stretches of tree lined roads fuels my love for the season. From the deepest of reds to the brightest of yellows, the variation of color is amazing. Seeing leaf after leaf gracefully sway to and fro as they fell from the big oak tree in my yard made me smile… that is, until I realized that I was responsible for cleaning up said leaves.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a little bit of yard work, but the task feels beyond daunting when a thick blanket of leaves has taken over what was once my yard. Granted, this would not have happened if Mike and I had been more proactive about the leaf situation instead of letting it get to this point. By “Mike and I”, I mean Mike because I did my part (which was telling him that something needed to be done about the leaves). I did “my part” numerous times this week, last week, the week before… you get the idea. All right, I admit the job should not be Mike’s responsibility alone. The man works hard all day and he wakes up at 4:30am for crying out loud!

Here’s the thing… I do not trust myself with large piles of leaves and fire. I have zero experience burning leaves and am not about to dive into it all by my lonesome. With daylight savings time, Mike doesn’t get home from work until it’s close to or after dark. Weekends are out of the question because… well… we are downright LAZY on the weekends. I have no issue with raking the leaves during the day and burning them as soon as Mike gets home, but it’s pointless due to the wind blowing them all over.

Imagine this x 1,000... ugh, they are EVERYWHERE!!!

Upon arriving home from the gym today, I realized we were THAT house. All of our neighbors seem to be seasoned leaf burners since their yards look nice and tidy. Our yard? Not so much! I’m not great with analogies, but it looks as if our tree had a night of drunken debauchery and upchucked leaves EVERYWHERE. I told you… I’m not great with analogies, but you get the idea. Did I mention that our tree happens to be massive (and possibly the biggest in our neighborhood)?

So, what’s a girl to do? I’ll tell you what… grab the jumbo box of trash bags and start stuffing leaves into them. Sure, it’s not the best solution, but anything that takes away our title as “Neighborhood Slobs” is okay in my book. Instead, it’s possible that I am now known as “that crazy lady who madly shoves leaves into trash bags”. It probably doesn’t help that I continued doing this well after dark (thank goodness for streetlamps and porch lights). An hour and 10 full to the brim trash bags later, I decided to call it a night. There is still the entire yard to finish, but at least the area between our fence and the street is clear and I’ve got a collection of leaves ready to burn. I think Mike got the message too. He has the day off tomorrow (yay Veterans Day) and said he would take care of the leaves after a celebratory breakfast he is attending. I must sound like a horrible wife making him work on his special day, but I promise he was actually looking forward to burning stuff and I intend to help him.

Hiding the evidence until it's time to burn it!

Yep, I just wrote a full 5 paragraphs about leaves. That is how much they are driving me insane. Congratulations to you if you made it all the way to the end. I’m impressed ;)