Busy busy oh my!

School is in full swing here.  Boy Scouts, American Heritage Girls, and volunteering on day a week at our after school program has taken up most of my time.  I canned and froze produce from our garden.  I need to get out there today to pull tomatoes to make salsa and make another batch of apple butter.  My cucumbers did not do well at all.  Next year I will build a raised bed for them.  I already have plans to double the size of the raised beds I have now and add a few more.  It will  make a lot of work in the spring but we will reap a much greater reward in the fall.

My mom came in for a week.  We did a lot of shopping and explored Mankato, which is about an hour from here.  We also painted the living room.  Its so nice to have color on the wall.  I can't wait to paint the rest of the downstairs.  I've decided to go with a fall color pallet.  The living room is green and the foyer and one wall in the dining room will be a burnt orange.  The other walls will be probably a tan.  Next summer I will paint the kitchen a gold with a deep purple color for the cabinets.  I would really love to redo the kitchen but its not in the budget right now.

This week we are doing school in the  mornings.  It is supposed to be in the seventies all week long.  It won't be long before the temperatures really plummet and we have a lot of outside chores that need to be done.  I've decided to take advantage of the weather to clean out some of the barns, clean out the raised beds, prune the trees, and clean the garage.  Its also nice for the kids to get out and enjoy the weather before we're locked in for the winter.

I will hopefully post photos tomorrow of our trip to Walnut Grove, MN to the Laura Ingalls Museum.  My mom is a huge fan so we took the trip while she was here.