It's Fall again!

I feel really foolish now. So, we've been without a camera for over a month now, right? I recharged the batteries but the camera still would not turn on. Charge again, still not working. Well, Terry finally took the camera to a camera shop and they checked the batteries. They put in a new set and voila. It worked! Oh, how embarrassing. Well, at least it was a cheap repair! Ha-ha! I guess our rechargeables aren't so rechargeable anymore. Hm!

So the latest in our lives...
I've been enjoying getting reacquainted with friends through Facebook. It's great to hear about my high school and college friends and their families. We knew eachother waaay back when our lives were far less complicated by parenthood and careers. I love that!

I've also been cooking and baking a lot lately. I have found that having a weekly menu makes all the difference in my desire to cook! I would rather bake any day but I think we'd get tired of cookies or cheesecake for dinner after a while. Yes, even me.

Some of the highlights have been: pork carnitas cooked in the crockpot and then browned on the grill--sooooo good! Lasagna--our favorite, enchilada casserole, pasta e fagioli--a soup made famous by Olive Garden, and fresh Rosemary Bread. I've learned that the difference between okay cooking and fabulous You're-the-best-cook cooking is the courage to use herbs and spices. Once in a great while I cheat and make Hamburger Helper but I give it another name like "Little Italy in a Bowl" or "Bacon Double Cheeseburger in a Pan." It seems to taste better that way.

In other news: I've been reading Parenting with Love and Logic lately and I have learned so much! It just makes so much sense. The gist of the parenting strategy is to have your children learn responsibility through natural consequences--not nagging. It has made such a difference for me. I am much calmer and level headed when disciplining. I'm amazed at how well it works. As an example, Lindsey had such a hard time getting her teeth brushed at night. She putters around until the last possible moment and then we are at our wits end because she still hasn't brushed 20 minutes later! Well, one night that happened again and Terry told her that bedtime was in 5 minutes and that if she wasn't done by then, she'd have to go to bed without brushing--which she did, after many tears and promises to brush quickly. It was too late for that night but you can be sure that the subsequent nights, her teeth were brushed in a timely manner! So simple! There are other examples too but you get the idea.