Yesterday was a good day. There is something about fall weather that just makes everyday pretty darn good. I had to wear my favorite Costco coat on the morning walk with Finley because it dipped that chilly and I got to have a nice long chat with my mom while I was out there.

We went through the usual routine of breakfast, school (we learned about fruit farming and had blindfolded taste tests of fruit- giving them cucumber and tomatoes was a fun twist- because they are fruits, ya know :)). They did math and piano and their chore for the day, then Kaitlyn asked if she could bake some cookies as the head chef (instead of the assistant she often is to Hailey). Can someone bake fresh cookies in my kitchen? Um, yes please.

I walked her through a basic recipe I often use, a variation of a pecan chocolate chip recipe from William Sonoma. She was super proud to take the lead and make a video of the process. She found some monster eyes in my baking basket and decided to make them scary cookies. I was super impressed at how delicious these were; she did a great job!

Do you know the trick that when the cookies come out of the oven you can use an upside mason jar (or I use a biscuit cutter) and swirl the cookie around inside of it to make it more perfectly round? I think it’s the coolest, though Kaitlyn said she preferred some to be more “wonky” and monster like, not round. Oops. In case you need a simple go-to chocolate chip recipe, these are our favorite.

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After lunch and piano lessons we went outside to wander. Sunny and 72 degrees… goshhhh I love this time of year. We wandered down one of the community docks and saw a woman doing laps in the lake. She was probably in her late 60’s to early 70’s and I was so impressed. We chatted with her a bit and she told us she usually does it first thing in the morning but waited until it warmed up a bit today. Color me impressed!

When David got home we walked and worked out while the kids dressed up in old Halloween costumes and played outside. Have you decided on costumes for this year? We are thinking of being from the 1980’s (inspired by the Full House watching), so I need to get on finding costumes!

Random carrot seeds I threw in the neglected garden actually grew and we’ve been watching them for months now. Hailey’s dream has been to grow a carrot so we decided she should finally try to pull one up yesterday and… success! Well, success in that we grew a tiny and delicious carrot, but I don’t think we are quite at self-sustainable level yet. Baby steps…

The kids took off for tennis and I finished my 24 hour process of making homemade sourdough bread bowls for dinner. I know they look like bagels but they turned out to be the perfect one person serving size bread bowl and we had them with homemade broccoli cheddar soup inside. It was Hailey’s request for the week (inspired by Panera) and was a hit! I just haven’t uploaded the “after” picture yet and have to scoot along this morning because we have co-op today.

I spent time working on gift guides after dinner. I actually think I’m going to work my tail off and try to post them ALL on Saturday or Sunday because Amazon Prime is having a special Prime Day event on October 11-12 and supposedly deals are going to beat Black Friday offerings. So if that’s something you are interested in, I figured it would be helpful to have the guides before the big sale!

After the kids showered we played another game of Spades. To 200 instead of 500 this time, which was wise. Everyone was pretty tired so the kids went to bed around 8:30 with little complaint. David and I watched a Ted Lasso and then called it a night ourselves.

I hope you have a great Wednesday; I’ve really appreciated your comments and DMs feedback that you enjoy these more casual posts. It means a lot to have ya here 🙂