…that I love corn mazes more than any other fall-inspired activity. This particular one we went to this season was cut in the shape of a rider on a snowmobile. I think I got lost right around the handlebars.

…that I’ve never met as many leaves as gathered on our property this year. At first, I was alarmed at all the raking in my future. Then, my children who are normally perfect angels, started misbehaving and leaf raking became the highlighted consequence. Is it bad to secretly wish for naughty behavior in order to deal with massive amounts of leaves? Even with hours of “timeout” raking, it still took several Saturdays of family workalongs to get those rowdy leaves (and children) under control.

…that I’ve probably used at least 68 chore chart variations over the years, namely to help with the after dinner chaos. None of them have really stuck (and some required in insane amount of craftiness and hot glue to put into action) until this simple chart came along. I think it’s straight out of the 80’s. We’ve been using it for almost a year now and it’s here to stay. Simple concept – four varying sizes of circles are connected with a brad. The middle circle has the kids names. The 2nd circle has a dinner job, the 3rd circle has a bathroom job (this is one they have the whole week to complete) and the outer circle has a room job (which they have to get picked up before/after dinner). I rotate the kids’ names each week and sometimes rotate the outer circles, but mostly they stay the same. It works like a dream.

…that this is one of my favorite walls in my house. While I’m much more comfortable photographing chocolate chip cookies, I snap a new picture of my kids each year and slap them up here on this wall.

…and that because I end up with mostly photos like the ones you see below, I take about 500 shots of each kid in order to get a decent smile (and is why the composition and lighting and blah blah blah is different in every picture). Amateur pics that still make me smile every time I walk past.

And that’s what I’ve been meaning to tell you. Have a great weekend!