Can you tell school has started?

It’s the time of year when I feel like I can almost hear my free time whirling down the drain.

I don’t mean that in an awful way, really. It’s just that it takes a while to get back into the school routine and learn how to better manage our family time. Tighter schedule. Homework. Cross country. Playdate requests with school buddies. It’s all good.

I just have to squeeze in some time here and there to use my camera, process my photos and write down some words.

First came Halloween. Our first year of rejecting the “cute” costumes. He was adamant about being a zombie. So there he is, stylin’ hair-do and all. It rained. I was grumpy about having to walk around in it, but it was actually wasn’t as cold as I’d feared and my rain jacket did a nice job of keeping me fairly dry. He had a blast and that’s all that counts.

That weekend visited Blandford Nature Center. It’s closed on Sundays, but the trails are all open for exploring. And we weren’t the only ones who had that idea. (We ran into one of his buddies from class too). Today’s weather proves that we have to take those sunny fall days when we can get them. Because the white stuff has descended on Michigan and the landscape begins to change oh-so fast.

That goat is either Fuji or Wonder. Dev first met the goats during his summer camp adventures at Blandford. Apparently the goats were named after apple varieties. I’d never heard of the wonder variety before. But now I know!

Then it was time to clean up the Halloween paraphernalia. I raked leaves while he smashed pumpkins to smithereens. Can you imagine how happy he was about that?

When I saw the name of this recipe (The Best Gluten-Free Pizza Crust), I was a tiny bit skeptical. People just shouldn’t throw around the phrase “the best” without having some serious cred to back it up.

I do believe this one could be in the running, that’s for sure. It was super easy to make and tasted better than the mixes I had come to rely on. Even pressing it into the pan wasn’t a hassle. There was nothing gooey about it. Just a little extra brown rice on my fingers and it was ready for the oven.

I humored the boy with the pepperoni variety. The last photo shows him demoing how I should cut it into thirds so everyone had a section.