What do you do on a "hurricane day" off of school?

- October 30, 2012

I can't speak for everyone else but we had a great day today. My prayers are with all of the families that did not fare as well as we did but fortunately we were able to keep our power and had no flooding. This time. Phew.
The high winds keep us inside

Princess Leia foolishly wanting to go outside

and we got some much needed chores done.

First project: tackle the front hall closet. I don't have a "before" picture but it really didn't look much different except now it is organized.

front hall closet

Or you could get an easier to fit version like this:

This set of shelves was horizontal in the closet and I took it out (not easy to do) and tried to put it vertical behind the front door. It didn't really fit, so I tipped it back horizontal and it still didn't fit, so back into the closet it went. This time I kept it vertical and put tags on each of the bins.

each bin has a tag

I used a tag punch like this

that I use for labeling christmas and birthday presents too.

Now everyone in the family has an empty square to keep their backpack or work bags in, and a bin for library materials and other stuff (like big brother's recorder). I'm a bit obsessed with organizing stuff like that. I can't tell you how many times this afternoon I've walked by and opened the closet to look at it.

I was cleaning my office and Andrew noticed the lego-man ice cube tray that we played with over the summer. We still had 4 lego men made out of Model Magic and they boys decorated them with markers.

markers and lego-men

little brother coloring

little brother's

big brother's

The lego men were made of Model Magic

If you have kids, Model Magic is the coolest stuff out there. It looks a bit like playdoh mixed with styrofoam and when it dries it looks a bit like plaster and you can color it with markers, paints, etc. Even when it's wet.

For lunch we made pizzas on tortillas I like to make personal pizzas on tortillas because you waste fewer calories on a crust...which gives you more calories for toppings!

pizza no cheese

pizza with cheese

momma's pizza

I had a bit of a sweet tooth so I made some no bake cookies. Recipe here: No bake cookies. (I made them without peanut butter)

no bake cookies

one missing

one was missing...hmmm...five minutes later found it in Jacob's pocket. Eeew.

I don't think we actually got around to carving pumpkins last year so we carved the pumpkins today because I doubt we will have time tomorrow on Halloween.

eww

Both boys were really freaked out by the stuff inside the pumpkin. Andrew helped a little bit. Jacob tried but he doesn't like "pumpkin guts." Is this kid mine?

gross!

decorating

They were both very helpful with the decorating of their pumpkins but I still had to carve them.

Here's the really gross part...some of you may want to look away. The pumpkin guts were fed to our red worms.

We have a red worm compost bin in our basement. I know what you're thinking...it must be smelly...but it's not. It smells like dirt. A little like what it smells like when you walk through a forest. For more info about red worm composting.

You can get a red worm composting bin here

I think this baby is going on my christmas list.

Tomorrow we have a halloween party in our neighborhood and I can't wait. Every family brings a Crockpot of some soup or chili, or an appetizer. Since I don't have time before the party to make something...I'm using my CrockPot. I use it so much that it never leaves the counter in my kitchen. This is the one I have. I like it because the insert comes out and can go into the dishwasher, and the stainless steel exterior matches my fridge.

I'm making this CrockPot Potato Soup from pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com