Last day of September! Time to get caught up on the blog on what we've been doing the last couple weeks.
There was free museum day, of course. Asa has been talking for weeks about how he misses Cracker Country, an old-timey Florida village. And since that's mostly outside, we decided to grab tickets to that. Plus, they aren't open all the time- just during the fair (it's located on the fairgrounds) and for special events.
He was happy to be there.
We played some games.
Checked out the gardens.
Stopped by a couple of buildings....
including the train depot, the school house, and the general store.
And we even got to churn our own butter and try it out.
Best butter ever.
Overall, a fun trip.
For lunch we decided to go up to MOD pizza, because we also had an Aldi order to pick up. We split the fall special salad and pizza (and it was delicious!)
(We liked MOD so much, we went back a week later!)
Any, on free museum day, we also sung by to have some All You Can Swirl.
And if you're getting All You Can Swirl, you might as well swing by Panera for your free coffee, since it's right next door. Our Panera is next to a Great Clips- with two signs outside that I felt like were both really a sign of the times. One telling customers to be kind, the other announcing they're hiring.
On the way home, we swung by to pick up our library books we had on hold. Our actual library has just started a year-long remodel. But, they are allowing you to put books on hold and pick them up at this little building behind the rec center! Hey, at least it's something.
Hayden is pretty sad about the library being closed, obviously. There are a few more in Pasco County- though not nearly as close. But, a new one opened up in Starkey Ranch just about a month ago. It's over by the old house, probably about 25-30 minutes from here, and we have plans to go check it out, but we were waiting for cases to get lower.
Hayden, especially, is having a hard time dealing with the whole 'you're just going to have to learn how to live with covid going around out there'. In an effort to help him understand his risk levels really depend on what he's doing AND how much community spread we've got going on- so we made a chart. You know I love a good chart.
So, I color coded activities we could/should feel safe doing at various levels of community spread, and then made a little movable covid ball (molecule?) to keep track of where Pasco County is. Our chart started out at 84.9 cases per 100,000. Which is better than our all time high of 114.
Then Hayden, Asa, and I worked on filling out our chart. And since we were doing this as soon as cases began falling again- we've been seeing the ball drop and new activities "open up" to us!
Sadly, Florida only releases their numbers once a week, so we only get to move the ball on Saturdays. But, it's been steadily going down. This week we are at 42.4. And that's Pasco, Pasco is worse than other places we go often (Tampa in Hillsbrough, Disney in Orange).
Besides charts, you know I love a good count. This year I decided we should keep track of how many tacos we eat on Football Sundays. After week one, we were at 26. After 3, we're at 77. (There are a lot of boys chowing down on tacos on Sundays in this house). To be clear, burritos, nachos, tacos-- they're all one taco for the count. I can't be charged with keeping track of all that madness.
I'm busy watching football after all. The Bucs were 2-0 after the first two games, which is awesome- considering what came up on my memories on Facebook. They lost this week, but it was against the Rams, and they're pretty good. No worries. But, they better win in New England on Sunday when Tom Brady goes back to Foxbrough. (Fun fact: Calib looked up how much it would cost him to fly to Boston, buy a ticket to the game, and stay a night in a hotel- when it came out to more than $1,000 he opted not to go).
Moving on, I finally hit my 365 day streak on Duolingo! Je parle francais! Only one of those days did I use a streak freeze on- so pretty much perfect.
Asa was having a rough morning one day, so we ordered some Uber Eats brunch to eat at our table in our room, that always cheers him up. And, stuffed french toast always cheers me up, even if I don't need it. Win-win.
Of course, the 22nd was the first day of fall, which meant it was time to change out the coffee mugs. I need to up my fall coffee mug game, I only have my cat in the hat mug.
Fall also means it's finally time to plant some new things in the garden. Basically all that grows in the summer here is peppers. I mean, I love a good bell pepper, but I also like to have a variety. We've had a heck of a time finding greens that weren't ridiculously expensive though. Finally we found a few at Duncheons, and picked up a variety of them, along with some cauliflower and squash.
And we're doing beans from seeds this year. We'll see how that works out.
We also decided it was time to finally cut down the bananas, because some of them were starting to split on the tree. We discovered we could have cut them as they went, too. But, we're learning, these were are first bananas!
We're not sure these will turn into anything. But either way, Banana trees only grow one set of bananas, and then it's time to cut down the tree. Don't worry- three more are growing on that root mat, so we've got more behind it.
It doesn't get cooler right away when fall hits, but it's coming for you, and that's what makes it awesome.
The last few days the humidity has really dropped, and it's PERFECT outside.
Fall here reminds me so much of spring up north. Everyone's outside powerwashing their driveways (mostly because we all got HOA letters telling us to-) , and their lawn furniture. Way more people are out walking around, all waving at each other, with this like secret understanding that we've made it thru the torturous summer.
So, I got out the power washer and after doing the driveway a few days earlier, I did the back porch. I should have taken a before and after picture, but the before would have been totally embarrassing. It just gets so dirty and gross out there from all the humidity and rain. But now, it's way better.
And now we can eat outside again! I don't think we've done that since April... *maybe* early May. Still, it's awesome, and I love it. Fall in Florida is the absolute BEST. It's better than Spring because you're not dreading the summer, and better than the winter because you can still hit the pool and the beach without freezing. Plus, we get all the Pumpkin Spice too!
Fall also means new TV, and for the first time since early 2020, Survivor is back on! I missed it so much! To celebrate, Asa made Sur-FRY-vor night. It's been a very long time since that happened. The catchy name is just like it sounds- Asa makes fries (and dipping sauces!) and then we all watch Survivor together. Lucky for us, Wednesday is Calib's day off (and Sundays, of course, for football).
Over in the school department, Hayden is still plugging away with his Driver's Ed course, and working on PERT prep so he can start being dual enrolled either in the spring, or the fall. But, we are sneaking in some fun projects. I'm still working on our Black History, which I plan to start in October. It's hard to find people to use for our toy timelines though, so I'm making my own from peg dolls. My first attempt wasn't too bad.
And my second attempt was ok too. (Also this is SO fun. I LOVE making these).
Hayden and I have also been having 'Money Making Monday' where he does a craft he can enter in the fair next year. This week we made some Guatemalan Worry Dolls.
Speaking of school work, Peyton passed his Statistics Exam so we had PDQ to celebrate (shout out to Calib who picked it up after work for us). If you know Peyton's math struggles, you'd be super impressed he passed this class in THREE WEEKS on his FIRST TRY! His new mentor is awesome, I said something about his math the other other day, and he told me 'Mom, I have to have a more positive attitude about math', and I was like 'you're totally right', and look- he was! It totally paid off.
He's killing school, he'll be done before he knows it. Super awesome.
In other news, I haven't had my hair cut for what I believe to be three years. Not because I like long hair, but because I haven't been to Ohio (though even if I had, the woman who cut my hair for years has moved away), I don't want to pay for it, and a salon is a social-anxiety ridden person's worst nightmare. Oh, and Covid.
I wear it in a pony tail- or more specifically a messy bun on the top of my head, like everyday. But it gets so tangled it's miserable to brush out. I thought about going somewhere when cases get low again. But I'd still want to wear a mask and even thinking about wearing that cape they put on you, while wearing a mask and having my hair washed makes me claustrophobic.
So after threatening to cut my own hair for at least a year now, I finally decided to do it myself. I watched some youtube how to videos and decided 'whats the worst that can happen? It's wildly uneven and I just put it up everyday?' That's what I do everyday, anyway! At least it wouldn't get so tangled.
So, I brushed it out one last time. You guys, look how long it is. It hasn't been this long in my adult life. It was terrible.
I tied it off like youtube said, and Hayden and Asa joined me for moral support.
And you guys, look. It's not terrible! It wasn't a disaster. And more importantly, now I just run my brush through my hair for like two seconds and it's untangled. It's still way longer than I'd prefer, but it's straight enough, and still goes into a pony tail, so I'll take it!
In other news, Disney is about to start it's 50th anniversary celebration (tomorrow!) and they just resumed selling passes again. But, the people that kept passes the whole time through covid and all that were the first ones to get the new Disney magnets.
Yesterday would have been my grandma's 100th birthday, so of course the Ainsworth's had to have a zoom to commemorate the event.
And now all I've got for you is some dog pictures.
Phenom is always so excited for bedtime. He just sits at the door and stares at it and waits for it if we stay up too late.
And Ellie got to go on a little roadtrip to pick up curbside with Asa. Our Publix right around the corner from our subdivision FINALLY got added to curbside pickup, so we've been utilizing that.
