My Lame Fall Decorations and Homeschool Started

I struggle with fall. First of all, husb gets all pouty when the summer comes to an end, and understandably so, since he works outside in the Pacific Northwest. So I tend to feel bad for him and hold off on rubbing it in that it is fall until it is completely undeniable. By that time, the color outside tends to satisfy me enough I think. Plus, my living room is done in brown earthtones with lots of orange, so it is basically fall year round in my living room! Anyway, after everyone around me decorates for fall I end up feeling left out and busting out my puny stash of fall decor...

That is it. Now Christmas? Christmas I have about three of these boxes full plus a couple more random things in their own packaging. But fall is pretty dinky around here. All I really have to show you that I accomplished is that I added some pumpkins and a gold mercury-glass votive to my display by the TV...

I know, really minimal. By the way, please notice that I did find a home for Mr. Squirrel (from Farm Chicks).

I finally convinced myself that he had no soul so it would be okay if I suffocated him in the cloche to save him from little fingers and dust on his belgain burlap. I gave an armful of tiny leaves...

He is happy. The only other things I did is put the rest of the pumpkins on a shelf in my entry way, but it is too pitiful to show you (maybe I will dress it up a little and share it later), and all the little votives are lined up in my windows to try to draw a couple trick-or-treaters in, but I'm not holding my breath. One of the hardships of living in the sticks.

In other news, I started Mark in homeschool! We are still working on getting all our books together and start following the curriculum (which I will share later if I love it), but every day while Susie takes her first nap, we work on homeschool for a good hour or more. I think I will have much to share on the topic if there is any interest. This "decor blog" is already scatterbrained enough, why not bring in one more topic!? We'll see. Anyway, this was one of our first cool projects...

I saw the idea displayed on a bulletin board at my teacher-friend's school. You write their name nice and big (a longer name might need a bigger paper) and then let them man the glue stick and cover their name in torn pieces of paper. Mark helped me cut some of the paper while I tore some. He is learning to use his kid scissors, finally. He liked it and it helps work on fine motor skills and get them more familiar with the letters as they work on it.

Okay I have been debating sharing this but it is too funny and I must share. Mark drew a guy and his arms and legs were floating in the air - he had no body. My teacher-friend tells me kids usually start out drawing people that way. So I told him, "good job, but he has no body, can you draw him one?" and he added something in the middle of the arms and legs which I will let you see for yourself...

I said, after choaking on a laugh, "oh, what are those?" and he said "those are his buns." Ohhhhhh.