My family is trying to squish in all of the required fall activities between random illnesses and rotten weather.  I think we’re doing a pretty awesome job, considering.  Two weekends ago we managed to make it to Fruit Ridge Hayrides.  We have a farmer-friend who lives right by there, so he gave us a private hayride and even let the kids drive the tractor on his farm before we went so we just did the barrel train, pony ride, and corn maze.  The corn maze is really fun; the other stuff is pretty standard.  I still like Schwalliers better.

While my husband and I were at an awesome vineyard tour at Fenn Valley on Sunday, the kids carved pumpkins with their cousins.  You have never seen a motlier crue of pumpkins than this.  They all ended up maimed beyond any reasonable use, but not before they were given severe stab wounds and made to ‘throw up’, which is accomplished by dumping seeds back into the carved pumpkin, and tilting it forward so they came out of its mouth.

Let’s see; pumpkins, apples, hayrides, vineyard tours – what else? Halloween.  I’m a total flop at Halloween but have been trying hard the past few years to make a little more of it.  I actually have decorations that are going up this weekend.  They will look wonderful with my half-patched ceiling and wall right next to my stripped and sanded still unpainted fireplace which matches my two half sanded windows.  My husband began this massive project right before his school classes started which is clever, because when I complain (and I do complain – it’s been two months) about it, he suddenly has to study. 

There is more to come though.  This weekend Swisslane Farms is having their famous Dairy Discovery.  We haven’t been in a coon’s age, so we’re headed down Saturday.  I am trying to squeeze in a last visit to the Farmer’s Market too.  Hopefully the weather will hold up long enough for us to enjoy Colorfall at Meijer Gardens. The Zoo Goes Boo  continues this weekend as well. 

In other Halloween-related news, Michaels has a free Halloween Event on Saturday, October 31.  Details are here.  Lowes has a clinic for kids to make a Magic Frankenstring project on October 24 which you can read about here. GR Now has a fantastic Halloween Guide here. Not exactly Halloween, but still involving monsters is Pooh’s Corner “Let The Wild Rumpus Start” Super Storytime event this Saturday at 10:30.  Not many details, but contact information is here.

The Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA’s Family Fall Festival is Saturday, October 31, 2009 from 11:00am – 1:00pm.  They’ll have all kinds of stuff, like Farm Olympics, hayrides, and bobbing for apples.   It’s free, and you get to wear your costume.  The downtown YMCA and the South East ones are also having fall activities, but I think there is a small fee for those. 

You want more? Are you CRAZY? If you do, head over to GRKids, which has lots of fun stuff for you and your kids to enjoy this fall.  It goes quick, and winter is long so get out there!

Long time readers will remember waaaay back in the early days of Big Binder, I ran an ”Eat Local Challenge“.  It was two years ago and the Eat Local movement was really picking up steam.  I started researching local food producers, and asked them to donate prizes for contests.  Much to my surprise and delight, they did.  I was paying close attention to the locavore movement, and started making some connections with pretty big national organizations.  I was even asked to be interviewed on national TV, as well as guest blog and contribute content about my local food contest. 

Sadly, those offers were rescinded and they stopped returning my emails when Cheeze Kurls and Stehouwers were some of the prizes.  I approached everyone – including local producers of organic foods (not naming names here) but they weren’t interested. The national organizations who had been so excited initially thought I wasn’t pure enough.  Apparently trying to run a contest giving away heirloom tomatoes would have been a much better  idea.

That’s not what they meant by eating locally.  I was disappointed, but the thought of them stomping their feet in their expensive, trendy shoes so hard they almost spilled their fair trade shade grown soy milk latte made me laugh out loud, so it was worth it.  I don’t advocate eating Cheeze Kurls or Sizzlers often, but they are fine on occasion - and they are made here. 

I stand by buying locally though, even if I can’t hang with the cool kids.  I’m very excited that the new Local First Coupon book is out.  It’s kind of like an Entertainment Book but it’s all local businesses.  It’s $20, and you can get at several places around town, which is good because I need a car wash from Southland real bad.  Look at the website to see if any of the locations are places you frequent.  

If you aren’t in Grand Rapids and you are totally bummed that you can’t get this book, just google something like support local business and hopefully there is something similar for your area.  Probably nothing like what we have here, but you out of towners can always dream

Is it awful that I dive into A.P. and Maybelle’s school folders every day before they’re even home from school? Or that I’m jonesing for a folder-fix since we’ve been home all week? I want it all.  The newsletters, the popcorn-day order forms, the crappy (did I say crappy? I meant fantastic) artwork.  But most of all…. the Scholastic order forms. 

 I heart Scholastic.  I remember being in elementary school, and being excited about getting the Scholastic order forms.  I’m not usually a big sucker for marketing but if kids books are involved, forget it.  I’m the sucker-est sucker in the world.  In fact, last year I was so distraught that A.P.’s class didn’t have a Scholastic order form by the end of the first week I asked the teacher what the deal was.  She said she “just didn’t like to organize that stuff” so naturally, I took over and became the Scholastic Coordinator.  Not a real resume-builder, but I  must…have… more… children’s…books.

When I worked with the room mother to plan a party, I made sure a gift for the teacher was in the budget.  And I made sure that gift was a book.  See? It’s a real problem I have.  It’s so bad that I might even buy SunnyD in order to get 20 free books for my kids’ classrooms.  I am not sure exactly what SunnyD is:   Juice? Pop? Some sort of Tang-like substance? My only experience with it is when a woman looked at me very scornfully for having my kids in a Meijer Movie Kart while piling Pop Tarts and SunnyD in her regular cart and her kids yelled their heads off.  Not the best association. 

Until they teamed up with Scholastic, which can wash away a multitude of sins.  In exchange for 20 SunnyD labels, Scholastic will donate 20 books.  The program is called SunnyD Book Spree.  I think that is awesome, and will promptly start loading SunnyD into my Movie Kart with the expectation of scornful, disapproving looks from everyone.  It’s worth, it, because I love Scholastic.  For more Things I Love Thursday, go see Jill, who just had a really cute baby I want to meet in person but must wait until Germ-fest ‘09 has passed.

Well, hi there.  I just saw a very sweet, possibly blog-saving email from a reader who asked me where I had gone? Let me try and recap my (gulp) month.  After the initial daycare-hating experience, Maybelle has modified her position slightly to more of an “I will tolerate this situation but you will pay for it” stance towards daycare.  A.P.’s initial love of it has waned some, but he just rolls with things so he’s still OK.  On the school front, Maybelle adores her preschool class as I thought she would.  I just had A.P.’s first Kindergarten conference and he is doing really well on all levels. 

It took me about two weeks to adjust to my new schedule.  I was on edge the whole time, and I think I said the phrase “This SUCKS” about 500 times.  I was afraid I’d forget to pick someone up from school (didn’t happen) or to pack everything I needed (happened twice). Just about the time I got it together, I got a call from daycare.  A.P. was in the office with a 103 degree fever, and a severe headache.  His pediatrician wanted to see him, so down we went, with him vomiting in the car on the way.  She decided he might have menengitis and sent us to the ER for a spinal tap.  On the two minute walk from pediatrician’s office to the emergency room he threw up twice; meanwhile I was thinking, “Wait, did she say menengitis? Did she say SPINAL TAP?”

The ER was startling.  I’ll sum it up by saing that people were barfing in buckets everywhere.  Maybelle was with me, because my husband was in class and I couldn’t get ahold of him. I threw a mask on Maybelle, grabbed a jug of hand sanitizer and gave her as much of a bath as I could.  Then I sat her in a chair and told her not to TOUCH ANYTHING while I helped A.P. lift his own mask, and barf in a bucket.  We finally got in to see a doctor and thankfully, he did not end up with a spinal tap.  He ended up with anti-nausea medicine and we finally made it home around midnight. 

Phew! I was glad that was over.  I knew when my kids started daycare, they would get sick.  I knew this because every single person I know told me it would happen.  We resumed our (newly) normal schedule late last week.  I thought about BigBinder alot.  Two weeks ago, I went to a conference for stay at home moms called Hearts At Home.  I came away very rejuvenated and confident that I had done well, for the most part, in the past 6 years as a stay at home mom.  I also realized that while I’m working, a few things have to give.  Those things include 1) line-drying laundry 2) making home-made bread and 3) blogging.  The first two were easy.  The third wouldn’t quite go away, so when I got the email asking me where I had gone, I started looking for another thing to give up.  I haven’t quite found it, but I just can’t quit you, BigBinder.

As it turns out, I do have a little extra time on my hands this week.  Yesterday, I got a call from A.P.’s school.  He was in the office, barking like a seal and shivering.  We must be the most lucrative customers of the daycare center because we have been gone as much as we’ve been there.  Those of you who have daycare experience know that you still have to pay even when your kids aren’t there. Maybelle is not sick.  She’s had a few sniffles along the way, but mainly she is just thrilled she doesn’t have to go to daycare.  Today, my husband came home from work with what looks like the flu.  I’m trying not to be overcome with guilt.  If I hadn’t put my kids in a daycare center, would A.P. have gotten sick? Will Maybelle do OK once she has to go back?

I’ll be blogging as much as I can, I love to write.  I love to write more than I love to talk.  I need this as an outlet, but I probably won’t have nearly as much ’stuff to do with kids’ information as usual.  I hope you’ll join me as I drag you along on my riveting stay-at-home-mom to working-mom and back journey.  It might not be what you’re used to as far as content, but it’s me and you know I’ll keep it real.  I am genuinely thankful for my readers – if anyone is left out there