What I’ve been up to:

Staring at all my green tomatoes and willing them to ripen.

Submitting an essay to Real Simple magazine’s annual Life Lessons essay contest. This year’s theme was: “Have you ever had an a-ha or eureka moment?” The deadline was today, so naturally even though I started the essay at the beginning of summer, I just finished it yesterday and sent it in. It was fun to write on a different topic for a change. If I don’t receive a notification that I’ve won, in January, maybe I will publish it on here. I wish I had given myself a little more time to work on it; it definitely has some problems. But it was a good writing exercise, at least. I don’t care about winning If I don’t win I will have a bonfire with all my back issues of RS and cancel my subscription.

Pureeing and freezing the tomatoes that did ripen.

Using my realtor.com app to obsessively look at houses for sale.

Sanding a dresser I bought off craigslist a while back, and painting it tomorrow, I hope.

Cooking dinner, every blessed night, just about. Still trying to stretch the food dollars. My last two grocery orders were each under $100. I’m still using about the same number of coupons; I just cut a lot of fluff items out and am not stockpiling so much.

Watching my son zone out during soccer practice and start making plane crash sound effects and hand gestures. Maybe I shouldn’t let him watch “Air Disasters” so much.

Gearing up for Box Top season.

Looking for winter coats for the kids on eBay.

Switching out their summer wardrobes for the fall ones.

Staring at the little green shoots of my fall carrots and lettuce and willing them to keep growing.

My husband was just now scrolling through my phone and said, “All your pictures are either of the kids or food. Your two loves.” Sounds about right…