Banana Bonanza and a few other life's like that moments

 Flashfoods  (an app where we get a lot of our groceries from at 50%off or more) often disappoints us with showing a picture like this but what you are buying is actually a bunch of bananas. So I chose to buy two bunches at $2 each. And then, at pick up, I discovered that I'd bought 2 40 Lb boxes of bananas! So we went from banana starved (no bananas for over a month, not even frozen ones) to way more than we can eat, bake with, and freeze before some go off! So, if you're in the area... want some bananas?

We've had some exquisite beauty in the mornings lately: heavy hoar frosts and wintery sun make for a breathtaking wild beauty landscape! Of course, a phone camera held by a novice can't hope to pick up the multilayered beauty... frosty mist in the distance with frost silvered bare trees melting in around the edges, the random harmony of fall colors still clinging to some trees, sun sparkling off the frost gilded foreground grasses... 

Last winter we wrestled with our wood stove, trying to learn its quirks to keep the house warm relatively consistently without it smelling like a campground nor having to nurse a reluctant fire. This year so far we seem to have figured out a few things, but now we wrestle with a voraciously hungry roaring fire that we can't seem to dampen a bit too often. But since it is doing a much better job at actually heating the house, it's not so grievous. 

Every household experiences "that time" sometime: the one where every appliance or gadget seems to break at the same time... for us it was Jasmin's phone, Mom's laptop keyboard, Grace's monitor. All big ticket items. And yet, it happening in November is very fortunate with two important annual sales to find replacements that don't cost too, too much. And, of course, with two techies in the house (Dad and Aiden) and a thrifty Mom, there were enough bits and pieces to cobble together some solutions in-house as well.