I had another crazy day today. Fortunately this time it was crazy busy and crazy fun, instead of crazy clumsy. After I hit the ground running spinning with this morning’s cycle class, I had special plans with Makenzie. Her first field trip!

We visited Uncle Shuck’s – a corn maze & pumpkin patch north of Atlanta.

As a family we have visited this little haven of fall every year for the past few years, but today’s trip had some special and learning for the kids.

We learned about products that have soy beans in them and how to recycle…

(holy junk food propaganda! but let’s not get distracted)

The kids learned how to measure pumpkins…

And they got to learn some fun facts in the "Maize of knowledge”.

The simplest things always take on a new level of excitement when done with children. The many smiling faces and off-the-wall-energy will get you excited about corn, hay rides, and goats too.

Or at the very least, cute kids sitting in a pumpkin patch will warm your heart.

Just keep a keen eye. The little man thinks mulch is fine cuisine.

I, on the other hand, prefer the orange globes behind him as my cuisine of choice. And I was quite disappointed to not get my pumpkin bread fix during our Uncle Shuck’s visit today. It’s tradition!

The craving wouldn’t relent, so I came home and made some pumpkin oats for lunch. I could eat breakfast all day every day, so this actually made me quite happy. Especially since I had to rush my breakfast this morning.  I needed to make up for it.

The pumpkin oats didn’t kill the craving, though. I had to bring out the big guns. Well, looky there.

I offered to bring a dessert to tonight’s small group and had the ingredients for the easiest pumpkin spice cookies on hand for such a need. If you don’t know this simple mix, you must give it a shot – one box spice cake mix and 2 cups (or one 15 oz can) pumpkin. Mix it all together. Plop on a baking sheet by the spoonful and bake ‘em up for 15 minutes at 350.

I love adding white chocolate chips to mine. Heavenly! I will happily eat as many as necessary to satisfy my field-trip inspired pumpkin cravings. Yes, siree!

• What was one of your favorite field trips for school?
• What is the last craving you had?
• PS – The next “Stuffed With Emptiness” post coming tomorrow.

Ohhhh, I can’t get enough of today. Let’s backtrack a bit…

• I posted about “making the day a good one”.
• I spilled oats all over the floor and found little icky bugs in our pantry.
• I had to go full circle and take my own advice from this morning’s post.

Full circle means it should have ended there right? Ha! Hahahahahahaha!

 source

Good thing I can laugh at myself!

After things settled down from the oat and bug fiasco, I got the kids and I packed up. We had someone special to visit.

I have the BEST husband in the world! Peter offered to use his lunch break to watch the kids and let me get my run finished earlier in the day. That way I wouldn’t have to go after he gets home from work and we could have more time together as a family. You better believe I scooped that offer right up!

I picked him up from work and drove a couple minutes down the road to a park and running path – a path similar to the one I run on regularly by house. A one-way, out and back type of path. A path you should not get lost on.

Me? I got lost.

After about 2.5 miles, I came to a few forks in the path. I thought it was weird since these trails are usually out and back, like I mentioned. I followed the “Greenway” arrow and went along my merry way. Suddenly things started to look familiar. Too familiar. When I hit the same parking lot I just passed, I knew I did something wrong.

I went the opposite direction when the path forked again…but it took me up to the main road and away from the greenway. Oooookkkaaayyy.

Try again. And I’m back at the parking lot again.

Apparently the path ended in a loop and I had no idea, so ran around in circles a good four times. #winning

At least I had a good run!

I apparently needed those four extra laps because my run ended right at 6 miles. Plus, I hit six miles in under 50 minutes for the second week in a row!

By the time all was said and done there, the kids needed naps. I came home and got them settled down. I showered, stretched, ate some lunch, and grabbed my netbook to settle in for some work.

Then…in one of those slow motion moments, I watched my netbook leap from my way too clumsy hands and drop to the floor. Noooooooo! 

After putting the battery back in and giving it a look over, I started her up. Things seemed okay…but nothing worked at first. NO Windows Live Writer. NO Picasa. No Internet Explorer. NO other programs. EGAH!!!! I tried restarting it and a miracle occurred. Everything seems to work fine again after the restart. Thank goodness! Here’s hoping I don’t suddenly have it crapping out on me. And that my fingers decide to develop some sort of traction so I can actually hold onto things! Sheesh! What a day. But, it was funny. And it was good.  

• Can you easily laugh at yourself?
• Do you have good or bad directional skills?