Random stuff...

(Italian meatball soup)
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Yom Kippur [1] always feels like one of the longest days of the year to me... I'm so glad it's over! I am not as joyful about fasting as Joshua seems to be -- he is definitely a good example to me! :)

My brain is a little fried, so here are a few tidbits from the past couple of days:

--We're still battling our gnat infestation. I put bleach down the drains and set out lots of traps [1]. We moved the box of unripe pears to the garage, and my compost bucket is outside the back door instead of in the kitchen. I'm really hoping things are under control before we have guests this weekend! Gnats are just plain gross!!

--At Aldi's this week we came across a mountain of free (over-ripe) bananas! We put some in the dehydrator, froze a few, and gave about 30 pounds away. Free food is such a blessing! the boys and I love to snack on the partially dried, hot, chewy, flexible bananas they dry!

--I stepped on the scale today and saw that I have now lost 20 pounds! This is amazing to me, since I have trouble keeping motivated. I feel so much better than I did 5 months ago.

--We're having company tomorrow for lunch, and I'm serving spaghetti and meatballs [1], garlic bread [1], veggies, and some kind of dessert (maybe pudding?).

--We're also borrowing a tent tomorrow from one of my brothers. The boys and I are looking forward to sleeping outside at least one night in celebration of Sukkot [2] next week, and we've even invited friends to our "campout"! (The tent has two rooms.) It should be quite an experience!

--Have you seen the deal at Shutterfly? [3] Fifty free photos and free shipping too! I signed up last week and my 50 photos came in the mail just a few days later!