Autumn or Fall either way...

  It appears to be peeking it's head out. Me, I love the 'fall'. The colors, the smells, and yes Halloween and Thanksgiving are my favorites! It's days like today though that I really don't care for. Rainy a drizzly type of rain, just cold and drizzly. No sun, no breeze, nothing, makes it a day to stay in and keep the windows shut, so no fall breeze flowing thru the house today.
  It's been some time since I've blogged about anything, family and moving took precedence for quite some time. Now though I believe I'm ready to begin again. I will be expanding my blog beyond just baking, as it seems I have so much more to talk about..some will hate me and some will understand where I'm coming from, but either way 'it is what it is' and I hope you enjoy reading and seeing what is happening here regularly.
  I am undecided on whether to keep my blogs name 'The Thankful Cookie' or  to go ahead and change it, but since I cannot come up with something that I find appropriate just yet so I will go ahead and keep it for now.
  As some here know I am the mom to 17 of my own biological children. I am by far from the 'perfect' mom, but who is, right? My oldest is 26 years and my youngest is 2 years old. No, I'm not a certain religion and I was born and raised right here in the United States. I just had a lot of kids and although like most moms, if I had that magic ball or time machine I would definitely go back and do some things different. I'm not referring to the number of kids I have, but to how I handled certain situations, things I said, things I've done or didn't do, whatever it may be I believe there is things we all wish we could go back and get a replay, but life doesn't work like that so it's all Live and Learn, I guess. I'm 43 years old now and my pregnancy days are done. I have no desire to have any more children. I'm still not at a complete 'happy' place with things the way they are but it's a work in progress. Some people take longer to learn and as it appears I seem to learn things the hard way. I'm hard headed, stubborn, bull headed, call it what you like, I'm at least one or maybe even all three of those terms. I'm still learning with my kids, my life, my decisions and everything in between, like most people.
  Right now I am down to one home all day now (my 2 year old son Gus). All the kids are back in school and the house is pretty quiet..what am I saying, it's extremely quiet! No fighting, arguing, can I or I wants for about 5 and 1/2 hours a day. I really thought it would take some getting used to, but I seem to be adapting well and frankly I'm enjoying it. Should I feel guilty for that? Sometimes I think I should, but by the time I really start thinking about it again, more time has passed, I look at the clock and see that time is flying by and think I better get busy and get some things done. The quiet will end as the school bus approaches, so enjoy it for now and enjoy my one on one time with Gus Gus. (I call him Gus Gus like the little mouse in Cinderella, love that movie). Who by the way is very pre occupied watching Barney at the moment.
  Well now that I have informed and filled you in a bit, you can see why I haven't updated my poor little blog in some time. My hope is that it will change. I still bake, craft, etc  and I will share the things I've done and provide you with recipes, tutorials and great deals on some things. Oh, did I mention I also coupon now, but we won't get into that just yet. In return all I ask is to read from time to time (and not just the 'how to' parts), because I believe I can give valuable information to tired mom's, stressed mom's, mom's who think they can't do it one more day, but still  muddle through somehow and I'm always open for advice to on how to handle this or that. I've learned that one day you'll blink and your kids will be grown and you'll wonder (when did that happen, I feel like I missed it). Time sneaks up on us and it's gone, so pick and choose your battles and your time wisely with our kids, because before you know it. they're all grown up and you'll be the one wishing you could've/would've done this/that differently.
  This is my entry for now here, I have a diaper to change. 26 years of changing diapers! I wonder how many diapers I've changed? Wow the thought of that, lol.