Getting well, not soon enough

This cold doesn't want to go away. Plus it's getting cold outside. We had a freeze warning last night, so after dinner Susie and I picked the still-green tomatoes off the tomato plants. We filled a large bowl. I was surprised that we had that many left so late. They're now in a paper bag - we'll see if they ripen and taste good. I let a few counter-ripen this summer and they were all right. Still better (fresher) than what we get at the store. And now the Farmer's Market is done until April, so we're stuck with store-bought produce for the next five months.

Busy weekend ahead: rehearsal tomorrow morning, then Susie's girl scout troop (and other troops, too) will be going on a hayride in the afternoon. Since the hayride is in the suburbs, we'll take advantage and visit the large wholesale store and the mall because I threw away all my candles when we moved and never replaced them. It's time. (I realized the gravity of the situation on Halloween, when we had to scramble to find sufficient candles to light the pumpkins....one of the pumpkins got a "Glade Candle-Scents" candle because we didn't have the proper supplies. Smelled strange....mulberry + natural pumpkin.) We also want to go to the health food store because they sell things like non-instant oatmeal in bulk. And we eat it in bulk.

Sunday, if it's not raining, we're going to go hiking in the nearby State Park. There's a nice 3 mile loop that's just challenging enough for the kids (I hiked it pregnant several times, so it's not hard!). Last time we hiked there, though, we somehow got off the trail and wound up hiking more like 5 miles, and it was getting dark. There was crying. There was wailing. There was gnashing of teeth. And that was just the Husband. Sadly, the crying washed off the bug spray - and that state park is mosquito heaven. Bug bites near the eyes are really unpleasant.

This time we'll all pay attention (the trail is well-marked) and it's late enough in the season (and cold enough) that we won't see any mosquitos (I hope). But I'm bringing extra hot chocolate, just in case.