On halogen light bulbs

My.  Dad.

He's a bit of an energy saving freak.  Like oh my word.  He's been conserving (buzzword: going green) since before it was cool, know what I mean?  His ears perk up when he hears words like fuel and efficient in the same sentence.  He recently drove his 1993 Ford Festiva to Duluth and back going a mere 45mph just to see how good his gas mileage would be.  Yeah, it was like 73mpg.  Move over, Prius.

Tonight when the kids and I were visiting my parents, Dad was changing some light bulbs in their bathroom, getting just ticked about the short life of these bulbs.  They were halogen, which seems up his ally, but he said that once you factored in the energy it took to manufacture the bulbs and the rate at which they had to be replaced, it was no longer a savings.  He was pretty fired up.  When I told him to calm down, he didn't need to be mad at me about it he said, "Yeah, but you're the one who's gonna blog about it."  I was LOLing.  He's a funny guy, that Bob.

The thing about dad's conservation, is that his motivation is being a good steward of the resources Creator God has blessed him with.  It's not about a trend or about an effort to "give back" (whatever that means).  It's about good, old-fashioned don't take more than you need and use every drop of what you've got.

This was last winter- helping dad install storm doors on their house making it more energy efficient.  Classic.

Ten years...

...is a long time with the same man.  That was a funny joke.  The other day I heard a very godly woman say that in reference to the 50+ years she's been married to her husband.  Cracked me up!

Anywho, Andrew and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last month.  It seems like that's a topic- epic as it is- that I should be blogging about.  I mean, I want to.  I just have no words...or maybe it's more like I have thousands of words.  Either way, doesn't make for a great read.

I will say that these have been my favorite years of life.

This is a picture of a picture, taken with my iPhone.  Digital cameras/photos were a thing of the future in 2003.

AT + LT = LUV...and lotsa kids.

Halloweeeeeen

Carving and painting pumpkins.  

The funnest/easiest pumpkin craft that the kids actually got a kick out of for more than .3 seconds, and didn't involve Elmer's.  Perf.

The band of pirates...I don't know if two is technically considered a 'band', but I can attest to the damage these scalawags can do.  It's significant.  And Marg is actually part of their party, just wearing a very clever/innocent disguise.  

Our Halloween tradition involves the kids dressing up, piling in the van, and visiting neighbors and a few relatives in the area.  It's not my favorite holiday, but it is fun to roam the neighborhood on a chilly fall night and visit with sweet folks we don't often see.