Aside from wanting to chop off my head due to insane allergies and crawl under the covers and sleep the rest of my life away, we’ve been busy.

My Aunt Diane came for a visit from Louisiana for the week, and we had a really great time. There was Labor Day, we cooked out at my grandparents’ and walked the Portage River Walk. (really delightful, and free.)

We went to the County Line Orchard on Friday. That was a treat. Also found out that you’ll want to try to take advantage of the discounted rates for weekdays. Only $3 per person (over 2) to ride the tractor, pick apples, and visit the kid’s farm. And, fresh baked cinnamon apple donuts in the bakery. Oh my.

Saturday morning we met my family at Tate’s Place to have a final goodbye breakfast with Aunt Diane. I had never been there and was very impressed by their menu and awesome sippy cups for kids. I ordered the spinach, bacon, & swiss quiche. We all left with that just enough full feeling where we couldn’t eat another bite but our buttons weren’t bursting, you know? Good.

We headed straight to the Popcorn Fest to see our friend’s band The Urbanites play the main stage. We walked around the fest and I was relieved we had only brought $4 with us. So many great vendors and fair foods and Papa Johns selling pizza by the slice for $1! BUT we only bought 2 bottled waters and two bags of popcorn. Then we took a long very long walk back to the car and came home and I made the most delicious salad. And then ate a cinnamon donut. Oh yeah.

We hung out with friends and neighbors last night and then retired early for the night as my allergies took me down, and wasted most of my morning, too.

I’m about to make a bunch of mini pizzas and then spend the rest of my night folding laundry and knitting in my bed watching Mad Men. I’m longing for the coming week to include full night’s sleeps, happy children that take NAPS, not having any place to go, quietly celebrating the birthday of our sweet little girl, and being free of the need to carry around a box of tissues.

About the author: Stephanie is Mom to three boys & a baby girl in Valparaiso, IN and blogs daily at Adventures In Babywearing . Follow her on Twitter- she’s babysteph .