Settling Back In

Whew. It’s been a few days, hasn’t it? I came back home on Sunday, and I do mean all of Sunday. It took twenty-one hours to go from my doorstep in Germany to the back door of my house here in Minneapolis. That’s too many hours of traveling, to be honest. It’s too many hours to be doing ANYthing, really.
I’ve spent the past few days settling back into my normal life, catching up with work, etc. I’ve been battling jetlag and the temptation to go to bed ridiculously early with projects. I started making my Halloween costume, which consists mainly of trying to recreate Lucy van Pelt’s — from Peanuts — dress in three dimensions and with actual fabric and stuff. Dress-making is a time-eating trap, though. I thought I’d just cut out a few pieces, and then, before I knew it, I was ‘just’ threading the elastic through the sleeves, and it was nearly midnight. I only had a few details to add yesterday, and now I just need to sew on the buttons, and it will be finished.
I also made a loaf of very delicious pumpkin bread yesterday. I used, as always, Susan’s Pumpkin Spice Bread Recipe, although I’ve always made it using oil in the past. This time, I used only applesauce, AND I used about half whole-wheat flour (out of necessity, as I ran out of white), and it’s pretty good. I made it with tinned pumpkin puree, since I’d opened a can for something else, but, come Sunday, I’ll be cooking my homegrown pumpkins to make my own puree (to freeze). They’re just a bit too festive at the moment to be chopping them up.