Fall is here!!

Abbie has decided that it is time to celebrate Fall. After a long, hot summer, she is more than ready to indulge in all things pumpkin. 

Loving that pumpkin smell

 

This past weekend, she and her friend Ava did one of their Zoom baking sessions together. They made an incredible loaf of pumpkin bread. It was very moist and tasty so it pretty much disappeared overnight. They are doing another baking session this coming weekend, but I don't think that they have settled on a recipe yet.

Laughing at her own pumpkin goofiness

 

She has also started using pumpkin filling to make knockoff Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes. Apparently, those started off with just pumpkin spices when Starbucks started selling them, but then evolved to include actual pumpkin pie filling. Sounds king of gross to me, but she seems to like them.

A more serious look

 

It hasn't happened yet, but she is also planning on plenty of pumpkin pies this fall. Not that I need desserts in the house, but I do like pumpkin pie. 

As for school, her classes are getting busier and busier, but she seems to be managing it. After two weeks with the entire high school online, most of the kids in her grade transferred back to in-person classes. Abbie is one of the few who stayed online. There were definitely some bumps at first in terms of her ability to hear the in-person classes, etc. Most of that has smoothed out now, but she still has a hard time in French. If she misses a word or even part of a word it is hard for her brain to fill it in the way that she can in English. Overall, she seems to like most of her classes and most of her teachers, so I think that things are going well. 

Violin also continues with weekly Skype lessons. In general, she has lost some enthusiasm for it, which is a shame, but she continues to stick with it. Her part-time social media job is also going well. She continues to increase her client's followers and their engagement, so that is good. This also creates a new opportunity for Abbie to improve her understanding of what it means to be self-employed. We broke it to her that all of the money that she is making is not tax-free and that she will owe self-employment taxes in addition to income taxes. She is budgeting for that now, so that there is no issue when the tax bill comes due!