A Little of This and That in October

In October, you might have found us . . .

Cranking . . . up the heater. That'd be me. People have been asking me if I've turned on the heat yet. Um, yes. On October 1st. I am not out to win the who-can-hold-out-the-longest-while-freezing-themselves-silly award.

Putting . . . together Halloween costumes. Ever since reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz clear back in April, this has been the plan, even though we didn't actually start working on anything until two weeks ago. We had Mike as the Scarecrow, me as Dorothy, Aaron as The Great Oz, Maxwell as the Tin Woodman, Bradley as the Cowardly Lion, and Clark as Toto.

Enjoying . . . some time with Mike's parents while they were here for General Conference at the beginning of the month.

Watching . . . the annual family film festival. There were some really good entries this year.

Waiting . . . for our huge maple tree to drop all of its leaves. I think we're still going to be waiting for at least another month.

Spending . . . time with ancient dinosaur bones and petroglyphs at Dinosaur National Monument. It was a fun way to spend Fall Break, made even more fun because we were there with some of our dear friends.

Listening . . . to all of the talks from the most recent General Conference. Some of my favorites are "Yielding Our Hearts to God," "What Lack I Yet?," and "Faith is Not By Chance, But By Choice."
Listening to a talk each morning is one of the best things I do to help my day go smoothly. So grateful for these inspiring words that strengthen my testimony.

Basking . . . in the beautiful autumn weather--because if I don't bask in it, then I'll probably cry about it. (Autumn is perhaps the cruelest season--it lures you into thinking it's comfortable and cool, and then you wake up to snow. That's mean.)

Feeling . . . grateful (so grateful) for a week-long visit from my mom when Mike was in California for work. Without her, that would have been a week of survival instead of a week of fun.

Griping . . . about Aaron and Maxwell's different school schedules (even though I was the one who signed up for it).

Visiting . . . the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin.

Making . . . impulse purchases on Amazon. I'm sorry, but if you find Leo: A Ghost Story for under $9, you have to snatch it up. You just have to.

Mourning . . . the dark mornings and even darker evenings. I've been feeling out of sorts lately, and I'm pretty sure this has something to do with it.

Anticipating . . . serving as a Round 2 judge on the Cybils panel for the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Book category. There have been a lot of great books published this year, so it should be fun.


Attending . . . Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My kids have become die-hard Harry Potter fans since we finished the first book a few weeks ago, so they took the family party very seriously. The kids went to four different classes (Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination) with some truly excellent performances from Mike and his siblings acting as the professors.

Reading . . . The Sound of Paper and The Unrest Cure and Other Stories to complete my "read a book on writing" and "read a short stories collection" goals respectively. The boys and I are reading Dominic by William Steig (highly recommend), and I'm finally listening to Being Mortal (and finding it utterly fascinating).

Loving . . . Clark's little reverent attitude when we're praying. All we have to do is say, "Clark, we're going to pray," and he folds his arms together and bows his head. Sweetest. sight. ever.

Admiring . . . Aaron's costume. His was my favorite. Other people mistook him for a leprechaun, but he didn't care. He has always loved the color green, so the wizard was perfect for him. Plus, how often do you see anyone dress up as the wizard? That's what I thought.

Praising . . .  Bradley's reading. He turned a corner last week, and now he wants to read everything he can get his hands on. He's not anywhere close to fluent yet, but he's making rapid progress. His first official book was Go, Dog! Go! but he has read many more since then.

Planning . . . a fun project for the blog; you'll find out what it is later this month!