October sailed right past us this year filled with sporadic puffs of cool air (one even requiring winter jackets). As a result, we spent much more time outdoors, often dragging our snacks or school work with us or starting our first Fall garden! Delightful. Have I mentioned how much I love the Fall? Also this month, Blythe turned 6, meaning Mark took a day off work, and we celebrated with a family day-trip to a small boardwalk amusement park on the Texas coast. (I’ll be back-posting her birthday note and pictures soon.) Fun doesn’t seem like quite enough of a word to describe the day, but I’ll tell you more about that later.
Another highlight in October was our academic “Fall break.” Although we don’t have a rigid annual school schedule, each year, I build in a week long break that coordinates with our weekly Classical Conversations group. It always seems by mid-October everyone (including mom) is losing steam and needing a change up in our routine. So this year the kids spent a few nights at their Nina and Papa’s house (thank you again, Mom & Dad), and I painted the entry hall and cleaned/organized the house for our last gameday weekend rental. That’s right. We experimented and rented our home for two weekends this fall to avid college football fans — a chance to make a little extra income and invade Kristen and Tim‘s for a weekend. It was a heap of work on the front end followed by heaps of laundering afterward, but both weekends went really well.
We rounded up the month with a road-trip to South Texas for Mark’s 84 year-old grandmother’s wedding! Yep. You read it correctly. This past August, 2.5 years after the passing of Mark’s grandfather, she announced to the family that she had fallen in love again — what an amazing story and testimony to life! So we all (along with her other kids, grandkids, and great-grandchildren) hauled down South for the event. “Do you know how rare it is to go to your great-grandmother’s wedding?” we kept asking the kids. There, we also hugged and visited with Scott and Diana (my husband’s brother and wife) — not only our family but also dear friends — who live in Morocco. Sadly, their kiddos had a stomach virus causing a pre-mature ending to our visit. (So disappointing. Sigh.) We wrapped up October 31 with an evening of trick-or-treating and then our own edition of a stomach virus which quickly spread through each member of the family. Until now. And just like that October vanished right down the drain.
