Closing Out October

At the beginning of this month I said that I felt like October was a lighter month than the past few months had been. Haha, that's funny! I feel like I've been going non-stop all month. Wow! For a month when I didn't think I had much planned, a lot sure came up. It was busy for sure but so, so fun.

We started the month with a road rally. I've never done one and it was a lot of fun. Of course, much of that was who I did it with. I think anything we do with Liesl and Ava is going to be a blast. When you have fun people in your life, everything is fun.

The very next day, I met with my Bright Lights girls at a local cider mill for one last get-together. We aren't meeting anymore but I wanted everyone to be able to see each other again. Miraculously, 10 of my 11 girls were able to come!

I got to spend four days in Frankenmuth with my old youth pastor's kids. I got to see Noah's senior night soccer game (they won) and Naomi's volleyball game. I got to see Nicole and her new place and catch up in person. Natalie and I made soft pretzels and I got to read with Nolan and Noelle. It was a busy four days but I loved every minute. Even getting up at 6 AM was rewarded with amazing, beautiful sunrises.

I finished setting up the basic Dubsado systems and just have a few final things to work out before I can start using it BUT... I also just found out that my gallery provider is coming out with something that sounds an awful lot like Dubsado. So, I won't be going further with setting up Dubsado until I learn more about what this new offering is going to be. I want to be dealing with as few programs as possible.

I got more cider doughnuts than I even imagined and made pumpkin whoopie pies AND pumpkin scones. When I say "pumpkin" it really means "pumpkin chocolate chip" because why would you make something without chocolate chips when you can put them in?

We had guests in town for a week and my mom, aunt, and I went to a craft night at our library to make fall wreaths. It is something creative and I'm trying to do more creative things.

Our basement laundry galley is set up now, we have a new outdoor spigot, and we have a nice spigot in the kitchen that is for filling large pots and things. We are also getting a section of our yard and driveway made into concrete so that we can get from our deck to the cars without walking in mud! I'm so excited!

I've got more :) We went to a wedding that had some Chaldean influences because the bride is Chaldean and it was very cool. That was the night after the pregnancy center banquet, so two late nights in a row. The banquet went very well and there were no problems from protestors, which was a real concern.

We had two groups of friends over who still hadn't been out to see our new place. It's been so fun to have people out and enjoy fellowship. We have been doing that much more since we moved, which is partly because people want to come see but I think it will continue. Something is just different now when it comes to hosting. I like it :)

Most of these things were unexpected and not on my radar but one of the biggest surprises was that there was a new Patterns of Evidence movie that came out! This is part one of the Journey to Mt. Sinai and it was just as good as I would expect from this series. These documentaries are looking for evidence of the Biblical account of the Exodus and events following. I love them and find them fascinating.

Whew! I think that is it. Like I said, BUSY! Did you see the snow we got? Nothing stuck, but we had some big, fluffy flakes and it was gorgeous! I'm ready for snow whenever it wants to come. What did you do this month? If you or your kids dressed up for Halloween, I would love to see photos!

Bright Lights at the cider mill and corn maze!

These photos are both from the road rally. Don't worry, we were just pretending to cut her hair.

So yummy!

I can't believe we made this work!

Fall wreaths that we made ourselves!!

Lexi captured two images of me hugging my friend after the ceremony (and my brothers hugging her too) and they are some of my favorite photos ever now.

We really like the cider mill :)