Goodbye October

I love fall and I love October, but I am now ready for November and Thanksgiving and even some Christmas planning. Bethany and I spent an hour on the porch this evening planning things we want to do in November and December - many of which probably won't even happen, but it was fun to plan. 

I think Piper almost always has a smile on her face. 

Pumpkin Carving

Sunday we had our annual pumpkin carving. Actually, we did not have friends or most of our family over as it rained all morning and I canceled the carving. Too messy. The kids were really disappointed and as it got later and later in the day our deck dried off and the sun came out and we decided to just do it anyway. So, we did. It was nice, but so much smaller than usual. The kids had fun and even though our friends and most of our family didn't come.  I'm glad we went ahead with it.  I'm ready to move into November now. 

Benefit Concert - Michael

Here is another clip from the benefit concert Michael did for Joey. This time I have a clip of Michael playing. It took us awhile to get everything off the camera and I only recorded some of the concert. But, I always like to post a few clips of Michael playing. This was the 4th concert he played for Joey and I am so proud of his dedication to do this every fall to help his brother and thankful for our church family. 

Benefit Concert

I tried to post this earlier but I could not get the video to look right. We finally got it up and looking good so now I will post it. Michael played another concert for Joey last Saturday. This was the 4th concert he has played. Our church is so kind to let us do this for Joey and his family every year. It went very well. I had this short video of Zola playing the harp on my phone. The rest of the concert is on my video camera and I haven't even tried to put it on the computer or even looked at it yet. But, I will try to do that this week. 

First Pumpkin

We bought our first pumpkin of the fall. I thought it rather unusual looking and really liked it. We will be buying many more when it gets close to pumpkin carving time - probably about 30. I love this time of year and I know I have already said that. 

Harvest Festival

This past Saturday we went to the harvest festival and it was such a beautiful day for a fall festival. Several of my adult children met us there and it was great fun for all the kids. One of my sons did tell me he remembered it being more fun when he was a kid and asked if it had changed over the years.  It has changed, but I'm sure being a kid made it seem much more fun. But, it was nice and the kids ate and ate and went to the petting zoo and played toss the bean bag and just walked around looking at everything. I got kettle corn so the trip was definitely worth it to me, and I got to take some pictures of the kids and grandkids. 

Behind In Blogging

I have meant to post so many times, but I just never got around to it - especially since I have had two extra kids. We are enjoying fall and this is my favorite time of year. I just love the cooler days (that we haven't had yet) and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas. It all brings me such joy. 

We have been doing school and especially enjoying literature and history. We got our new history books and this program was definitely a good choice for us. I think morning is our favorite time as we do our Bible reading and then we do literature and history. 

We are still working in our nature journals - though not as frequently as I would like and not even all together many times. But, we are at least trying to do something in them occasionally. I am going to try to get the kids out more and get back into nature walks soon. Somehow we have gotten out of the habit and I have seemed to be too busy to take the kids on walks lately. 

Below are a few pictures the younger kids did for their nature study - Bella and her niece and nephews. They do a nature study together three days a week and it is wonderful they can do this together. 

I have a few more pictures from our past week I will post. Jack is now enjoying a little baking with the other kids. I think he is finally getting used to everybody. 

We also have a raccoon that seems to have fallen in love with our family and our deck. He started out just getting into our trash cans which is aggravating. Then he started coming up on our deck at night and looking for food. Now he is so bold that he will not leave us alone. The kids can hardly eat at the picnic table at night as the raccoon wants to come up and eat with them. I have to bring the kids inside and then he takes over the deck. He literally does not care if I walk out there and he is eating or looking around - he just looks at me then goes about his business. I don't trust him and never let the kids around him and it is actually getting to the point we can't eat on the deck at night anymore as he will come up and want to eat with us. Tonight the kids were eating and he was in the yard and then all of a sudden I heard the kids scream and start running to the deck door -- the raccoon came up and got on the table and started eating their mac and cheese. I went out and got a few pictures later as he was still there hoping to find something else. Also, got a short video - he didn't care at all. As I write this I hear him back in our trash cans.