My little corner of cyberspace has been so neglected of late. Honestly, I just haven't felt like blogging recently. Since I returned from my trip to the UK and Iceland, we were without a computer. After the demise of our last laptop, we bought a new one only to have it quit on us after five days! We sent it back and for whatever reason, they could not send a replacement within a month. The shipment kept getting delayed and we decided to cancel the order. So, I started taking lots of pictures on Instagram and posting them to Facebook while we were without a computer. I have to admit that Instagram is just so easy and quick. I suppose that some of my enthusiasm for blogging has transferred over there. Anyhow, I'm back and I apologize if you've seen some of these pictures already either on Facebook or Instagram.
Here I am on the first of November lamenting the end of my favorite month of the year. I love October as it's truly the best time of the year for me. The oranges, browns, yellows, greens, and earthy hues fill my senses and make me long for warm hand knit items and pumpkin spice lattes. It's cozy and well, it's over for this year. The trees are now looking almost barren, but there are some that still have leaves, but they are past their prime. It doesn't matter. I still love that deep complex brownish-orange. I soak up all of Autumn until that last leaf drops.
Here's what made our October. Our little twins, Liam and James turned 2. I actually cannot believe that they are 2 already. Our little chunky monkeys are 2! I'm so happy that they decided to be born in my favorite month. October got even better with their arrival. This year, I wanted to celebrate in a low-key fashion and head out to one of our favorite pumpkin patches in Boulder, but it was a very rainy day. We went to the pumpkin patch anyway and only Sammy and I got out of the car. We raced in and bought three pumpkin pie pumpkins for the twins and Tesss and then, since we trekked all the way to Boulder, I dragged everyone to a yarn shop. Liam ended up getting sick in the car and well, it wasn't the birthday I had envisioned for the twins. I baked them a little pumpkin bundt. There's a picture in my collection of October photos above. I think it goes without saying that I love Autumn baking (all those spices!) as well.
I did my fair share of knitting too. I started a
sweater for myself! It's miles of stockinette and I've already started to doubt that this sweater will look like anything other than a hand knit sweatshirt. There's a reason I don't knit for myself. There's a picture of the sweater in the photos above as well. It's the red, pink, and black-striped yarn. What was I thinking with horizontal stripes? Of course, I've set it aside for other projects like a
blue dress I'm knitting for a certain little girl I know (not Tess).
Luke and I are tackling a lot of school work right now. He's doing a fair share of his work independently these days, but I still ask him to cook with me or write with me. We're planning to read
Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival together for some science reading beginning tomorrow. It's not the kind of book that I would normally read aloud. We're each going to read a chapter every couple of days and then discuss it. He's plenty busy reading, making stop-motion films with his Legos, taking care of his five chickens, learning high school Latin,
writing a novel, and finishing up Algebra I. He would have been done with Algebra in early summer, but that's when we started to have some computer issues and the computer lost all of his work. I made him do it all over again, but Algebra has become something that he loves. He keeps a nature journal. He grumbles about French, but I'll get him back on track there. We're diagramming sentences and we talk the importance of good grammar every day. As the weather has become more chilly and the twins are napping, we watch
The Story of Us and talk about the history of the United States. I love the home educating life and I'm passionate about lifelong learning. It's the biggest lesson that I try to instill in my children. I want them to want to learn all the time. I want them to be curious. I got off on a home educating tangent, but all these things are/were part of our October learning. For some reason, I'm always more optimistic and idealistic about our learning plans in October. Right now, as I blog, Luke is in the room with me. He's working on his novel. I'm sure it will be in the science fiction/fantasy genre. It's quiet right now and we have this time together. I'm cherishing this moment.
Right now.
As I move into November and the Advent Season, I hope for more moments to cherish.
