Pigtails!

Daybook for Monday, October 5th

Outside my window...The sun cannot decide whether it wants to stay out or not. The yard is absolutely covered in leaves.

I am thinking...raking is in our future. Ugh.

I am thankful for...finally getting a pumpkin for the kids yesterday. We almost always wait until the last minute so we are early this year, and now they have one less thing to nag me about!

From the learning rooms...back in the swing of things after taking last week as a catchup week.

From the kitchen...we picked apples yesterday so of course we had to make crockpot applesauce today.

I am wearing...my yoga clothes...I should get changed to go out but I don't really want to.

I am creating...I don't know. I can't think of a single thing I am creating right now. How's that for inspiration?

I am going...to do yet another load of laundry when I finish this.

I am reading...the last in the Twilight series. I will be sorry to see it end! I should probably be embarrassed to admit that, but hey they are a nice, light read.

I am hoping...for good scans this week.

I am hearing...my kids outside riding bikes.

Around the house...it's pretty quiet, the baby is sleeping, she loves her naps and she desperately needs them the way she tears around this place lately.

One of my favorite things...Watching the leaves fall.

A few plans for the rest of the week: the usual stuff, plus another trip to an apple orchard for a wagon ride and pumpkin picking, hiking with some pals, visiting with Grammy, and finally switching the kids closets over to recognize the fact that it just isn't summer out there anymore.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing..



Visit Peggy's to read more daybooks.

Happiness is...

Your very own Nascar race...for a few minutes anyway!

Catching Up

I was doing so well posting for awhile there. We have been playing catchup with our school stuff this week, just focusing on the stuff we've gotten behind on or that we've been skipping (like history projects, Latin, and art). In the past couple weeks we have also gotten a new kitten- due to Connor's favorite cat deciding to bolt when the door was left open- never to be seen again....we went to a fair, bought the kids their fall clothes, have gone on a lot of walks and done some letterboxing, and a little schoolwork here and there.



It isn't November but I just learned that November is lung cancer awareness month (or maybe they are trying to have it named lung cancer awareness month-?) This is something that is very near and dear to our hearts since my mom was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in February 2008.

So to do my part to raise awareness to anyone who reads my oft-neglected blog, I want to point out, as the ribbon on my sidebar says, that you do not have to smoke to get lung cancer! My mom never smoked a day in her life and she got it anyway....it's obviously an extremely hard thing to live with every day, for her and for all of us who are so close to her... but she has been fighting it like a champ & has so much courage in the face of this that I am literally awestruck.

I recently saw someone wearing a tshirt that said "Cancer Sucks". That about sums it up. I do not normally post on this topic, my mom is one of my most faithful readers after all and I want this blog to be a nice relaxing place to visit. But she is always in my thoughts and in my prayers and in my hopes. Go Mom!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Fall Into Reading

Forget how exactly I found this but Callipidder Days has come up with a fall reading challenge and since I never seem to get through books as quickly as I'd like I thought- hey what the heck. So here is a list of 10 books I hope to have read by the end of the challenge- Dec. 20th...and yes I'm a homeschooler but they aren't going to be all serious books or anything..

The Host by Stephanie Meyer

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie

Beowulf On the Beach by Jack Murnighan (so I can plan future, more serious reading)

A Christmas Carol by Dickens (because I read it every December)

The second Harry Potter book, whatever it is...I'm reading them with Ellie

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini

Protecting the Gift by Gavin De Becker

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen