October in Review

It's that time again!  Past that time.  If I don't hurry up and post this it will be the November month in review post.  Looking back through my photos, I can't believe October went so fast.  We had a fun and busy month with twelve days of special company -- there went almost half the month! 

We are well into school for the year, but we about to make a curriculum change in math.  I do love Teaching Textbooks, but I have at least two children who would benefit greatly from some Charlotte Mason-type learning.  I am having a hard time breaking out of my box, but thanks to my dear friend, PlainJane, we are getting some very practical math and taking a break from TT for a bit.  Introducing Your Business Math Series.  Amy and Elisabeth will be bookstore and pet store owners, respectively.  They will be responsible for ordering stock, selling product, recording sales and figuring sales tax, and calculating their monthly profit.  But first things first!  Each girl will have to come up with a name  and a logo for her business!  They are going to love this, and I think I will, too. (Please, God, let us have only happy faces at math time from now on!)    But wait, that is what is going to be happening THIS month.  Back up!

October started with lots of creative play. I love this stuff!  Elisabeth contructed a covered wagon and roped a horse to pull it.

Betsy's interest in things western continued throughout the month.  A friend left us a couple of felt cowboy hats.  Within a few minutes Betsy had rifled through her drawers and come up looking like a real-live cowgirl, minus boots.  Boots.  Boots!  Cowgirls have to have boots!  What ever will we do?!

On a whim I stopped at the Salvation Army to find a pair of kids' boots.  No cowboy boots, but look what they did have, in unopened boxes:

This was such a fun find, because while some people are always in the right place at the right time, I am almost never in the right place at the right time. I'm in church at the right time, of course, which is the right place to be at church time.  But I rarely get in on a deal.  This time I did, and I am thanking the Lord.  For a song, we are now the happy owners of a Lego train station, cavalry soldiers, bandits, horses, garbage truck, and even a bicyclist -- that one's for Daddy, you know -- and lots of extras!  There you have it.  That's what the little girls have been busy with the entire month.

In the few moments when no one was Lego-ing, we had a couple of birthdays...

Emily was so excited to get If You Give a Cat a Cupcake and its accompanying kitty, that she made all of listen to her read the book out loud before she would open the rest of her gifts!  Daddy and Em had their Dad and Daughter birthday date at the famous In-N-Out Burger.  Good choice, Em. She's been in a big hurry to be six ever since she turned five.

The other October birthday was Alison's 15th.  I can't believe we didn't get one birthday photo.  Where was my head??  Where was everyone else's head??  It's so wonderful to have a teenage daughter.  It such a blessing to see the Lord working in her life and making her into a responsible and very pleasant adult person.  Here she is working like crazy on a hat for a friend's little girl's birthday.

We enjoyed a nice visit from Grammy and Grampy, complete with art and art lessons.  Amy and my mother seem to be kindred spirits of sorts. They share a common interest in artsy stuff; add to that the same genes for height and slenderness and energy.  I now have more of my mom's paintings and pastels hanging in my living room.  They are very special to me.

Elisabeth learned to crochet!  Here is her first complete project, a hot pad:

Emily helped make supper. It was one of those days.  One of those days when the man of the house needed to be fed with something delicious and filling, to know he was loved and appreciated in his castle. We got a huge auto repair bill that day.  Medical bills were piling up. But the man of the house came home to an experimental meal. I meant well, really I did. The website said this one was a keeper. It wasn't in this house . Disaster struck!  And there was enough of this horrid dish to feed an army and a half!  It was so bad that  it became a sermon illustration!  But a prudent wife doesn't throw bad food in the trash -- she figures out a way to make it edible.  Next day it was salvaged and  gobbled up.

The western theme continues:

We had special meetings at church with special friends from Kansas and here in Arizona,
we witnessed a gun fight in our local gold-mining ghost town, Oatman,

climbed Sitgreaves Pass (in the car),

climbed a mountain at sunrise, on foot (using the word "we" very loosely, I admit),

played music, participated in speech co-op, and enjoyed our first cold weather, complete with hot cocoa, layers of clothing, extra blankets, and long underwear.  But not the furnace. Not yet.  (Don't laugh.  It's cold here, too.) 

And finally, the month was finished off with a surprise package in the mail!

Isn't God good?  Yes, he is!

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,
and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psalm 107:8