Outside: 

It's not playing around.  It's fall now.  We have had our first freeze and in fact when the breeze picked up this morning it was like we were inside a little snow globe as stray frosty flakes blew off the roof.  Someone remind me I need to bring that geranium in.  

 

Wearing:

Boots.  I have my requisite pairs of black and brown boots for the season.  I pretty much wear sandals all summer and boots or clogs all winter.  It's a bad foot thing.  I've picked up more sweaters in anticipation of the trip across the mountain to help with the new baby – who will make his appearance very soon. (say a prayer!)

Creating:

Here and there.  The girls and their friend nailed a Pinterest project.  It is still surreal to me that my "little" girls are savvy enough to save and follow through with crafty pins. 

We also spread a sewing project over a couple Sunday afternoons, stitching up a goldenrod colored peasant blouse. It has been so very long since we tackled a whole sewing pattern.  I wish there was time for more!

In the kitchen:

There is juice.  There is a lot of juicing going on. I've been on a kick and really enjoying it, alternating green and orange based recipes.  

Around the house:

There are pumpkins and garlands and spicy tea. I wish it could be autumn all year, with the world bathed in gold and russet and cinnamon and mocha. 

The "big boys" came for the weekend and it was heavenly.  Truly.  It's funny because let me tell you these three were a handful back in the day. I was in way over my head with a houseful of boys and a military husband routinely off and away someplace. I wrangled and scolded and chased and corralled and cajoled. They found every humanly possible way to foil my best laid plans and skirt the rules.  And you know what?  These same boys now send ridiculous puns via messenger.  They drive me to games and make Starbucks runs, bringing back coffee with stevia and cream already mixed up.  They sit and watch 1981 BBC miniseries on their vacation because they read the book with me over the summer. They ask, "What do you think about___?" and they listen to the response. To say I am grateful is a gross understatement. 

From the learning room:

We have been following our lesson plans religiously knowing we will be having a baby year once again, for the first time in a decade.  It will be a different sort of baby year since it is now a grandbaby, but we still hope to split our time between here and there.  Those plans which once seemed so challenging now just come together so easily.  I suppose anything you do year after year eventually does.  When they bring me a questions for a reading passage I no longer need the answer key because I remember the story well from the seven or eight previous students. Since we are down to business right now we have been sticking close to plan, picking up just a few relevant library books and tapping into videos online to expand a topic.  This one coincided with a geography lesson on how topographical maps are made.  Some days are DIY days.  Some days it most definitely suffices to watch someone else do it and get the gist.  The key to homeschool happiness is correctly identifying those days. 

Reading: 

The Screwtape Letters.  And that's really it.  We have been pretty heavily involved in some local social services work and there has not been a lot of free time where I don't just fall asleep.  My goal is to read all the high school novels I did not get to with the other students so I am ready to discuss.  Screwtape it is right now.