I know I say it every month in these posts, but the last month really did seem to fly by. October was another busy month for my family and I am thankful for all that we were able to do.
From finishing the cross country season, to taking a trip to the zoo and Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home, to dealing with a water leak in our basement kitchen, to working on some crafty projects, and continuing my decluttering project, October 2015 was a great month.
My Family
Like I mentioned, we finished the cross country season early in the month which meant we had a break from sports for a few weeks before basketball started for James and Joshua last week.
My husband and kids had a week off from school earlier in the month and I loved having everyone home. We were able to take a day trip to a zoo and Abraham Lincoln’s Indiana boyhood home.
When Janna found out we were going to the zoo she said she wanted to see a giraffe. So, our first stop was the giraffe area. You can imagine her delight when one of the giraffes decided to come right up next to us.
We had purchased a membership to the Mesker Park Zoo last year and were able to go two times during the year. Memberships are usually the way to go for our family of seven, especially if we think we might be able to go at least one more time during the year.
After we left the zoo we went to Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home. I didn’t even know there was a museum there, but just happened to find out about it when doing a search for fun things near the zoo. It was very educational and really interesting for us all.
We got to tour the museum, watch a short historical reenactment video, walk a trail to the site of Lincoln’s log cabin, and even help the park ranger fold the flag of Indiana’s tallest flagpole.
We had a really great day.
Later in the week we had to rip apart our basement kitchen which was sad and not fun at all. (I will share more on that later in this post.) Even though it wasn’t something I wanted to do; it was a good opportunity for my husband to teach James about plumbing and electricity.
October seemed to have more warm days than usual and we took advantage of the nice weather to play outside as much as possible.
I am so glad our cats love my kids. I am not sure that just any cat would let Janna waller her to death. The cats keep coming back for more every time, though. 🙂
My Favorite Picture
This little guy of mine loves the cats even more than Janna, I think. I just love Joseph’s smile. This picture sums up so much about him right now. Playing outside with the cats is his favorite thing to do and makes him so happy.
What I’m Reading
In October I read a total of four books and started on a fifth. I read Emma
I have now read all six of her finished novels in the past three months. (I read Pride & Prejudice in August and Mansfield Park in September. affiliate links) I really have enjoyed reading all of Jane Austen’s books. Her wit and ability to create depth in her characters is wonderful. If I had to choose a favorite I would have to pick Pride & Prejudice.
Recently, I found out that Sanditon
What I’m Working On
This past week or so I have been sharing some of my crafty projects on Facebook, and I wanted to share them here, too.
I made my nephew this little backpack (That’s Janna in the picture.) for his birthday because he is really into Toy Story right now.
The tutorial I followed is from Indie Tutes, but since I first shared about the pattern on Facebook two weeks ago the pattern pieces aren’t available anymore. If you are interested in making one I would leave a comment on that post or send an email to the site owner to see if she can get the pattern pieces back online for you.
To go with the backpack I embroidered Buzz Lightyear on a shirt for my nephew to wear at his party.
The design was purchased from the Brother site and was just what I wanted. You see, my nephew likes to play with my boys’ old Buzz toy and he even says he is “Aunt Jackie’s Buzz”.
One of the phrases he says if you ask him if Buzz has a laser is, “It’s not a laser, it’s a lightbulb.” So, I just had to embroider that onto the shirt, too.
Look at his hair! I think he liked his new shirt.
I have also been crocheting again after taking a long break. The first crochet project I undertook was this cloche hat from Hopeful Honey.
I used a wool/acrylic blend that was really chunky. The hat should be nice and warm for Julia this winter.
Since I had some yarn left over, I made her some boot cuffs to go with the hat. Both patterns were very easy to crochet.
In September I told you that I had read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (affiliate link) and had been applying her ideas to our clothing.
In October I decided to try my hand at decluttering our kitchen. The book says that the best way to tidy is to take everything out at once and decide whether it sparks joy or not.
I applied that principle to my kitchen cabinets and drawers and put everything in our dining room.
Yikes! Seeing everything I had jammed into my kitchen cabinets and drawers was quite a sight. It really did help even though it took me parts of three days to get finished.
I donated and recycled many things and sold a few items as well. Now I feel much better about the insides of my cabinets and drawers. They aren’t cluttered and I am finding things are easier to find.
Earlier in this post I told you about our basement kitchen issue. We found three water issues that resulted in rotten cabinets (on the underneath and back where we didn’t easily notice) and some mold issues.
My husband put in new boards, put in new pipes and valves, and made a “box” out of treated lumber so that we will hopefully not have this issue again.
We are actually farther along than this picture shows, but I still have some things that need finished. I need to get my act in gear before I host gatherings for the holidays.
I am thankful for a husband who knows about plumbing and electricity and is trying to teach our boys what he knows. He definitely saved us a lot of money on this project.
On the Blog
The week my family had off and the remodeling project kind of sidelined my plans for posting more in October. Here are the posts I did manage to write.
Well, that about does it for October 2015. To keep up with me until next month’s update head over to Instagram where I share all sorts of random pictures. Also, be sure to follow me on Pinterest and Facebook while you’re at it.
What were you into in October?
I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer to show what I’m into lately!
This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for supporting this site.
