Last day of October

Hey, can you believe it . . . if I finish this post tonight, that will make TWO posts on here this month!! ;)

I woke up this morning--at 9 am, I might add--to find my husband making brownies "for breakfast."  (The breakfast part was a joke. :))  What with me having to rest more these days, we had run out of sweets in the house, and that is a problem for my sweets-loving man!  So he took matters into his own hands and made a pan of brownies while I slept in.  (And I was super thankful for the extra sleep, since I had a really rough night with little sleep on Weds.)

Unless something surprising happens, it looks like I will not get my wish of an October baby . . . but that is okay. :)  All in good time!  I know it is good for this little one to "bake" as long as possible, although I have to say I am still hoping he/she comes a *little* early . . . like ANY TIME NOW, BABY!! ;)

As of today, we are officially done with our first quarter of the school year!  We do a lot of school on the couch these days, like this recent picture shows.  Josiah is making great strides with his reading!

I am amazed by how fast the first 9 weeks have gone.  It's exciting too that we got through the first quarter before the baby comes.  We are way behind on our Sonlight reading, but right on track, maybe even a little ahead, with our other subjects.  I figure we will have plenty of reading time after Baby comes, since I will probably be tied to the couch, nursing, for a while!  So hopefully we can catch up then.

The kids' neighborhood soccer season finished up this past Monday.  With the time change this weekend, it'll be too dark to play in the evenings anymore.  They sure had fun, though, and I think their skills are improving, too!

We are thankful for our neighbors organizing it, and for the fun outlet it is for our kiddos.

We have enjoyed fall storytimes at the library over the past couple months, and this week's was a special dress-up version for Halloween.  It was fun to see everyone's different costumes!  We absolutely love our small-town library and the sweet ladies who work there and put so much time and thought into planning storytime.

(In case the picture isn't too clear, Sam was a superhero, Julia was a cowgirl, and Josiah was a Transformer--the one with the mask on the bottom row.  Sometimes we buy costumes on clearance at Walmart after Halloween so they have a nice little stash of dress-up clothes, but this year Josiah was the only one who used a store-bought costume.  The other two had fun coming up with their own ideas, using dress-up clothes made by Grammy, or stuff we had on hand.

While I don't love the time change and the darker afternoons/evenings, one thing I do love about this time of year is that life seems to slow down a bit and we spend more time snuggled up at home.  We have enjoyed some nice family time lately, movie or game nights, etc., and it's just those simple, normal times that make life special, you know?  I'm also trying to soak up these last days with just three kids . . . while we are all excited about the new baby, it's been just the five of us for so long that I know we will have some adjustments to make!  I'm trying to give each of the kids a little extra one-on-one time because they seem to need it right now.

Speaking of the new baby (because of course that is kinda at the top of my mind right now), here is the cute little Thanksgiving onesie we got for him or her:

Yesterday I saw this adorable turkey hat pattern on Pinterest, so I might just have to buy it and have already asked my mom if she'd be willing to make a hat for our "little turkey" ;) if I do!  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and although I'm not yet totally sure what we will be doing about dinner this year (because I might not have a ton of energy right then!), I am excited about having a close-to-Thanksgiving baby and an extra special reason to be thankful!

Another thing I am extra thankful for right now is the way Jim and the kids have been pitching in to help me with things around the house.  Especially recently, since I have orders to do lots of resting, I haven't been able to do as much cleaning, cooking, etc. as I would like.  They have all pitched in to help with dishes, laundry, even some cooking . . . and mostly they have done it so willingly.  I'm also thankful for my mom, who has generously stocked our freezer with breakfast foods, and that I've been able to get a little more than a week's worth of supper meals in there, as well.

Well, hope you enjoyed this little bit of chatter. :)  I think I'll stop for now, so I can actually post this in October!  Hopefully November will be a little better month for blogging . . . we will see!  Oh, and I also posted a new update at Eating for Two, for those who are interested. :)