Mother's Daybook - Oct 19th

Loving - Fall weather. (Except yesterday. It was hot yesterday. October should not be in the 80s, but the cold is back so I'm choosing to block yesterday out of my memory). We've been outside so much. When I originally made my goal, I wrote 750 hours in my bullet journal but used a hashtag on Instagram for 700 hours. I don't know why that wasn't consistent but we've passed the 700 hour goal and are closing in on the 750. I think another week and we'll have it. And we still managing to get a full week of school done! I don't like being cold but I love sweaters and jeans and hot chocolate. I haven't actually had any hot chocolate yet but I've been thinking about it.

Buying - Year 2 books! So much fun receiving books in the mail. I originally thought I'd do mostly ebooks and we're are using many this year and it hasn't been an issue but next year has so many lovely books that I can't stop myself. Especially when I am finding great hardbacks with lovely illustrations for $5-$8. How can I resist that! Answer: I can't. I don't even try. Bring on the books. As of now, we will still be doing a few e-books but the percentage is changing the farther I get into planning so who knows what will happen by January.

Eating - Squash. I have never really been a big fan of squash but if I still say that at the end of this month, it won't be for a lack of effort. So far I seem to like butternut squash better than acorn or spaghetti. I thought Cinnamon roasted butternut squash was pretty good but Lucy and Jonah were skeptical (Craig was out of town).  Everyone seemed to like the Spicy Ground Beef and Butternut squash although I did leave out the "spicy" part aka the pepper and the kids had the enticement of pie for dessert to encourage them to give it a try. The key for me seems to be to cut the pieces very small.  I started doing this because Norah loves butternut squash and I didn't want to have to recut hers smaller later but I found it makes it much more appealing to me.  I'm not a big fan of the inside texture so lots of surface area helps.

 Everyone's very favorite way of eating it was in this amazing Chai Spice Butternut Squash Bread. Its not as healthy as plain roasted squash of course but I substituted 1/4 teaspoon of stevia powder for the white sugar and only used about 1/4-1/3 cup of sucanat instead of brown sugar and it was still delicious. Not very sweet but great for tea time with a big slather of butter. Yum.

Watching - Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries on Netflix. I just finished up season 3 and it doesn't appear that they are going to be making a 4th season which makes me a little sad. It really was fun. What's worse is that there are books out there but I don't want to read them. I've heard that for once, the book is not nearly as good as the show and the parts of the show that I really liked (the costumes, jack and phryne's chemistry/banter, did I mention the costumes?!) wouldn't be in the books and the parts I could live without entirely (Phryne's many dalliances) would be more prevalent. No worries though, we are just weeks away from new Gilmore Girls! I'm so ridiculously excited about that I just can hardly stand it. It makes me actually excited about November. Because there are certain other events taking place in November that will not be as pleasant.

Listening - Audiobooks. I can't do audiobooks for myself much these days. I never could before unless I had a hands on project or a roadtrip. They just go so much slower than I read and it drives me crazy. Lucy has so far been the same but Jonah's stopped sleeping much during his naps so I switched them over from classical music at quiet time to audiobooks. She may not want to slow down her play to listen to a book but she'd rather listen to a story than not if that's her only choice. Unlike Andrew Putewa and his intense love of Audiobooks, I know Charlotte Mason circles are torn on audiobooks and I understand the reasoning. If you are using that approach for language arts, they really need to see the words to get the full effect. So we won't be using a bunch of audiobooks for our main school books or free reads. But extra naptime stories - yes please! They have been listening to a ton of Thorton animal stories, Uncle Wiggily books, and others. It takes me a little while to set up playlists of about an hour but after that, it's easy for me to get them started. Then as soon as quiet time is over, they rush in to me and narrate them all of their own volition!

Going - To all the appointments! Its seems like every week has two or more appointments of some kind - eye doctors, dentists, well-child, specialists, evaluations. I don't like this, I'm a homebody! Plus all the brain space I am using as I try and keep track of what paperwork I need to bring to each. But we should have a break soon, I think. Just three more - unless of course, those three lead to more. Appointments tend to multiply. But October was much busier than I had planned! I'm ready for a restful, cold November where I can hiberate in my house.