October 2018

This has been the longest month of my life. A lot of good, some really bad, and just the adjustment to getting up early every day and working late every night. Also, I've succumbed to the new teacher curse and haven't been healthy in weeks which is rather wearing. At least I finally got my voice back....not a ton of pictures since my phone is filled with school happenings, but here's a glimpse of the past few weeks:

We took advantage of the holiday weekend to head to VT with a few of the sisters and got in a photo shoot

Most of the photo creds go to Anna and Meghan

It's always perfect to be home, and it remained true for this visit as well

I took my class apple picking and look what one of my students found in the tree! A highlight of the trip, they were so cute

It was rainy. And cold. But we'd already rescheduled once so we just made it work and I had fun. 

The kitchen reno! Our countertops are gorgeous. I just rub my hands over them and "ooooh" :)

All the trim and paint touch up still needs to happen, but it's functional and pretty enough for me now

The kids have been doing soccer at church with our intern leading them. Mostly a chance to run around, but he's been teaching them some basics and Hudson is loving it

We'll be sad when Jonas leaves us!

Back to VT...

The boys practicing stump yoga

Nate shows particular talent in this direction

Twinning!

Showing off her Indian paintbrushes

Fixing the tree that had blown down

Scarecrows the kids "helped" Papa make

Fog against changing leaves, a favorite sight

No October trip to VT would be complete without picking Great-Grams apples

An impressive (and delicious) harvest this year. I made a ton of applesauce and had enough to share with friends

Steve was very excited to dig potatoes

Thrift store find, I've been using them in math class to teach ordinal positions

I coordinated a wedding reception for 100 folks and these were the beans I made....there was a LOT of food but no one walked away hungry!

They wanted "red" to be the theme (ugh) so mums to the rescue!

Both honorees moved to N.Carolina that night, so this was a going away party as well. I made up packages of trail mix for everyone as favors.

And then the hard part of the month; one of my students died suddenly on a Friday night. I've processed it in other spaces, but wanted to mention it here since this was a huge part of my month. My students are doing well, I had incredible support from my administration and parents, but....not something you get prepared for in new teacher training. I'm grateful I have extensive experience in death and the conversations following, I just wasn't expecting to use that skill set here. I snapped this photo of Hudson just looking at his friend the following Monday while tears poured down his face. If you're a praying person, please keep Emilie in yours. She's a single mom and Samuel was her only child. Devastated doesn't touch the tip of it. 

The only picture I got of Steve on his birthday (oops). We maintained tradition and went to the Head of the Charles (super windy and cold) and his mom came down for a fast trip to surprise him. 

New winter gloves. I think the first time in the kids lives I've had to actually purchase a pair new. 

We've been doing a lot of puzzles and card games as a family in the evenings. It's fun having older kids!

Henri's teacher is great and sends me pictures throughout the day; here they were learning about turban gourds

One of my students is obsessed with dinosaurs so he gave me one for his birthday and I sent him this to let him know it was settling in well at the house and eating all my flowers. 

 More puzzles. 

Trick or treating with the neighbors! Luna was insistent on going as an egg since she finally overcame her egg allergy this year. Kids crack me up!

So her brother Mars went as bacon....except Hudson was a pig. Circle of life.

Technically November, but we had our 10th wedding anniversary!!! Thanks to a tag team of friends babysitting, we were able to go to Steve's favorite restaurant for a fabulous meal.

They always treat us well at Capital Grille, and the complementary dessert and champagne was a sweet touch. We decided to make it our resolution for the coming year to eat there weekly (ha).

...and then we headed downtown to see Hamilton!!!!!!! My incredible husband got tickets way back in June as a surprise for me and there couldn't have been a better gift. I've listened to it on average 3x a week for the past year or so, and the kids have it memorized too.  Such a treat to see it live!  

So that was October. I remain in a non-running rut but Steve is keeping up his milage and talking about signing us up for another half. I would like to resume, I just have no idea how to fit it in. My favorite Saturday of the year happens tomorrow when we get to sleep an extra hour (!!!) AND I get a whole week off for Thanksgiving!!!!!! I can't remember being this excited for a vacation in forever. I have a huge backlog of reading and knitting I can't wait to get to!