[published an unfinished draft of Becca's]
I had this goal in October to blog more often. I thought that maybe I could even do it every day. And so, I believe in direct consequence of that goal, we got sick. All of us. With a lot of stuff. For almost the whole month. It took me by surprise, because I have long depended on the fact that we would start our winter sicknesses after Halloween. It was the huge influx of sugar that was to blame for any cough or cold or worse. So getting hit with the coughs and colds and worse a month before the holiday was not what I was expecting. I believe that Murphy's Law would say something like, "That's what you get for making a goal like that."
One week was spent with all of us taking turns between experiencing and cursing the stomach flu. Even poor little Luke. There are few things more pathetic than a sick baby shoving the bowl away from him because he thinks it is the cause of the horrible experience of throwing up. And nothing is worse to clean up than that which does not make it into the bowl. Enough said.
Andrew is the only one who didn't get the flu, but he didn't exactly get off easy. Being the cleaner-upper when everyone else is sick is just about as bad as being sick yourself, wouldn't you agree? Plus, he had already begun the month just recovering from a sickness of his own. He came down with a really weird virus that gave us momentary worry that we might have a very serious issue on our hands. Thankfully, everything is fine and we seem to have escaped with only two weeks of extreme vertigo where he could not get out of bed and his world was akin to riding upside down on a merry-go-round 24 hours a day. He was obviously quite incapacitated, and I decided once again that single parenthood really stinks.
The normal coughs and colds took up the space on either end of the vertigo and stomach flu. And there went October. And there went my goal.
But somehow, when browsing through our pictures, I realized that we must have been healthy enough on enough different days to actually do a lot of activities this month. And although I never did manage to write about them on a daily basis, I think it is still worth mentioning a little bit about them now. A big, long post all at once. Because that seems to be the way I do this blog. And if it somehow means not getting sick again for an entire month, I might just have to keep it that way.
So here's the list of the things we managed to fit in this month. Looking back at all these pictures, you wouldn't think we had time to have anything unpleasant happen at all. Although that could have something to do with the fact that I had no interest in documenting through photographs the days that weren't so fun. (You're welcome.)
I also must mention that in part because of all the sickness, and also because I have gotten tired of dreading Halloween, I decided not to do any Halloween preparation this year. I hung a decoration I've had for years on the door, stuck a pumpkin on the table, and bought one bag of candy to hand out the day before Halloween. Seriously, that's it. I barely even talked to the kids about what they were going to dress up as. They came up with their own costumes for our ward party and for trick or treating. All on their own, with stuff we already had. Apart from braiding Annie's hair (which is already a daily occurrence) and helping open the face paint for Tyler, I had nothing to do with any of it. Somehow, the kids worried so much less (as in, not at all) about their costumes when I was completely uninvolved, than when I was working myself to death trying to help them come up with, make, and buy things. When the candy ran out on Halloween night, we turned off our lights. We didn't even ever end up carving the pumpkins we got. So now they are still sitting pretty on our steps for Thanksgiving. And this was about the most enjoyable Halloween I've had since I was a kid. I'm converted. Next goal: try to apply the same principle of cutting back and no stress to Thanksgiving & Christmas.
The kids wearing orange to church on October 31st.
The company we enjoyed.
The food we enjoyed.
Dressed in blue for BYU football.
The kids first 'real yellow school bus' ride for a homeschool field trip to a farm.
How did they immediately know that 'the cool kids' ride in the back?
Picking apples on our field trip. Delicious straight off the tree!
Luke was thrilled with his pumpkin and apple, both of which he called 'ball'!
Enjoying a family activity at
Wheeler farm...the maze seemed to be created for those whose height was under 2 feet, but we still had fun.
Picking our pumpkins.
Enjoying the hayride.
Macey's had a Halloween contest...when they started the Halloween music, choose a number to stand on and see if they call the number you chose...
About 60 seconds after arriving to grab a few groceries, the game began and the kids insisted on playing. You can imagine their extreme joy when we were the very first winners, and each person standing on the number won their own cupcake.
We went to
The Reluctant Dragon at the Scera Theatre with a homeschool group. It is my favorite play of all the children's plays we've seen at the Scera so far.
Enjoying the beginning of an amazing BYU basketball season at the Cougar Tipoff.
Riding
The Nightmare Express, a haunted train ride put on by a local family in Lindon for free at their home. Very family friendly, but probably still a little much for our younger kids. We generally tend to avoid all things scary, even during Halloween!
Visiting a local gardening center to see their pumpkin carving contest. Here are the kids posing by their favorites.
Pumpkin bowling?!
Happy Halloween! (almost...the celebration in our neighborhood all happened on Saturday, which was perfect for us.) Our little superhero, cowgirl, skier, and pirate. (It was a cold and rainy Halloween, so really, costumes were optional since coats were the attire of the evening for everyone.)
Annie's favorite activity of the evening was handing out the candy.
