Outside my window… 
Perfect fall weather — or as close to fall as we get here. Temps are 70s and 80s and the humidity is low. Just a little chill in the morning and about once every ten days a cool front comes through and teases us. Nice.

I am thankful…
for a warm bed. A freezer full of food. Small savings. God is good.

I am thinking about…

those lesson plans still. I tried GQueues and it was OK. It really seemed to slow me down too much for the return I was getting. Then I tried Scholaric and it is an almost perfect fit. I love the grid view of our week. I love being able to create repeating lessons. I love being able to “bump” something to the next day if we didn’t get to it and then everything else bumps to the next day as well. I love that it is only $1 per month per student (sorry SCM Planner). There are a few features I would like to see added, but it seems like the developer is very willing to work on user suggestions. Oh, and it isn’t pretty at all, but it is really making life easier.

Learning all the time…
We are adding in more and more while T is awake. Yay for that. Maybe by March or so we will be in a place to get up, work hard, and then be done before noon. One day last week we started working on our Native American lapbooks. Thomas took an extra long nap and the kids were so involved with coloring, cutting, and pasting we worked until just about time for Matt to come home. Involved learning for sure that day.
From the kitchen… 
Almost have the freezer meals done. Would still like to put up my baking mixes and have the stuff for two more pans of ziti, marinara, and some meatballs to get to. I need to replenish my ground beef and Matt’s breakfast foods. Then I am going to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labors for a while. Between the freezer, the crockpot, and things we like to make on a regular basis, we are set through the holidays.
I am creating…
Nothing, but as soon as I get done with this post I am going to start a crochet project.
I am working on…
some ideas for fall themed fun. We need some toddler and preschool trays to keep boys busy, as well as a spooky unit study for the weeks right before Halloween. This will be fun to plan!

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I am reading…

The Sleepeasy Solution. Yes, it is sleep training, but we were at wit’s end. We had been trying the dad go in and comfort thing for three weeks and it was not getting any better. He was happy for dad to comfort him and go quickly back to sleep (much more so than when I did it), but he was still waking up between two and four times every night. It was a habit and a bad one. This book is about minimizing the crying and angst, but still getting them to sleep. It gives concrete info and it delivers what it promises. We followed all of their recommendations and he never fussed for a long period, hardly cried about it at all, and after two nights it was a minimal protest (ie. less than five minutes after I told him that it was still night-night to get his bink). The past two nights he has slept 11 hours straight and we are all (him included) like new people around here.
I am praying…
for a friend who lost her grandpa.
I am hearing…
blissful silence. Matt is off today and took the kids to the park for a while. I am alone in my house. For an introvert that is a big deal.
Around the house… 

The big seasonal clothes change-out is done. Took me over a week from the time the boxes came down (that included several days of stalling) but it is finished. We have two big bags leaving the house and everything else is sorted and put away until little brother needs it. It wouldn’t be so tough except it is always hard to decide how much warm weather stuff to leave out. Our weather could just do anything over the next few months and you have to be prepared.

One of my favorite things… 

School on the back porch. We do it almost every day.

A few plans for the rest of the week…
We have good friends coming over to chat and play today – yay! Tomorrow our homeschool group is going to see the pumpkin displays at a local garden and maybe get in a nature walk.  Tomorrow night we celebrate my nephew’s birthday with family, and I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you…

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A happy boy leaving the local fire safety demo. He got to “drive” the fire truck, eat cookies, and meet Smokey. Oh, and then there are the balloons too.
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