Project 365, Week 44

This week we finished out lovely October and, amidst the countdown to the election and all manner of other nonsense, we clung to things that are true and trustworthy, good and beautiful. 

October 26

We were able to carve out a bit of time to meet up for celebrating our mom's birthday. 

Slow evenings. :)

October 27

In preparation for the upcoming Hype Night at youth group, Avery and Amanda invited friends from their old school. The girls decided to do coordinating costumes, which required some crafting. Thankfully all I had to do was drive and pay. ;) 

October 28

I think life would be better if, just once in a while on an ordinary Wednesday, we ate ice cream out of a fancy ice cream dish and topped it with sprinkles.

October 29

It was a cold and rainy morning but Ginger and I headed out anyway and we were not disappointed.

Aiden has spent this first quarter of middle school getting used to number grades (previous to this he was graded with nonsensical M's, S's, P's that didn't have much bearing on anything). He's learning that if you average a zero in with a 100, your grade drops like a rock. Anyway, with the quarter closing the following day, he opted to take advantage of extra credit work. He worked really hard on the paper and once he started writing, he got into it...somehow he was able to weave in Alexander Hamilton and Nathan Hale. :)

October 30

Snow in October. The kids love snow so much, its hard to begrudge it. And with an autumn backdrop, it was especially pretty!

How cute, right?? While these girls were at youth group their mom and I went out to dinner. She is an administrator at a nursing home, so these months have been tough.

Also adorable!

October 31

I braved the sub-freezing temps to go take pictures at the new office property while the snow was still here and the sun was coming up. SO often I intentionally quiet my heart, look for beauty and blessings and peace begins to come into my soul.  

My heart tells me that "all will be well," as Julian of Norwich concluded.

"And all manner of things will be well." That is what beauty says: All shall be well.

Over at the new office...kids working? Or hardly working? ;)

For the past many years, we've done Trunk-or-Treat with our church, but since it draws more than 1000 from the community, they thought it prudent to forgo the event. Instead we had some friends over for church and dinner and games. And somewhere in there, the kids rounded up some impromptu costumes and went around through our neighborhood.

November 1

The family that works together stays together (or at least learns patience, kindness...).

Every year for Christmas, Shaun's grandmother funds our family "sports club" so that we can attend a live sporting event together. We've had so many fun outings together that we wouldn't have done otherwise and we're so thankful for all the memories we've made (thank you, Nana!!)

For obvious reasons, there was not a plethora of events to choose from. But finally, Major League Soccer was playing close by so we hopped on the opportunity. The forecast was for cold and rain and we did indeed get both, along with about 30 minutes of hurricane-force wind that kicked up at halftime. We're a hardy crew and undoubtedly the weather element will add to the story in years to come.