October

Where has October gone? Anyone else feel like it came in a flash and now is almost gone in a flash? No worries, November is coming and I can hardly wait. Good things to come in November that's for sure. It's the month of love and gratitude around here--love for our wedding anniversary and gratitude for our Thanksgiving celebration, of course. Fun things have been planned with lots to look forward to.

But for now I'll indulge you a little, October, and I'm sure you'd be happy to know that we do have ONE Halloween decoration up. I'm also headed to Food Lion to pick up 4 pumpkins to carve tonight for FHE. No, I am not as good as everyone else and am not taking my kids to a pumpkin patch to pick out their own, with hot apple cider, cider donuts, or whatever else you can blow your money on there. I'm trying to simplify and I think the kids will have just as much fun here out on the deck carving pumpkins (we have had some glorious weather lately-the humidity feels so good today!), roasting the seeds, and making our own darn hot apple cider, thank you very much. I even found a cider donut recipe that I'm just itching to try, so who knows what kind of fun we will have tonight!

So one last hoorah for the month of October, by one of my very favorite poets:

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
one from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst...

-Robert Frost