If you’re new around these parts, this monthly series is an exercise in brevity as I try (but not very hard) to summarize each day of our month in one sentence. (Also, I’ve been taking a picture of my daughter–and now my son, too–every day since they were born, and this is a GREAT place for me to share several of those photos!). Although I’ve almost always included the photo at the top of its corresponding day, the daily captions of what we did and the photos often do not match. (Just to clarify!)
Thanks to the wonderful Rebecca Jo for the post idea!
Monday 10/1 – For family night, we took the kids around to deliver leftover cake from our birthday celebration with friends on Sunday to various people in our neighborhood. It gave us a great way to build relationships with people AND it ensured that we didn’t polish off the entire cookie pan full of Texas Sheet Cake ourselves.
Tuesday 10/2 – A really good day, albeit a very normal one. Both kids were in good moods all day (as was I), and we enjoyed finally picking our pumpkins off the vines and putting them on our porch and making some dinner using up some of the last of the garden produce.
Wednesday 10/3 – Matt went in to an orthopedic specialist in the morning who confirmed that yes, his arm was broken. Luckily, the doc felt we didn’t need to cast it, so he was just told to wear it in a sling and come back in a couple weeks. I had a big photo shoot this day down in Salt Lake, so I took the kids down in the afternoon to be with my mom while I went to do that.
Thursday 10/4 – Other than doing my BBG workout in the morning, pretty much every spare second was spend editing pictures so I could try and get caught up.
Friday 10/5 – We finally had to have our weekly grill night inside (though we cooked the actual meat outside), due to the weather. I spent most of the rest of the evening editing a photo session.
Saturday 10/6 – The first weekend in October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (which we’re members of) has General Conference, where we listen to messages that are broadcast worldwide from our leaders. We really enjoyed listening to the two general sessions as a family, then there was a special women’s session that I attended with my mom and sisters and nieces in the evening (and we all went out to eat first, which was a lot of fun). Mathias did cry a lot during that meeting, so I didn’t get to hear all of it, but what I did hear was incredibly inspiring and much-needed nourishment for my soul.
Sunday 10/7 – Another full day of General Conference, which we split between my mom and stepdad’s house and Matt’s folks’ house. A wonderful day spent with family and listening to messages that made me want to strive even harder to live a Christ-centered life.
Monday 10/8 – I spent most of the evening finishing up editing a big photo session, which I was finally able to complete (after having worked on it for a few weeks).
Tuesday 10/9 – While Raven went to preschool, Mathias and I made a run to the local food pantry to make a (small) donation of fresh produce from our garden that we weren’t going to have the time/energy to preserve. The volunteer there gave me a big hug and a heartfelt thank you for the donation, and it was cool too because there were people there picking up the food to take home while we were there. Even though our donation was small, it made me excited to keep pursuing the growth of the community group I finally started to try and make sure that fewer of the fruits and vegetables from people’s harvest goes to waste.
Wednesday 10/10 – My mom graciously drove up to watch our kids so we could go to a work-sponsored date night out at our local rock climbing gym. Although Matt couldn’t actually climb because of his broken arm, I absolutely loved going again (and Matt had a good time too just socializing with everyone). Matt and I used to be pretty into rock climbing before we dated and when we were dating, so it was a LOT of fun to get back into it again (and to see that my skills hadn’t slipped as much as I’d thought they would).
Thursday 10/11 – Matt’s broken arm had healed enough that he felt confident putting both kids to bed by himself so I could go to the temple for the first time in a few months. Also, since my mom had stayed with us overnight the night before, she helped me in the morning on this day to dehydrate some of the peaches we still had in our fridge and brought up all her canning/preserving stuff for us to have.
Friday 10/12 – My friend Katie went into labor in the middle of the night and wanted me there as a birth coach and photographer, so I drove over to their apartment at just after 4 in the morning (when her contractions started getting a lot closer together) and then stayed with them through the delivery at the hospital at 12:50 p.m. I was super impressed that even with her long labor, she was still able to have the natural childbirth she wanted! I was also beyond grateful my mom could come up to watch our kids so I could be there for Katie (especially because my mom hadn’t been planning on it).
Saturday 10/13 – We’d been promising Raven a trip to the zoo for ages since she successfully filled in her entire nap and nighttime potty training chart, so we did that on this day, followed up with a trip to our favorite diner (Leatherby’s). Raven’s been to the zoo before (when she was two), but she REALLY loved it even more so this time–she was old enough to appreciate a lot more about it, and we actually ended up staying there for FIVE HOURS, with her walking around on her own the whole time. We were pretty impressed! And Mathias did really quite well, too (though he was much more excited about the bubble machine outside the gift shop than he was about any of the animals!).
Sunday 10/14 – We went to go see our friends Brian and Mericar bless their baby and enjoyed the most FABULOUS luncheon afterwards (Filipino food was involved). Later that night, we went over to Katie and Rob’s house so Matt (and Raven) could see their new baby. (Note to self: we also started using the self-timer to get the whole family in our weekly Sunday portraits.)
Monday 10/15 – For family night, we picked a big bucket of apples from our (wild) apple tree in the back to see if we can’t coax at least *some* of it into edible food.
Tuesday 10/16 – I made it to my weekly hip hop class for the first time in a few weeks (due to sickness and due to being enormously sore from doing the BBG program). Still not sure if I’m going to continue going weekly or not while on the program—it might be too much for my body to take.
Wednesday 10/17 – Matt went back into the doctor to check on the progress of his arm, and though it’s still broken, the doctor says it’s healed enough to start using and lifting light things (so Matt can pick up the baby again!). I made him start changing diapers again immediately.
Thursday 10/18 – Second day in a row that both kids actually napped in the afternoon, giving me time to finish Rebecca (aff. link) before I host book club next week. What a great read!
Friday 10/19 – The kids and I went to the car place to get the oil changed in our Mazda. We continued our hamburger/hot dog “grill night” tradition, even though by this point, it was too cold to actually eat outside.
Saturday 10/20 – We went on our annual visit to North Logan’s Pumpkin Walk, where we managed to run into Matt’s brother and his family for like the 4th year in a row or something (always unplanned). It’s starting to get a bit creepy how it’s always happening (especially when you consider that the Walk goes over like a 5-day period and we never coordinate which day or time we’re going to go…)
Sunday 10/21 – We went on the most gorgeous walk along Logan’s River Trail in the later afternoon, which was such a breath of fresh air. Not only did we gets lots of great pics (always something I appreciate!), but we had a fun time skipping rocks in the water and just talking. (If you want to see some of those pics, check out this post.)
Monday 10/22 – We finally made it to storytime at the library for the first time since the baby was born! The library had stopped running it during the summer (which was the initial reason we hadn’t been going), but stuff kept coming up in September and earlier this month so that this day was the first we were able to manage it. It felt great to be back into that familiar routine!
Tuesday 10/23 – The day was largely spent drafting this massive blog post and editing a massive photo session, both of which I managed to finish.
Wednesday 10/24 – I hosted my first book club meeting ever (Rebecca was my pick), and I thought it went great! Our group was a little smaller than normal (7 of us total), but we had one of the best discussions I’ve participated in thus far with this book club group. A fun evening!
Thursday 10/25 – Not the greatest of days. Matt got pulled over on the way to work because the registration on his car had expired back in July (we never got a notice because apparently certain types of mail don’t get forwarded when you move), and I had to take Mathias to his 4-month check-up, which included the usual immunizations (which he hated, naturally) and flu shots for both Raven and me (which she hated, too). Lots of tears today (though not by me, thankfully!).
Friday 10/26 – My mom was gracious enough to watch both the kids so Matt and I could go to the temple for the first time together since May (we usually just take turns). We ended up running into an old friend from high school, whom we hadn’t seen for ages, and we had a fun time catching up with him and his wife and reliving some fond memories.
Saturday 10/27 – My mom and stepdad had their annual Halloween party for all the grandkids, which is always a lot of fun. Raven has been looking forward to it for weeks and weeks, and it’s just been a delight to see how much she’s digging all the holidays this year. Later that night, we celebrated one of our nephew’s birthdays with Matt’s family.
Sunday 10/28 – We had a special Regional Conference in the morning where we got to listen to M. Russell Ballard, who’s a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The meeting was POWERFUL, and I left it feeling even more motivated to be a better wife, mother, and human being.
Monday 10/29 – We carved pumpkins for family night on this night, and this was the year I finally resorted to just busting out the drill and using that. (And, while Matt carved 3 of the 4 pumpkins, he at least didn’t carve ALL of them, which is more than we can say for other years…)
Tuesday 10/30 – Raven had a fun little preschool Halloween party, which meant she got to dress up in her costume (again) and was over-the-moon excited pretty much the whole day.
Wednesday 10/31 – Halloween started off with us trick-or-treating in the morning down Logan’s Main Street with my friend Katie and her kids, and then Matt ended up taking Raven around trick-or-treating for about an hour in the evening (which she was a pro at this year). Somehow, we ended up with far fewer trick-or-treaters than last year (when we ran out of candy), so now we have a ridiculous amount of candy in the house.
And that’s a wrap! Not too shabby of a month, all in all (especially once Matt could use his arm again!).