Favorites Lately

Since I missed most of September blogging, I thought I would do a quick recap of some of my favorite things that have been happening lately!

Waynesville Air Show – our family went to the nearby grass/dirt runway and watched an incredible air show! It had a small-town feel and we were literally right in the front row. The stunts were so cool to watch, too!

On Wednesdays, we hike. I wrote a whole blog post on this new weekly tradition that we have going on. It’s one of my favorite things!

Medication. We’ve had a rough fall sickness-wise. Ezra had a month long asthma flare up and pneumonia, and Orion managed to have a ruptured ear drum! Both kids were absolutely miserable. Although I prefer to lean crunchy, I’m so thankful for modern medicine. I think Ezra especially would have had a very different outcome if we didn’t have ready access to steroids and antibiotics.

Family Time in Tennessee. We drove down to TN to spend the weekend with Theo’s brother Barnabas and his family. The kids (and adults) had a BLAST! It was such a wonderful weekend.

Spirit Week/Powderpuff/Glow Party/Soccer Game- our school celebrated Spirit Week, then we had a powderpuff game followed by a glow party! We typically have a bonfire, but there has been a burn ban in Ohio since we were in a drought. The glow party was super fun and I’m hoping it will become the new school tradition! The next morning we were up early for the staff vs. students soccer game!

Volleyball and Cross Country- Tera is winding up her volleyball season and has had a BLAST! She loves it. She gets some really good hits in most games, too! We are still working on getting her serve over the net. It’s been so fun to watch her play, especially as she is usually one of the littlest on the court (her league is a beginner league, but for 5-8th graders). The two middle boys joined the Junior Cross Country and run their hearts out every Thursday afternoon! They have their first meet this week- Ezra needs to run half a mile and Kiah will run 1 mile.

Freezer Camp for the Piggies- Well, our pigs are officially at the butcher! In years past, we have butchered and processed all of our own meat, but this year we decided to take it to the butcher! We still had to kill and gut the pigs, but they are doing all of the rest of the work!

Marmon Valley- Tera got to go on her first middle school overnight trip to Marmon Valley! This is an annual trip for the 5-8th graders and it sounds like it was a core highlight for Tera. They went on a hayride, got square dancing lessons, went horseback riding, had a bonfire/glow sticks/worship night and stayed up until lights out at 11:30! Theo was a chaperone, which he really enjoyed! He was with 8th grade boys and although Theo and Tera were at the same camp, 8th grade boys and 5th grade girls don’t cross paths much haha.

The Longest Trip to Buccees Ever- So, this past weekend I was supposed to meet up with a friend in Knoxville, TN. We were watching Hurricane Helene but as far as we knew, we were just supposed to get rain. However, Helene heard all of the Ohioans complain about a drought and decided to basically still be a hurricane when she reached us. I drove THROUGH Helene and got about halfway down the road into Kentucky when my friend called me and said that she absolutely could not get through to Knoxville from North Carolina. She said all the roads were closed- ALL of them. This was early Friday afternoon before anyone really knew how bad the destruction was. She turned around and went back to Charlotte and I turned around and went back to Ohio- driving THROUGH Helene again. I am so thankful that the Lord protected us, especially my friend Joy as she could have been caught in any of the road flooding or bridge collapsing. The funny part for me is that I was on the road for 3.5 hours, stopped at a Buccees, and then turned around and went right back home. Not a field trip that we expected, but I was trying to make the most out of it for my disappointed boys! Now I’m trying to figure out if I can get a partial refund on our Airbnb, but we haven’t heard anything from the host! I sure hope she’s ok!

Sugarcreek Bird Farm- I promised the kids we would do something fun this weekend, but it rained and poured the whole time, so we headed to the Sugarcreek Bird Farm to visit with some birds! My kids LOVE this place!

And now here we are in October! We just wrapped up Parent Teacher conferences this week, so I’m extra tired. And this weekend is Cedarville University Homecoming, so we’ve got the cardboard canoe race and the homecoming parade to attend! This time of life is full, but it sure is a favorite!