Favorite #1: A New Stove
The great thing about having so much land is that we have so much land. The not so great thing about having so much land is that we had to compromise on the amenities in our house. I don’t have a dishwasher, we don’t have a dining room, and we don’t have any heat/AC in the main bedroom that we made into our bedroom. The lack of AC really doesn’t bother us, but in the winter it gets SO cold in our bedroom. We finally bit the bullet and had a wood burning stove installed! The company that did was wonderful and we have already enjoyed having a warm fire in it! While the man and his daughter were here installing it, Kiah and Ezra worked on making their own wood-burning stove out of legos.
Favorite #2: Soccer Season
Soccer season is winding down, and it’s been a joy to watch! Kiah has been working so hard and he finally scored his first goal! During this game, he seriously had 10 or so shots on goal that didn’t go in! So we all cheered when this one finally went in!
Favorite #3: Emma M. Lion
Ok, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon. I read Vol 1 while in the waiting room while my Dad was in surgery. It was just *perfect* for that time. I needed something that was quick and easy to read and that didn’t require too much thought. Enter Emma M. Lion! I quickly read through Vol 1 (it’s less than 100 pages) and then had to wait for Vol 2 to be available. I’m still on hold for it, but I went ahead and got it on audio and have been listening as I drive back and forth to my parents house a lot this week. Tera was in the van with me and started listening with me and now she is hooked (I don’t know if the further volumes are appropriate for a 12 year old, but Vol 1-2 are so far!).
Now my biggest complaint is how I long I have to wait for my hold to come in- in the right order! I just checked the price on Amazon and I won’t be buying the complete set lol. Guess I have to wait a little bit longer for my library holds!
Favorite #4: Waynesville Fall Fest
Our school field trip this month was to the Waynesville Fall Fest! We LOVE this field trip- it’s such a blast! There is a “hayride”- it’s really on a huge truck. There is a giant playground and a corn maze and go carts and mini golf and so many things for kids to do. Unfortunately, this year it rained buckets and got colder and colder as the morning went on! It was MISERABLE- but the kids were entirely unfazed and just went ahead and played nonstop in the freezing rain until we dragged our cold, numb fingers and toes out of there to warm up at home by the fire!
This has been a fun yearly tradition! Here is 2026, 2025, 2024, and 2023!
Favorite #5: A Birthday Party
Kiah turned 10 and we had a bunch of boys over for a party! His one request was that he wanted to “play sports in the dark”. Haha. We sure did make that happen! I think these played sports for 3 hours straight, despite the fact that it was COLD outside. They sure did sleep well that night!
Favorite #6: Last Flowers
While the boys were running around shouting at the top of their lungs, I went out to my zinnia’s and cut the last bouquet before the first frost that night. I’m so sad to see them go! See you again in July, beautiful zinnias!
Favorite #7: Libraries
I’m so thankful for the access that we have to so many great libraries. Sometimes when I’m stressed I just like to organize my book lists and then I usually end up putting a bunch of books on hold. Don’t worry, I don’t end up reading all of these before they are due again. But organizing book lists and books is just as much of a hobby for me as reading. Also…it’s been a tad bit stressful lately with my Dad’s surgery, so I clearly went a little hold-happy. Haha. AND. Some of these are for my daughter (who has inherited both my hobby for reading AND my hobby for collecting large stacks of books that we know we will never actually get to).
Favorite #8: Cross Country
What? You guys seriously thought that I would go a whole blog post without posting about cross country? Haha! Jokes on you! Cross country is STILL a favorite!
We had a big meet at a local farm- Young’s Jersey Dairy (they were doing agrotourism before agrotourism was a thing!). Tera ran first and almost got a PR- 4 seconds off! Then we had about 2 hours to kill before Kiah ran his first 2 mile race. I’ve been coaching the Jr. Royals this season, and for this meet the only option was a 2 mile run. We made sure that the kids knew it was OPTIONAL, and they didn’t have to run in the meet if they weren’t comfortable running 2 miles. Ya’ll. I had 3 KINDERGARTNERS run! 2 whole miles. One of them is this teeny tiny little five year old dollop of sunshine and she ran her absolute heart out and finished 2 miles in 22 minutes. The whole finish line was going WILD when she crossed! Of course, after all that running we needed some ice cream!
Favorite #9: Walking
I will admit that I fell off the daily walking wagon last week. After getting my Dad back home after the surgery, I spent a lot of time going back and forth from their house to mine and I was just trying to keep the basics going, so I missed several days of walking. But I’m back! And still walking every day in October for the Cool Bloggers Walking Club.
Favorite #10: THE CARRIAGE
You guys. This carriage. Hahahaha just wait until you hear the whole story. So, Theo was driving home from work and he saw this carriage on the side of the road that said FREE. He came home and showed me the picture and I said we had to go get it! It was about a mile away from our house, but there are two busy roads in that distance. We took the truck, but the carriage would not fit in it. So we decided that Theo would pull it home on the road. So, he pulls it about a mile to our house. Then, when we got to our road, he hopped on the tailgate of the truck and I drove 10mph down the road while he pulled the carriage.
Later, I made a reel of this whole adventure and posted it on IG. Well, it accidentally went viral and got 27k views. And I suddenly got 300 new followers- almost all of them are older women hahahaha. Honestly, the whole thing has been so funny. I just got an email from a local school who asked if they can borrow our carriage for their Spring musical. I cannot even explain how amusing this whole thing has been for me!
Well, this has been a crazy long blog post, so I will leave it at that! Happy Friday- we have a beautiful weekend ahead of us, and I hope that you do, too!
That stove will be a nice feature for the winter. That story of the carriage is great! What a find!
My book stacks often look like that too; in fact when all three boys were home I often had a huge shoulder bag and usually that wasn’t enough either. Wings of Fire is/was my middle son’s favorite series of all time. He even got me to read quite a few of them. I have been and will be waiting for a very long time for even the first Emma M Lion book to come in but I think it will be worth the wait.
The carriage is such a fun story! What a book stack. I also enjoy organizing my lists on Goodreads etc. I really enjoyed Dolly and Marjorie Post.