October Updates

October is my favorite month of all and I feel like I barely blinked and it is almost over.

We have been up to our ears in LIFE.  We go to work and it’s crazy all day and then we drive a billion hours in traffic and then we eat scrambled eggs or hot dogs and fall into bed.

Meanwhile the house is sooo dirty.  The boys’ bathroom regularly smells like a urinal and everywhere I turn there are dust balls and cobwebs.  Also Jethro has taken to the habit of picking at his scabs and so his bed sheets are covered in blood spots.  This is the only time of year where I suppose that is acceptable.  Hit up Happy Home Fairy’s place for a real haunted experience.

Jethro got a sticky eyeball toy from a Halloween party at school and he and Noah were taking turns throwing it at the ceiling and then waiting for it to fall down.  After 20 minutes of this, the eyeball got stuck and didn’t come down.  So Jethro took a football and threw it up at the eyeball to knock it down and he totally nailed it.  When Mr. B. praised him for a job well done, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, that’s my name.  Je-THROW.”

The boys are crazy these days!  Noah has become excited about all things American Ninja Warrior, so he climbs on everything in the house.  The dresser drawer knobs are now a rock climbing wall and I am going back and forth between wanting to just let him have fun and be a boy, and wondering if this is a horrible idea that might land us in the hospital.

Meanwhile Jet is climbing inside the center of our wholesale club-sized bag of paper towels.  You can see that HERE.  After I took that photo he – and the bag of paper towels – fell over.

Also I have given up on the clothing battles with my children and Jethro wore pajamas to our day at the pumpkin patch (note photo above).  Awesome.

And I am coping with everything by consuming some form of chocolate at least once a day.  Lord help me when the Halloween candy arrives.  I may need to try the Candy Fairy idea to get all of the temptations out of the house.

Highlights from the month have been making our all-time favorite snack mix, enjoying a few cooler days where the humidity didn’t chia pet my hair, making some super cute pumpkin cupcakes for Noah’s class, buying a cinnamon broom for our dear babysitter, I finally got my haircut after like 18 months, and finding out that my parents are moving back to Florida!  Isn’t that crazy?!  You can see the whole announcement HERE.

There have been some hard things too.  There was a case of lice at school in my son’s class and I have contemplated shaving everyone’s heads and burning the house down as a precaution.  Work is stretching me in ways I never imagined.  One of our boys had some abnormal blood work come back and we need to pursue that with a specialist.  And then last weekend, a beloved pastor from our community and his wife lost their 3-year-old daughter very suddenly.  We have all been grieving with them.

I wonder about the Lord.  He has this way of bringing moments of laughter and then moments of deep sadness.  The trick is learning how to keep going to Him no matter what moments you are given.

Psalm 62:8 says, “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”  At all times.  In the happy and the hard.  The good and the bad. 

Pouring out our hearts to Him in every moment gives us the opportunity to discover what a refuge and safe place He is.

Praying this October has been a fruitful one for your family.  Let me know how I can pray for you.

Joyfully,

Julie

*Don’t forget to print these amazing WITNESSING STICKERS to put on your Halloween candy.  Any opportunity to share the Gospel and help others trust Him at all times, too!*