As the leaves turn orange

I don't know how we're halfway into October (Christmas is in just over two months. What?!?!?!), but here we are. The days have been flying by, and it's been exhausting, but really fun. This week, the weather finally decided to dip down into the fifties for a couple days (but, since this is Oklahoma, it'll be up in the eighties again by the end of the week) so we decided to embrace this short spurt of fall time. 

Every single year, a botanical garden downtown creates a massive pumpkin wonderland, and every single year, I think about going--but we never make it. This year, due to Covid, the garden didn't host their usual large event, but had a much smaller-scale pumpkin patch set up. So, the kids and I bundled up and spent the morning looking at pumpkins and playing in the Children's Garden. With the scent of hay in the chilly air, and surrounded by gorgeous orange pumpkins, it actually felt like Fall. One of my kids declared that he didn't like it as much as a small fall festival we attended a few days beforehand, since that festival handed out lollipops. But we all still had fun. 

The fall festival that my kids liked more also involved free 
pumpkin painting and plants that the kids could repot to bring home.

One of my goals is to spend more time in downtown Oklahoma City, and it's been neat to see the different things down there. A few years ago, streetcars were installed downtown, and those are very exciting for the kids :)  They are perfectly content to sit for a full streetcar loop and watch the different people, cars, and buildings go by. Plus, young kids ride for free! It's basically the best cheap entertainment for little kids ever. 

The baby just hit two months old, and even though I usually am exhausted by the time afternoon hits, I've really been enjoying this postpartum! I'm really glad that I've forced myself to rest this postpartum (and that my husband has been so good at helping me rest), because it's been pretty wonderful. I've barely even looked at my planner in the past two months, and it's been really nice! 

I've been thinking about how last year, it was hard to feel so left out with homeschooling--there are some wonderful local opportunities, but they weren't really geared towards people who have young kids. However, this year, I'm actually very grateful that we don't have a lot of obligations. I can rest and settle into a new routine with the baby, and on top of that, I don't have to deal with stressful conversations about politics and Covid-19 (which would probably happen if we were doing lots of organized homeschool stuff). One of our friends has been hosting a "soccer club" once a week, where our preschoolers kid a soccer ball around for a little bit before playing on the playground, and that's been a nice way to regularly see fellow homeschoolers in a very casual way. 

I've also just slowly dipped my toes into running again. I did not do well running before or during my pregnancy, but I really want to get back into it. Years ago, when I read Born to Run, I became very intrigued with the idea of "barefoot running" and zero-drop shoes. I am a very reluctant purchaser who overthinks everything, but I finally picked out a pair of running shoes and bought them. I have only  been on three short (maybe 1/4 of a mile, if that) runs so far, but I am loving them. I'm definitely working on the "slow and steady wins the race" approach here ;) 

I've been struggling to motivate myself to work on writing projects, but I was so excited to hear about Spoken Women and signed on as a member. It's been neat to interact with other creative women in the Facebook group, and I'm excited to see how it grows and develops. 

All in all, things have been going fairly well in our little corner of the world. It's been quiet, but peaceful, and I'm grateful for this beautiful life. 

Around the web:

I recently lost my cell phone charger (it randomly turned up 2-3 weeks later), and wrote about this incident for CatholicMom: Have You Spent Time with God Today? 

I am absolutely loving the Spoken Women podcast! I've listened to three or four episodes so far, and the topics have resonated deeply with me. Plus, each episode is only about twenty minutes, which I think is a great length :) 

Jen Fulwiler's podcast episode about "Try-Not-to-Die-Today Parents" was AMAZING. It's a bit on the longer side, but I love her topic. She gets deep, but is also really funny and so relatable. 

I hope that fall time finds you all happy and healthy!