October gold

Now that November is more than half over, I am finally gathering October’s loose ends. Every month I do a miscellaneous photo post, and every month I struggle to write anything interesting around the photos. It’s so nice to have a record of the in-between daily photos, so I must forge onward in spite of the difficulty. Sometimes I skip the preface and simply caption the pictures. Other times I write an unrelated story and then share the pictures. This time, I’m going to hold a written vigil for the beauties of October as I sit huddled on my couch underneath a thick quilt, wearing an actual shawl over my wool turtleneck. (The modern term for “shawl” is “blanket scarf,” I believe, but it’s totally a shawl.)

October was gorgeously mild. It was a joy to be outside not only because of the perfect temperatures, but also because of the happy sunshine. October’s gold lingered almost an entire week into November, then the cold iron gray grip of November seized our valley and iced over all memories of warmth and the color yellow. During October it was easy and fun to go on daily adventures with Amber, wandering around out back in the countryside behind our house. Sometimes we needed jackets, but usually long sleeves and sunshine were sufficient. I did my best to store up as much vitamin D as I could on those walks, but I think I used it all up on the first day of freezing fog this week.

It astounds me when I “think back” and realize that the cold has only been here for a week. One measly week and my defenses are already crumbling. Thankfully yesterday (Friday) the fog lifted and Amber and I were able to enjoy a long lovely ramble again. That girl needs her outside time. Last night I looked at Jeff and said “can you even imagine living in our old Grandview neighborhood with Amber now?” His eyes got big and he shook his head. Amber is a country girl, through and through. She thrives on free-form exploration. I thrive when Amber uses her energy up outside, rather than in pestering me all day inside like she did during the frigid foggy days earlier this week.

Jay and Rose are still around here too, I promise. They are inquisitive little people too. Just this morning, our conversation in the car revolved first around chess moves, then moved on to after images, or the effect produced by the eye after looking at a bright light. It was all a bit scientific and strategic for early on a Saturday morning. Bless Jeff, our family factotum, for fielding the questions. But I am getting ahead of myself. Back to October. I narrowed October’s miscellaneous everyday snapshots down to 48–a mere four dozen.

In order to motivate Jay and Rose to get exercise every day, we offered to pay them $5 per week if they run one mile per day for five days each week. Jay took on the challenge first, and after he collected his first week’s payment, Rose finally decided to join in the next week. Since Jay and Rose aren’t interested in soccer, basketball, gymnastics, dance, or other organized physical activities, we thought investing $10 per week in their physical well-being was a good plan. It does my heart good to see them come home from school, drop off their backpacks, and go on a run. We don’t want to force them into running just because we like it, but they haven’t gravitated towards any other sport, and we want them to do something active, so running it is.

Captions, then pictures:

• Jeff and Jay, running together. Jay and Rose both have noticed that they sleep better when they have run their daily mile. Yay for exercise!
• Running Rose.
• Jay’s school class went on an all-day field trip to the Seattle Museum of Flight. Jay left home at 5:45am and didn’t get back till 6:30pm! He said it was fun.
• Vaseline everywhere. It was awful.
• October will forever be Donut Month. We got a dozen donuts every week in October and were ready to live 11 months without them by the end of the month.
• As I write captions to these pictures, I’m noticing that most of them are of Amber. This girl’s personality and antics require lots of pictures to explain. She went on a Go Dog Go kick during one week of October, and looked through the book and had it read to her dozens of times.
• We walked past this pink Hello Kitty bike at Goodwill one day and couldn’t resist it. It cost $6 and all we had to do was replace one tube. Amber taught herself how to pedal and loves her bike. It’s a bit tough to ride training wheels over the rough gravel road that begins at the end of the concrete rectangle in front of our garage, but she happily rides loops around and around the concrete.
• Bogged down in the gravel and dragging her bike back to smooth ground.
• Cross country season was still in full swing in October. Wow, it feels like ages ago! Amber enjoyed daily rides in the team water wagon.
• One day during an interval workout at cross country practice, there was mud.
• Same mud, different camera angle–through the dugout
• Apples, apples, apples. We didn’t get an overabundance of apples this year, but we did get enough for 20+ pints of applesauce and a dozen pints of apple butter. It involved a lot of peeling and cutting, but we managed it on the 24 inches of counter space in our tiny kitchen. The kids enjoyed helping with the apple peeler.
• Our work station: apples, peeler, cutting board, and pot for peeled apples. It worked better than I thought it would.
• Our kitchen. Every now and then I take pictures of rooms in our house to remember what they looked like at different times. Before apple season, I happened upon that sturdy four-cube shelf at the thrift store (it has the white Kitchen Aid mixer on it in this picture). That simple shelf solved so many of my kitchen space problems. Before, I kept the Kitchen Aid mixer on the counter and used up valuable square inches of counter space. Now that entire section of counter is open and the kitchen feels so much bigger.
• Jay approves of apples, my Washington-born boy.
• This was a unique “broomstick” to ride. I kept laughing at the thought of trying to sit on a “real” light saber. Talk about hot seat!
• I used my SWEET stroller rain cover for the first time in October, and it was a lifesaver at a drizzly cross country practice. When we bought our new stroller at the beginning of cross country season, I added the stroller rain cover to the order before I could talk myself out of it. How did I survive two previous children without a stroller rain cover?
• …oh yeah, we didn’t really survive life before a stroller rain cover. October 2012: Jay and Rose in the double stroller after my rainy run. I draped them in rain coats but they still got wet, cold, and miserable. Poor babies! Amber really has the good life. I hope I’m not spoiling her, keeping her warm and dry in the stroller.
• More Amber mischief: she loves to “make” with me (bake), and one day she decided to make by herself. A big bowl full of flour, water, and chocolate chips, with plenty of spills.
•  “I making for you.” Ok, that was sweet, but it was still hard to clean up all that sludge.
• Three kids, reading three Minecraft books. Sigh. They are waaay cuter than any ole computer game.
• A crisp golden October morning with mist rising off the canal.
• I made my own peanut butter cups, sweetened only with maple syrup, and YUM. Jeff and I adored them.
• Amber-venturing in the sunshine.
• These sisters. Amber LOVES it when her Rosie comes home from school.
• More apple-ing.
• I stored our finished, sealed jars of applesauce and apple butter in an unused cupboard in our vintage basement kitchen (the one above Amber’s head). I didn’t make a full year’s supply of apple butter or applesauce, but something is better than nothing.
• Tower building together.
• I hung a piece of brown paper onto the side of the fridge to give Amber a legal piece of wall space to color on. Amber loves to draw on the walls, even though she’s too old for it in my opinion. For the record, I did not do those fancy braids in her hair–she had them done at her cousins’ house.
• After she had filled up her paper, she moved next door to the tiny strip of wall. Sigh. (I circled her wall-scribble on the picture using a tool on the computer)
• Not a stellar picture, but it captures three things I loved about this particular morning: golden sunlight, happy Amber playing outside, and I stopped at the park when Amber asked me to on our way home from the grocery store. We ended up spending 45 minutes there while she played. I walked 2 miles worth of laps around the tiny playground area (I timed it on my watch) because it was brisk and I needed to stay warm.
• We went to see the cousins in their primary program at church in October. They came to ours, and we went to theirs a few weeks later. Layne and Tate were very happy to see Rose.
• Cross country workout on the track: Amber played in the long jump pit (runners incoming behind her).
• I am slowly learning to channel Amber’s passions. Instead of finding her amidst a big mess in the sink, I started giving her a few dirty dishes to wash while I practiced piano. It was so nice being able to hear where she was and know what she was doing while I practiced. (the Vaseline incident previously mentioned happened while I was practicing piano, and when I went to clean it up I got so slimy with Vaseline that I couldn’t go back and finish practicing piano!)
• Jay had a cub scout pack meeting wherein they did a mummy race: who can wrap a friend in toilet paper the fastest?
• Amber started regularly requesting that I read books to her in October. She has never done this. When I have tried to read to her in the past, she got her own stack of books and looked at them while I read a different book aloud. I gave up after a while. It was SO NICE to be able to do something we both enjoy that didn’t involve mud or water. A calm Amb-activity? Yes please.
• I love her little face looking at me while she tells me something funny.
• Rose spent a long time creating this…box train thing in the playroom, and was very excited to show it to me. She pushed Amber around in the box while Amber calmly looked at a book.
• Wonder Woman getting married.
• We watched Amber’s friend from church, Sam, one day. They are cute friends, as long as Amber doesn’t beat him up too much.
• Rose’s new and improved box train (it had a longer fancier name but I can’t remember what it was…something like a mobile hotel).
• The first Saturday after cross country season ended, Jeff and I went to the track for a mile time trial. We thought cross country had whipped us into pretty good shape, so we ran a mile for time, just to see. We both ran our fastest mile since college! Jeff ran a 4:55 and I ran a 6:04. It was HARD and I was gasping for air by the end, and for the next 24 hours my lungs were sore from the fast gasping I did during that hard mile, but it was worth it! My time was 11 seconds faster than my fastest post-baby mile.
• Jay was our starter at the track, with plastic gun and everything. He also read our lap splits out to us. We had two kids from the cross country team show up for the mile time trial too. It was fun.
• When we were done with our mile, we had Jay and Rose each run a half mile. Jay beat Rose for the first time in years with a 4:31. Rose finished in 4:51. A week later, they started running their daily mile.
• Sunday lunch.
• More reading. My selfie game has gotten quite subtle, I think. 🙂
• Annnnd, school pictures! 4th grade Jay. He said “I did a nice smile, Mommy.”
• Rose: second grade

[2013]