Fall weather and winter preperations

We have had a beautiful October.  Yes we had close to 8 inches of snow at the beginning but that melted off and we've had some really nice 70 something degree days most of the month.  We've had frosts at night but that is to be expected.  It is October after all.  I have most of the garden, yard, and chickens ready for winter.  I can certainly do more work on the garden.  A garden is never done.  I think since it is predicted to be really nice today I'll do some playing out there and save the inside stuff for later this week when it is supposed to be cold and snowy.

Now that October is mostly over I'll switch to the winter market schedule.  That will be nice.  It will give me most weekends with my family and I'll only be at market the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month. 

My boys are sick. I hate when they both catch something.  Neither one can quit coughing.  They've been at it long enough that I may end up taking them to the doctor.  Knock on wood, but Mia and I are good so far.

Let's see, what else is going on?  It was my birthday yesterday so we had a nice little family get together.  Tom made dinner and baked a cake.  The kids got me some great presents.  Barrett had been very secretive for about two weeks.  He came up with a great coffee cup for me.  Mia apparently needed a little more help but she got me a yummy smelling candle.  They made my birthday cards too.  It made my day.  I can hardly wait to see what they do with Christmas.  They are both at a great age for Christmas.

Both kids are growing like weeds.  I don't think that stops until they are 20 something.  We measured the kids in July and we've had them stand next to their measurements a couple of times.  I bet Bear has grown two inches in four months.  Mia probably has done and inch and a half.  I'm excited to see where they are going to be at in January when we make the next mark.  Since the kids are six months apart on birthdays we figure it will be the perfect separation on the growth chart.

We had parent teacher conferences the other day.  It went well.  I was very proud of Bear.  He's apparently a good kid in school.  Also, his teacher thinks she'll have to give him and a couple of other boys some extra stuff to do so they don't get bored.  She said she'll be happy to make it to Christmas without it but kind of doubts she'll be able to.  I'm glad he has a teacher that recognizes that Bear will need more.  He and a couple of other boys are tired of counting by ones to 100 so they've been working on counting by 5s and 10s.  His teacher figures at the rate they are going they'll be working on counting by 2s before the year is up.  Not something they are generally able to get to in Kindergarten.  The best part is that it sounds like there are a couple of other kids right there with Bear so he won't be singled out.  He'll have a group to work with.  It makes me glad we didn't hold him out of Kindergarten for another year.  Because of his age we could have but he's been so ready to go we sent him.

Little things like when I kept him home for being sick the other day he was worried he was going to miss class work.  So I printed up a bunch of worksheets for him.  He worked on them for a little bit each day for about two days.  They are all done and he wants to take them back to his teacher.  He seemed to enjoy doing them so much that we may make that a weekend habit.  I'd like to keep it all fun stuff so he continues to enjoy it.

Well, I'd better get some of my Fall chores done before the snow flies.  With a nice day today I just might make it.