What I Learned in October

Happy Halloween (or happy candy day or happy Thursday or happy whatever you want to call this day)! Among other things, it is the last day of October, to which I say WHAT!?!??! I'm hanging onto my hat, because these last two months of the year are fixin' to be a wild ride! (Maybe for you, too?)

I learned a few things along the October-way. Want to see?

1. I love visiting old friends in the pages of books of Bekah-yore.

As you may (or may not!) have noticed from the lack of reporting, I haven't had much time to read over the last few months. It fell apart sometime this summer, probably right about the time I picked up extra things at church. There are only so many hours in a day, and reading had to go for a bit. But I have missed it. And I have a healthy to-be-read pile of books I've purchased or been gifted, but earlier this month, I found myself drawn to a four-book series from my high school days. Anyone remember Lori Wick? She no longer writes (for publication, anyway) and kind of fell off the fiction map, but I have nearly everything she ever wrote. She was one of my favorites in high school and on into college. I decided to get out the very first book of hers I ever received and reread it. It's kind of Hallmark movie-ish in predictability, and of course I already knew the ending, but I loved hanging out with the Cameron family again. I had forgotten just how much I loved them. Fictionally-speaking, of course!

2. You can make retaining walls from concrete bags.

When Amber and I went on our back roads artist studio tour earlier this month, we happened upon a studio that had a whole retaining wall made from...concrete bags. It was such a sight that I had to sneak a picture of it. We thought it rather strange, but while we were browsing the studio, a much braver person than either of us asked the artist about it. She said her husband had done research and learned that you can put out the bags just like this, soak them, and over time and regular rain/hose showers, the concrete will harden and the bags will disintegrate, and you're left with a retaining wall. I told Ryan about it and he wasn't sure he believed it, but I looked it up and people claim it works!

3. Shooting a two minute video takes hours.

Our church will relaunch its small group ministry in January, and Ryan and I filmed a promotional video to help with the publicity for that. The guy from our church who is making the video filmed it in our home and was there for about six hours, setting up, filming, and tearing down - and that doesn't even count the editing and production! Impressive amounts of work and detail.

4. There's still nothing like a whole day away alone with Ryan.

This falls under the category of things I knew...but enjoyed being reminded about this month. We took a day and hiked McCormick's Creek State Park, and it was just delightful. We've had a pretty busy fall that has required more dividing and conquering than we really prefer, so to have an entire day set aside to be together, without sharing our time was beautiful. I appreciated all our conversations and the chance to be who we are without demands on our time!

5. The best trees in the county were in our neighborhood.

We've had enough rain and wind now this fall that the fullest parts of the trees are gone. We still have some beautiful fall color hanging on for dear life, but they're a little more sparse than they once were. But I hold to my belief that of all the places we saw in our county, the richest color parked right in our neighborhood, and I loved it. I loved seeing those trees every single day without ever leaving home!

6. My little bonus niece really is all grown up.

I took her senior pictures this month, and she made the whole thing such a delight. She loves the camera and had a blast with the entire day - and that's really what it's about! Doing this photo shoot was one of my favorite memories this month. This family was one of my biggest "framilies" before I married Ryan, so to get to share this with them was a joy.

7. I love the Hallmark shirt every bit as much as I thought I would!

I've seen different versions of this shirt the last couple of years and always thought I would love having one...and now I do! I received it as a gift, and I LOVE IT!!!!! I told Ryan I might wear it every single day from now until Christmas (and beyond.) Bonus - it's made from extremely soft material, so it's like wearing a hug.

How about you?? Any October learning moments?