What I Learned in October

First up - a happy birthday today to my sister Julie! Secondly - I know the month really ends tomorrow, but we'll be busy with Saturday Six lists then, so today I will share what I learned and accomplished in October!

1. Mask chains are a thing.

Maybe you've seen these, but I haven't! Tamar posted about them earlier this month: chains to attach to the earpieces of your mask so you won't lose it when you take it off. They're like the glasses chains of yore, but for masks! 

2. There are pizza farms.

If ever I become a farmer, I want to grow pizzas. LOL! Okay so maybe not. But have you heard of pizza farms? I read about them on social media and had to do some digging. Apparently they are largely a Midwestern thing, but some farmers have started making pizzas to serve as a farm-to-table sort of adventure. They use ingredients fresh from the farm and the menus change often, based on what is available. Anybody been to one?

3. There is a photo math app, and if it had existed 25 years ago, my high school GPA would have stood a chance. 

Ryan and I were eating inside a fast food restaurant this month (a rarity) and happened to sit near a table of guys covering quite a variety of topics during their lunch. One of them talked about this photo math app. You can take a picture of a math problem and it will solve it for you. The other guys at the table didn't believe him, so he wrote a math problem on a napkin and sent it through the app right then and there. Fascinating. 

4. I really can do a five day sugar detox. 

Earlier this month I did a 5 day sugar detox challenge, and it jump started our clean eating in a fresh way. I was really nervous going into it - wasn't sure I could actually do it, but I did! It helped that I was allowed to have fruit, which at least gave me a little sweet to take the edge off. ;) I was shocked at how much better I felt at the end of the five days. (People always say stuff like that about changing eating, and I have never found it to be true for myself...until this time. I don't know what was different this time, but it was finally true for me.) I don't know how much - if any - weight I lost but my clothes fit better, my tweaky knee felt better, and I moved around better in general. And it wasn't as depressing as I thought it would be to give up my beloved sugar. 

5. Yellow kiwi exist.

Ryan and I were shopping in Sam's one day and wandered through the produce section - and found yellow kiwi! What in the world? I had no idea there were versions of kiwi!

6. Not all toilets have a soft close lid. 

We had soft close toilet lids in Kokomo, and we have them here at WillowBridge, too. When I spoke at the church last week, I used their restroom and learned (with a bang!) that they do NOT have soft close lids. I pushed it down and it slammed the rest of the way. Whoopsie!! :) 

So that's what I learned in October. Now for how I did on my goals...

1. Finish prepping for a real live speaking engagement!

Done! :) The prepping AND the speaking! I held this event loosely because with the way everything tends to go right now, nothing is certain until it happens. But this one did happen, and I was grateful for it. I needed the words of the message I shared, so I enjoyed learning along with the people who attended! 

2. Fall pictures!

Done! We were able to get a few taken on one of the last warm fall afternoons  - while there was still some color on the trees! We were thankful for one our new friends who took them for us!

3. Check out a corn maze and pumpkin patch.

Done-ish. We did do both, but we did them for work. I was kind of hoping we could go on our own as a date, but the one day we set aside to try was miserably cold and rainy, and it didn't work out so well. But we had a great time at the one we did for work, and I'm happy to count it as a check mark!

4. One more kayak trip.

Done - and survived! It was a windy one that day, so my infantile upper body strength struggled a bit. But the water was beautiful, the fall colors on the trees were beautiful, and we had a great time. I was sad that it got cold so soon here, but it's okay. Fletcher will still be here next year for more adventures!

5. Finish our vacation book.

Done! I finished it AND finished our July/August/September scrapbook, which made me doubly happy. Just a few more things to catch up on and I'll be all ready to put together our anniversary trip book. (Once we take the trip, of course.)

6. Figure out FOR SURE where we want to go for our anniversary.

The answer ended up being an absolute surprise. We did not plan on the destination we picked, but we are really excited about it and can't wait to put together our official plans FOR the trip. (As I mentioned yesterday, I'll have to hold those somewhat loosely as well, because we never know what weather or pandemic restrictions will enforce.