October Review ✽ Hello November

Happenings (in pretty much no certain order, because none of it is connected anyway... just wanted to be honest, hahaha!):

-First, some Noah pictures for your viewing pleasure, because he brightens anything up...

Because I love the way he actually listens to me and 

carefully holds his banana with both hands so it won't 

break while he snacks while waiting for breakfast to finish

cooking, and his little feet are one of the cutest things ever <3. 

Because he utterly and completely fell in love with "puntins"

when Mama and I took the little boys to Hobby Lobby, and

it is literally the only round thing he has seen that he KNOWS

is different than a ball, heeheehee...

And because we listen to music together far less than we

used to, but it's still one of our favorite things to do <3.

And also, he found out that "balloon" has an L in it, so he no longer calls them "Boon", but, "Ballelelelelleooooon", hahahaha! Mama and I almost couldn't take it, it was worth wasting time standing still in Walmart just to stay by the balloon to hear it over and over, hahaha!

 -Tori celebrated her sweet sixteen birthday <3. We had a little party for her, and she and Mama went downtown to browse arts and cute shops! Tori is our artistic comedian... our sensitive no-nonsense supporter... rising to the occasion whether you need a laugh, some strategic witty affirmation, or a leaf template draw, hahha... or if she feels your Facebook feed or Blog needs a little livening up... don't worry, she has you covered there too, hahahaha! #chickenwings And, she blogs about her art off-and-on here, if you want to take a look ;)....

-We welcomed some adorable new family members... meet Misty & Dawn.
Misty is slightly more clumsy because she's prone to not being able to reach as far as she thinks, spends most of her time preening, and has an adorable little "necklace" around her neck that just happens to include a heart shaped spot. She was formerly considered to be the bolder of the two, but that wore off quickly, as Dawn got over the change and began to show her true colors, haha!
Even though Dawn's wings are still closely clipped, she can get up such a wind that she blows half of their loose feathers out of the cage, spends most of her time eating, and she's got the perfect light blue and grey color scheme. Definitely the more aggressive bird... but also the warmest to people (??? Or just isn't too afraid to show her disgust with her beak???). Now that she's figured out her home, she's nice to Misty, though, so that's a plus!
They both a.l.w.a.y.s. snack with us at quiet time. If we make popcorn or cookies or something and sit at the kitchen table to play a game, two minutes later we look up and they are at their respective feeders. Whether it's because it's finally quiet in the house, or what, I don't know, but I think it's just adorable. And I love their little noises when I get downstairs early in the morning to read my bible. They run to the top of the cage when they see me, though, so I'm not sure the feeling is mutual ;). They are most skittish in the mornings, I think because the noise level goes from 0 to 1... and then to an 11 within a minute, hahaha! Their first week here, they were getting used to noise in the day, but Andrew got up one morning and opened the dryer door louder than usual, and they pretty much fell off the perch, hahaha...

This is their definition of "exercise", hahaha...

 Um, I guess I was thirsty. That is the only reason for 

having so many full cups at one time. It was ridiculous, hahaha!

-Josiah went to the dentist, and he let them clean all his teeth without a single qualm! This was a big step for the little guy, since this miniature grandpa who isn't afraid of anything (except bugs in the bathroom and sneezing - poor allergy tortured little guy!) cried the whooooole time Peter got his teeth cleaned this spring, and it took Mama and I together working with him just to allow them to count his teeth and take a quick 2-minute look to determine outward oral health. Plus, he just looks cool in sunglasses, hahaha! He also looks adorable in sunglasses that he's taken the lenses out of, and it almost makes me wish he needed real glasses, although not really because I wouldn't truly wish that on somebody, hahaha. I did tell Tori though... it's almost a given, with the fact that my eyes are so bad, that I'll have a couple children with glasses, and I'm convinced it'll actually be the cutest thing ever. Am I mean?

-Abbi watched a five minute video of a rundown of teddy bear facts, and became OBSESSED with Theodore Roosevelt. She started a whole research project on him; devoured books on him, looked for facts about him and teddy bears, kept her findings cataloged, shared snippets of his life with one of us every time we turned around, even added his birth date to our family calendar, hahaha! We were all like, "Who has a birthday on the 27th?...." and someone eventually said it in front of Abbi, and she was like all offended we could have forgotten when she answered that it was for Teddy Roosevelt, haha. So Mama picked up some Teddy Grahams and let them have a little "party" to celebrate Theodore Roosevelt's day of birth ;). (Also; Abbi and Josiah's eyes glare terribly and somewhat scarily in pictures, hahaha! You'd think they were cats!)

-Daddy and I went in for our "yearly" eye exams.
The optometrist to Daddy: "So, after what we've just went through, I'm going to guess that these glasses do nothing for you."
"No, they are terrible, they have magnification and I was told I have 20/20 vision."
Optometrist: *studies them a little more* "Hmmm, that is a really random prescription."
*Daddy doesn't need magnification*
The optometrist to me: "Would you mind telling me what reason they gave for giving you bifocals?"
"They didn't give me a real reason... they just said it would be easier to adjust to them?"
"Hmmm... we'll talk about that."
*I don't need bifocals*
Which I am actually thrilled about, because, this means
1. It's just a good sign my eyes are adjusting well (assuming I really did need two visions before, which I am going to assume, since three different prescriptions from two different people called for them ;).)
2. ...okay, I frivolously am thrilled that it opened up new possibilities for the frames I can get, haha. See, I've always have to steer towards larger lens glasses, because I needed room for my two vision centers. Now, I only have the one; so I can look at frames that formerly would have been too narrow!
Also, a few years ago my eyes were as bad as -5 something, I think, and my left eye was worse (you could TELL my left lens was thicker than my right!). Now, they are only -4 something, and they are BOTH the same prescription :)!!! You will NEVER find me without glasses (my prescription, even improved, is still so bad that they will only give me Polyglass glasses, because it's the only way to cut down on how thick I need them, hahaha...), and I'm guessing the improvement I see from here on out will be smaller than it has been so far, just because I'm guessing the first few years would see the most changed, and it's been four years now. But I'm just kind of thrilled I'm down to a single prescription for all distances and both eyes!
I get chatty about glasses, okay? They changed my life. Sorry... Until you know what it is to be amazed that tree bark has so much texture at all, let alone from all the way inside, it's hard to explain the way it touches everything about your life, haha!

- We celebrated reformation day with a lot of little games and treats this year. Joey won some "Counsel of Worms" Gummy Worms for "nailing" the theses closest to the center of the door ;). Then we kicked off our Christmas holiday with Christmas music while chili cooked, and our customary first Christmas season movie night. That last bit was started to keep the house quiet so trick-er-treaters wouldn't know we were home... it's stuck, but thankfully we don't have many people stop by in the cul-de-sac! And Christmas is a lovely time of year, y'all <3. I'm so glad it's back ;).

-I blogged all. month. long... about selling on Etsy, of all things ;). It was a really neat thing to finish well... and I think it was definitely worthwhile. But I'll be choosing a far less demanding/narrow topic next year, hahaha! And won't work on my Etsy SEO at the same time. But, it helped me get back "into" blogging, and so if nothing else, I'm thrilled with that :). I was concerned about doing Write31 and then the GiveThanksx7 challenge back to back (the very reason I skipped Write31 last year), but KBR didn't hold the challenge this year. While I was disappointed, it's actually been wonderful to do it through my journal instead, so I'm confident it was for the best. And I'm glad I went ahead and did Write31, since the one reason I would have given it up ended up not existing! Also- I developed a ton of future Write31 themes, as I moaned about how I should have picked ANY other topic (because I felt too lazy some days to focus on putting together such technical details correctly), so I'm good for years ;). Hahaha! But I specifically chose this topic this year because I didn't want one I'd have to be actually emotionally open in, and it worked for that... so it was all good ;). It really was fun, now that I'm past that day 18-23 stretch, hahaha!

Laughing at:

As I make a crock pot meal, every time:
"PLUGGED IN, TURNED ON, LID ON."
I'm so tired of the meal not cooking, and at least once it was because someone unplugged it behind me, sooooo... everybody knows what I'm doing now ;)...

*Calmly playing Monopoly with older siblings* -like, "hadn't talked for a few minutes except to pay rent" sort of calm.
*Emmi lets out a fake/dramatic OUCH!!!! from the other room*
Sister across the table, awake and animated all of the sudden: "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!!!"
Glad that was as fake (but also just as dramatic) as the ouch, hahhaha....

*Our bathroom door won't unlock anymore*
Nothing like being gotten out of bed in the morning because a sibling didn't know and now they are stuck and you are the only one home who had any sort of success prying it open the night before, hahaha!

*Mama talking about how she always wins Monopoly*
Mama: "Unless Mom played, then she won."
Andrew: "It must be a mom thing."
Mama and I: "It's all that taking care of finances."
Andrew: "Hey Bri, get married and have kids so maybe you can win. You usually lose."

Daddy: "All Andrew could do was pay attention in the game. He couldn't pay money, because he had none."

Heard from the kitchen:
"Oh, cool, we can replace the boy's room door too. Daddy got two knobs!"
"Ummmm... you do know you need a door handle on BOTH sides of the door, right?..."
"Oh. Yeah..."

Peter, admiring the birds when they were first brought home: "Awww, they are scared. See? They're jiggling..."

Tori, standing right under the bird cage: *screams* "There is a bug!!!!!"
Birds: *screeching, scolding, flapping, terrified*
It was because Tori accidentally hit the cage when she jumped, but it sounded like it was because of the bug, haha. So Tori was like, "Sorry! Wait. You are BIRDS. EAT the bird!
....THE BIRD?!?!?!?! Hm, is that why we have two?
I meant eat the bug."

Josiah: "Ewwwww, Bri is making coffee with water in it!!!!"
And what else would I do?????

Bethi: "A'right, this could be bad for my future, but I'm 'onna do it."
I am relieve to say all she as doing was purchasing something in Monopoly (yes, we play it a lot), but it was concerning at first, hahaha!

*Tori and Andrew and I laughing in the boys room*
Bethi: *sails/crashes down the hall* "What'ch'a talkin' 'bout, huuuuuuuuhhhhh?!?!?!?"
Andrew: *jokingly locks the door before she can get in*
Bethani: I KID YOU NOT, JUST CALMLY WALKS INTO THE ROOM ANYWAY.
I collapsed laughing at this unexpected turn of events, and Bethi explains that "If you jiggle it just right it opens whether it's locked or not".
Guess that's why she said it needed replaced...

Tori: Ends up with four empty paper plates after trying to get somebody else to throw hers away.
Tori: Frisbee throws them all at once across the kitchen and gets three in the trash can.
I didn't know she could do that...

Reading:

-"Hostage of the Nighthawk" and "The Runaway's Revenge" by Dave and Neta Jackson. More of the stories in that collection I was reading last month. I still have another one in the book I forgot I hadn't read yet until I was checking the titles and realized I still know nothing about John Paton ;)...

-The book of John and some of the Psalms.

-I finished "The Valley of Vision". But it's still on my shelf, because Mama gave me this copy because it was highlighted in (even though it said like new condition, haha), and I plan on starting it over as soon as I get caught up with all the things I'm trying to complete right now, because it is literally just that encouraging y'all.

-The KBR magazines ;). Has anybody noticed that these end up on my list more often than they come out (once a season)? They are worth the subscription, y'all!

Quotes I liked:

"Autumn; the year's last, loveliest smile." -William Cullen Bryant

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." -Lucy Maud Montgomery

"If God is preparing you to make an impact on this world for His Kingdom, chances are he will take you through a season of solitude.This is a season when you learn that you can't lean on anyone but Him for your confidence and when you gain the strength to stand alone even when no one stands with you." -Leslie Ludy

"Trust in Him at all times, oh people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our Refuge." - Psalm 62:8

The Shop:
-Well, I spent all last month blogging about the shop. Honestly, I'm glad to have a tiny break, hahaha! But...
-We held a giveaway for my Romans 12 canvas!

-The custom canvas continues to be my best seller. Who wants one to give as a Christmas gift ;)?
-I realized that most of the people who order my custom canvas also want the text customized... so I added that as an option in my shop!
-I took more pictures, and found EtsyRank. Yay!


Fails:

*I hear a suspicious noise from upstairs*
"Josiah, come here!!!"
Josiah, sauntering downstairs like it was his decision, calm as a cucumber, he never could have been doing anything wrong, could he?...
"Josiah, are you playing with Andrew's (remote controlled) car up there?!??!"
Josiah, steady as anything: "No."
Well, he seems confident and sure... okay... "Alright, I just thought I heard it."
Josiah: "Oh, I was just... making the sound that it makes."
"Josiah!!!"
Josiah: *no longer looks as confident*

Um. My about me page was so outdated. And I just ran a major blogging event without giving it a thought. Ahh, well, such is the professionalism of me. *bangs head on my keyboard* hjdksrulbyuirbyieubryia

Grateful for:

-Our adorable little birds :).
-Getting to make some fall crafts with my younger siblings <3.
-All those who gave of themselves to make the truths of the bible known.
-The wonderful smells and temperatures and activities of fall!
-Sweet Tori!
-Christmas! Hahaha :).
-Monopoly ;).
-God's grace shown through preserving the saints of his kingdom.
-Hot cocoa.

"Bless the Lord, oh my soul... and all that is within me"...