Did you notice???  Look at the calendar!  It’s creeping into the middle of October.  October is the month of 10!  After October, there are only two months left in the year of 2017!  What is happening?!?!?!

Summer birthdays have come and gone in our house.  I now have a 9 and 3 year old.  What is happening?!?!?!  When I sit back and really soak in the moments of my kids playing lately, I am taken aback by how much they have grown in the last few months.  Let’s be honest.  It is actually pretty terrifying.  While the little moments just float on by, real change is happening daily.  The kids are getting older.  They are learning more things.  While I’m excited about the next stage of my children, part of me is sad the old stages are disappearing.

We started our third year homeschooling about a month ago.  It is funny writing that because it seems like a lot longer than a month ago.  The days pass slowly but the years pass quickly.  It took us almost a full month to get back into a routine.  It made me nervous to be honest.  The second week of school Marcus would scream, “No school!” every morning while we were getting all our books out.  That didn’t help us have a great start to the day.  I think Marcus has just accepted it now.  There are times when he still really just wants to play with Sis but for the most part he will play happily by himself.

We’ve worked on a lot of home projects in the last month, too!  It all started with renting a big machine with our neighbors.  We removed some of our bank by our driveway to straighten it out.  We removed the original walkway leading to our front door.  We brought in beauty bark to replace the old walkway.  It will eventually become a flower garden.  We even came up with a plan for our front deck!  Even better, we acted on our plan and it is almost done.  I will share our front yard transformation after we have completed our deck.  We are so close.  Just not enough hours in the day.

In the course of that months time and all the activities we have had going on, things are different.  Marcus is at that age where he changes a lot.  There are some mornings when he wakes up that I would swear to you (and I don’t typically swear) that he looks older.  He is starting to use so many more words in his sentences.  He is constantly pushing his boundaries.  This is so hard because I love that he is a spunky kid and can stand up for himself.  HOWEVER…I still need him to listen and obey.  I am sure many of you moms out there get what I am saying.  And Madelyn…she has reached a different level of attitude.  I am not saying that in a bad way but more in a way where it has changed.  It is a different type of attitude than it was a couple years ago.  I just noticed it was different today.  I know she is only 9 but it seems very preteen to me.  Or is that a whole different ballgame??  I guess time will tell on that one.  She also has a very caring nature about her.  She is very in tune with how others are feeling.  She enjoys trying to help out wherever she can.  She like to help lessen the load for me at times as well.  It is a very heartwarming trait.

In one months time.  So many changes.  So many growths.  “In the blink of an eye,” they say.  This thing called life is crazy hard.  Find those moments.  Soak them in.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  All the moments make up what we call life.

Find the joy.  Be happy.

Until Next time, friends!