4 Turtle Doves: Beauty of Autumn

November is here! Thankful, grateful, blessed, overwhelmed, all words used more in our vocabulary this month than any other. I put away my Halloween decor and am chomping at the bit to start decorating for Christmas! This would be my favorite Holiday to turn my house inside out and go crazy with decorating! The twinkle of lights, the smell of fresh balsam from my candle, and a house all ready for all the events I want to host, the shopping I get to do, and the shrieks of joy from my kids as they look for their elf. That will have to wait a few more weeks, because it is November and I don't have enough days in this month to list all the things that make me say, I am so overwhelmed with Thankfulness.

My kids had the Friday after Halloween off from School. This has never happened before and it was awesome! The entire morning spent sorting candy, counting candy, putting prices next to candy and having Mom come to your Candy Store and make purchases! It doesn't get much better than that for a kid. The candy wrappers I have been finding all over my house had me mumbling unkind things about candy. The tantrums that came out of Austin over the weekend, well that had me using extreme self control to keep me from dumping all the candy in the trash can. I haven't seen tantrums this terrible.

So, I let the the candy sit out on the counter and the wrappers lay on the floor and the candy store to be open for business for three days. Then when they all went to bed I bagged all the chocolate for the freezer, threw away the whoppers and jaw breakers, and hid the sweet stuff in a rubbermaid high on a kitchen shelf.

She loved throwing the leaves up in the air!

Most pictures Austin refuses to be near his siblings. Heidi has a crazy fear of stairs, which I didn't realize was making her cry until I stepped back and I thought, "I wonder why she is so upset?!" I couldn't resist snapping a picture!

Molly shouted, "these leaves are easier to pick up Mom"

I am working on an event at our church right now. We have this 'Brave' theme going around. Women have this idea of what they think they should be or how they should act or what they should be doing. God has each of us designed a certain way. We need to be brave enough to step outside what we think we are suppose to do and find out who we are in God's eyes. How does He see me, what is His plan for me? Am I brave enough to trust Him. Or will I stay where I am and rely on myself?

I haven't seen the Disney movie "Brave." During naptime this weekend I asked Molly and Grant if they wanted to watch it in our movie room with me. Grant said No and Molly said yes! It was the first movie I watched with my daughter curled up in my arm, enjoying chocolate (from the halloween stash) where we cried at the same time. This wasn't just some tears to wipe away. It was sobs coming from Molly and me crying. I haven't cried over a movie in years. Molly has never cried over a movie. She is 9 years old and we shared a good cry over a good movie, together! I loved the movie. What a well done story about the innocence and immaturity of wanting what we want and if someone doesn't agree then we want to change them or run from them.

In the movie Princess Merida says,
"There are those who say fate is something beyond our command. That destiny is not our own, but I know better. Our fate lives within us. We just have to be brave enough to see it."

He took notice of all the shapes and colors of the leaves

After spending the 'no school' day watching TV and eating/playing with candy I decided fresh air was what we all needed. The wind this season has been even stronger than usual, so to me the best choice was a wooded area to block the cold wind. Schram State Park is one of my favorite places. We are blessed because it is only ten minutes away from our house....and they installed a new playset in the park!