What I’m Up To This Fall
Hello Boar!
This little piggy is from a farm field trip we took this month.
Field trips, apple cider, changing leaves, and jacket weather. It’s the start of fall in the Midwest. I love crisp mornings and apples. (See what I did there with crisp? I also love my mom’s apple crisp probably because she uses way more sugar than I ever would and it sets up just right the next day in the fridge.) .
What I’m Working On
Podcasting
Russ and I are starting a new podcast. It’s called Schrodinger’s Egg and is going to focus on infertility for men and women. Most of the podcasts are all focused on women, so we wanted to add to the conversation from a couple perspective. Plus we just really get a kick out of podcasting! We will be launching here soon! Like hopefully this weekend. Here is the first peek at the cover art I designed!
Click to listen to the exclusive teaser!
Book Proposals
I’ve been working on my book projects this past month. Yes, projects! I have two book projects. One is about infertility, miscarriage and the book of Ruth. It will walk readers through the book of Ruth moving from bitterness to knowing God never leaves us alone. My other project is a children’s book about miscarriage. I’m really excited about this one and just got positive feedback from my editor this week! Some pretty heavy topics and writing, but I’m passionate about it, so that makes it fun.
My Thursday mornings have been spent at the coffee shop writing my book proposal, while John is at art class. I kind of can’t believe I’ve become a coffee shop writer. My first location was a fail with snobby baristas, but now I’ve found a place I love, and nice baristas.
Mouths
Yes, you read right. Mouths. This is the year of the mouth at our house. We are at the dentist or oral myologist weekly. 3 times a day we are doing our best to do our exercises all in hopes that we will start breathing and sleeping better. We can’t help our genetics, but we can do our best to change the course of the boys mouths and improve our airways. (That’s a lot of “we” in the last few sentences, but it is truly all everyone in the household.) It feels like a part time job at the moment, but we are all committed and going to thank mom in the years to come for my persistence. At least I can dream that will be thanked for it.
What I’m Loving
Homeschool
I’m loving relaxed homeschool days! I love the flexibility of homeschool. My boys were able to pack up and go visit Grammy’s house this fall which was great fun for them and a much needed break for us. These boys still don’t sleep well, which we are on the path to figuring out. So a full night sleep was amazing!
While my students would disagree because ALL SCHOOL IS BORING! said with a deep sigh, I am really loving our curriculum. This year we are focusing on memorizing poetry. Math U See is well loved because of the video lessons and being able to accomplish the worksheets in about 10 minutes or less a day. I am very picky about teaching grammar. Well Trained Mind offers First Language Lessons, and Writing with Ease which pair together perfectly. We are plugging right along in All About Reading, and the activities are fun and engaging.
Our days are filled with computer games in the morning, art, play, dress up. On preschool days school is in the morning. On other days it’s in the afternoon. I love gentle days that are not rushed. We have plenty to fill the days between doctors appointments, preschool, Awana, and play dates. I’ll keep them little and not busy as long as I can.
I also loved going a on field trip for preschool with my little man. We went down slides together, climbed hay bails and saw farm animals. My favorite part was hearing his sweet little voice exclaim, “That was amazing!” when we left. We had so much fun and I just might have spent too much on a horse in a purse stuffed animal to remember our little visit. (The allergies afterwards were not amazing, but that’s also the fall in the midwest.)
Starbucks
Let’s be clear, I hate coffee, but I do love Starbucks Refreshers. Some days after I’ve tried all the things to wake up, it just isn’t happening. The nightly wake ups with little man are kicking my tail, along with ever shifting hormones and fatigue. The Strawberry Lemonade Refresher with no ice (because you get so much more drink with no ice!) is my favorite pick me up. I split it up and drink it over 3 days. And the trip doubles as a date with my favorite 3 year old.
Harvest
This was my year for a patio garden. I tried and failed several times since the spring. The one thing I successfully grew was lettuce. I planted so many of those little seeds and only 2 took off really well. I guess I had lettuce twins. I also had 2 of my asian lettuce plants take off. As it turns out, I don’t like Asian lettuce and think it tastes a little too bitter. My final attempt was spinach way late in the season. It sprouted and turned into a full salad worth of a crop.
Tonight was harvest night for little garden because a frost is coming. I brought in the mums and cut the crops. (The boys are very confused about my mums because of watching Bluey.) Then I washed and spun the leaves, putting them in the fridge and hoping for the best in the morning.
What I’m Looking Forward to
Travel
I’m looking forward to a trip to the Pumpkin patch coming up soon. We are going to make a full day of it and go on a school day. I won a trip to the Lied Lodge and we will have a few nights away with the boys. So, I’m really excited to have a family mini-vacation. Russ and I are going to escape to Lincoln here soon for a night away. Then it’s time for my HopeWriters Conference! I’m excited to connect with fellow writers and present my book proposal to an agent. Southwest posted $29 airfare and we took advantage of that for the winter. So we will be taking a family trip to Chicago in a few months as well. And my loving man and I have a 4 day trip planned coming up in the winter too! I’m excited for fun and travel with my family.
What are you looking forward to this fall? What brings you joy in your day, big or small?
Send me a note at Diane@DianeNewcomer.com or I’ve opened up the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
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