October was as beautiful as September and I’m thankful that we were able to take advantage of the weather and do a lot of hiking (and have the photos to prove it!).

Read

I was not very consistent with reading out loud in October (besides during school time), but next month I should have a bedtime book to report.

I listened to the audiobook of The Enchanted April (1922), which is about four English ladies who rent a castle in Italy for a month. It’s a charming story of people and relationships that change for the better with plenty of lovely descriptions.

I greatly enjoyed reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (though I got bogged down at the end). It fits my Books of Centuries challenge for the 18th century and had so much fodder for discussion on education, religion, morality, liberty of the press. That sounds dry, but I really was fascinated! (You’ll find a quotation I liked below).

We continue to get scores of picture books from the library. Autumn: An Acrostic Alphabet is one I found clever as well as seasonal.

Do

• We hiked three family-friendly mountains in one day — the Tupper Lake Triad!
• We took the kids contra dancing.
• I took the kids to Fire Safety Day in Lisbon and to the Waddington Library, which had crafting stations that they loved.
• For Canadian Thanksgiving we invited a few families over and had two pinatas (one a real pumpkin and one a paper mache pumpkin).
• For Andrew’s birthday I went to work with him for the day and enjoyed driving around the county in a truck and getting to see firsthand what he does.
• I hosted the Schole Sisters retreat for homeschool moms at the local library; we had autumn leaves and special edition Lindors, bookmarks and note taking pages, chili and rolls, tea and cookies, not to mention four great talks on the topic of attention and lots of discussion time.
• We did the Great 8 Waterfall Crawl in St. Lawrence County.
• We helped a friend from church with her leaves and gardens.
• We went out to dinner at the Smuggler’s Cafe with the kids and Andrew’s parents.

Eat

We ate lots of old standbys like apricot chicken, split pea soup, and homemade pizza. Here are some other standouts.

• Kunoco pizza (after hiking all day)
• Canadian Thanksgiving: ham, potato cabbage gratin, butterscotch, pumpkin, and bumbleberry pies
• Chickpea tagine made in the InstantPot
• Chorizo Chickpea Carbonara from this cookbook
• Kofta subs
• And we found more snickerdoodle almonds! (only four bags and never again)

Listen

Watch

I was browsing for a show to watch on a Saturday night and came across History’s Greatest Heists, which is hosted by Pierce Brosnan. Each episode explains a different heist; we’ve only watched one so far, on the Antwerp diamond heist of 2003. Mind-boggling that criminals can circumvent so much security!

Andrew and I started The Gilded Age season two. (It’s all for the best that we can only have it from the library for one week at a time.)

Ponder

Here’s one line I particularly liked in Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography: “Human felicity is produc’d not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that happen every day.”

Meditate

Bible reading update: I finished Obadiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, James, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” -Zechariah 8:20-23