Love List- October Edition

Hello October.  Hello home to my favorite month as well as day of the year.  Don't tell anyone but I have been shirking my nightly grading duty in place of reading a great book.  Sure, I'm setting myself up for more this weekend, but man I love curling up in bed with a book I can't put down.

Making my love list for October:

1. The Wake County Library- I never dreamed I would be in sight of finishing 50 books in 2013.  I finished Joyland by Stephen King earlier this week and have Night Film and The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls to pick up at our weekly library run today.  I put aside two other books started this week as I don't want to throw away precious reading time on meh books.  I love the amount of audio and eBooks that are available, often SO much more quickly than in old school book form all for FREE!

2. Crockpot cooking-  Ok, not to sound like some middle-aged housewife in love with her appliances, but I have managed to get homemade soup, roast beef, taco meat, brisket, and chicken all cooked within the last couple of weeks thanks to mom's little helper.  Many of these were freeze ahead and you can hate me for meeting the 6 o'clock dinner rush with all guns blazing.

3. Fall walks- Someone asked me recently what is my favorite thing I do with the boys, and without hesitation I said, "taking the dog and the boys on a daily afternoon walk".  So not everyday are we leisurely feeding the ducks and meanderings around the neighborhood lake, but more days than not we take a 15-30 walk through our neighborhood riding bikes/trikes and walking the dog.  It is a nice decompression after a long day at school and work.  Plus I am sucker for feeding ducks.

4. My AP Gov't kids.  Without a long, boring rant, it's been a mixed bag with teaching my baby of classes.  I feel like I pour so much time into this class and have been met with SO much whining over workload. Sadly even from some, not all, parents who don't get the "college-level survey course" that this class deserves to be taught not some watered down rerun of Sophomore Civics class..  Finally, yesterday during weekly debate on a public policy topic, it all just came together.  Expecting a knock down, drag out over gay marriage I was surprised at their maturity and level of preparation.  Add to it students who have genuinely been interested in the shutdown and were sending me links of pork barrel politics as part of the agreement.  I will proclaim that my work is done here.

5.  Ending a year of kiddo therapy with Ben this week- Most likely a deserving post for longer thoughts, but after a year with weekly appointments, medication trials, parenting appointments leaving me feeling like loser parent of the year we are at the end. I don't regret a minute of time and energy spent being proactive instead of reactive.  As a parent you do what you can do within your resources both financial and what you have to give emotionally. At times this year has been just as hard as any time I personally have done in therapy.  I never imagined that at such an early age I would be faced with my own child needing help.  I'm glad that our family made it a priority to seek answers instead of waiting on the sidelines in hopes that things would just get better on their own.

Happy weekend.  We are attempting to get rush tickets for the Full Frame Documentary Film Friday tonight, baby showering it for a friend, Ms Katie coming to do a special cooking afternoon with the boys, an art class for the 2nd grader, and family bound for the NC State Fair.