These slow fall days

I am just so very much enjoying this time of my life right now. My kids, my pregnancy, my husband, my home, are all sources of such joy and wonder that I, for the most part, spend my lazy days just basking in the happiness of it all. Darren went with me to my ten week checkup earlier this week and we were so thrilled to once again hear the strong beat of our baby's heart! I still feel so thankful and amazed to find myself expecting again, especially in light of our recent loss, and I am trying so hard to just enjoy every moment of this pregnancy. I often find myself exhausted and frequently experience at least a bit of morning sickness during the day, so lessons these days most usually consist of me and my kids snuggled up together with a big pile of books on my bed. Dylan reads aloud to me, or I to them, and we even found two math books on our recent trip to the library that Dylan really seems to enjoy. It's cozy. It's comfortable. And it makes me so, so happy.

I am also really embracing the feeling of fall that has permeated our home. The weather has cooled sufficiently to finally seem more autumnal, which means more baking, and more soups! Last night I made the year's first pot of posole...a full month earlier than last year! Darren made a delicious butternut squash soup for dinner a few nights ago, and we even lit a small fire in our fireplace that night before bedtime. We piled blankets and pillows onto the floor and read to the kids until it was time to tuck them into their own beds. I am looking forward to many more evenings of this comforting routine!

And the kids and I have been busy decorating for Halloween and planning a party to rival last year's! We're reviewing recipes and planning menus and thinking about costumes, and we're really looking forward to this year's trip to the pumpkin patch! Our schoolroom has been decorated with some really cute posters that my dad gave us over the summer (from the teacher with whom he had been student teaching), and it looks so cute! We've also added posters of ancient Egypt, so the room is looking quite different than when we first started this school year!

With cooler days, we've been playing outside more, too. Two of my friends came over with their kids yesterday, and it was wild and wonderful and fun! I hope to get together with them more often in the near future, as their company is just so enjoyable. I just love these unrushed days. Not much to do, nowhere special to be, just here, doing the things I enjoy with the people I love. What a blessedly wonderful life!