Thanksgiving

 

It's been a busy time for us.  For Thanksgiving, we always go visit my in-laws, and this year was no exception.

Malachi and Pilot joined us, on break from college.  We also got to see Nathaniel's sisters, brother-in-law, and our niece and nephews, plus our good friends.

We had our dogs with us, which was greatly appreciated by my niece!

On Thanksgiving day, we went for a nice walk in the woods at a nature preserve where my father-in-law volunteers.

I do so love a walk in the woods, even if I can't walk as long as I'd like.

Hickory Nuts

 This year has been a banner year for nuts of all types.  The acorns are everywhere, our walnut tree that has looked like it's going to die every year since we've lived here produced lots of walnuts, and the hickory trees have spread their nuts all over our yard.  We've never tried to harvest the hickory nuts before, but I've heard they're tasty, and there are tons this year, so Gyunay worked on filling the 5-gallon bucket while Emry worked on raking.

We had an impressive amount of nuts, and the boys took turns breaking a few open with a hammer.

Then the three of us tried a hickory nut.  The boys instantly ran to spit it out.  It gave the mouth a feeling of eating an unripe persimmon, with an unpleasant aftertaste.  I went inside and researched hickory nuts to see what we could have done wrong.  There are 4 or 5 types of delicious hickory nuts, described as having a slight maple flavor and being well worth the work of getting them out of the shell.  However, there is one variety of hickory nut that is inedible: the bitternut hickory.  I can guess which kind we have.

The younger kids and I made a weekend visit to my family last weekend.  We had a much-overdue family gathering.

It was great to see so many relatives that live close, but we haven't visited in years.

Naturally, we also spent time at Nana and Pa's, and the cousins had a lot of fun.

Introducing Maple and Camping Recap

So we got a bit ridiculous and got another puppy.

She's an adorable beagle.  We call her Maple.

Acorn is getting used to the idea.  

I haven't posted much because I've been having trouble uploading pictures.  I finally got some done, and here is a quick camping recap:

Lydia carved her first pumpkin.  She came home and carved two more.

The kids had a blast at camping. Nathaniel stayed for 4 nights, and Emry was there for the whole time.  Lydia stayed 3, and poor Gyunay got sick and only had 2 nights.  

We went to Spring Mill, which is my favorite park to visit, mostly because of the pioneer village.  I went up for 2 days/1night.  I'm still recovering.

Elijah also went for a couple of days, but I wasn't there when he was, so he isn't in any of my photos.  

 

October Harvest Totals

 

Beans, Crescent - 15.5 oz

Cucumber, Edmunson - 10

Cucumber, green - 1

Eggs - 168

Gourds, mini - 5

Kale - 1 bunch

Pepper, Bulgarian hot -2

Pepper, Bulgarian sweet - 2

Pumpkin - mini Jack Be Littles - 3

Tomato, Druzba- 1

Tomato, Emmy - 3

Book Review - Into the Fire by Irene Hannon

 

I've read (and enjoyed) several novels by Irene Hannon over the past few years.  This one was no exception.  As usual, the characters were intriguing.  I did feel that Bri in particular could have been fleshed out a bit better, but I enjoyed both of the main characters.  The book is suspenseful, with several twists coming into play.  The faith element centered on forgiveness, but otherwise was not a main part of the novel.  I did find it a bit odd that all of the characters had extremely traumatic backstories, too.  Overall, though, this was an intriguing read that kept me interested throughout.  

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher but was not required to write a positive review.  All opinions are my own.

First College Concert

Malachi performed in his first concert at NKU this past week.  Besides all of his siblings and Nathaniel and me, we were joined by my parents, Nathaniel's sister and two of her kids, and 3 of Pilot's friends.  Malachi had quite the cheering section.  It was a really good performance, with songs I already knew I liked, like" Dance Macabre" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and a couple that I wasn't as familiar with but really enjoyed.

The kids and I got to see both Malachi's and Pilot's dorm rooms before we headed home.  Malachi came home with us, and Pilot joined us the next day.  They had a couple of days off for fall break, so they had a long weekend at home.

In other news, the big camping trip is coming up.  Lydia tried on this sweatshirt to see if it would still fit Acorn:

It's a bit small, but it will work for camping.  She does get cold outside, so Lydia likes to make sure she has something warm to wear.  Most of the dog clothes she got from Sherri last year are way too small now, as Acorn has grown tremendously since we first got her.  She's still a small dog, but she's not teeny tiny anymore.

 

Boys and Birds

 

Harry is always popular, so I got a few new pictures of him.  The boys were happy to pose with him, too.

We let the chickens and Harry into the yard for a while the other day.  They enjoy exploring.  Several hens let themselves out of their yard daily, but not all do, and of course, Harry can't fly out.  So we let them all have a turn.

Also, Lydia brought me this the other day:

She was so excited and called it the best caterpillar ever.  I naturally had to inform her that it's a tomato worm, and I generally feed them to the chickens.  She was horrified because "it's so pretty!"  We compromised, and she set him loose by the mailbox.  I didn't bother to let her know about the others I fed to the chickens.

Gyunay has been building with his magna tiles.  He makes some pretty cool buildings.

And we made a quick trip to my parents' house this weekend.  The boys wanted a picture.  The boys always want a picture!