Is it really October??

                                    

I can't believe September is gone. The weather hasn't exactly caught up to the calendar page yet, but October is here nonetheless. I'm glad. It was a hectic September here. We had Dewey home more often than not last month...a blessing and all, but when he hasn't been here very much and all of a sudden is here, it's a bit of a scheduling mess. We are all out of whack with schooling to say the least. Oh well, that's one of the beauties of homeschooling right? We aren't slaves to the calendar. We can catch up later. And it is t as though we did nothing all month. We just lost the routine of daily books here. We life skill (as a dear online friends calls it) and that means we are always learning something, book in hand or not. 

As the month closed out, we picked up the more stress-filled bits. October 20th my daughter and her boyfriend were in a car accident. They came off pavement onto a gravel road with quite loose gravel, lost control/over compensated, and went off the road into a tree. He banged up his leg a bit, nothing too bad, thank The Lord. My daughter, the driver, literally split her head open. Despite seat belt and airbag, the impact sent her outward, catching her head on the open window/door frame. She ended up with a nearly 7 1/2" long, 3/4" wide slash from eye up and over to the top of her head just behind her ear. She got out of the car and walked over 1/4 of a mile up the lane to our house to come get us because she couldn't find her cell phone. Praise The Lord for protecting and guiding her to us safely! I cannot wrap my head around damage she sustained in the accident and the way The Lord held her and protected her. She literally opened her scalp all the way to the skull itself, yet did no damage at all to her skull or brain.

To call it a miracle and His Mercy is such an understatement. 

She spent just 2 days in the hospital and surgery to repair the scalp damage went really well. The Lord provided us with an excellent plastic surgery crew to oversee the stitches along her forehead. When the stitches and staples were removed, the resulting scar line is very light and very narrow. She stayed home with us 2 weeks to recover and is back at work now with her Dad. Praise The Lord!! It was very close to being a whole other story. The Lord has plans for that girl. I pray every day she realizes that and opens her heart to the future He has planned for her.

                                   

                                                    

Around the Homestead:

The same day as the accident, we had friends come out and pick up Judy and Bo, our Jersey pair. It was upsetting to come to the point they needed to go, but they did. We aren't set up as well as we should be for cows at all. I miss the milk and the butter for sure, but it was near I possible to get Judy bred out here, and I definitely have not got the space for a bull. I debated quite a while over finding them a new home, but in the end, it all worked out. 

In this day where I'm preaching preparedness to all who listen, here I am getting rid of a valuable homestead resource. Crazy, huh? A dairy cow is a huge resource for a family. We will miss that bounty Judy provided, but we aren't a cow kind of homestead here. We are woodland, not pasture and grazing space. We don't have access to breeding stock to keep her in milk. We will go back to focusing on the goats here, and perhaps get some meat rabbits later. We've talked about them for several years now. Maybe now is the time for that direction here.

                                     

With October upon us, I must get more time in with the sewing machine here. Not only do we have a few Christmas project ideas, but the clothing needs are always a work-in-progress with a large family. We also have a couple quilt projects we'd like to work on together. October starts leave little time to really work on things for Christmas, but that's how I roll. I wait until the last minute then stress about finishing on time. So entires it works out perfectly that way. Other times....well, not so much. I'm always hopeful though.

                                          

I'm anxious to see the weather meet up with the calendar so we can move from fans and air conditioning to the woodstove. So far, it's still in the mid to upper 80s around here, but cooler days are coming and I can't wait! There's just something extra special about those cooler days...audio books lending their voice to our schooling, children scattered around the cookstove with various projects in hand, my yarnwork basket and the rocking chair near the fire. I truly LIVE for days like that. 

If only it would snow down here...