I woke up early this morning to plan out my calendar for the week, and I felt a degree of sadness that we’ll soon be saying goodbye to the glorious month of October.

I’ve finally realized this is my favorite month of the year.

Our weather has been crisp but not cold. Today was the first day I sent all my children off to school in sweaters — and we’ve finally pulled their long-sleeve uniform shirts off the shelf.

We’ve spent the past few weeks doing so many fun things as a family — going on hayrides, visiting pumpkin patches, and attending fall carnivals.

Over the weekend, I helped out at a couple of booths at the fall festival at my children’s school. I had signed up to help with the second-grade ring toss, but when I arrived, the game had been changed to “bean spitting.” I’ve never participated in such an activity before!

We had a large plastic container of uncooked lima beans, and the bean spitter had to spit across a certain mark, according to age, in order to win one of our fabulous prizes — which included stuffed animals, silly string, rhinestone jewelry, and foam swords. Several of the dads enjoyed this game, and one told me that he used to be good at spitting tobacco juice between his teeth onto a brick wall in high school. He also told me his mama raised five boys and wouldn’t take a lick of nonsense from any of them.

Have you ever spit an uncooked lima bean any distance before? I tried it because I had my eye on winning a stuffed poodle for my daughter, but it’s harder than it looks! I could only spit as far as the seven-year-old mark — so perhaps I should go out in our backyard and practice. Who knows? Maybe we’ll have a nice crop of lima beans next spring.

We’ve somehow managed to keep our kids’ focus away from Halloween this month. I’ve hung an autumn wreath on our front door, and we’ve got pumpkins all over the house, but no spooky stuff. Our children’s schools have been wonderful this year about celebrating autumn and not Halloween. The halls and classrooms are decorated in pumpkins, colorful leaves, squirrels, owls, corn, and scarecrows. We do have a preschool costume parade this week, but the school doesn’t allow scary costumes — so the kids just have fun dressing up as heroes or princesses.

We took several trips this month as a family — taking advantage of the weather. We attended our state’s agricultural fair for the first time, where some friends of ours were showing their lambs. The weekend before last, my husband and I helped chaperone a school field trip to Charleston, and my daughter and I enjoyed an absolute thrilling ride in a horse and buggy. I think I’ve left part of my heart in Charleston, South Carolina.

The older I get, the more I enjoy taking historic tours and learning all the intimate details of a place. I even took notes during our horse and buggy tour, thinking of stories I’d like to write taking place in Charleston.

We also visited Ft. Sumter, where the first shot was fired that began the War Between the States (not to be called the Civil War, I was told, as “there was nothing civil about that war!”) We enjoyed a fascinating self-tour of the Yorktown aircraft carrier, which was used during WWII in the Pacific. My mind was on complete overload, scribbling notes and asking questions to the retired veterans who I met there.

Now, with November just around the corner, we begin sliding into the holidays. My calendar is already too full — and I’m beginning to wonder how we’ll juggle everything, while still trying to teach our children to be thankful for the simple gifts God has given us.

I hope you’re doing well. I know some of you aren’t so interested in my journey through Beth Moore’s Daniel study, but it’s all I can keep up with for now. I can’t wait to write my next post about it!

Thanks for continuing to read here — I wish you a wonderful November ahead!