My three Schnoodles and I have been missing our early morning walks without a flashlight. While the vast majority of folks seem to dread returning to standard time, those of us who are of the Benjamin Franklin persuasion – early to bed, early to rise – are grateful for the benefits of better sleep. We fall asleep faster, sleep more deeply with fewer overnight wake-ups in the colder months once we get warm and snug (we leave a window cracked and it’s sheer heaven), and admire the daylight before work.
I took several photos of the boys walking toward the sunrise yesterday. They love getting out and taking in the world through their noses. The scent of leaf and shrub smoke wafted through the air, and it added all those layers of autumn life in the country to our experience to start the day. I learned later yesterday that a 100-acre controlled burn was happening about 25 miles to our south. I wrote a nonet about our walk for this morning’s blog.
I’m giving the mushroom coffee a try. For the next thirty days, I’m seeking to improve my gut health and inflammation with this product. I’m learning of the oat wars and the numbers and types of mushrooms offered in Ryze and the claim feuds between all the mushroom coffee companies over which is better, but I’m hoping that somewhere in all of this I can feel less bloated and experience a relief from lower back and hip pain – common woes of women approaching their 60s.
It’s like that wooden walkway in Jamaica when you finish climbing Dunn’s River Falls where all the vendors in their straw-roofed cabanas are holding the very same items and practically getting in fights with each other if you step closer to one of them than the other or try to take a closer look in one direction. That’s what purchasing this mushroom coffee has felt like- keeping my eyes in one direction, picking one, and leaving the store quickly.
If you have any experience with any of these products, I’d love to know about your journey, because Lord help me if I open the Pandora’s Box of truth on this coffee. Making sense of the hype and sorting out all the benefits is tempered by the voice of experience, and I welcome and value yours!
In my school district, our system gives out silver Portrait of a Graduate (POG) Coins whenever a student demonstrates competencies in various aspects of citizenship and humanity.
Two months ago, six of our humanities students in our ninth grade academy took part in a state-wide presentation through Georgia Tech to share their work learning about poverty and the local projects they took on to address poverty in our community.
This will be our third year working with Elia Moreno of Texas as we move from Aha! to Action! to Advocacy! The first year, we Zoomed with her because of Covid constraints and travel hiccups. The second year, we brought her to our county (I had Covid on the day she came to visit), and this year she is returning in person- today – to stand with the students on our auditorium’s stage and continue the good work that she has helped shape in our rural Georgia county.
Students will enter a time of reviewing their work and then begin the next phase by entering a think tank to create ways to meet the needs of our community. Each year, they bring proposals to local elected officials for feedback on their ideas and suggestions on ways to make good things happen. We are building a community garden and providing food through a backpack program for children and families.
We’re blessed to be part of a community that steps up to help meet needs of others.
At the end of each month, (or beginning), I review my yearly goals and spend some time reflecting on how I’m doing in living the life I want to live ~ a way of becoming my own accountability partner and having frequent check-ins to evaluate my progress. I’m still in the process of revising some of my goals as I encounter successes…..and setbacks. New goals have asterisks for the month of November, when I will report on them in a few weeks. For the month of October, here’s my goal reflection:
Category
Goals
My Progress
Literature
Read for Sarah Donovan’s Book Group
Send out Postcards
Blog Daily
I participated in the October book discussion with Sarah’s reading group for Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. I’ll participate in the book discussion for Assessment 3.0 this month. Time for reading has been scarce lately, but Audible is a good way to try to keep up the pace when all I can do is multi-task.
I sent no postcards this month.
I continue to blog daily, and the daily writing and reflecting is a wonderful habit for me. I don’t feel complete without some form of daily writing, and the blog is a way of continuing the habit.
I had a Zoom meeting with Ruth Ayers of Choice Literacy about writing for her website. I look forward to spending some time writing about local literacy events.
Creativity
*Decorate for fall
*Create Shutterfly Route 66
I created a surprise ducking of our office. I used tiny ducks left over from my brother in law’s birthday ducking and put them to use in the office, even adding Halloween ducks to the lineup.
I have been trying to get to Shutterfly since July, so if I haven’t accomplished this goal by the end of October, I may give up on this one. Update: I’m giving up on this goal.
Spirituality
Tune in to church
Pray!
Keep OLW priority
We have been tuning in to church. With Dad preaching every Sunday in October and a few Sundays ahead of that, it makes the church home hunt take a back seat until my childhood church gets a new preacher, since I have the opportunity to hear Dad.
My car is still my prayer chamber for daily prayer, and there’s so much to give thanks for. I continue my conversations with the good Lord each morning and afternoon.
I’m still keeping my OLW my priority: pray!
Reflection
Spend time tracking goals each month
I’m tracking goals, revising, and considering some new categories as I look at my goal table.
Self-Improvement
*Reach top of weight range
This is a setback for me this month. I’ve hit major stress and gained weight, despite joining WW. I need to set a firm date and get the mental mindset that it takes to stay on track. I have work to do. Update: every day, the diet is starting “tomorrow.” I seriously need a good mindset to start back. I’m keeping this goal. I need to get on track. Tomorrow.
Gratitude
Devote blog days to counting blessings
I begin the days this way and end them giving thanks as well.
Experience
Embrace Slow Travel
Focus on the Outdoors
I’ve taken a trip in October to F D R State Park for a Little Guy Southern States Meet Up. We met people who have the same kind of camper we have, and we even signed up for next year’s meet up in Tennessee at Roan Mountain State Park. My brother and his fiancee came for a visit during Fall Break, and it was wonderful having some time together with them.
I’m still focusing on the outdoors with birdwatching adventures and camping. We also built our own fire pit foundation for the fire pit my son gave us for Christmas last year.
Tiny ducks keep popping up everywhere! Who could be doing this, sneaking into the office under the cover of darkness to let these cuties in, bringing smiles and prompting Post-It notes of thanks to “The Duckmaster?” No one knows.
Graham cracker crust with marshmallow and chocolate Baked and then browned on top Rich and sweet but everyone liked it Dinner and dessert by the fireWe added Campfire Colors for a dazzling show!
Our son and his family gave us a fire pit last Christmas. They know we love camping and sitting outdoors by the campfire, so this fire pit has been a treasure – especially during the fall months.
But it needed a place to live. We’d been dragging it all around the yard, charring spots in the grass and even having fires on the sidewalk so we could put the TV on the front porch and watch baseball. That’s one thing we love about the country – we live on the backside of nowhere with no neighbors in sight, so we can get away with backwoods stuff like that.
But we needed a little more classy setup, so on Thursday, we invited some family members over on Sunday evening for a chili campfire dinner around the fire pit that we didn’t have yet – and a s’mores pie that lives in my mind but has never been made by me.
On Thursday evening, I asked a friend of ours who delivers wood to please bring me a load. He delivered it on Friday morning.
Project Fire Pit took place Saturday morning. We got up and got dressed – (a weekend accomplishment all its own) and headed out to find materials.
I had checked on Pinterest to scope out a plan and found a photo late Friday night – 10:36 p.m. to be exact. It seemed simple and pretty, so we settled on this design in the photo above. Even though our pit is square, we figured we could probably put a square pit in a round base.
We went to Lowe’s and purchased 20 rounded side bricks, 4 pavers for the fire pit feet, and several bags of white marble rock. We bought 5 busted bags since they were half price, 3 un busted bags, and used an old piece of steel we had in the barn to lay on the bottom.
Several years ago, we’d had a load of gravel delivered for our rock beds, so we jumped in the farm pickup truck and drove over to the gravel pile. We raked it off and used a load of this for the base rock under the pit. We positioned the tailgate over the center and offloaded the gravel, spreading it out as a base layer.
Next, we spread the white marble rock to cover the base layer and match the brick wall holding the rock inside.
I gave the top cover of the metal pit a quick coating of Rustoleum, and about two hours later, our fire pit had a nice new base – and a top that looks brand new!
No more charred lawn!
Next up: Project S’mores Pie!
Follow me for more daring dinner invitations to fire pits that haven’t been built and pies that haven’t been tested. The chili and cornbread? We rely on Bush’s Best Chili Magic and Jiffy Cornbread. There’s nothing like a family gathering to light a little fire under our feet to get things done!
Common Threads 