Hello October

Hello everyone! 

I can’t believe it’s already October. I thought I was so ready for fall, but it’s 48° outside. Two days ago it was 90°. I can’t handle changes that drastic. Especially when I have nothing to wear! 

I’m not a sweatpants kind of person. I think I own one pair. But I’m also in a weird stage where maternity jeans don’t fit well enough to stay up, and my regular jeans are too tight to wear. 

I think I’m going to start a petition to make all maternity jeans have belt loops. I’ll wear a belt low on my waist if it means I don’t have to hike my jeans up every thirty seconds. Also, they need pockets. 

Anyway, enough of wardrobe lamentations. On to the actual blog post. 

We found out we are having a girl! Beyond excited about that. Everything has been checking out good and healthy, and we’re neck deep in the struggle of choosing a name. Apparently I’m a modern gal who married an old soul. Our name tastes are so different. He’s also got to deal with my writer side, and endure all the weird literary names I come up with. 

Canning. Lots of canning. Tomatoes, apples, you name it. My house has been a sticky, delicious smelling dungeon all month. They’re talking we might have record snows this year. Gotta stock up on salsa and jelly if we’re going to survive. 

We chopped silage and Henry and I got to be the cook crew. Casseroles and cookies and Gatorade, oh my! 

It’s one of my favorite and most stressful times of the year. 

Henry has been loving having a friend over every day to play. I love it too, except for the weekends when Henry asks where Lige is every ten minutes. 

My sisters, Henry, and I went Junk Jaunting, which is like state wide garage sales. Henry made out like a bandit, with new tractors and a spring horse, and I found a few treasures for the house we’ll be moving into sometime this winter. (The bear did not come home with us.)

We watched lots of Husker football. We laughed, we cried. It was intense. 

October started off raining. And it hasn’t stopped yet. I so want to get outside and hang Halloween decorations, because as fun as Christmas is, I firmly believe the other holidays should be enjoyed first—looking at you, Hobby Lobby. 

We did start on decorating inside the house. I’ll save the really insane decor for closer to the week of Halloween. My mother in law will be staying with us during that time, so she’ll get to appreciate the full extent of my weirdness. 

Weather permitting, there should be more harvesting and cooking this month. Cooking for the harvesters is a little more low key than for choppers, since they eat in the tractor to harvest. Sandwiches and chips are a staple, though I try to mix it up with runzas and sliders. 

I’ll be hitting the third trimester, which is exciting and horrifying. It seems like this pregnancy has gone so fast. I don’t have anything ready. 

I got a bunch of awesome books last month and I’m hoping to read some of them. 

Last month I revised Blood and Dust like crazy, and I’m currently forty pages away from the end. That number will fluctuate as I cut and add scenes, but I’m getting close. I plan to have it done this month, and rewrite the synopsis, etc, to start querying and pitching in November. 

Speaking of November, October may or may not be a prep month for nanowrimo. Though I’ll for sure be a nano rebel if I do participate and work on editing Bad Boy or Mad Hatter instead of writing a whole new draft. I’m not super inspired on any of my new ideas currently, so I need to get those old ones done before they go too long and stagnate in the swamp of unfinished stories. 

How is your fall going? Do you love fall? Hate it? Love it but need a slower transition into the cold weather? I’d love to hear.