Last month

Did I say I planned to hibernate a few days?  Who was I kidding?  After developing the habit of posting everyday, I couldn't stay away for long. 

While I was writing all those 31 posts for the month of October, our life on the home front did not slow down.  I admit that there were days I could think of little else but what I was going to share when I sat down to write that evening, but there were also days so full that I almost forgot to take a moment to click 'publish.' 

During the month of October...

• Benjamin turned 3!  I even managed to pull off a football cake on a whim the day before his party.  I traced a quick outline on paper and prayed it would turn out so I wouldn't have to bake a second cake.  Gavin fetched me a football from the shed so I could be sure to pipe the laces on accurately.  I'm not a sports girl by nature.

• We hosted three separate dinners at our home.  We love that our new home has space to welcome other large families!  At two of our gatherings, we spread out in several rooms, but with one family we decided to squeeze in together, and not counting one child in a booster seat on the floor, we fit twelve sets of buns around the dining room table.

• In addition to hosting a few gatherings, we also attended a couple of other get-togethers, making this quite the month for parties. 

• I think I was a little crazy when I agreed to help organize our homeschool group's annual Talent Show this year.  With my mind on 31 Days, it was about a week before the show when I realized I had done almost nothing to prepare.  We pulled it off, though, with about a dozen performers and almost as many artwork entries. (Aren't those door greeters the cutest?!  That's my 7-year-old daughter, Maddie, on the left and my ten-year-old sister, Bekah, on the right.  Each time someone walked through the doors they said, "Welcome to the Talent Show.  Here's a program and please have a seat."  They even gave that line to me!)

• And then last week, my littlest two babies were sick.  Benjamin woke in the night with a barking cough, but showed no other symptoms.  Less than 24 hours later, Alaine developed a high fever with no other symptoms.  With both of them sick most of last week, we spent many days in a row in the house.  During the last month, a reader asked advice for how to cope when a mother of little ones has sick children or is sick herself.  I didn't get a chance to discuss that topic in my series, but after walking that path again last week, I'm inspired to touch on that soon. 

• I also spent a few hours over the past month reading the 31 Day series of other bloggers.  I limited myself to a handful, but I'm thinking it will be fun to go back through a few blogs I didn't have time for and catch up.  It might be more fun to read a series in its entirety anyway than have to wait each day for a new entry.  These were a few of the series I followed.  Do you have any other recommendations?

After being so focused on a topic last month, it is hard to find a place to begin now that I have to think up fresh ideas again.  As always, I welcome your comments and questions. {hint, hint}