The past several weeks have been a non-stop flurry of activity, so it feels eerily strange that things have settled down a bit.

We took Jack and Donna out for his birthday (which came two days after Vivian’s). That meant steak and (bottomless) shrimp at Outback and then a few presents and some of Vivian’s signature chocolate cheesecake at home. We’ve had some lovely fall weather happening, which means getting kids out of the house as much as possible. I got one lovely bike ride to work before going through a couple days of rain that postponed our trip to Vala’s until next week.

We were also able to attend TVC’s monthly potluck and saw Ingrid Kimmons, our sponsored missionary from Thailand, stop by to announce her retirement and give the church a trophy of some kind. In other news, we’ve been treating the kids to some culinary experiments, such as engagement chicken, pork tenderloin (bought in bulk from Aldi), and even a sampling of actual coffee (doctored with lots of milk).

We had a brief visit to my parents’ house to see some butterflies before I went and mowed the lawn. Then that evening we went back to First Presbyterian Church to see the 1967 Disney classic, The Jungle Book. We had our fair share of hot dogs, since there was a small crowd (which included the Mills), and we finished off the evening with Play-Dough.

Then on Wednesday (shortly after taking the Civic to the shop when the cam and crankshaft sensors unexpectedly went out on the Interstate), I went to Daddy’s Night at Welcome School with Aaron. I’d gone twice with Hannah during her preschool years, so it was fun to play a bit with Aaron and make a marble painting together. Mrs. Sauerdyke also brought the kids onto the carpet to sing the Daddy Song and the Bear Hunt Song, per tradition, and then we saw a herd of deer on our way back to the car before going home.

So it’s been a quiet couple of weeks on the home front, though Vala’s, a Hayrack Ride at the Hall’s, and Halloween are right around the corner, ushering in the non-stop insanity that is the Holiday Season (Thanksgiving and Christmas), of course.