Hello November!

Why hello, November!  You sure sneaked up on me.  Which is not to say I'm disappointed.  No, no, I'm delighted!  Just a little surprised is all.  Fall is waning...  But I'm glad you're here.

It makes me sad, sad, sad, when the months leading up to October 31st are pumpkins and apples and rakes and leaves and costumes and candy.  And BAM!  November 1st hits and it's evergreens and reindeer and candy canes and jingle bells and mistletoe.   It's like no one even cares about November.  

I care.

Last I checked the 432-year-old Gregorian calendar, November was still a thing.

And I love it.  I love November!  So I'm making the most of November in life and on ye olde blog.

One great thing about November is - it's still fall!!!!  And I love fall!  And although it's the second half of fall and the leaves are less glorious and the skies less cerulean (ooh... good word), it's also the part of fall that requires mittens and scarves and toasty warm sweaters.  Mittens!!!  It's getting cooler and pretty soon we'll have our first fire in the fireplace and our first come-in-out-of-the-cold hot chocolate... and we'll be wearing mittens!

Keeping it obvious - how about Thanksgiving?  Doesn't that count for anything anymore?  I love that before things start to get all frantic and... well frantic, as Christmas approaches, we take a whole day (or more!) to make gratitude a priority.  I love Thanksgiving.  It's unfortunate that I need a national holiday to smack me upside the head and remind me how blessed I am, but I'm awfully glad we do!  

If you're hip to the Liturgical year of the Church, November's got some major feast days - All Souls Day (Nov 2) and Christ the King (one of my favorites, we'll probably get to sing "Crown Him with Many Crowns!", Nov 23) and of course, All Saint's Day (today!)  Here's what the kiddos wore this year (LOTS of repeat costumes b/c some distracted mother planned the soup party just after All Saint's Day this year and didn't start thinking about costumes until All Saint's eve...  must plan better for next year.)

May I present St. Vincent de Paul, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St, Clare, and St, Michael the Archangel :)

But, wait!  There's more!

How about some of the fabulous November stuff happening here at Ordinary Lovely?  

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month so I'll be featuring some new posts on Aaron and our family's life with type 1 diabetes.   I have a couple posts already written, but if there's anything you'd like me to write about specifically, please let me know!  I'd love to hear from you on idea or questions you have :)  

And if that wasn't enough excitement for one month... starting this week I will be sharing a new little series called Kid-Made Gifts.  Once a week I'll share an idea for simple gifts that kids can make to give as gifts at Christmas.   I really love handmade gifts and love helping my kiddos prepare their gifts each year.  So do other moms apparently - I'm very excited to have some other wonderful women joining me for this series!  Keep your eyes out for my first guest bloggers!   Yay!

All this... brought to you by November!