October has been a great month.  I feel like we’re finally getting into a rhythm with our schedule and a lot of great memories have been made.  The boys had their first sleep over, I had lunch/coffee with several new friends, our church small group started meeting at our house, and we had our first snowfall and turned on the fireplaces. Calvin also had his first appointment at the Mayo Clinic (he’s a Type 1 Diabetic) and I am still getting used to the idea that we live less than 4 miles from one of the best hospitals in the world, including a top-notch Pediatric Endocrinology department. We’ve been enjoying watching the leaves change, the cooler temperatures, soup on the stove, and watching football.  The month was closed out with having friends over for take-and-bake pizza followed by walking around the neighborhood, tagging along behind the kids as they trick-or-treated.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you may have picked up that I have a thing for kitchenware.  I was a Food Network junkie when I left the corporate world, so I could support Jeff in full-time youth ministry and be a homemaker.  I thoroughly relished the time and spent much of it cooking and baking from scratch and, as a part of that, building my collection of kitchen gear.  I built up a pretty well-equipped kitchen with great knives, utensils, pots & pans, cutting boards, etc., but I still keep an eye out for special pieces I can add or tools I can upgrade. Some of my favorite pieces of kitchen gear over the past couple of years have been wooden spoons and spatulas.  I love the warm patina they develop over time.  The more they are used, the better the look, in my opinion. Through Instagram, I