It is both one of the longest months of the year and the fastest moving. How is that possible? Last weekend we actually had a Saturday without a race or trip and a Sunday with just church – it was blissful and highly unusual. We are also in the thick of fire season here in the Bay Area making life very anxious and stressful. This past week our area was blanketed in the heavy smoke from both the Kincaid Fire in Sonoma and the Grizzly Island Fire, endured the second wave of forced power shut offs from PG&E due to high winds. We haven’t lost our power yet but our friends and neighbors have. Our house has become a place for people to use Wifi and get meals and I’m so glad we have been able to help our friends. Living with threats of fires and smoke and power outages is just so WEIRD. Sadly, this is our new normal in California; fire season has become a many month long experience over the past few years and honestly, our family still has some PTSD after Atlas Fire in 2017 which I actually wrote about here. Living in California this past month and indeed, these past several years, has started to feel a little apocalyptic. It’s hard to explain the anxiousness and stress of fire season and the accompanying smells of smoke, worry about having to leave, worry about losing your power or school being cancelled; life just kind of grinds to a weird halt. Add to that we had an earthquake earlier in the month (Sam and I were home and never felt it but Sophie did upstairs in her room – how did we miss that??) and a nearby energy plant explosion and well…positively apocalyptic over here.

October wasn’t just a fire month; it was also a month of cross country races for Simon and Sophie, Homecoming for both of the high schoolers and lots of other little trips and activities. There were definitely lots of great moments; it has just felt overwhelming with the fire stuff that that has colored the last half of the month. OK, enough of that – onto Small Squares October! The good stuff!

First up, Simon and Sophie went to Homecoming. They had a great time at the game and then went to the dance. Simon took his girlfriend Madeline (in the red dress) and Sophie went with a group of friends. They had a blast and it was so much fun to see them all get excited about getting dressed up and being together as friends. These kids clean up great!

I painted my entire kitchen BLUE! It used to be an antique grey and one day I was just like “I need for this space to POP a bit more” and fell in love with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Greek Blue for my cabinets. Once I made the decision within 24 hours I had acquired all of the paint and was in full painting mode. It took chunks of time each day for four days but I pulled it off waaaaay faster than I was expecting. I’m planning on a more in depth post in the near future.

We fully embraced pumpkins and all things fall…even though it took until the VERY end of October to be chilly. Octobers in the Bay Area tend to run a little hot a little too long. Still, I did my usual Cinderella pumpkins on our front porch all courtesy of Larry’s Produce. Larry’s puts on an amazing display of fall each autumn. Each of my four kids has benefited from field trips here each October and our pumpkins ALWAYS come from Larry’s.

I continued my afternoon hikes in Lagoon Valley Park while my kids are at cross country practice. I don’t listen to music while I’m hiking through the hills; I will occasionally listen to a podcast but most of the time I just hike and listen to the air swirling around me. It has been such a restorative thing going on these little solo hikes. Also, Lagoon Valley is at it’s most gorgeous in the golden months of fall.

I took a quick trip with some friends; more on that another time. It was wonderful and much needed.

Simon raced the Clovis Invitational 5K and hit a new PR with a 16:02 on the Woodward Park state course. It was a great meet for him and he was able to push through to a new best. He raced smart.

Sophie also raced at the Clovis Invitational and hit a new PR with a 21:45! I’ve never seen her race better! She had a fantastic race and I’m so excited to see where she pushes to next.

We also enjoyed a few additional races, however Simon was unable to run and defend his title from last year’s league championship due to a nasty nine day bout with the FLU. It was the worst.

We had a beautiful dinner one night in our friends backyard that is a total oasis of beauty and calm and inspiration. They have created what can be best described as a Garden of Eden. I have had many great meals back here and I always love it.

Bebe and I did a little work for Purina to shed light on their Purple Leash Project. Such a great project shining a light on the need for pets and their families to stay together when families go to a shelter. Many shelters set up to handle victims of domestic violence do not have provisions for pets to come which just makes the whole family situation more difficult. I was so happy to work with Purina on changing that.

My younger two dressed up for Halloween as Little Red Riding Hood (thank you Sophie for still having that glorious red cape – everything else was borrowed from me) and a nerd. It was super low key this year with their costumes because they didn’t seem that into it until literally the week of Halloween AND Sebastian had the flu. Halloween was kind of back burner for us :). Sophie and her group of friends dressed up as cute aliens and I love that these girls still dress up for Halloween. They have all been friends for years and I hope they do this until they are seniors :).

On Halloween night Sam and I took our younger two to a neighborhood party and trick or treating while Sophie hosted a little party at our house. Simon was with his girlfriend. When I got home all of the teenagers wanted to watch a scary movie. I told them if they REALLY wanted to be scared out of their minds, they needed to watch The Ring. Believe me, those kids were terrified. Mission accomplished! Also, they were totally stress eating and we had no food left :). You can’t even see all of the kids that were on this couch because there are some that are buried in the back corner.

I feel like I’m forgetting a bunch of stuff but that’s all I can remember for October. Here we go, November!