Bangsund Family Blog: October in Pictures

Yep. All of October and November came and went without a single blog post. Sorry, folks. It happens. But today I am sick. Like "sent home early from my leadership meeting this morning" sick. I've been ordered to rest. I have slept some. I will sleep some more later. Right now I will sit lay on my couch and blog. Here's October, folks.

There is no story behind this picture, but I love how cozy Paul looks. The weather was downright balmy in our area for most of October, but mornings began to cool off, allowing Paul to snuggle with this blanket.

This is simply a very accurate representation of what these boys spend a lot of their time doing. We are still able to finish school before noon on most days. After that...they do this. And play in the basement. :-)

The next picture needs a little bit of introduction. Our church, Roots Community, continues to serve a local elementary school by doing Backpack Buddies. We deliver bags of food before each weekend for six students, enabling them to eat on Saturdays and Sundays. In order to have bags of food, we buy LOTS of food each month. The money came from Roots' Advent Conspiracy giving last year. It's pretty awesome. I had some help at Winco for the Backpack Buddies shopping trip in October.

Adorable behind the trunk full of food.

So, then I took all that food home. And some other AMAZING helpers did this...

The beginning

Finished!

Luke and Paul carried every single food item down the stairs in rather heavy bags that I loaded from the trunk in the garage. And they did it with happy, joyful hearts. Know why? We have been abundantly clear with them about Backpack Buddies. When we feed hungry people, we are feeding Jesus Christ. This is ALL for Him. And that gives us all joy.

Then came the super fun part - PACK NIGHT!

This picture doesn't do it justice because there were a total of about sixteen people here that night. Our Gospel Community (think awesomest version of a small group ever) came over and we packed the bags and prayed over the kids who would receive them. It was so good. I was so encouraged. There were times during the last year when we had one other family at pack night. It works, but it is so much cooler with a houseful of folks. I love the Body of Christ. And I'll take any opportunity for time together to serve, connect, laugh and point each other to Jesus. It's just good.

Okay. What else happened in October? Apple cider pressing party!

My friend Holly and I cut up a LOT of apples together. It was sweet.

Then the kids took turns cranking this business to mush them up. (Okay, the dads did most of the cranking.)

Proof that it was hard to turn the crank...the littler people in the picture above didn't actually turn it. But Luke was DETERMINED.

Pour the mush into this thingie. Turn it. And voila! Cider!

Okay. I posed this shot. ;-)

The day after the apple cider, we helped Dave and Lynne host two German students. We took them to a pumpkin patch near our house. There was a hayride, but I failed to get any decent pictures. Here's a shot of the girls with two goats and my children. It'll do.

The boys have been really into making crazy faces for pictures lately. So, I felt like this was a triumph.

The following Monday, I received a phone call from a Roots buddy in desperate need of childcare so she could go see the chiropractor. My answer: YES! And look at this cuteness:

Yes, he totally needed to go to the bathroom when I took this picture. We took care of that.

And here's little brother:

You would have said yes, too.

Most weekends Erik does Science Saturday (or Sunday) with the boys. Here's the skinny, people. I've said it before. I am awesome at analyzing literature, diagramming sentences, finding historical patterns and themes, and lots of other school bits. The science experiments kill me. When it doesn't go like the book says it should, I can't figure out why! I can't tweak one little thing and make it work. That's why God gave me Erik!!

They are studying all about electricity this year. And it is so much fun to see these three "discover" together. Our curriculum is amazing. If you ever want to run super cool experiments with simple household objects, look into T.O.P.S. It's fabulous.

They've built a circuit with a switch using a battery, aluminum foil and clothes pin. So cool!

And then we did more pumpkin-related things...

Paul used a fun craft kit from Grandma to create this spider pumpkin.

Paul also cleaned the goop out of his pumpkin with just a little help from Erik.

I wish we could convince him to do theatre stuff. Seriously. Facial expressions this large belong on stage.

Meanwhile...

Luke organized the tools, removing the ones that were clearly no longer efficient. Yep. These dudes are two very different people.

Luke didn't want to carve his pumpkin. He wanted Erik to do it with precision. So Erik did!

It's a Minecraft character called a creeper. Don't google it.

Paul's pumpkin didn't actually get carved that day. He dithered for a few days about what he was going to do. And then I failed to get a picture of the final product. He basically free-handed the same face, giving it an upturned, smiling mouth instead of the frown.

And now for the costumes! (Sorry that it's nearly December and you are looking at costumes.)