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Hello, Reader.

My family has been camping all week, so I'm writing to you from inside a tent while my children snooze away in adjacent cots. Several of my adult kids have brought their children out to join in the fun and are in their own tents (or rented RVs) nearby.

The weather has been great this year, and we're storing up a lot of wonderful memories, so I'm going to hammer out this newsletter and get right back to it. Hope all the October holidays in this week's link list will help your family make some fun memories this month, as well!

Free resources for you this week:

• Oct 11: World Egg Day - enjoy our egg casserole , some egg muffins or a nice flakey quiche​
• Oct 13: Good Samaritan Day - review the story & color a picture of the verse he epitomizes
• Oct 17: Spreadsheet Day - here's a handy spreadsheet for tracking expenses​
• Oct 19: Evaluate Your Life Day - time to assess your goals & make any needed adjustments
• Oct 22: Smart is Cool Day - "Be cool. Stay in school"... and study to show yourself approved​
• Oct 25: Make a Difference Day - try one of 50 small but impactful volunteer opportunities​
• Oct 27: National Potato Day - how about some creamy potato soup for lunch?
• Oct 31: Halloween - give trick-or-treaters our gospel tracts along with their candy

What I'm reading this week:

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I finished reading Gordon Korman's War Stories aloud to the three kids/grandkids I'm still homeschooling the day before we left for camp. Korman is an excellent storyteller, and this book is no exception. Young Trevor Firestone has always idolized his great-grandfather, GG, a WWII vet who landed in Normandy, fought his way across enemy lines, and helped liberate a small French village. So when GG is invited back by the town to be honored during an anniversary celebration, Trevor jumps at the chance to accompany him. As they retrace GG's steps across Europe, Trevor begins to understand that war is not the glamorous adventure he always envisioned.

What we're eating this week:

We've enjoyed a huge variety of s'mores this week, thanks to a family s'mores recipe contest our daughter Bethany sponsored while we've been camping this week.

On the podcast this week:

I didn't get a new episode published this week, since it was impossible to record one in the wee hours of the morning (when I usually do such things) without disturbing everyone else sleeping in the tent. But here's one from the archives for you:

Loving Life at Home: Episode 38 ​MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING SYLE​ Modern lists of learning styles are much lengthier than the one I learned in school. And — after raising 12 children — I can think of a few additional learning styles I’ve never seen on any chart. So in this episode of Loving Life at Home, we’re discussing how to make the most of your child’s learning style and what to do if you can’t figure out which it is.. Listen Now

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Progress on last week's goals:

Surprisingly, I got almost all the items on my to-do list done before we left for our camping trip. That includes: ✅ going to Dallas for the State Fair of Texas, ✅ making a quilled card for my craft class, ✅ felting more mushrooms for my fall tree, ✅ transplanting two dozen iris bulbs, ✅ attending our co-op's party for homeschool moms, ✅ planning food for our trip, ✅ setting up campsite for family camp (though my husband, sons, and grandsons did the lion's share of that task while the girls attended a baby shower), ✅ outlining our family's 2025 Christmas letter, ✅ replacing our water filters, and ✅ recording video (but ❌ not the audio) for my entry in our upcoming Flanders Family Film Festival (it's not due until December, but I wanted to film as much footage as possible while the family was gathered for camp this week).

Personal goals for this week:

• cut grandson's hair ✂️
• crochet a few pumpkins 🎃
• strike camp 🏕️
• attend my husband's 40-year high school reunion in San Antonio 🥳
• celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with friends 🦃
• bury in-ground compost bins 🪏
• record 2 podcasts 🎙️
• declutter closet 👗

If you enjoy this newsletter and would like to support my work, there are five ways for you to do that:

1. ​Pray for me & my family
2. Invite a friend to subscribe to this newsletter​
3. Follow me on Instagram​
4. ​Buy one of my books​
5. Hit reply and say hello 👋

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Thanks so much for all your help! I'll be back next week with more links, reviews, and resources. If you have any special requests, please let me know. 😊