​October is our family's favorite month.  We have tried to "wish" it into lasting longer, to no avail.  Unlike Joshua's prayer in the Old Testament,  where he asked God to let the sun stand still so he could keep fighting, I am afraid the Lord won't cause October to last any longer than it normally does.

SO..John boy came up with a new name for October.  We have decided to extend October into December and call it Octember.  We do like November and December as well, just not QUITE as well as October.  Maybe by renaming it we will get the feeling that October just keeps going on through Christmas.  

At any rate, these past few days have been beautiful.  I don't want them to end.  

I hope you are having a wonderful Octember!

​When my sister, Teresa, and I were young, we "fought" a lot.  I don't mean we came to blows or yelled at each other....our Mother would have never allowed that...but we had our ways! 

If we fussed after Mother had gone to bed, she made us come and sit in the floor in her bedroom and we couldn't make a sound.  If we so much as peeped, the "sit" was much longer!

Sometimes she would put a pillow between us on our bed to keep us on our own side.  Of course I would immediately start inching it over to Teresa's side of the bed.

I told Tommy and John boy about running from Teresa and sitting in a chair, kicking my feet so that she couldn't reach me!  Ah, the memories.

This morning my sister told me an incident I had forgotten.. 

When our Granddaddy died, we went to Virginia for the funeral.  My Grandaddy lived in a section house and his son, Uncle Rudy,  rented another section house beside his.  (These were houses that you could rent from the railroad if you worked for them.)

 We stayed in Uncle Rudy's house when we went up for the funeral.  As Mother put us into bed that night, we started hearing sounds in the wall.  "What is that Mother?"  "Oh, it's just rats in the wall...they won't hurt you!"

Well, that's all I needed.  After Mother left the room, I started talking about those rats in the wall.  Teresa was already a  nervous wreck.  (I was around 10 and she was 5)  Of course, the more nervous she got, the more I talked about those rats and how sometimes they would chew through the wall.

Then I got really creative!  (This is the part I didn't remember).  She said that I told her that our Granddaddy had died in that very bed we were sleeping in!  He didn't, but she didn't know that!

When I told Tommy and John boy this story, John boy said, "No wonder I like creepy things!  You have a dark side to you that I didn't know about!"

Don't worry.  If you come to my house this month, and you hear sounds in the wall, or if you see a skeleton in the room where you sleep, it won't hurt you.  My house is perfectly safe.  I promise......

Several years ago, we decided to have a retreat and invite people from all over the country.  We knew so many wonderful people and we wanted all of them to meet each other.

It was a huge success and people at the retreat said "let's do another one"!  

After the second one, people said let's do a third one.  I am not talking about one a year...I am talking 3 a year!  This became the norm....3 retreats a year.  One in the spring, one in the fall, and one in the winter.

For me, those retreats became the highlight of my year,  Many others said the same thing. Some said that the retreats got them through the rest of the year.  I felt the same.

We just had our fall retreat at Christian Acres Camp in Bluefield, West Virginia.  The date had been on the calendar for a long time, so we had no idea the upheaval we were facing.

We had about 50 people signed up.  They were coming from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio.  Quite a gathering!

The day came for us to drive to West Virginia.  There were torrential rains all the way to the camp.  Sometimes it was so dense we could barely see the road.  We made it though,  and after unloading everything it takes to have a retreat (a LOT) we settled in.  Thankfully the rain slacked a bit for us to unload.

We went a day early so we could get everything ready for the rest of the gang to come in on Friday.  We went to bed, happy to be settled in.

We got up Friday morning to not only heavy rain but heavy wind.  The trees were bending almost to the ground and as the day progressed, it only got worse.  Little did we know that we were getting the after effects of Hurricane Helene.  And boy were we getting those after effects! 

About 30 people made it to the camp, just in time for all the power to go out.  Robert and Ethan Harvey, spent just about the whole day clearing the road up to the camp where about 8 trees had fallen blocking the road.  Then they went to get gas for 2 generators so we could have electricity in the main meeting room.  Because of them, we were able to cook and to have music!

The dorms were pitch black though!  You couldn't see your hand in front of your face!  Once again, the Harvey family came through, with a box of flashlights!

We have had some wonderful retreats in the past few years...even during COVID when the hotel where we were scheduled, shut it's doors.  That didn't deter us!  We came to the Oaks manse in Knoxville and camped out in the yard and in the gym next door.

This year though, will go down in the history of the Oaks family as one of the best.  Right up there with the COVID retreat, and the Breaking Of My Hip retreat!  Somehow, adversity brings out the best in people!  It can also bring out the worst.  

As for the Oaks retreats, it seems that the more the challenge, the better the retreat.

Having said that though, we can skip the adversity next time Lord!