Forgiveness in our family often means starting over and getting back to the relationships with each other that we depend on for emotional happiness and which we cherish. When we get angry with each other, we stay made, and often see that anger reflected in how we treat each other until we reach the point of apologizing and then forgiving.

What we've realized though is that it's easier to forgive when you know it affects your day in and day out relationship. So in our household, we're really working to also forgive those who we don't interact with everyday. Although we don't see them regularly and don't always realize we're still angry or affected by a particular event, we can still be affected by those feelings which may unwittingly affect us negatively. So it's important to let those things with strangers or acquaintances go quickly. It's not always forgiveness exactly, but maybe just letting go or giving grace to others.

Voting is important as it's the only way to make strides to put the people in place that reflect your values and priorities. It's hard sometimes to see how it can work when you look at your vote as only one. However, when you start to connect to the greater community and realize there are many people out there that share your same values/priorities then you start to see how collectively all your voices/votes come together to drive change when you need to see it most.

Last night we spent our outdoor time carving pumpkins. It shorter than it might have otherwise been because it was cold! However, we noted the extra special smell in the air that comes with cool weather/winter time. We smelled people burning wood, likely from making little outside fires to stay warm. Tonight we may try to make our own fire.

We have a community garden in our neighborhood that we recently reached out to help manage. We are hopeful that soon our family will get a planter box to manage.

We've been tracking the move from multiple ballot drop off boxes per county to one, even in those largest counties that have 1M plus people. Generally it also seems that with Texas restrictions on absentee voting to a very explicit and short set of requirements means that less people have access to absentee voting/mail-in voting.

The Star Room discussed core values and collectively our top 3 were: Family, Being Nice, and Ants....yep, Ants. Aunts, interestingly enough, was fourth.

Laughing at our house creates deeper relationships. Often laughter heals hurt feelings after an argument (when preceded by an apology) and typically proceeds hugs.

I plan to invest in more energy saving alternatives for my house.

Star Room Answers:
DW: I learn new things.
CW: I get happier.
HP: it makes me think about food.
EB: When I see the Rainbow Queen, I think of rainbows.
AP: I feel happy.
RC: I feel happy.
MR: I just love it.
OO: Every time I see the Heart Queen, I think of love.
OK: I love playing games because even when you lose, it is so much fun.
Mr. Jason: The joy, the strategy, the friendly competitiveness- all of this makes playing games so much fun with the Star Room
BTW, we answered this question after playing a card game called Sleeping Queens.

Running through bubbles with the girls. We love using them in the backyard running through them, catching them and talking about where the bubbles that make it over the fence go before they pop.