I’m absolutely loving fall right now. Maybe it’s because the weather has been beautiful? Or maybe it is because when your kids grow up and become adults and you can’t believe how time went so fast you start holding on to all the moments you are living and you remember to enjoy them?

I’ve got some really not-so-important stuff I want to share with you guys. And I’m figuring the best way for me to do that, without rambling on and on and in order to avoid run-on sentences like this one here and that one up there in the first paragraph, would be to share in list form. So here we go, a list of stuff:

1.  I was sick last week. I had a fever and the whole bit. I spent a couple days on the couch and took the opportunity to start watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix. I had never watched before, not even one single episode. I think I made it through something like 17 episodes during my sick days. But I haven’t watched any since my recovery. I’m hoping I don’t have to get sick again to continue watching.

2.  I have the urge to move to Texas and to start saying y’all. I like the way it sounds – much better than my standard ‘you guys,’ don’t ya think? I’m sure this urge is a direct result of list item #1.

3.  I made a humongo pot of stew over the weekend. I thought it was the perfect fall meal to celebrate the best birthday ever.

The veggies were chopped that morning and put in the fridge, all ready to be added to the pot after returning home from the pumpkin patch. When the time came to add veggies I poured in the big bag of chopped carrots, celery, and onion and let the stew simmer.

When we started eating dinner I thought it was odd that I scooped myself a big ol’ bowl and didn’t end up with a single potato – not one bit of potato in the entire bowl.

Then I gasped real huge for dramatic affect and ran to the fridge. Sure enough the chopped potatoes were still in the fridge. I forgot the potatoes!

We ate the stew anyway and I was the only one who complained about the missing potatoes.

4.  In other stew related news, did you know there is a reason that cornstarch needs to be mixed with cold water for thickening purposes?

My husband tackled the stew thickening job this weekend and instead of following the distinct directions of mixing the cornstarch with cold water he chose his own method. He took just a little bit of the hot stew broth, and a little bit of cornstarch, added them both to the shaker container and began shaking.

Almost immediately there was an explosion. I happened to standing close by and may have screamed when I was showered with stew broth.

That concludes my fact sharing list for today.

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

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Saturday was my husband’s birthday.

Our oldest girl and her family packed the kids in the car and came to visit. Our youngest girl drove home from college for the weekend. We had all of our kids and grand kids together for the whole entire day.

There was pumpkin patch visiting and hayride riding.

There was meal sharing and lots of laughing.

There was pumpkin decorating and happy birthday singing.

There were messes made and cousins playing.

Hot chocolate was ladled from the stove top.

Power tools, safety glasses and hair dryers were used. And the Little People paramedic spent the day on the kitchen island with us.

When it was all said and done, when messes were cleaned and the house was quiet, my 3 year old grandson sat contented on the stool in the kitchen and with a sweet voice declared,

“that was the best birthday ever.”

My heart was full and I was quick to agree.

But you know, I’m convinced it wasn’t the pumpkins, the hot chocolate, the gifts or the ice cream cake that made that day go down as the best ever.

Things don’t bring about those kind of days – spending time with the ones you love create the best birthdays ever.

 
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Are you all following along at the Nester’s place? There are something like over 1200 people doing the 31 Days Of (fill in the blank) series. So much goodness going on. Seriously, some real good stuff but obviously way too much for one person to read.

I’ll highlight a few of my very favorites:

1.  The Nester herself is writing about Home. On Purpose.
Can I just say that normally I don’t read home decorating blogs. I’m way too indecisive for that. Usually decorating blogs leave me feeling overwhelmed, a little less than, and discontent. But the Nester’s blog isn’t like that. At all. She talks to the heart of the matter. She is kinda like therapy for me. Because oh my word I cannot pick a paint color and if I do is it okay to spend money on paint when kids are hungry and without shoes? She helps me get to the root of those issues and balances the whole thing so very well. I said all that to say…her 31 Day Series is really good.

2.  Flower Patch FarmGirl & her 31 Days of Going. I’m not quite ready to put into words what her series is doing in this heart of mine. I can’t just yet. I’m doing a lot of thinking and a lot of praying and the thoughts are struggling about inside of me not yet ready to form complete sentences. I’ll keep you posted for sure but for now — you should read for yourself.

3.  Amy over at Permission to Peruse is taking us through 31 Days of Wisdom. Nuggets of wisdom straight from Proverbs – LOVE it.

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I’m honored to have Amy here at my place today. Amy has a huge heart – generous and kind. I’m impressed with her every time I read her blog. Thanks so much for sharing here today, Amy. I’m really glad you’re here!

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I’ve had a great time getting to know Jamie through the blogosphere, especially through Summer of 7.  God has been dealing with me for years about excess and cutting back in hopes of helping others.  Summer of 7 was another part of that journey and I’m thankful Jamie was a part of it.  Recently, though, God has been dealing with me about cutting back.

My entire extended family is eight hours away.  For over 30 years, we’ve traveled back and forth at least twice a year visiting.  Up until recently, we’ve been able to stay with family but as some family members have passed on and our own family has grown, we’ve moved on to staying with my parents’ empty-nest friends (we’re pictured above visiting one Christmas at their house).

When we go, it feels like we’re at a second home.  The kitchen is open when we’re hungry, the computer is open if we need to send an email, and the pool is open for our enjoyment.  At Christmas, they’ve bought our children gifts even though we’re not related and we’re staying at their house.  In the summer, they go to the local creamery and stock up on ice cream and fresh sprinkled waffle cones.  I can’t begin to tell you how welcome and loved we feel when we stay there.  They have taught me pure, unadulterated grace.

So while God has been dealing with my spending in excess, He’s now reminding me that sometimes spending can be grace too.  I think if you look at the heart of what you’re doing you’ll see the difference.  Are you spending to make yourself look better?  Feel better?  Because you’re bored?  Out of control?  Or.  Are you spending for someone else to feel more welcomed, more loved, or perhaps more appreciated?

Many times we are right in our saving and reigning in our spending but let’s not forget there is grace to be lavished in many ways and I think God’s in the spending sometimes too.

Do you agree?  What are some ways you spend with grace in mind?

Amy Bennett is a recovering perfectionist and lover of God.  She is wife to her police officer husband, Scott and mommy to two beautiful girls, Emma and Lexi and hopefully one handsome boy soon. They reside in South Carolina, in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina with their two dogs Mattie and Tucker and a picket fence to hold them all in.  Amy spends her day writing code for a bank and her evenings writing blog posts at Permission to Peruse.

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I know it has been awhile. I’m coming off a funk where I contemplated throwing away the laptop altogether and going back to a life where phones were only connected to kitchen walls. A life where there were only 3 tv channels and you play outside until the street lights come on.

Then I remembered I am no longer ten and I must live life in the grown-up world. My husband talked me off the ledge and I pulled the computer from the trash pile. I’ve caught my breath and cleared my mind of the funk.

And on this fine Thursday I’ve got a few really unimportant things I’d like to tell you.

1.  It has been two weeks since I moved my youngest child away to college. It has been both gut wrenching and exhilarating. I waffle between the two emotions on a regular basis — these emotions of mine are caught in a viscous cycle. I go from beyond thrilled to basket case in 12 minutes flat.

I spend about 12 minutes being so excited and incredibly proud and oh my I absolutely love watching my girl grow up.

Then, about 11 minutes in, I feel my stomach turn a bit and a lump begins to form in my throat. And by the 12 minute mark I’m in full-blown crazy mama mode. I miss my girl and I hope I raised her well enough to handle college life. And I wonder is she is doing okay out there in the big, scary world?

Then I usually stalk her facebook page for a bit and I look at the same five pictures she has posted – over and over and over. Or I send her a text or two or twenty. It calms me down and I repeat the cycle.

2.  I almost gave up entirely on grocery shopping. True. Here’s proof:

It looked like this and I still didn’t shop for days. I should have taken more pictures to show the progression. I’m sure you would have found it completely intriguing.

Since I’ve no photos, I’ll just give you the commentary. The next day that foil wrapped potato and hunk of salmon were gone. And I snarfed down about half of the remaining pickles along with that lonely cheese wedge. But what you can’t see is that under the ice pack in the freezer is a bag of chicken and in the pantry a half-bag of potatoes. When the kids grow up and move on chicken and potatoes can sustain you for days.

3.  Completely unrelated to me not having kids or groceries in my house – I’m thinking about doing the 31 Days series again this year. You know the one Nester hosts each October? The one where you write on a topic of your choice for 31 days in a row. And because I can’t seem to even write two days in a row this may be complete crazy talk. We’ll see. It doesn’t start until Monday, so I have a few days to decide.

Are you joining in for 31 Days?

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Dear (Teenage) Me,

Hey there! It’s me here. You know, it’s YOU, just the older version. And boy, do I have a few things I’d like to talk with you about.

First, you know that girl you played soccer and softball together with since the 5th grade? The one who you’ve called best friend for several years? It will be awhile, but she becomes your sister-in-law. Yes, it is totally awesome.

And I get the fact that you think 28 is super old and you can’t imagine living much past it. But you do. You make it through some hard stuff and some really good stuff too.

All those years spent in track shoes and soccer cleats gave you the tomboy label. You never seemed to mind it. You played hard and loved the game. But somewhere along the line you grabbed hold of the thought that tomboy equaled not beautiful.

You thought only girly girls got the beautiful label – not the girls who played hard and sweated it out on the field. You thought those that danced and cheered and wore make-up like beauty queens were the only ones deserving of being called beautiful.

And listen sweet teenage girl, you’ll be in your forties before you realize there hasn’t been a day in your life that you thought you were beautiful. I wish I could convince you that swinging a bat and kicking a ball isn’t all you have going for you. Cause those things pass. You’ll become a grown-up; corner kicks and home runs won’t have a place in your life any longer.

You’ll realize that thinking was wrong; but it will be rooted so deep you won’t even know how to change it. You need to figure out where true worth comes from.

Beauty – it starts from the inside and emanates outward. It isn’t a size, a shape, or perfect hair. It’s a kind heart, an encouraging word, an empathetic soul.

I know you, you little class clown, right now you’re laughing at my words of wisdom. You’re saying, sure, that’s what they tell all the ugly girls – beauty is on the inside. But I’m begging you to get a grip. You are going raise some girls in the not-so-far-off-future and they need to know the truth – they need you to know the truth.

Just weeks away from high school graduation, four to be exact, your dad dies. Without any warning – you’ll have him one day and then in the middle of the night you’ll lose him.

It is going to be hard, really hard. Like the hardest thing ever. And listen, you don’t have to work so hard to act like you’re okay. You don’t have to pretend that you are handling it just fine. No one expects you to do that. Don’t expect it of yourself.

My heart kinda aches as I look back and watch your struggle. The way you bottle stuff up and try your best to keep a smile on your face. All that growin’ up sure can be tough. But it is good.

The struggle – it sends you fiercely pursuing the One who made you beautiful.

Much love,

You at age 42

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I’m linking up over at Emily’s place with others who have also written letters to their teenage selves.
Emily Freeman’s new book, Graceful, is out and is a must read for teen girls.   Emily is one of my very favorite writers!!!

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Way back in May when my husband and I celebrated 22 years of this marriage gig I bought him some tickets to see some guy I hoped would be funny. It seemed far off, but you know how that goes, we blinked and September is here and the time had come to go see the funny guy live and in person.

We packed our bags, even rented a car, and headed for the big city. We blared the radio – switching between the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s station depending on the song. I sang Jennie I Got Your Number just like I did back in the day. I don’t think I’ll ever forget Jennie’s number. 867-5309.

Michael Jackson was singing on both the 70’s and 80’s station at the same time. It was the Jackson 5 on one and Michael himself singing Beat It on the other. I reminisced about wearing buckle-back jeans and sticking a big comb in my back pocket. I heard the voice of Casey Kasem in my head. And I remembered that very moment when I watched Michael’s Thriller video for the first time.

I sang my heart out to Huey Lewis and the News. (If this is it, ooh ahh, I wanna know-oh-o.) I knew every word to every single one of their songs back around 1983 or so. I even missed my 8th grade graduation to attend their concert – because I had priorities people. Graduation schmaduation. I still had 4 years to attend school day after day. But a Huey Lewis concert? A once in a lifetime event.

And because of my deep love of Huey (even the family cat was named after him), I just googled him and guess what! He’s on tour and near my home town this weekend. But you know what else? Concert tickets were way cheaper when I was in 8th grade.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend getaway was filled with laughing and relaxing and eating out and keeping the laptop closed. It was good. I didn’t realize how much I needed that little break until I took it. And I breathed deep and rested long and there was no rushing and no creating of to-do lists.

Apparently my body needed a little rest cause I fell asleep during the funny guy performance.

Sunday came and we followed the river home. With wind surfers on our left on wind turbines on our right, my husband, myself and Billy Joel sang We Didn’t Start the Fire.

And after a weekend like this, I’ve got some advice for the world: take time to turn off the computer screen, set aside the to-do list for just a little bit, let the pace slow, laugh, and sing – it is good for the soul.

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