Oceans

 Do yourself a favor and listen to this song. 

The older I get the more I realize the power in these words. 

Be encouraged, friends.

Autumn

It's that time of year! While our days are still pretty warm here in the south, I know cooler weather is on the horizon. The leaves are turning, the wind is picking up, and pumpkin mania is in full effect! I mean today alone I came home from the grocery store with pumpkin bagels, pumpkin cider, and pumpkin granola to go alongside my pumpkin cream cheese and pumpkin coffee creamer that I already had at home. I passed on the pumpkin flavored coffee though- telling myself "we already have plenty of coffee at home" and "it will be there next time". It better be!

It hasn't been cool enough to make my favorite fall soups like Apple Cider Stew, Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup, and Potato Chowder, but I do have Chili on the menu for this week! We have already enjoyed several batches of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (my mom's recipe is my absolute favorite) and found a few new favorites like these two:

Hooray for autumn cooking! 

I've started on my fall decorations too, though I'm finding out that decorating is more of a process now than ever. This is partially because a) I have three small children at home and b) I like to change things up every year which requires playing around with arrangements over and over before deciding on something I like. Here's a little peek of some of my new favorites this year:

I've kind of moved away from all the really orange, "pumpkiny" decor and tried to choose items that fit more nicely with the color scheme I already have in my house. We still have our bright orange pumpkins outside though, so no worries.

I hope you, too, are enjoying this wonderful season!

Change

I posted this on Facebook, so it is only fair that I document it here as well. It is quickly becoming my mantra these days:

"This is what I've come to believe about change: it's good, in the way that childbirth is good, and heartbreak is good, and failure is good. By that I mean that it's incredibly painful, exponentially more so if you fight it, and also that it has the potential to open you up, to open life up, to deliver you right into the palm of God's hand, which is where you wanted to be all along, except that you were too busy pushing and pulling your life into exactly what you thought it should be. So this is the work I'm doing now, and the work I invite you into: when life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow."

-Shauna Niequist

"Bittersweet"

I love love love this book so far.

 And would love to write like her. 

Someday. Maybe. One day.