September was a month comprised with ups and downs. I thought that there was no way to redeem a month of that much turmoil, but it turns out that even the hardest months can have some redemption. The last week of September came with the small amount of relief that I needed to still have faith in Septembers. And it was awesome.
The week began with the kick off to a much anticipated season. Autumn had finally arrived. To commemorate the day, my roommates and I had planned a Happy Fall Party! We totally stole the idea from one of my favorite blogs: shullfamily.blogspot.com
Shay Shull is a super sweet, really down to earth girl, who has a heartbeat for cooking, her family and the Lord (not quite in that order!) She is great and you should read her blog too. I have tried out several of her ideas, but this one was by far my favorite. Every year she and her friends do a post Labor Day scarf exchange (think white elephant gift exchange). I told my roommates about it and we just couldn't handle it; so we hosted a scarf exchange of our own! And it was way too much fun. We had it in our home and made lots of fun Fall desserts and snacks. We had almost 20 girls come and bring scarves and we laughed as we exchanged them. There were some super cute scarves and these women were ruthless about stealing. (Well most of them. My sweet friend, Brittany, didn't want to steal because she thought that the scarf looked so good on one of the other girls :) I love my friends!!! We had the best time :) The group was made up of different people from different parts of our lives so as their number came up, each girl had to share who they were and how they were connected to the group. It was so fun to bring together women from all different parts of our lives to hang out for one evening. A huge THANK YOU to Shay for this awesome idea :)
Here we are at the end of the party with our new scarves:
Then the week flew by and I could tell that a change in weather was coming. I was housesitting for my parents and loving the quietness and comfort of the house I grew up in - the only house I can remember from my childhood.
On Friday night, my oldest sister, Abby came into town. Now, I love my family. Anyone who knows me knows that, and I absolutely treasure any time we all get to spend together, but every once in a while a weekend happens that is unreal. We just click and understand each other and things flow so easily. It all just seems simple. And this was one of those. We had sibling dinner at Ali's comfortable home and then went out for pumpkin spice lattes (decaf and in "for here" mugs) and laughed some but mostly cried because sometimes life is more complicated than we expect and sometimes there is more pain than we are willing to let on to just anyone. But in the safety of these sisters, there is comfort and rest - not because of us, but because of the Lord. The One who created us and placed each of us in our family carefully orchestrated each of our minds to be at certain points for that moment and there was pain, but there was also hope. We chatted for a couple of hours that night before we had to head back to my parents to welcome them home from vacation. And then the rest of the weekend was peaceful and joyful. My grandparents joined us and my aunt and her family. We celebrated my favorite man on earth and rejoiced in the fact that he was born 56 years ago and graciously given to us as a Dad. Little man pulled up on one of his push toys and took a few steps with the help of the toy on wheels and the women went to a craft show while the men watched football. And for the weekend everything just was fine - better than fine, actually it was great. We have a gracious God and the love of family and couldn't have asked for more. All of us had endured pretty rotten Septembers. We needed some relief and some hope and just some home - to remind us who we are and who we want to be. And it was given to us. We left that weekend so sad to go, but so thankful for the gift to have had time together again.
September was a rough month and I was so ready to say goodbye, but the last weekend truly redeemed a whole month of questioning and uncertainty. I am thankful for Fall, for cool weather and change, for football and family and friends, and for a God who loves me and meets a need before I can speak a want.
Still, I was okay with saying "See ya, September!" And so happy to move on to October. The weather is remarkable and the people seem refreshed (probably from not having to endure 100 degrees on their drive to work). Maybe a week late, but Happy October, World! I hope you were as happy to see it coming and I was :)
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