The Year's Last Loveliest Smile

Fall.  Long ago, I discovered my love for fall.  Fall means chilly weather (which automatically means my boots and scarves can be worn daily), candles burning throughout the day, windows open, sweatshirts, hot drinks in the afternoon, and extra cuddles beneath blankets with my loves.  Fall is "a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils..."  It means baking goodies, changing out pillow covers, making hearty pots of chili and pasta sauce, soup and stew, hot apple cider and mulled wine.  It means all things pumpkin.  Oh, how I love pumpkin.  My love of fall and all things pumpkin go hand-in-hand.  Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattes (I've already had my first from Starbucks!), pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes....pumpkin tea.  And I have some savory pumpkin recipes I'm excited to try pretty soon, too.

One of my absolute favorite parts of fall is watching the season change and unfold before our very eyes.  My heart leaps for joy when I see shades of red, fiery orange, and glowing gold sprinkled in the tree tops.  I love to watch the leaves dance in the sunlight with the passing breeze.

Golden leaves of the golden hour

I love how the light changes so distinctly between summer and fall.  Something about it is so much warmer, more golden, more inviting...like an old friend who asks you to stay a while for a cup of coffee.

Blankets, quiet time, coffee

It's comfortable.  It's welcoming.  It's a slower pace.  Fall is the season when I listen to classical music the most.  Something about fall makes me want to "be still and know"...to reflect, to actively practice gratitude, to enjoy all the little things.  Fall makes me want to spend family days at the park, go for walks, bike rides, picnics.  All those fun things we could do during summer vacation if it was 20 degrees a smidge cooler here.

Quiet time by {unexpected} candlelight

To me, autumn is "...the year's last loveliest smile" (William Cullent Bryant).  Each colored leaf is a gift.  Each rainy day is refreshing. Each day of clouds is cozy.

Autumn Sunrise

Fall means gathering together for Thanksgiving.  It means the anticipation of celebrating Christ's birth in December.  It means family time.

I wait and long for this season all year long.  All year long.  It seems to take ages to arrive and then it passes too quickly.  It slips through my fingers like the sand at the beach...the way my little loves are growing up so quickly.  I've always said that I could live in an "eternal fall."  Some people would live out summer all year.  I would choose fall.  I will always choose fall.  Fall is magical and fleeting.  And always too short.  Fall stirs within me the way no other season does.

Albert Camus said it right when he said, "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

Colored Leaves

Embrace fall, friends.  Embrace the quiet.  Embrace the beauty.  Before we know it, it will be gone.....until next year.  

Camdyn 3.0

I made a joke last week that our Camdyn is a new and improved version of herself since surgery.  She's got more energy (from increased oxygen) than she knows what to do with, and her appetite is....well, let's just say that for the first time in her life EVER (consistently), she actually HAS ONE.  Seriously, the girl can now pack it away, and then ask for more.  Without a fight, she'll devour a half sandwich in 10 minutes, flat...then ask for something else to eat.  Chalk it up to faster digestion from 12-15% more oxygen in her little body than she's used to.  It's Camdyn, but on "supergirl steroids."  It's "Camdyn 3.0."

Why 3.0?  I figure the three-stage, three surgeries must be counted.  She couldn't have had one without the other two.  

She's more energetic and rambunctious than ever.  We've spent so many weeks this summer telling her to be calm, settle down, take it easy, take a break.  She's only 7 weeks post-surgery, after all.  Following her last cardiology appointment, she felt like she had been given a free ticket to finally begin using up her energy.  The kid can run!  Granted, she still runs "with her elbows" a bit (picture a tame version of Phoebe Buffet), but after a ton of running around with her friends after church on Sunday morning, there was not a cough to be heard.  Normally with too much activity, she would begin coughing because she couldn't catch her breath fast enough.  And then she would have to take a break and sit with us while all of her friends continued playing.  

With all this running and dancing around, we have been watching her like a hawk.  We've been trying to let her ease back into normal activity rather than going full-speed ahead.  We barely allowed her on her bike for the first time yesterday in months (she'd been practicing her riding in the spring).  There hasn't been a single issue.  But we're being cautious (overly cautious?) because that's how we roll.  Why mess with (or mess up) a good thing?

All this issue-free activity certainly hasn't come too soon, seeing as how school is back in session on Thursday.  Yep, my big first-grader will be back into a routine (as will the rest of us).  It will be SO GOOD for her.  She's pretty young for a first-grader (she could've done transitional kindergarten last year instead of the "real deal"), but I think she does best when challenged...and her vocabulary has always been ridiculously mature, even though she's itty bitty, physically.  Do we worry about her being on the playground with second- and third-graders?  Naturally...but her daddy won't be far, and it was totally and completely God's intervention that she even attended public school (vs. homeschooling her last year), in the first place.  We couldn't have arranged that line-up even if we'd wanted to.  So, yes, we worry...for a few seconds...before remembering Who orchestrated the setup.  

And she may be itty bitty (she's only 32 lbs), but she packs a punch in that little body of hers.  Don't underestimate this girl because she WILL surprise you.  She's the epitome of those sayings..."She's whiskey in a teacup" and "Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will move mountains."  God has something special planned for her...something that will utilize the fierce, strong spirit He has created in her.

Waiting at her pulmonology appointment for her breathing test.

Summertime comes to a close.  We love summer, and the end of it is always bittersweet, but in our house, our favorite season is fall. We're looking forward to cool, crisp air, and lots of fun spent outdoors.  It's the start of another new school year...summer begins to fade into the past.  We anticipate the color changes of the leaves and our sweaters come out from hiding for the last 6 months.  Fall is on it's way, friends.  Though it almost always takes longer to arrive than we'd like, we'll soon begin soaking in all its beauty.

We are thankful for the changing seasons...in weather and in life.  They mark a time to move forward onto new or different things...or sometimes onto old things that feel like a familiar, warm blanket wrapped around you for a time.  Sometimes, we trudge through the current season of our lives hoping to survive it, and sometimes we wise up and embrace it for what it's worth, good or bad.  This summer has been great, considering all of our circumstances, but we are ready to bid it farewell and move onto a different kind of calm than we've felt in a while.  Yes, we're ready for the warm blanket.