thanksgiving

I have so much to be grateful for this year: my husband, my family, my amazing friends, my health, my home, my sweet dog, financial stability, the health of my loved ones, and an open heart with which I am learning to recognize and accept God's grace in my life.

It's been a big year with a lot of changes and a lot of inner turmoil and questioning of what my purpose in life is, and, as I reflect on the questions that keep me up most at night ("where am I going?" and "who am I going there with?"), I realize that I am so blessed to be able to ask these questions and to have the luxury of time with which I can start to answer them.

I am also incredibly blessed to have a supportive and loving partner, a person who is working on answering these questions for his own life, someone I can rely on to love me unconditionally as I struggle with these questions, and with whom I can share the journey of becoming. My goal for the end of this year, and for the coming year, is to continue to work on doing what I can, with what I have - to take it one day at a time, to keep sight of my true priorities, to be more accepting of my flaws, to give more to my community, and to put my energy toward the relationships that I value so much (including my relationship with God, and my relationship with myself).

I get so overwhelmed sometimes with the senselessness of the world - the violence, the greed, the corruption, the vapidness, the blatant neglection of the poor, the suffering, and the lonely, the fascination with the grotesque, the pervasive indifference of so many, and the vast inequities in our society - that I forget about the fact that, though I can't do everything that I yearn to do, there are many things I can do, and, that the world will always have a place for people who want to create change within there own sphere of influence (and, that small as that sphere may sometimes seem, it is a very important sphere). I also have to remind myself that, though the world longs for a restoration of balance, there is still so much to be inspired by - that there is still beauty and adventure and passion, action to be taken, and HOPE.

Whoa - a lot heavier of a post than I originally intended it to be, but it feels good to share these thoughts. A very happy Thanksgiving to all of you and yours! Here is my little family on Thanksgiving day.

Love to you all.

fall weekend and halloween

Before November comes to an end I suppose I better take the opportunity to get caught up on my October posts, and to say: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Yes, I'm falling behind on blog posts again, but, better late than never.

Kevin and I both love fall, and we've been having an exceptionally fally one this year. The weekend before Halloween Kev and I managed to pack in a ton of fall/pre-Halloween fun. Kev took an introductory woodworking class that Friday evening, and came home with a wooden tool chest that he made. It was so great to see the big smile on his face and to hear about all of the skills and tools he learned to use in just three hours. When he walked in, big smile on his face and the tool chest in hand, I felt so proud of him! Kev's talked about getting into woodworking for a long time, and I'm so glad that he finally decided to start taking some classes. Saturday morning we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, and then headed off to Minneapolis to pick up our friend, Jesse, on our way to Apple Jack Orchard and Farm. We picked our pumpkins, did a little apple picking, took some hammy jumping shots, and made our way through the corn maze. After the farm we met up with Jesse's husband, Matt, at a haunted house in the burbs. I, the woman who cries during scary movies because she just can't handle the anxiety that they cause, was not thrilled about the haunted house, but it actually turned out to be fun (sort of). On Sunday morning we decided to drive around the neighborhood and look at the spectacular fall leaves (and, you guessed it, to take some more jumping shots), and then we set off in search of our Halloween costumes. A quick trip to a Halloween store and the Goodwill for some inspiration/supplies for Kev's costume, and then a trip to the fabric store for everything I needed to make my costume. We spent the evening at home, where we enjoyed a tapas-style dinner of sliced apples, green olives, manchego cheese, crackers, smoked oysters, and fig spread (delicious!), and then carved our pumpkins and set up our Halloween display (complete with the ghosts I made - I was feeling crafty this year). We got a little adventurous with our pumpkin carving this year, and the results were pretty darn good (we got lots of compliments from the trick-or-treaters this year, so we impressed children at least). 

 

Halloween (one of our favorite days of the year) was awesome in our new home. From decorating the front yard with pumpkins and the old hay bales that used to reside under the tree in the front yard (we never did know why they were there in the first place), to handing out candy and meeting some of our neighbors, to hosting a Halloween party, it was a very good first Halloween in the new house. Kev and I were both happy with our costumes this year, and even though we didn't have a "couple's" costume (I just could not sell Kev on the Peter Pan/Tinker Bell idea), I think we looked cute together as Indiana Jones and a bumble bee. Kev's costume consisted of a $3 tan shirt and $14 leather jacket from the Goodwill store, khaki pants he already owned, a hat and whip set from the Halloween store, and his very own beard. I think he made a great Indy! My costume consisted of sewing long strips of bright yellow felt onto two large pieces of black felt, and then sewing the two black pieces together to make a jumper, wings made out of a pair of white tights and two wire hangers, a headband wrapped in yellow pipe cleaners with two fuzzy black poms from the craft store glued to the ends, and a black long-sleeved shirt and black leggings that I already owned - super easy, warm, inexpensive, and cute (my four requirements for Halloween costumes). Our party was small - about 15 people - but really fun. Everyone got into it with the costumes, and we played a couple of rounds of the game "Celebrity" (a really fun version of charades). A great night with good friends!

Phew! A long post - thanks for sticking with me. Get it? It's a bee pun. Hope you all enjoyed Halloween as much as we did.

two things

Whoa - I am uncharacteristically prolific with the blog posts today! Just wanted to mention two things:

1). I woke up to this today:

Snow in October! Early October at that. Holy cow, we had a whopping two weeks of fall and now this. My autumn wreath looks ridiculous out there (as do my snow-covered potted mums). It is beautiful (the first snow always is), but it's just so early. Not sure what to do - hunker down inside and brood about the early loss of my favorite season, or, put on some toasty clothes (good thing I just checked "wash all mittens and scarves" off my fall to-do list), slip on some bright red boots, and head out the door for a walk in the snow. 

2). We leave for Austin, TX tomorrow for my sister's wedding. I am excited! We've all been busy planning, crafting, and getting very excited about being together for 6 days. And, Kevin has even become an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church (seriously) so that he can officiate the wedding this weekend. He's making us all call him the Rev Kev. Hilarity! I can't wait for tomorrow.

If you live in the Midwest - enjoy the snow. If not, enjoy the fall for the rest of us!

a few of my favorite things (fall edition)

I love autumn. Other than being the in the thick of midterm exams and papers, I am loving life right now. The weather is perfect for a cozy sweater and jeans, the trees on the leaves have changed and are scattered all over the city in a swirl of orange and yellow, there are pumpkins on everyone's doorsteps, and it's almost Halloween - one of my favorite days of the year.

I rode my bike to school today and there was something magical about the blue sky, the crisp autumn air, the smell of crunchy leaves on the ground, and everyone looking toasty in fall coats. So, in the spirit of cozy sweaters, hot mugs of tea, pumpkin patches, and cute little kids (and big kids) getting excited about dressing up in costumes - here are some things that remind me of my favorite season.

Pumpkin spice candles. 

Memories of an autumn in New York. Ithaca, 2006.

School projects, of course.