Fall is home

Today, I went on a search for blogs with a similar topic as this one. It made my day to read about all the little things in other people's lives.

A quote about fall from Enjoying the Small Things really caught my attention.

"I don't know exactly what it is about fall. I mean, summer's so live-it-up with its bathing suits and lemonade stands and late night barbecues, spring is renewing, winter has the whole Christmas thing going for it, but fall...fall is home."

Fall is home. Is that just lovely? The statement is so true for me.

"It isn't leaves and temperature drops and cold rosy cheeks at a football game that make fall what it is. It is the grounding rituals of tradition, the return to the foundation of what matters most...our home, our family, our stories"

As it becomes more and more apparent that fall is here -- with the changing of colors and the falling of leaves -- I realize more and more how much I miss my family. It's been awhile since I've spent time with my family. I was home for a few hours about a month ago and my mom was here for a few hours a couple weeks ago. But with my busy schedule, I haven't had the time to go home for a proper visit.

Instead, I asked my parents to come here for the weekend. I am running my first 10k this Saturday and my mom has always been very supportive of my running, so I knew she'd be excited about the idea.  It is also my grandma's birthday week -- she turned 84 yesterday -- so my parents and I will be able to take her out for dinner. Plus, my parents need a break from everything to just enjoy life. 

"When my siblings and I get together, it isn't long before we're recalling childhood memories...And I think about that a lot. What will my kids remember?"

 I'll always remember raking up the leaves and jumping in them with my brother and sister when we were kids. I'll remember carving pumpkins with my nephew and watching him stir the seeds as if he was making soup. I'll remember baking pie after pie after pie with my mom one afternoon for a church pie sale. And I'll remember running the 10k this weekend, knowing my mom and dad were there to support me.
 
So maybe I can't go home this weekend and bring my niece and nephew to the pumpkin patch to pick out that perfect pumpkin to bring home and carve or bake tons of pies with my mom for church. I can still spend time with my family, and I'm very thankful for that.

"It's called making lemonade. And I dig that."

Check out Kelle Hampton's blog for beautiful photographs and beautiful stories.

I'll continue to search for blogs that relate to this one and post about them as I find ones that inspire me.

Make it right by the end of the night.

Somedays my mood is up and down and I'm a bit hormonal. I'm human. It's alright to be crabby every once in awhile. It's okay to freak out a bit, as long as you make it right at the end of the day. Obviously, today was one of these days for me. I had some really great moments and some not so great moments. I don't know what it was that made me crabby, but I don't think it really matters. Sometimes I just have emotional days and I just have to get through them the best I can.

You might be on a one way, but you can always turn down a different road.

At the end of the night, I think I made everything alright. I know I can't take back what I did and I can't go back and redo the day without the crabbiness, but I can look to tomorrow (well, today...since it is already 4 a.m.) and make it better.

Time means nothing, but timing is everything.

But! Just because I had an up and down day doesn't mean I forgot about the little things that made me smile. Today it was interviewing Professor Oscar Flores about the honors program and his new role as Interim Director. He was so passionate about the program - making it better and getting more students involved. It's always fun to interview people that are passionate about what they do.

Walk while you still have time or risk getting hurt.

It was skipping through every song on my iPod to get to one of my dad's songs (my iPod is old and broken and the menu button doesn't work so I can't actually choose a song from the list).

It was getting a simple 'thank you' text from my boss for cleaning the house.

Look at things from a different perspective...you never know what you might discover.

It was finally figuring out a time to meet with the publisher for my internship.

It was going to Walmart and Cashwise by myself at 2:30 a.m. because I really want to have pancakes for breakfast in the morning and wouldn't have had any to make.

Capture the glow of the night.

It was seeing my story come together. :)

[The photographs are from this Sunday night when a friend and I went downtown to take some photographs]