And Just Like That, October Is Over

If you have been following me for the last several years, you probably remember that going to the pumpkin patch is always an emotional event for my family. Someone is usually displeased with some aspect of our happy, ‘magical’ outing and we end up having to manage one or two meltdowns. (You can see the truth in these statements by clicking HERE and HERE.)

This year, however, the boys did great! I kept walking around snapping photos completely in awe that I wasn’t having to bribe anyone with M&M’s to get them to smile. 🙂

October is my favorite month and I just can’t believe that it’s over. What in the world? Do you remember when you were a kid and it took 14,000 hours for the 5:00 episode of Saved By The Bell every day?! Now it’s like I am bathing my kids every night before bed and wondering didn’t I just do this 12 seconds ago?

At the beginning of this month I got a text message from a woman who went to my mom and dad’s church when my parents lived in town. The text message basically said that this woman had a bunch of glitter leftover from her husband’s business and did I want it.

She might as well have texted and said, “Here are the keys to Cinderella’s castle.”

Of course I was at her house within 24 hours, ready to claim my glitter prize, but what I did not know was exactly HOW MUCH glitter this woman had to give me.

We are talking 6 HUGE, Tupperware bins filled with trash bags of loose glitter. My first reaction was, “Is this heaven?” Then I quickly realized that I should have rented a truck. I ended up only being able to take about 7 giant garbage bags with the promise that I would be back soon once I figured out how to air lift the rest.

The next morning was a Sunday and when my husband went out to the car to go to church, he noticed that the back window had been smashed in.

When he came inside to tell us what had happened, all we could think was that someone was after the glitter. 🙂

I got to speak at our women’s Bible Study this month – something that was an incredible privilege but also something that I do believe took a few years off of my life. I am used to giving short, inspirational messages about surviving toddler tantrums and poop explosions – handling the Word of God is a WHOLE different story and responsibility that I did NOT want to take lightly. I spent about 3 weeks working on something, only to throw it all away the day before the event (because HORRIBLE) and have the Lord give me something so entirely new and different it could only have been from Him.

The whole process pretty much felt like what labor must be like. I went home after the Bible Study and kept thinking, “I gave birth to a sermon tonight.” I tell you, I have a lot more appreciation for our pastors and what they go through to bring us the Word of God accurately and in His Spirit ON A WEEKLY BASIS – PHEW.

We had a wonderful Halloween. I love getting to walk around the neighborhood and chat with neighbors we usually don’t get a lot of opportunities to interact with. I also took the boys to our local grocery store where they let all the costumed kids Trick or Treat in the various store departments. It was so cute and the boys were so happy I literally got a little teary-eyed at one point. They gave out popcorn in the deli area, fruit snacks in the meat department (although I was hoping for a couple of steaks – ha!), cookies in the bakery, and bananas in produce. I thought for sure that Happy Buddy was going to make a stink face over that because bananas=EW, but that sweet boy told me later that he didn’t want to hurt the woman who was passing out the banana’s feelings, so he took his banana graciously.

These are the moments in motherhood where you just praise God for this precious display of FRUIT. We mamas spend a lot of time sowing and weeding and working the fields of training our kids’ hearts and then every once in awhile the Lord brings a harvest and all glory to Him.

This week is a little full for me – I have 2 speaking events! I am really excited and honored to get to share with these 2 groups of women, but I need to prepare well, so don’t be surprised if my site gets a little quiet this week. But also don’t be worried, I have a few neat things planned for y’all this month.