1) An adorable picture is always a great way to kick things off, right?
We took her to a fall festival at a pumpkin farm (Iron Kettle for locals) last weekend as part of an incredible quintessential fall weekend (pumpkin farm & leaf raking on Saturday, apple picking Sunday). I've got a camera full of great pictures (grandparents, standby for copies!) but this is perhaps my favorite. Her joy is contagious!
2) We got pretty serious with the apple picking, and I have almost a full bushel...operation can applesauce will begin tomorrow morning, and I'm accepting other ideas for apple preservation. I've heard rumors of canning apple pie filling (rather than freezing complete pies, which I've done in the past). Any opinions/advice anybody would like to share about that?
3) I went to a presentation last night at church (Strong Catholic Families, Strong Catholic Youth), and among the statistics they shared about the trends of faith among teenagers was this shocking fact: On average, US parents spend fewer than 3 minutes of non-directive communication with children per day (meaning things other than "do this, stop that, etc." 3 minutes. Per day. Isn't that crazy!?! (And doesn't it explain a lot about the state of our world?!)
4) The entire presentation reminded me of a quote, which I actually have on an electronic sticky note on my computer desktop: "Your children will become who you are, so be who you want them to be." It's been amazing to watch how many of my mannerisms Anna has already picked up at 13 months, so I think this is always a valuable reminder - particularly on modeling things that really matter. If she notices (and copies) the way I hold my hands when I ask a question, she will certainly notice and mimic the way I deal with stress, the way I treat people, and the time I spend on things that are important (and those that are not).
5) In addition to the reflections I shared in my post on Monday, I feel like I've recently had several break-throughs in the way that I think about things, which have resulted in me accomplishing far more around the house and doing so with a far more joyful heart. More to come on my observations in the coming weeks...
6) Does anyone else experience the paradox where the more you get done, the more you see that you want & need to accomplish? Perhaps I accentuated my own problem this week by "accomplishing" an organization of my Pinterest boards, which only reminded me of the hundreds (literally, hundreds) of projects that I have pinned that I want to accomplish. Going through all of my boards was actually a good reminder and bumped a few things towards the top of my to-do list again. We'll see if I find the time to actually do them (and then actually blog about them). In the meantime, if you want to see all of my inspiration, check me out on Pinterest HERE.
7) Don't forget to enter my very first giveaway! (Which is totally not sponsored at all, just a book that has impacted me so deeply that I felt compelled to buy an extra copy and give it away to someone here on the blog!) Your chances are still pretty good at this point :)
5 minutes behind my prescribed time, not terrible (considering I had to get a drink of water, run to find my notes from last night, and fight with the photo uploader to get the picture in the correct orientation!) Talk to you next week!
P.S. I appreciate the comments - thanks & keep 'em coming :)
Oh man 3 minutes a day... That's scary! And I think it becomes a lot more possible as kids get older and more independent - I have to seek out time to spend with John Paul because he would happily sit there with his workbooks/calculators/books/whatever all day doing his own thing and not interacting with people. Thank goodness for Cecilia, because she gives him the human interaction he needs when I'm busy with the twins!
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