I Love Fall: Episode 1

Fall is my favorite season. And no, I refuse to listen to your excuses about pool days in summer, blooming flowers in spring, and cozy evening by the fire in the winter (okay, you might have me on that one if fireplaces were legal in New York. . .). Fall is the best, period.

Why? Well surely it has nothing to do with the fact that my birthday is on the first day of fall. . . I wouldn't stoop to such a petty reason. ;) Besides, in my mind, fall starts on September 1st.
I could go on and on about why fall is the best. But today I will only give one reason.
























Various pumpkin flavored coffee drinks. Heck, yes. I have perfected homemade iced coffee just in time for pumpkin spice coffee creamers to make there appearance. For the win.

Sincerely,


P.S. I have shamelessly jacked the above image on the left from another website. Nevertheless, I could totally have taken almost the same picture in my kitchen. But, my picture thievery led me to discover that this totally wonderful creamer is gluten free. I don't know if my cousin with celiac disease is as pumpkin obsessed as I am, but she will totally be hearing about this.

Glee

No, this is not a post about the extremely popular television show about a highschool glee club. Though I'd be lying if I said that show wasn't my guilty pleasure. . . Speaking of which, when does it start again this fall? . . .

But I digress. This post is not about a television show, but rather about the glee that my newest toy has brought me. At the end of this summer, I broke down and bought an ipod touch. I wasn't sure I understood all the hype about Apple products, but considering the fact that all my friends who had ipods seemed to love them and the fact I have a small obsession with touch screens (small things for small minds) when my friend mentioned he was selling his 32GB ipod touch I just couldn't resist. I didn't even mind that it is engraved with Dann on the back. In fact, I think it's kind of funny.

Well for someone who wasn't an Apple believer, I fell quite quickly for this incredible machine. And being the music lover that I am, it thrills my soul that all of my music fits onto this one little machine and is incredibly organized. But that's not what really got me. What could thrill me more than a perfectly organized music library you ask? The answer: a perfectly organized life. My ipod syncs with google calendar. Every little event that I have, my dad has, my brother has, and my boyfriend has syncs to this tiny little machine and I know exactly what is going on with a tap of my finger. I LOVE THIS. Be still my organization-obsessed heart! Glee!!

Now if it can just help me beat that whole procrastination thing. . .

Sincerely,


P.S. I refuse to write an entire post on Hurricane Irene. However I should probably acknowledge it's existence (for posterity's sake, you know) by reporting that for the entirety of Saturday night (the worst part of the storm) I slept with my window open and only felt water come in once. The only damage to our property? A few overturned tomato plants.

My Summer in Pictures

Sincerely,

3 Months Later

As late as mid May, I had no idea what I was doing with my summer. I had some ideas of what I wanted to be doing, but nothing seemed to be working out. There was one thing that I was definitely not planning on doing again. After the struggles of last summer at Pinebrook, I was convinced that I would not be going back. Sometimes I think God hears our adamant declarations of what we will not do and leads us to do exactly that. When my mother was little, her family used to go visit her uncle in his house in New York. As she tried to fall asleep to the sounds of sirens and other city noises, she told herself that she would never live in the city. Not only did God lead her to the city, He took her to that exact same apartment and she lived there for nine years. God has a sense of humor.
So I'm back at Pinebrook this year. . .

I started this post in late June. It never got finished. Because one of the many things I learned this summer was that real friends are more important than internet "friends." I always told my dad (who claims Facebook and texting are the downfall of human communication) that the main reason I had a Facebook was to maintain close ties with the friends I met at Pinebrook and live far from. Well at Pinebrook I still have friends that I'm missing, but I also have friends there right in front of me. I spent time with "real" friends this summer and it was wonderful. So that kept me off of Facebook.
I originally started my blog as a way of documenting the events of my life - a journal of sorts. And while much happened this summer that I never want to forget. I recorded most of that by hand. Some will get copied to here, but not all. Because it takes time.

And I've learned that there are many more important things than the internet.

Keep on singing,

On Growing Up

I think the concept of being “grown up” is a fiction. Certainly there’s a point in your life when you are and adult responsible for supporting yourself and making your own decisions (whether you know how or not.). But I shudder to think of a time when I would be considered “grown up” because that implies that you have finished growing, finished changing. I’m too imperfect for that.

This year I turn twenty. Twenty is that awkward year where you’re no longer a teenager but not yet a “legal adult.” You’re expected to be more mature than your younger teenage peers but not considered mature enough to limit your own alcohol intake. At least, that’s how I always thought of twenty. But a study I read recently said that more and more college students are returning home after college and not just because of the poor job market. I think this is because America is not asking our youth to grow up. Now, I realize I’m only nineteen but I’m remarking more on what I see around me than on what I think it is my responsibility to change now. Youth are given better and further education then ever was dreamt of (especially for women) in the days of some of my favorite writers. Yet our vocabulary, grammar, morals, and manners are poorer. Our country is giving our youth brilliant minds and not asking them to use them. We claim that it is okay to use abbreviations in everyday speech (and not just as a joke as I do, mom). I fear for a country whose future representatives, senators, and presidents can’t get through a conversation without an omg, lol, or swear word. And now these adults, these not-at-all-grown-up grown ups are having their own children.

My family is far from perfect. But recently my dad did something that I really appreciate. I was faced with a decision that I didn’t want to make. I poured out my dilemma to my dad with the tears in my eyes just begging him to make the decision for me. He refused. He said that I was “old enough to make up my own mind and young enough to resent him if he made the decision and made the wrong one.” He was right. This didn’t mean that he wasn’t there for me as I hashed out this decision helping me along the way with insight; it meant that ultimately the choice was mine. He was asking me to grow up.

I’m grateful for a dad who encourages me to use the mind that God has given me and he helped to educate. I’m on the other side of this decision wiser and maybe just a bit more “grown up.”

Keep on singing,

Oh Look, It's Raining.

I feel like it's been raining for two months straight. Unlike most people, this doesn't bother me much. But after a week of traipsing out in the rain to get to work, I'm quite thankful to be sitting at home today doing absolutely nothing. Well, nothing except waiting for my mocha popsicles to harden, drinking my second cup of coffee for the day, and watching the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice. Cause let's be honest, who (of the female gender) wouldn't want to wake up on a rainy morning such as today and see this walking across the field to your house.

Yeah, I thought so. . .


Keep on singing,

Intentionally Thankful

Last Wednesday I wrote about how I always find myself slipping into complaining. I still don't haven't come up with an answer on how to combat that. I know the best way to avoid complaining is to be consciously thankful. But how do you remember to be consciously thankful. I think, at least at the start, it means being intentionally thankful. I was torn about this because I felt like in order for my thankfulness to genuine, it shouldn't be intentional. It should be spontaneous. I shouldn't have to say, "Okay, when I wake up in the morning I need to think of five things for which I'm thankful" and write a note to remind myself. It shouldn't take practice.

I realized I was wrong. Because it is not a part of human nature to rejoice. If we are living for ourselves, then we have joy only in the betterment of ourselves. If we are living for ourselves, it is not enough to have a job, we must have the best, highest-paying job. Thankfulness for the Christian, comes from the realization that apart from God we deserve nothing. Every thing we have is a gift from Him. Paul commands us to "rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice."
It is not natural to be thankful, and things that are not natural take practice. The dictionary defines to practice as "to do or perform often, customarily, or habitually." It takes a minimum of thirty days of intentionally completing an activity for it to become a habit. So today, I will write a note on my chalkboard reminding myself to be intentionally thankful. I will write it on post-its and put them around my house, in my Bible, my Kindle wherever I can think of that I may need a reminder. I will start a list of things for which I am thankful because writing it down helps to make it stick.

I am thankful for . . .

1 . . . rain that waters the lilies in our garden.

2 . . . shoes on my feet.

3 . . . my raincoat.

4 . . . my job.

Keep on singing,