autumn favorites

AUTUMN IS HERE!!!!!  It may not feel like it (we've had some unseasonably hot weather in Indiana this week), but it is calendar official!  This season is by faaaaaaaaar my favorite and I can't help but honor it with a post about the reasons why.


~  The colors!  I'm usually a fan of light grays, blues, and greens... but there is something so comforting about the colors of fall.

~  The decorations.  Again, though my home decor doesn't normally include items of orange, yellow, and red, this time of year is the exception.

~ Pumpkins!  Fake ones, real ones, drink ones, food ones...  ;-)  From sitting prettily on a front porch to blended in my coffee, pumpkins are a wonderful thing!

dear...

new slippers,

you are perfect.  just the right size (11, thanks to my two pregnancies!).  just the right warmth.  just the right soft gray color.  you make me smile.

renniebird... eleven months

bathtime

walk

mamabird life {four}

seeing...  

steam rise from my daily (originally typed "morning"... but mama life means starting a post in the morning and not finishing till hours later) cuppa coffee with that dash of cream

"i can do this all day"

the last couple of weeks have been an emotional roller coaster.

as Andrew and I look to the future, we are faced with beautiful opportunities but also large bumps that bring plans to a screeching halt.

it is so easy for me to be discouraged.  if fact, this day, i am rather discouraged.

christmas for three (plus a survey!)

How special this last Christmas was.  Taking these pictures of Serenity was so surreal... celebrating her first Christmas exactly one year after finding out I was pregnant with her!

of growing bumps, baby showers, goofy husbands, and nurseries

35 weeks!

Time is flying, my friends!  Maybe it's the fact that I've gone into the "nesting" stage of pregnancy and am constantly busying myself with projects... maybe it's all of the last-minute shopping for our birth and first few weeks with a brand new baby... maybe it's the fact that I am now officially full-term (OH MY HEAD!), but I can scarcely believe we are nearly halfway through August and only a few short weeks from Serenity's due date (if she behaves herself... right now she's measuring two weeks ahead!).

wishing, anticipating, living

 

Seeing… beautiful blooms everywhere as the weather warms!

Hearing... birds in the morning and, sometimes, the very high-pitched bark of our neighbor's dog (which isn't nearly as pleasant)

April and May-ness

22 weeks!

Wow... April and May have gone by so quickly!  I can hardly believe it is nearly June.

happy thoughts

As I'm sitting here on my couch this overcast Friday evening, olive oil treatment soaking into my hair before my lazy-late-day shower, my thoughts are buzzing.  Trying to find my place... wondering for the future.

So many opinions from so many places; some helping, others only sending me into a new, whirling void.

magical days

There are weeks that fly away without anything significant to mark them.  They still have their special beauty -- their worth-living-ness.

Then there are weeks that will stay with you forever.  They are the days where you have laughed so loudly, cried so purely, lived so epically.

Those are the days of magic that make you oh-so-thankful to be alive.

This last week was just that.

grace for the day

Oh dear, so much time has flown since I last sat down to share my life on this blog (sorry Dad!).  Life has been full in this last month.  Very crammed-full. 

october days

"the world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.  but still there is much that is fair.  and though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater."  j.r.r. tolkien

september: foxes and joy

Oh my word, September has flown away so quickly!  Just one more day and I will be entering my favorite month of the year... at least in Indiana, we'll have to see how things go here in Utah!  *wink*

goodbye july

Oh, summer months.

Even though summer is, quite honestly, my least favorite season (I'm sorry... autumn, spring, and winter just have more perks!), there are still so many amazing and fun times to be had.

awesome and oh-so-awkward

~ awe ~

Living with a mountain view!  These pictures don't even come close to capturing the beauty surrounding me!  Even driving around town, usually at least one mountain is visible.  I am so not used to this!  I'm feeling my flat-lander upbringing.  ;-)

  

people-love... and blog survey!

I like people who have a sense of individuality.  I love expression and anything awkward and imperfect.  Because that's natural and that's real.

~ Unknown

dear...

... little table next to "my spot" on the loveseat,

Thank you for holding journals, mugs of coffee or tea, nail polish, my Bible, earrings, pens, dark chocolate, and many other little things I set on you throughout the day.  I like you.