A few days ago, I breezed into Starbucks and almost ran into a big sign that said Pumpkin spice lattes are here!
And all I could think was But it’s August! It’s still August!
Now, I adore pumpkin spice lattes {actually, pumpkin spice chai lattes}, but I adore summer, too. I’m not ready to give any part of it up, at least not in the form of the quintessential fall drink. I guess that’s one reason why I enjoy Emily’s monthly link-up: because it helps me savor the season that’s here today. And I’m all about savoring summer.
So in this spirit of savoring summer, here are 8 things I learned in August:
1. Excessive exclamation marks and question marks drive me batty. As in, when each and every sentence in a paragraph has a row of them at the end standing like soldiers at attention!!!!!!! It may sound ridiculous, but looking at them all exhausts me. If you suffer from this over-punctuation malady, I still love you. But I do wonder if your period button is broken.
2. It’s not just Okies that know Gary England is the weather king. Thanks to the New York Times, everyone else knows it, too.
3. Just when I think my wardrobe is on the cute side, I attend a country music concert and see my attire screams minivan driving mama. If you were at the Brad Paisley concert in Denver this month, the girl in the green striped top, skinny jeans and ballet flats was me. Why in the Sam Hill didn’t I think to wear boots?
4. For the first time, I had a post go viral. At least, viral-ish.
5. It’s mighty hard for a husband and wife to have…uh...marital relations with teenagers in the house. Yes, it’s difficult with toddlers and preschoolers, but no lie: it’s nearly impossible with teens under your roof. They are up later than you (and in this house often up early), possess bionic ears, and know too much information.
6. I am powerless to resist People magazine if Kate Middleton and her darling family are on the front. I think I bought every issue this month.
7. I’m gonna be honest with you, folks: I’ve been struggling to be content in Colorado. Our last winter and nonexistent spring about did me in, and then we had this terrible, horrible, very bad hailstorm. We were supposed to move this summer but didn’t, and even though it’s nice to stay put, part of me can’t shake that it’s-time-to-pack-up-and-hit-the-road feeling. {I’m not the only military wife that gets this, am I?} But for the past several days, the Lord has graced me with views of this state that have literally stopped me dead in my tracks, and they are ministering to my heart. I’m praying the summer good feelings carry through the next l o n g winter.
8. This quote beautifully sums up why I love to write and take pretty pictures: “We do not want merely to see beauty, we want to be united with the beauty, to pass into it, to become part of it.” C.S. Lewis
Friends, I pray your weekend is one full of long and lingering summer moments that bring your heart joy and rest, with or without your pumpkin spice lattes.
What did beautiful you learn in the month of August?
Love them all! And I agree with your dislike of too many exclamation points. When I read comic books with my son it wears me out. Too! Much! Action! and Excitement! I can’t maintain that level of enthusiasm. 🙂 Happy almost September to you!
Exactly. Just too much of a good thing. And same to you, beautiful Sandra.
I am so with you on that first one. Just not fair!
Sorry–not the first one, the 5th one. See, I was so caught up in agreeing with you I thought it was at the top of the list. 😉
Word. {I knew which one you meant!}
Did you see my 2nd comment? Silly me.
You are such a doll! You always make me smile. Right with you on #5–It’s mighty hard. Have a beautiful long weekend! Much love.
Oh, sister, I could have told you #5! LOL I have three young adults in a wee house with small rooms that are allbunchedontopofeachother. So, yeah… we are on high alert for any spot of time when we’re the only ones here. The fifteen minutes when they run to the Redbox together is GOLDEN. 😉
Thanks for sharing such a fun list, and Happy Fall. 🙂
Congrats on your viral-ish post Kristen, so glad so many found your words. And yep, know the feeling about teenagers in your house up later than you. My husband and I have a standing lunch date when they go back to school. *wink*
Love it!~
Thanks for the fun and for sharing your engaging style! Clicking over from the “Chatting” link up.:)
God bless!
oh my goodness. #5. we have entered that season and yes, i agree 100%. and the fact that all my boys share a room in the basement & they sleep right under our bedroom…. 🙂 Also, your pictures are stunning. Thank you for sharing your words & your pictures with us.
Oh girl, I hear ya. Our two teen boys share a room, and our room shares a wall with theirs. So. YES.
Always love to see you, Caroline. Have a wonderful weekend!
I have been in the same house for 17 years. I realized last week that this is the longest I have ever lived in one place. Even growing up I lived in the same city but 4 different homes. Married a military guy at 18 and moved around for the next 13 years, then married another military man and then he retired, so here we are 17 years later. After 4 years I started getting the move itch. But here I sit.
1. This talk, by Brennan Manning, has to be one of the most beautiful videos I have ever watched/listened to. It has even deeper meaning to me after a horrible depression I went through. You will feel so loved if you watch/listen to this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY7c6XPagmA
2. The Glorious Impossibility – The Sermon on the Mount for Those Who Have Crashed and Burned by Tullian Tchividjian:
3. I learned this from Wm. Paul Young, Author of The Shack:
“You can read The Shack as a story but my intent was always more than that; a parable laden with metaphor. It is a true story, but not real. The shack itself represents the house on the inside that people help you build. It is the human heart, the uniquely crafted soul that can so easily be torn from its moorings and left to flounder in the waves of a storm tossed world. Some of us had good help building the house of the soul; many of us did not. For us this inside place became a shattered hovel, a barely habitable dwelling of which we were intensely ashamed and into which no one would ever be invited. Here we stored our addictions and hid our secrets. It was the house of shame and pain held together by a webbing of lies and protected by an ever-growing array of survival skills and defensive mechanisms. We believed that God hated this place even more than we do.
————————————————————————————————————-
Why do we keep our secrets? Mostly, because we are terrified, of losing control, of losing the little bits and scraps of acceptance and approval that we have managed to scrape together through production and performance. The irony is that relationships will bring us healing but we don’t trust them. When someone comes into our lives and they offer genuine love, acceptance, forgiveness, grace – the very things that would heal our hearts – we don’t believe them…because they don’t know the secrets. We are trapped and as sick as the secrets we keep.
So what do we do? We find a way to survive. We look for ways to kill the pain while maintaining the façade. We beg God, in secret, to heal us. We stay moving targets, active in ministry and service. If exhaustion and the praise of performance don’t kill the pain, we find other things that will; prescription drugs, alcohol, pornography, affairs etc. Shame becomes the prison we know, authenticity a wish at best. And we are not trying to be duplicitous or liars. Many of us are hoping that if we can just perform perfectly, for long enough, someday the façade will become a real human being. Others of us just give up, fading into the background noise of existence, locking away the inner world behind vaults unapproachable and hidden. We are those who live the routines and requirements of the day, but our eyes are dead. We learn to live from the outside in because there is nothing that we believe lives or is worth living from on the inside.” Wm. Paul Young
Kristen,
In the month of August I learned every inch of the card store…I have way too many family members and friends with August birthdays. But, I am also blessed to have each of these people in my life. Praying you will find peace in staying put in CO for yet another season! (note only one !).
Love your look on life,
Bev
As a fellow Coloradoan, I just read a gardening article in the paper that stated we only have a few weeks left before frost sets in. Yikes – was not ready to read that! My plants are still flourishing – and I am not ready to let them go. As for #5 – yup. We live in a house with bionic acoustics and three teenage boys. Makes for creative – how did you say it – marital relations. So funny. I wanted to put seven exclamation points there, but I refrained. My period button does work. Aren’t these end of the month posts a blast?
Ha! You make me laugh, Maureen!
Yes and yes and yes to everything you said!
Oh mercy, is #5 really true?! And I thought we had it rough now because there is rarely a night when someone doesn’t have a bad dream, bloody nose, or who knows what and we wake up to a little asleep on our loveseat.
I too love Pumkin spice warm comforting seasonal fall drink and welcome to blend in the seasons. One slowly we stay secure to and another with it’s exciting promises and familiarity of our Thanksgiviving I welcome approach.As for the man in my bed? yet to be seen or behold lol.Well he’d have to share it with God’s morning and evening devotion first b4 all the obligations of the world creep in with the pets.Or older family members who dropped in overnite stays to share making breakfast. I wrote my lingering summer memories on fb of missing waking up to the lake views nature and my Amercan neighbours (who drove miles from the states to enjoy the peace of Canada) at the the family summer cottage.Yet to refresh that void perhaps a meander after breakfast with my first born & dog across the street through the woodlands down to the ocean and buiding new memories as a civoloan..
What I learned in August, or more accurately, what I re-learned” is that God always places His hope before us. I just need to pray and listen more closely. In recent months, He has done this for me with words of hope …. blogs, sermons and Christian non-fiction books He has placed in my path that provide wisdom and lessons I need to hear.
I am underemployed and struggle with discouragement. It is a cycle of being disappointed, finding hope, getting disappointed, getting discouraged AGAIN and then getting frustrated with myself because I know where discouragement comes from and it is not from our Lord. Really, it is enough to make me want to scream! I feel like my resume looks like a patchwork quilt because of the many and varied jobs I have accepted to get by financially. It is a difficult season to be sure! In August, I began reading In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day (Mark Batterson). Within the first few pages of Chapter 1, I find encouragement through his words “God is in the resume making business”. “He is always using past experiences to prepare us for future opportunities.” And later in the chapter, “God wants you to get where He wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go … If you keep in step with the Spirit, God is going to make sure you get where He wants you to go. He is always behind the scenes, engineering our circumstances and setting us up for success” It is not a knew lesson – God using our past to shape our future, but a new way for me to look at my resume in a positive light. I share this to be an encouragement to those also in a difficult season that does not seem to make sense. When you feel discouraged, just remember that God is building your resume to prepare you for His perfect plan. Thank you Kristen for the encouragement of your words.
Amy, I can’t tell you what a gift your words are. From the deepest corners of my heart, thank *you*.