Pausing to Press Reset

Fall. In our little corner of the world, the official start to the new season arrived this week without much fanfare.

While it marked the beginning of change, we still have yet to see colors shift or temperatures drop. In fact, the mercury’s hovered around the 90 degree mark for the past several days, and most of our trees (except our old, ancient walnuts) still have green leaves.

Our walnut trees boast thick, barren limbs and the ground beneath is littered with walnuts. Lots and lots of walnuts.

That’s the one subtle cue that change is at hand. Well—that and those unsightly cluster of webworms that seem to go with fall. Ugh. Nevertheless, I look forward to crisp, colorful days, cozy quilts, and the scent of wood smoke lingering over the nearby hills and hollows.

Hands down, fall is my favorite season. And just like this old earth pauses to regroup, I need to rest for a while, too. (Click-to-Tweet)

As a wife, mom, and writer, I wear myriad hats. Boy, do I! (Identify?) And over the summer, exhaustion pounced on me and gave me a run for my money.

Here’s what I mean—

Just a few months ago, our last baby bird completed her senior year in high school. Whew! (Mamas and daddies, if you’ve been through that then you well understand.)

I’d barely recouped from the busyness of that milestone when my elderly daddy took an awful tumble and fractured four ribs and punctured a lung. After a stint in intensive care, there was a lengthy recuperation process as he rehabbed 20 miles away. The back-and-forth coming and going lasted four long weeks, and then there was aftercare when he finally returned home. My sister and I tag teamed our efforts to provide some relief for my mama, but honestly, downtime just didn’t happen.

When my father finally grew a little stronger, I had other things on my plate…er…platter. Think college prep, conference prep, and oh, yes—after that—the dorm move, with the ACFW conference a little over a week later.

Talk about exhausted!

I found I needed to pause. To press reset.

To step away from blogging and social media for a while. To care for myself and to write.

So—if you’ve missed my posts/updates, please know I’ve missed you, too. I hope to be back in my W/F blogging saddle again real soon.

Until then, thank you for extending grace. Thank you for visiting!

May you have a joy-filled, peace-anointed, coffee sipping weekend . {{{HUGS}}}

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ENCOURAGEMENT

Courage to Complete the Journey

Feel the Love Friday (With a Side of Encouragement)

Feel the Love Friday (With a Side of Encouragement-Part Two)

Need Encouragement? Here’s a Basketful!

Original Image Credit: TOFLEG/Pixababy

Do you need to press the reset button?

What’s your favorite way to unwind?

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Much Love and Many Blessings,