Each season I want to share things that I am loving. These may be simple, small things that are making me smile. Or, they might be big events that have brought great joy to me. Or, they may even be practical items, routines, or hacks that have made my life easier over the past few months.
So, without further ado, here are:
8 Things I’m Loving This Fall
1. Spiritual Reading
After finishing my summer spiritual read, Everyday Saints, and absolutely loving it, I have been inspired to add even more spiritual reading into my life. So, in the past month I have read Letters to Saint Lydia and The Scent of Holiness. I would love your recommendations for my next book!
2. Cooler Weather
This is probably a little superficial, but I love fall weather! While I really enjoyed spending the summer with our family in Texas and Oklahoma, I was kind of over the heat. 🙂 And Boston has been enjoying temperatures in the 60s most days for the past few weeks. It’s been bliss!
3. Fellowship with Women
One of my favorite parts about living on a seminary campus (my husband is a seminarian at Holy Cross), is the opportunities for fellowship with other women. There is a prayer/ book group that meets weekly as well as a group for women whose husbands are, Lord willing, going to become priests. While I can’t make it to every meeting, it truly refreshes my soul when I can attend.
4. One-on-One Times with My Kids
As I have gotten more intentional about planning my weekends (more on that below), I have also been trying to plan one-on-one time with each of my kids. Now that my three kids are getting older (Andrew is 9, Ella is 6, and George is 4), they especially appreciate time alone with a parent. Right now I am keeping this one-on-one time simple and fairly short. For example:
-Andrew and I have watched a movie after the little kids go to sleep
-Ella and I went to a wedding together
-George and I went to a coffee shop for an hour.
5. Planning Our Weekends
I wrote a bit more about this in my post on Why I Plan Our Weekends a couple of weeks ago. Basically, after reading Laura Vanderkam’s book Off the Clock, I was inspired to be more intentional about our weekends. Now I try to plan 3-4 “anchor points” for each weekend. These are activities that will make the weekend memorable. Past anchor points have included: a family game night, watching a movie with my oldest son, going to various Greek festivals, and going camping.
6. Chai Lattes
While I have loved chai lattes for a long time (I just have never gotten into coffee!), I have been especially fond of them this Fall. In fact, I may need to curtail this obsession a bit so as to help our budget. 🙂
7. Alone Time
I am an introvert and a highly sensitive person (HSP). Because of this, I know that I need time alone in order to be able to function, let alone love and serve my family and students. This Fall I have some built in alone time since my husband is working at the campus library on Fridays and Sundays from 7-12. Once the kids are in bed, I have a good 3-4 hours to read, watch a movie, or go to bed early. It has been wonderful!
8. Thredup’s Goody Box
Finally, I recently tried Thredup’s Goody Box. Many of you are familiar with Stitch Fix–a service that sends its customers curated clothing to try. Customers can keep and pay for what they like and send back what they don’t. I have always found the idea of Stitch Fix appealing, but the prices were too high for our current budget.
That is why I was so excited when I found out that Thredup (an online “consignment shop” of sorts where people donate their gently used clothing) has its own version called a Goody Box. Here’s what I liked about it:
-the styling fee (the fee for someone to choose the clothes for you and send them out) is only $10 and applies to any clothing that you keep
-you get 10-12 items of clothing per box
-there is a questionnaire that you fill out where you can share your budget, preferences for types of clothing, and (most importantly for me!) brands that you already like and tend to wear
-the box arrives about a week after you place your order
-you have a week to try on the clothes and send back what you don’t want to keep
-the company sends a shipping tag so that you don’t have to pay to send clothing back
-you can give feedback on what you liked or didn’t like in your box
I kept two items that I absolutely love: a casual black wool dress and a navy wool A-line skirt. Both were from J. Crew and in excellent condition (the skirt even had the tags still on it!). All in all, I loved Thredup’s Goody Box and will definitely do another one soon!
What are you loving this Fall?
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