Tuesday Ten

1. Ah, October. There is a tree I see every day on my way up the hill from downtown. Every year I say to myself how fun it would be to take a picture of it daily as it transforms from fully green to aflame in autumnal oranges, yellows and reds... and yet I never do it. Every year when I notice the leaves beginning to fall from it, I am sad that I missed the opportunity another year.
2. I watch the local evening news every night. I tivo it and fast forward through all the boring stuff. But I always look at the seven day weather forecast. Every.single.night.
3. Fall sports are winding down... Savannah has her last volleyball game on Thursday - Kyler has his last league meet tomorrow. He will have districts and potentially State still...
4. I was achy in the strangest places the day after the half marathon... specifically, my left shoulder and my right ankle. My left knee really hurt me from mile 10 to about mile 12 while I was running... I wonder if I was compensating for the pain in a way that impacted those two areas of my body. The shoulder seemed especially weird. But it was definitely sore... almost like a kink in my neck...
5. I've been struggling to find stillness in my life... was reminded by an old and dear friend recently how important it is to find that quiet... and am still not managing it very well. Part of it is added work responsibilities that are done from home... eating up a lot of my time and keeping me busy on days when I might have had time for peaceful pursuits in the past. I've got to figure it out... and in fact feel like perhaps this post-marathon time might be meant for just that... for stillness. Quiet... it's harder to pursue than more tangible goals. Have you found it?
6. I'm excited about a major blog-milestone coming up very soon... stay tuned.
7. The last time I went in for a haircut I was there before I was really desperate... which I thought was this cool pre-emptive strike, but actually ended up backfiring. My hairdresser thought everything looked great - the shape was still nice and it wasn't too 'bulky' (a major grow-out problem for my thick hair) so all she did was just the most minimal of trims. And now - here I am, three weeks later with 'bulky' shapeless hair... the hair that usually makes me call desperately for the first available slot. Lesson learned. Pre-booking is a waste. It's better to wait until it's awful. Because now I'm stuck with the awful for awhile. My hairdresser is amazing, but she's ridiculously expensive and I only budget for her three times a year. Bummer.
8. Parenting is simply the single most interesting and challenging thing ever, isn't it? I never cease to be amazed at how it continues to stretch and teach and push me to prayer, even after all these years. I have three of the most incredible kids ever and still there are days when I'm driven to my knees in utter humility... begging for wisdom. It's quite the refining experience...
9. Next year Asia and I celebrate 20 years of marriage. He's surprised me with pretty amazing vacations on our tenth and fifteenth anniversaries... not sure what to expect with twenty... but secretly hoping for something lovely. He's still my favorite person in the world and travelling with him is one of my greatest pleasures.
10. Our long-awaited Trader Joe's store opens in Spokane (only a couple miles from my house!) on October 28th. I'm sure the crowds will be ridiculous the first few weeks... hoping I can find a quiet-ish morning when they're less busy to go begin to fill my pantry with favorites I've only been able to buy when we've travelled somewhere with a store. So happy they're opening here!!!

Happy Tuesday, friends!