This has been a full and fantastic week. (Well except for the time where I tried to do some sewing and I wanted to bang my head against the wall. We’ll pretend that didn’t happen.) Fall has officially arrived, it feels like it anyway. It has been gray and chilly, the leaves are beginning to change and my kitchen smells like pumpkin. I even had to pull out some boots to wear today because it just felt like the right thing to do.
Fall is my favorite in many ways. It feels like a new year is upon us (because we work on the school schedule), who knows what God will do in the coming months and I’m expectant in waiting for it, (whatever it is), students are beginning to head back to campus, the leaves are beautiful and the best lattes and bread are made in the fall. I do love me some pumpkin spice.
Here were some of the highlights for me this week:
- I took Isaac to campus on Monday and Tuesday (in absolutely beautiful weather) and we talked with some students, stood by the table where they were doing surveys and I attempted to call to do follow-ups with those students who said they were interested in talking more about spiritual things. Even though I wasn’t able to meet with any women this week our staff team had some great conversations, 75 students came to a bowling night we had on campus, about 25 students are going on the beach trip tomorrow, and there were about 14 new students that came to the first weekly dinner gathering on campus. We’re so excited to see what God does at PSU this year!
- Isaac and I enjoyed a day out together. We went to the zoo with some friends which was fun but I froze because it was suddenly cold. I was not prepared for that at all. While at the zoo we spotted Tenley Molzahn, who was previously on the Bachelor a while back and I follow her on Twitter now. I even sent out a tweet about seeing her and she tweeted me back. She has 83,000 followers and she tweeted me back. Yep, made my day people. Then Isaac and I went to the playground for lunch and stopped at the rose garden before heading home. I love that he appreciates the beautiful things in life and loves to stop and smell the flowers. Such a sweet boy. Here’s a picture of our day there. And yes, that picture is of Tenley because I am a creepy stalker like that.
- I made some yummy new food this week. I like to try new things and it was definitely a fall baking week with the turn of weather. This new soup recipe is a new favorite of mine, roasted corn chowder with chicken, lime and cilantro. We’ll be eating more of this for sure. I of course made my own changes and used tomatoes from the garden and not canned ones and a few other minor things but it was delicious. I served it with this cornbread (also a new favorite). Then for dessert because we were having our first life group I made these pumpkin cookies. They are actually better after sitting for a day served cold, weird, but true. And because I had some leftover pumpkin and you can never have too many baked goods in the house at a time I made this amazing pumpkin bread that I will be eating multiple loaves of in the future (perhaps I should begin doing multiple workouts as well).
- We had our first Bible study that we’re leading through our church. We call them Life Groups and it’s focused on living out your faith in your neighborhood and being intentional with the people that live near you. I thought it was really fun (hopefully everyone else did too) and I’m excited to see how the next few months go.
- Today was our first MOPS meeting of the year. I’m a discussion group leader for a table and I had such a great time getting to know some new women today and see some others that I already knew. It’s a great thing to have a place to go where all the women are in the same phase of life, understand what it’s like to have little ones, get a little break and have adult conversation, grow deeper in friendships and challenge one another in our faith. I’m praying it’s a great year for the women at my table. It’s fun to have another ministry opportunity in the place that God has me in this phase of life.
Those are some of the highlights around here. I hope you had a great week as well and that you have a restful weekend.