Signs of Fall for a Florida Girl

So even thought I've lived most of my adult life outside of Florida, this whole changing seasons phenomenon still takes me by surprise.  On this, my fourth fall in GA, here's a couple of the signs I've learned to appreciate -

1.  Leaves, like, actually start falling here.  The trees look so naked in the winter!  In Florida, leaves fall twice a year.  The first time is during hurricane season when the dead palm fronds you were too cheap to get trimmed end up delightfully strewn about your yard after the first tropical storm moves through.   The second time is that day in February when it freezes and all the non-palm leaves just fall off dead in one day.

2.  You actually need pajama pants here - they're not just for marking the season - example:  Oh, it's Fall now so I call pull out these super lightweight Old Navy pj pants with leaves and pumpkins to look appropriately seasonal.

3.  Boots!  Oh my word, boots are so much fun!!  Who knew?  These are awesome!!!  1 new pair per year.  That's my limit.

4. Open windows in cars and homes.  And not just because the AC is broken.  What a crazy idea!!!  (Some day I will tell the story here of how a broken AC gave me a black eye).

5.  The sweaters are heavy and warm and stuff.  In FL, the sweaters tend to be, shall we say, loosely woven.  Lots of room for air to circulate since it's only 75.  Like you still need to wear a cami underneath to be decent.  Those don't work so well for me up here.

6.  One that's really kind of loopy is this whole baseball thing.  It actually ramps up in the fall (and interrupts the TV line -up.  Sigh.)  Peak baseball season in FL is in February when spring training starts (hopefully after that one day it got down to freezing for 10 minutes in the middle of the night).  

Gratitude 83-112

83. Fall candles!!  Pumpkin and cinnamon smells wafting through my house

84. The return of TV shows!

85. A Tivo so that I can watch those TV shows with no commercials on my own schedule

86. Brunch with Mom & Doug as they swung through town

87. That it's cool enough to wear PJ bottoms at night now (by "night" I obviously mean from the second I get home from work onward).

88. Trader Joe's

89.  Trader Joe's chili cornbread thing that is so yummy and perfect for fall

90.  Community group starting again

91.  Getting to teach Sunday School to awesome K-1 kiddos

92.  That we get to pray a lot where I work.  It's actually encouraged.

93.  For days cool enough to walk in the park.

94. And also for rainy days like this where I'll hit the gym, have some soup, and curl up in PJs (with TV or books!)

95. For much improvement in my health

96.  For all the people all over the world that have been praying for my health for the past 2.5 years.

97.  Boots.

98. When the missionaries I work with ask for me for prayer requests

99. And then follow up and ask me about those same things the next time we talk.  (I have a former team leader who said she was so thankful when I would ask during our meetings each week how I could pray for her and I so totally, totally get that now).

100.  The new Mumford & Sons

101.  The new Avett Bros

102.  But the new Mumford & Sons more

103.  But seeing the Avett Bros live.

104. A new "hand me down" TV that is so nice and pretty

105.  Super duper nice neighbors who help me when my car won't start.

I started this list of mostly fun/silly/playful things that I'm thankful for a few days ago.  And while I am thankful for those little things that make life a little lighter, on such a deeper level I'm also thankful for

10-6. The birth date of precious Zoe Claire

107. Who lived her 2 hours under the fullest, sweetest love and adoration two parents could offer

108.  Who is home

109. Forever

110. Who will know no more tears or sadness or pain of this fallen, broken world

111. Who I will one day meet

112. When I meet my savior

Summer Reading List 2012 Report

At the beginning of the summer I posted this picture of my summer reading list. And here's the post where I describe each of them.

Hmm...well, apparently I still need a firm deadline and maybe a couple of character and plot analysis papers due because I completely failed this summer reading assignment.  I only finished one of these - the vampire book by Charlaine Harris - and I'm not sure I could even remember the main plot points.  I lent one of these to a friend, read the first chapter or so in 3 others.  And returned a couple to the library unopened.  Sadness, because I do really want to read all of these books.

What got in the way?

1. So are the Olympics the biggest time suck ever or what?  I LOVE the Olympics and was actually on vacation with a good friend for about half of them, so we straight up laid on the sofa, ate, and took naps (like didn't get out of our pj's until dinnertime level of laziness - and then only because we had to go out in public).  So that was over 2 weeks of practically no reading because then I was watching the stuff I'd recorded on Tivo.  I still have some women's gymnastics and the closing ceremonies on there.  It's slightly less fun to watch when it's a month or two in the past.  

2. Another factor working against me was the time limits on the library books.  Most of these have a waiting list, so I'm only allowed to have them out for 3 weeks at a time.  Generally I'm a pretty voracious reader, but not with library books.  It's like I rebel against the fact that I don't actually own them and refuse to read them on someone else's time schedule.  Ok, that sounds kind of ridiculous.  Anyway, I definitely fall prey to the Law of the Universe where all 5 books you've had on hold at the library for months where you were first on one list and 220th on another list all become available on the same day.  I need to go ahead and sign up for these again.  Maybe just one at a time.  I also want to add a book called The Expats.  

3. I finally started reading Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn about the oppression and the promise of women worldwide.  These authors are a husband and wife team and I read some of their book about China, China Wakes, in college and found it to be incredibly insightful.  This book is truly exceptional although I will confess that's really hard and really slow to read because of how heart-wrenching the material is. 

This is the kind of book where you'll just sit there and cry after reading some of the stories.  It will make you angry and it will make you motivated to get involved.  Fortunately, there's a whole movement around this and it's actually "half the sky" month that focuses on lots of ways to take action.  I haven't been able to get involved in what's going on with that, but I am making strides to get more involved in protecting and promoting women's health and safety by getting involved in fight sex trafficking in Atlanta.  What can you do to get plugged in where you live?

I will say that the book does paint a really bleak picture of men.  My struggle in walking away from this book is in thinking through what it looks not just to turn control of everything over to women (although I definitely believe we need women in charge of some more things), but how to empower men as well as women in some of these incredibly impoverished communities to make decisions that benefit their family, community, and country.  Wresting authority away from men to give it to women is a tale as old as the Fall from Eden.  But I don't think the solution to women's oppression is as simple as the book suggests -my understanding of the book's solution being basically that we should give women control over family resources at the expense of men being active decision makers in the life of the family.  Have many men damaged their position as head of the house?  Hell yes.  But how do we empower and protect women without emasculating the next generation of men? How do we raise up both our boys and girls to have a healthy respect for themselves and one another?  Even harder, how do we enter into foreign cultures to promote not only the greatly needed education of women, but also an education of men in how to break free from the cultural norm to care for and respect the women in their lives to the betterment of the entire family.  

I wholeheartedly recommend this book (although the chapter on religious influences was not my fave - any discussion of religion, particularly by those who don't personally practice the religious, is bound to be laden with generalizations and misunderstandings).  Half the Sky will open your eyes to atrocities that are occurring throughout our world and the role we can have in standing up to those who abuse women.  I haven't watched the PBS special "Half the Sky" yet, but I'm recording it tonight.  

Double Dog Dare Update

So now that we're 3/4 of the way through the year (crazy, huh?), I've realized that I'm long overdue for an update on the dare I challenged myself to in January.  You can read about my challenge to not buy any clothes new from a store (only thrift and consignment) for the calendar year of 2012 here.  And you can read about how I "cheated" at Marshall's but rationalized (I'm soooooo good at that) by saying Marshall's is like the consignment store for department stores here.

Where do things stand now?
1. It's really gotten way easier.  Basically because I never go in clothing stores anymore.  I should definitely do this with any place that has chocolate.  Seriously, I don't even really feel a pull in that direction anymore.  Except maybe when other people show up in their new clothes and then I want cute new things.  Two ways to combat this are 1 - picking something up at a thrift store and 2- losing more weight so clothes that are actually 4 years old seem like they're brand new.

2. A recent trip past the clothing land at Target did make me slightly concerned that I will in fact have absolutely no idea of what's in fashion when I end this year.  Canceling the Glamour subscription the same year I gave up clothes shopping was wise in some ways, but not in the way that I have no idea what's in style.  Fortunately for me, I have been in this position before when coming home from Asia.  After weeks of making comments like "Oh my goodness, nobody in the States would ever wear that?  I can't believe that's in fashion here." followed by landing in O'Hare and going "ohhh, so that is totally in fashion.  wow."

3. Cheating with Marshall's was mostly worth it.  I bought two things at Marshall's in the Spring.  A tank top that I also needed a new bra in order to wear it (undergarments were not affected by the dare) and a long skirt.  The top I've only worn once or twice.  The skirt I wore at least once a week (once to work and likely a second time on the weekend if I wasn't seeing work people) for almost the entirety of the summer.  It's a perfect "I don't quite feel like shaving my legs yet" skirt.  That skirt was so worth it.

4. I hardly pay attention to sizes any more.  When you're shopping thrift and picking stuff up from stores you've never heard of before, you tend to be so excited that something is cute and/or fits that you really couldn't care less about what size the label says.

5.  A downside I didn't anticipate is how hard it is to find just regular old solid colored cotton T-shirts.  Those are really hard to come by!  At least in any of the colors you happen to be looking for at the time.  Hence, I've worn some of mine a time or two past their prime by telling myself that I'd keep my cardigan on all day or keep my arms pinned to my sides.  That didn't always work out so well.

This final 3 months should be interesting.  This last quarter was definitely the easiest, but I'm imagining things are about to get a bit tougher as I actually go inside malls again with Christmas right around the corner.  And there will be sales.  And there's two weddings to go to.  And parties.  And I'll just try it on to see how it looks.  Holiday season looks like it could be pretty tough.  I'm hoping I don't make it all the way through the year only to blow an entire year's clothing allowance on January 2.  :)