This month has fled by, but it has truly been a beautiful month and not just the weather, although that has been great.  We are officially into my favorite time of the year.  Hot Cocoa and cozy, fleecy, clothes here I come (if the hot flashes don’t flare too high).  I can’t wait to curl up in the evening with a good book and a throw; somehow with the sun going down earlier, I don’t feel as guilty about the extra couch time.  I love soup simmering in the crockpot smelling the house up with wonder.  Life seems to slow down to a simple pace that I can keep up with and hibernating seems to be an acceptable social more.  But, I digress…

What did I learn in September?  As usual, I was not very adept at jotting down things and my mental lists don’t stick around as long as they used to, so I am just going to share some highlights.

1. I learned that my nephew is awesome.  Ok, so I already knew that, but he is an awesome singer and guitar player. A recent video he shared with me confirmed that he is, in fact, pretty awesome.  He is auditioning live this weekend at the Hoedown in the Holler Star Competition. Click on the picture below (when he was a wee lad) and it should take you to his video on FB.

2.  I learned that Emily Freeman and Christa Wells are awesome.  Ok, so I already knew that as well, but it sure was great to sit under their storytelling this past Saturday at the Nester’s Barn and learn so many nuggets.  I am still processing and it usually takes me a few days to gather all my thoughts and write a post about them.  It may be November before I write about it, but rest assured I will write about the experience.

3.  One sweet thing that I will share from the Writer’s Event is about my Sense of Place.  Y’all they talked about our sense of place. You may or may not have noticed that the tagline on my blog (go ahead look up there at the top by the blog title) is a sense of place.  A  few  months back, I decided that my blog needed a tag line.  A real tag line that sort of defined what my blog was about, not just a random quote that changed often, or nothing at all, which is how it had been for a long time. While looking back through several of my posts, I realized that the one’s that spoke the most about who I am and what makes my heart soar were the posts that spoke of my sense of place – in my world and my family – the one’s that defined me and what I am about. I even had a post from 2011 that was titled Sense of Place, so to me it made sense for that to be my tagline.  Hearing those words at the Writer’s event was just like a confirmation that I was on the right track. I love it when those chill bump moments happen.  God has been working on me little by little to help me settle into his plans and trust the direction he is leading.

4. I discovered that I really like the Charlotte area of North Carolina and could probably live there.  Although, I don’t really like traveling down Interstates 64 and 77 to get there because it actually feels a lot more like traveling up in so many places and don’t even get me started on the curves in West Virginia, thank you very much.

5.  Part of settling into God’s plans involved my husband opening the doors of our home to teach piano students. We don’t know where this will lead, but it is a start on doing fulfilling work in a small town that does not offer much for a classically trained pianist.  We even have a Facebook page for the studio.  I have lots of dreams and possible plans wobbling around on the back side of my mind for how this could all expand, but we’ll see how God is leading.

6.  Finally, nothing new, but I am a very last minute person.  I am still figuring out what my 31 Days will be about this year.  And the link-up is tomorrow evening.  I have jotted down notes and thoughts, but have not sank into a topic as of yet.  But, there is hope, so stay tuned and come back sometime tomorrow evening-ish for the big reveal. Because, I do know I want to accept the challenge. And hey, if you are reading this before noon -ish tomorrow, feel free to leave a suggestion about what you’d like for me to write about.  In case you are worried about my last minute, barely skidding to the link-up on time ways, just know that I once wrote a college term paper in a weekend.  I got an A- thank you very much. It might have helped that my professor really liked me and I was her work study, but still. I seem to work well under pressure.

I Need Lots of Grace,

Teresa