My Mom has been staying with us for the past week and a half as I’ve transitioned back to work, which has been absolutely wonderful! (SO THANKFUL!) We are doing our best to soak up time with her, which means my time for blogging, reading, and goal progressing has been a bit more limited than usual, as you’ll see below. No complaints here, though — just a few more items than I expected rolling over to November!

P.S. I love using PowerSheets to track my professional goals (and sometimes personal ones, too). The new collection went on sale last week and it is awesome! The one year goal planners will likely sell out before the new year, so scoot over and get yours soon if you’d like one for 2019!

On my calendar this month:
— A fun regional alumni event for our alma mater
— Voting!
— Date night to Hamilton!!!
— Thanksgiving x four (Thanksgiving-themed Articles Club, early Thanksgiving with the Thomases in Virginia, Thanksgiving Day with the Terhunes, and Thanksgiving weekend with my family – whew!)

What I’m loving right now:
— As someone who loves travel, interior design, and entrepreneurial endeavors, the Netflix series Stay Here gets two thumbs up from our house! The episodes are only half an hour and so fun.
— My Allbirds (I have the Tree Skippers in navy) are in heavy rotation right now – comfortable enough to wear all day and good looking with lots of outfits!
— I haven’t added a subscription to my Feedly in over a year, so the fact that a new-to-me blog — The Fashion Magpie — has recently earned a spot is worth a mention. Jen describes her blog as a “literary fashion journal,” and despite the fact that most of the fashion she posts is wildly outside of my budget, we appear to have SO much in common. I think you might like!

What I read in October:
— The Coddling of the American Mind: I am only a few chapters into this book but it has me nodding along like my head’s going to fall off. We might need to have a longer conversation about it once I’m finished.

Revisiting my goals for October:
Prepare well for returning to work
Frame new family photos for Shep and June’s rooms
Host a pumpkin painting workshop, with proceeds going to Hurricane Florence relief (We raised over $1,500 and had such a fun night!)
Watch Won’t You Be My Neighbor? on Amazon (Beautiful!)
Order supplies and finish Halloween costumes (Yes, I made those wings, and yes, I am proud of them! :))
Take down June’s pelmet and replace with curtains, creating a reading corner
Order our Christmas cards (using newborn photos!)
Work on Shep’s baby book and update June’s
Clean out our coat closet and donate anything we no longer need
Organize June’s art supplies

November goals:
— Write one thank you note per day (a campaign we’re doing along with our church family!)
— Organize our loft (the one spot in our house that just WON’T be solved)
— Do lots of Christmas shopping, taking advantage of Black Friday sales
— Share gift guides for ladies, gents, parents, and kiddos
— Order Christmas cards and Christmas newsletter
— Work on Shep’s baby book and update June’s
— Take down June’s pelmet and replace with curtains, creating a reading corner

So many things to discuss, but I’d love to hear: have you seen Won’t You Be My Neighbor? What did you think? What stuck with you? I keep thinking about how he said we should tell our children, “today was special just because you were in it” every night, and I was also struck by how sloooooow he moved and spoke and responded to questions — in a good way.

Our sixth annual pumpkins and soup party was on Saturday, and I think we’ve got the schedule down – at least for this season of life:

4:30 | arrivals and pumpkin carving
5:30 | soup is served
6:30 | dessert (warm chocolate chip cookies!)
7:00 | departures for little bedtimes

This year, I tried something new for the first hour: a Halloween “charcuterie board” inspired by my friend Kayte! She makes the most creative themed spreads, and I figured an orange and black rendition plunked in the middle of the table, within easy reach of carving stations, would be a hit. It turned out better than I expected, so I thought I’d share!

For this board, I used:

— carrot sticks
— orange bell pepper slices
— sharp cheddar cheese squares
— pimento cheese
— Skinny Pop
— black pepper crackers
— blackberries
— Smokehouse almonds
— clementine slices
— white chocolate covered pretzels
— Wheat Thins
— red pepper hummus
— Concord grapes
— salami

I also added goldfish after I took this photo! The platter is from World Market and the little orange dishes are Target Dollar Spot.

This was seriously so fun and easy, and it really has a wow factor once plated. I’m a bit addicted now and already brainstorming my next theme!! Three of my favorites from Kayte’s repertoire that are inspiring me: end of summer, Fourth of July, and pink for a little girl!

P.S. This would make for a fun spread before trick-or-treating!

There are a few churches John and I like to keep tabs on — listening to their sermons each week, even getting their email newsletters. They’re doing a lot of things right, and it’s inspiring to watch them chase after God-sized dreams (and to think about how their best ideas might translate to our own home church!).

One of our favorites is Church of the City, a network of neighborhood churches in Nashville. We feel like we’ve been with them since the beginning, and we kind of have — we followed their main pastor when he was on staff at his old church, before he moved to Tennessee and planted the first COTC location. Over their relatively brief lifetime as a church family, they have had a craaaaaazy story, including but not limited to launching six worshipping communities (including a Spanish language and a New York City location); partnering with an established Nashville church who was so drawn to COTC they approached them with the idea of a merger; and retiring millions of dollars of debt carried over with that merger.

Needless to say, it’s been an eventful five years especially as their community has grown from the small founding handful to the thousands attending each weekend. Keeping the flame of passion, purpose, ingenuity, unity, and sincerity alive — casting the vision for who they are as a church body — must be one of the hardest things the leadership is tasked with. Unsurprisingly (if you know how well they have historically led their people!), they have gotten out ahead of this in many ways, but most impactfully with Vision Sunday.

Once a year, they rent a concert hall in Nashville and gather all of their local communities to worship and dream together. They share stories from their people, stories that remind them who they are and why they do what they do. They paint a picture of where they’ll travel in the next year and what they’ll grow together. They worship. I’ve only experienced it online (and not even as a “real” member of the church!) and I leave every year energized and inspired — I can’t imagine what it would be like to attend in person!

All this to say that the fact that this church has been successful in its mission and that it is continually reminding itself of that mission — as well as intentionally evaluating its success and setting new goals to press further into that mission — is no coincidence.

Proverbs 29:18 says where there is no vision, the people perish. Wither. Shrink. Dry up and grow stale. And as it goes for churches, so it goes for relationships. I’ve shared before that one of my favorite nights of the year is our December celebration dinner, where John and I spend a few hours chatting through a series of questions to look back and ahead. It’s a chance for us to cheer our union on as much as it is an opportunity to decide how we’d like to grow together in the year ahead. (Our bimonthly net worth chats are a kind of mini, financial version of this!)

And finally, as for relationships, so it is for individuals. The best way I know to ensure that I’m continually moving toward the person I hope to become is with my PowerSheets. The yearly prep work and monthly Tending Lists keep me motivated, diligent, attentive to my life, and pressing forward.

There is no “there” where it will suddenly be easy to give reflexively, pray continually, adventure mightily, eat mindfully, parent patiently, read voraciously, or anything else we deeply desire. We have to light the flame of all these things, and then we have to tend to it.

I do that with PowerSheets, and I wanted you to know the 2019 sets go on sale today! I think you will love them. And if you’ve never tried them before, maybe this is your year :)

In the meantime, I would love to hear: do you have a routine of vision casting or review in your life? Or in an organization you’re a part of it? It can be so powerful!

P.S. Aside from the PowerSheets, my absolute favorite product from the new collection is the Joyful Greeting Card Set. I’ve mentioned before that one of my life hacks is to use Black Friday sales to stock up on greeting cards – but with this set (24 cards for $24), you don’t need to wait for a sale. The price and quality is incredible, and this set’s versatility is such that you’ll use every card in the box! (Just think about the price of a single birthday card at Target right now. You’re welcome :)) It is *possible* that these could sell out this week, so I wanted to give you a heads-up if you’re a snail mail lover like me!

Did anyone else experience the post-pregnancy clothes buying surge? After seemingly wearing the same two dresses, one shirt, and one pair of shorts for my final two months, I was ready for something new!! My buying “spree” resulted in three finds I want to tell you about…

Not me, but I kind of really want those pants :)

First up: these jean shorts from, of all places, American Eagle. My maternity jean shorts (which I LIVED in this summer) had a longer inseam than my normal ones, and when I put back on my normal ones after Shep’s birth, they just felt… short. I remembered my friend Shay sharing that she wore AE ones, and sure enough, with a 4″ inseam, their “midi” style is just longer than the jean options available at most stores. They are quite stretchy and run small, so I’d recommend sizing up a size or two.

Next: this shirt. Also from American Eagle. (What?!) It is soft and cozy, but also looks pulled together. Also, nursing-friendly! And I feel like a character in a Nancy Meyers movie when I wear it, so there’s that. I first bought the white, then when I went to link this post last night, I bought the blue because it’s now on super sale and I love it so much. I sized up to a medium (I usually wear a small or XS) for a looser fit.

Finally: these jeans. I CANNOT say enough good things about them, and am joining the chorus of several friends who also sing their praises. I have previously been a J.Crew and LOFT jeans gal, but these outshine them both. At the risk of sounding rhapsodic, from the minute I stuck my foot inside I could tell they were well made, with the right amount of stretch and a great weight to the denim. I love the wash, I love the high waist, and I love that they look great cuffed or straight. Plus, they’re a great price – $60 on sale right now! And they feel SO GOOD on. Would highly recommend if you’re in the market! (These fit true-to-size for me.)

After reading this post from Young House Love, I realized I’m inching toward my own “uniform”… and it looks like a lot of dusty blue, navy, denim, white/cream, and tan. (That’s why I chose the photo above – it would fit right in in my closet!) There might be a post in the making as I explore this more, if you’re interested! :)

P.S. Early evidence of my uniform here and here.

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