I’m sure if my hubby had to guess, he would say my favorite month was either May (Mother’s day, our wedding anniversary, and nurses week), or December (my birthday, his birthday, and Christmas). It’s one of those questions we would get wrong if we were playing the Newlywed game! But no matter what he says, my favorite month is October. The world around us gets more beautiful with reds, oranges, and yellows. We get to have soup, chai tea, and lots of pumpkin. Jeans and sweatshirts, cute fall boots, and fall bonfires are commonplace. And best of all: FOOTBALL! Needless to say, this is my absolute favorite time of year!
So, it is with a grateful heart that I say,
Hello October!
Another thing that I cannot help but remember during these crisp mornings and shorter days is being pregnant. I was like wayyyyy pregnant with Jaden in October during 2000. He was born November 3rd, so October was the last month that Clint and I were just, well…Clint and I.
We nested together while the leaves turned beautiful. We turned our little starter house into a home ready to welcome a baby. Looking back, we should have slept the entire month of October! But hindsight is 20/20, and how did we know then that we probably wouldn’t sleep another night all the way through?!!
I even remember the last day of October that year….I was leaving home to be induced. I was also praying, with all my heart, that I would NOT have this baby on Halloween! After all, he needed his own day; not a day filled with pumpkins and little goblins! Little did I know, that by the end of the whole experience I would have done anything to have had that baby the minute I walked through those hospital doors; no matter what day of the stinkin’ year it was! But, like I said, hindsight is 20/20.
Now, that little 5# 11oz baby boy is taller than me, weighs more than me, and fills my heart with more joy, frustration, love, and pride than I could ever imagine. We left home that day a couple and returned days later a family; a family that just kept on growing!
Still, this month, in my humble opinion, is the best! It’s my favorite for all the things that it is, and for all the things that it held for us during that time before Jaden was born. I hope that we will be able to hold those days in our hearts and remember what it was like to be two. Because soon, there will again be Octobers where it is just the two of us, and we won’t need to talk about homework, or homecoming, or parent/teacher conferences.
What?! Wait….really?! There are days that I cannot even imagine this scenario!
Do you remember the days when it was just the two of you? Is it hard to find those memories buried beneath the falling leaves of a growing family? I want to challenge us to find that time again. I want to encourage us to make each other a priority even when it would be so much easier to make the kids, and the schedules more important. It’s not going to be easy! There are going to be a thousand excuses; most of them valid. However, we all get the same amount of time each day, let’s make an effort to remember how we became us. Let’s take a little bit of that 24hrs we all get to look back at who we were and who we are becoming together.
As hard as it can be during these days when the kids are all consuming and the schedules are overwhelming, it’s important to remember why we chose each other. It’s important to remember going to movies at midnight just because we could. How fun it was to jump in the car and end up in Chicago because the weekend was wide open. I know that taking long walks with no where to be, sharing long kisses while watching TV, and sleeping in on Saturday morning may be a thing of the past, but the reasons why we chose each other shouldn’t be. I have a responsibility to make my relationship with my husband a priority, and not let it get lost in the chaos of these new Octobers.
I have to admit, I am kinda looking forward to the Octobers of the future, especially with him by my side!
Consider the Birds... 
Absolutely beautiful.