msm: on hot tea and changing and some things never changing

Stephanie gave me real, grown-up tea for my birthday.  I've been really excited about it but didn't open it up until today.  I suppose the weather had to feel bonafide for me to waste what feels like such an extravagance.  

It was worth the wait :)


The weather is cool here today, currently about 46 degrees, and it isn't actually raining raining, but to quote my mom, it's mistin'.  I'm aware that technically it's an awful-looking day out my window but it feels just perfect to me.  A few minutes ago when I stepped outside with the puppy (again!) it was all I could do to force myself back indoors.  


Is there anything like those first few days of a new season?


Is there anything better than that crisp, clean air we get when the weather first begins to shift from steamy summer to autumn?  


I say it over and again but I can't help myself...I love fall forever and always. 



I love it in spite of - or perhaps because of - the melancholy that always comes with. 


I love the vibrant colors and the soggy, muddy lawn.  


I love the way it can be 84 degrees one day and feel perfectly appropriate at 46 the next.  All weather bets are off in October.


I love watching the boys dressed all cute in jeans that go down to the floor, and Peyton in his snuggly little baby duds.  I love Owen in his sweats and Audrey in her first leggings of the new season.


I love how nearly every child you see is wearing pants just a little too long and shirts with sleeves that go nearly to their fingers, because nothing fits perfectly on a little one in early fall.


...and oh how I love remembering my own sweet little girls prancing around (yes, prancing) with their new backpacks and lunchboxes and clean-slate enthusiasm as they marched into a new chapter of their so-new, anything-could-happen lives.

I'm thinking new starts aren't reserved for frigid January with all of its frenetic enthusiasm.

Maybe, just maybe, the very best clean-slate, get-inspired, do-over time might be right here in October.


With a cup of hot tea in one hand and a brand-new pack of crayons in the other :)



Happy Monday!