Hello, October.

Fall is here. Wah-hoo. The house is adorned in autumnal colors. My garden produced 7 pumpkins! (Something I've never grown.) Now, I just wish the weather would cool off a little bit. I'm ready to wear some knitted goodness without having to peel it off at 10 am because I'm sweating walking to my car.

Much of my time these days has been spent launching the VESSEL club for girls and getting into the routine of writing on the VESSELS blog. This blog isn't just for young girls. I believe you'll enjoy it too, so go on and subscribe. I'm posting recipes and crafts as well as devotional-type study on women of the Bible.

I've been overwhelmed (in a good way) of the response to the real-life club on Wednesday nights. Last week, we had 54 girls attend! I'm so thankful that many moms have stepped in to hang around and help while we stitch and hot-glue our way through crafts.

Alhough I'd love to spend my days just focusing on blogging and crafting, having school-aged kids and one still at home has proved to be quite busy. I only have one napper these days and Jack comes home from kindergarten at 11:15. Like you, there's endless laundry, meal preparation and then the mothering. Intentional parenting and the shepherding of my children's hearts is a daily challenge and just when I feel stretched to my limit, it pulls a little more. But every once in a while I get a glimpse that some of it might just be working....when I receive an unprompted thank you or when I see my kids choosing to treat each other with kindness instead of swiping a toy and yelling, "I had it first."

I guess what I want to say is that for those of you who are feeling weary of motherhood, stay the course. Fight the good fight. We all get emotional and physically exhausted, it's just part of this mama gig.

I've started running again--this time consistently since May. The solitude of being outside, listening to worship music and talking to the Lord have been a great time of refreshment for me. I've begun to rediscover my love of running abet the pain of my post-child rearing body. I've been pumping this song on my headphones while I run. It always seems to pump me up before returning to my brood.