Intro to Autumn

It’s only almost 4 months since I last wrote. I think I should win a prize for being so faithful at blogging. 😛 As I look back over the summer, my perception of the time feels somewhat hazy. Between the intense busyness of work at home and work at the stand, the summer flew by faster than any other I can remember. However, it is now October (I can’t believe it!), and our gardening and canning has been completed for this year and business at the stand has slowed to a sleepy trickle on some days. When it’s quiet and a little lonely at work, I remember the bustle and hubbub of the height of the summer; those busy days when there would be so many customers we’d have two cash registers going, and there would be workers all over the place, bagging dozens and dozens of corn for customers, replenishing the vegetables on the stand, washing bins that had been emptied, buzzing around in gators bearing vegetables like army jeeps carrying supplies to troops on the front lines. We’d watch from behind the counter like soldiers waiting to do battle as the customers came in waves, surging, then waning over time. (What a great picture of customer service, eh? 😉 ) But now the corn season has ended a bit early, thanks to flooding from Irene, and accordingly, the traffic at the stand has slowed a bit.

The view from the stand is the epitome of fall: pumpkins are stacked on bales of hay fronted by clusters of mums that look like a puffy carpet and piles of winter squash lie enclosed in cribs of hay bales. Over to the right of the stand, traveling the length of the greenhouse, are miles and miles of pumpkins: stacked on wooden pallets, loaded on a wagon bed, and piled in two hay wagons. Parents and eager children come searching for the perfect pumpkin, disappearing out of sight for a while and then coming back to the stand, struggling under the weight of their orange (or white!) prize. Yes, working at the stand is still quite lovely, even if it is back to being a bit more solitary, and I wish that I would have more fully appreciated the job sooner. Having a job has certainly changed me in one way – I have gone from being quite a home body and loathing having to leave home (and Mommy!) every day to looking forward to my job and seeing coworkers (especially those who are fellow believers). I’m still quite glad to come home and be around my family at the end of the day (and I’m thankful I have a home environment that I can be glad to get back to!), but I’m also glad that the Lord has brought me to a place of contentment in my job, as well. However, the unknown future looms ahead of me, since I will no longer be employed after this month. Although I am a little less apprehensive about going out into the workplace than I was before I started this job, I realize that the taste of going to work that I have had this summer is still not like what it will be at a regular job. The work environment at the farm is rather idyllic in some ways; all the workers are pleasant and polite to each other (and several of the people there have known my family since before I was born), the customers are cheerful (mostly 😛 ) and pleasant – on the whole, it is a wholesome, low-stress environment. It’s not perfect and tension-free 100% of the time, but compared to things I have heard about other people’s workplaces, it’s pretty nice.

Well, this post was going to be a bit of a story about my Cabbage Patch dolls going to the fair (they are my most original inspiration for writing – I’ll have to tell the story about them one of these days) since my family and I went to the fair yesterday, but I’m not even finished updating yet, so I think I’ll have to save that for another day. But now, to continue catching up. In my last post I mentioned that I was trying to be consistent in sewing, writing, and the piano. I have definitely been able to be more consistent in piano the past two months, thank the Lord! I am trying to play offertory for church once a month, so that keeps me at the keyboard more often. My sewing machine, on the other hand, has been feeling deserted this summer, and with good reason. I’ve hardly touched it! But that must change soon, since I am a bit low on clothing for cooler weather and have material for several things to make. I did cut out a long-sleeved black blouse last week!

Now for the writing update: I have come to the realization that if I do nothing differently than I have been, I will not become a writer. The reason being, I don’t write. I have been praying about this though, and Lord willing I will conquer that slight problem. I am in search of some online classes that involve different writing genres so I can explore them and hopefully find out what area of writing to specialize in. I still love the idea of telling people’s stories, but I am open to whatever the Lord wants me to do. I’m even looking to try some free online ones – anything to get my pen moving! I might have a neat opportunity coming up, though. The director of the Senior Center where our church meets is a Christian, and he came to the farm stand sometime in August. I recognized him after having seen him from a distance at Old Home Day, so when he came to the stand I introduced myself and told him that I went to the church that was meeting at the Senior Center. Anyway, whether he remembered meeting me or not, he came to the stand this past week and asked me if I was back in school yet. (I get that a lot since I don’t look old enough to be out of high school) We went through the usual course of such a conversation, and he asked if there was any particular kind of writing I liked (and if I’d written anything that had been published yet. Ha!) to do, and I replied that I was trying to figure that out at the moment. He paused for a moment, then told me that there was a writing group at the Senior Center and it was all older people, but they might not mind having a younger person in there and maybe I could get some ideas from them. He gave me his card in case I was interested. I prayed about it for a couple of days and my thought was that I shouldn’t close the door on this  – I should at least let him know I’m interested and see if they mind my being in there. I could at least go once to observe before committing myself. Anyhow, I called, and he was headed out of town until October 14th, after which he will talk to some people and then let me know the results. It could be a neat opportunity, both for writing and for getting involved in the community, which I have been desiring to do lately.

In addition to that, I am involved in the process of beginning to write a Christmas play again this year! Mom and I have been coming up with ideas, and it’s so neat to see the way the Lord puts them into our heads. I am really excited about this play. 🙂 I think it will be nice and simple, and hopefully bring out some points that I have been gleaning from different literature lately. I’m also excited because I think we’ll be using some songs from Michael Card – honestly, he’s my favorite Christian music artist. Oh wait. I just realized that would put him above Tom Netherton. We must rethink this. They’re not quite in the same category – Tom only sings and Michael writes his own stuff and sings…and the kinds of music they sing are somewhat different too…so I <3 <3 <3 them both, k? K. Anyway, his songs are so Scripture-filled. They remind me of Paul’s writings – so practical and real. The Christmas songs that we will be using are so beautiful and have such thought-provoking messages. I think it will be really nice to have some songs in the play that aren’t just typical carols. Hopefully they will grab people’s attention and cause them to listen more attentively than they would if we used well-known carols. We just decided this morning to also use Ron Hamilton’s “Bow the Knee”, and while it isn’t a Christmas song, it has such a powerful message.

Before I let this post become too ridiculously long, I just have two more things to share! I am considering taking part in NaNoWriMo next month. I have no clue if I can succeed at such a venture, but I think it would be a good way for me to get a feel of what a writer’s life can sometimes be like and also get me used to producing a decent quantity of words a day. In other words, a way to get my pen moving. And it would feel astoundingly awesome to have a 50,000 word novel under my belt. I would feel so accomplished! I was praying about it just this morning, and then when I checked my email I saw a post from WordPress about how to prepare for NaNoWriMo. They mentioned this Post A Day challenge, and I thought that would be a really neat way to warm up for next month – if in fact, I do decide to write my head off next month. Sooooo, I’m gonna run that by the Lord today and if it still seems like a good idea, you may see an official notice that I am taking the challenge to blog every day this month! Wouldn’t that be a shocker? And I promise that not all of the posts will be as tediously long as this one. 😉 It takes a while to catch up on 3 1/2 months though.

Oh wait. Make that three things! *cringes* Sorry! I still have not announced that I have another blog! That one is way more interesting than this one (at least to me). It’s called A Cupboard of Books, and you can read about the idea behind it here. Basically, it’s my place to review and evaluate the books I read. I have been having a ton of fun with it and am going to be reviewing a bunch of really good ones soon! (Although they are not from The Cupboard. :O )

Ok, I think I’m finally done with all of my updating!!! This only took me forever – and it was just supposed to be a warm up for working on the Christmas play. Ooopsy….on a side note, this is post is about 200 words longer than the amount I would have to write daily for NaNoWriMo. Hmmmm….my hands and elbow might not like that so much. But they may just have to deal with it. This is a ridiculously long post, and if you have gotten this far, I commend you. Hopefully the fallish pictures helped break it up! 🙂 *note* I have not proofread this yet, so please excuse any typos!