Savor the Season, However it May Be.

October, November, December. Ninety-two days of pure magic. And, as magical days tend to do, they fly by. 
Last year around this time, Christopher was gone, and it sucked. Plain and simple. But I told myself that I really wanted to savor my favorite season, even if elements of it did suck. Even if I was by myself, the season was still worth savoring. 
So that's what I did! I lit pumpkin candles in the morning while I read. I baked apple treats, even though it was just me who would eat them. I listened to the Autumn in New York station and wrote a lot of blog posts. When I look back on that time, even though it was one of the hardest times of my life, I'm so proud of myself. I know myself, so I knew that being 6 months pregnant and being alone would likely mean watching Netflix in bed and eating cereal for dinner for two months, and I decided..nope. It's still my favorite season. I'm still going to savor it. 
That taught me so much about myself, and now that Chris is in residency, I see how valuable of a lesson it was. It taught me to savor the season, however it may be. 

Savor the season, however lonely it may be. 
Savor the season, however rushed it may be. 
Savor the season, however different than you imagined it may be. I think money plays a huge part in this one. Throughout the year, when we think about fall and winter and all of the holidays, we imagine our ideal circumstances. Pretty decorations and fancy parties and perfect gifts. Then the holidays roll around and, would you look at that, there was no surprise giant influx of cash out of nowhere. You may not have money for new decorations for fall, or new dishes for a Thanksgiving meal, or lavish presents for Christmas, but you still have the season. So savor it. 
Savor the season, however hard it may be. 
Savor the season, however stressful it may be. 
Savor the season, however boring it may be. 
However imperfect it may be. 
However short it may be, however long it may be. 
However tiring, however overwhelming. 
However, however, however. Savor, savor, savor. 
And then, on the days that are close to perfect..the days when your vision of your season comes briefly to life, the days when the get-together turns out perfectly, where your pumpkin cupcakes actually taste like they're supposed to, when you have enough money to swing by Starbucks, when you plan an outing to the pumpkin patch and it actually happens...turn on some Frank Sinatra, pour yourself a pumpkin coffee, and savor those, too. Because they will surely fly by.  

I Love the Hustle and Bustle, I Love the Peace and Quiet.

The holiday season is funny, because it's known for the hustle and bustle it brings. Yet, when we think of the holidays--Christmas, for example--we tend to think of a certain element of calm, serene peace that comes along with it.

As for me, I love it all. Every bit of it. I love the hustle and bustle, I love the peace and quiet.

I think one of the biggest things about enjoying the holidays is appreciating each day for what it is. It's being content with your Christmas, no matter what it looks like. It's soaking up the magic of every day, simply because it's Christmas.

Not because it's a perfectly planned day that turned our exactly how you imagined, though those are nice, too. But just because your day resembled more of a chaotic Black Friday and not so much of the quiet, peaceful, 5-course white and silver themed Christmas dinner you saw on Pinterest doesn't mean it wasn't a beautiful day.

Soak them all in. The loud, busy days of hustle and bustle and the sweet, slow days of peace and quiet. Love them for what they are. Even when the days you had planned to be quiet and peaceful turn hectic, and the days of celebration turn out much more quiet than you had planned, love them both. Because they are both a part of the holidays.

I'm enjoying them all. I'm enjoying the peaceful moments of drinking peppermint mocha coffee in front of the Christmas tree, and I'm enjoying the hectic moments of shopping and rushing around. I'm soaking it all in. The happy, the stressful, the quiet, the noise.

Because Christmas is magical simply because it's Christmas.

Remember What it's All About: Savoring the Season.

Savor has been such a big word for me this year, but especially now that the holidays are in full swing and we're getting closer and closer to little babe making his appearance, it has been so important to me.

The thing about savoring this type of season is that sometimes, it doesn't come naturally. Sometimes, the easy thing will be to rush through every day, constantly looking ahead to the next task and ignoring the present. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to slow down and take a deep breath and savor the current moment we're in.

I'm not saying that in order to savor a season, you have to put a halt to everything else--I'm having a baby in a few weeks and it's Christmastime, hello, there's stuff to be done. But being busy and savoring the season aren't mutually exclusive.

So this month, I hope that you savor your season. I hope you just stop to take it all in on several occasions. I hope that instead of getting caught up in the busyness that can so quickly overtake a day, that you pause to remember what it's really all about. To remember who it's all about.

Cherish the people you love. Your friends and family and the time you get to spend together. Cherish the quiet moments and the busy ones. Cherish the slow mornings when you have time for a second cup of coffee and the hectic ones where your first cup has to be to-go.

Because it doesn't matter what the season looks like--be it busy or calm or fast paced or peaceful or anything else...if you remember why it means so much to you, you'll be able to savor each and every day.

Cheers to a season full of savoring every day.

Nothing Inspires Me Quite Like Fall & Winter.

If I had to choose a way to describe life right now, I think I'd say in love. Or maybe enjoyed. Or I'd choose content. Or savor. Or possibly inspired. 

I am just so in love with life right now. I'm in love with Chris being home, and I'm in love with getting to spend so much time with him.

I'm so enjoying how the weather is, how I've been able to break out the boots and sweaters. Only for like an hour in the morning, but still...I'll take what I can get.

I'm so content with where I am. There's so much up in the air right now, like: Where will we match? Will we be happy with it? When will the baby come? What will life be like once he gets here? Will we be able to make everything work? Regardless of the uncertainty, I'm still so perfectly content with this stage. It's unlike me, but even though I have zero of the answers, I have so much peace.

I'm savoring every moment. After spending so much time away from Chris, I'm soaking up even the normal moments as if they might be snatched away from me at any time. And really-isn't that how we should always live? I'm savoring the mugs of pumpkin spiced coffee, the early mornings snuggled under the covers, the nights spent watching movies and feeling the babe move all around, knowing that pretty soon, he'll be moving out in the world with the rest of us.

Being pregnant is hard-for real, it's really freaking hard work-but I'm still savoring this season so very much.

And absolutely nothing makes me feel inspired quite like fall and winter. The scents, the weather, the tastes, the colors, the coziness. The happiness of all that this fall means to me. I just wake up every day feeling so thankful, and so inspired to just live. Sure, sometimes I wake up in pain, or on the verge of throwing up, but even then-I'm still so inspired by this beautiful season.

What's inspiring you lately? 

Savoring the Seasons That Fly By.

October, November, and December are my very favorite months. Although they're two distinct seasons (fall and Christmas), in my mind, it's a 90 day magical season.

We talk a lot about savoring seasons, about making the most of them and getting all you can out of them, but that kind of talk is mostly reserved for seasons that aren't the best and times that are hard. So how to you go about savoring the best seasons? The ones that fly by no matter how badly you want them to last?

Be present. You may not be able to spend all your time doing exactly what you want to celebrate your favorite seasons, but nothing will waste your life and make you miserable faster than wishing you were somewhere else, doing something else. So no matter what your life looks like, be present this season.

Do your favorite things. You already know this season is going to fly by, so make a list of your favorite things that you really want to do. When you have free time, look at your list. An hour you would have spent browsing Facebook can turn into an hour of trying your hand at that pumpkin cookie recipe you love.

Make time for who and what is important to you. We all know we're going to have to rearrange schedules and to-do lists in order to make time for things. Really, we do this every day. Just make sure you're making time for the important things and people. Sure, you can make time to organize your spice cabinet...but is now really the best time for that?

Take a moment to soak it all in each day. For me, nothing flies by faster than December. Last year, I made it a mission to spend at least five minutes sitting in front of the all lit up Christmas tree with my cup of coffee every day in December. Sometimes I spent an hour drinking coffee and listening to Christmas music, sometimes it was just five minutes. But it made me feel like I got a little bit of Christmas every single day, and it was so nice.

Don't beat yourself up when something doesn't meet your expectations. Fall, and especially Christmas, usually comes with a list of things you can't wait to do. I know I have this list (okay, lists) every year. Sometimes everything gets crossed off, sometimes it's January and I haven't so much as baked cookies. Life happens, and that's okay. Don't let missed expectations ruin the season--just enjoy it for what it is.

How do you savor the seasons that fly by?