Things that have sustained me in October

As I posted in a previous entry October has been hectic. We had a major fundraiser at work, a huge board meeting at which I presented a major project proposal (which was approved, by the way), and a series of trips, conferences, speaking engagements, soccer meets, etc.

As I reflect back on this month I feel like I fell asleep in July and opened my eyes in November. I don't even really know what I did, saw, thought, or wanted it happened so fast. And here we are in my least favorite part of the year, fall, when everything is DYING. What a depressing season for a person who has struggled to not get swept in depression for such a large portion of her life. It's almost as if God is helping me out by not making this sad month of death stretch out forever.

If only spring could be perpetual and summer cool and balmy. Maybe that will be what heaven is like. One of the reasons that I enjoyed this summer so much was that it never seemed to arrive. It felt like we had a perpetual spring. It was so precious!

So, in October, this most hated month of the year, here's a list of all the things that have made this not only bearable but even enjoyable:

1. Jim and Heather who traveled with us to South Carolina, laughed all the way there with us, laughed all the time we were there, and laughed all the way back.

2. Euchre, lots of it

3. Teaching a really good workshop on Stress at the NANC conference.

4. Really, REALLY great speakers at the conference who delivered their messages as if God had just humbled them and personally asked them to only care about him and compassionately helping people. I've NEVER had such an experience with leaders of the counseling movement being so humble in their delivery of truth.

5. The discovery of pandora.com.

6. Being introduced to Ludovico Einaudi on pandora.com

7. Team Aaron and Hur - a group of ladies in the Career Class at church who have been making our family suppers for the last 4 months straight. Every two weeks they deliver a freezer full of suppers, to help lift up our family's arms in this battle called life.

8. Goals - setting them and accomplishing them and then humbly presenting a project that was accepted. I was approved to begin the adventure that is PhD graduate school at Purdue soon. I am hoping to study Behavioral Neuroscience. My goal is to study some part of stress, anxiety, and / or fear and its effect on the endocrine system or the psychology of motivation.

9. Hailey who has developed so much maturity in the last 3 years of us disciplining her well as a team. She is starting to be a joy to be around.

10. Shelby who is such a cut-up. Man, she can laugh about anything. She is so genuine in her joy. We couldn't have named her more appropriately. She is so sweetly blissful.

11. Brian who sacrificed some of his vacation days to go to the NANC conference with me in South Carolina. What a great opportunity to be together.

12. The amazing city of Greenville, SC. I feel like my soul was soothed being there.

13. My mom who sacrificed a week to come stay with our girls.

14. God's grace to keep (what appears to be) H1N1 hitting our girls from being tragic.

15. My sweet friend, Shelly, who said "Sounds like we need to go get lunch" on the exact day at the exact time I really did need to eat good chinese food and laugh over lunch.

16. Working out for a whole month! Oh my word. . . I've always heard exercise is a stress reliever. Exercise with a friend as an exercise buddy is a stress reliever and a soul reviver.

17. Exodus 16 and my friend Amy who pointed out that if I didn't get myself together I was going to be reaping the benefits Korah did when he rebelled and God destroyed him. She teaches me to LOVE authority like no one else has ever been able to do.

18. God ordaining a schedule that allowed me to be with the girls for 5 days straight while they were sick, and for Brian being able to be with them for 2 while they finished being sick.

19. Coffee

20. My sister . . . even in the midst of our equally crazy lives, I get to love her.