Big Buys at Big Lots and Preparing for Fall......

After church this morning I had this irresistible urge to go to Big Lots!

You have to DETERMINE to go there as Highway 183 is under extremely serious construction and it is NOT an easy in and an easy out place these days!

I scored on so many things!

These three candles will be lit on September first!

That day is like my very own personal holiday!

I will light the candles, sip coffee from my vintage fall cup, drink tea from my fall goblets and play Neil Diamond singing September Morn nonstop all day!

I will also bake pumpkin spice muffins and fruitcake cookies and take them to my friends.

I made a pretty big haul! TWO buggies FULL to the tune of over $200!!!

But I bought such a great bunch of goodies!

Everything from Blueberry Tea to shortbread cookies to candles to a fan to crackers of every kind and on and on........

We came in and unloaded and ate a good lunch of leftovers......

pizza, wings, fruit.....we cleaned out the fridge!

Since it's too early to watch the Dallas Cowboys play football.....

.... we watched Space Cowboys instead!

We have seen this movie before but we enjoyed it yet again!

Louis Dean went off to take a nap and I had this overwhelming urge to get out some of my fall debris.

I am at the stage in my life when I am re evaluating what I can and can't do.

I can't clean and decorate the entire place in one fell swoop anymore. 

And I am growing weary of always pushing and pushing to get the things done that I so fervently want to do.

I'm in a period of contemplation. 

Of course, I want to do it all! Don't you?

When I was in my 30's and 40's I was a force to be reckoned with when it came to energy and what I could accomplish. I slowed down in my 50's due not only to age but life changes. Surgeries and divorce and later remarriage. I pushed on through the 60's in hearty style.

We closed up the house here when I was 64 and took our camper to Katy, Texas and lived in it for 7 months so we could be there for Amber and the babies. It was long and hard work and I would get so tired I would go back to the camper at night and cry from sheer exhaustion and yet wake up the next morning and do it all again and never let Amber see how tired I was because she was fighting so hard to survive herself! And through this entire period of time, I had a nonstop run of Urinary Tract Infections that I cannot even imagine dealing with now that I have not had one in over a year!

Sometimes I look back at where I've been in life and what I've done and I am amazed that God gave me the strength to do it. In 49 days I will be 69 years old and I am beginning to feel my age and thinking about my goals and dreams and desires. 

I truly believe God gives us the desires of our heart - but we have to know what it is we truly desire.

I am at a crossroads in life. They come not only for young people but for us older ones as well.

Pretty deep thoughts for a Sunday night but that's where I'm at.

The one thing I have figured out so far is that I will always decorate for fall! As long as I have the least bit of energy, I will be throwing up garlands and scattering leaves and setting out pumpkins and lighting candles.....and celebrating my most favorite month - September - and my most favorite season - Fall! It will just take me longer to set the stage than it used to so that simply means I must start a bit earlier. And so I have!