Julie hosts and wonders:
1. What sums up Autumn – or Fall – or Spring if you’re in the southern hemisphere – in a word or a picture?
A Large Ice Blended® Pumpkin Spice "festive blend of creamy pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove" at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf sums up the season. I get mine with coffee extract and whole milk; topped with whipped cream. I love their other flavahs, too, but after discovering this gently spicy autumn-specific variety last fall in Previous City, I hardly could wait to enjoy it again. This pic is the nearest CB&TL café rather than the drink I described, but it gives you basic inspiration and current location.
2. What are you doing outside this month, that you’re not likely to do again until next year?
In this mild to temperate coastal southwestern USA climate I'm comfortable outside twelve months of the year, but I don't expect to take more than a few more walks on the beach during the rest of the months with "R" in their names. In this case, "until next year" means the month of May.
3. what preparations are you making to get ahead of the busyness?
Ahead of winter holiday seasonal busyness?
Gradually finding ways to be locally involved that also offer potential to meet new people. Printing and assembling my notebook portfolio, because despite the internet, you still need something that's actually printed to show potential print clients your print media capabilities.
For the past few years, winter holidays scarcely have existed for me, but in this new city I may challenge myself to branch out and at least check out a few of the 7,000 local and regional meetups. It looks as if the church I've mainly been attending (please note #4 on this Friday 5) may have its own annual Thanksgiving Dinner. Along with a lot of my other belongings, my recipes are in storage, but I've already found my best Pumpkin Dessert recipe online and will recreate that to take wherever I go for dinner. Christmas and New Year's Day 2016 will follow, and I haven't considered then. Yet.
4. what is changing, moving, evolving in your church life?
I'm delighted to be facilitating Sunday morning adult bible study through All Saints Day.
5. and, for fun... what do you do to stop the busy?
Paradoxically it helps me to keep a running list of everything I've done for design clients, for myself (blogging, my own designing and image editing, design site updates, journaling, housing searches), for others (bible study preparation, replies to some types of email inquiries—pro bono design counts as client work). Just as spending a couple of dollars or even a few pennies eventually adds up to a substantial amount, so do those incremental productive activities. Having done that, I can allow myself time to take a nap, a slow stroll, a drink or snack at one of the many many local restaurants and cafés without necessarily reading a book to review or sketching out future design comps at the same time.
Just be. Simply enjoy.
Oh, yum on the pumpkin spice latte. I've been trying to make a healthy version at home, but in reality nothing tastes like the "real" thing.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are able to participate in some winter holiday festivities with others.
How fun to be facilitating an adult Bible study. Will you be following along with the sermon or something else?
I am intrigued about your pumpkin dessert. Care to share the link?
I am a LIST MAKER, too. It also helps to calm some of the chaos in my mind.
Hope your week is a great one. I am here from revgalblogpals.