Fall is in the Air and So Are the Peaches

I was joking with my coworkers the other day that my new part time job is picking and delivering peaches. They were slow to the start and there were a few times that Jaden and I thought we had killed the trees but then all of the sudden we were overflowing with peaches. I am not kidding when I say we gave over 300 to neighbors, friends and family and were still left with hundreds. They covered our counters and lined every available fridge shelf and drawer both upstairs and downstairs. We made peach pie, peach cobbler, and had a side of peaches with almost every meal. 

I now also understand why long sleeves are a must when picking peaches because my arms itch for hours every time I go out there and get coated in peach fuzz. All fake frustration aside, it really has been awesome to witness not only the work but more importantly fulfillment of having a garden and fruit trees. Jaden and I have both said to each other many times that we really want to have a garden of our own one day. It is the best feeling to walk by tomatoes and peaches at the store and farmers markets and say to yourself, "don't need those I have plenty back home." 

As much as I feel like we are overwhelmed with our harvest it has been so fun to share our abundance with our neighbors, friends and family. It gives fall a whole new meaning. You often hear that we should "give of our abundance" I think I've witnessed that so poignantly this week. I want to take that phrase with me throughout the rest of the fall season and into winter and next year and the next and the next. I want to be a giver of my abundance whether that be peaches, compassion, fast offerings, love, hard work, charity, the list goes on and on. And one day I want to help raise children who are givers of their abundance as well. We joke that Christmas decorations are going up in stores closer and closer to July and most know my and my Mom's rule that any month ending in "ber" is fair game for Christmas music (don't panic I've only listened to a few that have come up in shuffle, I just let them play, especially if it's Michael Buble)... but since Christmas is the season of giving I have no issues with extending that season to as close to year round as possible. Because it points us to the best giver of abundance the world has ever known our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. 

Let's all be a little more giving today, tomorrow and repeat. 

Peaches

• Picking peaches and delivering them to loved ones
• Pondering about giving of our abundance
• Cooler mornings and evenings and the beginnings of fall in the air
• Picked up a ladybug on my shirt after picking peaches one evening and thought of Grandma Moyle

• Mom was in charge of the relief society summer salad social. It was fun to go support her and talk to so many of the ladies I grew up around and weird to think that I am old enough to be at a social in Relief Society. I still feel like they are all my friends moms or grandmas and yet that's the sweet part about it. I listened to a talk recently from President Nelson where he talks about how one of the reasons that the brethren were inspired to restructure Elders Quorums were because of the examples of the sisters and the way they have one organization filled with women of all ages who socialize, support and serve each other: the Relief Society. I was talking with one woman about how Relief Society is kind of fading in our generation you see more aging women at events like these and how if we weren't supposed to be there to help we probably wouldn't have gone to the social. I have thought about that a lot since. It makes me want to participate more and help foster a love for an organization that is inspired and for women. We're all busy and have family and social lives outside of the church but I think Relief Society is there for a reason and maybe even if I don't feel like I need the social aspect, maybe someone else needs me to be there for them. And that should be reason enough to go... 
• Going to the Kaysville Scarecrow Walk with Morg, Myla and Tru. There is this super cute scarecrow competition at the Aggie botanical gardens in Kaysville. Businesses and families around the community submit their scarecrow for people to walk through the gardens and view and vote on for a few weeks until a winner is chosen. Morg invited me to go during my lunch break on Friday and it was so fun to get outside and spend time with my bestie and mini besties. She was so sweet and kept saying how nice it is to have me back home and close and I couldn't agree more. I've seen her more in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years and it's been so great. I also absolutely love snuggling Tru and playing with Myla. It's so fun to watch your best friends become parents. Jade and I are so lucky to have so many examples to look to as we prepare for our own family one day

• I've been so good at my peloton rides and workouts this week it is the best feeling. I think I'm on a 14 week streak which means I have ridden every week since we got it at the beginning of the summer. I honestly love it it's the best workout and has so much variety and awesome music I don't think I'll ever get board. You also sweat so much, like it drips off in layers. Don't believe me check out this pic of Jaden's back I snapped during one of his rides, and that's even with a rotating fan going full blast at him

• Dinners with friends
• Celebrating Sam's birthday with our friends with Mandarin takeout for dinner and peach pie (of course) for dessert
• I am not a pie girlie (don't like warm fruit or flaky crust). However Amy's peach pie recipe is a refrigerator pie on graham cracker crust so I actually really enjoyed it. Give me all the cold fruit non flaky pie recipes and I'll be a pie lover

• Hayes is starting to walk and he puts his hands straight up in the air to balance and it is seriously the cutest thing in the world. Snapped some pics and a video of him walking from Jaden to Megan to find her hiding under the blanket. So stinking cute!

Pits

• Itchy peach fuzz coating everything
• Cancelled plans
• Work overwhelm
• Every day this week I get more and more excited at the possibility of moving into Jaden's grandparents house and he gets less and less hopeful that it will happen. I do think that the neighborhood comps are outside of our budget and interest rates are only climbing but I don't want to give up hope until we know what they are asking. And unfortunately we don't know yet. 
• Literally a pit this week was a peach pit getting jammed in the disposal of our sink. It started making a weird noise and I stuck my hand down the drain multiple times to feel around (which always makes me shudder thinking about what would happen if the thing turned on... literally shivered writing that) and couldn't find anything. Our friends came over for dinner and to watch football and Kennedy was telling us about how they called maintenance at their first apartment because their disposal was sounding weird and he reached in his hand and pulled out a peach pit. I was like I'm going to check one more time and went and put my hand in the drain and sure enough, in the deep back of the drain there was something lodged between the blades and when I pulled it out there was a peach pit. 
• I have inherited weird dreams from my mom. During junior high carpool she would often say to the crew as she drove "wanna hear about the crazy dream I had last night?" It ranged from tiger attacks, going back on her mission, being back in high school, random actors, even more random people. She has a vivid imagination when she's conscious and unconscious and I definitely got the weird dream gene. However this week they weren't just weird dreams they were pure nightmares. Every night between 1:00 - 4:00 a.m. I would wake up in a cold sweat, heart racing, breathing fast. They were horrible, scary dreams and it made it hard to go back to sleep. It definitely impacted my work week I felt so groggy all this week. I was getting so frustrated and fearful this was going to turn into my new normal until I took time Saturday morning while Jaden was playing pickleball and I decided to do a long overdue personal scripture study. I went out on the back porch and took my journal and scriptures and started reading. It was in those quiet hours as the dew shined on the grass and sun warmed my face I realized that my dreams are linked to stress in my life. John 14:27 stuck out to me "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid." I realized that I had been going to bed with a troubled heart and it was impacting my sleep. I pondered on the phrase "let not your heart be troubled..." and set some goals to help minimize my stress. And I look forward to seeing and trusting that as I implement these goals my nightmares will go away.