Share Four Somethings October 2025

I’ve done it again ,where September was such a rush that I totally blew by this important highlight post of my month. So here is a snapshot of my September and October

Loved

September was a beautiful and hard month. My husband had to travel for work at the same time as my daughter took her first ever international trip! (Actually also first plane ride, longest time away from home . . . there were a lot of firsts for one trip). But she did amazingly well and had a great experience. (Her younger brothers and I at home alone, not as much.)

In October, I have been loving the more deliberate slowness. It’s still very busy but when I find a night that doesn’t have something scheduled or a Saturday that isn’t booked up, I’m loving it. On Thursday, I got home from work and changed directly into my pajamas and spent most of the evening binge watching and reading. I don’t have a lot of windows like this but I’m trying to take advantage of them when they happen.

Learning

August’s exhaustion, September’s busyness and October’s uncertainty (we were expected more work travel for my husband which ended up not happening), meant that I had to learn to downshift. I’m still working hard but I’m also focusing on when I deliberately don’t work. I’m building in intentional downtime when previously I would have just found a project to get ahead on.

I’m looking for moments of connection and rest not just efficiency. There has definitely still been plenty of frantic stress and I could probably use another six weeks straight of rest, but I’m trying to balance being mindful of the important and essential work that needs to be done while also honoring the limits of my body and time.

Went Well

Before my daughter left for her first missions trip, she asked again if she could join our writer’s group. My husband and I have been part of the same writer’s small group since around the time she was born (so around 16 years) and for the last two she’s begun asking when she could join.

Her writing is excellent but as a parent, it was hard for me to think about giving up my small group. These are the people I share my hardest things with, including my parenting struggles. The thought of giving up that support was difficult. But we agreed that when she returned from her trip she could try it.

She shared her own work as well as read the work of others and her presence seemed to inject some excitement and motivation into a group where many of us are struggling to find our focus between finished projects and new ones. Overall it went well and I’m hoping that it will be a good experience for her to learn from people at various stages in their creative journeys.

Let Go

I have been on a six month journey of trying to tackle some health issues. While I have made some progress there has also been a measure of discouragement that my efforts haven’t produced all the desired outcomes I’d hoped for.

I’ve also been making my first steps towards acquiring an agent or publisher for my novel. It’s slow and discouraging. I know the odds are stacked against me but I keep trying anyway.

I’m accepting that most of the things that matter most to me right now are completely out of my control. I can do my best and it might not be good enough. I can do all the right things and still fail. So I’m trying to let go and do the next thing anyway.

So that was September and October! Hope yours was filled with more highs than lows and that you can see the hand of God moving through all of them.