Reluctantly Fall

Last week fall descended on Iowa like a blitz! It was horrible, rainy, and cold and my heart began the deep winter's hibernation that forces all of my barefoot, sun-soaked, freckled faced soul into a corner under a blanket. Mercifully summer rebounded for another glorious weekend and the following days have been milder, but much easier to stomach than the shocking toss into early winter.

The last few days have been awesome, boot-wearing, warm beverage carrying, wagon pulling goodness. Around this time each year my mom and I like to make our way just 30 minutes south of her house to a quaint side-of-the-road mum farm. It is beautiful, and the amazing burst of chrysanthemums, gourds, pumpkins, peppers and other fall foliage soothes sweet salve on to my heart before I have to wrap it up for a long winter.

Wagons full of pumpkins were a welcome sight. There is something about a flatbed full of plump orange pumpkins that fills me with readiness for the new season. I love this picture because I feel like I could be my mom 30 years ago, especially if she had a little boy. Styles have come back around and I'm sure I could find a picture of her from the early '80s looking almost identical.

Of course J. snagged a pumpkin right away. He pretty much kept one hand on it the whole time calling out "BA-- BA--" ("ball").

I'm not a photographer, but the light and color on these ornamental peppers made me feel like one. I love how they all bunched together to look like little flowers made of flame.

I don't actually remember the first time I saw a huge assortment of gourds like this, but I do know that every time I come across these weird, pocked, goitered things I think "this is me, if I were to grow from the ground, this is what I would hope to look like."

My mom heard cattle lowing and spent a good portion of our time sniffing them out so J. could catch a glimpse of these beauties. They were just being weaned from their mamas so they were skiddish and cranky, but so picturesque, especially in the pastoral setting of the mum farm.

My mom is an avid gardener and spends hours tilling, weeding and tending each summer. Fall is her planting season so a trip to the mum farm is pay-dirt. She was hauling two wagons full of autumn glory and enlisted the help of my toddler son to help pull her loot. I have always ALWAYS loved my mom's hands and this picture, I think, speaks for itself.

After we unloaded everything at my moms house, J. took it upon himself to make room for the new plantings. This is just one of the hundreds of lovely flowers in my moms gardens. They are huge and bursting with color...evidently they don't smell the greatest though.

Now that we've been to the mum farm I feel almost ready for fall. I still want to swim one more time, feel the heat of the summer sun on my back and watch my kids run through a field with their shoes off and their hair wild. However, I am so looking forward to what fall and winter hold for our family this year.

For now I will reluctantly slide into fall. I will allow myself to be reminded of the beauty and elegance of creation. I will read the gospel story painted in the sky. I will cling to Jesus, who Rend Collective so artful calls, "my never-ending Summer" and He will "burn away the winter of my cold and weary heart."