Goodbye September!

Rising early and reflecting on this last day of September, I am reminded of the many things that I love about this month.  It’s the month of the Labor Day holiday, the Highland County Fair, the month that many families seem to have settled into their school schedules and Friday night lights, the fall solstice, the harvest, Greenfield’s 2^nd Oktoberfest and the month that we begin to see many trees turning colors in their annual descent into dormancy. 

I spent many days of September organizing my home for the winter, making soaps and lotions in preparation of the upcoming Christmas season, cleaning the garden, selling my soap products at farmers markets, and taking walks with my husband.

This month I celebrated Loreli’s, my first grandchild, 8^th birthday, attended Grandparent’s day lunch with her at her school, celebrated my own birthday making banana blueberry muffins with my second grandchild, Madi, who is four, and I will learn the sex of my third grandchild later today in a “reveal party”.

I spent a few minutes at the Trading Post in Bainbridge, browsing through some antiques (which is a rare event for me) and came upon a vintage wooden Colgate shipping soap box (sans lid) which I knew I had to have and promptly bought for myself as a birthday present.  (To view an image of this box, see http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/11104018_colgate-barber-shaving-soap-shipping-box.)

I spent many mornings in September drinking a new green tea flavor combination which is inspiring me to create a new scent fragrance in my line of soap and lotions to be formulated soon.

I spent a few hours with my father, designing a wooden display rack for the shops which will sell my soaps this winter.  The prototype that he built is almost perfect!  I’m so grateful for his talent and his willingness to build things for me.       

I spent many days of September training Brenda, who is taking over the position of innkeeper of the Yellow Rose Bed and Breakfast and is the perfect for the job.  I also had a job interview, which seem to occur once in a blue moon, and put in many applications for employment.  I designed and successfully launched another website for a restaurant in Washington Court House.  I even started refresher classes for the upcoming tax season.   

I spent a few hours in September reconnecting with old friends, forming new relationships with people that I hope will continue. 

I learned in September that my health problems that surfaced in July, are related to my thyroid and totally fixable with an adjustment in medication.  Contrary to that good news, it was also a month where I spent many days of September praying for a family that is dealing with cancer in a person who is much too young and praying for her strength.  I am feeling very blessed with healthy parents, children, and their families. 

With the end of September, comes the anticipation of a new month and hopeful new beginnings in October.  I am looking forward to wearing jeans and sweaters, apples and apple cider, at least five more family birthday events (goodness!), our annual Halloween hayride, fall drives to view the changing colors, the Fall Festival of Leaves in Bainbridge, maybe participate in a trick or treat event, launching a new monthly email blast for the Yellow Rose Bed and Breakfast and that new fragrance formula of soap.