fallfallfall

This past weekend flew by.  
There are these beautiful church ruins near Beaufort that always make the list of places to bring visitors.  Sam (family/friend/both) visited for about a week and we were sure to check out the ruins.  The grounds are so beautiful and magical--the type of place where you can just imagine what it looked like in the 18th century, what the people wore, and how they talked.

Junior Service League of Beaufort had their annual Halloween bash Friday evening and lucky King Caesar was able to have two Cleopatra's as his date!

toughest/most handsomest King to ever rule!!

On Saturday, the youth group leaders and teens (girls) all took a trip to the local pumpkin patch. I wasn't expecting much, really I wasn't....but seriously--4 rotted pumpkins, a mini-pony (?!), a chicken coop and a couple of donkeys?! I know we're not in Chicaaago anymore, but honestly I would think that the country would have events like this figured out.  Even more so than city people.  
Even though there weren't any haunted houses, corn mazes, hay rides, pumpkin fields, funny cardboard figure things were you stick your head through the cut out and take pictures where you look like a weirdo ...we still had a blast! 
Turns out all we needed was a pile of hay and some chocolate pie. 
Thanks Ilene for the pictures!

love these crazy girls

the pumpkin patch

one of the best chocolate pies I've ever had

Fashion Fridays...ummm what?!

shirt/skinny jeans: The Limited /boots: Macy's

having fun playing with the different editing options over at picmonkey!

 You may be asking, what in the world is she doing?!  Is she going to fight me in that last picture or did she just smell something really bad?! And if you are, that's okay.  'Cuz I am trying to figure it out, too. I have this amazingly fantastic friend who takes pictures of her outfits and came over and took pictures of me in my outfit.  It was really fun and kind of uncomfortable...but mostly fun! 
So I may/may not be starting a *fashion friday* themed post.  Don't hold me to it!!  It might be every Friday, some Fridays, or 1 Friday a year.  

But in the end, who doesn't love posing weirdly and pretending their famous while the camera is snapping like crazy?!
Oops--I almost forgot to mention that I am taking part in my very first give-away over at that friend's awesome blog!  And trust me, you don't want to miss it!!

Looking inward

Our pastor's wife teaches "Woman's Life" at our church twice a month, and I personally feel so lucky to be under her teaching.  It's such a great time of learning, reflecting, snacking, and socializing--perfect, right?!  
Something that she said last time that has just stuck with me, and it seems so simple, and I'm sure a lot of us have heard it before, but it is to look inward.   

Luke 6:42 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? 

It's incredibly easy to see the error in other people's ways, and it almost makes us feel better about ourselves and the things we are insecure about. It's far too easy to point out what they're doing wrong, than it is to accept ways that I'm just not measuring up...areas of my life where I am just not walking in a manner that is worthy of the God who called me.  
A question that she had us ask ourselves was "Would I want to be married to me?" or "Would I want to be friends with me" ...you can apply it to any relationship in your life.  But it's a little scary to look at it that way--which is why the women in the room kind of nervously laughed when she asked that question.  We are so quick to want perfection from others, but very forgiving of ourselves.  I want Ben to load the dishwasher my way instead of his (I know I know, just be happy he's helping--I tell myself that all the time).  I cringe when he follows a car too closely.  I would rather him not walk all over the house in his work boots.  But when I have my shoes on and realize I forgot my water bottle--it's fine, I just run into the kitchen with my shoes on without thinking twice!!
So this month, and hopefully every month after, I am going to try to be especially aware about looking inward. And I challenge all of my readers (so what if that only refers to 5ish people?!) to do the same.
And most often sometimes it can be very difficult--I get it, sometimes we are all in difficult situations where we just have to let that person know about what they're doing wrong...but my challenge to myself and you, then, is to find the good and focus on that.

Philippians 4:8

 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.