What I Learned in September

Allow me to begin by saying I'm highly disappointed in myself, because I learned way more than this month than this post shows, but I forgot to write down my findings and then I forgot them! So I guess that means I didn't truly LEARN them, right?

Oh well.

Here's what I did retain - in addition to water. ;)

1. This is a strange little fruit.

One of our tenants brought in a tub of this fruit one day and asked if any of us had ever heard of it. We had not...have you? It's called Rambutan, and it's a tropical fruit. The outside spiny skin peels off and the inside looks like a grape with its skin peeled off. Inside THAT is a fairly large pit. I found it to be a lot of work to eat for not a ton of flavor, but I did think it was good. (It kind of tasted like a grape, actually. Those are just much faster to eat!

2. The feasts in the Bible.

We just completed a four week class on the feasts of the Bible, and I learned so much! I've told you about some of the classes, and I'll probably blog about the rest of them, too. I appreciated all the hard work that went into not just the classroom part, but the meal preparation, too!

3. Waxing and waning crescent moons.

When Ryan and I were driving home from one of the photo shoots I did this month, I happened to glance at the moon and took a guess that it was a waxing crescent moon. I actually never remember learning about moon phases at all in school, so I figured I would be COMPLETELY wrong on my guess. And I was! But it was a waning crescent, which was at least similar in verbiage! So then I looked up a little about the waxing and waning. Did any of the rest of you learn about moon phases in school? (And that picture is not of the moon that night. It's just a moon picture I have.)

4.  I need to write more things down when I learn them. 

I know. It's old news now. I said it at the beginning. But I'm bummed because I really did learn some cool things and now I can't tell you!

5. I love our new kayak!

I've told you about Fletcher, our new kayak. We've taken him on some spins and hope we can get in one more before it gets too cold out. But we are so happy to have him and so happy to leave near enough to water to make such adventures a reality! This is all very new to us! (We are also thankful for kayak options that made this even a possibility for us.)

6. Father of the Bride 3

Did you guys see that there was a mini Father of the Bride 3 movie? Ryan and I watched it over the weekend, and it was kind of cute. If you didn't see it, it was a nod to quarantine life, with the Banks family meeting up on Zoom to hear about Matty's intent to marry his girlfriend. It was fun to see all the main characters!  (The movie, by the way, was less than 30 minutes long and is on YouTube.)

Now...for what I did and did not accomplish in October!

1. Do a little fall decorating around the building. 

Done!! I was able to decorate our apartment and some of the common areas with the fall decor I've accumulated over the years. On our days off this week, Ryan and I were able to get some pumpkins and mums, and we're going to be putting those outside at the front today!

2. Schedule fall pictures.

Still workin' on it. I did make some contacts, but nothing panned out so far. I have a couple of ideas left before I just have to tripod it. :)

3. Enjoy some days off and outings with Ryan.

Success! We went for some walks, kayaked a few times, checked out a sunflower farm, did a little shopping, rested, and had other adventures too! September was a good month in the self-care department, and I am grateful for it!

4. Do some reading.

Wellll, we only got through one book, and it was a short one, but we did get through one! We ended up having a lot of other training on our calendar this month that we didn't know about heading into the month, so that took up some of our reading time. There's always October!

5. Do some personal hosting.

Unfortunately this one had to be postponed. They tightened the building restrictions (health reasons) and we aren't able to have visitors in the building. So I'll have to save my cooking for another day! But this is still a high priority goal for me!

6. Keep learning our job.

We're working on it! We did more training this month, hosted some community nights, had great conversations, and are learning the good and hard aspects of the job. So we're on track. This one will never be done, and I know it, but we're farther ahead than we were a month ago!