Garden walk 21. The August Garden.

I love August mornings.  They are cool and crisp. What 

better thing to do than to walk in a beautiful garden on a cool crisp morning.

August makes me think of going off to school.  

I loved college and learning.  I still love to 

learn.  Yet I am staying home and 

the kids are going off to college.

My daughter is all moved into her dorm.  It's 

more like an apartment.  We text everyday. I am her

sounding board, and the person she tells all her 

worries and stress too.

My son will be commuting this year, which I think will be good.

He has just paid his first tuition bill and is on his way to being 

the independent student.

I am trying to get my life more organized.

I'm trying to get back to my spiritual connection. 

Summer has a way of causing my life to become unstructured.

Maybe that isn't a bad thing.

I have been thinking a lot about life lately.

I've found that I am very satisfied with how I have

lived my life up to this point.

I enjoyed my years as a mother.  I loved caring for

my family.  I still love caring for my husband and children.

They need me in different ways and yet that lessened need is 

comfortable.   I am the adult voice of reason for my young adult children.

We had such a nice summer together.  It was fun

to enjoy each others company.  I like this stage of life.  I was so afraid that

I would feel lost without the constant contact with my children, but I find

it nice to have more time to myself.  And I realize that they will always 

be there, maybe not needing my help, but needing my advice and 

encouragement.  They still need to know I'm there for them. It's different than 

the need of young children, but its still lovely.

I look forward to fall the slowing down of my schedule and

time to spend with my husband.  I'm going to be trying to 

simplify our life.  I'm starting by doing simple meals.

Having less large time consuming meals to just simple sandwiches and

smaller meals most days and then maybe one big meal a week.

I want to de-clutter our house and just make it a place of rest 

and rejuvenation.  I also want to do what I've

been saying I want to do for years, learn to meditate.

I'm going to try the Oprah 21 day meditation app.

I'll let you know what I think of it.

I also want to listen to conference talks each day

or most days and work on my relationship with

Heavenly Father.

My husband and I are going to try to get to the

Temple weekly.

The change of a flower from bud to bloom amazes me.

There is so much beauty in this earth. 

I am also refocusing on my study of gratitude.  Perhaps some 

of my future blog posts with be just lists of what

I am grateful for.

I'm certainly grateful that I can spend hours in 

this beautiful garden.

I like this quote:  Talk about your blessings.... what you focus on expands.  gratitudehabitat.com

Well I hope you enjoyed the photos and the rambling of my thoughts. 

Have a wonderful week.

G.G.