This fall has been full of fun for my family and me.

My son, Derek, enjoys his first semester as a freshman at Mizzou. We love seeing his excitement about what he is learning.

Logan likes his new job at Bioengineering. He always has stories about the incredible research happening in his department. Fascinating stuff!

I had the good luck of participating in a national conference called HighEdWeb where I saw Dave Cameron teach a workshop about productivity. He discussed how undone things in your life are mentally draining. It’s important to close the loops.

Me? Make to-do lists that are impossible to get done in a reasonable time span? Start projects and not finish them? (See my previous blog posts on life-changing magic! Two months since I started, I still have rooms that need the life-changing magic of tidying up. But I see visible progress.)

I can say with full confidence that I do finish every cup of tea I start. At least there’s that!

After the inspiring workshop with Dave, I was motivated to come home and work on finishing my unfinished things.

Such as my scrap scarf. I finished crocheting this scarf months ago. But those ends… I do not like to sew in ends!

I committed to getting my scrap scarf done, my poor colorful scarf that has sat curled in neglect next to the couch since March.

It took me two hours with a needle to sew in 140 stubby yarn ends. But I finished it! Now I can look forward to feeling mentally more energetic.

I wore the scarf this week in the evening after a storm. The light was weird. The reds of the trees glowed. This photo that my son Derek took has no editing and no filter.

Now I’m at the start of NaNoWriMo, where people work to write 50,000 words in one month. Thanks to a lot of Darjeeling tea, I am 7,000 words in. Only 43,000 more to go…

It’s a third attempt at my memoir (putting me in the rebel category because it’s not a novel). So far my writing surprises me, as it always does. The stories wait inside and want to see the light of day, or the white of the page. The stories are uncomfortable. They’re strange. They are not the pretty, funny, sweet stories I think they should be. They are not well behaved.

But this time I want to be strong, strong enough to write the real stories that need to be told. I hope someone will read them and accept me as I am. Maybe I am a scrap scarf that needs my ends sewn in, and writing this memoir will tidy up those ends.

As I look back on my past, I can see how lucky I am now. Good things are happening! I celebrate this happy, healthy fall and hope you too are enjoying the light. Hug your friends with an extra squeeze! God bless you.