Hey hey, my friends! Long time, no talk. Guess we all had some busy and fun weekends. Sounds good to me! Looking for some good reads from the weekend?

• Love ‘Em and Leave “Em
• Shrinking Carrie’s Self-Love Reflection

Let me fill you in on the rest now. After I left you on Saturday morning, Peter and I had a lot planned for the day. I showered up and packed up the kids for a long, fun day ahead. We had plans for one of our fall traditions!

We hit the road a little before lunch time and got about halfway to our destination before Makenzie had to potty. We stopped at a grocery store for a bathroom break and both felt the hunger strike. The store had a huge salad bar, so we made that work for lunch.

We made our pit stop as quick as possible to get back on our way to the North Georgia region. I love going there this time of year. Look how pretty!

After about an hour of driving, we made it to our first stop – the North Georgia Corn Maze! We normally visit a corn maze and pumpkin patch closer to home (the one we visited for Makenzie’s field trip), but discovered a Groupon deal and decided to check out this site instead.

There was hay bale jumping…

…and some silly fun…

…before finally settling in for the two main events. First up? A hay ride through the amazing scenery.

I loved this place’s hay ride. They really took you on a longer ride and you got to see a LOT more than at other ones we have visited. Family photo op!

Gotta love photos with kids! Ha!

Once the hay ride finished, we made our way through the corn maze

.

I much preferred other corn mazes. This one was small and not very well organized. I nearly killed myself tripping over the mass amounts of rogue corn all over the paths. That could just be me and my clumsy ways, though. No matter. We still had a GREAT time there.

Moral of the Story: A deal ALWAYS wins with us! And nothing compares to the free beauty of seeing this…

From there, we weren’t far off from another one of my favorite fall traditions.

Oktoberfest in Helen! Helen is a small “Alpine town” in North Georgia with a ton of cute shops, biergartens, tubing down the river (not in this cold!), horse drawn carriages, and other such fun.

After walking around the town and perusing a few shops – glassblowing is my favorite! – we stopped for an “afternoon snack”. In other words – a reason to get some beer in Helen.

We picked both the lighter and darker Oktoberfest seasonal brews to share. I’m an amber girl all the way. The light one didn’t do it for me in the least. But the darker Oktoberfest? Yes, please!

I also say “Yes, please!” to the following part of our Helen tradition.

A hunk of Peanut Butter Swirl fudge from Hansel & Gretel’s Candy Kitchen. I long for their fudge and we get some every year. It’s gone by now. Duh.

Moral of the Story: A salad bar lunch leaves plenty of room for beer and fudge later. Good thing. Very good thing.

And I can’t end the weekend without brining up a certain special part.

The night ended on a very high note. Since we were out gallivanting around town all day, we had to record the Georgia-Florida game. We watched it later on Saturday night (while eating our fudge, no less) and were quite pleased with the outcome…

which I found out thanks to Twitter (I’m looking at you Brittany! haha!) before even starting to watch. It didn’t make Georgia’s victory any less sweeter, though!

Moral of the Story: Stay away from social media if you want to be surprised of the outcome of something. And Go Dawgs!

But perhaps the biggest moral story of them all – nothing beats a weekend unplugged and spending time with my family. Hope you had a good one too!

• What would be the “moral of the story” for your weekend?
• What is one of your favorite fall traditions?

Today marks a sad milestone. I have to say good-bye.

Adios.

Ciao.

The end.

To our weekly family lunches!

Sorry for the dramatic effect. Did I have you a little worried there? No? Okay, then. I see how you feel. Kidding!  

Anyways, today marked the last of our family lunch dates on Thursdays. We did it up just as we normally do with some playtime at the mini park and a standard sandwich/wrap + chip lunch combo.

I picked the two turkey wraps and some original Sunchips for my lunch.

I've had better, but nothing could beat the gorgeous fall day.

Or the fun of time together as a family!

I’m so sad to see this little tradition go, but it marks a good change. The change? Peter got a new job!

He loved where he was working, but a new opportunity came along that he felt compelled to take. A bunch of things just fell into place for this chance, so he rolled with it.  You know how sometimes things just seem to align and you can’t ignore them? That’s kind of how this went.

I’m a little bummed he will be working further from home now, but I trust this change as a good one for him and for our family. His hours will still have him home by 5 pm so we have family time and he won’t have to be “on call” anymore. We’ll just have to figure something else out for our little lunch tradition!

Things may not be drastically changing but it’s still a little unnerving. Change always is, in my opinion! I believe the unexpected always poses challenges. I also believe change is necessary for growth in life. And that we have to be open to new opportunities.

Speaking of opportunities, I found Caitlin’s post from this morning really eye-opening. We can all too easily compare our opportunities in life to others. That does no good! We have to keep our eyes on our own personal ventures and view our current situations as the stepping stones to our futures.

Just like in the success versus achievement mindset I posted about before – we simply must strive to do our best and build up our gifts/talents any way we can with where we are NOW and let things happen naturally. Be open to new possibilities in our own lives instead of dwelling on the circumstances of others’ lives. Easier said than done, I know!

I guess a lot of things have had me reflecting lately on the paths I hope my life takes. Then, I remember that all I can do is be the best version of myself, develop my strengths, and keep an open mind and loving heart. It will all work out..and we each have that option in life.  

• What’s the last change you had in your life?
• For fun - What is your dream job?