I honestly cannot believe it is October already, but the chill in the morning air leads me to believe that Fall is actually going to come to the south after one of the hottest, driest summers I can remember. I tease with my family by saying that I’m literally in a bad mood all summer long. I despise hot weather. I love Fall, Spring, and even Winter, but since Summer in the south lasts from mid-May until early October, that means I’m mad for six months. I’m trying to do better!

Fall feels different for me now that the girls are all grown and it’s just Will and me. When they were little, Fall meant deer hunting season, and that meant I was a single parent many weekends and evenings. I knew Will hunted when I met him. I actually liked that about it and thought it was cool. They say that the things you are attracted to in the beginning of a relationship often come back to bite you later on, and for me, this was true about the hunting. You may remember that we had three little girls in four years, and I stayed home with them. For Will to be gone all weekend meant I was doing it all by myself, which was hard. I mean I loved being a mom and I loved being home with them, but it was a nice break when Daddy walked in the door after work. He was the fun parent and played outside with them in the creek and rode bikes and pushed strollers. Once I found him mowing the grass with one baby in a backpack and one baby in a front pack. I had the little baby with me.

I grew resentful about him being gone so much and it was a really hard period in our marriage because he just didn’t get it. Actually, now, he’d probably say he did get it, he just ignored the impact it had on us. We’ve both grown a lot over 30+ years of doing this together. Now there aren’t any babies at home or teenagers. Just me and two, soon to be three dogs. I see clients some evenings so I don’t even notice if he’s gone. He travels some for work. And I really like being by myself. I love to binge watch a good series on Netflix (Right now it’s Madame Secretary.) and knit. I love to read or write. I use the evenings to catch up on notes for work. Sometimes we laugh about the difference in those days and these days. “Please don’t go again” has turned into “Sure! Go if you want. It’s fine with me”.

And also, our rule is “If you’re hunting, I’m not cooking”, so it works out for both of us.

Happy October!

photo of Liberty Bridge in Greenville, SC by Jefferson Davis