Nine Ladies Dancing

1.  McAlister's lunch and catching up with Laura and Tiffany!

2.  Sunset walk at Central Park/The Station in Moore!

3.  Zoom meeting with Dr. Burkhart about his favorite books!

4.  After Jace Michael's first football game this season!

5.  Watching Jace's game with Mom and Rachael!

6.  Seeing Beth Moore live in Tulsa with Kantrell and Amber!

7.  Box seats for Leslie Odom Jr. in Hamilton in NYC!!

8.  Mission BBQ after the final Downton Abbey movie!

9.  Olive Garden with the fam!

This = 12 Days of Recaps with a few blog quotes and my top nine photos from each month of 2025!  Side note: What a strange and lyrically absurd song The 12 Days of Christmas is!

SEPTEMBER:

"Krystal had me lead our supervision group this week to practice Written Exposure Therapy, which I'm excited to try with clients moving forward!"
~Thankful Thursday #230, 9-4-25

"My other new purchases = the HamilTEN hoodie (obvi), a cute Texas t-shirt from the DFW airport, and my NYC M&M pajama pants!!  Some fun items to commemorate this solo adventure to Dallas and NYC!"

~Ready to Face Whatever's Awaiting Me in NYC, 9-15-25

"Lately, I haven’t felt quite okay or like myself.  I am overextended, overwhelmed, resisting depression, and numbing with food.  I had a moment of clarity while watching Gladys walk down the aisle, silently hoping someone would stop her and feeling trapped by the momentum of her own decisions."

~The Path of Life, 9-20-25

"My recent sonogram suggests that another surgery would be needed if I pursue pregnancy and embryo adoption.  This pattern of high vulnerability, high expense, and deferred hope has left me feeling numb... letting go of the motherhood dream would create a real void in my sense of purpose... I would need God's help to face that ambiguous grief, reframe my identity, and embrace His best for me -- whatever that looks like moving forward.
~The Path of Life, 9-20-25

"I really wanted a very clear "Let go" or "Hold on" theme, and instead I got the vague, "There is a time to keep and a time to cast away" passage, along with several peppy reminders from the teacher in Ecclesiastes that much of what happens under the sun is meaningless, senseless, futile, vain, absurd, and out of our control.  Beth said this book gives us "a soulmate in our anguished doubt." 

~Living Proof, 9-29-25

"After LOTS of prayer and back-and-forth inner wrestling and hard conversations and personal journaling and seeking clarity, I have decided to close the chapter on the embryo adoption journey.  I'm not closing my heart to motherhood, but not putting myself through any more physical, mental, and emotional hurdles on this particular route.  I am tired of life feeling "on pause," so finally making a decision and being able to move forward accordingly is a relief at this point, but there is grief that comes with it too."

~Living Proof, 9-29-25

"[On The Wedding People] - The main character is Phoebe, a detail-oriented, intelligent, and quietly depressed single woman in her early 40s who decides life isn't really worth living anymore after years of painful fertility struggles and bad relationship endings and slowly realizing her dream of motherhood will probably never happen and that all the hard work and time she put into her doctorate was barely interesting to her anymore and she is mostly unfulfilled by her work as a college literature professor.  Nope, not kidding... it's well written and relatable with a good redemptive arc in the end.  The emphasis is on our ability to change our minds and shift our course to create a vastly different life that makes us happier and more energized, which feels encouraging to me even now!"

~Brilliant Books, 9-30-25

❤ ❤ ❤