Sweet September

Ah, September. School is now in full-swing, I’ve had another birthday and we (everyone down South, at least) are thankful for even the slightest of cooler temperatures.

My husband recently bought a new Blackstone grill. Have you seen these? It’s basically like what they have at Waffle House — a big griddle/Hibachi type set-up. I have to say it’s pretty cool and definitely been a lot of fun for my husband to do …. and for me to have an adult beverage and supervise. He loves to cook and grill as it is, so this is like a shiny new toy for him. He has already cooked some amazing things to include different types of mouth-watering steak, a fabulous hibachi meal (with scallops, steak, shrimp, veggies and rice) and delicious smash-burgers.

One of the things he plans to try next is breakfast food. I am pretty pumped about how good eggs, sausage, bacon, etc. are going to taste being cooked on this bad boy. I really wish I had gotten some pictures to show when he had all the hibachi stuff cooking — will definitely get some next time and also include the breakfast spread once he does that. I know we will be using this a lot more and if you were thinking about getting one of these for someone for Christmas you might be interested to see the different things we have on there and our thoughts on how well it works. Stay tuned!

In other news, my son just had his first 7th grade football game! He only has 4 games and so of course when we roll up to this first game the sky looks like this:

Yeah, we truly thought we were going to get soaked! Thankfully we managed to only get a few sprinkles and I was so glad that they got to play without the very first game being a mud-bath. The way they do these 7th grade games is they actually play on two sides of the field at the same time. This allows for one team’s defense to play the other team’s offensive and the same thing on the other side which allows for much more playing time for all the kids. It’s really a great idea and smart concept so that the coaches can really see them in action and make better decsions on their positions. I will say it’s a bit distracting, but also constant action! They don’t do special teams or downs, so it was pretty fun to watch if you knew what you were looking at, haha.

Here’s a few shots from the first game. My son is #61 if you are able to see any of the jersey numbers in the pictures.

My son tells me they won even though they technically don’t keep score — so that on top of the fact that he played first-string offensive line made for a pretty great first game! I sure missed Dad out there cheering him on in the sport he himself played into college, but I do think he was watching from above and loving every minute of it.

So, let’s embrace sweet September and all that it brings. If you have kids, you may be watching them in band, on the field, on the sidelines or trucking a group of kids back and forth to watch the games, but like I try to remind myself… let’s soak it all up. I know I am going to blink and he is going to be playing on the high-school team — and likely still easily recognizable with a bushel of curls coming out from the bottom of the helmet.

I couldn’t think of anything better to help me see the light coming through those recent cracks of (my) life than some good ole 7th grade football games and fun family grilling on the Blackstone. Happiness and memories are always right in front of us, we just have to step back so that light can shine through.