Somewhere, tucked away in a drawer at my parent's home are stacks of photos. Within those stacks is a photo of a rudimentary scarecrow man. 

The photo above is not that photo but it's what I could find online to represent my story! Every year, I looked forward to our scarecrow man. Did we have a garden or even a stretch of land? No. We lived in a densely populated suburb of Baltimore city with very small yards and big imaginations. 

I looked forward to our scarecrow man because he was so goofy and fun. It was a staple at our home for quite some time! My dad would purchase a few bales of hay and we all helped to stuff. He would find an old flannel and a pair of work jeans that had some rips and holes. He had a pumpkin for a head and usually wore a hat. He sometimes had props like a rake or other pumpkin heads. We propped him up on the remaining hay bales in a seated position and there he sat during the fall months. 

We were not wealthy and my parents worked hard to provide for our family and give us everything they possibly could. We wouldn't have been able to purchase big and fancy Halloween decorations but we could get hay pretty cheap and make our own scarecrow man. I can actually remember the way it felt to stuff the hay into the sleeves of the flannel shirt, 30 years later. 

These days, when I find myself struggling to jump into seasonal excitement because of... life, I remind myself of the excitement I felt as a child stuffing hay into my dad's old flannel shirt. I remember that it is the small things that become the big things. These moments are the actual fabric, flannel if you will, of our lives and I want my children's fabric to be stitched with the fondest memories. 

What's your favorite fall memory from your childhood?

Blessings,