Some things that have made me happy lately…

I recently replaced the curtains in my family room (that is its own story) because one of the was severely faded. The other one was fine, and it seemed a waste to toss it, especially since I really like these curtains. But what do you do with only one curtain? Unrelated is the fact that our cat’s litter box resides in the linen closet, which means the door needs to stay open all the time, and there is always the risk that the door gets shut and then we have unpleasantness. I’ve been contemplating a solution to this situation for a while. Suddenly, they came together! 

A backyard game of “license plate baseball” broke out randomly. License plate baseball is one of those things that will go down in Dapelo family history. It has only happened a few times, but for some reason it is legendary. We use old license plates as the bases, which is how it got its name.

The joys of Mr. Putter & Tabby live on. Never too old.

This morning, my dad took Micah and I bowling. I got to try out my new bowling ball (a gift from him like 2 years ago) finally. But first, Bonezy got all excited and thought he was going to go bowling too! 

And then we headed into Monroe for the block party. Not quite the same as the parade, which was definitely missed, but I guess this is better than nothing. Layla is thrilled the band is back in action! 

And then we poked around the booths a little and came home with some amazing smelling soaps! 

So what’s been making you happy lately? 

Lessons from my Septic Tank

The joys of homeownership paid us a visit this week.

First, the water dispenser on our fridge decided to stop functioning properly, leak all over the place, and need to be replaced. Thankfully, a few parts and a handy hubby and we are back in business. 

Today, he replaced the brakes on the Subaru because it was making a horrible squealing noise like cars do when they start demanding new brakes…

Yesterday’s situation, however, required a professional. For a couple of weeks, our downstairs toilet has been making a weird gurgly noise after you flush it. We initially thought it had something to do with the new innards Dave had to put in it recently (since it was running and needed the ball float mechanism replaced with a new situation), but that wasn’t the problem. We thought there might be a clog, so tried plunging it and even snaking. Made no difference. 

Then Wednesday, I went outside to look at the garden and got all kinds of heinous whiffs of sewage smell. 

{insert ominous music}

So Dave dug up the rose (and sunflower and weed) garden to expose the septic tank lids. He pulled one off and it became immediately apparent what the problem was. 

So we got the septic guy out. (How’s that for a superhero identity? SepticGuy!!!) 

We had to wait until the next day, and in the meantime, we desisted all unnecessary use of water/drains. No dishes, laundry, long showers, or flushing. That was weird. We employed the “if it’s yellow let it mellow” philosophy for about 24 hours. Do you know how hard it is to just walk out of a bathroom without flushing the toilet??!!

Apparently, this guy has found his calling in life and thoroughly enjoyed servicing, analyzing, and commenting on our septic tank. Even though we had our septic tank pumped last spring, the filter was majorly clogged. We’re not sure why, but oh well. It’s fixed now. Maybe it’s because for the last year and a half, we have all almost 100% pooped at home. Yay covid. 

But we learned some interesting things about ourselves from our septic tank. Yes, I know how thoroughly disgusting this is. Apparently, we eat very healthfully. According to SepticGuy, when you eat mostly natural foods, they break down faster and sink to the bottom quickly. Processed foods take longer to break down and stay near the top and middle. And all that stuff that “passes through” floats to the top. He asked if we are a lot of 12 grain bread. 

😂

And apparently, thanks to our healthy eating habits, we should have our tank pumped every 2 years. Seriously. Can’t make this stuff up. Maybe we should try to save ourselves some money by eating more junk. 

But it’s fixed now. We can flush, thank goodness. 

September Meal Plan (& making peace with my Instant Pot)

Yesterday, “monthly meal plan” came up on my digital to do list. The past month or two, I’ve been operating week to week, which is better than nothing, but monthly is one thousand times better. As usual, I was dissatisfied with available methods/templates for this task, so I whipped up my own. I think I love this. Highlighting weekends is important to just give me a little grounding for where we are in the week. 

You’ll probably notice a lot of instant pot recipes on there in the first half of the month. I’m still in the middle of my tour de instant pot - the end of which will come at whatever time I determine whether or not the beast gets voted off the island. Lots of people gave me lots of suggestions, plus ones I looked up on my own and people said they wanted to try. This has been going on for almost 2 weeks now, and so far only 2 recipes have gone directly into the recycling. 

Here’s what we’ve tried (and liked enough to keep) so far:

https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/instant-pot-meatballs-red-potatoes-creamy-parmesan-sauce/

https://www.sparklestosprinkles.com/instant-pot-shredded-chicken-burrito-bowl/

https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/instant-pot-brown-rice-pilaf-with-chicken-sausage/

https://instantloss.com/instant-pot-chicken-tortilla-soup/

https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/instant-pot-lemon-herbed-chicken-and-red-potatoes/

The ones we didn’t like were a pork chops with green beans recipe that was fine, just not good enough. And a mac & cheese with chicken and broccoli that Dave and my dad thought was ok, but I couldn’t even finish. 

So we’ve got about half a month left of recipes stacked on my kitchen counter. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

For this month, the only things up in the air still are what Dave and I will do for our anniversary and what my dad wants on his birthday (stroganoff probably), but the rest is dummy-proofed. Hooray! 

Social Media contemplations.

I have been breaking my social media ban here and there, just to see how bad it is. I haven’t quite decided if or how I want to use these platforms going forward. 

Mostly, I’ve discovered that Instagram isn’t that bad. There were a few people I followed who posted a lot of political stuff, so I discovered this really awesome feature called “mute”. That has and will continue to be my policy there. I don’t want to see it. I know you have the right to post it, and if that’s how you want to use your Instagram, that’s, of course, totally fine. It’s just not why I’m on Instagram and it’s my preference to not be confronted with political messages all the time. I just want to see people’s babies and puppies and pictures of beautiful fall leaves or snowmen, etc. You get the idea.

Facebook is a bit of a different animal. I used to really like Facebook. It was a fun way to connect and interact. But, like everything else, it’s evolved. It’s become less of all that and more of a way to let people who or what you dislike and for the big, bad FB monster to fill your feed full of content their AI has determined you will find interesting. 

Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok are not an issue, as I don't use them and have no desire to change that. Oh, and apparently Pinterest is considered social media as well??? I'm guessing I don't use it right, because how that would work confuses me. I just go there to find recipes or ways to refinish my stairs if we ever get gutsy enough to yank the carpet off.

The biggest thing with all of this was sort of "named" for me in a podcast I was listening to recently. I could never really put my finger on what was so awful about all of it and how it made me feel and why I really, really wanted out. The guest on this podcast used a term that really just hit the nail on the head. He said we live in an outrage society. That's it. And social media just seems to take that idea and compound it by inviting more and more fuel on the fire. Somehow or other, that's apparently what we all have an insatiable appetite for. To be outraged. All the time. About everything. And everyone. And THAT is why I hate it. 

I don't want to be outraged.

I don't like feeling that way.

I don't want to only be able to see the bad, the wrong, the injustice, the failings, the broken.

I just don't want to feel outraged all the time. It's icky.

This does not mean that I want to bury my head in the sand and act like a deluded optimist. Those sort of people actually drive me crazy. By nature I'm a realist - maybe even with a touch of cynicism. And I know that there is a lot in this world that is deserving of outrage. And the more universally and internationally connected we are, the more of that sort of thing we are going to know about. There have always been and always will be evil in the world. People with power will always take advantage of those without. Nations and races and religions will always be at odds with each other. There will always be people who don't have enough to eat or a place to live. There will always be fires and floods and earthquakes and storms. That's how it is in this fallen world. That's the earth groaning under the curse of sin. And how we live until Christ's return. 

And I'm not saying that we should just accept that and move on. We should care. We should help where we can and live our lives in ways that diminish rather than promote injustices.

If nobody was ever outraged, nothing would ever change.

But knowing exactly how mad every one of my Facebook friends is about every injustice or annoyance or inconvenience all the time is not helpful. And it's not good for me. And I will not continue to consume it. 

There's also the time-suck, distraction aspect. Pretty much 100% of the time I have ever spent on social media could have been better spent in some other endeavor.

And there's the attention-seeking, self-absorbed aspect. I mean, really, that is the pared-down reality of why we post things. Look at me! Look at my life! Look at my house! Look at my kids! Look at my dog! Listen to my opinions! Whether it is to brag or complain, it's still just all about me. I need to spend less of my life on myself, not more. The very fact that we used to take pictures of things that happened, but now we plan the things that will happen around the pictures we will take of it (and then share with the world) is enough to make my head spin. 

And so.... I'm not sure where that leaves me. When I truly think about any of it, it just seems so trivial. So worthless. I don't want to live my life in a fake, manufactured, digital atmosphere any more than I want to feel outraged all the time. Not that using this particular venue (a blog) to do the same is really any more noble or worthy. 

Sigh.

I've had some 'complaints' (for lack of a better word) about my absence. I find it somewhat hilarious that my posting would be somehow missed. We'll see. My hope is that anything I do share will be encouraging and edifying to anyone who sees it. I want to use the tools I have at my disposal and connections that I make to point people to love and truth and family and joy, and most of all, to Jesus, without whom, I would have nothing at all to brag about. Whatever blessings (even the challenging ones) I have in my life are gifts, drawing me ever closer to Him.

My favorite holiday

Back in the spring, I posted something somewhere about "clothesline day" being my favorite "holiday". In fact, here's a picture of me on Easter a few years ago, celebrating clothesline day (yes, with a mimosa - it was Easter).

Basically, clothesline day is whatever day of the year happens to be the first day that the weather is warm, dry, and breezy enough to allow me to hang out my inaugural load of laundry. It makes me very happy, since, if you have read even a few posts on this blog you know that I am pretty well bonkers about line-dried laundry.

I do, very much, love clothesline day. But it's not exactly a REAL holiday. And if I'm honest, I can't really even say that it's my favorite day of the year. That is something totally different:

The Day After Thanksgiving.

Some would call this day "Black Friday". Not me. Black Friday implies that I like the day because I enjoy getting up at ungodly hours of the night to stand in long lines in the cold with a bunch of strangers to get into crowded stores and buy things on sale. 

That assumption would be completely untrue.

I have zero interest in doing any of those things. It doesn't appeal to me at all.

No, my reasons for loving The Day After Thanksgiving so much are many...

• pajamas all day
• eggnog in my coffee
• pie for breakfast
• day off of work
• the house is already clean from yesterday
• don't have to cook - leftovers for lunch AND dinner!
• getting out christmas decorations
• listening to christmas music
• spending the day doing christmas puzzles
• watching christmas movies
• hanging out with my family all day since nobody has any place to be
• even when the day is over, there are still 2 more days of weekend!

I'm sure there are more. Every year I think of new ways to appreciate this most wonderful day of the year. This year we will have the added bonus of being able to plug in our Christmas lights without the effort of having to spend the day on the roof hanging them up, since we got them out and Dave and Micah spent Halloween putting them on the house! 

So we're all pretty stoked about that.

Really, the simple truth of it all is that most holidays generally mean a lot of stress for me. There's usually an unusual amount of cooking and cleaning involved. Frequently decorating. It's not that any of that is bad, or that I don't like to do it. But when EXTRA time and energy is required, it can be hard to come by. Halloween is definitely not my favorite, since 1, I'm just not that into it; 2, it means walking around at night in bad weather and 3, spending weeks arguing with my children about how much candy they should be allowed to eat. (Although this year was a definite improvement as both L & M stayed local and went together, so I could trust them to not be stupid, so Dave and I stayed home and binge watched Downton Abbey. Parent win!) 4th of July is decent, except for the stress over someone setting fire to your house or themselves. Valentine's Day is ok and has improved vastly now that none of my kids have to make valentine boxes for school, but it still seems to mean arguing about candy. Thanksgiving is fun, but really, it's a lot of cleaning, cooking, and dishes (and I don't really even like turkey that much). Generally, I love Christmas. I do. But Christmas, in recent years has become almost unbearable with everything that seems to surround it. If it were just decorating, baking cookies, making dinner, opening presents, and going to church, that would be fabulous. But all the extra - the band concerts, the parties, the multiple gift exchanges, the secret santas, the this that and the other thing that seem to just pile, one on top of the other has gotten to the point that the joy, peace, and magic of Christmas is just buried under a load of calendar entries. I hate covid, but I am thankful that it means this December can be a bit more mellow and hopefully unaccompanied by a constant feeling of drowning.

I know this whole spiel has made me sound like a gigantic stick in the mud. 

But what I value most about special times like holidays is the ability to just BE with the people I love. To be at home. To focus on the ways that God has blessed us. To remember all of His good gifts - especially since holidays are days which generally bring one or more of those gifts to mind. The older I get the less tolerance I have for being busy. It's not that I want to be lazy - quite the opposite. I want to spend my time caring for my home and my people. I want to have energy to do my job well. I want to have time to enjoy the optional extras about holidays, especially Christmas - taking in the lights, hearing carolers, visiting favorite places, baking ALL the cookies... But when everyone is running in every direction every day, how does any of that not just seem like more busyness? More stuff you HAVE to do, places you HAVE to go. I'm not sure how to balance it. Most if it has to do with teams or organizations my kids are involved with, so short of making them quit everything, I'm not sure what to do. Maybe you're just supposed to try to keep your head above water until they graduate. That prospect kind of sucks. I'm already missing one kid, and don't want to spend the next 6 Christmases just surviving. Well, at least this year, I'm going to fully enjoy NOT being busy. Maybe that'll reenergize me for whenever "normal" comes back.

At any rate, we are currently in the month of my favorite day of the year, and I am most excited about it!

Dear Americans,

Please be kind to one another.

Please be decent human beings.

Please rise above what the media expects of you. 

Please remember that you have friends and relatives and coworkers and neighbors on all sides of the political scale. 

Please keep in mind that, whichever candidate a person favors, they likely have a reason for doing so, same as you. 

Please understand that that reason is probably not as sinister as you may think. 

Please turn off your TV, put down your phone, or whatever it is you need to do if the anxiety you feel about this election is causing you to hate people you actually love. If it’s causing you to hate anyone! When this is over, we still have to live with each other, work with each other, spend Christmas with each other. 

Please don’t let your feelings about an election ruin your relationships. Or drive you to violence. Or make you believe that the world is ending. It’s not. The political leaders of our country do have quite a bit of power, but not that much. 

November Meal Plan

Meal plans are something that have historically had a big presence on this blog. Not so much in recent years. Well, actually not very much has had much of a presence on this blog in recent years. But I digress. 

Meal plans were big back in the day, because the overarching focus of this blog (and my life) at that time was homemaking and all that that entailed. Planning meals was an essential part of that.

Unfortunately, my kids were ungracious enough to grow up and I had to grown up with them and get a job, and thus, my focus has hence become divided. 

That is not to say that I don’t still have to perform all of those homemaking tasks which, at the time, dominated the bulk of my focus and energy (and all that fun stuff like changing diapers and bathing children and dealing with fevers and runny noses and fighting with the never-ending onslaught of excessive toys), they just get shunted onto the back burner of my time and energy where they continue to taunt me with the guilt of having not been done well, properly, on time, or at all... 

but again, I digress. 

The importance of meal planning has become no less necessary in recent years. In fact, it has probably become even MORE necessary as we have all become busier. I used to always plan a week at a time, and then do my shopping accordingly. Lately, I’ve taken to planning a month at a time, and I completely LOVE it. I still do the shopping weekly, but knowing a whole month just became brainless relieves a lot of stress. I have done it list style, and like this:

I probably prefer the calendar lay out. It enables me to see what day is what, without having to figure it out based on disembodied dates. To further make things brainless (this is a big thing lately - apparently my brain function is limited and I don’t like to use it more than I must) I have several days of the week that fall into categories. Pizza happens once a week. It has been on Wednesdays, but I think we’re moving it back to Fridays. Sunday is always breakfast for dinner. Tuesday is some version of Taco Tuesday. Monday is generally something quick or something Dave can make without needing to wait for me to come home with ingredients, since I do the shopping on Mondays. And we clean out the fridge on Saturdays. 

It’s fantastic every Sunday when I check the menu for the coming week and make my shopping list. Sometimes coming up with 7 meals every week seems overwhelming and repetitive. If I have a whole month in between having to do it, I find it much less tedious. 

 

An excess of negativity

I have a confession to make. I hope you will hear it. Along with it comes an apology.

I have been feeling very convicted lately that my manner of speech and demeanor has been excessively negative. I could list off a number of excuses for why this may be. I'm sure you would nod your head and agree that all of them are perfectly legitimate reason for one to feel upset, angry, negative, pessimistic, etc. 

But really, it is that I have allowed myself to become unfocused on the things that are true. I have allowed my heart and eyes to have been turned inward to my own reasoning of the things I see and experience around me and how I think they should be. I have not focused on Jesus and the promises of God's Word. I have neglected that relationship, due to a number of emotions and frustrations - not with God, but with what I have allowed to cloud my ideas about God - and my perception of things has been negatively impacted. 

I have allowed myself to be negatively influenced by the negative speech and attitudes of others, and even worse, allowed my own negative speech attitude to negatively influence others. 

For this, I hope you will forgive me. 

My peace is grounded in the God of the universe and knowing that my place with him is secure, regardless of elections or wars or church politics or pandemics. And because of that, I can have hope and hopefully leave my negativity behind.

adventures with spicy pickled beans

Well, thanks to COVID, we had some extra time on our hands this year (with all the lack of activities and school and commuting and all), so we did what everyone else did and planted an extensive garden. Dave built me these fantastic raised beds, we filled them with compost, added plants and didn’t do a lot else. One of the things we wound up with an abundance of is green beans. I planted both bush beans and pole beans. We eat beans at least once a week (with our pizza, because we’re weird like that), but at the height of the season, there’s really only so many green beans one family can use.

Now, because I’m old-fashioned like that, I have long held this delusional fantasy of something along the lines of homesteading… living off-the-grid, if you will. I have this idealized, Little House on the Prairie idea of how we should live, not dependent on the grocery store, or really anyone, to aid in our “survival”… But, let’s face it, I’m not exactly cut out to be a “prepper”, much as I would like to convince you all that I am. BUT, growing and preserving our own produce is one of those things that I’ve always wanted to do, but never gotten around to learning how to do. Usually, when I want to learn how to do something, I check out every book I can find on the subject from the library and read them until I’ve either convinced myself I can do it, or get too intimidated and ditch the idea. Canning is one of those “intimidating” topics for me.

But, one random Sunday afternoon in August, finding myself with an abundance of beans and a bee in my bonnet, I suddenly announced that I was going to the store and buying jars and canning supplies. FINALLY. (I’ve been threatening to for at least a decade.)

Now, my mom sufficiently scared me away from wanting to do any normal canning of green beans. The word “botulism” is right up there in the URGENT: MUST REMEMBER portion of my memory (right along with choking on fish bones will kill you), so the whole pressure canner thing is something I still approach with caution and much fear and trembling. But I thought I could probably pull off some pickled beans and just do a normal water bath canning.

Honestly, the only way this actually happened was because of the aforementioned “bee in my bonnet” phenomenon. Had I waited, this never would have happened. But, I found a recipe that sounded yummy: https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2018/09/10/spicy-pickled-green-beans

And then I set out to find all the things I needed.

I acquired jars and lids, pickling salt, and all the spices, along with the jar tongs and funnel and all that.

I picked my beans, washed them and cut them into lengths that would fit in the jars. I sliced up my garlic cloves and measured out my dill seed, red pepper flakes, peppercorns, and brown mustard seeds… I mixed up my brine. I filled my pot with water and put the trivet in the bottom. I washed my jars and boiled my lids… all the stuff you’re supposed to do.

I was SO CRAZY NERVOUS!!!

The biggest problem turned out to be that my pot wasn’t quite big enough and keeping the jars covered meant that water would boil over and put out the burner. So I kept having to move the pot back and forth from burner to burner to keep it boiling, since being doused with water makes a gas burner reluctant to re-light. Next time I’ll use my biggest pot.

But, when the time was up, and I pulled the jars out to cool, they looked like they were supposed to.

I followed the recipe’s instructions and left them alone over night.

The next morning, they appeared to be sealed properly, so I labeled them and put them away on a shelf in my pantry. They looked so pretty! I’ll admit, I was outrageously proud of myself for actually doing this, and (apparently) not screwing it up!

So, there they sat. Looking pretty. I kept looking at them and wondering if they were appropriately “pickled” yet… I was apprehensive. Would they taste good? Would they poison me?

Finally, last week I got a hankering AND the courage to pull a jar out and try it. Based on the evidence provided by how hard the jar was to open, I’d say the sealing process happened according to plan. I tried my first bean…

I think my exact words were something like, “Oh my gosh! This is delicious!!” Seriously! They were SO good! Definitely pickled, definitely spicy, but super crisp and yummy, and definitely NOT poison!

The first jar was gone within a couple of days. All the brine and spices left in the jar made me feel like they should be able to be repurposed for something… Seemed a shame to just dump them down the disposal. But I couldn’t think of anything practical to do with them, so away they went.

The second jar was opened soon after, and at this point, my only regret is that I only made 4 jars!

Next year, I’m planting lots of beans, and I might just pickle them all!

Micah’s Birthday

This kid had the audacity to turn 13 yesterday… As was expected, I was a bit of a hot mess about the whole affair.

Here’s his “last day to be 12” photo. He ran out of fingers a couple years ago, so taking a page out of Shane’s book, he borrowed a couple of feet from the cat to make 12.

But, not too old to choose Lucky Charms for his birthday breakfast.

He got his happy birthday facetime call first thing and got to open his gift from Gramma and Skip while they watched…

He’s had a boom box on his list this year. You might remember that 2 years ago, it was a Walkman. The obsession with 80s audio continues. Gramma found this one and it seems to fit the bill. Looks totally retro, plays and records tapes but also has radio AND a USB port so he could use some modern tech with it, as well.

So, he spent the morning taking advantage of the birthday allowances of not having to do his weekend chores and lifted time limits on video games… all while listening to the radio or one tape or another on the boom box that followed him from room to room. At one point, he expressed frustration about wanting to record a certain song off the radio, but he didn’t start it in time, AND they were talking over the beginning of the song! Dave and I laughed really hard over that.

Eventually, we headed out to play some mini golf, and Micah got to enjoy riding shotgun. (Small kids… We have to go for the age limits rather than weight requirements.)

Micah’s godmother, Amy, and her kids joined us, as did my dad, Shane and Leslie.

Enjoy gratuitous golfing photos:

 Shane, in particular, seemed to have an uncanny ability to get his ball wedged down in some crazy crevice or through some tiny space in the edge of the course.

Then we returned back home to eat some birthday dinner (Red Robin take out), open presents, play some Scattergories, and have cupcakes.

Enjoy gratuitous gift-opening pictures:

    In summary, he received a lot of what was on his list… new joy cons for his switch, a new mario game, money, a nintendo gift card. Layla also passed along her 49ers jersey (grudgingly) because it’s really too small for her and he had one on his list, and the latest Dog Man book. We also gave him a Costco pack of tape, which will probably be the most well-used of all his gifts, even if he thought it was silly. There’s another couple little things that should be here tomorrow – Amazon didn’t come through in time.

As usual, Layla made his birthday cake this year – cupcakes this time, so as to avoid the whole blowing your nasty germs all over the cake we’re all going to eat scenario. Thanks for the awareness, covid. He requested white cake, purple frosting, and Skittles.

This cracks me up. Shane was heading out and I wanted to grab a picture really quick… They were horsing around and I wound up catching Shane with the hugest, cheesy smile – I can NEVER get him to smile in pictures! HA!

So there you go… My last one has become a teenager. I’m not handling it particularly well. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a super-cool teenager and I very much like him just how he is right now. But man. They’re all so OLD! I keep feeling like it’s nearly over – this parenting gig. Not that you ever stop, but still. There are phases of parenting, and a lot of them have already been left behind and you can’t go back. That part makes me sad.

fall.

I have kind of a confusing love/hate relationship with fall. 

On the one hand, I get super excited about the beautiful trees changing color. I love seeing pumpkins piled up on people's porches. I love cuddling up with a hot beverage in the afternoon. I like windstorms - yesterday's was pretty impressive - and even the potential power outage that follows, provided it doesn't last too long. I love digging out my Uggs.

But at the same time, fall depresses me. I love summer, and I hate rain. Knowing that my shorts and sandals are put away until next May (at the soonest) is super sad. Knowing I'm going to be cold and wet for the foreseeable future is extremely discouraging. 

Some people love fall because of Halloween. I'm kind of ambiguous about it. I don't love it, I don't hate it. Really, at this point, it just means arguing with my kids for the next month about candy. I could easily do without it...

Some people love fall because of pumpkin spice everything. Doesn't do it for me. I've had the lattes and they aren't terrible, but I can think of lots of better ways to ingest a million calories in one shot. 

But, ultimately, I enjoy the cyclical rhythm of the seasons. The predictable nature and knowing what you'll see and what to expect. The fact that, after you've endured months and months of dark and wet and cold, you'll start seeing daffodils and crocuses poking through the ground. Eventually things will dry out and warm up. Being outside won't require a coat, and your feet won't be wet. 

But until then, I'll do my best to embrace where we are...

I spotted this cool mushroom while out walking the dog tonight. I don't particularly love fungus, mostly mushrooms annoy me because they pop up in my yard and let me know that things are really just too damp... This one is super cool, however, and probably super poisonous.

I also love it when I find a perfect leaf. Gorgeous color, shape.... Just being its best leaf-self.

And then there's this... has nothing to do with fall, but this cat is something else. She really is the Queen of All Things....

 And that's that. 

I actually am loving this. I get to put stuff out there. Say whatever I want about it. People can read it if they want to, or not if they don't. I'm not so much loving the blogger platform. There used to be some better external publishing tools that would allow a little more freedom and customization in posting. But I've been out of the game long enough to have let all that knowledge lapse... Maybe I'll catch up and figure it out. In the meantime, this'll do.

just a fall day

Yesterday was a little bit exciting, in the usual mundane way... on my way out of my neighborhood in the morning on the way to work, I passed a school bus on my street. a big, full-size school bus! then, when I pulled up to the light, there was another one!!! Kindergarteners in our district started in-person school this week! a few little signs of "normal" can be found returning here and there. I didn't realize how much that sort of thing would affect me, but then again, school buses always get me a little bit verklempt.

Although it was absolutely POURING all night and in the morning, it all moved out by afternoon and Bonezy and I got a proper walk in.

After our walk, I did a little garden clean-up/maintenance. We had a few of the giant sunflowers that hadn't fallen over yet, so I cut them down and composted and started pulling out some pumpkin vines. I harvested our final pumpkin that has now turned almost entirely orange and put in on the porch with the others.

And, lastly, a balloon sighting!! This time of year, you never know when will be the last one you see.