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.

Comments

someone googled this stuff and found me!

these are as is... spelling errors and all. how to use a bathroom scale seriously? how hard is it? if you want step by step instructions, read this . washing machine doesn't empty bummer dude rachel's restroom i seem to remember someone predicting, when i was in high school, that i would go into the portable restroom business some day... "locks of love" site:blogspot.com because i'm totally the authority on that sort of thing. my hair is still in a ziplock bag waiting to be mailed. http://rambling-rachel.blogspot.com/ i think you typed this in the wrong place does 2 year old talk with imagination is there any other option? SLUDGE IN WORM BIN yummy. diapers to bed well, considering the other option... yes, please! imagination and 2 years old once again. 2 year olds do like to use their imaginations. loose change in my washing machine what priceless wisdom are you looking for here? how to get some? where did it come from? what to do with it? duh! rachel joe

thanksgiving trip to CA

we decided to take a QUICK trip to EG over thanksgiving weekend. we weren’t so much going FOR thanksgiving, as we were taking advantage of the long weekend. thanksgiving was just an added bonus. the real reason we were going was to get to meet amy’s new baby finnigan (who BARELY complied, making his arrival just the day before). BUT, we got an extra BONUS baby, too! dave got a text early thanksgiving morning, as we were just driving into california, that anthony and chalane’s baby, abigail, had decided to show up a month early. we appreciated her courtesy! ;) micah and layla were tired after our all-night drive, and passed out together mid-afternoon, waiting for dinner. we brought mario kart with us… so there was much of this: the day after thanksgiving, gramma and papa treated us to a ride on ‘the polar express’ (which, I bet you didn’t know, runs out of sacramento)! it was loads of fun. everyone was supposed to wear pajamas, but the only one of our group who complied was micah.

tater tot casserole recipe

i realized i forgot to post this last week when we had it. i actually like it a little better than the hash brown one, but both are good. it’s VERY similar. once again, this is something i’ve made so many times that i just kind of wing it now, although i do have the recipe that kate sent to me after she made it for my family when micah was born. i like to keep the recipe because it has some little ‘britishisms’ throughout, just like kate! ;-) who, by the way, rocks, having called to check up on me the other evening when she saw that the power in our area was out AGAIN! thanks kate, smooch smooch! but now i’m getting distracted… big surprise. here goes. you will need: 1 lb or so ground beef (or ground turkey) 1 chopped onion a bunch of veggies (kate’s recipe calls for a ‘tin’ of mixed veggies, but i use fresh carrots & celery if i’ve got’em, frozen beans, peas, corn, whatever). maybe 2-3 cups. 1 can (or tin) of cream of something soup (i use celery usually

beef stew recipe

another taken from the betty crocker cookbook, but i mess with this one so refer to the disclaimer … 1 tbsp olive oil 1 clove of garlic, pressed (or some good shakes of garlic powder) 1 lb. stew beef 3 cups of hot water (I probably use closer to 3.5 or 4) 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 3 medium carrots, cut in thick coins 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces 1-2 medium potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 tsp salt 1 bay leaf *optional: 1/2 bell pepper of your choice; 1 turnip; 1/2 tsp browning sauce (whatever that is) 1/2 cup cold water 2 tbsp all-purpose flour heat oil in large pot. cook beef and garlic in oil about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown. add hot water, 1/2 tsp salt and the pepper. heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. cover and simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until beef is almost tender. stir in remaining ingredients except cold water and flour. cover and simmer

“you should have your head examined!”

… i just did! yup, yesterday i had the thrilling experience of sitting in a hospital waiting room for 2 hours, followed by another in a trauma room. no, i don’t think i had suffered any sort of major trauma – i think that’s just what room they had left to stick me in. i mused about where we would go if they had to kick us out because a ‘real’ trauma situation arose. thankfully, we didn’t have to learn the answer to that. i guess i was a traumatic as it got during that window of time. backing up, i wound up in the hospital yesterday because micah threw some clothes on the ground. the night before i had been folding laundry in the living room. i had a couple of stacks of ‘hang up’ clothes that were draped over the baby gate in front of the fireplace. yes, it’s a christmas picture, but i knew i had it in my stash. at any rate, there’s the ugly baby gate that the clothes were hanging on. also notice the wood mantle above it that the nativity set is on.

rachel's continued ramblings

Search This Blog