Snow

I hope that anyone, especially back in our old Commonwealth of Virginia, that was snowed in or without electricity last week has gotten back to normal. All the talk of "Winter Storm Iago" (when did we start naming winter storms, anyway?) had me thinking about the fact that it will probably be another fifteen years before I see any snow here in South Georgia.  

For some of my Christmas decorations, the boys and I cut out paper snowflakes. We put them up with fishing line in the foyer.  We've never done this before, and we LOVED it.  I'm saving the ones we made this year and will add more next year. When I took the Christmas decorations down (yesterday), I decided to leave up the snowflakes because I love them so much and it is still winter.  They're probably the only snow we'll see this year.

  

On My Mind

    Well, there's no getting around it:  I'm super ready for fall.  My brain has been tuned to the fall foods station for several days now.

    Back when we lived near Sam's Club, I kept a good stock of this pumpkin spice bread mix. They only sell it in the fall, so I bought several boxes and enjoyed them throughout the winter.  It's even better if you add a few extra chopped, toasted pecans to the mix.

    Hot or cold, it doesn't matter to me, I just love apple cider. One of my fav things to do in the fall is simmer apple juice on the stove with some of Williams-Sonoma's Mulling Spices. Again, when I lived near W-S, I bought a couple of these after Christmas when they were on sale, and pulled them out in the fall once cool weather hit.  I know apple juice and apple cider are not the same thing, but my boys don't like all those yummy pieces of apple that sneak into the cider.  So, I go with the juice.

    Soup is great, but I really only want it in the fall and winter when it's cold. One of my favorites is French Onion Soup, which I do know how to make from scratch. It takes a while, but it's so worth it.

   I know I already mentioned apple cider, but really, apple anything is great this time of year. Here's a batch we picked at an orchard last fall. There are no orchards around here, so we'll have to remember to plan a trip next year.

    I'm already wondering how many Thanksgiving lunches and dinners there will be before the actual Big Day. Between work, school, church and family, I'm sure it will be several. Who's complaining?

   What's your favorite fall food?

   I hope you all have a super day and a glorious weekend.

Friday Night Lights

Last night, we went to our second high school football game of the season. This one was an away game. The boys are still too young to enjoy a good road trip, so the 45-minute drive was pretty boring and uneventful. Unfortunately, our guys lost. BIG TIME. It really did break my heart. About half of them are in  my classes, and they tried to be so positive at school. But, I don't think they had a really good feeling about it.

The more interesting happenings last night were not on the field, however. The elementary and middle school students were doing some serious socializing during the entire game. We want so badly for Boy 1 and Boy 2 to love football as much as we do. And, I think they will one day - but not yet. The second we sat down in the stands, Boy 2 says, "Can we go play with the other kids?" They did, and played HARD until the end of the game. At one point, the same-aged kids from the home team came over to our side, too. For a minute, it looked like that scene from Westside Story when the two gangs meet up. (That's the only part of that movie I've seen; I hate musicals.) They all sized each other up and then started playing together.

Our kids were much sweatier and dirtier than this.

On a weather-related note, I did not sweat at all. This is really saying something. It wasn't exactly my ideal football-watching weather (jeans, sweaters, hot chocolate...), but it was quite pleasant. BTW, I've now started judging the weather by how much I sweat. Sounds gross, but it's really the most practical way here. It can be 80 degrees and cloudy, but if it's really humid, you're going to sweat.

In a Hurry...

    Preparing to teach my Spanish classes has been keeping me very busy. However, I just HAD to make a comment about the weather. When I walked outside this morning to take Boy 1 and Boy 2 to school, it was actually cool with a slight breeze. It was SO nice. And, last evening, it actually cooled down enough for us to go outside and toss around the football without breaking a sweat. Even though it's going to go into the 90s again today, I can tell we're starting to make that shift to fall. I know I can hang in there for a few more weeks. I hope you have a super day!