Fall Fun

Fall is always a hard time for me. Not as hard as the rainy, cold days of winter, but the transition from bright, sunny, warm, long days to cold, wet and dark ones is difficult. I am definitely a sun baby and need my light fix. It isn't even the cold - it is just the dark and the rain. As long as I am cold but dry, I don't care. In Northwest, however, dry days are few and far between. This hurts my heart.

There are some routines and traditions I do for myself and my husband to make the transition into fall less traumatizing.

1. Starting mid-September, I purchase those cinnamon smelling pine cones for the front console table. They smell like fall (delicious) and make the whole house seem cozy and inviting! You can find them at JoAnns or Albertsons and a bunch of other stores, I am sure. I buy new ones every month through January or February to keep the house thoroughly scented.


2. Baking and cooking. I try to center my meal planning around fall-themed foods and try to make use of seasonal produce. Fall is a great time to reintroduce squash, sweet potatoes and pears into your family's meals. For breakfast I mix sweet potato or pumkin puree into my oatmeal with a dash of cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice! Yummy! I also start baking fall themed foods such as pumpkin muffins and gingerbread cake. Here is my super easy pumpkin muffin recipe:

Need:
1 yellow cake mix
Can of pumpkin (8 or 9 oz or whatever the small can is)
1/2 cup water
Pumpkin pie spice to taste

Mix together, put into muffin pan with liners, and bake following directions on the back of the cake mix. EASY. (No eggs, milk, etc required!). You can also add walnuts or a handful of oatmeal to these to make them healthier.

3. Fall-scented candles. Yummy. I keep them all over and lit whenever I am home. Helps brighten the house and something about candle light is very comforting to me. My favorite things to do is light the candles in the guest bathroom, turn off the lights, and take a nice, hot bath before bed. Sometimes I can persuade Jason to put my towel in the dryer and give it to me when I get out of the tub. Talk about relaxing!

4. Dog costumes. I am not a big Halloween type of girl AT ALL. My parents used to be really into it and I would help my dad transform our house into a haunted mansion every fall complete with a graveyard, creaky gate, lights, bloody skeletons, scary music piped on loud speakers etc. I never dressed up as anything scary however...


Except maybe a BIG, SCARY BOILED ARTICHOKE!

I was an artichoke one year, a birthday party the next, Molly from the American Girl series another year, a doctor, etc. Never anything scary because even from a young age I felt like dressing up as a bloody anything glamorized and desensitized kids to evil and horror. Same reason I won't watch R-rated or any scary movies. Coraline was pushing it for me.

That being said, I do enjoy picking out costumes and dressing up the dogs every year.

McSpoiled has been Darth Vader, Superman, a cowboy, and one year, a pimp. (That was Jason's doing. Imagine trying to explain that to kids who come for candy).McNubbins has been a cowgirl and a princess. We tend to stick with the princess costume for her because it fits her perfectly and she looks like a little sparkly jewel walking around in her tutu. This year for McSpoiled, however, I was thinking

a turtle....


a cow...


or a lobster.

What is your vote for a handsome man-baby such as he?

I'll let you know what we decide and post pictures of the actual costumes once we get them! Now I've got to run. I need to workout bad. I am Fatty McFatterson. Then my co-teacher Aja and I are going to our students' soccer game in FG. Ta ta!