coming back

i’ve been quiet lately, but i’m here.  fall is always such a busy time for us.  football games, traveling for work and for pleasure, and this year, an october wedding in the fam has kept ross and i on our toes for the last several weeks/months.  i’ve never been especially good at keeping up with the blog, but i think i’ve just needed a little break from it.  i hope to come back though, because i find that writing up posts is sometimes the best way to help me remember what’s going on in our lives.  here are a few things we’ve been up to lately:

- put up the first batch of  pear cardamom butter for the season

- celebrated our niece’s 2-year birthday with cake, breakfast out, and a canoe ride

- attended our first hokie game of the season

- visited a mom-to-be  bff and her hubs in their new place

- celebrated our 4 year anniversary – (although we won’t actually go anywhere until the beginning of november.)

- double dated with the sis and bro-in-law

- attempted to pick up jogging again, semi-successfully

this weekend i will also attempt to decorate the house for fall, which sounds lame, but i love decorating and i haven’t really touched a thing in our living room and dining room (the decoratable spaces) since early summer.  that’s sad.  especially since fall is my favorite month.  that is, until spring arrives and gardening takes over.

but the leaves are starting to turn here and we have no travel plans for the next month or so.  so that means getting outside more, taking more pictures, and maybe even doing some baking.  if one can have a “fall resolution,” those are mine.

the fall spirit

despite the temperatures that are screaming otherwise, we had a very fallish dinner tonight.

veggie chili.  no recipe really.  just sauteed onion and garlic, lots of beans:  kidney beans, great northern beans, black beans; with diced green chiles, diced tomatoes, some spices (and some brown sugar!), and a nice long simmer on the stove.

we put this over a mix of brown rice and jasmine rice and had a side of corn, green beans, and cornbread.  first time i’ve made a full-fledged dinner in a long time.  and we were stuffed.

it gets the job done

the extent of Fall on our front porch this year

all in a day’s work

as the chance of rain today is 100%, i’m thankful that last weekend was beautiful and sunny, because it was the only weekend in the month of november that ross and i were going to be home.  and we got so much done.

with life being pretty busy lately, it’s seemed like we’ve been neglecting the house – which we have.  or at least the outside of it.  so we deferred a planned hiking trip to sunday afternoon and dedicated saturday to work around the house.  grass cutting, weeding, cleaning up of dead garden beds, and pruning took us until nearly till dusk to complete.  along with the time it took for ross to put a rock through his back windshield and completely shatter it into a million pieces.  great.

the highlight of the day (if you’ve met our neighbors, you’ll know why it was the highlight) was finally using anniversary money from my parents to purchase 12 Green Giant arborvitae trees to plant along the fenceline on the east side of our property.  These bad boys grow up to 5 FEET a year!  (read:  they will become an impenetrable living fence very very soon! score!)

we ended the evening with some sore muscles, the first woodburning fire in our house ever (we just had our gas logs removed), some college football, and a tasty dinner.  not too shabby.

october in review

so much going on!   a stream of consciousness is all i can offer, and best represents what’s going on in my brain/life these days.

i was finally able to get out and make sense of my front yard situation (read: in an impulsive OCD move, i left work early and spent 2 and a half hours ravaging the dead plants, weeds, general disgustingness of the front yard.)  drove out to get pumpkins and two mums – one much larger than my head.  manically grappled with the crab grass threatening to totally overrun my lillies.  still not done, but feeling better about it.

in addition, i drove to charlottesville last saturday morning (10/31), took pictures for 4 hours of the cousin and her fiancee for engagement/save the date cards (hi ash and wes!) then drove back and planned a baby shower to be hosted the next evening.  after church, cooked allll afternoon for shower.  baby shower went surprisingly well – food edible, fun times had, many laughs laughed, many sweet, girly gifts opened and ahhed over.

garlic still not planted.  fall lettuce never got planted.  meetings on tuesday, wednesday, and thursday prevent such things.

ross and i got the proofs back on his new photography logo – we can’t decide!

little sister’s wedding coming up in two weeks!  crazy, freaky, exciting, weird, overwhelming!

we officially closed on our new mortgage – say yes to savings!

normal, sane posts are hopefully right around the corner…

image from here

frost and fall soups

first frost this morning.  not enough to need to scrape the windshield, but enough for me to go out a few minutes early to start up the car.  thankfully (and sadly) i had nothing left in the garden that needed covering.  next year.

ran a couple of errands after work that ended up taking 2 hours.  but at least they’re done.  and dinner tonight came together pretty quickly.  i picked up a lemon-pepper rotisserie chicken from kroger and served it with salad and a bowl of garlic soup over some crusty multigrain baguette.  perfect for a fall evening.  recipe here – although i’d suggest doubling or even tripling the recipe.

off to read in bed before lights out.

1096

fall is really starting to swoop in now.  we had a lot of gusty wind this morning and i realized that all too soon it’ll be leaf raking season again.  i’m not sure when peak color season is predicted to be for us this year, but the maples and a few other trees are displaying pretty bright colors already.

i’m wearing a sweater for the first time this season and even though the rest of my winter wardrobe in packed away in a box in the attic, i imagine i’ll have to be refamiliarizing myself with all the long sleeves, thick sweaters, scarves, and coats sooner rather than later.

for me, fall has always carried special memories:  of football games, the acrid smell of ash from bonfires, sharp and refreshing air, the piling on of layers, the approaching holiday season, and food – always food.  but more than that, for 1,096 days and counting, it has carried the memories of a rainy, whirlwind weekend, where surrounded by my closest friends and family, i got more dressed up than i’ve ever been, and walked down the aisle to say yes, till death do us part, this is my solemn vow.

the time since has gone by faster than i ever thought it would, but thankfully it still feels fresh and new, while at the same time feeling comfortable and safe.  our adventures thus far have been so fun – i pray that there are unending adventures to come.  here’s to three years and counting…  love you ross.

both feet

happy october everyone.

it seems that i did not get the memo that we’ve decided to jump into fall with both feet.  at least that’s what these last few days have felt like.  even the leaves have to started to respond with a few splashes of color.  where have i been?!

yesterday evening i drove out to riner (heading out towards floyd) to pick up some plants a nice lady was offering up on freecycle (i’ll pretty much never turn down free plants) and the whole ambiance of the evening was breathtaking:  i let both pups come with me and cracked open the back windows so they could smell the smells as we drove.  it was only 6, but there was a definite chill in the air.  i was listening to iron and wine as i drove into riner and down the back roads towards the lady’s house – a perfect mellow soundtrack to the calm evening.  i picked up the plants without a hitch, and on the way back the sun was starting to set; it was just about perfect.  just another reminder of how much i love it here.

fall food

attended a dessert night this weekend.  had some coconut on hand and finally got to use the coconut pie recipe i have.

about to finish up the leftovers from the crockpot potato soup we made last week.  i love leftovers & i really love when leftovers last almost a week.

can’t wait to sit down to thanksgiving dinner with family next week.  this year i’m contributing to the menu:

- baked mac n cheese with veggies (MIL’s recipe)

- poached pears and apples with candied pecans (adapted from gourmet)

- homemade bread (potato rolls, whole wheat rolls, sourdough if i can get my new starter in time)

- gooey butter pumpkin cake (a paula deen recipe)

have a bag of cranberries in my fridge that are calling my name.  maybe a cranberry relish, maybe cranberry/apple crumble.  maybe both.

happy monday