Lunch

2. Lunchtime: Take a photo of your lunch, or around you at lunchtime.

Yes, we eat like 5 year olds around here. Open face turkey sandwich, some pickles, carrots, applesauce, cheddar sunchips (which I didn't even eat because I left early for my hair appointment), a string cheese and my vitamins (I'm a Flinstones kid).

 

Here we go

1. Where you stood: Take a photo of where you’re standing.

 

Alright, I wasn't exactly standing. To be honest when I snapped this with my phone this morning I thought the picture was just about what shoes you were wearing. So here's the floor while I sat waiting at the chiropracter's office at 8am this morning.

 

Day 1 of the October photo-a-day challenge complete!

 

October

"Listen! The wind is rising,

and the air is wild with leaves,

We have had our summer evenings,

now for October eves!"

- Humbert Wolf

 

source

Creature of habbit

Check out these two old blog posts from September 2010:

Spice Cookies

September

What have I posted about this September (multiple times actually)? Yes, spice cookies and the book September. What can I say, I like routine. And I wonder why this ever changing military life stresses me out sometimes... Ha!

Then I got to thinking, do I cling to my habits and traditions more because of all the other change that occurs in my life that I have no control over? The answer is probably yes.

When we move I set up the house as quickly as possible. Not just unpack, but set up, decorate, hang pictures, burn candles, make tea, make it into home, as fast as I can. And it tends to look very similar to the previous house. As much as I can, I keep things status quo.

And then once we're settled into wherever home happens to be at the time I do the same things over and over. Apparently September is the month of spice cookies and Rosamund Pilcher's lovely book. Fall in general conjures thoughts of Harry Potter, hot tea and endless hours of football watching.

In December I always make cut out cookies and read Winter Solstice and A Christmas Carol. Winter time usually brings out Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and a myriad of BBC miniseries.

Spring is L.M. Montgomery books, and lilac scented anything.

Summer is iced tea and lemonade and lots of ice cream after dinner, oh and smores and The Sandlot and for some reason all of Haley Mills movies, oh and angel food cake, oh wait, I almost forgot, Agatha Christie mysteries.

As much as I really do love the beautiful sunshine and temperate weather here in California I think my soul longs for real seasons. Something about them is just fundamentally necessary to me. They help to mark time more clearly, but they're also such nice excuses to break out annual rituals and traditions that I find very comforting.

I'm not going to look back at October and see what over-laps I find at the end of next month. ;-)

Book Review

 September  I started reading this every September a few years ago. I love this author, Rosamund Pilcher is one of my all time favorites. But I think of her four major novels this is my favorite. I dragged this book out over 3 weeks this year. Reading it as slowly as possible, savoring every page. It's just the most lovely book, which is funny because there are some tragically sad bits and I still love it. Love it. It's homey, comforting, warm, domestic, cozy. It conjures up images of crackling fires and cups of steaming hot tea. I love the characters too. I've read it so many times I feel like I am greeting old friends each year when I start it again. They're all so dear.

Fair warning, this is a me book. Descriptive, happily ever after, corny even. I don't care, I love it all the more for it!

Read it. You must read it.

Photo A Day

 

I've done a photo a day challenge before (April 2011). It was fun. Besides if you're anything like me you sort of skim the blogs and only really care about the pictures that get posted.

I found a new source so I'm going to attempt to do a photo a day for October. That might mean I have more than one post a day... or not. We'll see how it goes.

Otherwise nothing exciting to report from hot and very un-fall-like California. Except that J is on a trip with a broken jet and therefore not coming home on time. But that's not really news, more like a monthly occurrence around here.

Oh wait! I do have some excitement. Oddly enough it concerns the television. A device that I rarely use unless I am playing a movie or watching sports.

However, 'tis the season for the premiers of the network shows. Our old faithful, NCIS returned last night. Not that I could watch it without J, thank you DVR! And tomorrow night The Big Bang Theory's 6th season starts. Since we're only on season 4 (thank you DVDs) we will probably be recording that one for a few weeks, another thank you goes out to the DVR, until we are caught up. And thanks to the Emmy's I decided to record Dancing With The Stars Monday and I may have one more new show to watch. I shall see how I like it as the season progresses. And that about sums up our TV watching around here. Thrilling I know.

And yes, I did watch the Emmy's last weekend. Why I'm not sure. I found many of the dresses to be inappropriate, barely knew who anyone on the red carpet was (not surprising since we only watch two shows) and didn't care for the decidedly liberal jokes. However, there is something about a Hollywood awards show that I can't resist, especially when J isn't around. Why is that...?!

Here are my favorite dresses. Yes, there were some good ones out there. Although who is wearing them remains a mystery.

Some favorite quotes

Good things

How I celebrated the first day of fall last week. Hot tea and my spice cookies.

Silent Sunday

 

The rose bush my Momma bought me for my birthday this year has just kept blooming! Breathtaking.

Our week in review

Monday...

So we may not have woken up and exercised, but I walked for 2.5 miles with some of the neighbor gals and then Jared and I did two hard miles after he got home from the office.

I helped Jared with some school stuff, made a trip to UPS to mail his aunt and uncle a big box of items they procured in Napa, refilled a prescription, and then treated myself to a mani/pedi with Lynn. That last was quite lovely.

Easy dinner of sausage and cheesy potatoes and peas. (Which we ate at 7pm due to the late work out.)

And then we decided no more school today and Mike and Lynn came over after dinner to watch Monday night football and play cards. They finally managed to beat us for the first time in hand and foot. Fun end to the day.

Tomorrow I need to go to the commissary. Boooo.

 ~
 

Tuesday...

It always gets cold at night here, but the past few mornings the house has been 65-ish because I've left windows open and it's been in the low 50's outside. Last night I was so chilly I broke out my flannel pajamas (imagine J rolling his eyes now). It's kind of nice to be chilly though, at least part of the time. We are still climbing up into the 80's, low 90's during the day. Not fall weather by any means.

Made it to the commissary this morning. One of my most hated chores done for another week!

I also picked up my new Scentsy stuff today; Ohio State warmer and apple wax to melt. Now that is fall.

The big news is that the housing office approved us to keep our house here at Travis while Jared does his training at Beale AFB about 2 hours north of here. That means for about 3 months (starting right after Thanksgiving) he'll be gone all week and home for the weekend. Not ideal, but better than having all of our belongings in long term storage and living out of a suitcase. And since I don't think we'll be getting any holiday leave, we can at least celebrate together in the comfort of our own home. We turned in our housing application got the new base in last week. Please pray that things fall into place for us to not have a long wait for a house there!

We had a new couple over for dinner tonight. Jared was his sponsor when he was transitioning to Travis and we thought it'd be nice to visit since they're here now and new. I made pork tenderloin with shallots and apples in an apple cider sauce. So yummy and easy (thank you Mom). I also roasted green beans and eggplant (which J did not eat. Well he did eat the beans.) And for dessert there was the remaining raspberry cream pie and ice cream.

Tomorrow is small group Bible study and then we're having different friends over on Friday night, so it looks like Thursday will be our only night at home to ourselves. It needs to be a work on school night since J has so much to do and he starts his final comprehensive exams to graduate soon. Keep him in your prayers if you would.

I'm ready for more football ... Tuesday and Wednesday nights are so sad without any.

~

 

Wednesday...

Guess where I went today? The Sacramento airport! It seems like I'm forever driving back and forth from that place. Mike and Lynn are headed to South Dakota for a family wedding. They'll be back next Wednesday and so I'll be back at the airport then.

It was rough getting up this morning. I don't know why but I just didn't feel good. My chiropractor visit has seemed to help though.

Jared is probably leaving on a trip Saturday. I hate it when he's gone over the weekend. Plus his comprehensive exams start on Monday so it's all rather a mess. Oh well!

Did a bunch of laundry today. Hopefully that means the house cleaning will go that much faster tomorrow.

Dinner was Ina Garten's Italian wedding soup. I made a whole batch of meatballs the last time I made it and froze half (because just us two only need a half batch of soup at a time). So today I just had to make the soup part and thaw the meatballs (the harder part) and it was ready. Some crusty bread to go with and ta-da. Yummy and easy.

Had growth group tonight. One of the ladies had a mastectomy yesterday so they weren't there, but she's doing well so far.

Got new catalogs in the mail: King Arthur and Stonewall Kitchen and Real Simple. Fun stuff! I love drooling over the kitchen ones... wish I could buy everything.

I sent out our Christmas lists this week, but I haven't gotten any in return...

~

 

Thursday...
I had a productive day. I cleaned the house and made a Sheppard's pie for dinner. And since we didn't have anyone over in the evening for the first time this week we caught up on some TV shows. (No, we did not watch Thursday night football. Gasp!) We finally finished the last season of NCIS since it starts up again next week. Then we started season 4 of The Big Bang Theory. And then it was 10pm, bedtime, and lights out.
~

Friday...
I had my 8am chiropractor appointment and since women's Bible study started back up this week I spent the remaining time (until it started at 9am) sitting in the car in the church parking lot with a pop-tart and hot tea reading September.

Confession, we did not get up and exercise at 6am today. We slept a whole extra 45 minutes. Oh well! Better luck next week...

I stopped by the library on my way home from church and then made pizza dough for dinner. I also made a batch of spice cookies. First batch of the fall. They are some of my most favorite cookies ever, especially with tea ... which is probably why they're one of my favorites. Because I love tea. Hmmm.

We had Matt and Stephanie over to partake in pizza and play cards. Dessert, obviously, was tea and cookies. Or in J's case, hot chocolate and cookies. How I married a man who doesn't like tea is a mystery. I must really really love him.

J is leaving on a trip this weekend, (booo) but not until after the Ohio State game. So we get to make a big breakfast and enjoy that together tomorrow.

Otherwise nothing to report. Should be a quiet weekend. Maybe I'll get the quilt finished with J gone.
~