Orange is in the air...

Yesterday (Sept 27, 2010) was a funny school day...
We started art journals...
We listened to spooky music...
The children did a "spook house" for us...
And we learned about the life cycle of the pumpkin...
My kind of day!!!

Make it a great day! Only YOU can!


HAPPY FALL!!! (TODAY...SEPT. 28, 2010)
Fall was my mother's favorite time of year. She loved California but missed having seasons (she grew up in Kansas). She was most in her element when she could go to the East Coast to see her brother (My Unlce Tommy), enjoy the fall leaves, bask in the crisp evenings and hug her niece. Things are slower where he moved to, and people actually do sit on back porches and chop wood, string peas and chat. The Piggly Wiggly serves nothing healthy, but it is so yummy and there is a sense of community. Neighbors know one another and care about one another. I have enjoyed the visits there so much and hope someday to take my children to visit. Mother loved each of us kids (for those who don't know our family well, many she acquired as teenagers...but her love was endless and knew no boundaries.)

This is naturally why fall and the change (which hasn't happened yet in California) of weather and leaves always takes me back to mom. I think of hot chocolate, which we never ran short on, mom kept boxes of it in the pantry. The smell of halloween, cinnamon, pumpkins comes to mind. She threw some of the best halloween parties. Pumpkin carving, Bobbing for apples, witches brew, and ghoulish treats where the menu of the day. Laughter and spooky music. Even the year before her death she dressed up for, and amazingly got my father too as well. Then they took grandchildren trick or treating. What a fun memory. And when I look at the pictures of my two pirate parents I smile.

This time of year is when our church does something called General Conference. We are instructed by church leaders about matters like coming closer to Christ, being better mothers and fathers, wives and husbands. We are taught to be aware of our behaviors and to be the kind of friend we want others to be to us. The simple truths of the scriptures are expounded to us every 6 months, OCTOBER, and APRIL..and then of course every week at church as well. But October conference was especially close to mom's heart. She loved times with my oldest sister, going to conference instead of just watching the satelite broadcast. Her Cedar Breaks trip with my sister and brother in law and the times she had traveling with one of her best friends, LP, were found memories to her.

I hope my children will be able to remember the happy halloween, Thanksgiving and fall memories that their grandmother established for them and I hope that they will continue in the festivities and make new ones as well. Happy Fall everyone!