Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Happy October 1st!

That was the greeting I received from my daughter upon waking up this morning, so I'll pass it on to you. :)

I'm always happy when it is September because it means so many things...the start of school, the start of fall, my birthday...but I think October is my favorite fall month of all. It's definitely cooler, the leaves are really starting to turn color, we're fully into our fall/school routine...it's just a good, good month. (And it ends with Halloween to kick off the fall/winter holiday season!)

In the past couple of years, we've taken week-long fall vacations to my mom's house in Florida, either at the end of September or in early October. I'm glad we forewent that this year. As much as I love seeing my mom and step-dad and the beach, spending such a big chunk of time in a hot and sunny locale at this time of year just seems wrong. Summer is over. I want it to be over. I want to enjoy fall. And so we are doing this year.

And so we've been doing our usual fall things. Both kids had their annual physicals last week (healthy and growing!), and dentist appointments this week. Because of that aforementioned "growing" thing, today we're doing the bi-annual weeding through of clothing, discarding into giveaway bags that which no longer fits, and then we'll be heading off clothes shopping after lunch. As my daughter has pointed out to me yesterday, if we do not go shopping this week, they will FREEZE this weekend...and seriously, we can't have that, can we?

Temperatures are supposed to be blessedly seasonal this coming weekend, with and actual zero percent chance of rain for Saturday, which bodes well for the annual Apple & Arts Festival. This is one of those events Kevin and the kids go to every year. Kevin often takes a couple days' vacation to help prepare for it, and it is one of the shows to which he and his dad take tractors.

Like most festivals, there are lots of food and craft vendors, but as the name would imply, there are also a lot of apples and apple goods -- fresh pressed apple cider, apple tarts, apple pies, and just apples, apples, apples to buy and bring home for your own apple-y enjoyment. Kevin brings home a big bag of them every year and I cook them up into pie filling, which I freeze and use over the winter. (Last year I we lost the whole batch of filling after the bottom of the pan scorched beyond redemption and the whole vat of filling ended up tasting "smoked." Not good.)

I admit that I have not been to the festival in several years. I usually enjoy the time home alone, not needing the temptation of any of the crafts to purchase nor needing to indulge in any of the fattening, fried fair-foods. I usually rationalize it by considering it a daddy-bonding event. But I've decided I'm going to go this year. On Saturday. The whole day. It will be a nice day to spend with my family. I'll bring my camera and I'll bring some knitting, so when I've had my fill of browsing and eating, I'll still have things to do. I'm looking forward to it! 

PS - The Purl Bee has a lovely pattern up on her site for a cloth apple picking tote...I think I'm going to make one of these for this weekend!

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