Some Fallish Stuff

Oh fall, how much I love you. I love the way you look, the way you smell, the way the air of you moves across my skin. The football games, the pumpkin days, the sheer joy of the changes that you bring. Everything becomes more crisp, more warm, more homey. Interesting that at the doorstep of their ends the leaves become more alive and vivid. And as the days grow shorter I find myself trying to fill them to the brim. This just may be a love affair. But one that is often bittersweet. Because on your winds comes the whisper of colder days, the end to hours playing out of doors, the heaviness of winter coats and winter nights, and the realization that time is moving steadily on. Aging and changing my children. Making the hands I hold a little bigger and the heads I kiss a little smarter. The winds call them ever forward. Pulling them inevitably out of my arms. Their season living in my home is so short, so precious, so beautiful that as the seasons of this earth change, my heart can't help but ache at the theft it foretells.

Soccer came to an end. Henry really loved it this year and played on a very fun team. He gets better and better every year. It is amazing to watch his little stick legs running down the field after the ball. (look at those red cheeks:) Max didn't love it this year. He mostly wanted to hang out with his buddies, build ant huts in the grass, and hang on the goal post. His coach actually asked what he could do to get Max more interested in the game. I told him bribes and cattle prods. He did not find either effective. We spent 2-3 nights a week at the fields and Millie did great. Of course, my parents attended every game. What a blessing they are in our lives.

Canning is inescapable in the fall. I spent many, many hours juicing, boiling, cutting, paring, slicing, and filling all the while murmuring and griping. Then ta-da quarts of tomato juice, whole tomatoes and peaches cover my kitchen and like labor, all the pain is forgotten and all I see are those precious babies.
And what can be funner than a fall day at the pumpkin patch. We have made such great friends in our ward and so spent the afternoon with them. On the hunt for the perfect pumpkin we found the perfect day at the Red Barn. We rode the hay wagon, traipsed through pumpkin fields, and ate yummy ice cream. Millie fell in the patch about 18.3 times but still had fun. The boys were a little bummed that I wouldn't let them take the biggest pumpkin home(my dad grows pumpkins -it just didn't seem prudent to pay for what comes our way for free) but ended up happy with their "ghost" pumpkins.