early september slice of life

September is a beautiful month weather-wise, here in northeast Illinois. The coneflowers and Black-eyed Susan in my butterfly garden are still prolific, which makes my summer heart happy. Beautiful wildflowers dot the roadside. The evening Golden hour casts amazing light on the trees. Sunsets at the neighborhood lake are stunning.

I harvested the last of our rhubarb, cut it into chunks, and put it in the freezer to use later in baked goods. The last of the cherry tomatoes were gathered; plus, I picked up more at the local farm stand. I then slow-roasted the tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper until soft and caramelized. Those were packed into freezer bags to use all fall and winter in soups and chili. 

My cousin and her daughter (I call her my Little Nugget) were in town on Labor Day weekend from Tacoma, Washington. I've always dreamed about having a ladies generational family photo taken, as we have every decade through the 80's represented, except for a teen. I finally got my wish! The only decade missing in our family photo is someone in their 20's. I have two nieces in their 20's, but neither were at this gathering. Sooo...we have in the front, my Little Nugget portraying the childhood years, then from left to right...my second cousin representing 30, my cousin from Tacoma revealing 40, another cousin symbolizing 50, me defining 60, my aunt presenting 70, and my mom reflecting 80. 

More Labor Day weekend family fun...spent the day in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with my Tacoma sweeties. The area is rather touristy and filled with shops, but we didn't go into a single one. We played on a playground, had lunch, played in the water, and had ice cream.  Everywhere we walked, my Little Nugget held my hand. And wanted us to run ahead of everyone so we'd be first to get to our destination. By the time we took a boat ride around the lake, my Little Nugget was passed out. In the evening when we got back to my house, she spent her time building a playhouse for Clementine. Isn't that precious? It's been so long since I've had a little one in my house, or had a child's hand in mine, or got to stroke the silky hair of a sweet child...I ate it all up. 

Have a beautiful week!

💖

still in summer mode

Here we are in September already. While I'm not in any way ready for fall and technically it doesn't start for almost another three weeks, I see the signs all around me. Dry leaves are falling to the ground and crunching underfoot. The morning light is softer and filtered in the way it falls across the front yard.

 One of my favorite plants this summer has been this black and blue salvia. I am endlessly fascinated by the color of the flowers. I see hummingbirds on the flowers at least ten times a day. Of course, bees love it, too.

Just this morning as I was sitting on the front porch with my coffee, a dragonfly came to visit on the salvia.

My son who now lives out-of-state, was just here visiting for a few days. I dropped him of at the airport a couple of days ago and when I got back home, I saw this in the guest room. An empty, messy bed. Made my mama heart break a little bit.

Because, of course, this is what my heart always sees and feels...even though he's now 29 years old. 

I haven't read as much this summer as I usually do. According to my Goodreads reading goal, I'm nine books behind schedule. (Quit judging me, Goodreads!) This is the book I'm in the middle of reading right now. You might recognize the author's name...she's most famous for "The Secret Life of Bees", "The Mermaid Chair" and "The Invention of Wings". She's also written some non-fiction: "The Dance of the Dissident Daughter" and "When the Heart Waits". I've read all her books and loved them. So far, this story ranks up there with all her other books. It's historical fiction from the days of Jesus told by a female perspective. Kidd's brilliant writing pulls you right into the story and there's an amazing connection to the characters because she brings them to life.

I discovered Tieghan from Half Baked Harvest on Instagram and have been obsessed with her recipes. Literally everything she makes looks so good. I've tried a few of her recipes and they're as good as they look. When I saw that she had a new cookbook out, I got it from my local library to check it out before buying it online. I ended up putting sticky tabs on so many pages, that I knew I had to buy this cookbook. This cookbook basically covers everything: Breakfast and Brunch, Appetizers and Sides, Salad and Soup, Pizza and Pasta, Vegetarian, Poultry and Pork, Beef and Lamb, Seafood and Fish and Dessert.

 I'm seeing people all over Instagram talking about fall decorating already. I can't even go there. It is still summer!!

I'm leaving my cheery, bright, light decor up for at least another two weeks.

All too soon, I won't even hear the beautiful chirping of little birdies all around my yard. This pretty, colorful pillow will be replaced with one with stupid pumpkins muted colors.

The big change that will be coming to my living room in October is...
a new sofa!

Finally. 

This 15-year old one is long past its prime. We'd been looking for over a year in stores and online. 

We finally decided on an off-white slipcovered sofa from Crate and Barrel. I have to say that the saleswomen at the Crate and Barrel store were very helpful with working with our needs (color, length, material, style). The bonus was that C&B was having their annual sofa sale, so we saved some money. The sofa is being made in North Carolina so that's why it'll take awhile to get here. I guess there'll be one good thing to look forward to this fall. 😉

seasons changing

Last week, it was cool enough where I was thinking fall foods ~ chili, soup, squash. Have you ever had delicata squash? It looks like this:

It's simple to prepare, and so delicious. Brian and I ate this entire pan in one sitting. Scrub the squash, then poke holes all over it with a fork, put in the microwave on high for two minutes to soften up enough to slice, then let it cool down. Slice into rings and place on a baking sheet. Some of the rings will have some pulp and seeds, but they're easy to scrape out with a spoon. In a small bowl, combine extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper & fresh chopped rosemary. Use a pastry brush to brush the infused oil on top of the squash rings. Bake at 400 degrees F. for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Eat! Yes, you can eat the skin, too. This squash is high in fiber and iron, vitamins A and C, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and a host of other vitamins.

I know my time with fresh tomatoes is limited, so I've been running up to the local farm stand a couple of times a week and buying a ton of tomatoes. I cut them up and roast them with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, let them cool down, and then put them in food storage bags. Easy-peasy and will be so wonderful to have fresh tomatoes in my homemade soups, stew, chili, and spaghetti sauce this winter.

Now we're back to warm weather. It's been 80+ the past few days and will climb to 91 by Friday. That's how the weather goes here when seasons are changing. The color change has started and driving down the roads I've noticed the landscaping seems to be bathed in a soft golden glow. We desperately need rain though ~ it's so dry. My yard is littered with crunchy leaves.

Sunsets have been anywhere from gentle and soft...

to strong and fiery.

 I know fall doesn't truly start for a couple more days and I hate pushing seasons (except for winter 😛), but I brought the fall stuff out a few days ago and started playing around with decor. Just going for a transitioning look; nothing Autumn Overkill. This is just the emptying of the storage box to see what I had. I didn't use much and even donated some of it.

"By all these lovely tokens September days are here, with summer's best of weather and autumn's best of cheer." ~ Helen Hunt Jackson

and then it was september

Hello, you guys! I'm finally back from my blog break. Here it is, September 1st already.

How did that happen so quickly? Those painting projects I said I was going to do - painting

furniture and my front door? Nope. Didn't happen. Instead, my month was filled with fun ~

some day trips, my birthday celebration, family and friend get-togethers, yoga classes~ and

lots of obligatory not-so-fun dates with the physical therapist. 

One thing I did take the time to do was to really take stock of my time. I've been sitting

at my desk with journals and my calendar and making goals for myself. One thing I want

 and need to focus on is exercise. My physical therapy is finally over but I need to keep up 
with the shoulder and arm strengthening so that I don't lose it. I checked out a local gym 
last week and wasn't impressed, but tomorrow I am checking out another. If I do join a gym,
 I must be 99.9% committed to going at least twice/week. Otherwise, what is the point in
 joining? I'm also starting back to a regular yoga class next week instead of staying "stuck"
 in the gentle class. The gentle class served its purpose for when I had pain and not much
 range of motion in my shoulder, but it's (thankfully) time to move on. 

 

 Maybe because it's not just the start of a new season, but a new school year too, that

makes me stop and take stock of my life and what direction it's going. I find this time of

year to be more in line with thinking about these things instead of January 1st.

  My lovely friend, Jen - from The Cottage Nest says, "I'm entering a new season, not just of 

the year, but of my life. It is one that requires peace and as few obligations as possible,

an empty calendar. Time to think. One that I hope is filled with creativity and beauty, small

moments, spontaneity and life. I have things I want to do and learn this year. I have given

myself homework." I'm working on that stuff, too. I'm an introvert, so I need a lot of alone

time. When I look at my September calendar, it is already filled with appointments and 

outings and get-togethers. I don't think I'll ever have an empty calendar. But I'm working on

making time for the things I truly want to be doing and learning new things.

As much as I hate to see summer leave, here's to the start of a new season.