Daybook, 9/27/10

Outside my window... it is gray and chilly. One of our maple trees is bright red. The rest of them are pretending it's summer for a little longer.

I am thinking... that I am looking forward to my evening alone. Roger teaches a class on Monday nights, so I have a four hour block of "free" time. That mystery novel is calling my name...or maybe I'll crochet...

I am thankful for... grocery prices in this area. I recently had a Facebook chat with a young mom I know in New Orleans, and she is paying twice what I am for milk, hamburger, all kinds of things.

From the kitchen... grilled chicken quesadillas. The chicken is from a whole "beer can" chicken we did several weeks ago; I always cut up and freeze any leftovers. Grate a little cheese, get out the salsa and sour cream, and dinner is easy. Bonus today: I also have leftover guacamole. Yum!

I am wearing... tan pants, a pink Tshirt and socks, black walking shoes, and a pink sweatshirt! Three days ago it was 88 degrees here.

I am creating... menu plans and a grocery list. I have to keep revamping the menu plans, because until I learn to cook for just two again, we have been having more leftovers to deal with. I think I'm cooking one dinner, and it turns into two. Or three.

I am going...to Bible study tomorrow, and then to the library to pick up the book they're holding for me. But I only have five other books out right now, and I'm almost done with one of them. I think this is a 2010 record low!

I am reading... The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway. It's not quite what I was expecting, but she's a good writer and I'm enjoying it.

I am hoping... that my van doesn't have anything seriously wrong with it. It was making "funny noises" --which stopped-- on Saturday, so we are going to have our mechanic check it. Meanwhile, I am driving it around town as usual.

I am hearing... sizzles from the griddle. When your computer is in the kitchen, you can cook and blog at the same time.

Around the house... things stay much tidier with no kids at home. I think it's funny that this comes as somewhat of a shock to me.

A few plans for the rest of the week: apple picking on Thursday, if the weather cooperates. This is another area where I need to scale back, or I'll wind up with enough apples for three households. And two of them have done their own apple picking... But there will be apple pie for dinner.

Words I'm pondering : My mother taught third grade through all of my growing up, and every year I helped her ready the bulletin boards in her classroom for the first day of school. This always went on the biggest one at the back, suitably illustrated.

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

September

The golden-rod is yellow;
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest,
In every meadow nook;
And asters by the brook-side
Make asters in the brook,

From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes' sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing.... This is a view out over the Pennsylvania valley I grew up in, taken from a mountain vantage point that I could see from my back porch. I think I'm homesick, a little, every fall.