Autumn! I walked the children to school this morning - the air is slightly crisp (can't hope for too much in Georgia) and there's a nice breeze blowing. It was enough to turn my eye towards the fall displays at Wal-Mart. I got two fall leave garlands to wrap around the front step banisters and a swag for the front door as well as a lovely arrangement for the dining room table (just three stems with red/orange seed pod thingeys on them in a tall basket vase - subtle, yet elegant - worthy of my mother-in-law). A new front door mat to top off the look and fall vinyl placemats for the kitchen table completed the ensemble. I feel like Fall has fallen in our house.
It turned out it was a good thing I planned on walking the children to school today since I reached for my keys to lock up the house and realized they were shut up tight in the van. The children took my keys out yesterday morning to unlock the van for church. When Don arrived, he put his keys in the ignition and tossed my set onto the floorboard. I slid them under the visor so they couldn't be seen by passersby while we were in church, thus forgetting what is not directly in front of me. But we have AAA, so I gave them a call this morning and they sent a locksmith to retrieve my keys for me.
I'm making chili for dinner tonight, hoping that this cool weather sticks around. It's such a relief for the children whose classrooms are not air conditioned. And I'm subbing all day tomorrow - I could use some cooler weather.
It's going to be a busy week. The trip to Wal-Mart was for an extreme cooler for our camping trip this weekend. All of ours are just regular ones and we needed one that would keep our food VERY cold for a VERY long time. Our friend, Ken, has one that keeps ice frozen for 7 days. We settled on a 5-day one. But I needed to pick it up since there's not really another good days for errands this week.
I'm really looking forward to camping this weekend. If the weather stays this cool and breezy, we should have a wonderful time. Our first ever camping trip as a family was when Deanna turned 4. She had seen Barney episodes about camping and wanted to try it. We borrowed a pop-up camper from some close friends and their van to pull it since we don't have a trailer hitch, and took off for the nearby lake for the weekend. Saturday was warm, but the weather took a cold turn Saturday night and Sunday morning was so chilly, we ate indoors. I'll never forget waking up early Saturday morning. We had left the windows on my side of the pop-up open all night, since we had no neighbors to that side. Deanna and Dane had both ended up in bed with me and Don sometime before dawn. As the sun began to come up, we could see it out my window, rising above the lake. It was awe-inspiring. The children and I lay there, watching the reds, yellows and oranges of early morning and appreciating the coolness in the air. We traded places about every 15 minutes so everyone got to snuggle everyone else. Then the children and I vacated the camper so Daddy could sleep a little longer and set out to find more firewood. It was a memory I'll never forget and probably is the basis of my love of camping.
So, hold out weather. We might not get too many orange and red leaves in Georgia, but I have them on my banister and my table now. And this weekend will be the perfect opportunity to appreciate the beginning of cooler temperatures - snuggled close under the warmth of our sleeping bags, listening to crickets and the water lapping against the shore.
Ah - this is life. At least, that to which I would LIKE to become accustomed.
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