Happy First Full Day of Autumn!

I cannot believe I missed posting on the first day of Autumn, which began yesterday at 9:31 a.m. our time! Anyway, happy first FULL day of Autumn, let's just do that! I did work a long day yesterday starting in the early morning hours, but my husband and I honored Autumn with both lunch and supper, ha ha. 

Seriously, though - lunch was great. Butternut squash and sweet apple soup, accompanied by toasted and heavily buttered sourdough bread, and a pumpkin shaped iced sugar cookie, shown in the first photo. Supper was oven-baked mac'n cheese and the rest of the toasted sourdough bread. All nice and warming on a day where we only reached 69 degrees very late in the day and only very briefly. The babies enjoyed it too; my mom and I spent about an hour and a half with them outside in the cool, then later in the evening, my husband and I took them back outside for another 30 minutes to run off all that good energy. It was a really nice first day of Autumn.

This past weekend, we enjoyed a hike in a town about 30 minutes away. Some of the hike got a tad dicey, and I had to scoot back up the mountain on my backside! Did you know that you use a totally different set of muscles to do that? Talk about sore! The next two shots, though, show the view from a couple of the places where we stopped on the hike to take pictures. Just gorgeous! No foliage just yet; too early around these parts. As you can see in the next picture of the trail itself, we are still quite green right now. You'd have to head to New England with the other leafers if you want foliage views in September . That's okay, though. Since we tend to have our foliage season in mind-October through a portion of November, some years we still have a dab of color towards Thanksgiving, which keeps the landscape from getting toilet scrub-brush depressing too quickly! 

The next picture is me with my sweetheart of over 22 years at the end of the hike. We were pooped! Look at that hiking hair on me, lol. But we're happy and, after that trek on my backside to get back up the mountain, I was thrilled to be on more solid footing!

Look at Georgie and Baby (LOL) Oliver! Aren't they the sweetest?! He LOVES her! She tolerates him! Several times a week, he will crawl up beside her on the couch and sleep all snuggled up with her. Here you can see that he's very nearly in snuggle position. It was just a matter of time - maybe five minutes - before he had managed to maneuver right along side of her and lay his head on her side! It's hilarious to watch. 

Finally, in the last picture, I just had to show how the babies often wait on each other. Each evening when we go outside to play, we carry them to the fenced-in area. One by one, we take them out. The ones that are taken out first often (not always, but often) wait patiently at the gate as the others start to arrive. Here are Baby Trudy and Baby TC waiting on us to bring Mama Bunny and Baby Higgins out. Once they all get there, they take off running. You talk about melting your heart! Now that's love.

It's getting darker much earlier these days. Makes for better rest, in my opinion, but I hate to lose the daylight, too. Yesterday, the sun fell across the fields around us. It was spectacular - everything looked gold. The light this time of year is unlike anything I've ever seen throughout the year. In a week, we'll add my October blue sky to the mix, and my heart will be fuller than ever. 

It's SO important for me to mark time with simple things. I'm grateful to be a busy person; it means a full life, that I'm contributing somewhere on some level, that God has blessed me with the gift of good health so that I CAN be busy. I try really hard to stop myself from complaining on the hard days, although I am human and sometimes fail in that area. But at the end of the day, it feels good to earn my keep and create a life around me and not just have it handed to me while I do nothing. 

We were created by God to be productive human beings, and I think that's why I feel a deep satisfaction at the end of a full workday. I have friends who have been "furloughed" permanently due to Covid. My heart hurts for them, and I know that it could be any of us at any time. These are hard-working people who just want to work and take care of themselves and their families. For anyone out there looking for a job right now, hang in there, keep pushing through. I've been there, and I know that it can be a wearying experience. Hang on to hope, for sure.

Have a wonderful first full day of Autumn! I'm getting ready to begin mine by cleaning up a hairball (ahhh, rescue work - it never ends) and then, perhaps, making some buttery cinnamon toast! Can't think of a nicer nod to Autumn (the toast, not the hairball).