Thoughts For Fall 2023
Hey ya’ll! So you know how I always talk about how much I love spring and summer, and that I detest the cold of fall and winter? Well, that’s still technically true. However, I’ve had a paradigm shift and I don’t know when it started or why. I’ve been feeling the feels of fall, and as I stare out at my backyard at my beautiful summer flowers, and I see all the leaves on the trees changing colours, I have an intense feeling of sadness.
This summer has been hard for me since having my third child. If you haven’t already heard, our third baby was born with cystic fibrosis, and although he is nine months old, the time since last winter has been an ongoing transition period for my family and I. I wasn’t able to get outside much this summer to do all the summer reading and BBQ'ing I wanted to, because I’ve been focused on my baby. We’ve had some really hot days, and as you may know, you generally don’t take babies out since they’re more susceptible to heat stroke and other issues. Cystic fibrosis adds another complication - lung tissue is easily damaged and cannot stand intensly hot summer air, not to mention smoke. We’ve had a serious wildfire dilemma in Canada basically all summer, and the air quality hasn’t been great.
In addition to air quality, we do not frequent places with a lot of people (aka. germs), especially places like indoor playgrounds. For my other two kids, this makes it really hard because now they’re limited too if I can’t take them out.
So as you can see, this has been an overall uneventful summer for my family and it’s hard for me to let the season go. I keep wishing we had done more, made more outside memories, and I wish I had spent more time outside. I don’t feel like I took summer for granted, but every day was wasted inside out of necessity.
So now that it makes more sense to stay inside, I’ve been appreciating the finer aspects of the fall and autumn season. Firstly, I haven’t made a big family dinner for a very long time. Now, I’m looking forward to making a turkey along with all the fixings. I’ll add red wine to the menu along with pumpkin and apple pie.
The cooler weather and holiday season fast approaching has made me want to rearrange my furniture around my house. We have a very small home, and with five people living in it, we really need to use every last nook and cranny. I have been keeping up on my Swedish Death Cleaning Movement. Every time I go through a space (usually once a week), I’ll leave stuff that we’re using all the time; the rest goes. Our home is slowly becoming less cluttered over time. We’re also thinking of purchasing less at Christmas time, so we don’t over crowd our home.
The cooler weather has brought the need for warmer drinks. I’ll sometimes have a glass of red wine while preparing dinner, or if I need an afternoon pick-me-up, I’ll make an extra dirty chai. Basically, it’s two shots of espresso added to a brewed chai tea, sweetened to taste with cream. I have a milk frother, so it makes the cream just perfect :)
Staying inside with a good book sounds like a perfect afternoon. While I don’t get a lot of time for that with my business and watching kids, I still dream of it happening. I’ve also wanted to journal more too.
Overall, the feeling of the season has shifted. Although we still have some yard maintenance to do over the next while, we’ll be looking forward to pumpkin carving and Trick-or-Treating. I have been in the process of tracking down Halloween Costumes for my kids, and it’s starting to get everyone in the festive mood.
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you also have a fun and festive fall season!
Sandra
