Tag Archives: fall

Get Your Porch Organized and Decorated for Fall

Fall is fun! There is nothing like the crisp air, the bright colors, and the last push for outdoor adventures before the cold winds of winter start bringing everyone in doors. While you can still enjoy the outside, why not get your porch organized and decorated for Fall? Fall is a great excuse for decorating, but who has the motivation when the front porch is filled with clutter and debris? This area sets the first impression whenever anyone visits your home. Start by removing everything from your porch, so you can clean the floors. Shake out those rugs, use a … Continue reading →

It’s Fall – Time to Redesign Your Garden Space

What are you thankful for today? Today, I am thankful for my new garden up the road – a borrowed garden in someone else’s yard that is so much sunnier than my own. I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with mulching techniques and garden design. In my own small garden, I’ve had to be quite creative about space. I live in a townhouse with a tiny yard, and my tiny yard doesn’t really have room for a big garden bed. For a few years, I tried having a garden bed, but it just didn’t make sense. It was … Continue reading →

What to Do With Your Fall Leaves

Oh boy. It must be fall. There are leaves coming down everywhere, and everywhere people are raking them into piles. In our neighborhood, we have folks who come around in a big truck to take the leaves away. What? I want those leaves! What can you do with leaves, you might ask? Turn them into giant pumpkins. This might be a temporary solution, but if you have a lot of leaves they are perfect for slipping into a big orange garbage bag. Put a scary face onto the bag, and you have an instant giant Halloween decoration, no blowing up … Continue reading →

Curried Pumpkin Soup

Soup and pumpkins are beautiful signs of fall. Combining the two will warm up a cool autumn evening. The soup is great paired with a salad or a sandwich. Keep the recipe on hand for Thanksgiving celebrations. You may want to have it on hand to give to your guests as they are sure to ask you for the recipe. I was surprised that a few of my kids also liked pumpkin soup. Normally, I make butternut squash soup but this goes over a bit better. If you don’t like curry the omit and get creative. Think about how squash … Continue reading →

Kitchen Organizing for the Holidays

The fall is a great time to start thinking about the holidays, which are really just around the corner. I promise you, they will be here before you know it. So why not take some time this month to start prepping your kitchen? By cleaning and organizing it now, you will have a head start and prevent future stress. It’s actually a great time to organize your cabinets. Focus on one or two each weekend. But while you are doing that, you should also start keeping an inventory of what you have and what you need. For instance, if you … Continue reading →

Preparing a Fitness Routine for the Fall Season

Well summer is slowly coming to an end. For some people this is a difficult thing to accept. They want to hold onto summer as long as possible. For other people (myself included), they are looking forward to cooler days. As we prepare for the upcoming fall season, we should also be preparing our fitness routine. After all, for many of us things drastically change when the temperatures begin to drop. While many of us are quite active during the summer months, the cooler months can cause some to lose motivation. But planning for this ahead of time can help. … Continue reading →

Discovering Trees

Since we’ve had some nice weather recently in Texas I’ve been taking my son outside for longer periods of time. Nothing too long or too far away from home (really just in our own yard) so that water, diapers, wipes, crackers and other food items are close by (along with Air Conditioning and shade). He’s had quite a lot of fun. We take our time and put on his shoes, put on a pair of shorts, try to keep a hat on his head and then journey outdoors where the world is much taller than the ceilings of our home. … Continue reading →

When Weather Takes Over

It is amazing how much the weather can affect your home, and consequently your life. For the last couple of weeks, we have been shown this to be so true. From wind and rain that seemed to come out of no where and stayed practically forever, our home and yard has been greatly affected. On one particular day, for example, all three of our car windshields were broken from falling tree limbs! Yes, so there was the expense for three repairs, right there. Of course, I did score a point for having us all clean out the garage so we … Continue reading →

How to Make a Cornucopia

Last Sunday, I was visiting our favorite botanical gardens with my family. We enjoy getting out on a fall Sunday to walk around and enjoy both the displays of fall and the fun activities that are available. We had just finished visiting one of the very large tree houses (made of reclaimed wood and complete with leaded glass) and we heading toward the giant pumpkin carving demonstration when we came around a corner. Right there was the biggest cornucopia I had ever seen! it was large enough to fit a grown person standing up at the wide end, and it … Continue reading →

Green Kids Crafts

Today I spent most of the morning with my two youngest kids creating crafts for the fall season. We’ve made pumpkins, leaves, hand turkeys, and even a friendly trick or treater or two. In the process of these crafts, we’ve gone through some paper, some glue and some crayons. It got me thinking about whether or not we are being responsible about all of these crafts. The answer, as you might expect is somewhat. We make use of paper that is already printed on one side, so we are making an effort to get the most out of each piece … Continue reading →