What are your favorite Fall Activites?

     It is that time of year when we must say Good-bye to the Summer and Hello Fall!  The air is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and School is in full force.  Our schedules are changing rapidly for a lot of people because they are having to get the kids to bed on time, getting up earlier to make breakfast and get everyone ready for the day.  So I ask you, what are some of yours and your Families favorite Fall activities?

     School has finally began back, and I have been thrown in a real tipsy turvy.  During the Simmer I would get up and get my little girl I keep and I could lay down and rest with her here or drink my coffee quietly while the remainder of my house slept in.  It really was nice because my day just didn't seem as pushed and rushed as it is now.  Now I have to get up at 5 a.m. to get my middle child up and ready for school because her bus is here at 6:30 a.m.and once she is on the bus my 3 year old gets here.  Then it's time to get my baby up and get her breakfast made so I can get her on the bus. Once I have all the little one's on the bus then me and the 3 year old go back to the house and and we do a little lesson with her! Of course she usually will take a nap but by this time I am working on getting my laundry, housework, and supper done, so that means NO nap for me.  but oh well, I make it work.  So now that you have heard what things don't go well for me in the Fall, I will give you my things that I love about Fall, and how our Family plans on spending these cooler days!

     One of  the first things that comes to mind when I think of the Fall is our local County Fair.  While it may not be the grandest fair, I live about 1 mile from it so I watch it as it goes up, runs for the week and a half, and then comes down.  When they shot off the fireworks I can watch them from my front porch, but I don't like the noise that comes with it.  Most people don't believe me when I tell them that I can hear the fair until you come visit, then you understand!

     I also think about harvest and we have our Harvest Sale at our church every October.  So for me and my Family Fall just lets us know you only have a matter of a few weeks to get things together
, sell BBQ tickets, and prepare to be busy working at the Church!  We start our Saturday morning off with getting plates delievered and ready for drive thru and eat in's at 11A.m. and we serve the food until 6 P.M.  We really enjoy this even even though it is an extremely busy day, we get to fellowship with our Church Family, and the surrounding communities.  I love to talk and I don't get the opportunity to have adult conversation very often so I take advantage of this time.

     The count down to Christmas, oh yes I love Christmas.  It is this time of year that I am thinking about where everything will go, and I am getting excited about all the lights that will be shown in the neighborhoods.  Every year after Christmas I tend to stock up on the clearance decorations and then the following year take those and make different kinds of Christmas decorations and crafts for other people, to sale, and for my own home.  So knowing this you can imagine that I am working on these items for Christmas.

     Thanksgiving, who doesn't like Thanksgiving?  I enjoy the cooking as crazy as it sounds, if I could just get someone to clean up the kitchen afterwards I would be a much happier cook!  I love getting together with my Family and Friends and eating lots of good food and too my Husband's birthday usually falls between the day before, the day of, or the day after Thanksgiving so I have so many things to celebrate this time of year!  And because I don't like turkey and this is one of my hubby's favorites, I get to cook a turkey just for him!

     These are just a few things that make me think about Fall. I am sad to see Summer go for many reasons but one for sure is I DON'T like the cold so I enjoy the Summer sun and warmth.  Now it is time to huddle up on the couch with the kids and watch some really good movies.  We do tend to spend more time together starting around this time of year for that reason so that is for sure one of my major pluses to it being Fall! 

     So now it's your turn, what are your favorite things about Fall?  Is it the brisk cooler days, the fair, spending more time with the Family?  Maybe you and the Family go out and look at the leaves changing.  That is definitely a favorite of mine, I think it is as beautiful as the flowers blooming in the Spring. So please leave a comment below with some of you and your Family activities that you do in the Fall, you never know you may give me or another reader some really great ideas for our Family.  I am always looking new ways to spend with the Family!

Best time to Garden? Now!

     When you think about working in the garden, most people think Spring.  The weather is warming up and after being indoors for what seems to be the longest winter ever, you just want to get outside.  However, in the Fall the weather is starting to cool off, and the bugs are no where near as bad now as they were in the summer.  The weeds and some flowers are also starting to die off for the Winter.   

     In the picture above you will see my 4 year up beside my Banana tree.  It is just huge in comparison to her and it has to be dug up before our first frost.  This is one of the Fall projects I get to enjoy.  I also like to take this time of year and pull out any unwanted weeds that may be there in the garden and surrounding the beds.

     Another biggie is composting.  Not composting yet?  No problem it is never too late to start your own compost bin at home and start feeding that soil.  I usually take the leaves and pin straw in the fall when we rake them up and place it in my compost bin and around my flowers in the flower bed.  I have a few flowers that just keep coming back year after year though they are perennials. The funniest thing about my flowerbed is that all I have is SAND, not the good stuff but the sandy sand. 


     There are things that can and can not be put into a compost bin, simply because you don't want unwanted bugs, pests, and animals evading in.  Meat is one of the biggest things you don't want to use because it rots, and smells really bad.  It also attracts animals that you don't want.  The best things to put into a compost bin are your scraps like, leaves, twigs, (yard waste) egg shells, peelings from your kitchen,  and tea and coffee grounds.  All of these items add nutrients to the bin and make for beautiful plants weather it is a flower garden or vegetable garden. 

     You just want to make sure you add a little dirt to the compost bin and keep it watered (not soaked, lightly moist) and keep it turned.  By turning the bin it keeps everything moving and allows everything to compost at much better rate.  This is an easy thing to do, it is GREEN, and prevents extra waste in your home.

     Do you have pics of your fall beds, or have any other ideas for Fall planting?  Please share them with us, we love to learn new things and I promise I don't know everything there is about flowers.  I always love to hear about the ways other people do things and learn from them!

This is a pic of Pilot Mountain in North Carolina in the Fall