10 Things I Love About Fall

Until I was about 23, I had no real preference for any particular season. They were all just okay.  Over the past, ahem, few years, though, especially after Richard and I bought our house, Fall started to become a real front-runner.  I noticed that as Autumn started to come around, I began to feel invigorated and excited. Now I can whole-heartedly declare Fall as my favorite season, and over the weekend, a several reasons started to swirl around in my head that I thought I'd share.  Some of them are definitely cliched; others are probably limited to me and a few other nuts that I haven't met.

1. Lower humidity means frizz-free hair that stays straight all day.  I think of this all summer long.
2. The view from our backyard is of Monte Sano Mountain, and it is wonderful. I still can't believe that we live in a home with such a nice view, and Fall totally exemplifies that.
3. Fall is officially the kickoff of the holiday season; the year closes out with a bang.  Every month has a great holiday to look forward to.  (Don't be surprised, by the way, when in about three months there is a post entitled "10 Things I Hate About January.")
4. Long sleeves.  I am, for a couple of reasons, self-concious about my arms, and I welcome long-sleeve weather.  Paradoxically, I actually like my hands, so long-sleeved clothes are the best of both worlds: covering up my arms, while making my hands a highlighted feature.  Yes! In a related vein, it's the beginning of the general public starting to wear more clothes, which makes trips to Wal-Mart somewhat less perilous.  Bonus.
5.  Pumpkin. Cinnamon.  Apples.  Warm Soups.  Fall food is the best.  And I actually feel like cooking from time to time because of that.
6. I'm crazy about boots.  I don't currently own a good specimen of said fashion implements, but I still enjoy seeing them out and about, and I'm always hopeful that I'll come across a good pair for myself.
7. I'm not wild about the shorter days, but I do love coming home and cozying up with my husband and puppy in the evenings.  There's that great hibernate-y feeling that's not great for the thighs, but wonderful for the heart.  You don't have to feel guilty for spending the whole night reading.  Not that I ever do anyway...
8. Planning for Christmas shopping.  I love planning things, and even though I don't actually shop until at best mid-November and at worst mid-December - by the time I do shop, I've got it all planned out.
9. Brown is my color.  I love wearing browns, and fall is the time to do it!
10. The death of most outdoor bugs. The weather is nice enough to spend time outside, and you don't get eaten up by mosquitos.  Now if you can just dodge those wasps...

This Week I Will Be Mostly... With a New Category!

...wearing black. Not for any reason, I just noticed I have a good bit of clean black clothes, and I like clean.
...reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I give myself this week to finish it.
...watching nothing. Really - I've got to get that book read, and I want to spend some time on my bike, too.
...listening to calming music. I'm not stressed, but I think I might be getting a cold, so I want to Zen-out my immune system.
...eating lentils. As soon as Garden Cove has green lentils back in stock. Oh! And chia seeds! I found some, and they are wicked cool! As soon as they touch anything wet, they make this little gel-cocoon. It's weird, but neat - and since they are even healthier than flax seeds, and more easily digestible, I'm down with that.
...shopping for nutritional yeast flakes and hemp protein powder.  I might also look into spirulina and maca. We'll see.
...praying about the new church I visited last night.  It was very interesting, vibrant, and it seems to be another possibility for a church home.

Please let me know if you have a prayer request!

Jealousy and Salt

a.k.a. The recipe for a good smoothie and a good evening, respectively

I am still violently in love with our new blender, Vera. And I have been so proud for people to see my/Richard's beautiful green smoothies and say yuck! Because we're scamming them. Truly, the color of the green is so beautiful that I don't know why people aren't snatching them out of our hands and guzzling them down themselves - or at least taking them to Home Depot to use as a sample for the color they would like for their bathrooms.  Anyway, the scam is, we're getting the leafy greens that all of us desperately need, but don't feel like eating, in a drink so delicious that you would never guess had spinach and other good stuff in it.  I'm telling you, Smoothie King is charging $5 for the same stuff that we get for around $1 from home.  And we know that absolutely none of it is processed, unlike Smoothie King, where you are not 100% in control of what goes into your cup.  Whoopee!  So this is where Jealousy comes in to play.  I am haphazardly busy creating recipes for smoothies of my own, and I've come across one recipe in particular that I'm really crazy about.  And being the word nerd that I am, each drink has a name, and so far, each name is a play on words.  Hence, this favorite green drink of mine is named Jealousy!
If you are feeling adventurous, here is the recipe:

Voila! Green Goodness!

• 1/2 to 1 cup water
• 1 cup green grapes
• 1 to 2 cups fresh baby-ish spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
• 1 banana, torn into 3 segments
• 1/2 Fuji apple (optional)
• ice as desired (optional)
• Hemp or other protein powder as desired (optional)

Add the ingredients in the order listed - okay, you might want to dump the protein powder after the grapes - and if you're working with a Vitamix, go from variable 1 to 10 quickly, and then go to high. Blend for 30-50 seconds.  

If you add a milk/whey based protein powder, it might affect the flavor, but I'm not sure - I'm trying to keep my green smoothies as vegan as possible. 

Now for the salt aspect: 

I have become a recent convert to Epsom salts.  I had a painful Swedish massage a few weeks ago at the start of a detox, and afterwards the masseur told me to make sure I took an Epsom salt bath that evening, which I was all too happy to do.  For whatever reason, I had a large bag of Lavender-scented Epsom salts already on hand.  Now, being the ingredient reader that I am, I had read the back label of the salt bag to see what it actually was (magnesium sulfate), and then after the bath Googled "benefits of an Epsom salt bath." You can find my favorite but altogether standard answer to that query here, but the long and short of it is that we don't really get enough Magnesium in our diets, AND we don't absorb it very well in our stomach and intestines, but GUESS WHAT!?! We absorb it very well through our SKIN!!! You'd be surprised at all Magnesium does when you get it in proper proportions - not the least of which is makes you feel better.  

All that to say, the other night I declared a "Baths and Books" night, sparked in part by Eat Pray Love, which I have embarked upon at the behest of my future sister-in-law who wants me to have read in time for our visit next week, so that we can go see it in the movie theater.  I drew a lovely Epsom salt bath, texted said Sister-in-Law, and then had a lovely reading session.  It was the recipe for a truly lovely evening.  All that was missing was a green smoothie. Cheers!

This Week I Will Be Mostly...

...wearing my rain jacket
...reading *Don't Swallow Your Gum! And Other Medical Myths*
...watching old movies on Netflix Instant
...listening to Christmas music on Pandora
...eating leftovers
...shopping for my husband's "big" gift