Tender Mercies

Happy Columbus Day everyone! Or should I say, Happy Indigenous People's Day, as the Mayor of Lawrence has chosen in lieu of Columbus? Either way, I say it's a pretty fun day because Marshall had the day off from school.  Having Marshall home made it feel like summertime, especially because it was close to 80 degrees F today. I still can't believe how hot it has been this week. This is my first real Autumn in 3 years, so I am taking in all I can of the cool mornings and evenings and warm afternoon sun, all while enjoying the gorgeous changing colors of the trees.  Marshall picked out our pumpkins for us.  I approved. So many of my friends have been posting pumpkin patch photos this past week, and I thought it was a good reason for Marshall and me to go! We only had 30 minutes before I had to leave to go to the yoga studio, so we took a few fun pictures and picked out some really fun pumpkins.  Schaake's Pumpkin Patch  worked out quite well ...

Happy Halloween!  While I may not be too keen on dressing up and trick-or-treating for Halloween, I do love carving pumpkins, roasted pumpkin seeds, cooking with pumpkins, and everything that has to do with pumpkins, butternut-, carnival-, acorn-, spaghetti-, and every other kind of squash out there!  Normally I would say I like the autumn colors outside, but as it is already winter here in Alaska, that is not a perk of Halloween anymore, at least for the time being.  We had another couple from church come over to our house on Saturday to carve pumpkins with us.  I made chili and we enjoyed being together.  I had a difficult time coming up with what to carve, but I knew that if I wanted it to look good, I had better keep it simple.  So I decided to stick with an Alaskan theme and carve the big dipper that is on the state flag.  Marshall was a little bit more creative than me, and carved a p...