Other Things I Like about Fall

Drinking a hot Caramel Apple Spice from Starbucks - yum

Watching the geese fly in a V formation (I still know the words to a song about this from an old Kindermusic class - probably the only song I remember)

Seeing the dew rise up steamy above the fields as we drive to school early in the morning

It's football time in Tennessee! (you have to say that in a commanding announcer voice)

Going to Fall Festivals - my church had one last weekend and the bake sale is always our first stop. One lady makes an amazing butterscotch pie - I could eat the whole thing by myself.

Abbie loves to stir apple butter. My church makes it every year and sells it at the fall festival. We missed apple butter making day this year, but they were doing another pot outside at the fall festival. Abbie walked up to the man and asked to help stir (I'll describe this a little later). He was worried she would get burned, but Abbie just grabbed the stick behind his hand and started helping - he didn't get any say-so! I told Abbie that as soon as she finished, she could go get in the air bounce and see the magician. Well......about an hour later, we were still standing there watching her stir!

Getting out the comfy, cozy pajamas and wearing them around the house (as soon as I get home for the day and know I'm not going back out)

Driving with the windows down (as much as I want to do this in the summer, I usually can't go without the air conditioning for long)

Going to Biltmore House (we haven't done this in a while, maybe I can talk Mr. Stay-At-Home into it)

Ridin' the Creeper Trail

Making apple butter - if I've described this before, just skip on by. At church, they build a small fire on the grass and then set a big black kettle or pot over it (it sits in a 3 legged holder). The outside of the pot is black but the inside is copper (I think). When you cook apple butter or peach butter over the fire like this, you've got to keep it boiling. So you have to keep the fire hot enough to get the stuff to boil but not too hot or else it bubbles and splashes out of the pot and makes a big mess, and you will get burned. A small bit actually popped out and hit me right under the eye! A little scary. As the apple butter boils, you have to stir it constantly or it will burn and stick to the bottom of the kettle. To stir it, you have to use a long wooden pole with a paddle attached to the end. The paddle is long enough to touch the bottom of the kettle so that you can scrap the bottom of the pot as you stir. The pole attached to the paddle is long so that you stand far enough away from the fire and the bubbling brew. You basically stir by pulling your arms in a back and forth motion. You really need lots of help so that you can take turns stirring with someone because your arms get really tired! But not Abbie's arms, she could stir all day long.