October

Time is flying by-I can't believe that the end of October is already here! Our grands will all be out Trick or Treating tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing their costumes. I know we will have a soccer coach, a mermaid and a tiger here, don't know about the two youngest yet. They'll be cute no matter how they dress up! It's our youngest's first Halloween.

Our rain returned this month after taking a vacation for the summer. We had 3 inches last week and another inch today. Tonight, we are due for some very heavy rains. Fortunately, we don't have the flooding issues they are having in central and south Texas.

Many of our trees have dropped a lot of their leaves due to the heat and dry conditions, but we should still have some pretty color. We usually have our prettiest leaves in mid-November since we are so far south.  We were in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas two weeks ago, and the leaves were beginning to get really pretty.

Going to our daughter's house for dinner tonight-looking forward to seeing them! Tomorrow, watch out for "ghoulies and ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night"!

Barns

We have just returned from a week in Tennessee and Kentucky to do some genealogy work and just relax and enjoy the countryside. We saw so many beautiful things and were even able to find the places where our families lived 150 to 175 years ago. They were pioneers who came to these states in search of land and a better way of life for their families.

One thing that I really enjoyed was seeing the barns old and new as we drove, because many of them had giant quilt squares painted on them! Many counties in Kentucky have "quilt trails" where people have agreed to have a giant painted quilt square attached to their barn. These are a few: (not my pictures-it was too hard to get a good picture from a moving car)

There were so many, all different colors and patterns. Beautiful!

You Can Go Home Again...

at least to visit! I would not trade where I live now in Texas for the New Mexico town I was born and raised in. However, I love to return to visit family, reminisce and enjoy the beautiful scenery that I took for granted growing up. These are the Organ Mountains just outside our hometown. I saw them every day when I lived here, but didn't really appreciate their beauty until I grew up, left and came back to visit.

We have been enjoying real New Mexican food-a completely different thing from the Tex-Mex we have at home.

Lunch!

We are bringing home some green chile to roast and freeze. A few red ones got in, but that's ok too!

It's been fun driving around town, seeing all of the old places. Some have changed so much they're almost unrecognizable:

and some are gone:

St. Genevieve's-over 100 years old when it was torn down for "urban renewal" back in the 60's

but some things have remained the same:

Finally Fall!

Back to Normal-Whatever That Is

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on my last post. Our daughter and son-in-law are back home now and so are we! I had forgotten how much time and energy it takes to get kids off to school in the morning, potty train the one at home, make sure homework is done and everyone bathed and in bed at a reasonable hour. Not to mention refereeing arguments and toddler tantrums. Hard as it was, we'd do it again in a heartbeat, though preferably not due to a death in the family.

We are catching up here at home now. The garden is definitely done-my husband dug our sweet potatoes this morning. They were kind of an experiment and I think it went pretty well. In the spring, we had a couple of sweet potatoes that got pushed to the back of the pantry and proceeded to sprout, so we stuck them into the ground to see what they would do. We got several very large potatoes and quite a few medium and small ones. I see a sweet potato pie in our near future. Of course they have to sit and cure first. Next year, we will definitely plant more. We also will plant more black-eyed peas and probably less okra, although my husband made some pretty spectacular sweet and hot okra pickles this summer!

Tomorrow is the first day of fall-my favorite time of year. I've put out a few decorations and made a few pillows. This one is actually a crewel embroidery picture my mom made many years ago! She used to have it framed and hanging on the wall, but I like it better as a pillow. It makes me happy to use something of hers.

Sad Day

We lost a good man yesterday. After a long illness, our son-in-law's father passed away peacefully. He was part of our lives for 12 years. We didn't get to see him  very often as he and his sweet wife lived over a thousand miles away, but we always enjoyed getting to be with them. He was a kind, gentle man who always had other's best interests at heart and was dearly loved by his family.

Never Forget