At the moment of this post, it is the September Equinox, the official beginning of fall!  No more hot summer!  No more “Why are you already making pumpkin pie when it’s not fall?”  As if there’s any a time that’s not for pumpkin everything?  Psh!  I love me some pumpkin!  Time for the leaves to turn, and for more fires in the fireplace, and for our forest of a backyard to lose some green and hopefully turn into a winter happy land.  Since Charlotte is partly homeschooled, she won’t get out of school on snow-days!  (We all know the jokes about people here freaking over a little snow, but there’s a reason for this–the temperature hovers just above and just below freezing, and that few inches of snow melts, then freezes into ice, and that ice is what’s so dangerous and panic-inducing.)

I’m more motivated to sew, more motivated to bake pfefferneuse…  Mmmm. Pfefferneuse.  Let me stare for a moment at my glorious pfefferneuse…  It’s a good time for reading, as if there’s ever a bad time, and a good time for snuggles and movies and wine and talking about all the travel we’d love to do, even if it’s to places not entirely possible.  Antarctica, anyone? 😀

It’s time agains to make gingerbread houses and sing Christmas songs in the store without the strange looks we got last month! 

Time to head out to the farms for fall produce, and to make cocoa and sit in front of a fire with my critters.  
But it’s also the time of year to remember that there are a lot of people who are struggling, and to ask everyone to just be a bit kinder to one another.  You never know who is without family, who is struggling harder than usual to get by, who just plain needs to see an occasional smiling face as well rush about enjoying a season that tends to be about togetherness, regardless of religious or spiritual beliefs.  One of my favorite things about this season may be how it does tend to help bring out the better in a lot of people, at least at first.  Find that in yourself, and don’t let go of it.  Find motivation in the coming holidays, whether that’s Halloween or Dia de los Muertos (or both!), or Yule, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or the Epiphany (or anything else, or more than one), and find moments to do good, to send a letter.  Read out this year to anyone, and try to find ways to use your skills.  Charlotte wants to make blankets for the homeless.  I’m going to make stockings to fill with things people may need.  As we go into autumn, remember it’s a happy time for many, a tough time for many, and just aim to do good for everyone around you.