Fall!

I do so love fall!  It is my absolute favorite season:)  I love the colors, the crisp, cool air, the holidays and mmm...the food!
This year, I will not make my annual trip to Winston-Salem.  No Kopper Kitchen's breakfast or lunch (their collards set your mouth on fire and put some shine in your hair), no Sweet Potatoes or Old Salem Tavern (sigh).  I love their food (and no, I don't go to Winston-Salem just to eat).
While my home doesn't present the same ambiance as the aforementioned establishments, it does have a working kitchen and a closet shelf full of recipes.  I grabbed the instructions for Sweet Potato Pecan Bread Pudding and Pineapple Upside-Down Pumpkin Gingerbread.  Added to that~ some garlic pork tenderloin and collards.  (Yes, I know it's not truly collard season until after the first frost gets them, so I put my batch in the freezer for a few days).  Almost as good.

The beginnings of Sweet Potato Pecan Bread Pudding.

Ready for baking.

  Pork tenderloin, collards, and the bread pudding with maple whipped cream.

Syrupy pineapple goodness...

with pumpkin gingerbread batter on top...

Mmm...45 minute wait to let it cool before...

Time out.  I must admit here that all was not wafting as scrumptiously as can be imagined.... The syrupy goodness ranneth over and made a big smoking mess.  The family scrambled to open up windows and doors to save the day and once the smoke and burnt smell cleared up, YUM.  The wonderful aroma of pumpkin gingerbread meandered through the house.  

So here I am, on a rainy Saturday kicked back in my armchair with a full tummy, the prospect of dessert with a dollop of maple whipped cream in my near future.  Bliss.  Absolute bliss.

...flipping out a delicious,  oh-so-wonderful cake.

100+++ Things

I finished Dave Bruno's The 100 Thing Challenge tonight at my son's soccer practice.  I had big plans tonight.  A list.  Of things to buy.  Which would have put us getting home a lot later in the evening when we were already tired.  Dave Bruno is all about simplicity.  Railing against American-consumerism (you know those American-consumerists~kinda remind me of Grinchy Jim Carrey's Who-ville neighbors).  Okay, he's not railing~just stating the obvious and working on living without having to buy a life.  How revolutionary.
I was truly inspired by the reading.  I felt a shift inside and had an AHA moment.  Things and the buying of things do not make a life.  They may help you pretend, but they do not satisfy or fulfill.  Things simply beef up your wishbone.  They justify the excuse "Well if I had such-and-such, I would be happy/could be like ____(fill in the blank)/all would be right in my world".  NOT.  Not gonna happen.  And I am proof through practice.  Buying things just creates more stress.  The momentary lift deflates as soon as that coveted thing permanently takes up space in your home. Then it's off to the races again to fill that void.  Or it's time to worry over money spent, time lost, wishes unfulfilled... My son and I went home. 
Since it's a long drive there and back, I started to count how many things I owned just in my bedroom.  One room.  Not counting each item in my two nightstand drawers, I waaaayyy surpassed 100.  And I had cleaned out the bedroom a couple of weeks ago!  Dear Lord.  And hmmm...if I have at least (and I do) 100 things in my bedroom, it is safe to assume that every other room in the house has at least 100 of my things.  Panic at the disco!!!! Oh, and the basement (which is the WHOLE length of the house)...
...
...
Sorry readers (all 1 of you), I just had a moment.  I have work to do.  And I think this time the work might actually work.  In my 43rd year, I may just live life fully instead of trying to buy a full life.  I said last night I'd no intention of pairing down to just 100 things,  I am not a Spartan.  I like stuff.  I just don't need as much stuff as I have now. 

Laborious Labor Day

There it is  My attic door.  BIG huffy breath....
One of the things I received for my birthday was a gift card to Amazon.  I am glad the card is made of plastic because I was basically salivating at the sight.  I plonked myself down and scrolled through my monster of a wish list to try to pick and choose what to get (don't think I will ever possess a card that would take care of all of my Amazon wishes:( ).  One of those titles was Dave Bruno's  The 100 Thing Challenge.   The book whizzed to my Kindle and I began to read.  Wow.  Dave Bruno must have heard me say that I want to clean out my life.  I have attempted this feat before and gotten a good head start but I blink and am back to drowning in stuff.  And then buying more!  It is overwhelming and depressing and when ya get down to it, just pisses me off.
Because of that and with the catalyst of 100 Things, I made a plan.  I have no desire to get myself down to only 100 possessions.  I am aware of my limitations.  No, just get rid of all of the bleh.  The bad purchases, the things I am holding onto for ? , the "perfectly good ------", the things I will get to, the things that end up hanging over my head like black clouds.  And I began.   Figured that I would start up and work my way out the door.  
I forewarned my hubby that I was cleaning out the attic. Told him not to worry, that I was not going to go through his belongings, but he decided to go through his stuff too (bless his heart).  I decided today would be the day and I was going to pull everything down, go through it and sort for its new home.  Hubby didn't like that idea, but how else can you actually make decisions until you really see what you've got???
A bunch of junk, that's what.  Man oh man.  We have been throwing things up there with reckless abandon.  Our stuff, kid's stuff, inherited stuff, STUFF.  Almost all of it came down ( hubby still has his area). We commenced to sorting, tossing, reorganizing and taking what we wanted to keep back up.  I was ruthless.  I was efficient.  I am exhausted. 
My attic, though, hasn't looked this neat since we moved in:)
I have a yard sale in my future which gives me a deadline.  A finite day when I shall be done with the major purging of things.  Once that day is behind me, I will start on my list for my 43rd year~things I plan on doing not buying.... 
Purge well my friends, and prosper.

Friday!

It's Friday!!!!  

Yippy Skippy!!! 

What a week...Started our first days of the school year three days later than planned thanks to Irene.  I love to see the kiddos and I love the people I work with, but Lord-a-mercy getting used to standing up in my purty shoes after being barefoot and in flip-flops all summer really took its toll!  Swelling and blisters kill the joy:(  Add to that a late night trip to the ER for my son (who is fine, thankfully), and I am one tired puppy.

So looking forward to the weekend.  Ah-hem, the birthday weekend:)  My youngest son and I have the same birthday and it always falls on Labor Day weekend (Can you say "Cake for breakfast"?). Laser tag, we are game for anything. 

Back in the day, my mom would always take me to the big Labor Day sales and commence to buying my school clothes and birthday stuff.  I still get the urge to buy Op shirts, Levi's jeans and Nike tennies around this time of year.  My tastes may have evolved, but I still wouldn't mind a new pair of  shoes or two.