Fall Favorites

I know, I already wrote my whole Ode to Fall a couple of weeks ago. But, since it only comes around once a year, you will just have to put up with more of my ramblings about the glories of my favorite season. Sorry!

The weather the past few weeks in Virginia has been PERFECT! What is better than chilly mornings, warm afternoons, and crisp evenings? I really don't know. Little in life can compare.


Since the first week (with blistering hot temperatures) passed, it has made for some beautiful Saturday mornings watching Mia play soccer. She is so excited about playing, but we have to be careful to not talk to her too much from the sidelines. If we say, "Mia good job. You are doing great." She will stop playing and run over to where we are to talk a little more about how well she is doing in the game.

Once, last week, when she did this, I said, "Mia stay in the game." To which she looked down, verified her feet were still inside the field's boundary line, and replied, "I am in the game." She is regualarly our little lawyer; it is just too funny.

We also enjoyed the Manassas Fall Jubilee on Saturday. This street fair has all the typical artisan and business booths. Mia loves this sort of thing since she has perfected the art of walking up and asking, "Is this free?" She gets more stuff (free or not) given to her at such events!

As we were walking down the street, Maggie looked up at me and said, "Dis just like Dineyland!" Wow! It doesn't take much to impress a two year old. (Who, by the way, when she saw the picture I posted on my last "anniversary" blog entry said, "Mom, you be a princess!" As I said, not too much to impress her, but goodness she can be cute.)

I also loved watching about half of General Conference -- I watched the whole thing, it is just that with my children's exhaustion at times, there was only about half that I really enjoyed watching. Thank heaven for satelite dishes and DVR technology. Because I would NOT have loved taking my girls to the stake center for 8 hours this weekend. And, I would have heard VERY LITTLE of the conference if we did not have the capability to pause, rewind, and simply save for later portions of the conference we could not hear when they were being given live.

In fact, there was a moment when President Eyring was talking about unity and my girls were fighting over crayons and whining and crying and I was feeling myself get more tense as I tried to be able to actually hear what was being said, that I thought, "It is a good thing that I have faith that apostles speak with prophetic power, because otherwise, I would never believe at this moment that peaceful unity is even a possibility for my family!" In any case, I am trusting that my best efforts to love and teach my children will produce unity and love in the future, if not always in the present moment.

Finally, I am posting a few of my favorite fall soup recipes. These are four that we have had again in the last few weeks. One more reason to celebrate the season!