I always find that the change of season brings about a change inside me as well. My mood shifts as the sunlight does, and what I crave in my life changes. For me the New Year kicks off, an exciting time thinking of what all I hope to accomplish within that year. I think of this stretch of time as a caterpillar in its cocoon- a season of quiet growth, preparing for the next season. Working steadily with perhaps no results, really leaning into whatever my focus is for that year.
Spring follows winter and I’ll confess spring is really not my favorite season. It’s a time of waiting- and I don’t like to wait. The seeds of hard work have been sewn, the work continues and the days are gray. It seems like so much of this time is spent waiting for the days to pass until summer comes.
After what always seems like an interminable wait summer comes! I usually relax more in the summer than I do other times. The weather is nice, I love being outside and there are many opportunities to gather with friends and family.
Then comes fall, our current season. I love fall but it carries a weight with it. A foreboding of what is to come. I like winter but it does get long and will seem even longer if I don’t prepare myself for it. But fall is also a cozy time of year, I take time to curl up and start a long reflection process of what the year has been. Just like the final crops in the field that are harvested, so I usually start to see the progress of the fruits of my labor from the past year.
But it’s more than that, this feeling that accompanies fall. I think back to the “Good Old Days,” when after all the hard work of the harvest was done on the farms, they would make a celebration of the final harvest. Often this was the last big celebration before winter started. They would enjoy time with friends and family, usually not seeing many of them again until Christmas and then not again till spring.
I feel the same way. I want a pause, to enjoy the rest that used to come with shorter days but that now we have to fight for. I want to enjoy a little quiet after the excitement of summer, and before the beautiful rush of the holidays season starts. To me fall is a time to grab a cup of something hot and delicious. To curl up under a blanket. And to then look around- at the pumpkins in my decor, at the leaves as they turn outside, at anything and everything- and to remember that this season, as all of them should be, is an invitation to count my blessings. It is a time to reflect on all the many blessings that I have been rushing past, too quickly to enjoy, for the past 10 months of the year. It is a time to pause and sit a while; will you join me?
I’m sure you do too. In this fast paced world it is so very hard to balance what needs doing, what should be done, and what we actually want to do! My schedule during the week leaves me with very little time in the evening,(I typically leave my house at 6 or 6:30 am and don’t get home till 7 or 8pm), and therefore makes thorough planning essential. This is my plan for how I approach meal prep for a week so I can cook basically only once a week.
Meal Preparation
Now I should mention that in my house at this time it is just my husband and me, and we have an agreement- I cook, he cleans. This means I almost never do dishes- my husband would go so far as to argue that I never do them- he may be right! But one thing I do all the time is the cooking. We don’t go out to eat very often, and because I can be quite frugal in certain areas of my life,(ahem, cheap), I have never used any meal prep services. Instead I do my own meal prepping. I want to spend as little as possible on good food that is reasonably healthy, spend as little time as possible preparing it, have it taste great and not get bored. At heart I am a foodie who loves flavorful food, so I’m really not about having a baked to death pot roast every night. Or ever. I hate pot roast. But I digress.
For breakfast I typically have a protein smoothie which takes literally a minute to prepare. My husband does intermittent fasting and skips breakfast. (For more on my protein smoothies and how I came to eat them everyday check out Kelly Levesque and her two books, Body Love, and Body Love Everyday.) For Lunch I have a salad bowl and dinner is something that I have either prepared in a crockpot or something that takes hardly any time to assemble.
Now because of my frugality I do my meal prepping one of two ways:
I select a base meal, for example: I buy a whole chicken at the store. Cook it in the crockpot on Monday, and serve it with a side. A sample week could look like this:
Monday: Chicken and a Salad.
Tuesday:Chicken Enchiladas
Wednesday: Chicken Alfredo Pasta with Steamed Veggies
Thursday: Leftover Chicken Enchiladas
Friday: Chicken Curry and Rice
Saturday: Chicken Tortilla Pizzas
Sunday: Improvisation day!
By the time we get to Sunday we are usually done with our main dish so I make something that I always have on hand that can be easily whipped up, like spaghetti and meatballs.
2) The second way I like to do cost effective meal prep is similar to the first but instead of selecting a base meal, I have base ingredients that I reuse in various ways during the week. For example:
Monday:Vegetable Mexican Soup
Tuesday: Veggie Fish Bake,(lay the fish on a bed of lever over veggies and bake)
Wednesday: Vegetable Soup leftovers
Thursday:Spicy beef and rice
Friday: BBQ Beef Wraps and Salad
Saturday:Beef Stir Fry over Noodles
Sunday: Improvisation Day!
For a week like this I would prep the soup ahead of time to be cooked in the crockpot. Then I would prep the beef for the crockpot or cook utilizing another method. Lastly I could chop any veggies ahead of time, leaving only fish, rice and noodles to be cooked during the week.
That is typically how our week goes, I find that for the 2 of us we typically get 2-3 meals out of any large casserole or crockpot meal, that means I only have to prep 2 or 3 large meals, and then have a few extra ingredients on hand for meals that are quick to throw together and we’re set!
Now let me back up to discuss the meal prep itself. The first step is to write out your menu for the week. But listen! It only takes a few minutes, for me it usually takes about 15 minutes. I come up with a “category,” if you will, that I want to eat that week; chicken in the first example, or beef in the second. I look in the fridge to see if I have extra of an ingredient to use up, a bag of spinach, or tomatoes, and take my findings into account and try to find a recipe that will use it up. I then come up with or search for recipes using my main ingredient,(typically on Pinterest), and then let whatever sounds good guide my choices, (I like to meal plan right before a meal because then I’m hungry and it’s easy to find recipes that sound good!
I do my grocery shopping and then will spend approximately 1-2 hours prepping at some point that weekend, for me Saturday evenings or Sunday early in the afternoon are usually the best times. I start cooking everything that needs to be cooked ahead of time, while the meat cooks I will start slicing and dicing. Then I assemble ingredients for any casseroles or my crockpot. I also prep my lunch bowls at this time. I would say after doing this prep I usually spend less than an hour during the week cooking.
I hope this helps make your cooking life a little bit simpler! What are your meal prep tips and tricks?
When I was seven years old I found this beautiful art set that I wanted like nothing else. It came in a gorgeous wooden case, had graphite pencils, a few watercolors and- oil paints. Ten of them. All of them in their own perfect plastic spot that they could snap in and out of in the case. The set also included 2 canvases, palette for mixing and 2 spatulas for mixing paint colors. As you can see it was an art set like no other- at least to this seven year old mind! But it was $20! That was like a year of allowances! My birthday was far away and Christmas even further. I had to come up with some way to get that money- I wanted that art set so badly!!
A week later I found myself at church- no closer to coming up with the money and I was getting frustrated. There was an alter call and a time of prayer was called. Everyone bowed their heads, some sitting on the pew some kneeling up front at the altar. A collage of voices rose to Heaven.
At this point I had given my little life over to Christ but there was still a little bit of doubt in me. I knew God was real because of what I had been taught- not by what I had experienced. So I decided to ask God for the impossible, If he could do it I would know once and for all that He was real. I asked God to give me a way to make money for the art set- and quickly please. I went away from the church service and told no one about what I had prayed- I didn’t want my test results to get muddled!
The next morning I walked into the room where my mother was and without me even opening my mouth she told me that she had some extra chores I could do if I wanted to make some spending money. Did I ever!! Within 3 days I had earned the money for my art set. And before the week was even up, I was painting with my new oil paints.
People may argue that this was all just coincidence and that is fine- let them argue. But that was when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was real, and He heard me, and He cared about me- a little 7 year old child.
Isn’t fall the best of all? I admit I love every season for different reasons- except for March, I just can’t make myself love the endless gray days that are too warm for snow and too cold for anything else. Besides that I can honestly say that I love every season. I love fall, I love the colors in nature, I love the crisp evenings that are perfect for having campfires, and most of all I love the coziness associated with this season- give me that cup of hot Chai tea, pass the blanket and let me curl up with my book!
Below I have a few ideas, ones that I do and that you may enjoy for fall, but I would like to put in my two cents for those thinking- Why bother? To make life more enjoyable! I love Christmas, so does my husband and we really make an effort to go out of our way and enjoy the season. The sounds, the scents, the decor, time with family and friends, and special events, all contribute to making Christmas a special time of year. But. We still have to make the effort to do them! The same is true with all the other seasons. There are special and fun things about every season and while we may not be able to make every season as special as Christmas, we can emphasize the things that we love about each season and thereby add that much extra joy and happiness to our everyday life! Here are several things I do around my home to welcome the season and make my home that much cozier and more inviting for Fall.
Out with the Old, in with the New!
Every season change is a good chance todo a little audit and do any necessary purging! I know it may not sound like fun, but this is a relatively easy way to stay on top of and developing clutter! Along those same lines make sure that you remove anything that is too summery, and pack away a few items that you know you will not need again until the following year.
Fall Flowers
We usually start to get a few frosts here in PA by the time the beginning of October rolls around. That means that it’s usually safe to get rid of any flowers I’ve had in pots, on my porch or patio. To help things not feel as stark I usually like to get a few mums or pumpkins, or if you don’t want to invest annually, a cute fall sign can help to warm up an empty entry way or porch.
Candles
The first thing I think of when I think of fall is cozy, warm lighting; fires in the fireplaces,candles, candles in lanterns, and of course jack-o-lanterns! I love a big lantern. I think they look great almost anywhere; beside a fireplace, next to an accents chair, a medium lantern as a focal point in a vinette, and of course they are very welcoming outside a front door. If you have a lantern and have had different decor elements inside try pulling all that out and add a candle, I usually do battery operated.
Scents
Speaking of candles- the scents of fall can’t be beat! There are delicious sweet smells; pumpkin latte, apple tart, and cinnamon roll. If you aren’t someone who likes sweet smells filling your home,(no judgement!) then there are candles and essential oils that invoke scents of campfires and falling leaves.
One of my favorite candle companies is the Chestnut Hill Candle Co. They have a variety of scents-all of them delicious- and the scent really permeates your home. I dislike when a candle smells good burning but can only be smelled if you are within six inches of it! Some of our favorite candle scents for fall are from this company are: White Pumpkin, Farmstead, and Coffee.
Cozy Up!
It is officially time to pack away the lighter throw blankets up here in the north! Time to pull out the softer throws: flannel, knit, or even some plush blankets! This is also one of my favorite ways to work in some fall color into my decor. There are really cute fall plaids in a variety of color combinations. Just adding colors in a plaid, even if they aren’t traditional fall colors, is enough to add a touch of fall!
The other comfy, cozy touch is to switch out decorative pillows, for a cute fall pillows! If you don’t want to store a bunch of bulky pillows you can get pillow covers,(look on Etsy or Overstock), and that way you just have a slim cover to pack away instead of a pillow!
Music
Again, at Christmas time we play Christmas music to get us in the mood. In summer I hear a lot more country being played. So why not play fall music for fall? I do think this is very subjective, I like me some Michael Buble, or Sinatra, but others like banjo music. Regardless of what kind of music you like, I would like to challenge you to find something that feels special to you, and to the season, and embrace it as your own special playlist to get you in the fall spirit!
Lights
Little twinkle lights are often saved for Christmas but as the days shorten I like to add a little additional brightness to my life. I’ll toss in a strip of lights in my fall centerpiece, intertwine a strand with fall twine woven throughout my mantle or the top of my piano. Many of these have a timer setting that wil come on automatically everyday. I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I come home after dark-and forgot to leave any lights on- only to see my little lights are all ready for me. It feels like my house is welcoming me home!
Charles and Emma was a book about Charles Darwin and his wife Emma, specifically about how her faith, and his lack of faith shaped their marriage. After Charles returned from his famous voyage on the Beagle, he had an important question to ponder- to marry or not to marry. At the age of 28, he was definitely of marrying age and, as his father reminded him, he wasn’t getting any younger.
Charles, taking the scientific approach, observed his married friends and then proceeded to make a pro/con list of the advantages and disadvantages of getting married. Getting married would make it harder to travel, it would mean less time, and less money, to devote to his pursuit of science. Lastly but certainly not least there was also the matter that after his voyage around the world, Charles had come to doubt that God had created each individual species. Rather Charels was working on a theory that, counter to the mainstream thoughts of the day, would prove that God had made a creature and then the creature would evolve based off of its need to survive and adapt accordingly.
Taking God out of the creation story was not a popular view. To make things worse, when he really got honest with himself, Charles didn’t believe that God interfered with anything on earth after He started the world. Charles wasn’t even sure he believed if there was a God- how could a good God let all of the horrible things that happen in this world occur?
After much pondering Charles went to talk with his father, a man who didn’t really believe in God, and wouldn’t be shocked by Charles’ thoughts and beliefs. Charles talked over with his father how his counter culture beliefs would affect his marriage. Should he just avoid the institution all together? His father put his worries to rest but he had one little piece of advice- don’t tell the lucky woman about his lack of belief.
Charles decided to move forward with plans to marry. And he found his girl! A smart woman, a cousin of his.(This was quite normal and often even preferred among the higher class during this time period.) He asked the question and she said yes. There was just one problem- Emma was a devout believer. They both entered the institution of marriage knowing that they could well differ for the rest of their lives on one core belief. The rest of the book talks about their married life, how Charles career progressed, and how they juggled life, split as they were, yet still very much in love.
I found this book fascinating. I didn’t know much at all about Charles Darwin and had always supposed him to be a strict atheist; in fact he was more of an agnostic than an atheist. Emma held fast to her Christian beliefs. This book did a good job of showing how in day to day life compromise can be found, happiness had, but ultimately tension does arise from different belief structures when trouble comes. I enjoyed learning more about Charles and Emma from a strictly academic point of view, but I also think this would be an excellent book to recommend to high school students and young, unmarried adults. No matter how much you love the person to which you plan to marry, be very cautious if they don’t hold the same core values as you. Regardless of what your beliefs are, if they are vastly different from the person you marry, it will create strife and tension within the marriage and this is why the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 6;14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?” How united can we be in a marriage if we don’t share what is closest to our hearts?
Quick reminder that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you- it’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
