Cooler weather

Today was my day off. I got a lot done around the house, which always gives me a good feeling. We had a beautiful day, with warm temperatures and a little breeze. As it got later in the afternoon it began to cloud up. It really got cloudy around 2:30pm and when I went to get Jeremy it rained on me in several different places on the trip. It continued to rain on and off for a couple of hours and now that the rain has moved out the temperature is dropping. Our high today was 77 degrees and the low for tonight is forecast to be about 46 degrees. I saw a weather forecast on tv at supper time and they predicted about 1/2" of rain would fall. We'll take all that we can get right now.

Since the grocery flyers came out today, I spent time looking over the ads to try to see what is on sale that I will need for our Thanksgiving meal next week. Randy expressed interest in pumpkin pie and I will probably purchase one this year instead of making one. I am thinking of making pumpkin roll again this year. It was a big hit last year. We had it for breakfast. (yikes! kids will need to take extra insulin). I am also considering making a pumpkin cheesecake. I've made this several times before for Thanksgiving and it is well received. I'm not really fond of pumpkin, and hardly ever eat pumpkin pie, but I love the pumpkin roll and pumpkin cheesecake. Especially when I top it with real, homemade whipped cream.

The house smells so good right now. I've got spaghetti sauce started in the crockpot. Right now it's just the meat, onions and spices cooking, but it sure fills the house with a great aroma. Before I leave for work tomorrow I will re-start the crockpot and add my sauce, then leave it on the really low setting all day. I haven't had spaghetti in quite a while and am really in the mood for it. I have really cut back on my pasta consumption, since I am trying to eat a very low carb diet.

I've been trying to re-stock my pantry with staples. We went grocery shopping late last night and I managed to get a bunch of things that I was very low on or completely out of. Since it is so inconvenient for me to run to the store once I am already home, I try to have lots of options to choose from because plans can change rapidly depending on circumstances. There have been days that I had a particular meal planned and all set to make when I arrived home from work, only to arrive home very very late or so exhausted that I wasn't up to cooking. On days like that it's good to know that my pantry, fridge and freezer are stocked with items that I can pull together quickly for a meal. Grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade vegetable soup (which I can in 1/2 gallon jars) has come to the rescue on several occasions.

Randy had a better day today than he did yesterday. He didn't feel well at all yesterday and spent the majority of the day in bed. Some days he just has no energy. Of course those are usually days that follow a day that he has missed his medicine. He has a hard time remembering to take the evening dose. He has so far resisted my suggestions as to a system, or routine which would help him to remember. Sometimes it takes him a long time to see that doing things my way can be a lot easier than doing them his way. Not all of the time of course, but many times.

The leaves are really starting to fall here. We've had some very pretty colors lately, with the trees slowly dropping their leaves. However, we've had rain and some wind the last two days and that really speeds up the shedding process. We don't usually have too many leaves in the yard, but I think I might have the kids rake the ones we do have this year and put them in my garden. I am trying something a little different this year and am working dialy to improve my garden spot so that maybe I can get a decent crop out of my garden. It was very hard for me to not have a garden this year. I so much miss being able to fry up some fresh squash or to pick ripe tomatoes out of my own garden and to have fresh beans and other fresh produce. It's just not the same to buy it at the store. Even buying it from the produce stand isn't the same. It just doesn't taste as good. Maybe I'll be able to get things all set and be able to produce a bumper crop next year. That would be wonderful.