Weekend

Fall makes me want to fill my shopping cart with the magazines lining the grocery checkout stand - the ones with spreads of fall tables decorated with fall foliage, grumpy-looking gourds, and desserts that quite frankly, deserve their own season. I want to pour over pages of handmade wreaths and garland strung from book-pressed leaves and imagine how I could turn the house into a pumpkin-spiced, gourd-and-foliage-filled wonderland of gingerbread house proportions (spirit-wise, not size). But something happens here around fall - things get busy. The days before important birthdays and holidays dwindle as quickly as chocolate on your tongue. We are forced to prioritize. We get down to the business of simplifying. And, just as often as I imagine myself taking the children for a scavenger hunt through the woods to collect the perfect materials for an all-out fall crafting extravaganza, I find myself doing a little bit of this, instead:



Scouring for a recipe for homemade play dough (this one using paprika to color the play dough orange from FamilyFun's October 2009 edition).




Scooping out pumpkins to be brought to life by tiny carving hands and glowing tea lights.




Roasting the saved insides.



And taking some time out to enjoy the rare warm weather, and chance to rest, right before the tickling match ensues.

Maybe we'll get around to that wreath and garland - next year.