Goodbye November

 November is about to say goodbye and I am kinda sad about it. November has been such a pretty fall month here. I realized I had not shared my fall on the bayou picture yet so here it is. The few leaves we have that change right on the coast are starting to do their thing.

There is a lovely tree down the street that is totally yellow. If you are patient even Florida can have a season of autumn. 

Gus wasn’t interested in cooperating so I had to turn around before I could get a good picture.

I will freely admit that we are NOT moving into my favorite time. Oh… don’t worry, I love Christmas. I mean I love all it stands for and the lights are my favorite, but I totally hate the early dark nights. I want to go to bed at 5:30 and then it ALL messes with my sleep pattern. I am glad Christmas is in December to keep me above the fray of depression from the dark.

Enough of that. I wanted to jump right in with Christmas decorating last week before Thanksgiving but  I resisted. Everywhere you turn, it is screaming at you. However, I know myself well and if I pull it out too soon I start going a little stir crazy. I did get my tree over the weekend and began thinking about some things I might do differently this year. I am slowly putting it all out and unlike last year when I was having a little moment of insecurity over sharing, I am going to share it on the blog this year. 

One thing I did differently was to take all my Christmas decorations BACK downstairs to store them. In a moment of craziness after a hurricane one year I moved them from the perfect storage closet downstairs to a not so perfect closet upstairs and it just caused a lot of problems. In the last couple of months I remedied that and all felt right again. Now, I can bring them up as I feel like it and not create a monster mess! 

I also got creative and did something very different with the banisters. I have not loved the garland the last couple of years and it was almost drudgery to put it out. I can’t wait to show you what I came up with. Jeff agreed it was a good update. I will finish up this week and  start taking pictures to share.

I usually use January to do a deep dive in decluttering and cleaning. For the first time in retirement life I feel like I am in such a good place with decluttering. I have actually been pretty ruthless in the last couple of months and this January should be more of a cleaning. The key is to not bring back in anything to replace the clutter. 2021 has been the year I have truly worked on that piece. I was not totally successful but nevertheless a ton better. All of that to say, my kitchen can’t wait until January for its deep clean. I have no idea what has happened in my kitchen, but good grief Thanksgiving had me wanting to clean rather than cook. I just might share some of that too. A drawer or cabinet a day:)

Now, if I didn’t have grandkids I would have no pictures, but I will blow up the post now with cuteness.

Lindsay, Tyler amd the kids went to the Auburn house this weekend. They did a drive over to Callaway Gardens which is about 45 minutes away from Auburn. Both Tyler and Lindsay remember the many trips to see lights they took as kids to see the lights. Tucker was truly enthralled. 

I was so sad we were not going to Auburn this year but Jeff and I had a church commitment that just needed to be done. I think it turned out well for Lindsay and Tyler. They had a fun little family weekend so these are pictures Lindsay sent me.

I don’t usually get worked up at all over sports scores, but this past weekend’s score did me in. I didn’t go in thinking Auburn had a chance at anything but a true massacre in Jordan Hare. I even had Jeff get my tree so I could decorate it when it got too bad to watch AND then my little Tigers played their hearts out. We were solidly winning until the last minute which in the back of my mind I kept expecting the whole game. I never get worked up over football ever… not since a specific incident here locally where a child my son’s age died from an injury. It completely changed my mind about sports. You can read about the young man here.  https://taylorhaugen.org/My husband was the principal at this school and the parents are amazing.  If you read it you know how silly it is to get upset over a football score!

Anyway, I shocked myself at my reaction to the loss on Saturday. It was just such an intense game and an awful, way to lose that I felt depleted for a solid hour. I moped which made me feel guilty so I dusted myself off and started putting that tree up and gave myself an attitude adjustment. Sometimes we need to do that:)

November is going and the year will be over before I know it. Can we slow it down just a wee bit AND maybe find a way for the sun to stay out a we bit longer each day. I do try to embrace that cozy huge idea and to slow down but it is a struggle for me.

Blessings to all, 

Sandy