Midnight Musings

I went to bed and fell asleep at about 10

and I was so proud of myself

but now it's midnight and I'm up.

It's going to be a fun night...

My sister recently told me that the problem with insomnia isn't the lack of sleep it's the anxiety over the lack of sleep.

Those who just accept that they are awake at night and then spend their time accomplishing or reading or whatever, do better than those who stress over the fact that they should be sleeping.

So, here I am, blogging and being all accepting of the situation.

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The weather has recently turned fall-ish.

We can all feel it.

And everyone in my family has commented on how nice it is outside at least once a day in the last few days.

I think I've said it several times every single day.

I love fall so much!

I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about fall in Utah because I lived in the Northeast.

I mean, come on, no one does fall better than New England.

But I still love the slightly crisp night air and cooler days.

The changing leaves are pretty

(if not quite spectacular)

I sometimes find myself dreading winter instead of enjoying fall and I'm trying not to do that.

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I'm working a lot right now.

I have my school district job Monday through Thursday.

Temple volunteering on Friday.

Working at the bookstore on Saturday.

and this Sunday I will start teaching Sunday School.

whew.

The school job will end next week and not start up again until January 

and I'm finished at the bookstore at the end of September

so I will soon have a lot more time on my hands.

I'm really looking forward to doing some projects around the house

as well as having more time to spend with my parents.

With my work, we have fallen off on the weekly lunch dates and I want to get those back.

It's interesting how I feel all this need to get a job get a job get a job

but then when I am working 

I feel bad that I'm not available for my Mom and to help my Dad...

and that's the reason I moved here!

So I'm trying hard to focus on the real needs in my life

and they don't really involve money or a job

they involve people and helping and connecting.

I am going to try to keep that in perspective.

In other words, stay tuned for angsty blogs where I stress over job hunting and interviews soon.

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It's canning season again!

I just finished canning a bunch of peaches with my perfect sister.

I had my usual freak out that maybe I wouldn't have enough peaches in my life so I bought an extra box (1/2 bushel) to eat and freeze.

Man, I love peaches.

This fall I also plan to can pears even though they are a pain.

I like canned pears even better than canned peaches.

Fresh peaches beat everything though.

I am also contemplating making apple sauce.

My neighbor has an apple tree that I can pick from so I just might do it.

We used to be big apple sauce eaters but that was when there were kids around.

Now, we rarely eat it.

So, I'm wondering if we will eat it more if I make it homemade.

Everything is better homemade.

Which reminds me:

I made a chocolate cake the other day from a mix that Frank bought.

He was craving cake so he picked it up while shopping.

I haven't made a mix cake in quite awhile...

and it was soooo subpar.

Frank went out of town the day after I made it and that cake sat on the counter all week until he got back.

He was so surprised to see it there still!

It is so unlike me to leave anything sweet sitting around.

I wasn't even remotely tempted by that tasteless, airy thing.

Homemade is the way to go.

also

Who am I??

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Tonight we spent some time outside cleaning up the yard.

We picked up wormy apples from the ground

and picked apples off of the tree and threw them directly into the trash.

I have been harassing Frank to cut down the big old apple tree in our yard

but he isn't quite ready to do it.

I would like to plant a peach tree instead.

A very small peach tree.

He isn't against a peach tree but sees that old apple tree as an emergency food source I think.

He is all about emergency prep, after all.

That big old tree is still very full of apples.

We have many more sessions of yard cleaning ahead of us still.

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I've been sitting in the living room with the windows open while I blog

and my feet are now frozen.

I'm thinking I might go put my frozen feet on sleeping, warm Frank and see how he reacts.

I'm so much fun!