From My Writing Desk

I can’t believe I’m already sitting down to write my October letter.

September seemed to go by especially fast this year. Maybe because I spent so much of it waiting for those first cooler mornings to finally show up. They have now, and lately I’ve been waking up to dew covering the grass and temperatures that actually feel like fall. By afternoon, it can still get pretty warm here, but I’ll take those cool mornings while I can get them.

The mums I talked about planting last month are all settled into their planters now, and so far, they’re doing really well. I’ve been enjoying seeing that little bit of fall color outside every day, especially now that the mornings are starting to feel more like the season.

We’ve also been working on the outside of the house a little bit. Jacob took on the job of staining our entire fence a darker brown, which was no small project. He worked hard on it and did such a good job, and I love how much warmer it made everything look. With the fence finished, I’ve now turned my attention to our front door and shutters and finally decided to change the color.

I went back and forth on this one.

I originally thought about a really dark chocolate brown, but the more I looked at everything together—the neutral siding, the stone, the darker fence—I felt like the house needed just a little bit of color. So, I landed on a deep shade called Ancient Burgundy.

With the mums out front, a few pumpkins around the entry, and that deep burgundy on the door and shutters, I think it’s going to be really pretty for fall without feeling like I’ve decorated every square inch of the house.

I’ve been getting into fall in the kitchen, too.

A few weeks ago I made a Maple Dijon Harvest Chicken Bowl with chicken, cranberries, pecans, vegetables and a maple Dijon sauce. I’ll admit, I wasn’t entirely sure about it when I was putting everything together.

Cranberries, pecans and chicken?

I don’t know.

But it was good!

It reminded me of one of those harvest bowls you see on a restaurant menu in the fall, and I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked everything together. So that one is staying in the rotation, and now that cooler weather is coming, I’ve been thinking about some other recipes I want to make and share here over the next couple of months.

I’m ready for the warmer meals again. There’s something about a cooler evening that makes a warm dinner at home feel especially good. I still like to keep things simple, though, so I’m looking forward to trying a few new recipes that feel like fall but are still easy enough for an ordinary weeknight.

And then, of course, there are the books.

I finished The Autumn Leaf Bookshop in September, and I really enjoyed it. It was different from what I normally read, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first, but I’m glad I stuck with it. By the end, I was really happy I’d picked it up.

My October book is Paris, Pumpkins, and Puns.

I haven’t started it yet, so I can’t tell you whether I love it, hate it, or somewhere in between. But really…with a name like Paris, Pumpkins, and Puns, when else am I supposed to read it?

October it is.

I’ve realized while writing this that most of what I’m looking forward to this month is pretty ordinary.

I’ve realized while writing this that most of what I’m looking forward to this month is pretty ordinary—reading a new book, trying a few recipes, finishing up some things around the house, walking when the mornings are cool, watching the mums grow, and maybe putting a few pumpkins by the front door. And I’m actually okay with that.

We’re getting close to that part of the year when everything starts speeding up. Once November gets here, Thanksgiving isn’t far behind it, and then somehow, we’re talking about Christmas and wondering where the year went.

I don’t want to do that to October.

I don’t want to spend this month already looking toward the next one.

So I’m going to try to enjoy what’s right in front of me while it’s here. The cooler mornings. The changing leaves. Dinner at home. A book I’m hopefully going to love. An evening outside when it’s finally cool enough that the mosquitoes don’t carry me away.

Maybe that’s all I really want from October this year—to enjoy the ordinary days while they’re here and not be in such a hurry to get to what comes next.

Before I go, I wanted to share a little something for October. I created a new reflection page, October: Right Where I Am, with a few simple prompts to help you slow down and notice what you want to make room for this month.

I hope you enjoy it.

Wishing you a beautiful October,
Shelley