Autumn

I have been enjoying autumn this year. It's basically the first autumn I've had since 2006. There were the things I was expecting to see--changing leaves, pumpkins and apples. I have been awestruck by the beauty of the late afternoon sun with its golden light illuminating whatever it touches. We made applesauce with my parents last weekend. It brought back memories of doing it as a kid with my brother, taking turns turning the handle of the Squeezo. I didn't remember it being as labor intensive as it was (probably because I didn't do anything with the actual canning and water bath needed to seal the jars when I was a kid).

We recently moved into our own place--yay! (and much thanks to my parents who graciously hosted us for several months). Nadia, Luke and I take a walk around our neighborhood most mornings. It's fun to see the colors of mums, the pumpkin decorations and scare crows. We've enjoyed walking through the crisp leaves that have fallen onto the sidewalks. It's hard to explain to a three-year old Halloween decorations. After several years of living where the spirit world is particularly close, ghosts, skeletons and the like are not fun decorations but rather ominous objects that I would rather not invite into my life or that of my children's. Nadia, in her own way, has created good from her exposure to the decorations. She'll often point out a ghost with its mouth open and tell me it's singing and then continue on our walk singing her own songs--mostly Sunday school songs and nursery rhymes.

I am impressed with our bodies. After having six years of HOT summers (this summer in the States, we were told was hot and we barely sweated), I guess our bodies grew accustomed to the heat. I didn't think so while we were there, I still sweated out of every pore of my body. But now as winter approaches and temperatures dip closer and closer to freezing, we are COLD! The other day on our walk, the temperatures were in the low 50s (13ish celcius). Nadia, Luke and I were dressed like we were ready for winter--winter hats, gloves and tukes. Parents waiting with their kids for the bus were dressed in jeans and fleeces. Joel and I already have three blankets on our beds and are sleeping in flannel pajamas. My fingers are constantly cold. We have multiple afghans on our sofa to curl up with. And it's only mid-October! Perhaps it is true that our blood (or whatever helps our bodies adjust to temperatures) does change.  So if you see us all bundled up...it's not because we're odd, we're just cold.