Soup For Dinner--Curried Lentil Soup

I have been a lazy blogger. Actually I have been a busy Mom. The kids have been on fall break for two weeks which means I have been busy chasing kids and cleaning up messes. On top of that we have hosted two birthday parties this month, been hiking with the cub scouts, sold sodas at Applefest with the cub scouts, and painted pumpkins up at the feildhouse all in addition to the normal cooking/cleaning/shopping/laundry/scout meetings that make up daily life. In short we have stayed pretty busy this month. Today is the last day of fall break. We are hanging out relaxing in our jammies and watching a Scooby Doo marathon on Boomerang, everyone except or Cody that is, he is working on homework since his school didn't have fall break. Poor baby!

I have continued with the weekly soup night although it hasn't fallen on the same night each week. Since my last post we tried the Curried Lentil Soup suggested by Planet Nomad in my comments from the last soup post. YUM! It rocked. Alonzo, who is my picky eater, took one bite and announced, "This one is a do-over." YAY! No complaints and it was even better the second day. I was so busy eating I forgot to take a picture. Darn it all! Guess that means I will just have to make it again. If you want to try it for yourself just click here.

Wordless Wednesday - Leaf Angel

View From My Window Today

We are THAT family posted today about fall in Texas and how we revel in it even though it is still warm enough to wear shorts well into November most years. It may still be warm but it isn't so hot that you can't breathe like late July and August. That post got me to thinking about how different fall is depending on where you live.

The last two years we didn't have fall. We were in Jakarta which is tropical. There was only wet season and dry season. No fall, ever. Although I have to say about twice a year the tree in my yard would abruptly lose all it's leaves in one day. When you looked out the window you could see leaves raining down each time the wind blew. If you are me you could turn down the A/C, put on a sweater, make some hot tea, and pretend it was fall for a little while. Of course the second you open the door you realized it was 90+ degrees like every other day of the year.

This year we are in Germany which is colder than anyplace I have ever lived. My husband is finding my reaction to the cold quite amusing. Don't worry I am not going to whine some more about the cold, not today anyway. There is an upside to the cold weather, the leaves have all turned the most amazing color. This is the first time I have really experienced trees changing colors. Sure we made a trip every year to Lost Maples State Park to see the colors and it was lovely. The trees really do change color even though they are in Texas and the hill country landscape is always beautiful. I have great memories of making that trip each year and when I look back at the pictures I can see the kids and our family growing year by year. I wouldn't trade those times for anything. This year however, everywhere I look I see a kaleidoscope of colors. Look at these pictures I took out my living room window this morning.


The pictures don't really do the colors justice. The colors, especially the yellows just seem to glow. I love it. There is one more thing about fall in Germany that is fun. NUTS. Lots of nuts. The boys have collected buckets of nuts. Hazelnuts, walnuts and chestnuts. they are having a blast and I can't wait to use some of those nuts in a batch of walnut chocolate chip cookies. Now if I could just get the kids to wash and shell the nuts too.