Life as we go it

The end of summer is always so bittersweet for me...

I love, love, love summer. I love the sunshine, the flowers, the outdoor music & chilled cocktails. I love pontoon boat rides at the cabin, Liam playing in the sprinkler and nursing Chloe outside on the deck.

Yet as Fall starts to roll in I also look forward to throwing a sweatshirt on & going for walks in the cool, crisp air. There's nothing more comforting than making pumpkin pies, having fires in our fireplace and snuggling on the couch with my family under a bunch of fuzzy blankets.

So as Summer says goodbye and Fall says "hi" I plan to try and enjoy every little bit of it...

Goodbye warm breezes, hello coughs and sneezes.

Goodbye bees, hello colorful trees.

Goodbye tomatoes, hello potatoes.

Some things that made me smile last week:

Cooking with fresh vegetables from our garden and farmers market...

We've been spending lots of time in our yard, now that the weather's become more pleasant! There's a never-ending list of things we can do in our yard at any given time. 

Our front yard is almost all landscaping, filled with huge hydrangea bushes, shrubs, trees and a variety of perennials (crocus, tulips, bleeding heart, iris, daylilly, daffodils, decorative grasses, hosta, etc). I also plant annuals amongst the perennials once the weather is for sure going to stay warm. 

One side of our home is also landscaped with large shrubs and more perennials. Then there's a huge landscaped area between our deck and yard, and more landscaping that runs along the entire length of our backyard fence. And along an entire side of our garage. We also have a garden planted along the other side of our garage. Phew!

All of this landscaping + perennials + annuals = much to do! We're always trying to keep up with the raking and pruning and trimming and stick collecting. 

It's really therapeutic to me though. It's a great sense of accomplishment when you clean up a section of your yard and it looks good :) 

When Liam is napping it gives me an opportunity to get outside in the fresh air and just zone out. Plus I get a ton of exercise doing it, and Liam LOVES being outside. He either sits in his stroller and watches us do the yard work, or he'll walk around/sit on the ground and play with leaves, sticks and dirt. 

A few more photos I took of flowers growing in our yard right now:

I planted our garden last night. I planted mini pumpkins, which I think Liam will get a kick out of when Fall arrives :) I also planted lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini and we'll be planting a ton of tomatoes once we get the plants. We buy our tomato plants from our neighbor, Jane, because she does such a great job at getting them started. 

As much as I'd love to plant more things in the garden, we've decided to just get the rest at our wonderful farmers market every week. Our farmers market is open on Wednesdays AND Saturdays each week, so it's really easy to just run there with Liam and pick out some fresh veggies.