Although I have two full “tubs” of fall decor not including the wreath, it seems like I have very few decorations out. And it’s nothing special. But it’s enough to get us excited about fall and enjoy the season of “harvest” and of the chilly evenings and mornings to come, of soups and stews and corn bread, and all that comes with fall and winter evenings. So here are the touches I have set out. And much of it is the same year after year. I added a couple of things last year. I really like to make the fireplace mantel special with what is going on with the season.

Cody and Katy here in their engagement pic.

I need to get River in a frame, but he looks different every month. ;-). George’s parents are to the left. My Dad to the right.

And of course Dad and Mom.

Susan and Kevin (SIL and BIL) and Uncle Ken and Aunt Martha.

I was sitting in my chair over in the corner and noticed that Snuggie had its feet crossed like Maisy used to, LOL LOL LOL. It made me smile since I call Snuggie my “fake dog”. Never have to feed it. It never poops or pees and it’s always there on the bed. I told Snuggie if it ever moves for real, I’m leaving the room and never coming back. I guess Snuggie is having a gender crises. I’m not sure whether to call it a he or a she. If I get another dog I want it to be a girl dog, so I guess it’ll be a she. But I think of stuffed animals as “he” for some reason. Snuggie is a good and perfect pet – and just what I need for now. My pretend pet, til the real one comes into my world.

Not a very good pic – kinda blurry but here are our grandparents – not all of them. We have one of George’s set of grandparents on the wall in the hallway (too big to set here).

I don’t really think I’m happy with the “white” angel there with the fall decor, but I felt guilty taking it down. I know it’s not a real angel looking over us though, and God is the main one that we have watching over us – or with angels he has said to charge over us that we either can or can not see, as the Bible says some are angels we are unaware of. So likely I will talk myself into swapping the angel for a scarecrow or something – but you see my dilemma! lol lol lol

Welcome scarecrow in the foyer.

A little cluttered here, but George’s big iPod player! lol. Notice I tucked the Thanksgiving Pilgrims back out of the way for now. Tis not time for their presence! I really do not love how clunky this has become. The cabinet is a liquor cabinets and the things you see here are too tall to fit in the cabinet (rolling eyes). I used to like to see the actual mirror back there but you can barely see it now.

The bird sitting on the lazy susan.

The tea center, which half of it likely needs to be tossed (of the tea). We just don’t drink a lot of hot tea much anymore. I like having Sleepy Time tea, peppermint teas, and herbal teas around, but I don’t drink a lot of it. I will in the winter but this is overkill and has been for some time. I don’t want to put it in my kitchen cabinets as the space is too tight and I don’t want to throw it away. I mean does tea last forever? So it sits there for a while longer.

The essential oil corner. I have been having to use essential oils in my bedroom. When I come home from work it smells musty in there. I told Mom it smells “like an old man has been sleeping in my room”. It’s not always like that, and I don’t know why it does it sometime. I wondered if an old man was in the house and died in here. The things your mind wonders some time. It’s a peaceful room though, my office and bedroom. Mom asked me how I knew what an old man smelled like. lol lol. I don’t know it just smells like old stale air. Yuk. So I try to use the diffuser in there some. But I don’t have that kind of time normally. I need to find an air freshener that is not too pungent but will do the trick. Something linen or lemony or fresh scent. I’ll have to check. Any ideas? It might be that the air is circulating up from the basement or something. I have no idea – it just started doing it really. Just a little touch in the sunroom.

I added a fall apples table cloth and the plant seems to look good there as is.

Last night we had Pazole, a Mexican stew with pork and hominy and tomatoes. George made his own tortilla strips to go over it.

We had a burrito on the side.

I fixed an awesome sandwich for lunch. We are having hamburgers later. I probably didn’t need to sets of breads today but a sandwich really sounded good. This was breakfast and lunch including 4 strawberries.

The baked beans are ready to go. They are good. I tasted them and about the best recipe of baked beans I’ve ever tasted. I made them but yet it was someone else’s recipe. I will share it later in the week if you all think you would want it? It’s the perfect blend of tastes and made from scratch with navy beans. You can’t go wrong with bacon on top either! These have sautéed onions, garlic, and green peppers as well and also has a sauce of brown sugar, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, bean water that the beans cooked in, salt, pepper, chili sauce, and BBQ sauce all mixed together. The beans cooked about 1.5 hours on the stove after soaking overnight. And then the casserole itself baked for 2 hours. Anything that takes six hours to cook, better taste good right? I have a feeling this will become a classic though for summer parties, guests and even for us when we fix homemade pulled pork.

Video and Files: Behind the Scenes Here

So I was able to go through from May up until September with my iPhone photos – putting them into the upcoming video themed folders or into my pics by year of family photos. I am so thrilled with this. This helps a lot. Now I can simply just edit!

After I get the videos made I then delete those off my phone. I am afraid to delete them until the video is made though. I’m afraid it’ll goof up like it did one time when I did that. I’m not sure what happened. So I always wait! So after every video I delete delete delete of the iPhone, off of iMove timeline and off of iMovie media. The files are in my video files and remain there for both family photo files and video photo files so I’ll always have them in there. The video files are on a external drive. And the family photos are on my computer which is backed up. I may have to buy a separate external drive for my photos though as I have been putting a lot in them. If the Mac seems to get really slow I’ll do that next year some time.

Here’s a diagram for what is going on with my files. I ended up buying more cloud space to cover my needs. It was a whole lot of space for not a lot of extra money per month. I really struggled and had to learn (probably 2 or 3 times) as every time I’d learn I’d forget – the best way to store my files and organize them for what I am doing. I had to understand what the Mac was doing and what was on the cloud and just on my computer. It was a learning process for sure.

The family photos by year are about the only thing on my Mac and it’s backed up on the back up drive along with my system set up. Oh and there’s not much in the Movies file there other than my system drive information and probably whatever is in the iMovie program right now.

The “documents” folder is what shows up in “the cloud” and on all devices too if needed. I created several “LHMC files “Less Hustle More Coffee” for things I use often on the videos for a quick find if needed. And this screen shot shows you the upcoming videos I’ll be doing under “LHMC Projects”. There are two “summers” on there – you can’t see the entire title on the 2nd one – it’s “Late Summer”. I am not sure what the exact titles will be but that is what I’m calling that particular folder and I have to use the year and month and a title so they will be in order. lol

Anyway all that to say, things are in much better shape – although I still do have 1607 photos in my iPhone alone, lol. But so far so good.

Week Ahead

Well, we have a lot going on this week. It’s a 4 day week so that is good. But that means tomorrow will be a long payroll day as I have to do Monday and Tuesday all in one day. So I’ll go in early. Wednesday I will also go in early as I have to leave early to get Mom and get her to her Primary Care doctor so we can get her blood pressure meds renewed up here. Her doc has renewed all she can without seeing her. We’ve had a time finding a primary doc so I hope this one works out. We shall see. My reality side says “ain’t nothing gonna work out the first time” but I’ll put on my rosy glasses and hope for the best. We shall see if Mom is happy with this doctor.

Thursday I’ll probably be back for a blog post and catching up with you guys. It’s also the day George gets his 2nd shot. We have a weekend excursion planned to show Mom around Lebanon if all goes well – I guess it’ll mostly be by car. We are keeping a low profile with her during the “dreaded illness comeback”. Oh and tomorrow George is off and is taking her to get a new set of tires on her car. He noticed the tread was worn and one had a split. They researched the tires this morning. Soon we may need to take Fancy to the Vet also – she’s decided no longer to sit with Mom in her chair. We are unsure if it is because she feels bad or just that she fell off of it a couple of times and is afraid of it. She is coughing a lot though and may need more meds. She has acted a little off this week. So we may make her an appt for Saturday. I’m not sure I’ll have time to though until Wed maybe when I’m in the waiting room or car. We’ll see. Will be busy but I’ll see you guys back here on Thursday, Lord Willing!

I think I’ll go make Brownies as we have some Vanilla Bean I can put on top!

You doing anything special this week?