This I know for sure...

The calendar may say summer officially ends on September 22nd, but I always feel like the start of a new school year signals the end of the summer.

As the season draws to a close, I'm trying to squeeze every drop out of the good weather. We have a couple of day trips planned before school starts. Next Friday, we're going to our state fair. I've lived in the same state my entire life and have never been to this particular fair. I've been working in the garden, trying to get it ready for the coming winter. The tree in our front yard is already losing leaves so the raking has begun. It's one of the few fall chores I hate. 

I've also been trying to just enjoy the sun. Once winter sets in the days will become gray and gloomy on a regular basis where I'll be going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. This happens much too quickly as far as I'm concerned. It seems fall passes by in a flash and winter drags on endlessly.

Do you feel that summer ends when school starts? Do you do anything to enjoy the end of the season?

Fall

I have to admit I'm not a big fan of the fall season for one very big reason -- Winter comes right after it.  I hate the snow.  While I'm not particularly fond of the cold either, at least I can do something about that by wearing a sweater or warmer clothing.  Unfortunately, I'm not Mother Nature and cannot control the amount of snow we get each season or when it will happen. 

 That being said, I enjoy a lot of the things the fall season brings, I like the crisp, cooler temperatures in the middle 60's, I like the crunch of freshly picked apples, I like carving pumpkins, roasting the pumpkin seeds, I like the smell of fall, I like the colors of the leaves as they turn from green to deep reds, oranges, and yellow.  (I do not like raking those same leaves though.)  I like Halloween and Thanksgiving and the gatherings of friends and family that those holidays bring.

But what I like most of all about fall is a steaming cup of hot apple cider, spiced with a cinnamon stick and sometime an orange slice and some cloves.  I love the way it makes the house smell when I'm heating it on a pan on the stove.  I like curling up in the corner of the sofa with a good book and a cup of hot apple cider on a cool Sunday afternoon.  

How about you?  What do you like best about the fall season?

Happy New Year?

January 1st is the official start of a new year but I've always viewed the first day of school in September as the beginning of a new year.  Teachers and children go back to school, routines change as after school activities start anew, and the changing of the season from summer to fall begins.  I think all those years of school and college (although I started in mid-August when I went to college) is what first made me start to view September as the beginning of a new year. 

Don't get me wrong, I celebrate New Year's Day on January 1st just like everyone else.  I even set my goals in January with various end dates throughout the year but all of those goals are met by December 31st. (I hope.)  But there's something about September that makes me want to start new and fresh.  Maybe it should be Happy New Beginnings Day although I can't imagine too many kids are happy school is going to be back in session.

Between family obligations, various doctor appointments, and a work schedule where I didn't always get out on time (which cuts into the writing time), I've been struggling to find time to write the last few weeks.  So with a new school year starting and the coming fall season, I've decided to look past all those empty calendar days where there's no notation of what I'd written on any given day and begin again.

I've set a goal beginning today of writing every day for 100 days straight.  Even if I can only manage a paragraph due to time constraints, I will attempt to write every day.  I'm hoping it will help me get back into a daily writing schedule, help me get past the point in my manuscript where I've been stuck for the last few weeks, and to help me reach my goals I set at the beginning of 2012. 

I have much I want to accomplish and it's time to get started.  Happy New Beginnings Day.