Changing Seasons

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..."
Ecclesiastes 3:1

How do I know it's fall?

1.  Jesse tilled the garden this weekend.  The only thing left in there is the pumpkin plant... which is pathetically small.  I'm doubtful that it will get big, but we'll see.

2.  It smells like fall.  When you walk outside the air has that crisp, fall smell.  You know what I'm talking about.  Unless you've lived in Mississippi all your life, in which case, you have no idea what you're missing.  That was the hardest part about living in Biloxi... I'm a changing season kind of girl, which is tough in a place where there's just summer and about two weeks of "winter" ;o)

4.  It feels like fall.  It's getting to be comfy, warm clothes weather.  I even busted out my slippers and had to turn on the heaters in the girls room for night time!

3.  It's dark like fall.  Though this is a little different than I'm used to.  It's dark and dreary in NY for most of the fall/winter... but it seems like a more gradual change.  Germany just takes the plunge in this matter.  We went from it being light all the time (the sun was still out at 10pm!) to getting dark earlier and earlier until all the sudden POOF I realized I had to turn on the lights upstairs to get the girls ready for bed! 

This part of life in Germany is going to be a little bit of an adjustment for me.  Especially since we just went from "sunny all the time and no winter" in Mississippi.  The people who've lived here awhile tell me that it will literally get dark at 4/4:30pm in the heart of winter.  This is so scary sounding to me!  I think the reason it scares me so much is because I don't like being alone at night... in the dark... and that's going to happen a lot. 

Jesse will be working 12 hour shifts starting the 20th.  He'll be on two or three days, off two or three days.  And every other month he'll switch from working days to working nights.  So it's the months he's on nights this winter (gone from 8pm-8am) that I'll have to light lots of candles and snuggle up by the fire with a good book and some cozy music.

Hopefully this will make the dark more comforting and less intimidating.

It's funny because I think I'm going to miss the transition from fall to winter because I'll be in NY/MA for October.  It will probably be very different here when I get back in November.

But that's okay.  I love the changing seasons :o)