The Search for Miss Direction: Fall fabulousness

Saturday's during the Fall rank right up there with Christmas as my favorite time of the year. Especially now that we're in Michigan where there is an actual fall season as opposed to Florida where the calendar says October but you'd never know the difference between that and February by looking out the window. There are just too many good things to name about Fall but oh, let me mention just a few
1) College football
2) Leaves
3) Apples
4) Pumpkins
5) More college football
6) Play-off baseball
7) The smell of people trying out their fireplaces
8) Not being the only one decked out in a sweatshirt constnatly
9) Did I mention college football?

And today has ranked right up there with the best of the best of a typical Fall Saturday. While my beloved Wolverines sit this week out (probably best to just keep hidden 'til we live down that ND defeat last weekend...) I did keep my fingers crossed there for an OSU defeat which didn't quite pan out. On the flipside, I did get to watch a great Tigers win (yay for Leyland getting his act back in gear and going back to the winning line-up with my favorite Quentin Berry!) and the White Sox went down (hard core, major ouch for the,) which means we're two games up with four left to play.

And if that wasn't enough I have spent the majority of my day wrapped up in my favorite Saturday past-time; (other than college football ;-) ) playing in my kitchen! I have to admit I went a little pumpkin crazy today. I picked up two pie pumpkins earlier this week and have been waiting with bated breath to roast them up and start to use them. We're going apple picking with my parents tomorrow so I wanted to be sure to get some of my pumpkin madness out of the way before I start going crazy with the apples. (Grant, you should be worried probably) So with my oodles of pumpkin I got to work. The semolina flour in the fridge has been calling my name and while everyone here has been lobbying for it to be used for perogie I ended up turning it into a batch of pumpkin ravioli. That was followed by some honestly to die for pumpkin cookies that both Grant and the kiddos wait all year for. They are soft and light and make my whole house smell sublime. Baked up some of the dough, froze the rest for those emergency "I really need a cookie" moments. I then got together the fixings for made from scratch pumpkin pancakes for tomorrow's breakfast. I don't know that I've ever made pancakes before that call for vinegar in the batter, so those should be an experience :)

And the day just wouldn't have been complete without finding a use for the rest of those Hugs from the cookies we made the other day. You'll have to check out the picture below to see the latest treat of choice in the Gatchel household :)

While I went crazy in the kitchen, Grant and the kiddos checked out the Pumpkin parade in South Lyon this morning. From what I hear Noah and Mikayla made friends with all the kids sitting around them patiently waiting for the parade to arrive since they were at the end of the route. Grant said they were the leaders of the 'crazy circle of kids' Maybe it was a good thing I wasn't there...

After lunch we also went and checked out the Harvest Moon farmer's market downtown. We were slightly let down by the selection today, though. I did pick-up a couple of crafting ideas, though. (Seriously Grant, super worried...)

Alright, off to work on another crafty project and then catch some z's so I'm well rested for the apple picking festivities tomorrow. Until then...

Wait, did someone say there's still college football on? ;-)