The Final Countdown. . .

Writer's Workshop with Mama Kat.

Prompt of choice: 2.) List the 5 best things about the first day of school.

Starting tomorrow there are five days until the girls are back in school. So let's count down with five reasons it's cool to be back in school:

Start the count with number five,

They're both taking the bus, I won't have to drive!

Next on the list is number four,

I won't have to entertain them any more!

Sunday brings us down to three,

School makes our lives more orderly.

Counting down to number two,

I'll have more time and less to do.

And best of all at number one,

Learning stuff is lots of fun!

And since I am in school too number one applies to me as well.

Fall Fix

I need my fall fix. It is my favorite season, and I can feel it coming. It makes me giddy just thinking about it.

You want to know how I know it's coming?

I can smell it.

Can't you?

The seasons affect my senses differently.

Spring is all about sight: the burst of color in spring flowers, the grass turning green, the sun coming out to bathe everything in a warm glow of happiness.

Summer is all sound: girls giggling and shrieking, water splashing, birds singing, lawn mowers whirring.

Winter is all about taste: peppermint sticks, hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows and, pies, candies, ham and turkey. . . we fill ourselves with warm food and sticky treats to get us through the cold months of winter.

But Fall. . . fall is the best. Fall is all about smell: the smell of cool crisp air and the moist damp earth as the rain starts, woodsmoke lingering in the air, cinnamon and pumpkin spice in baking and candles. Apple and berry cobblers, roasts cooking in the crockpot, soup in the pot, and homemade donuts with maple glaze fill my house with heavenly scents of autumn. The smell of paper in the books and school supplies the children fill their bags with on their way back to school.

I can smell them. They are in the seasonal isles of target. They are in the air that surrounds the first changing leaves. They are already filling up my house with comfort and my nose with delight.

I am getting giddy. . . are you?

Lions and Tigers and Bears. . .Oh My!

Do you know what I love most about going to the zoo. . .?

Watching my little animals.