Friday Favorites: First Taste of Fall

Welcome to Friday favorites: a weekly linky for your favorite blog posts from the week co-hosted by Maya of Musings of a Marfan Mom and me!

In addition to the linky, I'm taking this opportunity each week to write a little bit about a my favorite moments from the past week. I hope you'll feel inspired to leave a comment telling me about your favorite thing(s) that happened this week, too!

These are a few of my favorite things:

I missed a couple weeks of favorites because of my wrist injury, but I'm happy to report that my wrist has been feeling much better since I went to the chiropractor earlier in the week! I'm still not back to 100%, but typing hasn't proven so difficult, and I'm glad to be back in the swing of writing.

My favorite thing that happened during my unplanned hiatus from writing about my favorites was our trip to visit my mom's family. We got to spend time with my brother (Matthew), sister (Suzanne), and mom, as well as my grandmother (Gran Gran), my aunt (Susan) and uncle (Bob), and two of my cousins (Stephen and Colton). Jaymz and I enjoyed a double date night one evening with Susan and Bob while Daniel got to spend the evening with his Ya-Ya (my mom) and Matthew, Suzanne, and Gran Gran. We all spent some time at a pool one morning enjoying the cool water, and there was plenty of backyard play with the kiddie pool and water toys, too. About half of us went out for a little pampering and pedicures together and we took up almost all of the chairs in the place! We ate delicious food. We visited with each other. We visited Mike. We all had a lot of fun—I only wish we could've had a longer visit!

We're settling back in to our daily rhythm here after returning home from vacation, which feels nice. It's really starting to feel like fall: the air is getting cooler, we've had a few days of rain, and everyone seems to be in back to school mode. Fall is my favorite season, and particularly after weathering a hot summer while pregnant, I'm feeling ready for this change.

During this past long weekend, Jaymz and I went on a food preservation spree. On Sunday, we acquired a bunch of plums from our neighbor's overgrown trees, and then proceeded to make and can 8 pints of plum jam (two different kinds) and dry 2 quarts of prunes. Then, on Labor Day we washed and diced and cubed and blanched and peeled and chopped and stirred until we'd made and canned 12 pints of salsa made from tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic grown in our garden. It was a lot of hard work, but I am feeling so proud to see those shiny jars lined up on my pantry shelves, ready for eating and gifting!

spicy peppers, about to become salsa

Yesterday was my mom's birthday—happy birthday, Mom!


What was one of your favorite moments from the week?

Grab the Friday Favorites button to display on your site:

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Link up your favorite blog posts from the week using the linky below and Maya and I will comment on them! Remember to share the love by reading and commenting on a few other posts from the list after you enter your link in the list. The linky will stay open until Monday afternoon.