feels like fall

October and November in our area of Mexico are just gorgeous. Every morning, it's chilly and sunny. A breeze blows for most of the day. It warms up in the late mornings/early afternoons, begging you to come outside, and then gets cold again in time to snuggle under the covers with the windows open to sleep. We go on walks/runs most days, often out into the country. Running out towards El Limon, a nearby town, always makes me wonder about days gone by in Mexico. There's the John Deere 9610 harvesting corn, but there's also so many evidences of farming practices of yesterday. Farmers in straw hats on bikes, going out to check their crops. Older gentlemen on horses or donkeys with a load of some sort of crop draped across the saddle. People of all ages bent over with their backs to the sun, working in the strawberry fields, picking into five-gallon buckets. It feels like fall, but it's a different fall than you'd find in central Illinois - although harvested corn smells the same everywhere. :)

Life is pretty routine around here, which is nice. Our days could sometimes stand to be a little bit fuller, but overall we're enjoying them.

"'Side? Cold?"

Our Saturday routine is making muffins for the coming week. Grant won't eat breakfast until 10 a.m. unless there's something like that around. So Ivory and I try to make food available. On this particular day we made some pumpkin muffins, but I think in this picture we're making an egg casserole. :)

I asked Grant the other evening if he thought his mom could bring some apple doughnuts down for us. He didn't seem to think they'd make it and really still be edible. But he thought I could make my own. I found a recipe and made a valiant effort - they have really good flavor, but they're not "apple cider" doughnuts (since we don't have apple cider...) so they aren't quite the same. Also, I don't have a doughnut pan so you can see that I improvised by using a muffin tin and putting wads of aluminum foil in the center, which I eventually removed - not a great solution; it mostly just looks like I poked my finger in all of them. Oh well. 

Titus was my helper for this late-night project... as he is for all our late-night projects. He kind of seems to feel like it's his time to shine after his sister is in bed. 

I put him on the play mat. A few minutes later, this is where I found him. 

 

We took a walk to Llano yesterday to do a Bible study. Lety wasn't home when we got there, but it was still nice to get out and enjoy the evening! Ivory wanted out of the stroller for a while, so we let her.. she seemed to enjoy walking through the dirt in her boots. 

I found these gorgeous fall-colored flowers at the market the other day, so we brought some home. They brighten up life, for sure! I've also been able to get some excellent apples, which are not imported (therefore, much cheaper) and only available this time of year. They're always a special treat!

Just so you know, I back-posted several posts before this one, so keep scrolling to see the others. I've been a little behind on the blog lately.