Starting New...

Today is the first day of the rest of your life....

I remember hearing that phrase when I was a kid. It never really meant anything to me, at least not before today.

Today is the first day that I am the Lady of the House again. After almost 2 years of stepping back because it wasn't my home, I am back on my throne! Just kidding, but it did sound kinda good to me.

I've spent the day just enjoying myself. It was the first day of General Conference, so that of course was included. It was also a beautiful Autumn day.

I went to the dollar store today to see if I could fill in some of the kitchen gadget gaps created by Tiffany moving out.

I should have known better. I was feeling really good so.... WHAM!!! I fell in love!!

No, not a man.....

DISHES!!!

I love Autumn. I love the color of the trees. I love the wind and the rain. Autumn reminds me of freshly baked bread and hot cocoa after a long day at school. I have good memories of Autumn. I missed Autumn in Arizona. In Arizona there really are no definitive seasons, and certainly no Autumn.

In my younger years, Autumn meant time to gather walnuts. Picking up walnuts is dirty work. It involves a slimy outer hull that will turn your hands black. I didn't wear gloves, I have never liked wearing gloves. I'm a kinestetic person (I know, spelling is probably wrong, but Wikipedia is down and my dictionary is still packed away in some anonymous box). Anyway, I like to feel what I am doing, to experience through touch, so despite the black slime, I just never used gloves.

But, I would step on the nuts to smear them in the grass in an attempt to minimize the slime. It was worth it, they are soooo good. Later, I discovered that if I cracked and shelled them raw, then dried them in the dehydrator, they would not aquire a bitter taste. They were so good. Did I already say that? We had 6 English walnut trees surrounding the house. I would shell about 1 or so quarts a night, dry them, then put them in the freezer. By the end of the season I usually had 3 or 4 gallons of shelled walnuts!!! I had a small fortune in nuts at my disposal.

At this time we lived in my childhood house. I lived there with my parents from 4th grade to when I got married the first time. Then, after my dad died, I returned with my husband and children. My last 2 babies were born while I lived at that house.

We were poor, so I used the walnuts to make Christmas presents. I gave away walnut toffee for Christmas. I made Oatmeal cookies with walnuts. I even gave away small bags of walnuts. They were a treasure to me, but I did share them. My first husband would give them away to his friends and I would get so mad. He didn't have the right to give away MY hard work. I told him he could pick up the walnuts, shell them, dry them, then he was free to give them away..... He stopped giving my walnuts away, but he never did do any for himself.

Anyway, back to today, I walked into the dollar store and fell in love with something that reminded me of my favorite season of the year. There are imperfections in the dishes, but I don't care. Life has imperfections, that's one of the reasons it can be so interesting...

I'm going to enjoy my new dishes. We didn't need dishes, but since I fell in love I couldn't very well leave them behind.

As I stated in the beginning. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I feel like I have not just started a new chapter, I started a whole new book! Somehow it seems appropriate to have this start begin in Autumn, my favorite season of the year.