The 15 MUSTS on My Fall Bucket List.

Happy Monday to you, friends! I hope your weekend was sweet and cool with that fall breeze we've been having over here. I wanted to share my little fall bucket list today and see if you had any great ideas to add to this. Have you made a bucket list of autumn things you would like to do this season? I am extra excited about this season because I am so satisfied with the stage our family is in. I am really really loving the age Everett is because I feel like we can really do some fun things with him this fall and he is experiencing them fully. He might not remember these things, but the joy, excitement, adventure and love are surely making a life-long impact on him. I am so lucky to be a part of creating that for him.

The 15 MUSTS on My Fall Bucket List:
1. Pick a Pumpkin.
I seriously can't wait to see Everett toddling around a pumpkin patch. I MEAN. He needs a flannel vest. And maybe some boots. Ahhh PUMPKINS.

2. Enjoy some seriously colorful foliage.
Man, these are the times when I miss my New England days. The foliage up there is so painted and pretty it's just silly. SILLY.

3. Apple Pick.
I always want to bring home two bushels, and every time Stevie says no. Then buys me a cider donut to cheer me up. It's our routine.

4. Visit the Mountains.
Any mountains will do. It just feels like the right time to GO. And take to the mountains. Like Frodo did.

5. Enjoy Mulled Wine.
Oh gosh, this stuff is my Achilles heel. Made some this weekend! Checkedy check!

6. Make something with pumpkin and apples.
I usually make both of these pies around Thanksgiving time, but I'd like to get more out of the box with my recipes this fall and makes something different!

7. Read a good book.
As part of my Intentional October, I am reading a few right now. I feel so alive!

8. Sit by the fire.
We have a fire place in our new home! While it's not wood-burning (which is my favorite), I guess I will enjoy the cleanliness of this gas fireplace. Although I can feel that Stevie will be monitoring my use of it due to the expense... He's not always Scrooge. But sometimes. And sometimes I am an excessive fire starter. What's wrong with every day? Why NOT every day???

9. Decorate outdoors with some good mums.
Now this was just a lead into another one that I've already done and feel so right about. I love mums so much. Don't you just feel like you're talking about a British mother AND Fall's most famous flower?! Two for one, those mums.

10. Drink a Pumpkin Spice Latte.
Okay, so I also did this one this weekend, and I don't know WHAT I WAS THINKING by telling my mother as I drove the the Starbucks drive-through, because then she just gave me a talking-to about how bad those are for our health. I mean, mom! It's my first and last one of the season, I promise. Just let me have my chemically-induced pumpkin spice latte and let me TRY to enjoy it! Also - I think they've raised the price by like, a dollar since last fall. Am I right?

11. Unearth my Fall Clothes.
The closet space in my new pad isn't great, but in some ways, I think that's a really good thing! It's making me really careful about what I add to my closet and I'm finding new uses for old things. However, my fall boots are my favorite thing about my entire wardrobe. And they are out to play!

12. Make stew. Any will do.
I've got so many stew recipes. I will share a few of my favorites next week!

13. Make a wreath.
I've never done a craft like this before. I'm thinking that it's time :)

14. Go Camping.
Just planned a camping trip! I'm not the most rugged girl on Earth, but I can enjoy one night under the stars every once in a while and not moan about it. Just give me smores.

15. Run in the crispy morning air.
We've gotten a hint of fall here in Georgia, but in a few more weeks, I know that morning air is going to get crispy. And I am waking up early these days, so I will seize it! My favorite running is in the fall.

That's my list! What's yours? Anything you would add?

Also, I wanted to encourage everyone that has joined me for Intentional October - you are doing awesome! The feedback has been stellar, so just know that you are in this with a lot of others who are going after some intentional change in their lives this month! If you're new to Intentional October, check out my post on what it is, how you can make this month intentional for yourself, and hone in on your focus. I'll check in with everyone here on the blog on Thursday to give an update on how it's going! Remember to tag your Instagram photos with the hashtag #intentionaloctober so you can encourage others, have a conversation and experience the accountability of this pursuit. You can follow my Instagram feed here.

Happiest of Mondays to you, friends!

Turning 28.

I am sort of caught up in this poem today, as I contemplate my 28th year.

"Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean -
the one who has flung herself
  out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out
  of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and
  forth instead of up and down -
who is gazing around with her
  enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and
  thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open,
  and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
  how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down
  in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how
  to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
- The Summer Day, Mary Oliver

I've been sort of electrified and maddened by the echoing question, "what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

What is it? What am I doing? What do I want to do? What am I doing?

Well, I'm pretty certain that I want to celebrate. I want to drink champagne and I want to ride atop a jeweled elephant. I want to make my sisters feel my love. I want to cook up a storm and force feed the entire city of Atlanta. I want to sing with my son at the top of our lungs. I want to smell the peonies from my wedding and I want to bury my face in the lush grass of my backyard. I want to tap dance on the stage of the first broadway show I ever saw. (though I don't actually tap dance.) I want to give a certain high school bully a wedgie. I want to lounge on a hammock with my husband and watch the sun go down, reminiscing about all our past adventures. Because they are my favorite memories. I want to take hold of all the sinew, dreams, will and fiber of my being, and I want to give it all away. I want my life to matter. I want to touch the world with my intent. I want to be raw and vulnerable and strong and tall. Gosh, I so want to be tall. I want to make a difference and I want to do it while I'm holding the hands of my loves to the right and to the left. I want to walk into the future, ready, hopeful, good-humored and tireless. I want to harness this wild, precious gift and make it matter.

To many things to wish as I blow out my candle? Well then.

Today I turn 28. Watch me go.

Summer Favorites.

I might have been a bit premature in my dramatic, drooly post about Autumn arriving. It most certainly hinted at it's coming, but summer stepped back in and grabbed a hold of the meteorologist's microphone this past weekend. SUMMER. We feel you. I am once again, breathing in the humidity and choking on it's drippy, hazy, haughtiness. But, in all honesty, this summer rocked my face off. Maybe it rocked too hard in some ways. Rocked so hard that I found myself off balance more than once. But this was certainly a memorable one and I wanted to take a minute to recap my little family's favorite moments this summer.

At Serenbe, our favorite little farm away from home.

My dad, Stevie and Everett shooting hoops. The best.

Hanging with my niece while her baby brother was being born. These are the days!

We bought an all-electric car!

Our 4th of July was filled with house hunting, barbecue sandwiches and watching Everett watch the rain. In the cutest diapers in the land, of course.

Breakfast outdoors in Madrid! That little man was tired, and so was I, so we cheered our cafe con leche/fruit pouch and enjoyed in silence. I will never forget it.

The bible says to give honor where honor is due. So I curtsied at the Spanish Royal Palace.

We ate pizza and drank lunchtime wine in Rome. Like it was going out of style. Like it hasn't been in style there for thousands of years.

I should frame this one. It makes me so happy, the three of us in Italy. Who says you can't take a baby traveling? I discovered a lot of helpful tricks. I also crashed when we got home. But still - WORTH IT.

You pound it Everett. He the raddest.

Dream come true: Our beloved New Yorkers came to Georgia. Her other half, unfortunately not pictured. But a week later we flew up there and got to see them again! BEST SUMMER EVER.

Went to the iconic Tavern on the Green, which only made me reminisce about the last time I had been there, a drillion years ago with my dad and my aunt and a parade of cows and that famous artist guy. <-- That statement. See what I mean? NYC is nutso. In the very best kind of way!

Anthony and Everett, discussing the dinner plan. Amongst their many other plans for his future. Babies in NYC, oh, it's doable. For a weekend, anyway :)

Is there anything better than NYC in the summer? He's sighing here, because he knows there's not. Hahaha, actually, Jess gave him lemonade from Shake Shack, and he was eternally grateful to her.

Oh, the places these boats must go. We chatted with the yacht drivers. AND DREAMED.

Nothing makes me happier than goofing around NYC with my family, eating and drinking all the fads.

Do you know what it feels like when you realize you don't have control over your heart? That's what I feel when I look at this picture. Completely overwhelmed and unable to control my emotions. These two hold my heart hostage. I'm probably never getting it back either.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time cooking this summer, even though it's something I love. We just moved around so much, and then you know, actually moved! But this Artichoke recipe is too delicious not to mention. And this photo is perhaps my favorite foodie one of the summer.

We house-hunted on our bikes. It was the best way to do it! Everett never got fussy and we got to exercise! Which I'll admit, has definitely fallen by the wayside this summer. What didn't I do this summer? GET IN SHAPE.

I can deny him nothing. LOOK AT THAT FACE.

Everett turned one year old! And I turned one in mother years, too.

We threw him a pirate-themed birthday party. He loved the party, hated the cake.

My beautiful baby sister graduated from college. And my Aunt (and all of us!) couldn't be more proud :)

He loves the camera.

Right before we moved.

We spent a day at the lake! It was so refreshing and therapeutic.

Everett's little toes in his mimi's hands. Ahhhhh.

I made lentils. Like Christ ate.

And then we bought a house! Our first grown up house! After 8 years of renting.

Not his very first nap in the house, but one of them. I find myself spying on him a lot more in our new home. I just love watching him sleep. Creepy? I'm probably creepy, yeah.

This has been my life for the past four weeks. Cleaning, painting, rearranging. I am super proud of our new, old upcycled bedroom furniture though!

And then I planted a vegetable garden.

As I look back over the photos from the past three months, whoa. I can see why I feel like it's been overwhelming, exciting and challenging. Because it has been! It's been a summer of movement, and a lot of it was unexpected. We thought we might move to another country, then we thought we would move back to New York, and then we decided to stay put and establish roots right where we are. Our son spends time every week with his grandparents and his cousins, and my heart couldn't be fuller. He is soaking up so much love and family and time in the grass!

I hope your summer was the greatest, too! Any memories that stick out the most to you?

Hi, Old Friend.

On Saturday night, I was cleaning up the kitchen from dinner and Stevie was taking out the trash. He came back in the house and said, "Kris, you've got to stop what you're doing and come out here."

I stepped outside and whoa. I couldn't see it, but I could feel it.

It wasn't just cool - it was cold. It was like I had stepped out onto the dark porch and back into a memory, one from our days in Boston. Walking home from dinner in Harvard Square and snuggling up together as we meandered those cobblestone streets in the black night, the chilly autumn weather dancing all around our feet. It was wonderful and sweet and, wow, life was really simple then. Even though it didn't feel like it at the time.

And as I stood, barefooted on my own back porch, far far away from the life I journeyed in Cambridge, Massachusetts a few years ago, I was swept away in that memorable moment. Such a simple one. All because of the strikingly cold weather. It's enticing, what our senses can do for us.

Stevie and I just stood out there for a long while, feeling the hard porch wood beneath our feet and the cold enveloping all around. We took deep breaths and silently welcomed this old friend, this autumn chill signaling it's time. Time for knotty sweaters and mulled cider and crackling bonfires and apple picking and fan girl phenomena about all things pumpkin. Time for walks through Williams Sonoma with to-go cups from Starbucks to sniff out all the harvest recipes. Time for watching football in the living room, eating chili and knitting blankets that I will never finish. Time for Sunday afternoon naps and woolly socks and sloshing around in the crispy leaves. It's time for all of it. It's beginning again. Welcome, old friend. Have your way.

Labor Day Weekend Snapshots.

It's official. Labor Day is over and so I shall henceforth invoke a week-long sobfest and gnashing of teeth, mourning summer's bittersweet goodbye to us all. I mean, technically we still have a few more weeks of this insanely hot season, but let's be real. White is over. Lounging at the pool? Over. Ice cream cones? K, I will probably milk that one a bit longer ( <-- bahahaha MILK!!!) But in all honestly, as sad as it is to watch summer fizzle out, I am so excited to welcome the Autumn season with open arms. It feels like a really good time for a shift in the weather, for my family in particular, because we are truly beginning a new season in our lives. New home, new routine and schedule, Stevie with a new job role and Everett at a new school and everything just feels new. I always love fall because the weather is boss and it means my birthday is soon and I can pull out all my old friends (AKA boots and scarves) and the lack of humidity is just SWEET AS PIE. But this fall feels especially one-of-a-kind in our little home because we are making everything ours for the first time, as a family of three. It feels really good. And really grown up. Which is weird. But a really good weird.

I hope your Labor Day was tons of fun, filled with barbecue and swimming in someone's pool (hopefully yours!) and playing outside and staying up late and perhaps even having an adult beverage, too. We did equal amounts of goofing off and working like dogs. The house feels like a never-ending beckoning of "HELP ME", but we are attempting to draw a few boundaries and trying to have a bit more fun, too. I mentioned last week that I haven't been having all that much fun lately, even though I am really happy to be in our new home. Enjoying the abode and having fun aren't necessarily the same thing though. And thankfully, we decided to be a bit more intentional and have fun during this holiday weekend. Stevie went to play golf and I had a gal's day out, going out to lunch and getting a massage and drinking something called a volcano bowl (!) with my pal Kelley. BEST DAY EVER. We also had a relaxing meal at my parents, swam in their pool, admired their foliage (things have really grown since we moved out!) and I even took a nap. A NAP GUYS. We also chowed down on some killer pulled pork sandwiches (I'll have the recipe up here later this week) and did a TON of working in the yard, sawing off trees branches and chipping them up into mulch. And perhaps planting some tulip bulbs. Because I am out of control in my yard. OH. And my garden is showing signs of life! The tiniest little chutes you ever did see have sprouted and I almost cry every time I walk out there to water them. It was a good weekend friends. I hope yours was, too :)

Adieu, dear summer. You've been a delicious, delightful time.