I looove Fall.  The colors, the cool weather (which means an excuse to start a fire in the fireplace,) and the foods that just “go” with the season like chili and pumpkin bread.

We bought pumpkins at Walmart for each of the kids, and because we waited until they went on sale ($2.47 each for huge pumpkins!) I bought 3 extra pumpkins for me to try my hand at making puree.  I love to make pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin cheesecake.

I surfed online a bit and found a couple of handy tricks:

• If you want to roast your pumpkin seeds (such a yummy and healthy snack) you only need to put the pumpkin innards (I know that sounds gross, but they are gross) into a bowl and fill with water.  The pumpkin seeds float to the top!  All these years I’ve been getting my hands entwined in the stringy mess, sliding out each seed, and it usually took so long that I quit before getting most of the seeds.  Yesterday I took the “float” advice from Alton Brown at the Food Network and it was only minutes until I had all the seeds scooped out.  There’s a couple of ways to roast your seeds:  on the stove or in the oven.
• If you want to make pumpkin puree (you know, what many of us buy in a can so that we can make pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread) it’s amazingly easy.  I had been told to peel the pumpkin after cleaning out the inside… uh, that’s just too much work in my mind; peeling potatoes are bad enough, but a huge pumpkin?  Huh-uh.  BUT today I found out that you don’t have to peel!  Here’s a great tutorial of this easy process.  

Pumpkins sum up the Fall season for me: warm colors, yummy foods.  Please leave a comment and share your favorite pumpkin recipe!

I don’t know about you, but my bedroom is often the messiest room in the house.  I try to keep my things put away, but if I’m in a hurry I just shut the bedroom door.  And if someone is coming over and I need to do a quick clean-up, it’s just too easy to toss things onto my dresser and the chair and… shut the bedroom door.  In fact, I shut the bedroom door after getting dressed for the day and I don’t go back in unless I need something (because if I do, the bed looks too inviting to my sleepy body.) 

So out of sight, out of mind.  I don’t think about picking up any mess in my bedroom until I’m getting ready for bed, tired and done for the day.

Today’s mission is to spend just 15 minutes in your bedroom.  I spent my entire 15 minutes putting away clothes and hauling my kids’ things back to their bedrooms, but if you’ve kept up on your room pretty well, then do something extra in the room that’s supposed to be your sanctuary.  Like one of these:

*dust the dressers and nightstands

*put candles out and light them tonight!

*look at what’s on your dresser-top.  Anything that you haven’t touched in the past month needs to go!

*switch to flannel sheets or add an extra blanket for these colder nights

*vacuum!  I seriously vacuum our bedroom only about 4 times a year because there’s not much (noticeable) need, but if you think about dust and dead skin cells… ew, I’m getting my vacuum out right now.

*If you’ve actually got all of these things done before or during your 15 minutes, then please come to my house and give me a hand with my room!!!