Month: November 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Reasons Fall is the best season!

On By jmoncierIn Top Ten TuesdayLeave a comment

It seems I may have already introduced this topic when I wrote about what I miss most about Washington, or in the blog post bidding farewell to Summer and hello to Fall, so it’s a no-brainer that Fall is my favorite season.  Summer is just so hot and oppressive, Winter is so cold and depressing, and Spring is just blah!  There are so many reasons to love Autumn or Fall, whatever you want to call it! 🙂

Here are my Top 10 Reasons that Fall is the best season:

10. Sweater Weather – Boots weather, scarf weather, beanie weather, layering clothes.  I love Fall fashion just as much as the next girl, but what I really love about Fall is sweater weather.  I mean…the cool and chilly temperatures mean we don’t have to walk around glistening with sweat everywhere we go.  Summer weather calls for short, close to nothing clothing because we’re itching to peel clothes off to be comfortable.  Is there anything more comfortable than a favorite sweater or hoodie?  Sweater Weather is colder, and my favorite season for working out, training for something like a half marathon.  Sweater weather is also the best weather to just chill out at home, snuggle on the couch and read a book!

9. Two words: Pumpkin. Everything.  Pumpkin picking at the pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, and of course pumpkin flavored everything!  I love pumpkin spice lattes a couple of times during the season, my favorite holiday treats are pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin pie.  The love for pumpkin flavor during this time of year has exploded to pumpkin flavored everything, even Oreos, Pringles, oatmeal, beer, pasta sauce, you name it.

8.  Football Season – It’s that time of year when we root for our favorite football teams, whether it’s a college team, a professional team or maybe your kids play football. There’s nothing like an entire community rooting for their kids at Friday Night Lights, or the excitement of watching our college team playing for nothing but pride on Saturdays, and of course, our favorite NFL teams on Sunday, Monday and Thursdays too!  We love football in our house, football season is one of the top reasons Fall is the best!

7.  Start of Fall shows – Fall is when our television shows come back for a new season.  New shows are also introduced to the lineup.  This season, I started watching Blindspot and Quantico.  They’re great shows so far but my existing favorite shows have returned: Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, The Walking Dead, Homeland, The Voice, Dancing With The Stars.  (I know, I watch a lot of tv!)

6.  Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of all.  By mere definition alone, it’s just a time to give thanks, be grateful and praise God for blessings.  Sure, we can’t ignore the fact that Thanksgiving has evolved into so much more than the original historical significance of the holiday.  Now, there are extravagant Thanksgiving feasts, huge football games and yes…even Black Friday shopping. But that’s what I love about Thanksgiving, people can celebrate what they’re most grateful for, whatever that is.  For my family, it’s about the Four F’s: Family, Friends, Food and Football.

5.  Fall Colors –

I mean do I really need to say anything else about this?  Fall marks the shifting of seasons when the leaves change colors and it’s the most wonderful time of the year!

4.  Bonfires, campfires and starting up the fireplace – Chilly weather means we can start a fire in the fireplace, have bonfires or campfires…and you know what that means…s’mores!

3.  Kids are back in school – I actually wrote another blog post that talks a little about this!  I love summer for about three weeks, one month max, then I’m ready for the kids to go back to school.

 

2.  Comfort Food – Fall weather calls for comforting foods.  Fall is the best time to enjoy comfort food because the cooler fall weather is also the best time for working out. Casseroles, soups and stews, yummy baked goods, the kinds that stick to our ribs and warm our souls.  Our favorite comfort foods are chicken soup, chili, beef stew, arroz caldo, and many more.

1.  Finally, the last reason why Fall is the best season, especially down here in the south…NO BUGS!  Mosquitos, insects of all kinds, they go away in the colder weather.  They finally go back to hell where they belong 🙂

What do you love about Fall?  Did it make my list?

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September and October Good Reads

On By jmoncierIn good reads, readingLeave a comment

I didn’t get a whole lot of reading done last month, I didn’t do much reading this month either.  Sometimes, it’s just hard to concentrate on reading and I struggle to finish a book.  Also, I’ve discovered Adult Coloring and I’ve spent almost every night relaxing with some coloring books and colors.  I’m planning to review the ones I have next month.  Stay tuned!

Last month, I read Eleanor and Park.  If you grew up in the 80’s or 90’s, you will love this book by Rainbow Rowell.

It’s an unconventional, coming of age love story about full figured, red headed step child (Eleanor) and a half Asian kid (Park).  Set over the course of a school year in Nebraska, the two star crossed misfits struggle to figure out where they belong and end up finding comfort in each other.  Eleanor and Park reads like a classic love song, you know those “oldie but goodie” types where the music sounds familiar and it just makes you feel good.  Even if you don’t know all the lyrics, you turn it up when it comes on the radio, it still manages to touch your heart and transport you back to a memorable time and place, it just makes you feel.

The other book I read was Ugly Love by self-published author Colleen Hoover.  I love self-published authors.  One of the things I love about having an e-reader is that I discover self-published authors, ordinary people that wanted to tell a story, people that are talented storytellers but may not have been signed by any publishing house.  Colleen Hover self-published her first novel Slammed in 2012 and has had multiple New York Times bestsellers since then.  Love stories are my go-to for quick and easy reads, I finished this book in 3 days.  I like Hoover’s writing style, the way she told this story kept me interested and turning the page!

That’s it for September and October’s book review!  It was a slow couple of months but I hope to bring you more reviews next month, this is what I’m currently reading:

It’s coming out in theaters January 2016.  You probably notice a trend with my book choices, I love YA fiction (because I’m still a little girl inside), I like bestsellers, popular titles, so popular that Hollywood makes a movie out of it 🙂