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Happy Monday! As a Leo, I am always amazed that I re-charge by being at home and quiet. For someone who thrives on adventure, I definitely balance that with being a homebody at heart.

Friday brought our first snowflakes of the season, a cold snap that continued on Saturday with drizzle and overcast skies. I can’t tell you what a blessing that is here in Colorado where we have 350 days of sunshine a year.

Seriously, sometimes you just crave those cold, dreary fall days as an excuse to be inside with the warmth of flickering candles, wearing pajamas until 4 p.m, cooking, baking, and coloring paper pumpkins with K-bear. These sorts of days relax my mind and fill my heart with gratitude.

I did step outside long enough to pick the last of the garden before the hard freeze hit. Now my window sill is pretty with ripening tomatoes and fresh basil.

On Friday, I got busy making a batch of marinara sauce, two pans of lasagna (one of which I took to our neighbors who just had a new baby girl), and three dozen zucchini raisin walnut muffins. The house was warm and smelling delicious all day!

Saturday, I solicited SoulDaddy to drag out the ladder and help me pick another huge bag – roughly 35 pounds - of beautiful apples from our neighbor’s tree.

They were red as can be and ready for chopping.

I made an apple crisp and a huge vat of apple sauce, a process that has become faster and easier than ever thanks to my immersion blender. I love that thing.

I also love these: a brand new box of twelve canning jars that I picked up at a yard sale a few weeks ago for $3. Don’t you love the retro 70′s box? Clearly, it was time to put these glass babies to good use.

I used half of them to can six pints of the apple sauce. Have I mentioned how newly addicted to canning I am? There’s such a feeling of accomplishment in filling your pantry with your own freshly preserved food.

I’m thinking the half bag of apples and half box of canning jars I have left are the perfect match for a batch of apple chutney this week.

In the meantime, I complimented all that apple sauce with a slow cooker full of my cold day favorite, lentil soup.

On Sunday, K-bear and I did actually leave the house for a girls day with Auntie Katie and Nana. We horsed around at the barn, feeding apples (of course!) to Dooley, before heading out to lunch, wandering around the flea market and hitting the couch for football and naps.

After a busy summer, the slower pace of fall is so welcome. I’m happy to hunker down inside in celebration, though I still look forward to sunny skies for trail runs and rides.

How do you celebrate this change of season? What have you been cooking lately?

I shared this post on Monday Mania, Meatless Mondays, Just Another Meatless Monday, Fat Tuesday, Hearth and Soul, Frugal Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays, The Gathering Spot, Tiny Tip Tuesday, Penny Pinching Party, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Health 2day, and This Chick Cooks.