Fall was rich and full, sunny and bright. We spent time teaching and learning, experimenting and creating, dreaming and planning. We read new books, shared deep conversations, and found new inspiration in ordinary places.

This is life lately:

Life Lately: Fall Edition

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• Getting library cards (#oldschool)

• Learning how to install a gutter

• Discovering Fall festivals in the Finger Lakes (just like Gilmore Girls)

• Becoming vegetarian (loving these Cauliflower Tacos)

• Watching You’ve Got Mail (a Fall classic)

• Sharing warm apple cider donuts

• Playing for worship (pulling out one of my favorite books)

• Seeing a double rainbow (calling SD on my way home)

• Trying my hand at writing for choirs (publishing three mini-collections of service music)

• Celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary

• Sipping coffee on the porch in the afternoon (with blankets)

• Planting trees

• Reading Becoming, Young Jane Young (Gabrielle Zevin), The Bookshop of Yesterdays (Amy Meyerson), Come Matter Here (Hannah Brencher), Gardenias for Breakfast (Robin Jones Gunn), Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven (Fannie Flagg), and A Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman)

• Researching porch spindles, door spindles, and chair spindles; gutters, barrel bolts, and antique chairs

• Taking an online course (preparing for my first sabbatical!)

• Painting (and more painting)

• Surviving 40 hours without power (sleeping under a pile of blankets)

• Delivering Apple Harvest Cake to the neighbors (my great-grandmother’s recipe)

• Hearing our songs performed at Eastman (being inspired to write more)

• Lunch dates with SD

• Making Apple Slab Pie (serving it à la mode)

• Finding color inspiration on our walks (from Ginkgo and Japanese Maple leaves)

• Seeing the touring Broadway production of “Come From Away”

• Remembering the magic of the first snowfall (making a snow day playlist)

What about you? What does your life look like lately?