Welcome to the Beautiful View Podcast, where we encourage you to look for opportunities in your life to see a beautiful view. I'm Candy. 

And I'm Paul. Today we are going to talk about the change of the seasons. 

Yep, we are falling into fall here in the Midwest and I absolutely love it. We're going to talk about some of our favorite experiences in the fall and hopefully inspire you to find all the beautiful things about the season. 

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the beautiful view. 

So what have we been up to these last couple of weeks? We got to go camping. 

Yay. 

Yes, we did. And I think I got a couple of photos up in the last episode. It was just in time before we released the episode to stick a couple of pictures on there. So From that, you could see, we're right by the Mississippi River. And it was gorgeous. It was so beautiful. 

And we initially booked just a couple of nights, just to kind of see. And then we were like, well, let's book another couple of nights. I think we ended up paying like 4 different times and extending. For one week. For, yeah, for a total of a week. 

Yes, we did. 

It was really nice. So just kind of a little bit of a change of scenery. But while we were camping, we actually, we did something for the house. 

We did, yeah. We were kind of. I was hoping that it would work out, but we weren't sure. But we have, for the first time in our entire married life, we went and bought a new couch. 

A brand new couch. We've always had a hand-me-down, a second hand, which is fine. It's totally fine. But we came across this, it's a sectional, so it's big enough for To pile up on. 

Everybody can pile up on this couch. 

Yeah, it's fantastic. It's really comfortable. Yeah, we're really excited about it. 

We are. 

It almost didn't make it into the house. 

No, we ended up, we had to take the front storm door off the porch and we had to cover the windowsills on either side of that storm door with It was a really tight fit getting it in the door. It was something, but we planned it out and even with the neighbors watching on, we didn't we didn't mess up too much. 

Hopefully no one videoed it. 

May have been a, yeah. and getting the old couch out of here. And that was all a thing. But we did it all in one day. 

We did. 

And we were very. 

Efficient and even had a grocery pickup order in the middle of it. 

In the middle of it all. Yes, we did. So we got that done. And then we took a road trip the other day. We did. 

We did. It was so nice. So I've been following this place for probably three or four years. And it's called a Sunflower Experience. And they literally grow sunflowers and they're on their farm. And anyway, we'll tell you a little bit more about that later. But what was so special about it was the kids went with us. 

They did. 

And so we were all in the car and me and Paul in the front seat, Tyler and Emily in the back seat. It was very reminiscent of old traveling days. 

Where Tipper, the road dog, would be sat in between them. But she didn't come with us on this one. So, and if she had to come along, then the other one would have had to come along. And then it would have been a. 

There wasn't enough room in the car. 

There wasn't enough room for that. But yeah, it was a good day out. And I'm glad you got to do it at last. 

I am too. The weather has just been really beautiful. It has. And very kind of fall-ish. Yeah. 

We've gone back and forth between some warm days and cooler days, but. 

You can tell it's kind of the tail end of summer. 

Yeah. 

Just starting to kind of get into some cooler nights where you can open. open up windows and it's just lovely. I love it. I love, actually, I love everything about the fall. 

Yes. 

And both of us have November birthdays, so that could be part of why I love it so much. 

Yeah, and then maybe after these birthdays, we'll finally be able to remember how old we are instead of asking each other, well, how old am I? I'm so bad about that. I just can never remember. 

I used to give my dad such a hard time about not knowing how old he is, and then here I am. I can never. 

Why? I mean, it's just not something on the front of your mind. In fact, it's something that you want to forget because you don't really want to remember how old you are when you get like this side of the hill. Oh my goodness. It. 

Seems like such a silly thing, but I just, I can never, I always have to do the math and figure out how old I am. It's ridiculous. I love the crisp air. 

Yes. 

I love the open windows and airing out the house. campfires, the smells of the season, the colors, decorating for fall, football season, cozy clothes, apple harvest. baking. There are so many things to love about the fall. It feels just extra romantical, like Anne of Green Gables would say. Oh, wow. Would you say that you feel the same about the fall season? You probably haven't even really even thought about it before now. 

Well, hang on a second. In this analogy, am I Mr. Darcy. 

No, that's a different movie. 

Oh, man. It's a different book. Sounds like it's the same thing. 

Not quite. 

Okay. 

All right. That's Emily's cat, actually. Emily just got a new cat. That's something else that just happened. 

Yes, she's very, she's very excited about that. 

And she named him Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. 

Yeah. Oh, Pride and Prejudice. Yeah, different look. Different than Anne of Green Gables. 

He is very cute. He's got bright green eyes. He's a little black cat. I got to go meet him this morning. Anyway, okay, where were we? 

Well, in the fall, I love that we have cooler weather. I don't like it when it's real hot. So And, of course, the country I grew up in wasn't real warm all the time. So this is very similar. And at this time of year, my mind starts going to the things that need to happen around the house with vehicles and so on to get them ready for when winter hits. 

Yeah. 

And so yesterday, part of that was my shop looked like the four or five projects that I've done in it over the last few months. It gets layers. So my little workbench has four or five layers of tools and parts and pieces from each one of the four or five projects I was working on. 

Oh my goodness. 

And so, because I can't seem to put things away after I use them. So then I had to spend 2, three hours cleaning it up. But anyway, that's done. So I now have room to be able to fix things and get things ready for wintertime. So that's where I start thinking very practically. The other thing I noticed was that the grass hasn't grown that much. 

Yeah, that's true. We were mowing like a couple of times a week to. 

Keep up with it. Yes, twice a week. And we mowed just before we brought the RV back. I came back to the house and mowed so that when we got back, I didn't have to think about any of that. And yeah, and it's only grown just a little bit. It still needs to be mowed, but I think we can get away. 

Slowing up a little bit. 

Yeah, so we can get away with once a week now, maybe. So that would be good, you know. But anyway, As I was looking at the grass, I was noticing the orange maple leaves that come from our tree that are on the grass. And as you drive up and down the highway into Bellevue, you look at the cornfields and several of the cornfields have the outsides already harvested because the farmers, the dairy farmers go out and that they cut the outsides of the field so that they can put back some cattle feed for the winter. And so that's already begun. So we're starting to get into harvesting. 

The allergies that come with the harvesting. 

The allergies have been crazy. But it's definitely starting to look and feel like the fall. Yeah. 

Today we are going to jump into things and share some of our favorite fall traditions and memories. 

Yes. 

What is the first thing that comes to your mind for you when you hear the word fall? 

Well, when I was living in England, the fall was called autumn. Autumn, actually. 

Autumn. 

We pronounce the T's. And Emily has taken the calling fall, autumn as well, because I think secretly inside she wishes that she could lean into her Britishness. 

Okay. You know why? I think I like the word autumn. I think it sounds very, probably more proper, whatever, but. 

It sounds Anne of Green Gables. 

But then you can't, it does, yes. But then you can't say happy fall, y'all. 

That's true. 

Because it doesn't rhyme with y'all. No, So that's where I kind of lean toward the fall versus the autumn. Autumn sounds more formal. 

That's understandable. Like your Southern girl has a place to go with that. So I like that. It's a happy fall, y'all. Happy fall, y'all. So when I think of the fall, I think about that transition between the heat of the summer. And when I talk about heat, I'm not just meaning, temperature hot. I mean, like the fast pace, the heat of activity. 

Yeah. 

Summertime is so busy all the time. 

Especially for us, for most people. But yeah, we go from that into a slower pace of life. And there's a little pie chart. And if you're watching on YouTube, I'm going to put it on the screen. But I really love it. appears on the socials every single year at some point. And the pie chart is divided into sections for the 12 months of the year. And each section, its size is dictated by how fast it appears to disappear. Oh, yeah. To coin a phrase. But anyway, I really like it because I think it's accurate, especially in a place where you experience the four seasons. Some are just the months are going by like that. And then you sort of get into the fall and you start to slow down. And then in the winter, the months just drag by. 

Poor Paul. 

I know that one of the things that you are looking forward to is not working every day. 

Yeah, there's that. Once winter hits, my work schedule decreases. So that's... That's nice. That'll be a nice little break. 

So what do you think about when you think about the change of seasons from summer to fall? 

Well, one of the first things that comes to my mind is pumpkins, of course. Pumpkins. 

Okay. 

Yeah, you know, when you think of fall, you think of pumpkins. I do. 

Sure, yeah. 

The kids used to love going and picking a pumpkin and carving it. And one of, actually one of our very first homeschool kind of. 

Exercises. 

Assignments, experiments, whatever. It was pumpkin math. 

Pumpkin math. I don't remember that. What was that about? 

Well, okay, so we were sitting in a campground at Monahan Sandhills State Park. 

Okay. 

Each of the kids had gone and picked their pumpkin. They each had a pumpkin. 

Okay. 

And the whole thing was they got to, you know, cut the top off and pull all the seeds and guts out and everything. Well, then we pulled all the seeds seeds out and separated them. And then we did like math problems with them, like grouping, multiplication, division, all of that kind of stuff. And they had to, they did kind of a fun thing. Like they were guessing how many, who had the most seeds in their pumpkin. Was the smaller pumpkin going to have the more seeds? Is the bigger pumpkin going to have more seeds? 

Yeah. 

I think in the end they were actually pretty close, which was really interesting. But then we roasted them and, you know, it was just a whole fun thing. 

Oh, I remember the roasted seeds because I'd never had those before and they're actually pretty good. 

Oh, they are so good. 

Yeah, the kids loved it when we visited the pumpkin farm to pick out the pumpkins. 

Yeah, we actually did that close to here. It was Vesperman Farms. 

Yeah, Vesperman, yeah. 

That was a really neat place too. So the kids got to go in the fields and I think we took like a little hay ride or something up to the pumpkin field. That's right. 

There was a little hay ride that went up to the pumpkin field because it was a little ways away from the all the main attractions that they had around the farmhouse. And Emily was dead set. She was so serious. She had a picture in her head of what she wanted a pumpkin to look like. And she was not going to leave that place until she found the exact right pumpkin. And what she did, she was like, she was like holding on to it. 

Oh, it was her baby. Oh yeah, she was so excited. She had huge plans for it. But I also, I love pumpkin spice. I love the smell. not all the weird stuff. 

Okay. 

Not everything should be pumpkin spice. I mean, we aren't doing any pumpkin spice Cheetos or anything weird like that. 

And not pumpkin spice cologne. 

Yeah, not so much. That was a little weird. 

You said that you loved pumpkin spice. 

Okay, so get this. Several years ago, I actually mentioned to Paul that I love the smell of pumpkin spice. 

That's one of the big things. 

So what does the man do? He gets online and orders pumpkin spice cologne. 

Yeah, because you love the smell of pumpkin. 

My house and food, I don't know about my husband, that's kind of weird, actually. 

It was just a joke. 

It was funny. In the fall, the trees start changing colors, the weather gets cooler. It's perfect campfire season. 

It is, it is. 

I grew up in West Texas, so they're really, isn't a fall season there? 

Right, they don't see like leaves changing color so much. 

No, they kind of just turn brown and fall off. Yeah, There's not really like that. 

Yeah, they go from intermediate burned up to dormant and then dormant to burned up or something like that. 

Oh my goodness, yeah, something like that. It's very different up here. It is. But I do remember the first time we went to, we took a trip to McKittrick Canyon, which is in the Guadalupe Mountains out in West Texas. 

So nice. 

And I had never seen so much color in my life. I'd never experienced like that many trees and that many colors. And it was just absolutely mind-blowing to me. 

Yeah, it's in the mountain range that is the little canyon. And actually there was a little old guy that used to live there. And he lived there on his own. And so there's a cabin down there and all that kind of stuff. But because it's a valley and it's, you kind of have to go sort of around the mountain and then you start heading downwards towards a stream. And that stream goes through the center of the canyon. So as you're coming down into it, you see these trees that are growing alongside this stream and they are all, in the fall, they're all different colors of oranges and reds and burgundies. 

It's just gorgeous. 

Fantastic. It's beautiful. 

That was just such an amazing experience. I just, I love seeing fallen leaves, different colors and stuff. I have so many pictures on my phone. hundreds if not thousands of leaves on the ground. I might have a problem. 

I also like the look of the trees and the changing of color as a backdrop for family pictures. I really love the pictures that Kelsey took of our family back in 2023. 

Yeah, just here at our state park. I mean, it just was stunning. 

It was cool. 

So another thing that we have done that was really fun in the fall season is visit an apple orchard. 

Yes. 

It is so much fun to do like a pick your own where you get, they give you a basket and you go out to the orchard and you, there are different types of apples. I don't guess I realized. 

So many different types. 

That there are so many different types of apples, but it's really fun to kind of learn about some of the different ones and pick them. 

And what I learned was that the idea of this is not to pick as many apples as fast as you can. I went out there. I was acting like an employee. Like I was trying to be productive, let's fill this basket and get out of here. 

Oh my gosh, that one's got a dent in it. Can we like look at them first and make sure that they look pretty before? 

We have to treasure the moment. 

Yeah, and I was taking pictures of the kids and Emily's like looking through and trying to find the perfect one and Paul's like throwing them in the basket. 

I've got 3 baskets full. 

Oh my gosh, we've got 3 baskets full. We're going to have to pay for all these. You realize that, don't you? 

Bless my heart. 

But when it's done right, it's very much like a storybook experience. 

A storybook. 

Yeah. It's kind of Anne of Green Gables. I think I need to pull those books out. That's a very fall series to read. 

You do that. Okay. You also love apple cider donuts, don't you? 

We haven't. Yeah, we passed the place. 

We drove past it the other day and the sign is out front. It is. 

They also have really, really tasty apple cider and you cannot beat fresh apple cider around the campfire on falling. 

Pretty darn good. We also need to do more camping. 

Yes, we do. We did just spend a week, like we said, at a local campground. 

We did, yeah. 

The problem with that is, it's literally just kind of a change of scenery. It means we still do all of the day-to-day things. I still go into work and then we may come back and have a campfire, which is lovely, and sit by the river and all of that. But it isn't really the full getaway camping experience. Throw your phone away. We need a full camping experience soon or I am literally going to go crazy. 

Yeah, that would be really nice. We'll probably not go very far, but far enough away that we will be away. So that'll be good. We're going to do that. 

Somewhere without cell service, preferably. 

Yes, So camping at this time of year is so much better because you don't have the noisy air conditioners running all of the time in the RV. You can leave the windows open at night, which I really love that. 

You can hear all the outside noises, the coyotes howling in the distance. 

The nature, the nighttime critters come out. And so, and I love that you can spend as much time outside as you can inside because the temperature's not all that different. 

Yep. 

You know, whenever we roll into a camp. campground, just, even though it was just local, when we pulled into that campground just the other week, I felt my stress level just drop as soon as we got in there. It's just like... thank you, Lord. I mean, it really, really feels like, and I love living here in town, but it's also cool to get away and just to be in nature. And not every campground is like that. You know, some of the more resort style campgrounds, I don't get that feeling. But if we're going to a state park or a county park, that just, I mean, honestly, as soon as I get in there, my stress level just. 

And we actually moved your office in the RV to like the middle of the RV. So now you have windows everywhere. 

Surrounded by windows, I could watch all that was going on. You know, it just it felt so much better to be to be in the main area there. So I was part of the changes that we made to, you know, transitioning from using the RV as a family camper into a couple's camper. So yeah, that worked out well. 

Yeah. When the kids were little and we were homeschooling on the road, we used to make a bucket list at the beginning of every season for all the things that we wanted to do. 

We did, didn't we? 

Yeah, and I think we should do that again. Because here's the thing, if we're not intentional about doing these things and experiencing new things or just even things that we love doing that we've kind of been talking about, if we're not intentional about planning those things, life gets in the way, like busyness and that every day, just like going to work, doing the things, doing this, doing that, and then those things get left out. We miss out on epic experiences. 

Yeah, that's true. That's very true. 

And we did just do something that's been on my list for several years now. As we mentioned earlier, I've been following the sunflower experience. for about probably three or four years now. And every summer it rolls around and we always have something else going on. There's always something competing for our time. 

It's a little bit of a drive. It is. 

It's about a two hour drive from us. It's just outside of Belle Plaine, Iowa, just west of Cedar Rapids. But it was, we finally had a free day. Everybody was free. So we all hopped in the car and That was just the neatest experience. We got to walk through the sunflower fields. 

These little paths that go through. 

And little photograph areas, points where they've kind of set up, staged an area where you can go and take a picture. 

Old tractors. There are little baskets with props in them so. 

You can dress the. 

Sunflowers, which I thought was pretty cool. I did one myself. I didn't think much of what I did, but other people did some really cool stuff. So I was trying to do some kind of a hippie sunflower and it just looked weird. So, but I'm just trying to get into the mood of the thing. 

Yeah, it was so fun. And everybody with the price of your admission, you get to cut your own sunflower. So that was really cool. So we each got our own sunflower. And then they also have like a flower cut garden. So you can go and cut fresh flowers and build your own bouquet. 

Yeah, like all different types of flowers. Dahlias and... 

Yeah, dahlias is the biggest thing that they have, but they also have zenias and like all kinds of things. But yeah, so it was just really neat. The kids loved it. We loved it. I'm just so glad we took time to do that. 

And they have the sunflowers grow on different patches. and they plant them at different times. So over the season when they're open, there's always one of the, at least one patch that the sunflowers are blooming and they're just at their best. So that works out really good. 

Yeah, they're only open on certain dates. So you have to kind of follow them on social media to catch the sunflowers. to find out when they are, because it's a very short time that they're actually open for the experience. 

And there was so many butterflies there, insects and that kind of stuff. It's something I found really interesting And you could see this, the patch that we were in was like right at its peak. So most of the sunflowers were adult sunflowers. But you could see like all the adult sunflowers are facing E. The younger sunflowers though, as they're growing, they at the beginning of the day, they're facing east, and then they follow the sun around. That's called, the type of plant is a heliotropic. What that does is, as the flower is facing the sun, it maximizes the process of photosynthesis. And so that's during a growing phase of the plant's life. So that young sunflower, as it grows up, it starts the day in the east, goes or follows the sun around to the west to where the sun sets. And then as it's doing that, it's like that side of the stem is growing, which causes it to turn. And then at night, the other side of the stalk grows and pushes it back to the east again. So they literally go back and forth. 

Yeah, it's really interesting. But then once they are full grown, that stem is solid, hardens, like it's solid. So then they don't turn anymore. But most of them face east at that point. That's really interesting. 

It is. And then during its adult phase, that's when it's producing seeds. So the sunflower during the summer, kind of like us, has a season of fast growth. It turns from east to west, east to west. And then once those, it comes to being an adult, it has the new seeds, that grows in the flower head and then the plant retreats back into the ground and those seeds then become the next generation. So it's kind of like the sunflower has its seasons as well. 

Yeah. 

Very similar to us. 

There are also certain foods that we love to cook in the fall. You just cooked your famous prize-winning chili the other day. Yes, I did. 

Yep, on the charcoal. 

Yeah, and it just tastes like fall because it's just chili is fall food, right? And I tend to do more baking too as the weather cools. 

Yeah, I like that. I also like to grill during the fall when it's not 100 degrees outside. 

Yeah, that makes everything a lot easier when it's not super hot outside. 

Yep. 

And it's also about time to get the fall decor down and decorate. I think you pulled it down yesterday, actually. 

No, I pulled it down this morning. 

Or this morning. Okay, yeah, so it's about that time. I don't like to do it too early, but there's still a little few little pumpkin-y things that have kind of been popping up around our house the last couple of weeks, you know? 

Yeah, some new stuff. 

Yeah. 

We also really enjoy the preparations and dressing up for Halloween. 

Oh, yeah. 

The brewery always has a Halloween party and that's a ton of fun. 

Oh, it is. We actually, before I worked at the brewery, I feel like I need to specify that because now I'm kind of disqualified since I'm the manager. But we actually won the contest, the costume contest one year. 

We won. 

We won. Our costume was epic and it was so much fun. So, and I'm beginning to kind of start collecting. for our costumes this year. We always keep it a secret. It's just way more fun that way. Yeah. 

The year we won, you were cotton candy, of course. And I was the vendor and I was trying to sell as much cotton candy as possible. 

That was really funny. We had, I had bought on Amazon or something, little pots of cotton candy and separated it out into little baggies. So all the kids were coming up to me. Do you have cotton candy? And I was handing out little baggies of cotton candy to all the kids. It was quite a hit. So it was a good time. 

If you're watching the video version of this podcast, you'll see some of the pictures of previous costumes from previous years. So enjoy. 

Yeah, for your viewing enjoyment. Last year, we dressed up as you were Bob Ross. 

I was Bob Ross, yes. 

And I was his happy little tree. 

My happy little tree. 

It's always a couples costume for us. So that just makes it more fun and I just can't wait for this year. Our friends also have a really great time with it too. We have some really creative people in this community and it's just a lot of fun. 

It is. 

When the kids were little, I used to make their costumes as well. I think my all-time favorite was the year that Emily went as a bubble bath. Do you remember that? 

I do. 

She had like little white balloons blown up and all over and then a little rubber ducky and she had little yellow rain boots that she wore. 

She looked cute. 

Oh my goodness, it was so cute. That was my favorite. 

Then both of us have the November birthdays and that's when it's still barely fall up here in the Midwest. We don't usually get our first real obvious winter days until you get into sort of December. Although you remember last year, we were in Le Claire on one of our date days. 

On my birthday. 

On our you and me day. And we were sitting there and the snow started to fall, didn't it? 

Yes, it did. It was really, I mean, my birthday's November 20th, so it was a little, felt like it was a little early and it wasn't like a heavy snow. 

No, it wasn't. 

It was just kind of a light dusting, but we walked outside and I was just like. 

It's snowing. 

It felt very romantic. 

Yeah, LeClaire, Iowa, this beautiful town. So it was very special. 

Now, I know some people like to, you know, move along in the holidays and stuff and they put their my gosh, yeah. I just, I can't do that. The pumpkins stay until after Thanksgiving. 

That's the rule. 

That is the rule. And I love Thanksgiving. That is probably one of my favorite holidays. I love the food. I love just the feeling that comes with it, the gratitude and the consciously being thankful for things and all of that. I love cooking all the things for all the people that I love. That really special to me. It's a lot of work, but it does. It brings me a lot of joy. So and always like cooking Thanksgiving dinner with my mom, that was always our thing to do. We had matching aprons and stuff. And now Emily is my helper. 

She is. Yeah. It's going to be a great fall season. 

Yeah. We have done many things over the years to celebrate the beauty of the fall season. We've camped in spectacular places. We've hiked stunning trails. We've picked apples and pumpkins. We've roamed through sunflower fields. We've bundled up and star gazed. 

We've cooked delicious food and we've shared with friends and family. We've told stories and sang songs around campfires. 

Most of these things are a result of very intentional planning. 

Yes. 

If I'm not careful, I'll just work my life away. 

Isn't that true? 

And I love my job. I love this podcast. I love our business. But none of these things can replace the memories made with my people. The changing of the season always makes me reevaluate where I'm at and what I can do better. There is a little saying that says, we can learn from fall leaves about the beauty of letting go. 

Yes. 

The inevitability of change and the power of renewal. 

Whether we're changing seasons of the year or seasons of life, there are always things we need to let go of, things we outgrow, and places and areas where we can do better. Sure. So thinking about this, what's on our bucket list for this fall? 

We are definitely going to prioritize family time with our kids that are not really kids anymore. It goes so fast. I want more experiences like walking through the sunflower field like we did last weekend. 

Yes. 

I want quality time. I want more time with my friends. I'm feeling like I'm a little bit out of balance right now, and it's time to make a few little changes. 

Well, it's good that you're aware of that. 

So help me out with this. If you had to come up with a fall bucket list right now, what would be on your list? 

Like I said before, I really like to take pictures. So I think we need to take a walk in the woods, state park or whatever, and take some family pictures. 

Somewhere picturesque. 

Yeah, set up the camera on a tripod and just take some pictures. I think that would be good. 

Yeah. 

I also want to celebrate Oktoberfest. 

Oh yeah. 

So I'd like to go somewhere where we're not going to have to work at some point and actually have fun with everybody else. 

Right. 

We've said about four times already, but it bears repeating, more camping. 

More camping. 

More camping. 

Most epic time to camp. 

Yes, it is. 

It is. There's nothing better. 

It is fantastic. It's good to be able to build a campfire because you want to keep warm in the evening rather than it just looking nice and everybody's standing like 60 feet away. It's even far away from it because it's too freaking hot. And also, seeing as you mentioned this, I will take you to go get some apple cider donuts. Yay. And also, one thing that we thought of, and I don't know if we're going to get to do this like this time around or next month, but I thought, wouldn't it be cool to see the four trees and the leaves from the river, like go on a riverboat trip and see all of the Mississippi? 

I think that would be really cool, because it's fun to see it from, you know, taking a drive or whatever, but I think it would be really neat to see. Yeah, from the river. Yeah, we should do that. I like that. Those are all great ideas. I love it. 

So what do you have in mind? 

Well, I want to go pick apples again. 

Okay. At a slow pace. 

At a slow pace. And then I want to make some yummy apple desserts. 

Oh, yeah. 

That's what I'm talking about. 

Yeah. 

Bake some pumpkin bread, maybe two. A beautiful drive to see all the fall foliage. 

Okay. 

Sounds lovely. Maybe even a cozy night In watching movies with the kids, with snacks and popcorn and apple cider. 

On the new couch. 

On the new couch, don't get anything on the couch, no, We also used to the kids and I, especially Emily and I, love to... bake cookies, like sugar cookies and decorate them and stuff. And we used to do that, make little pumpkin cookies and then hand them out to friends and neighbors and stuff. And I'd like to make time to do that at some point this fall too. That's a lot of fun. I am also very eager. I want to get some like fall mums, you know, for the front of the, for the front porch and stuff and get everything decorated. Make it feel cozy and stuff in here. 

Well, that sounds like a good start. 

Yeah. In the Old Testament, the Bible teaches about several festivals that the Israelites held that were Torah-commanded Jewish holidays. One of the festivals that was celebrated in the autumn. 

Autumn. 

Was the Feast of Tabernacles. This autumn festival was a time of Thanksgiving and rejoicing to honor God for the entire year's harvest and His continued provision. 

For this festival, the people built temporary shelters like booths or tents to live in during a celebration. They went camping. 

How about that? 

It reminded the Israelites of their journey through the wilderness where they were living in tents in the presence of God as he traveled with them. 

Yeah. It was a major harvest festival that involved feasting, rejoicing, and remembering God's faithfulness. Kind of sounds like our Thanksgiving a little bit. 

Yeah. 

Today, we aren't required to celebrate these festivals necessarily, but it's definitely a time we should reflect on the provision and faithfulness God has shown us over the year. 

Yes. Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1 states, to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. This reminds us that there is a divine timing for all things, including the changing seasons of life. 

Yes. May we enter this fall season with hope, prayerful reflection, and gratitude. As the leaves change colors and begin to let go of the season past, may we do the same? 

Yes. Today we want to encourage you to make a bucket list. Reprioritize. Let go of things that need to be left behind. Look for the beauty around you. Make memories with loved ones. 

Enjoy this season of life. Be intentional in your planning and don't let it sneak past you. Thank you for joining us today. Our hope is always to inspire and encourage our listeners. We hope you are inspired to slow down a little bit this fall and consider the things about this season that bring you joy. 

Yeah, if you like what we do here at the Beautiful View Podcast, you can show your appreciation by becoming a supporting member for only $5 a month. We'll send you a members-only Beautiful View Podcast sticker and a weekly encouraging newsletter to your inbox. Your support helps cover our production costs. The link to sign up is in our show notes. 

Also, be sure to check out our merch store. We've added a few new items for the upcoming fall and winter season. 

As we conclude each episode, we always like to give you the topic for the next one. So what are we going to be talking about next time? 

Well, next time we're going to do an episode about keeping your marriage fresh, dating your spouse. 

Okay. 

Just because you're married doesn't mean you can't still go on dates. 

Right. 

We'll offer some fun ideas for some time with your honey, how to break out of a rut, and a little outside of the box thinking. 

Okay, well, I look forward to the research for that one. 

I bet you do. Thank you once again for joining us today. We hope you have a great day and always remember to keep an eye open for opportunities in life to see a beautiful view. 

Yes.