Get Ready for Soups and Ciders – It’s Officially Fall!

By Tana Poncsak

Change is good, right? Many say change is inevitable. And when the seasons change, the weather isn’t the only thing that changes. You may also notice a difference in food, clothing, routines, and activities. And after the hot days of summer, fall is often a welcomed change!

Here are some easy things you can do to embrace the fall season.

Food

When it comes to food, fall is generally the season to pull out the recipes for warm, hearty soups and stews, and to replace your frozen concoctions with warm teas and hot apple cider.

Relish in the taste of seasonal vegetables and enjoy the robust flavors of roasted acorn and butternut squash. And don’t forget the pumpkin!

For the home

Make some small changes to the decor in your home to celebrate the season. Change out your sofa pillows with some that have fall colors or themes.

Add a fall wreath to your front door.

Replace summer smelling candles for some with autumn fragrances such as apples and cinnamon. Or fill your home with the smell of autumn with a big pot of hot apple cider simmering on the stove.

Activities

With the cooler temperatures, people still want to get outside and enjoy the cooler weather. Fun fall activities include:

Apple picking – We’re lucky in that apple picking is just a short drive away. And with those apples, you can bake my grandmother’s Apple Cake – a family favorite.*

Take in a nearby festival or chili cook off – Many metro areas hold festivals to celebrate the community and welcome the season. It won’t be long before the greenery of summer will give way to the beautiful colors of fall. Take a hike or a drive and enjoy the scenery. And for those sports fans, there’s always plenty of football! Happy fall y’all!

Continued on page 15

SOMEDAY… A Word for Your Day

By Jane Bishop

We all have a Someday. Often, the word has infiltrated our vocabulary to the point the brain processes it as an actual future date. When I polled a group of friends to complete the sentence “Someday I will…” responses included, “…start exercising; get more organized; be able to do what I want to do; take a trip to Alaska; organize my family pictures.” This demonstrates they each have a Someday.

Check your calendar. Where is Someday? Whether you prefer to plan every part of your day or choose to go with the flow, someday will not show up. Someday is an unspecified time in the future, so it is not on any calendar. Yet, it occupies valuable brain space in our thinking.

Someday consumes energy without producing tangible results. It keeps us in neutral, unable to move in any direction, and may even hinder us from being responsible. Someday also fuels procrastination. What is the cost of continually waiting for Someday? It may cost better health, realized dreams, clarity, contentment, and living4ward.

It is possible to remove the Someday embedded in our vocabulary and thinking and how we view it as an actual future date. This requires interrupting the neural pathway (i.e., habit) that has been established. One technique to begin the interruption is to practice “start and replace.”

Start with a different “day” word: Monday, Tuesday, today, etc., and replace Someday with that word. For example, I will schedule time on Thursday to organize my family pictures. That simple replacement begins to interrupt the default of Someday and replace it with placing the thought, idea, or dream on the calendar, so it becomes a reality while beginning to create a new habit. Is it really that simple? Yes. However, for it to become embedded as the new neural pathway, it takes time.

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear defines habits as the “small decisions you make and actions you perform every day.” He went on to share about research from Duke University where they found that habits

Continued on page 16