Fall is in the air even when the thermometer seems to tease us with summer numbers. No more weekend runs to the garden center for another flat of flowers or hanging basket. The vegetable garden has a few more weeds in it than it did earlier in the season; evidence of my fickle passions. Now we turn our attention inward, inside. The light blue and green comforter on the bed is replaced with a ruby red one and we've replaced the airy sheers on our bedroom window with more substantial draperies. The Ricardo Room is ready for fires and Christmas decorations; chili is on the menu for this week. If we want to sit outside in the evenings now we bring a blanket and a cup of tea to warm us.

This evening we were talking about the next set of plans for our home, because is it ever really done? We'll be converting our guest bedroom into an office with better storage so that it is easier to keep neat (and we can open the door when company is over!) Then into the basement this winter for a long-term project of fixing it up. There's a kitchen and bath down there but it was done before my grandparents bought the place so it is beyond ready for a face lift. Someday we'll put an addition on our kitchen to create a dining room by extending the room to meet the back wall of the family room addition.

And next spring we'll go back outside, shivering when it's not yet warm enough to claim the yard with that sweet hunger for fresh air and flowers. The 2010 plan is to extend the deck, build a fire pit, privacy fence, add some flower beds. Maybe move the vegetable garden? Included in the deck addition will be a ramp because next spring along with flats of flowers and veggies, our home will host Dean's parents. His mom is not able to navigate the stairs into our home so we'll need a ramp. No, they won't be living here, but we need to be accessible.

And who knows, in 2011 maybe that dining room will be in progress? And an island with a breakfast bar where the kitchen table now sits, and maybe we'll put in some stairs and finish the upstairs to create a bedroom, the siding needs to be replaced and the front porch updated...

Pictured: Labor Day 2009, my Dad and Beanie's friend Courtney playing corn hole.