The light outside is beginning to soften. Light rays are peeking through the trees in the early morning hours as the sun’s angle has started to shift. As soon as I turn the calendar to October, I start craving soup, but despite fall settling in, the temperatures are still in the 80s and 90s in our area of the world and are not quite cool enough for enjoying soup without sweat beads appearing. I did appreciate the kind waitress who told me, as I ordered my caldo de pollo when the rain dropped the temperature a few degrees, that soup is good anytime!

This week I also indulged in some delicious soup from Minimalist (through Farmhouse Delivery) despite the weather. The jar-sized portion was perfect for lunch, and I paired it with a grilled cheese sandwich made with homemade gluten-free bread and a little Swiss chard and basil from our garden. I’m hoping the coziness of this week’s lunch will hold me over until the temperatures cool down. We still have cherry tomatoes that need to ripen on the vine in our garden, so I don’t want to rush things too much!

We picked up a few soup cozies for our soup bowls when we went camping a few years ago, and we’ve found them to be useful for wrapping around hot bowls of soup throughout the fall and winter seasons. I’m sure we’ll be bringing them out again as we start making more soups on cool nights, curl up on the couch to watch a movie, go camping, or make our first batch of chili. You can sometimes find them at quilting shops, but here are a few on Etsy with fall themes: mushrooms and flowers, mustard yellow flowers, and bicycles with pumpkins. You can also find videos on YouTube to learn how to make your own (which I will not be doing because my sewing skills are limited to sewing in a straight line).

As I wait for soup weather, I’m drinking warm tea in the air conditioning and starting to comb through my recipes for a season of chopping vegetables, simmering broth, and nourishing my family and friends. Do you have any soup recipes that you love? Please share a link or where to find your favorite recipes in the comments below this post. I’ll compile a list of a few of my favorites, along with those shared by the community, in a Substack note in the next few weeks.

As fall makes its entrance, I plan to add a few fall touches (mostly natural elements) around the house. We’re pretty minimal when it comes to decorating for Halloween. I keep the outside decorations not too scary for the little ones who live nearby, and I celebrate the butterfly migration and change of seasons with our decorations instead.

One of the ways I create a seasonal shift in my environment that reflects the changes happening outdoors is by changing out the art in my office seasonally. Switching out my office artwork is a gentle way to usher in the new season. I hope you enjoy this little art tour, and I’d love to hear if you have any artists that you’ve discovered recently.

This week has been a whirlwind as we prepare our house for a kitchen update, head out on a short camping trip, and try to keep our bearings amidst a flurry of household and parenting tasks that ask for our time, attention, and energy every week.

A much-anticipated thunderstorm with abundant rainfall rolled in early yesterday morning, and I took the opportunity to calm my mind at the end of a full week by treating myself to some downtime and a page of wildflowers to color (a Patreon bonus) from artist Nancy Chalmers. You can pre-order her coloring book, Wildflower Dreams, on her website.

I can’t wait to share what’s been happening in the garden and the beautiful butterflies that have been visiting in the Gardening Seasons and Nature’s Seasons posts over the next two weeks. Enjoy your weekend!