Right now I am savoring the first rain of the fall. With the window cracked open, I can hear the sound of raindrops landing on the ivy outside. It’s cool and crisp and overcast. I just love fall here in California, how it stretches on and on and we barely see winter and then finally spring arrives again.

I also love how autumn is already becoming a part of my morning routine. I wake up bundled warm in a crisp room, enjoy cups of (decaf) English breakfast tea with milk, and do yoga. I wear a sweatshirt in the mornings and put on layers of clothing for my daily walk. I’ve been baking nearly every day — banana bread, Brazilian cheese bread, baked apples. The trees are just starting to change colors and leaves litter the path.

I adore this time of year. I so like the idea of bundling up for winter and feeling cozy.

We are in the process of moving. We’ve rented a darling little house in the same part of town as where we now live. It was built in the 1940s, so it has wood floors, big windows, and loads of charm. Slowly we have been organizing and updating addresses and beginning the packing process. We have almost three weeks to move all our stuff over, so it should be as sane a moving experience as one can wish for. So many exciting things going on…

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Some autumn flavored, beautiful photos:
+ Autumn breakfast
+ Fall preview
+ A little gift of autumn

You know you want to try this out. All the cool people are doing it.

Today my midwives told me I’m allowed to have a little bit of chocolate every day. They were shocked I was eating it just once a week.

I am the luckiest woman alive.

Reading up on baby bath time in the fabulous Baby Book by William and Martha Sears.

I’ve been slowly working my way through all the pregnancy/parenting books at the library… This one is heads and tales above the others I’ve read recently. (Let’s just say that I don’t see eye to eye with the AAP, for example!) Other books I’ve loved: Pregnancy the Natural Way and Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten (intuitive, basic stuff that every parent should do!). I cannot wait to apply all this knowledge! We’re pretty much half way there now…

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It’s amazing how fast this blog has transitioned from a grown-up blog to a baby blog. Sorry, guys! I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse.

Where have we been the past week? We’ve been covered in straw, clay, and sand up in Hopland where we took a fantastic class in natural building techniques. Now we are really excited about building a home with our own two hands.

After a week of being with like-minded folks, camping, using an outdoor shower, away from the computer and email, and being outside every day, we’ve been in culture shock since arriving at home. We want to go back! We miss our new friends!

View photos from the workshop here.

These “Estrogen To-Do Pads” are just so brilliant. Yuni and I saw them a few weeks ago when we were cruising baby shops in Berkeley.

See, there is this great scientific explanation for why I forget everything now that I’m pregnant.

David likes to call this my “estrogen excuse.”