Hurry Up Already!

I am so over summer.  I'm tired of the heat, the humidity, and the dryness.  The first 6 months of 2010 were, dare I say, crappy.  I lost my job and therefore 50% of our income, and to top it all off we moved to another state in June.  I guess I'm ready for the symbolic letting go of the season, both literally and figuratively. 
At the cusp of a season change, I always find myself frantically organizing my house.  I spring clean at least 4 times a year.  This week I've been organizing everything, one room at a time.  When we moved to this house I just kind of put things in any place I could.  We downsized considerably so I just stuffed things in the closets, shut the doors, and hoped not to have to open them for awhile.  And I didn't.  I took my time, grieving the loss of urbanized living [ahem, Target] and learning to embrace rural America.  I grew up living in small towns, but I left it all for big city living 4 years ago and hoped to never return. 
Now that I've worked through the latest change that 2010 sent my way, I'm ready to settle in.  It's been 2 months, for heaven's sake.  I've almost organized the closets and have come up with more things to donate. 
In an effort to be a better steward of our home and our finances, I find that less is definitely more.  It's easier to offer up my home as a place of hospitality and service when it is less cluttered. 
I finally threw away most of my college things.  I have been carrying around at least 3 large boxes of random things  from college for more than 5 years and frankly, it was time to let it all go.  I threw it all out except for a few memories, photos, and papers, downsizing to one small box.  I guess I always thought that if I held onto those cards, photos, and movie stubs, it was somehow keeping certain relationships alive.  People are more important than papers, and they also take up less space in your closets.  That was a joke. 
And now that we've gone around our elbows to get to our noses, I just want to shout from the rooftops that I AM READY FOR FALL!!!  I can't wait to go to the local apple orchards, buy mums, plant geraniums, and put pumpkins on my porch.  I'm ready to wear jeans without sweating through them.  [I don't know if that happens to you, but it does me.]  I want to wake up to crisp air in the mornings and take walks in the cool of the evening with my husband and my dog.  Poor Bailey practically has a heat stroke on her afternoon walks, if she even gets one at all.
My favorite part about autumn is the cooking!  There are so many timeless recipes that you just don't make any time of year.  The coming on of fall also marks the start of using one of the best kitchen appliances: the crockpot.  Ahhh...I can feel my life getting easier, knowing that I can throw some stuff in the crockpot in the morning and not have to think about it until supper time.  I also think that the onset of cooler weather means a smaller grocery bill because we make things like stews and casseroles that create leftovers and therefore make it unnecessary to plan out every single meal.
Here are some new recipes that I cannot wait to try.
Apple Walnut Flax Seed Bread
Spicy Lentil Soup
Carrot and Squash Curry Soup

There are a host of others that I've already earmarked from cookbooks I have that I am going to be adding into my cool weather recipe arsenal along with some classics, and I can't wait to share them with you here. 
Do you have any fall recipes that you'd like to share?