by Ashley Murphy

I think that it's safe to say, it is officially that time of year again. It's time to switch our thermostats off of the cooling setting and time to switch the heat on! It's time to pull out all of our winter clothes and get the heavy jackets ready to wear. The cold weather is moving in with fall and before we know it, winter will be creeping upon us.

The leaves on the trees are starting to change,  giving the foliage those wonderful colors that so many love to see during the autumn months. As the leaves begin to die, they start falling off of the trees, causing quite a mess in your yard. I know this can be awfully annoying, but if you have little ones, these leaves are a great way to put a smile on their faces and make them happy. They may even be willing to help rake the leaves if you tell them they'll have a big stack to jump into later.

When I was little, well about 7 or 8 I guess, I went to a sitter's house after school and we would play outside constantly. Some of the other kids and myself would gather big armfuls of leaves and stack them as high as we could. Then, we would go back a ways, take off running, and "fly" into the middle of the pile. It's amazing how much fun kids could have with so little, years ago. Maybe you could even have some fun with your kids and they could show you a thing or two about leaf diving.

Another wonderful trait of the fall season is the morning frosts that cover just about everything, from the ground, to homes, to cars. While I love seeing it and the shimmer it puts on everything, it can be really bothersome. I am not a morning person in any way, shape, or form. I am one of those people that hits the snooze button 3 or 4 times before actually waking up and seeing that I'm going to have to rush through my morning routine to get to work on time. And walking outside in the fall and winter to a car that's frosted over an inch thick (okay... maybe not exactly an inch thick) and the inside temperature feels below freezing, is something I do not look forward to.

I know, if I would get up earlier and take the time to go start my car, then I wouldn't have this problem. Trust me, I get an earful from my parents and friends when I start complaining. But, it's not an understatement when I say that I am NOT a morning person! I would rather run around like a chicken with its head cut off than get up 10 or 15 minutes earlier. Especially if it's still pitch black outside and my bed seems like a better place to be than the 10, 20 or 30 degree weather outside.

But, my least favorite part of winter, next to the sub-zero temperatures, is the loss of daylight and the setting in of darkness much earlier than I would like. When my alarm goes off at 6:30 in the mornings, it's still completely dark outside. By the time I finally roll out of bed at about 7:00, it's still a little too dark for my brain to comprehend that I need to get up and get moving. I finally make it to work as the sun is coming up, only to leave work around 5:00 to see the sun start going down. This leaves about an hour of sunlight to finish off the day!

But, when the cold weather starts to set in, I guess we have to say good-bye to daylight saving time (DST). Now that fall has finally arrived, DST will end on November 1, so at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, you will need to set your clocks back one full hour.