I enjoyed a lovely evening picking flowers from the campus garden with my wing :) Thanks go out to Armila for promoting the event and taking such great care of the garden!

I am so glad that the Fall weather seems to finally be here!  I love the brisk air... colder air gives me clarity.  It refreshes my mind and I am better able to think clearly.  The colors excite me, and the wind plays with my hair.  Who can beat this?

Day five. I wish this thing ran longer. I feel like I've barely started, haha. Picked up little plastic pots and some soil mix at the store yesterday. I'm picking up those seeds and planting my garden today. Here's hoping an Indiana winter won't kill it off...

Day four. Forgot to log in yesterday, so oops. A friend from school told me she could get me some seeds to start an herb garden, so not as much progress as I'd planned to have by now, but it's a first step. Planning to do some research today and hopefully head to the store to get what I need to start planting tomorrow.

Things I'm thankful for today:
- a lovely fall day to run at the cross country course 
- walking dogs and crunching leaves
- my church family 

Day two. Used my Bobble bottle again. Missed lab, so I'll be calculating my carbon and slavery footprints via worksheet on my own. Still need to research herb gardening...

I've kept a thankfulness journal for a few years now, but I've recently I've neglected my previously-daily regimen of recording things in it daily. I pulled it out and wrote a few last night, and it was a delight. Almost at 6000! :) 

Day one. I used my Bobble water bottle instead of the plastic bottles Ma bought. I need to research indoor herb gardening for my dorm room so I can get started on that this week. Unrelated to my listed challenges, I learned about carbon offsets today and calculated the carbon footprint of my car and air travel. Apparently it's about $60 worth of offsets per year.

So, over Fall Break I had the amazing opportunity to go on a short Bird Watching trip with my Dad!  Over the past few years we have gone typically over Spring Break, but since we missed last Spring Break, we made up for it now!  

There sadly were not a lot of migratory waterfowl up at the Indiana Dunes, but we did see 500+ Sandhill Cranes at Jasper Pulaski Park!  Those birds are loud.  It was interesting to hear how each one had a slightly different voice to its trill, and we even saw a few of them dancing together (who knew they did that in the Fall).  
I did add three birds to my life list as well on this trip, but the main event was releasing a Saw-Whet Owl!!!  At the Indiana Dunes State Park they do bird banding, and during the Fall they band Saw-whet Owls as they migrate south for the winter.  That. Was. Amazing!  Those owls are so tiny!  When I "released" one of them, it was placed on my extended arm as a perch.  I honestly was praying that it would stay on my arm for a moment, and it did!  Highlight of my day.  After that my dad and I went in and we adopted that very owl (which means we payed $25 dollars to sponsor the banding program and get updates on that specific owl every time it is recaught.)  

A well seized two days if you ask me! 

Haven't bought anything or driven anywhere since Friday (: 
(But I'm going to drive about 120 miles tomorrow to get back to Upland...)