Tuesday, September 21, 2021

SEPTEMBER ~ 🍂

 

September is going by so fast.  Lot's of good things have been happening!

Matthew is SO HAPPY with his new ride!  Mike drove 4 1/2 hours to pick up this used truck for Matthew.  It's stick shift and Matthew is thrilled!  Mike hauled it back home, another 4 1/2 hour drive back.  Thanks Babe!

Matthew took it for a ride with me in the passenger seat.  He drove stick shift no problem!  He then gave Ashlyn and Austin a ride but in the back, back yard.  I just smiled as I watched from the kitchen window.  I remember just wanting to drive too when I was sixteen!  :)))



September is a canning month for me!  Applesauce day is always spent at Mom Lapps house.  She's got such a nice set up in basement and the porch!  



We cut baskets of ginger gold and smokehouse apples!



Cooked the apples and put them through the apple strainer.

It smells so good!  We add some sugar and pour it in jars.  Then cold pack it for ten minutes.  I got 30 quarts of fresh applesauce now!!!!




I'm trying out a new sough dough recipe from Annie!  This bread can be made in four hours instead of overnight.  It's delicious and so yummy with butter and jelly!


We are praying for revival!  In our own hearts, in our own families because it's there that then can spread to our neighborhood and state and country!!!!!  Sean Feucht and his family and worship team is traveling from one city to the next crying out for worship to our God!  Matthew and some of his classmates went to DC to hear this worship service!  Many people prayed for our nation, our capitol, our president and our countries leaders!  Mike and I watched it live on TV and would love to attend this event sometime!



SEPTEMBER 11 .... never forget!!!!  That seemed to be the theme for this years anniversary on 9/11!  I will never forget!  It was twenty years ago, on a beautiful, sunny morning in Florida, where I found out about this terrible attack on America!  Mike and I were in Florida with my grandparents and I was pregnant with Hadassah!  We didn't have cell phones.  We listened to the radio for news.  We went to the mall to watch the news.  We bought papers to read about the news.  I've never been so intrigued by "news" before.  We still remember how America cried out to God for help, safety, understanding and for peace!  It was beautiful to see the hearts of so many turn towards God!  To help us remember this historic moment for our nation, the children were asked to wear red, white and blue to school!  They were told stories of how many were hurt, killed and scared but also of how God loves our nation and we need to always turn to God for our real strength!





Football season began!!!!  Go Chiefs!!!!!



On these September days, the kids are in school, Mike is at work, I'm at home doing house chores and the weather is just lovely!  I love it when the school children come home and spend a lot of time jumping and playing outside!!!!


The garden is still going!  The sunflowers are finished blooming and I cut off the sunflower heads to hopefully save these seeds for another season of flowers next summer!!!!  And the fennel is the plant that caterpillars love!!!!  Can you see it!?!
 

The herb box is overflowing!


Zinnas still in bloom and the young lettuce plants are growing!




September is the month of fall flavors and all things pumpkin!!!!!  We loved these pumpkin yum yum cupcakes!!!!!




And the canning shelves are restocked with fresh salsa, marinara sauce and applesauce!



I was introduced to these two books from someone on Instagram and I bought them to read to Ashlyn and Austin!  We keep saying that we need to raise up "Daniel's and Esthers" in our day in age and I thought that one way to help do this is to read stories of others who stood up for their faith!  These are short stories and easy to read to your children as a devotional or just a good chance for them (and me) to hear of how others have been brave because of their faith in Jesus!!!!!



Like I said, September has me reached for pumpkin and comfort foods!  These gingerbread biscottis go so well with my morning coffee!



Here's another picture of the evening sky with Ashlyn and Austin jumping  and playing outside!



There was a hot air balloon festival near our home town last weekend and we loved to see the balloons come towards our house on Saturday morning!  We thought that one was going to land in our back yard but the wind took it across the field instead and had to land there.



After the morning balloon action, we went to Weavertown's school sale!  The kids love this day with their cousins!  Meg and Mel go to Weavertown and the kids just love this sale day!


Can you tell they love the food  and prizes!!!!


There was another balloon send off at 6 PM and so the kids and I took a short drive to Bird-in-Hand to watch it!!!!  So cool!!!!!



We are finally in the pumpkin mood and we went searching for some to paint, carve and decorate with!  There's a farm that we pass every day on our way to school and we have bought pumpkins from them the past few years!  Yesterday, we visited their farm and bought us some pumpkins!


Little Man picked out this big orange one that he hopes to carve out when the weather is a bit cooler outside.  This is why I love September so much!  It's cool morning and evenings but still warm in the afternoons!  He will carve this when we think it won't rot out so fast!




Ashlyn picked out a few pumpkins too and we loaded them up on a wagon!





September is such a lovely month of warm tempts, cool mornings, pumpkin foods and decor!  It's the month of much harvest!  The farmers are beginning to cut the corn from the fields that surround our house!  The fall crops are growing.  The grass is still green and the green beans in the garden are still producing the nicest, crisp beans!  I've got pumpkin on mind each day and love the smell of warm apples and hot cider!!!!

Happy September to you!!!!!





Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Labor Day Weekend.

 We spent four days in a row at the cabin in the woods and it was so relaxing, so fun, so wonderful to be with family and just so peaceful!  Mom and Dad built a cabin years back and we loved it!  Then only a few years later it all went up in smoke.  The entire cabin and all it's "things" burnt to the ground.  No one was hurt, thank the Lord!  It was an accident.  Dad worked HARD, so hard, to get the cabin rebuilt and we just love it even more today!!!!!  It's beautiful!  There's room for many!  My parents did a really good job at making it a place of retreat, quiet and peace!

Every time we visit this place, we LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT THERE!  It's like the whole world around us gets quiet.  Poor phone service is just the perfect excuse for me to let the emails and social media go right by without me checking in!  It's a place to read books, look through magazines and hum to gospel music!

Labor Day Weekend was a time when we used to head to Ohio!  For years, Mike played in a ball tournament in Dublin and we looked so forward to time with the ball team, hotel swims and hang outs and the kids got so dirty at the ball park.  The Rebels do not play baseball anymore and this is now just a memory.  2021, we decided to go to the cabin for this long weekend!

We had an extra long weekend this year because of Hurricane Ida.  The East coast was flooded with crazy amounts of rain, wind and storms.  Last Wednesday, we got over 6 inches of rain!  So much flooding and high waters!  The kids did not have school because of the forecast and flooding issues but we were able to do school virtual.  This is now possible since COVID existed.  The next day was a beautiful, sunny day and my plans were to make applesauce and can it at Mom Lapp's house.  Because of still many roads being covered with water, school was out again but this time no virtual learning was required.  Ashlyn and Austin went along and helped make applesauce.  Matthew went to work with Mike!  That night, we packed up our bags and headed for the cabin till Monday!

Normally, we make a quick Chickfila stop on the way to the cabin but this time we did MOD Pizza!  We loved it and we may make this our new stop on the way to the cabin!




These boys are such good friends!  They played in the woods a lot!











Playing Indians!










Lots of golf cart rides were given!


Mike went for a four wheeler ride and I knew where I might find him!  We are buying some mountain land and I thought that he was maybe over checking it out!  I hopped on the other four wheeler and went riding!  Sure enough, he was there!  We love to ride the mountain roads and feel the wind in our hair!!!!



Boys and their toys right!?!  Ryan was around and it was good to see him again!  The boys are practicing their bows and some are getting ready for an upcoming west hunt.



Zane was such a cutie at the cabin!



Tyler is heading out west later this week and so he tried out his new, tiny food cooker!  He fired up that tiny cooker and boiled some water.  Then we added it to a pack of dried noodles and beef.  We all took a bite and it was pretty good!






Shuffle board games were fun!  



I never knew that there were so many grasshoppers around until this weekend!  Jeremiah said they needed to catch some live bait for their kayak/fishing adventure.  The boys were running all around the yard catching these bugs!  They filled two water bottles up and they were off to fish.




Dad bought two new kayaks and the guys were eager to try them out!  Brother John Mike has two kayaks too and so they each took one to the river, with their grasshoppers, and set out for a ride on the river.



Hadassah and Mom dropped them off by the river and then they rowed down stream.  The water was high from Hurricane Ida's rains earlier in the week and they didn't catch any fish because it was too muddy.  Again, from Ida's waters.



Mom made homemade ice cream twice!  The kids loved it!



Matthew loves to fish and so this river adventure was really fun for him!!!!  I think they will be doing this again and again!




Weekends spent at the cabin are always too short and so much fun!  

Until next time ........