October ~ the month of color! 🍂

September flew right by!  It gave us beautiful days of sunshine and then days of rains from hurricanes brewing in the south.  With turning another calendar page, it's now October and it's autumn at it's finest!  The days are still warm and sunny!  Evenings are now chilly and require layers to stay warm!  The cornfields that surround our property are being worked in and the corn is being cut off and harvested.  Stores are displaying pumpkins and corn candy on their shelves.  The leaves are just at the beginning stages of turning colors and the grass is so lush and green!  I marvel at how blue the sky is every autumn!!!!  It's my favorite time of year and the smells and tastes of pumpkin and cinnamon and cloves are warming to me!

Our annual School Sale happened the last weekend in September.  Matthew ran the 5K this year.  Impressive!

  

The kids had fun doing all the kids events while the online auction took place inside the gym.

Austin and Ashlyn had a fun day with friends and cousins!  The online auction is not as long of a day as it used to be and the sale was over by 1PM.  Mike and I went to help sister in law Rosie move into a new home.  This was a busy, fun day!

My mom invited all the family over to their house for supper on Sunday night and even though we would have loved to stay the entire night, Mike and I had tickets to go hear Sidewalk Prophets sing.  We don't do a lot of concerts but I love them!  I was searching the other week online to see what's coming up locally with Christian groups in concert.  We've never been to a Sidewalk Prophets concert and it was good to be there!  We had a fun night!

You know how it goes, some weeks are packed full of events and the next week not so much.  Last week was full of fun events and attending the Inspire Event at Sight and Sound was yet another time for Mike and I to watch the Esther show, worship God, sing praise songs and listen to God stories of how Sight and Sound functions and performs the Bible shows!  We were reminded that we are here for a purpose!  Now!  And to "Be Still and Know that I am God" are words from the Bible that always give comfort!  We loved this event so much!!!!!

I almost forgot about the lettuce I planted a few weeks ago!  I was pulling out the string bean plants and cleaning up the garden area when I looked around and the lettuce was in full bloom!  It's beautiful and tender and tasty!!!!  I will be growing this blend again in the Spring because I just love it!  Red lettuce and buttercrunch are the best!!!!!

Mom and sisters all met at the new Hudson Botanical the other day for lunch!  It was yummy!!!!

And with it now being October, we went from petunias to flowering kale and mums!!!!

Matthew is finishing up the golf season but not without a trophy and some Penny Saver photos!!!!  We are so proud of this young man and the team is on their way to Districts!!!!

And ... the parade happened last week too!  Mike was out of town at a shed show and we hated to go without him but the kids have been looking so forwards to the parade and fair that we made a go of it!!!!  It was a nice night and they collected so much candy again.

Cousins got to sit together once again!!!  And I left the kids each pick one game to play!

Jody and her girls came this year and we walked the fair streets, grabbed some supper and then watched the parade together!

Just me and my little buddy!

Ashlyn and Austin both picked out a pumpkin a few weeks ago at the local road side stand and I told them to wait till October to carve it out because it might rot with the weather still being warm.  They had a blast digging out the seeds and making 'faces' with the pumpkin!

Cute!

Autumn is such a wonderful time of year of when the days are still warm but there's a chill in the air at night!  

Happy Fall!!!!

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!!!!!