Cabin Life!

 We spent the weekend at the cabin with my family!  It's become a yearly occasion and we all look forward to MACSA Weekend!  The kids had no school on Friday and my plans were to go to the cabin on Thursday night and stay till Sunday. But ... Arise Collective Theatre performed PILGRIM at church and the only night it worked for us to go and watch this was Thursday night.  It was SO, SO GOOD and the littles each got a teeshirt!  The story of Pilgrim was performed on stage as the Pilgrims Progress story was done so beautifully!  It was worth changing our plans!

The littles and I headed to the cabin Friday morning.  Mike and the other kids came up that night after work.  The drive up north was so gorgeous with the leaves changing colors!  Autumn is so beautiful at the cabin!

My family joined us on Friday and Saturday.  Time with cousins is always fun and the amount of time spent outside is wonderful!  Kaden had his tiny cross bow along up and LaVern helped each one of the little boys shoot it.  The big boys hunted.  The kids played again in the teepee.  Games, good food and lazy moments are a must at the cabin!

Each family takes turns with the meals and I decided to make Campfire Chili!  Matthew helped stir and cook it up!  Everyone loved it!

Jody made a different pumpkin soup and we cooked it in a pumpkin!  The meal was finished off with corn bread and dessert!

These kids have the best of times in these woods!

We love the cabin!  

Pumpkin Patch!

 

We did it again!  We visited a pumpkin patch again and took some photos!  I had my eyes on the look out for a nearby patch but could not seem to find one!  Maybe pumpkins were not sold for a profit last year and this may have scared off other pumpkin farmers to say no to growing them this year???  I don't know but the field just down the road is empty of pumpkins this year and I miss not seeing them grow.  Pumpkin patches are so cool to me!  

On the way home from a school field trip with Ashlyn's class on Friday, I noticed a field of pumpkins near school.  I thought to myself, "OK, soon I must bring the littles here!"  Then that very night, Matthew needed a ride to school because of basketball and I told the kids to quick go get changed into fall clothes and let's go to a pumpkin patch after dropping Matthew off!

And we go .... fresh off the press photos of the fun time in the pumpkin patch!

These two know by now that if they have fun, photo sessions are more fun!!!!

The sun was really bright when we arrived but it did give us some fun, pretty pictures as we went along!

They were just having a blast running through the field!

Ashlyn is such a cutie!  She likes to know what's happening and our daily plans.  We begs, begs, begs and begs every single day to have her ears pierced.  I just don't get why it must be so pressing!  She's enjoying school and really likes her teacher!  She's a lot like me.  She loves vegetables and will try almost anything I will eat.  She's brave.  Gardening is something she's loved as a child and still loves!  It's the cutest thing ever to watch her go into the garden and chew on fennel greens or pick string beans and then eat them right on the spot!  I love how she's turning into a young lady!  She's so cute and the best sister and play friend with Austin!

"Hey kiddoes, sit on that white pumpkin and look at me!  Smile!"

Thank you!!!!!

Austin has adjusted to the school life of a first grader.  Boy, it took it awhile and we had many mornings of tears and motivational speeches but he's good to go now!  He's learning how to read, spell words and he's liking it.  Now, he probably wouldn't tell you that he's liking it, but he is!!!  I can tell!  He's coloring, making crafts with Ashlyn, reading simple words and feeling proud of his work!  He's a mommas boy and I love snuggling him still at six years old.  He's a dreamer and asks for so many things and his energy level is high!  We love him so much and I could just squish those adorable cheeks!!!!!

Sometimes we get some funny faces.  Austin touched something prickly on a pumpkin!  :)))

And then they got into tickling each other with the field weeds.

XOXO!!!!

Just a party!

And we always leave a photo session with doing a crazy one!!!!  Here you have it!!!!!

It's already the middle of October!  That's crazy!  Fall is starting to show it's pretty colors in our part of the world and it's beautiful!  We have some fun outings coming up and I can't wait to see more leaves in their golden colors, make fun memories and experience more autumn!!!!

PS. Talking about "our part of the world" ... it makes me so sad to hear about something terrible happening in another part of the world!  17 missionaries in Haiti were kidnapped and still held hostage for ransom money by a gang in Haiti.  If you haven't heard about this, look it up online!  Join me in praying for these Christians, these young families, 5 children and even a baby!  God has a good, good plan to bring out of this but until we know what it is, pray for these people!

Happy autumn!!!!!!

Falls foods!!!

 

One thing I love, love about autumn time is all the yummy food!  Pumpkin everything!  Warm apples, cider, dumplings, pies, cinnamon ... you know all the fattening things!!!  🤨. But something else I really like is soups when the weather gets chilly!  I made a batch of vegetable soup and it makes the best kind of lunch or an easy supper with grilled cheese!  This soup calls for three different mix packs and when I went for my ingredients, the grocery store only had two of them.  I also should have added more salt but we are eating it and loving it!

VEGETABLE SOUP TO CAN
2 1/2 gal. tomato juice
1 qt. corn
1 qt. peas
1 qt. chopped carrots
1 qt. chopped celery
1 qt. chopped onions
2 qt. chopped potatoes
2 sweet peppers, chopped
2 TB parsley
2 LB. hamburger, fried
1/2 c. sugar
salt to taste 
1 can pork and beans
12 oz. alphabet macaroni
1 pk. meat loaf, beef stew and sloppy Joe seasoning mixes
Cook carrots, celery and potatoes in salted water until soft.  Drain.  Fry onions with hamburger.  Cook alphabet macaroni in water.  Mix everything and put in jars.  Cold pack for 3 hours.  
Yield: 17 Qts.

Pumpkin and Gingerbread biscottis are being baked now!!!!

I tried something brand new!  I've never seen this done before until a few weeks ago.  One of my instagram friends posted that she made "Dinner in a pumpkin".  I looked it up on Pinterest and found a recipe and tried it!  I thought it was cool but when I set the whole pumpkin on the dinner table, the men in the house where not 'feeling it'.  😂. They looked at me like "are we really supposed to eat out of a pumpkin?"  Ashlyn is my festive friend and she was brave enough to try it and eat it!  The others went for cereal.  

Tomato Pie Cafe has a delicious fall menu!!!  Marlene and Lena met me there and we shared the pumpkin pancakes!  It is sad that Matt and Marlene's adoption plans didn't go as planned again but I'm so grateful they have their hearts toward God!  They seek His direction!  I'm proud of you guys!

We attended the Farmhouse Market event again this fall!  This is an event where a whole lot of local small businesses come together and display their products.  Cash and Carry style!  There are food trucks with yummy sandwiches and pizza!  Coffee trucks selling hot cider and lattes!  It's all a good vibe with live singing and all outside!

Ashlyn, Austin and I left home and headed for the Farmhouse Market.  The kids asked if they could call Lena and ask if they were going.  I said that we would just head over awhile and if we meet up with her and her children ... than that would be great.  It wasn't long before Adrian called us and said, "Hey, we are right behind you guys!"  We couldn't have tried that if we planned it out!  Then we saw Janessa and Angelyn there too!  This was such a blast for the kids!!!!

Another fall food that we love is CHILI!!!  Every autumn we go to John and Kathy for a campfire chili party and it's so yummy and fun!  Mike and I decided to invite Matt and Lena over, Hadassah and Jeremiah were already here and it didn't suit Ritchie and Liz but we made chili over the campfire!  I should have doubled the recipe because we scrapped bottom to feed everyone!  It turned out delicious and the campfire felt good on the chilly night!  We warmed up apple cider over the fire too but I didn't like the smokey taste it got.  Next time, I need to put it in a kettle!

I began another fall Bible study at Spring Garden!!!  I really do wonder how many years I've done this by now?  Spring Garden does a wonderful job at putting together a ladies study every fall!  For years, we did a DVD study with Beth Moore!  I loved it!  Then we did some Priscilla Shirer studies and they are also so, so good!  I love to study a part of scripture, especially bible characters!!!!  This time the study is on Elijah!  It's a brand new study about a very old true bible story!  I also just finished up the book Becoming Elizabeth Elliot.  It's a remarkable story of how Jim and Elizabeth gave their time, lives and even was killed to tell an unlearned Indian tribe about Jesus!!!  Jim was killed by the Indians because they welcomed NO OUTSIDERS!  Elizabeth went back to the tribe only a short time later and God softened the Indian peoples hearts and many came to know the Lord!  There's so much faith and boldness to be learned through this true story!

We keep hearing and are reminded that we need to rise up Daniels and Esthers in our day in age.  I agree!  It's encouraging to read of how others laid down their lives, their desires to spread the gospel!  It's faith building!  

And we have Ginger back home!!!!  I noticed that Ginger wasn't feeling well on Sunday.  Normally, when we let her out to go to the bathroom in the morning, she's all frisky and runs outside.  Not this morning.  She laid around all day and acted like she could barely walk.  I called the vet on Monday and they couldn't see her until Friday.  Tuesday she seemed a little better but now not walking on her front leg.  I called each day to see if they could see her earlier but nothing worked out sooner.  I took her on Friday.  They did an ultrasound to see what was going on inside of her and her uterus was infected.  She needed surgery ASAP.  They referred me to Pet's Emergency but I bulked.  I knew there we would get charged high dollar!  It was now the weekend and President Weekend at that.  I called other local vets and no body could do it for us except one!!!!  I was so grateful because we decided that we were not paying $4000 to fix this.  Blackhorse Animal Hospital, just 10 minutes from our house said I could bring her and they would do the surgery for $800!!!!!  Unbelievable!!!!  I picked Ginger up at the vet and took her to Blackhorse!  They kept her overnight and did surgery the next day.  I called to see when I could pick her up and they said they would keep her till after the weekend.  She was on IV's and needed a close watch.  I called Monday and Tuesday.  Each day she was getting better but not eating well.  Finally, they called me on Tuesday and said I could come pick her up and bring her home!!!  We were excited and we missed her so much!  She laid around so much and wasn't to jump or go steps.  Wednesday she laid a lot but seemed to be on the mend.  By Friday, she was perky and barking and seemed much better!  She's still got an incision that's healing but she's good!  Ginger was so happy to see us!

I've never made Apple Butter before but I wanted to try it!  I love apple butter!  Florida taught us to eat it with sweet potato fries.  I love it on toast!  I looked up a recipe on Pinterest and made it!  It was easy!  I washed, peeled and diced apples.  Added spices and sugar and then cooked it overnight in the crockpot!

SLOW COOKER APPLE BUTTER

6 cups apples

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. salt

Core, peel and chop apples.  Place in slow cooker.  Mix together other ingredients and pour over apples.  Cook on high for 1 hour.  Reduce to low and cook 10 - 12 hours.  Cook another hour uncovered until mixture thickens.  Cool a bit and then put through blender. Cool and store in the refrigerator.

The next morning, I put it through a blender to get it nice and smooth and here it is!  It only made three pints but it's good!!!

Ashlyn's class did chapel last Wednesday and Ashlyn was one of the main characters!  She did a great job!!!!  Class chapels are so meaningful and they shared so many scripture verses!!!  Good job 5th graders!!!!

And Matthew played golf with PV again this fall.  He made it to districts!  Mike was there watching him golf and Matthew received rewards at the banquet!  "Most Improved Golfer!"  Good job Matthew!!!!

More fall foods .... Agape Cafe posted on Instagram that they are now serving Pumpkin Waffles!  I was there for it and Mike and I took the littles out for breakfast on Saturday morning!  Austin and Mike got the waffle board and then Mike shared an omelet with Ashlyn.  I got the Pumpkin Waffle of course!!!!!  😂. So yummy!

There are so many autumn foods and drinks and soups and recipes to try!  It's fun for me to try new flavors  and cook different meals now and then!  We still have a pumpkin patch to visit!  I would love to do caramel apples with the kids!?!  The past few days have been much cooler and it's now time for layers and turn the floor heat on!!!!

I love FALL!!!!!