Happy first day of Autumn!!!

The first day of Autumn is here but it's not feeling it outside!!!  We've been having dry, hot weather all last week and into the weekend!!!  I am really hoping that we get some rain soon because our grass is the brownest it's been all summer and the dust is flying as soon as I mow or work outside!

Last Thursday I asked Austin to go take some pictures of Bethany cleaning!  :)  Bethany comes every Thursday to help me clean!!!  It's such a blessing!!!  After we remodeled five years ago (how can it be that long already???) everything was fresh and new in our home!  I wanted so badly to keep things like that but we live in a world of dust and dirt and we have little fingers that get messy in our home and we don't live as hermits and actually play outside ... and we are humans!  We get dirty.  Things get dirty!  So, I thought and pondered about asking someone to come help me clean.  Austin was just a baby and having a clean house is high on my priority list!  I went around the neighborhood asking if there would be any young girl interested in helping me clean.  I didn't get a yes but I thought of Bethany!  Bethany is a youth girl from the church we used to attend and she's great with children!!!  I wasn't sure if I would actually get her to help me clean or take the children outside to play while I clean!?!  I hired her for three hours and we split the cleaning in half for both of us!  She does all the dusting (blinds, furniture and baseboards).  She cleans all the floors (vacuuming and wiping  by hands and knees by dining room and kitchen floors).  I clean all the bathrooms, kitchen and some windows!  It works so good!  We chat and listen to music as we clean!  I try to be finished with my chores a little before she is so that Austin and I can go outside or make some errands while she wipes up the floors.  It's been such a blessing to have her help and my cleaning is finished by noon!  Bethany is planning to leave the states in a few weeks to live in Nicaragua and learn Spanish and bless other poor children!!!  I'm going to miss her help SO MUCH but I plan to clean alone until she comes back after winter!  :///  Thank you Bethany for being such a blessing!

I don't clean my screens every week!  I actually don't like cleaning windows at all but last week they just seemed so dusty and dirty!

Austin loves to follow her around the house while she dusts!  They have a blast together and he was delighted to have a ride in her new Jeep the other day!!!

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Mom wanted to go to Roots Farmers Market and so we sent a text out to the sisters and asked who wants along!?!  It ended up just being Mom, Jody, Austin and I but we had fun!  So many vendors selling produce and good food!  It was a hot day and Austin loved the animals!

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Austin plays solider, Peter Rabbit and David and Goliath almost every day!  He gets creative with his solider gear!  Take a look!

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Yesterday was the first day of Autumn and I've been wanting to visit our favorite pumpkin farm again!  They have a nice display of pumpkins and mums!  We picked out a bunch of white smaller pumpkins and we want to take them to our upcoming school sale on Saturday!

My little buddy!!!!!

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It becomes all things pumpkins around here when it's September!!!!

The other day Hadassah mentioned pumpkin scones!  That's all I needed to hear and I whipped some up!  Also, we were host family at church on Sunday and I made these small pumpkin cheesecakes for dessert!  Both recipes I found on Pinterest!

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Some days I feel like we live as a family of four but really we are a family of six!!!  Hadassah and Matthew are both busy with sports and depending on the event, they chose to not join us.  We got tickets to watch the show JESUS at Sight and Sound last Friday night and because the kids did already watch this with their school classes, it ended up just being the four of us going.  Austin was super excited to see the soldiers of course!!!  He was all eyes and couldn't wait to see Jesus on the cross.  We all really enjoyed the show so much!!!!!

He even took his sword along to the show!

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We attended Meg and Mel's school sale on Saturday and the kids had a real blast!!!!!!

Then we got to enjoy some homemade Mexican food from Aby and Leon!!!!  Aby is from Mexico and she made a wonderful, delicious meal for us!!!!  Thank you, thank you Aby!!!!  It was wonderful!!!!

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And at the beginning of this post I mentioned how dry it is around here!  Look at this!!!!!!!  Unbelievable!  I wasn't hoping so much that it would rain before the beans get cut but here goes!  The weather is the 90's today and the windows are closed with the AC on!  Thank goodness!!!!  I would hate to have all that dust in my house!

The farmers are harvesting the corn behind our house too.  It's a busy day for these farmers and they do a great job at making our surrounding land so beautiful with their plants!!!!

The weather forecast is saying a bit cooler the rest of the week compared to 90 degrees today.  We will be back to windows open and AC off it that actually happens!

Happy first day of Autumn everyone!!!!  Enjoy those pumpkins and all the fun fall things!!!!

Random thoughts on this Autumn day.

Autumn has the best smells and flavors!!!  Do you agree?  I'm a lover of all things pumpkin and I love the aroma of freshly baked pumpkin cookies with ginger and cinnamon and nutmeg all combined!  I also love apple cider!  Apples seem to be a fall food and we love apple pie from scratch!  I got a recipe from my cousin Kate years ago and I love to make in the fall!  I'll post it when its baked!  Apple Cider from Kauffman's is something I buy this time of year too!  I love it cold or hot!  Or make a Apple Cider Latte!!!  All you do is heat apple cider, add a hot cider tea bag and let it seep for a few minutes.  Add a splash of heavy cream and some caramel and enjoy!  I love this so much!!!  You should try it!

My brother LaVern texted us all the other week that Weston Tate was born!  They have the cutest babies and we couldn't wait to go see him!!!  Ashlyn is a proud cousin!!!

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September 11 is a day I will never forget!  I remember right where I was when I heard the terrible news of planes crashing into the Twin Towers!  I remember how I felt for the people in NY City!  I remember wanting to watch the news and buy the newspapers and listen to the radio for updates!  It must have been terrible!!!  I now share this sad moment of history with my children.

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I'm not much of a reader.  I wish I would read more because reading makes you smarter!!!  Matthew's teacher last year gave him this book at graduation.  I've been wanting to read it and I finally opened it the other day!  These warmer autumn days had me enjoying the sunshine and reading!  I'm loving the book so far and have so many lines highlighted!!!!  Good read!

And these two are a mess!!!  Literally!  Ashlyn asked what the charcoal in the medicine cabinet was for the other day and I said that Hadassah mixes it with coconut oil and uses it for a face mask!  The next day, Hadassah texted me a picture of them!  They brushed their teeth with it and totally had black stuff all over the sink!  Deep cleaning for them I suppose!

Matthew plays golf for PV.  He competes after school and goes to practises.  I tried to stay calm the other night when I picked him up because he hopped in the Yukon with a baby snapping turtle.  No big right???  He said he found it at the golf course and wanted it for a pet.  The kids are loving it but I'm not sure it's going to survive.  So far he fed it fish food and bird worms!!!

Saturday was a day of splitting fights.  The two youngest usually play well but I'm not sure why Saturday was a tit for tat day???  They fought about everything!  I don't like days like this and wanted to push a restart button!  We finally did sit down and I asked them "why all the fighting?"  They didn't have an answer and when Mike came home later, Ashlyn said that it's "fighting day".  I thought maybe some yummy wings for lunch would be a hit but they ended up being spicy and made Ashlyn's mouth all red!  Matthew loved them though!!!  Thank goodness!!!

I bought this metal décor thing at Kings Homestead last year.  It was pictured to hold candles in each glass votive.  I used it like this for awhile and over the holidays but this spring I decided to add fresh flowers into it and turn the votive into vases!!!  I'm so happy I did because I had it on the dining room table all summer with flowers in it!  Right now I cut hydrangeas and dahlias and stuck them in the water vases!  It's so easy and makes a stunning display!!!

We are clipping right along with school!  Today I contacted the Smoothie people and got my schedule in place for our upcoming school sale!  The kids are off to the races with volleyball games and golf practises!!!  Ashlyn's in third grade and back into doing spelling words and bible memory!  Austin is doing really well entertaining himself!!!  I'm surprised!  Of course, he asks me to throw catch or play football and we do that for awhile but when it's time for me to get my work done, he goes off to play.  The NO GADGET days have been the best ever!!!  It really gets him thinking and being creative without having a gadget as a source of entertainment!  Today he played Peter Rabbit!  He hopped into Costco!  Another mom smiled at me and said, "My daughter was pretending to be a rabbit yesterday!  It's all good!"  We laughed and I've been around the bouncing bunny all day!

Mike's been a bit busy lately!  Our friend Emil passed away last week and Mike took his mom and some siblings to the viewing.  Then it was a work night at church the next night.  It was his day for Quakertown to sell sheds on Saturday and then we went with some church friends out to eat Saturday night!  We loved that!!!  Nights out with fun couples are just the best!  Sunday morning he was out the door early to go run a 5K for another friend that was in an accident and is now paralyzed from the waist down.  The 5K was a fundraiser for Brian!  Mike was back home after lunch and with us in the evening.  It's been hard trying to juggle Matthew's golf pick up times and being on time with Hadassah's volleyball games but we managed!!!  Tonight I've decided to just stay home with the kids instead of watching volleyball!  There are more games to watch later this week!

My favorite month is going by quickly!  I love these warmer days and cooler, windows open nights!

Have a great week!

I love Septemeber!!!

I love September for so many reasons!!!!  The first that comes to my mind is the blue, clear skies!  The cooler breeze that comes through the now open windows!  The AC turned off.  The warm tempts during the day but the cooler weather at night!!!!  It's time to think about all things pumpkin!!!  I start grabbing for those plaids and strips and want to start wearing layers!!!  September and May are my favorite months and I think they are in a way similar!  We are back to greener grass and not so hot weather!  In May, the leaves are growing and in September the leaves are starting to change their color!  I love it!!!!

I have a few things to share here today!  One is this Well Watered Journal I received the other day!  I love to journal and write down my thoughts and I used to do this every.single.day when Hadassah and Matthew were little.  I have a small stack of journal books for my kids to read someday if they wish to.  After I started this blog, I found myself typing down my feelings, plus photos, and so that kinda took the place of my journal.  I do love to take notes at church and often wish I had some kind of spiritual journal because I believe in this verses that says, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your should and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road.  When you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads."  Deuteronomy 6:4-8  Journal down my prayers has a way of reminding me to not forget the God I serve!  It's the same God that help little David fight big Goliath.  It's the same God that stood the sun still while Gideon fought the battle!  The same God that lead His people through the wilderness for many years and fed them manna and gave them water from a rock!  The same God that sent His only Son to die for sinners.  For me!!!  Jesus died and then rose again because the grave could not hold him!!!  Jesus ascended into heaven and now lives with God until he is told to come rapture up his church!!!!  Writing down prayers and going back to see how God answered them ALL builds my faith!!!  So, I ordered my first "Give Me Jesus" journal!  I'm loving it so far!  I don't stress to journal daily but just when something is pressing on my heart!

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How cool is this!!!!  We woke up Saturday morning with a bunch of hot air balloons right outside our door!!!!  We counted 15 but there may have been more!!!!  It was so neat to see!!!

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Austin is doing super duper since school began!  I was nervous about him being bored but so far he proved me wrong!  He only gets gadget moments on Tuesday, Thursday and weekends and this really helped him get creative!  The other day he wanted to go fishing, so he got out his/Matthews gear and we started up the sprinkler so he could "fish".

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I love pumpkins!!!  The taste and the decor!!!  Our plans were to go buy some of those huge pumpkins from pumpkin patch we took some pictures in but yesterday we went past a farm with some fall decor out and we stopped to price out the big ones!!!  These were only $12 a piece!!!!  Any place I've ever seen huge pumpkins were over $30 each!  Austin and I grabbed two and some small pumpkins and as soon as we came home, he wanted to one!!!!

 Gotta love that tongue!!!  :)

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Mike tries really hard to let me have some "me time" on Saturdays!  It's been so wonderful to get out all by myself and enjoy some eats in peace.  Shop in peace.  And just have some quiet moments alone!  On Saturday I stopped at Panera in hopes they had their squash soup but they didn't just yet.  I still enjoyed the food and some time alone!!!  Thanks Babe!!!

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Here's a fun, easy pumpkin drink I made at home the other day!  I mixed cold brew, pumpkin pie syrup, ice and water and topped it with whipped cream!  So yummy on these warmer fall days!!!

I babysat Lena's boys last Friday and Bryce was my pumpkin cookie taster!!!

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We are back into the school sports craziness!!!  Hadassah stared up volleyball and I love, love this sport!  I love to play it and watch it!!!  I'm so proud of how Hadassah has improved greatly in this sport over the years and I love watching her play!!!

Go Linville!!!!

 Matthew started up golf for PV too.  Golf isn't an easy sport to play or to watch.  I'm not going to be tagging behind each putt and so I have no photo's of him just yet!!!  Maybe one of these days I'll sneak to the golf course and capture the moment???

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The produce right now is wonderful!!!  Look at these yummy looking grapes I bought at Kauffmans!  Ashlyn loves these and they taste so good!!!!

All some peaches, pears and spaghetti and egg plant!!!!  So yummy!

And talking about food, Hadassah keeps saying that I have no food around.  Now, when she says that she doesn't mean how it sounds because we are blessed with lots of different foods.  I like to eat healthy and so does she!  But I cook supper every night and that's what I have mostly in the fridge.  Supper foods, fresh veggies and fruits.  The pantry is stocked with granola bars and snacks.  When Hadassah comes out to pack a lunch for school, she doesn't want the little bit of lunch meat I keep on hand.  She doesn't eat baloney.  She doesn't want leftovers too often.  Often her lunch consists of cucumbers and canned pickles and Zerbe's chips!!!  :)))  I finally asked her what she means and what she would like???!!!  She mentioned grilled chicken strips.  So, that's what I did!  I found any easy marinate of olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and salt.  Then I grilled the boneless chicken breast and cut it in strips.  There are now small bags of meat in the refrigerator for her to grab for her lunch!!!  I hope she enjoys this!!!

September is moving along quickly!  My days go by way too fast as I try to keep up with laundry, food, picking string beans from garden and yard work.  I feel like the moment the kids come home from school, I better be ready for them!  They want a snack and soon eat supper!  Then we are off to sports or some memory games on the living room floor!

Life is busy and I wish it would slow down at times but God is good!  So good to give us healthy bodies, healthy minds and plenty of clean water and good food!!!  My list could go for forever if I would start typing down all my blessings!!!!

Thank you God for my blessings!!!!