roses and pumpkins

My mom is here visiting and I am so glad. To see her familiar face, to have her visit our new home "out West" is very comforting. The girls are also so excited to see their "Nana". On Sunday we decided to take her to the Rose Garden. Even this late in the season, the roses are beautiful. We absolutely loved it, although it was a bit chilly as we strolled through the garden.





On Monday we went on a field trip (with the girls school) to the pumpkin patch. We had a fun time and my mom got us an apple pie from the farm store that was out there-after dinner last night we ate that pie right up .


~corn maze at the pumpkin patch

~look at that huge pumpkin!

Mom leaves on Friday, and I'll be sad when she goes back to the East Coast, but glad that we both have in our hearts the memories that we've made here in our new home.
Today we are going shopping, she's a shopper for sure-Happy Monday!

Wednesday's market

no matter where we are, or where we move to finding the farmers market always brings beauty into our lives. Thanks to all the farmers, everywhere.

the afternoon light

~on the plant

~on a bowl of fruit

~on small hands

afternoon light
signalling that another day
is close
to another~
beautiful light
making
the simple
seem
remarkable.

after school....

~we walked to the park


~noticed that the leaves are turning


~played on the swings




~appreciated the vast blue sky




~walked back home with a little crochet work in hand

(our stay at the park was a bit short, because someone hurt their pinky toe on the play equipment-flip flops have been officially put away for the season).

a few glimpses of the day.....

~mums at our doorstep

~the view on the drive to school (my oldest daughter told me it was not very safe to snap photos and drive at the same time:)






~a little shopping


~some flower arranging

This weekend will include church and there is a Fall Festival taking place in town also. If I get my sleep quota in maybe we'll go.
Have a good weekend!

giving thanks and Advent

~flowers on the table


~pecan pie

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend with our family. Lots of food, laughing, and noise (of course with plenty of kid cousins running around my sister-in-law's house). I am very grateful-for so many blessings seen and unseen. The Lord has been good to my family and I hope to keep in my heart a song of praise and a song of gratitude.

For the last two years we have started the tradition of an Advent calendar. Last year I used cardstock to make our calendar.

~a snapshot last year's calendar


Right now (ok December 1st is tommorrow right?) I need to come up with something fast. I think I might just take what I did last year and change it up a bit-since I like a little change. Usually for Advent we share a verse from the Bible with each other (in the evening, before bedtime) and then I give the girls a small treat like a journal, pens, stickers-which I purchase from the dollar bin at Target or elsewhere. Other nights the Advent treat may include baking something simple, making hot cocoa, or doing a small craft.They are looking so forward to tommorrow night and so am I.

turkey

This is a turkey that my daughter made in her kindergarten class (I don't think he has a thing to worry about, even though Thanksgiving is fast approaching :)

Have a great weekend!

a few glimpses of our Sunday

~apple pancake all done


~still making use of those apples, making an apple pancake



~getting the veggies home before the hard frost hits


~green tomatoes picked before the frost

I was feeling a bit under the weather earlier this week, having a bit of a sore throat just feeling blah-blah-but now I'm feeling much better and like my old self (this syrup was quite helpful in helping me with my blah-blah's). We finally had our hard freeze last evening (the official end of the growing season) and it promises to be a chilly day. My main plans for the day include~

*a little shopping (the kids need new winter coats and maybe I'll manage to find something for myself :)

*hopefully a little knitting (yes, I'm still knitting up my bag) preferably with a cup of this tea-which is rocking my world.

*relaxing on the couch this evening while taking in The Next Iron Chef.

Hope you have an enjoyable Sunday and see you soon,
nichole

October fruits

enjoying still...., originally uploaded by *nichole*.

Here in my hands I have a little piece of summer that I picked last week. I planted out some watermelon seeds and transplants at our community garden this summer and it took a long time for the watermelons to mature (because of the unusually cool summer we had here). When we finally got a ripe watermelon -the first one I cut open was not ripe at all- we all cheered. It was a wonderful thing to see that reddish fruit, waiting for us to enjoy.
Watermelon in October is still pretty sweet, pretty sweet indeed!

a few glimpses of our Sunday~at the orchard

~two good


~good sense of humor


~ready for pickin'


~a sign for pumpkins


~pumpkins already picked


We had a great day at the orchard, which also included a tractor ride. I ended up buying close to twenty pounds of apples- the kids picked some, I picked some-so now its time to eat em' up and bake em' up (along with some frozen apples that I still have from last year-before freezer burn sets in, thanks Kirsten for the freezer burn alert).

Nichole's ode to apples
Apples, apples everywhere
crunchy juicy lovely fare
I eat you for a snack
then I come back
to bake you in a pie
and then everyone says "my oh my!"
fall begins with you
I know its true
that you're
so sweet
so tart
so crunchy
so many things rolled into one
so when I have a chance I pick almost a ton.
Apple, apples everywhere
Thanks you for the autumn goodness that you share (:

ufo's and apple love

Its really chilly today my friends-I think the high today is going to be 50 degrees, 20 degrees below the normal high (I get most my weather news from NPR as I'm taking the kids to school). Right now I have on a skirt with tights, socks,and two shirts. I'm determined not to turn on the heat so soon into the fall season-I think we can manage to wait it out a little longer. Well this chilly weather is conducive to one of my long lost hobbies (which I well neglected this past summer) knitting! Yes I've started a new project, a project I hope will be finished in a reasonable amount of time, because well-my closet is full of ufo's (unfinished objects of the knitting kind) that need my attention but have not gotten it. Right now I'm knitting a bag, a bag for autumn. Once I finish knitting it I'm going to felt it. The bag is very colorful, that's how I like things of course, and I'm looking forward to a finished product, I mean it-I'm for real this time (:

On the kitchen front we have been making apple desserts. This week I got a bunch of apples from one of the teachers at the school, so last night for dessert with had apple crisp with cream. The hot apples with the crunchy topping topped homemade whipped cream was so good, so appley! In fact the girls, who are prone not to like cooked fruit, ate it up.


This weekend we are also planning a trip to the apple orchard with a group from church which should be lots of fun. The change of seasons is always exciting, seeing the changes in nature-the colorful magnificence of God's palette.

autumn: in a basket

autumn: in a basket, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

just wanted to share a little autumn with you~

fall days and meal planning (not so much)

~pumpkins in a patch, fall is here


Fall is here and it has greeted us with a bit of rainy foggy weather, which we needed some rain in the first place.
So far the menu planning has been a bust. I ought to know myself better, I cook from what I have on hand and sometimes its just easier to look in the fridge and freezer than to look through cookbooks to find recipes. That being said we do keep a lot of stuff on hand, simply because we eat a lot, a family of eaters-that's who we are. Tonight we had chicken breasts with garlic, curried chickpeas, potatoes and swiss chard with rice (not on the plan, but in my head).
Yet, I know that menu planning could work if I tried hard enough to make it work, but that's just it, I don't want to try too hard -I really think its easier for me to think about what to eat on the day we are to eat, and then go from there. As long as I keep cranking out the meals, keeping bellies happy, all is fine.

hey, I just had a thought after reading this, I guess I could look in the fridge and freezer before planning meals and base my meal plan around what I have, but such simplicity seems to elude me (: