Happy Fall Y'all

Tomorrow is the FIRST day of fall. What do you do with your family special to celebrate this awesome season? If you're reading this - consider yourself TAGGED! Tell me what you do to celebrate autumn!

Our family always loves to go to a fall festival called Joshua's Hands, put on by a large homeschooling family with the support of their church. They have games and all kinds of activities - puppet shows, face painting, auction, crafts to make and take, Christian bands, petting zoo, demonstrations of spinning wool, antique show, and my favorite part is the food - homemade beef barley stew, chilli, hot dogs, and apples everywhere! They decorate it really nice and it is such a great fall outdoor activity.

Another tradition we started last year with my friend Tina was "Happy Fall" breakfast together. They come to my house and we have a BIG breakfast. I make a ton of pumpkin pancakes, and sausage with maple syrup and butter - and we have hot spiced apple cider and hot chocolate or coffee to drink. It was such a fun thing to do. Last year we did it rather impromptu - but both of our families loved it so much that we decided to plan it, and invited another family that lives nearby.

Oh yeah, and for anyone interested, here is the Pumpkin Pancake recipe:

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 cups biscuit/baking mix
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 c. pumpkin (canned - NOT pumpkin pie mix)
1 can (12oz) evaporated milk
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla
Maple syrup

Combine dry ingredients in bowl.
Combine wet ingredients separately.
Blend well - and stir into dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour batter by 1/2 cupfuls onto a lightly greased, hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes. Cook until second side is golden brown.
Serve with syrup.

Sorry for the oversight - originally I left the pumpkin out of the recipe - inadvertently. I apologize for the error! Gosh! I promise the rest of the recipe is here - in the right amounts!!!! We had them today, and they were wonderful!

It's Happening - Fall is Here!

The evenings have started getting cooler - so we've opened up our windows - and only for the hour around dinner time is it warm enough to want the AC on. It is starting to get dark earlier in the evening, and school has started back up for public school kids and homeschoolers alike. I have been in denial as all these things are happening - because it will be ten times harder to pull away from my little house in the big woods if the trees are covered with fall foliage, but the other day I spotted the first specks of color coming to my trees! (See the picture above!) My house has a full basment, and it puts the rest of the house out of the ground about seven steps in the front, but because of the slope of the land, we are at a second story level in the back - and with the view from every window in this house - you feel like you're in a treehouse! So, when those fall leaves come bursting forth, it just takes your breath away. I remember my grandmother coming to visit us shortly after we moved in during the month of September 1998, and sitting in the rocking chair by my front window, which is a large window seat - and saying that she had never been anywhere more beautiful and peaceful. The only sound through the open windows was the rustling of leaves, and the sound of scampering squirrels. I have always loved fall - but here I have loved it even more. I am going to miss it terribly. My first instinct is to feel like I am undergoing torture, but if we trust the Lord's timing is perfect, maybe allowing me to experience a fall here - at least a part of it - one last time is a gift, and not a curse.