Beauty of Fall...

November is here and the beauty around here this time of year is breathtaking... The above picture was taken from my upstairs balcony. I love how we have the woods surrounding us back here, yet we are not directly in it so the leaves are so pretty to look at and not so much of a dread like they were at the old house...:)

Jordan missed a buck last evening, in the tree stand along the driveway. This is number two that he missed now and he is getting frustrated. He went out this morning to look for his arrow, he found it stuck in the ground. He was sure he had hit this one (same as last weeks miss) because he said it "kicked out the back" :) Both misses brought him in excited, and he was sure he had hit the targeted deer! Dave plans to hunt with him (at his side) this evening to try to teach him a few tricks...:) He is dreaming of "deer jerky"

My mom and sisters were here for brunch and sisters day for a few hours yesterday. It is always fun to be together catching up and Javon sure always enjoys the cousin time to! Thanks for coming and making our morning fun guys!...:)

Javon is home from school this morning with a nasty cold. I did not want him to pass this off to other kids and when he sneezes you do not want to be anywhere near close to him! Poor guy is all stuffed up! Jordan came down earlier this morning then usual, he said he did not sleep good at all because Javon was all over him, restless and making horrendous noises as he slept! We are just keeping him in today so far and we are even still in our pj's... We have read many stories as we cuddled in a blanket this morning already.

Yesterday was another afternoon of "winterizing". I think we are pretty much complete with this project and it feels great! The pond needs a bit more attention as it was pretty dark until I got done last night. Only I will appreciate this "before and after" picture...:)

 Before...

After...

And yes I was in the water with bare feet!... Brrr! I needed to chop the water lilies back and my rake just wasn't cutting it!...

The back yard here today...

The grasses were still pretty at this time but I cut them off anyway. Simply because we get strong west winds here and I do not want to deal with them later when it's much colder, or neither next spring when they are all dried up and messy! Plus they really blow and leave a mess in the pond if I let them there until spring. (I learnt this the hard way:))

The time change has us enjoying the extra hour here but why is that we still can't seem to get Jenika to bed early enough!? The more time we have the more time we take...:) The Little's so enjoy the afternoons outdoors and once it's dark outside they then want to have fun with indoor stuff to. I find it hard to disturb them for bath time so it always comes much later then intended, and the first grader is again exhausted by the time her head hits the pillow! She also brings words home from school every day that need to be studied, but we gave up doing these at bedtime! She can hardly hold open her eyes!  I have started to reward Jordan for helping her with them in the morning while I'm preparing lunches and breakfast. It goes much better this way!

The brighter mornings (the extra hour) had me out for a five mile run bright and early. I love running this time of the year. The air is crisp yet not so freezing cold yet. I sometimes snap pictures as I run just to capture the "breathtaking" beauty. Yesterday mornings run... Can't beat early morning runs like this one...






Last evening was our big supper night. I normally do a big meal on Thursday evenings but we have Amish weddings on Thursdays right now (along with this comes a big meal!) and we have also moved our chiropractor to Thursday evenings for now. I get to do every three week chiropractor but the rest of my clan is still doing once a week for a bit yet.

 Last evening Jenika was my kitchen helper because the guys were all out hunting until dark. I had done many ahead preparations though because I was working in the yard until almost dark to.

We ate the "Tongue"!! Steer tongue!! I put it in the crock pot on low heat even before my run. I also put another piece of meat in just in case a few of us might not appreciate the tongue so much...:} We made mashed potatoes (often a request) steamed veggies and corn. Homemade bread and butter. It was later until we ate because of the hunters and everyone was very hungry! I could hardly hold my Little's until we were all together at the table!

The big boys really love these meals and eat way to much at this late hour...:) I always make a fresh dessert to... I saw these yummy looking "pumpkin muffins" on here..stoltzfuserma1989.blogspot.com and they are as yummy as they look and sound!! Thanks Erma!! I love when people give me pinterest ideas because I still have not found time to browse on pinterest. I know I would love it but I do not like to much computer time so for now I'll just steal the ideas from my pinteresting friends...:)

Here is the recipe...
Muffins...
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
2 cups sugar (I added less)
2 cups pumpkin
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

mix everything together and pour batter into muffin holders. Fill each holder 3/4 full then drop 2 tsp of cream cheese mixture into the batter. swirl a little with a fork then place the crumbs on top of the cream cheese mixture. Bake 325' for 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out dry.

Cream cheese filling...
6 oz cream cheese
2 Tabls sugar
2 Tabls milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Soften cream cheese and mix the four ingredients together

Crumb topping...
1 cup flour
3 Tbls. brown sugar
2 Tbls. sugar
1 tsp baking power
a pinch of salt
6 Tbls. butter softened

Soften butter then add remaining ingredients...

I think I would make this in half the next time. It made way to many muffins so I ended up making a pan of muffins then a small cake just to finish the batter. The small cake will be frozen for an upcoming trip to the cabin...:) They got really puffy and so yummy! My guys ate them warm with ice cream. I had mine with coffee... And yes it was way to late last night when we ate these! Sleep was not the best with so much food to process but we sure have a blast on these all out supper nights so it is worth it and we enjoy every minute...:) It was oatmeal for breakfast, because we just don't seem to get hungry after these bigger meals...:)


I have more computer work to do here.. working on thinking about Christmas...:) With the outside work slowing down around here I can now move on to Christmas things like cards and some shopping for Christmas names... I want to be done earlier this year if possible. Dave is working on getting our Belize trip all lined up and organized. (thankful for inside connections and Internet, so I can better prepare myself and my "comfortable box" personality for this trip!...:))  We are getting more excited for this adventure though, being gone over Christmas will be something we have never done before but with the children in school it made the most sense to do it this way. We are thinking the Christmas spirit will start earlier this year for us.


We are also happy to have the kids off of school the next two days for the annual teachers MACSA.
I'm not sure how I will keep them busy yet but the weather has been so perfect and they love to be outdoors so I'm sure they will enjoy the days off of school.

 Justin has two options for his week-end. He is feeling a bit torn. He loves to go with his dad to the Equine Horse Show in Massachusetts every year (always on MACSA week) but he was also asked to go with my dad and brother Allen to Potter County to do some hunting and getting a tree stand set up for Allen. I think he is planning to go to Potter now but it was a bit of a tear for him not to go with Dave...:}

I'm off... Enjoy the  "breathtaking beauty" that the "Leaves" bring us this time of year...:)