Best Day Ever

 We had a beautiful weekend to enjoy the outdoors!   It was a weekend with not a whole lot planned, which I enjoy.  It gives me a chance to go at projects around home at a slower pace and not feel as rushed as I do during the week.  It's also a time to "stop and smell the roses" which, by the way, is a phrase Eryn has just learned about in school.  I finished up the last of the canning for the year, finishing some apple pie filling.  We are officially out of room on the shelving in the basement, and I think we are well stocked for the winter. Eryn and Nolan were good helpers too by peeling and cutting the apples!
  It was a weekend to have unexpected visits from friends  and family as well, and that is always a blessing!

 Today we ventured to Lake Meyer to do a little playing, throwing of the football and a little walk on the trail.  The kids enjoyed it just as much as we did, especially when we spotted a deer!

 Derek said many times throughout the trek, "it's the best day ever!"  Really makes you stop and think of how a little boy sees the world.  You just never know what's going to come out of that kids mouth, and it's a joy to be his momma. 

Football!

Football season has started, and Eryn and her friends were being the "cheerleaders" at the recent game at TV.  Oh, that hill in the background brings back many memories of my childhood!  SW is doing well this season, and we are looking forward to the Homecoming game next week, and praying for great weather.  Go Warriors!

Quality Time

We are loving these cooler days of fall!  Last night Nolan and I took advantage of the great weather while Eryn was at gymnastics to enjoy the Trout Run Trail.  It's great when you have time to spend a little one on one quality time with your kids!  By the way, isn't this kid growing up way too fast!  Hard to believe in a couple of months he will be 7 years old!

Leavin' on a jet plane!

Ok, not really, just yet anyways!!

This past week we made the final reservations for our winter vacation, so I thought I would give out some tips that seemed to work for us.  So if you are planning a trip, listen up:)

**Do your homework.  This takes alot of time and planning, but well worth it.  We have been planning this trip since last winter, so a  good year or so before the actual date.  I have spent countless hours scouring the internet for the best deals.

**Travel agent or no?  I would definitely recommend a travel agent if you are going somewhere in which you are not familiar.  The last vacation we took, to Cancun, we used a travel agent.  We had never been before and weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into.  I think it proved to be worth it to have someone do the scheduling for us, especially since we were not familiar with the options.  For this trip it will be our 4th time to the area, and I think we know what we want to see and do.

**Once you know what you want in your lodging, it makes it easier to decide where to stay.  We went back and forth with lodging, and weren't sure where exactly we wanted to stay.  House/Condo, on the beach, in another city close by?  You need to know what you want.  We knew we wanted a pool and a gym, possibly a grill/deck area.  We looked at renting houses, but they didn't offer a beach view, and weren't exactly close to amenities and shopping/restaurants. After much searching, emails, phone calls, talking, and more research, we were able to find a deal right on the ocean!  Score!  We used vrbo.com, which we have used in the past to help us find just the right place to stay.  Looking forward to watching the sun rise over the horizon of the ocean.....ahhh bliss!

**We knew right away that for this trip we were NOT going to drive it.  Something about 24 hours in a minivan with three other people just isn't my cup of tea.  We drove the first time we went down, and it was okay.  Aside from nearly dying on the way there in downtown Atlanta traffic and on the way back due to an ice storm in the middle of the night, the drive was pretty much uneventful:) 

So flying it is! We wanted to fly out somewhere close to us, which in rural Iowa the closest major airport is still about 2 hours away.  I probably started watching flights pretty closely (1-2 times per week) about 6 months ago.  On every other trip we had our flights booked by the beginning of summer, but this time chose to take a risk.  Good thing, cuz I was able to see trends in when prices changed, and know just when to book.  And, as a bonus, they added back in the flight time we really wanted at a price that was within budget.  So, as prices were going up and down this week, on both airlines we were watching we decided to go ahead and book it.

We will rent a minivan once we get there which has proved to be beneficial.  This way we can come and go as we please and aren't dependent on taxis or other public transportation the entire time.  We can also choose to go on a day trip to another city if we so choose.  I am trying to keep this vaca low key and not filled to the brim with activites every single minute of the day.  I am really wanting to soak in the sun, do things on a whim, and chillax!

So with that said I can file my spreadsheets of condos, houses, airlines, etc. for another time.  This trip is booked! 

Corn+ Apples + Tomatoes=lots of work done!

I'd like to say that we had an uneventful weekend but we were sure busy!  Nothing was planned on the calendar, and I kinda like those kind of weekends.  Saturday I continued to work on canning tomatoes and made some pasta sauce.  Then, it was time to finish up the apples I had left, so I made my own recipe for applesauce. 

 

I don't know how many pounds of apples I had, but I would guess 10 or 15.  Peeled, cored and sliced, then added a cup or so of water and let them cook down on the stove.  Then I pureed them and added one mango and three peaches, and about 3 cups of sugar.  End result=8 pints of yummy peach mango applesauce!

 

I also wanted to try out some of the apple pie filling I made earlier in the week, as it was a new recipe for me.  I don't like to put a lot of work into something and end up not liking it!  I decided to make a pan of apple pie bars, for a couple reasons.  One, it's way easier than making a pie, and tastes about the same as a pie, and two, they are much easier to pack for lunch or eat on the run.  All I had to do was make up the crust, roll it out and put it in a 9x13 pan, then top it with the filling and finish with the other crust, egg white wash, and 45 minutes later they were done!  I like how the filling turned out and wouldn't mind making some more filling, so you can guess what I will be doing next weekend!

 

 

Later in the afternooon we picked sweet corn.  My tank was on empty so we saved that work for this afternoon after a quick visit to my parents!  While it wasn't near as warm out as it was yesterday it was cloudy, and the kids opted to lay low in the house.  It had been awhile since we got puzzles out and since a certain 2 year old didn't feel like napping, it was a nice quiet activity.  Eryn's been busy reading and is into the Babysitters Club books.  Oh, the memories!  I read every single book of that series when I was her age!!

 

 

Trying to get ahead of a busy week I also made up some muffins for breakfast and browned some burger for supper tomorrow.  It is way less stressful to get some of those things out of the way on the weekend to make the weeknights a little more enjoyable!  This week Eryn starts Gymnastics and both older kids start religion classes.  So, here's to another week~!

working together!

the finished product



little bookworm:)

CORN!

Canning tomatoes

Like everyone this time of year, our tomatoes are coming in like mad, and we need to scurry to get the canning done to keep up!  I received a great recipe for spaghetti sauce and dedided to give it a whirl.  It's delish!  And, to keep some of the heat outdoors we decided to do most of the canning outside.  It was a beautiful day to be out anyways!  First we needed to scald the tomatoes to get the skins off.  Then we cored them, and by the way, using the apple slicer/corer works wonderfully!  Then we chopped them up, mixed them with some tomato paste and spices and cooked it for about an hour.  Then we ladeled it in the jars and processed to 20 minutes.  I think the process gets easier each time I do it.   

Campfire Smore's!

As there's a hint of fall in the crisp air  I am reminded that these days of enjoying the outdoors will change to that of hats and mittens, sleds and hot chocolate.  Trying to savor all of it, we decided on an improptu roasting of marshmallows one night this weekend.  The kids love to have a fire and roast marshmallows.  They are lucky their dad can get those marshmallows toasted just right to fit into the cracker and chocolate!  And yes, the kids have their PJ's on:)

Summer Wind Down

 It's hard to believe this is the last official weekend of summer!  I'm not sure where the time has gone but I know that we are trying to soak up every last bit of summer that we can!  Last night we had some friends and family over to celebrate.

  All too soon it will be too cold to enjoy the Iowa evenings and I am certainly not looking forward to that.  At any rate, the kids enjoyed playing until well after dark, sweating in the humidity and heat that we've all experienced this past week in Iowa.  Campfires, a few fireworks and time with friends.  A great way to end the summer!  Despite a Hawkeye loss, you can see the kids were still sporting their Iowa attire!

I am hopeful that the beautiful weather will stick around for awhile.  We are approaching my favorite time of year!  With that comes a lot of work, both inside and outside.  We've got a pretty laid back plan for the rest of the weekend, but that garden is calling my name.  Lots of 'maters that are needing attention. 

DIY Project: Landscaping

As many of you know we have our fair share of DIY projects around the house.  One of them that we can finally check off

 the list is the landscaping.  We will finish up today with seeding the new lawn and hoping for a little rain to get it going before the colder weather hits.  This is one project I enjoyed doing!