The smell of Autumn

I have this on my stove today & oh how it makes me happy. It is the smell of fall & holidays. Want to try it, it's simple & beautiful.

Cut up an orange & lemon. Throw in some cranberries, cloves & a cinnamon stick. Fill up with water & just keep it simmering all day. Your house will soon smell amazing. I usually keep a pot for several days up to a week & just keep adding water. You will know when to throw it & make up some more. Enjoy. I also just love the looks of it.

I love . . .

Do remember that old song that went something like this:

  I love little baby ducks, old pickup trucks,

  Slow moving trains & rain.

 And I love you too .  . .

 Do you know that song? Do you at least remember part of that song. Well either way it has a lot of truth in it & let me to you something: I love little baby ducks.

Remember how I told you a week or so ago that our momma duck "Brownie" as the boys call her, hatched her along awaited ducklings. Well I am still oh so in love with them, but come on can you blame me? Look at them.

  Honestly right now I "water" the yard & pasture a little more than it needs just so I can get a little closer to them. 

The momma is usually close by.

And when she calls them come waddling & follow her. All naturally following into a straight line.  Yes, oh yes, I am in love.

And of course anytime we observe nature, we need a few reading materials to go along with it, here are a few we have read & enjoyed.

 

    

Mail . . .

  I love getting mail, especially when it is something other than bills. I got a package & I am so excited I can hardly contain my excitement.
 
     

It is a book I heard about at my quilt group.  It is meant to help with my large boxes of scrap fabrics I can't seem to part with yet.  So I am very excited!!  I love a good quilt book, & just reading it makes me want to get into my scraps & start making a system of organizing them!
 
 Also, right now we are trying to finish gathering our items for home school. I have our basic curriculum outlined & one day will actually share it with you.  Some subjects we won't officially start until after Labor Day Weekend, because I won't pick items up until then, but others I will be ordering this week. One thing this year we are going to do is these:


 So we are getting excited for things at this house.  We are doing daily journaling right now. Last year doing this was like pulling teeth, (so I never pushed it really hard) but this year the boys are excited to do it. So we as a family are trying to make it a daily habit. Me included. So far they have been writing more & more. My motto for this year when it comes to homeschooling : Inspire, not Require.
 


 What fun things have you been getting in the mail?

The House that Built Me

We had a family reunion last weekend. One with all my Grandma & mom's brothers & sisters & kids. My sister put together a video of my Grandma's home. A place we all played, loved, laughed & created memories there that will last a lifetime. My kids are lucky enough to live close enough to my grandma to have created their own memories here as well. I love my grandma so much & love that we can still visit her today &  I love her house that built me.

Off the beaten path

        Yesterday the boys asked if we could head to the mountains. So we agreed that if they got their chores for the day done, then we would. Well they worked hard & fast. So yesterday we spent a wonderful evening chilling just off of this beaten path.

               It was such a beautiful evening. The perfect temperature, & absolutely beautiful. It has been a few years since I have been up in this canyon.  We loved it. The boys played hard:

                                     
                                           While my baby watched from his car  seat.

                                          Then the boys had dad take them on a little hike . . .

Once again, the baby & I chilled. 

                                                               And kept the fire going.

  Me & the babe, hanging out back at camp.  We enjoyed the scenery & sounds of the great outdoors, while the boys were gone.

 

        I know that this tree is random ,but I love the you can see it's gnarled roots.

                                                                  A little bit later, they returned.

 
             Not really sure why this little boy, headed up the mountain without shoes, but whatever his reason may be; it look like it made the hike for him a lot easier.  

                   Then we sat around the campfire eating our campfire cooked hot dogs & later roasting marshmallows.

                    We roasted marshmallows, played a bit, more & headed home. It was such a nice break & change of pace.   I think we will start doing it a lot more.

Sunshine

My in-laws had a pretty bad week last week, so the boys & I decided we wanted to send them a care package to let them know we were thinking about them. After thinking about it for a while I remembered I saw an idea on pinterest (here) & thought it would be perfect.





We decided to send them sunshine in a box.



We filled it with yellow items, you can see above what we added. The yellow flower thing is actually an ice cube tray. Then we made a card with a sun on it & a note that said: "We heard last week didn't go too hot . . . You might just need a little more sunshine, or so we thought."

Then off it went to North Dakota, hopefully it brightened their day. Either way, I thought it was too cute not to share.

Is there anyone you know that could use a little more sunshine?

A. surprise

My anniversary is next week. We have been married almost 9 years. Well last weekend my hubby surprised me with an early anniversary present.









Flats of flowers to plant in my sad looking flower beds. You see there are no flowers currently growing in our flower beds except maybe 2 or 3 and a large crazy amount of weeds.
(Sad to say I studied landscaping in college & have my degree in Horticulture, but you could never tell it by looking at our yard.) Oh well a little each year & one day we will get there.
I am quite excited, you see it was something I wanted to buy, but couldn't justify it as a need. Just a want. So I couldn't do it. But I guess that is what good husbands do. They can help us justify our wants to needs.
So happy early anniversary to me. I was able to get one flower bed planted on Saturday. Now I am trying to take back the other one from the weeds & hopefully get it planted soon!!!
So I can keep putting these beautiful flowers in the ground.




I just love flowers! Happy Wednesday to you!