Finding Fall: Sky Color

We recently got a book from the library called, Sky Color.

In this simple story, a little girl is given no blue paint for her classes mural project-- and she must paint the SKY! She ponders the question what color is the sky? And through observation and quietness of heart she finds a beautiful answer.

And I've thought of it daily since we read it.

As I've watched the Midwestern sky-- purple and midnight in the early morning, grey and frosty decorated with dancing yellow leaves on our walk to the bus, pink, orange and majestic on our quick morning drive into the office.

And like in the picture above, this energetic, electric and soft blue. In quiet tension with the orange, golden, yellow leaves.

We could also write a little book called leaf color, I suspect.

What Sky Color have you seen today?

This Moment: Costumes

This lady even dresses up to ride her bike to town!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

::Amanda Soule

Finding Fall: In a Litte House

My lovies in a big chair at the Frontier Village.

A few weeks ago we headed out on a big road trip to North Dakota for our friends wedding. An 8 hour trip in a car with two little people might seem daunting, but for me it was an eight glorious hours of conversation, book reading, joke telling and snack eating. And it was a beautiful weekend, the leaves were changing color. It was chilly and I wore a wool sweater most of the weekend. Could the weekend have been more perfect?

Um, Yes, it could.

Especially if your like me and you take every moment possible moment to indoctrinate your children on the books you loved growing up. Ha! I pumped up and hyped up Little House in the Big Woods and it did not disappoint the backseat peanut gallery. So many things to learn!

We read it for almost the whole trip.

And since I had planned on reading this book, we took a detour through De Smet, South Dakota to the Ingalls' Homestead-- hoping to get a good look at the house they lived in during the book By the Shores of Silver Lake.

The 'little house' and the later built homestead.

We took sometime to explore the visitors center and drive around to see all the buildings, taking a tour was just not in our budget this time. But both kids picked up corn cob dolls- just like Laura.

Frontier Village Log Cabin

On our way home we started reading Farmer Boy and we stopped by a Frontier Village which we could explore all we wanted. We were excited to see that it was in a similar time to the Little House books.

We even wrote a family report about our experiences-- hey the car trip was getting a bit long! Most of it was dictated by them.

I am so glad we took these little side trips, it made for such an adventure. And the midwest has such a rich history of exploration and settlement, I want the kids to experience that too.

And how could we not stop to see the World's Largest Buffalo?

Would you like to see our report? I've added it below! (:



We found fall on our adventure. Where are you finding beauty this autumn?

"This weekend we went to visit Laura Ingalls' homestead [in De Smet, South Dakota]. There was a covered wagon, there was a school house, a country church and now a gift shop. The houses and buildings were set on a prairie. on the homestead they had a barn for animals.

In the car we read a book called "Little House in the Big Woods." Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura and baby Carrie life in a log cabin. They make a lot of their own food like stewed pumpkins, bread and butter. Pa hunted animals for meat, they smoked the meat. They made their own cheese.

For fun the girls played under the trees in nice weather. Laura had a corn cob for a doll she named it Susan. For Christmas she got a rag doll and named it Charlotte.

On Sunday, we went to a little frontier town. It had two goats named Ted and Fred. And we saw a HUGE buffalo. In the town it had a log cabin with a wood stove just like Laura's! There was an old quilt on the bed.

On the way to North Dakota we saw lots of different kinds of farms. We saw lots of crops: corn, beans, sunflowers and potatoes.

On the way home we started reading Farmer Boy. The little boy Almonzo attended a one room school just like at Laura's homestead and like at the frontier village."

Finding Fall: Light that Binds Us

I am the light in the late summer and early autumn afternoons that bathes the fields in gold.
I am the light that blisters your skin in the summer,
I am the light that sparkles on the snow in the winter.
I am the light you ache for in the winter,
revere in the springtime,
escape from in the summer, honor in the fall.

Seeking autumn's beauty: 

Finding Fall: Apples and More Apples

I always feel like fall is finally upon us when we pick the apples off of our tree. Then we make apple pies, apple sauce, apple juice, apple cake, apple crisp and anything else we can think of. We lost half of our tree due to a thunderstorm with high winds early in the summer and I didn't know how we would fair this fall with apples. But we picked one laundry basket full of apples so far!

I've been processing basket in little bits. First with apple sauce (recipe below!), then with apple pie filling. I am always intoxicated by the smell of apples and cinnamon. Is there anything that smells more like fall? Other than crisp mornings and slowly decaying leaves?

For the next few weeks, I'll share with you the answer to that question. As I seek to find fall and live fully present and embrace this season.

Easy Crockpot Apple Sauce

10 peeled, de-seeded, quartered apples
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar (I use a bit less, but the kids like it with this much sugar)
3/4 cup of water
1 tsp. lemon juice

Add the apples to the crockpot with cinnamon, water, lemon juice and sugar to the crockpot. Cook on high for 3 hours or until when stirred the apples fall apart. Stir until desired consistency. Let cook for 15-30 minutes more to thicken up.
Freeze or process as desired.