Snippets of Autumn

Spiced Mulled Wine....MmmMmmmm (and it made the house smell AMAZING!)

Autumn here at the Cape of Good Hope (the nickname we've given our home), has been a perfect balance of busy days tempered with quiet days at home. Once the weather starts to cool, I start to "nest". I start doing that deep-down cleaning. I put away summer items and bring out the cold weather items. Of all the autumn traditions, COOKING is my personal favorite. For some reason, when cold weather arrives, I finally get the urge to bake and cook. There are soups and stews several nights a week, followed by roasts, casseroles, and hot sandwiches. We change our favorite drinks from lemonade and iced tea to mulled cider, mulled wine, warm milk with honey, hot cocoa and daily teas (of every variety imaginable). Naturally, these hot drinks go perfectly with all the great meals I love to create!

Case in point....

This was a spiced pumpkin oat bread with walnuts.

I dug out even more warmer blankets for all the beds. Here are the littlest ones testing out their older sister's bed to ensure her new blankets would be soft and warm. 

The cat doesn't seem TOO unhappy to have been scared away from her spot on the bed!

Of course, there is always homeschooling being done in one form or another. Today we worked on creating a turkey upon which was glued various different materials (in this case: leaves, dill, paprika, fennel seeds, feathers and sand).  You can see the remnants of the banana that kept my son fueled during his creating.

Now for some autumn decor. I just love this shelf, because I can change it to suit every season.

My mother made me two of these about 15 years ago. This one is in the dining room, while the other one hangs next to the mirror in the downstairs bathroom.

Brother and sister settle down for more creative endeavors. Pardon the oh-so-fancy towel curtain. I haven't found the perfect curtain for this window yet, so I keep this ugly towel there as a daily reminder to keep my eyes open for its replacement!  Notice my "baker's rack" near the back door. It's actually my plant/seedling rack more than anything else.

More autumn decor

Our Wall of Fame where we display current artwork

Two autumn owls keep an eye on our entertainment center

The fireplace mantle boasts a quilt that my mom made many years ago. I just love to include her whenever I can into our daily lives. She is never forgotten.

This was a free roadside find. Who could possibly throw away this great chair?!  It's perfect next to our snowgear crate, just waiting for a snowy day.

Nighttime in the home classroom (a.k.a. the toyroom). Our site words sit happily beside our calendar. My son (in particular) loves changing the calendar and adding special days to it.

Welcome to our home!

Autumn means the flowers and bushes out front start looking dried up and spent. 

See you in the spring, plants!

More homeschooling. 

With only five days until Thanksgiving, things are starting to get hopping around the house. Tomorrow I'll take the turkey out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge. I'll do my final grocery shopping for all the fixin's we'll need for Thanksgiving day, and we'll continue to scrub and organize the house. 

Thanksgiving time feels a little like the deep breath before the plunge. We're already having frosts at night, which has certainly stepped up our efforts to put the finishing touches on closing the garden and battening down the hatches in the rest of the yard (including tucking outside toys under a large tarp for the winter and leaving out only a few that the kids can still use through the winter.

I still have a bit of winterizing to do inside the house, but my goal is to have it all finished by Yuletide. Right now, I'm sitting in a chair near the warm fireplace and the kids are playing together on the rug at my feet. We've had our baths and are now about to head to bed, after a story and a somewhat elaborate tucking-in ritual. It's funny how seemingly simple things warm the heart so very much. 

I truly am very blessed.