Fall is upon us

Yes fall is definitely here! I love it! I love seeing the orange leaves and the orange pumpkins in the fields and on people's doorsteps! It seems that kids don't smash so many pumpkins in this town. But I probably shouldn't say that too loud!! Ha Ha!
I surprised myself the other day when I was driving home from somewhere and found myself enjoying the sight of plowed fields and yellow soybeans that are still in the fields. I enjoy seeing the old barns and the cows too. I guess I have tried to be stubborn and just wanted to tolerate South Jersey until we can return north again, but I am enjoying the farms surrounding our town just the same. I still plan to move north some day, but not yet.

 

My son J and I went apple picking this week. He was annoyed that I signed him up for this because he is way too old, but I did and we went. 

This is J. He would not smile or look at me when I was taking picture. Being 14 and cool is quite a task! He enjoyed the fact that I got lost trying to find the orchards. ~ I am pretty good at getting lost, but I usually end up at the right place!

 We don't know many of the kids in our homeschool group. It's mainly an activity/ sports group. And J is too shy to walk up to kids and start talking. I wish there were more homeschoolers right around us.

But we had a good time none the less. There was one boy he recognized from soccer and J picked apples by him for a while. Boy did they downsize the size of their baskets they give you to fill with apples! $10 for about 6 pounds of apples! That's not that many apples. We did two baskets.

I have plans for either apple sauce or apple butter this weekend. And of course an apple pie will have to be made too. I bought a jar of strawberry rhubarb jam for my dear husband while we were at the farm ,and I bought some cider and apple cider donuts. That bag of donuts was tiny too. I wonder if it was just the farm where we were or if it's the price of things in general?

I do so enjoy munching on an apple in the morning with my cup of tea. My diet isn't causing me to lose weight in leaps and bounds, but I have to blame only myself for eating too late at night. Even though I still had enough points saved up, I should not have downed that eggplant parm sandwich at 8:30 PM last night after our church conference. I was starving and we went to the diner with the kids and some friends. - I guess I should have just had a cup of soup and a salad. Well- I will have a salad tonight for dinner.

I made pumpkin bread today- my sister (from http://razzberrycorner.blogspot.com/) suggested the recipe that she used from allrecipes.com. It was for orange pumpkin loaf. You use a whole orange in it including the peel (minus the seeds.) I promise to post the recipe next time.

I have to rustle up some dinner for my husband and J before I go spend the night at the hangar. That's our church's community center down the street. I am one of the hired staff. ~ I am going to make a salad for me, but I truly am not in an inspired mood for dinner tonight. I do have to come up with something, so I better go venture into the kitchen to see what I can find.  Oh by the way, when we were leaving the orchard J told me that it would be ok to come back next year!