A Fond Farewell to September

 I can hardly believe we say good-bye to September today! The months are flying by much too quickly! Each one of my *littles* aren't so little anymore! There is such joy...and yet sadness in that! What a blessing and treasure it truly is to watch them grow and change over the years...and yet, I look back at photos of them when they are small and can't fathom where my *babies* have gone!

My reluctant reader grabbed his book and started reading of his own choice! That was definitely a photo-worthy moment!

We continue our educating day-by-day...reading, writing, math, science, history, Bible and more. Because we use Easy Peasy for most subjects, our projects, worksheets and papers are often printed. This is how I file their papers (the children also have binders with dividers for each subject where they write things for each one)...

A couple of dish cloths I knit up recently for a birthday gift...

Washing eggs from the chickens...

Jaxson's creation...

The leaves are changing! One of my favorite things about autumn!

Doing some schoolwork outside (with the help of a lil' buddy)...

Cast iron beauties...

My creative fella...always thinking up something new!

I am thankful for the days the Lord gives and strive to please Him in all I think and do (each and every day). I fail...but His forgiveness and strength is beautiful to this undeserving heart.

Rain is due to set in here soon...so I need to go out and take the clothes off the line that I have had out there drying since this morning. We have been blessed with many gorgeous sun-filled days...so a bit of rain is welcome here today! Our schooling is finished and we took a walk before lunch. We will tidy the house and I, for one, hope to spend some time reading (and maybe knitting too?) this afternoon. The children have music lessons later and I am not sure what the evening holds....whatever the Lord wills, I suppose! :)

Thanks for dropping by! It's always great to hear from you! I pray your September has been a joy-filled, God-exalting one and that October proves to be the same!

Joyfully,
Katy

Our Fall Festival 2014

Saturday was our family's annual fall festival. A lot of work goes into putting this together ~ it's so wonderful when it all turns out beautifully! Chris and the men-folk were up early to cook chicken at the meat market. The women and children came afterwards and we finished getting things set up.

Soon, vendors arrived and began getting their places set up....

The weather was beautiful and people started arriving right at 9am. Soon, we were full of people! I was helping my mom make homemade doughnuts so I was only able to capture a few pictures quickly (as we always had a line of people to serve)...

The doughnut/fry making station (where I was all day)....

The petting zoo and pony rides were big hits with children!

It was a beautiful day and we were given lots of compliments. I think some people may have been unhappy about some of the long lines for food...but with that many people there...as well as making some of the food right there, fresh ~ we truly did the best we could. Each year we try to improve and I think the festival has gotten better each year. This year was the most successful, I believe, as we had over 70 vendors and a beautiful God-given day! :)

Thank-you for stopping by and sharing in our day with us virtually! If you are local and came by ~ we appreciate it!!

Also, if you have emailed me lately and not received a reply, please know I have been having a lot of internet problems with our provider. We can't seem to keep our internet hooked up. It will come on for a few seconds and then off it goes again. I am hoping to publish this post when it connects again, quickly. It is quite frustrating as we have been dealing with this for weeks (months even). We've had techs here and gotten a new modem, new wiring and basically everything is great on our end...but there has to be a box or something messed up somewhere along the lines. I *really* hope they can get it fixed soon because this is frustrating (we also use Easy Peasy online curriculum for our homeschooling...without internet, we can't do what we need to get done!). So please know I am not ignoring you ~ just having internet connection issues!

Kindly,
Katy

Preparing for this year's....

The 11th Annual Fall Festival that my in-love's host at their place is coming up this Saturday! We are praising God that the weather is to be beautiful! We have been busy getting ready....


Fixing some of the indoor signs (my mom did it ~ I just helped erase what needed changed!)....

Making apple cider...

....and bottling it....

This year we are even offering pints!

My sister painted on some of the smaller pumpkins to sell...

My mom made some signs...

We've been busy the past few nights (and tomorrow night as well) getting things set up for our vendors....we have over 80 spaces with vendors this year!!! It's amazing!

The sign I made...

The backhoe was needed to move some things (that's my honey in there!)....

We'll have mums for sale...

And pumpkins too!

Chris, my mom and I were busy measuring out spaces and marking them for the 70+ vendors! We walked through this field a lot this evening! Everyone else was keeping busy as well...lots to get done!

Below is the hay maze they set up for children. There will be horse-drawn carriage rides, pony rides, a petting zoo, food, vendors, meat specials in the meat market, cider and more!!!

We are hoping and praying for a beautiful day! We feel so blessed for the way the festival has grown through the years! It's so hard to believe we started this when Madelyn was two. I feel like that just can't be true...but everyone says it is so! :)

I plan on taking photos on Saturday...but I will be super busy as well. If you are local, I hope you will stop by! It should be a *great* day, Lord willing!

Warmly,
Katy