The Frenzy of Fall

Fall is my favorite season, but it also seems to be the busiest in our household.

Fall is when we have the longest school days, chock full of world history, foreign language, literature, math, art, PE, science, field trips, writing, etc. In fall I am ambitious and willing to give more to homeschooling to the point of being a little ridiculous.

Fall is soccer season, the only team sport played in our family so far.

Fall is a very busy time of year in Jared's business, and this year it has been even busier as we have been remodeling a new office and preparing to move over into it soon. We host a big Patient Appreciation Day and canned food drive, and this year we'll also have a ribbon cutting and open house to show off the new space. Both events require food and drink. My mom and sister are helping me with catering this year so that I don't go absolutely crazy next month.:)

Fall is a busy time for my calling in the Primary, the children's ministry in our church. This year I am the President in our (ward) congregation, which means that the responsibility for all that goes on rests on my shoulders. Thankfully I have some wonderful counselors and teachers who help carry that load.

Fall is also full of traditions that we wouldn't miss. A trip or two to Apple Hill, a favorite spot in the Sierra foothills; a Halloween party/open house in our home; lots of favorite foods to be made; and traditions that seem to take up the entire Thanksgiving weekend with family visiting from out of town.

This year, as per usual, I am up to my ears in busy days. Jared and I collapse into bed each night, shaking our heads at how crazy the day has been. Thankfully, these busy days are full of good things and time spent together (at least my time spent together with the kids, that is!)

Just before the fall crazies hit, the week of Labor Day, our family took a much needed vacation. Ten days in Newport Beach, CA. We had ten days to be together, exploring the beach, running all over Disneyland for a 14 hour day, visiting with family and friends, and just getting away from the responsibilities of every day life. It was heavenly. All good things must come to an end, but I am so glad that we had this opportunity before the frenzy of fall.




What keeps you busy in the fall? Or is there another season that is your family's busiest?

Fun, fun, fun!

I'm still here. It's been a busy past few months and I've really fallen out of the habit of blogging. Something about having a new baby and then starting the school year-- I haven't had much time to call my own. But I miss you, dear readers. I miss interacting with you and I miss following you on your blogs. I finally just cleared out my Google Reader to start fresh this morning because I had over 600 unread posts and every time I opened it I felt too overwhelmed to read. I have been busy with important things, but I feel that as long as I don't let it consume me, blogging is important, too. We need each other, don't you think?

It has been hard to get my momentum up, too, because I have so much I can write about and yet nothing seems good enough after letting myself get rusty. So I'll just catch you up on some of what we've been doing without trying to cover everything. And hopefully tomorrow I'll feel like blogging again!:)

One of the lines from The Family: A Proclamation to the World that we have studied and memorized as a family is this one:

Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

We had a summer without many of the "wholesome recreational activities," due to having a new baby and a c-section.

If it hadn't been for the amazing grandparents, our kids would have probably done nothing all summer but watch television. So we have been making up for lost time in the past month or so.

We took an amazing family reunion vacation to Lake Tahoe in mid-September. The weather was perfect, it felt like we had the lake to ourselves, and the kids had a blast with all their cousins from Jared's side of the family.


We had a family outing last week with grandparents to Apple Hill, a favorite destination in the Sierra foothills. We tried out a few new farms there this year, including one with a pond and paddleboat and a big U-pick orchard; a "fudge farm" where we got to do a little tour and see where they grow the nuts and berries that they use in their candy, as well as decorate our own fudge-covered apples; and a visit to our favorite farm for fresh-pressed cider and apple donuts.


Ian and I also went to the pumpkin farm with his kindergarten class this week. The kids whose parents had come got to choose a buddy from the class for the field trip--Ian chose Julian, and I knew why immediately. That's the name of a royal lemur on his favorite cartoon, so Ian thinks Julian is pretty cool.:)


And here is where we are headed with the boys tomorrow afternoon. It should pretty much be a nerd fest. We can't wait!

What "wholesome recreational activities" is your family doing this fall?

Apple Hill Adventures

We have a place in the nearby Sierra foothills that we visit every fall. It is one of the things that our family loves about fall. We always plan to go together as a family, but most years we go three or more times. Any of our out-of-town relatives that visit in the fall always want to go there. So, in our home, Apple Hill is synonymous with autumn. We went up yesterday, as Jared's sister and her boys were in town, and the weather was perfect--plus we avoided the weekend crowds. Fun was had by all. Below is an introduction to some of our favorite spots to visit at Apple Hill, so if you don't care, just scroll down to look at the pictures and leave me a comment anyway!
Apple Hill is a group of orchards, ranches, wineries, and farms that have come together to market themselves as a tourist destination. Each place offers something slightly different, although in September and October you are sure to find many places offering pumpkin patches, corn or hay mazes, and even a petting zoo. Everywhere you go you'll find appley treats. The apple cider doughnuts at Rainbow Orchards are almost always our first stop. They don't make them until you order them, so they come out piping hot, which is good because it slows you down as you inhale them. Their apple cider is also the best because it is made on site (you can get apple cider at any of the farms, but many of them don't make it fresh on the premises.) Rainbow has a beautiful orchard that you can picnic in or wander and take pictures as we did last fall. I like to buy my apples (20 lbs at a time) here, even though they are slightly more expensive than Abel's (later) because they are nice quality, crisp apples.
We also like to visit Honey Bear Ranch, were they roast a pig outdoors everyday (my apologies to my veggie readers); the food there is wonderful--the owners used to be caterers down in the valley and moved to Camino for a lifestyle change. The kids like their watermill and koi pond; some times they have a kiddie craft table where they can make a peanut butter pinecone birdfeeder for $2 or something along those lines (since my kids are craft starved, they absolutely love that kind of thing when the opportunity comes up.) And their apples are organic!
Jared's favorite treat to have at Apple Hill is the walkin' pie at Kids Inc. It is supposedly a single serving pie although I don't think I could eat a whole one and I'm a pretty good eater if no one is watching! They have a pumpkin patch and a great hill for rolling down if you are so inclined. They also have a nature trail, though I don't recall the walk. It's been a couple of years since we we took it.
Plubell's Family Orchard is another spot we love to take the kids. I don't think we've ever eaten there, but they have a great pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, a nature walk that we enjoy, and tractors and tire swings for the kids to climb all over. (This is Gabriel, my nephew, on the swing.) They also have nice spots to picnic if you've brought your own food.
A popular spot is High Hill Ranch, although frankly I think that it's too crowded to be worth it. They do have amazing apple fritters, but as you can only eat so much in one day, there are plenty of other farms to visit. They have a stocked pond for fishing, a fudge kitchen, cider mill, and lots of other stuff, but it is always teeming with people.
Able's Apple Acres is always either our first or last stop. This is where I go if I'm in the mood for good apples that are inexpensive. They seem to run a bit smaller and a bit more picked over than Rainbow's, but that may be because they are a more popular destination. They have pumpkins but not much of a patch, pony rides, a hay maze, and a big hill for rolling down. Also some cheesey photo ops, if you're into that--which my kids are. No orchard to wander, but lots of good food including about a dozen varieties of caramel and fudge apples, some apple oatmeal cookies to die for, fudge, and of course (just like everywhere else) frozen unbaked or freshly baked apple pies. They also have several kiosks outside with various crafters and local artisans but I've never found anything at those that I even considered buying.(This photo was taken three years ago, on the last weekend before Ian was born, on our family outing to Plubell's.)
Needless to say, visiting Apple Hill every year is something our kids look forward to and I try to save some calories for weeks ahead. It definitely feels like fall there and we always come home with a big box of local apples and tummies full of things we shouldn't indulge in very often. I highly recommend it!

Dinner Tonight

Today was one of those crazy days when I hit the ground running at 6:00 am and never slowed down. Even now I have three loads of laundry waiting for me to fold and a dishwasher that needs to be emptied before I can load it with dinner dishes.
In spite of being gone all morning and for the latter half of the afternoon, I managed to plan ahead and make a crock pot dinner so that when we walked in the door at 6pm after Kimball's RDI therapy appointment, dinner was ready! And even more noteworthy is that it was something that both Kimball and Henry ate without complaining. (I don't know what is keeping Ian alive these days. I swear he never eats and lives on about 16 oz of low fat milk a day. If he were my only child, I'd be worried, but I've learned that these things pass. And he doesn't seem to be losing weight.) I did fib a bit to Kimball and tell him that it was hamburger meat. Kimball is a hamburgertarian and refuses to eat any meat unless it is in the form of a hamburger. It would have been unlikely that he'd eaten this with ground beef--but it was downright miraculous that he ate this turkey chili.
Anyhow, you should try it this week. It is diet friendly (Core if you are doing WW), full of fiber and protein--(beans are our friend) and easy to make.

Turkey and White Bean Chili

• 1 lb lean ground turkey
  
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 24 oz (3 cups) chicken broth
• 45 oz (3 cans) white beans
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 3 T. lime juice
• 1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
• for extra kick, add one can diced green chilis

Brown the turkey, onion, and garlic in a frying pan. Place all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for at least 4 hours. Salt and pepper to taste.
This is a very mild chili--if you like heat, you need to add it. But my boys (including Jared) are wimpy, so they like it as written. We let Kimball put some cheddar cheese on it.
Enjoy!
P.S. Here's a Halloween picture from last year. Aren't they cute?

Autumn

I love autumn. It is by far my favorite season. When I lived in Utah, spring was a close second (our spring in Northern California is mostly just warmer rain, as opposed to the colder rain of winter. Blah.) I love the crisp feeling in the air, the fall colors, the clothes layering that adds extra dimensions to an outfit, and I love fall food. Give me a cool fall day and I'll bake up a storm. Not so great when you are trying to win the battle with baby weight.
So today dawned cool and overcast with a briskness to the wind. By noon I had changed out my original dinner menu for a pot of my favorite vegetarian chili and a pan of cornbread. I have been pretty busy all day--not home long enough to defrost the butter for cookies--so I have avoided any truly dangerous baking, but then again, this is only day 1 of fall.
Anyway, I thought I'd share this recipe with you in case it feels like autumn in your neck of the woods. It tastes delicious and is completely guilt-free. The original recipe came from Cooking Light in December 2003, but I've tweaked it a little and added a few ingredients to make it mine. Here's the modified version.

Best Vegetarian Chili

• 1 T. olive oil
• 2 c. chopped sweet onion
• 1/2 c. chopped yellow pepper
• 1/2 c. chopped green pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 T. brown sugar
• 2 T. chili powder
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1 t. cocoa powder
• 1 t. dried oregano
• 1/2 t. kosher salt
• 1/2 t. black pepper
• 2 cans Mexican style stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cans black beans, drained
• 2 cans pinto beans, drained
• 1 can kidney beans, drained
• 2 cups frozen corn (or 1 can corn, drained)

Heat the oil in a large heavy pan over medium high heat. Add onion, bell peppers, and garlic. Saute 5 minutes, until tender. Add spices (sugar through black pepper) and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add tomatoes and all the beans. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add corn and continue to simmer for 10 minutes more.
Serve with 2 T. chopped avocado, a dollop of light sour cream, and/or a sprinkling of grated cheddar cheese. Yum.
(The above picture was taken almost three years ago, two days before Ian was born, at Apple Hill, our favorite fall destination. I'll do an Apple Hill post as soon as we can get there.)