The trees are tossing their heads as the wind whips them to and fro all day. The sky is impossibly blue, the leaves scatter and skirmish and its cool enough to snuggle beneath your favorite flannel at the end of the day.
Yes, Fall is slowly making her presence known and I couldn't be more thrilled. I love cuddly evenings spent indoors, leaves crackling underfoot, and baking...oh the baking.
While I love grilling out in the Summer, I look forward to cooler temperatures when I can bear to fire up the oven and pull out my favorite recipes.
Today was the perfect day for it. A few members of the family are "on the mend" from a random 24 hour bug, so soup seemed a natural choice for dinner. How I love soups! Thankfully my family seems to as well. I made my own chicken broth and added some northern beans, chunks of chicken, zucchini, onion and carrots as well as spices to keep things interesting. I plan to serve it with grilled cheese sandwiches. Simple, easy, quick, and a great Fall dinner that the whole family will love.
As I was working on my soup, I noticed an overabundance of overripe bananas in my freezer. 10 minutes later I was pushing 2 breadpans of banana bread into the oven. Warm, delicious, perfect for dessert - or breakfast tomorrow, as the case very well may be.
What are your favorite fall recipes? Don't forget to leave a link if we can find it online!
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We started homeschooling yesterday and it went very well! Because of sickies, today didn't go as well but we still managed to get quite a bit done. We are using Horizon's Math again this year with great results. D has started the K book and is flying through lessons at an alarming rate. I have heard great things about Teaching Textbooks and may go that route with Ben next year - it is quite a bit more expensive than Horizons but I've heard amazing things about it. We added the Explode the Code books to our curriculum and both kids love them! I highly recommend them. I bought them mid-summer so we are about halfway through the books already - I need to order the next one for each kid soon.
On our vacation to Virginia we visited the New Market battlefield - a Civil War battle made famous by the fact that the South recruited help from the VMI Cadets (average age 18 years old). B, who told me "I'm not interested in battles" when we set out, was enamored. As soon as we returned to MI he donned his Confederate soldier cap and marched down to the library in search of books on the Civil War. Thus, our History studies at present include reading from "The Red Badge of Courage" and anything else we can get our hands on.
Both "bigs" are taking Science classes through our Co-op this fall. D is working on Alpha Phonics and Ben is struggling through chapter books because of his acute disdain for "Easy Readers."
All in all, things are going well. I'm looking into doing a "craft day" once a week with the kids - and trying to find things that will interest everyone. D likes to knit so she crafts on a regular basis, and the girls both like playing with beads, sometimes with disastrous results. I'm hoping to find something that Ben will like - models, candlemaking, something. If you have any tips, let me know!
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Lastly, here are a few photos of our trip. If you made it this far, I applaud you!
The whole Will Family
Love your updates!
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