Our Fall 2025 Bucket List

 Hello Frugal Friends!

Many of you enjoyed reading our Summer 2025 Bucket List and now that we've completed it, I wanted to share our Fall 2025 Bucket List.

As a reminder, the kids choose these items without any kind of prompting or guidance (clearly). I LOVE seeing what they actually want to do...it's always so simple! So instead of running myself ragged giving them alllll the fall fun this year, we are just going to do what they want. Here's to affordable family fun!

Riley Family Fall 2025 Bucket List

Register for 4H (October 1)

Start 4H Projects

Take photographs for 4H

Annabeth's Birthday (October 5)

Chicken Fingers/Mashed Potatoes/Gravy/Corn Dinner

Make Homemade Starbucks

Vacation with Kuhns (Scheduled)

Apple Orchard with Cousins

Fall Camp (Owen and Mark)

Go on a Fall Hike

Go to a Football Game (Scheduled)

Bake a Pie

Playdate with Neighbors

Zoo Teen Sign-Ups

Trick-or-Treat with the Sichting Family (October 31)

Throwback to Fall 2017 and my favorite

picture from October ever!

I am looking forward to a busy fall filled with the things we want to do!

What's on your Fall Bucket List? 

Frugal Friday 478

Happy Frugal Friday!

Here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Last Friday the kids and I had our last Christmas experience of the season. We saw Disney on Ice with some of our co-op friends. We were able to get tickets to the educational matinee for $17/each with zero fees. Our seats would have been over $100 the rest of the performances. As this was the kids Christmas gift we had budgeted for them each to get one souvenir - they each chose a special Disney cup with icee. A wise choice as it was both a snack and souvenir. 

Very happy with their souvenir choice

Fun Fact: I still have MY Disney on Ice icee cup from the 90s. 

We had a great time!

I love gifting experiences vs stuff

- Saturday we did a MASSIVE clean-out of our kitchen. We decluttered over 100 items! A good three dozen of them were new, or like new, items that we were able to donate. We found a great deal of paper clutter like old owner's manuals for kitchen gadgets and scrap paper. We recycled all of that. We also found a massive pile of grocery sacks which we took to recycle as well. We had some items that had rusted and just needed to be trashed. Finally, we had a neat sushi set that we never use. We will pass that along to friends who just began making sushi at home.

- Saturday evening we had friends over for a movie night. They brought pizza and we made a salad and served ice cream dessert. They are headed to Disney for the first time as a family this year and I was more than happy to help talk them through certain aspects of their trip. Want to talk Disney or just vacations in general? Reach out - my services are always free! 

- Sunday after church we had a nice, slow afternoon with games, puzzles, and naps. It's rare for us to have quiet time at home and we're working really hard to build it into our schedule where we can.

- We did our grocery shopping at Kroger and Meijer this week. Meijer was nearly out of produce so the Kroger run was necessary. We spent $64. Our dinners this week: pizza rolls/salad/fruit, pasta bake/salad/garlic bread, homemade waffles/bacon/eggs, pork and veggies over roasted squash, and homemade burgers/asparagus/roasted squash

- Monday evening we delivered a meal (pasta bake with veggies, rolls, and a birthday cake) to a family at our co-op that just welcomed a baby. Our co-op has a Meal Train going for the family through next month and I consider it such a joy to be the hands and feet of Jesus. 

- We FINALLY had some snow this week. The kids had a great time building snow animals out back and we enjoyed hot cocoa afterwards.

We had a nice, slow winter week of school. I am so thankful that we have had a wonderful sunny winter!

Happy Savings to All! 

Frugal Friday 307

Happy Frugal Friday!

Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Friday night we had dinner at home (beef stew and my first try at Yorkshire Pudding - Annabeth had chosen British food as our international dinner of the week) and then we had an Author Signing. Annabeth had written and illustrated a children's book. We did that and then had family TV night while eating homemade cookie dough. The boys camped out and watched an extra movie in the living room and us girls read and slept in our master bedroom. Fun doesn't have to be big or expensive to be memorable.

- We made some big changes to our homeschool area. A few weeks ago my parents found a desk and chair at a consignment store and got it for Annabeth. She is really enjoying having a "big girl" desk for 3rd grade. Owen has moved to the schoolroom table full-time and we decided to let him choose the paint for it since Annabeth had chosen the paint during her preschool years.

 Owen, enjoying his "new" table

Purple with his name and green glitter

 - Saturday afternoon, Annabeth and I made a run to the library for new books and board games. We also popped into Hobby Lobby for some fall paper craft items which we got 40% off.

- Saturday evening the kids and I went to the splash pad in Greenwood for a birthday party. It was our first time there all summer since we've had so much rain and then we were gone most of July. The kids had a great time!

- Sunday after church we ran by Barnes and Noble. Annabeth turned in her Summer Reading form and got her free book.

Not a great selection for the 3rd/4th grade readers

but we'll see what she thinks of Judy Moody

- Sunday after church we enjoyed lunch at the afternoon at Mark's parents' house. Both of us grew up visiting our grandparents on Sundays and we're thankful to be able to do this with our own kids.

- Sunday evening we went to the Indy Eleven game. It was the first time that Annabeth and I had been inside Lucas Oil Stadium which was really neat for both of us. It was the first professional soccer game that all of us had been to. We had gotten special price tickets from the Central Indiana Police Alliance - Thank you all!

Front row - before the game began - many more fans piled in!

- I had an item I needed to use just for the week. Thankfully our neighbors Ed and Gloria let us borrow theirs. I love sharing with neighbors!

- The kids and I all went to the dentist on Tuesday. Our insurance covers the visit but I still pay for my fluoride treatment. I also had a doctor's appointment that morning and I am so thankful my friend Jeanette came over to watch the kids. Thank you!!

- Wednesday afternoon after school, we went over to visit our neighbor Mrs. Whealtley. She had been cleaning out some closets and gave us two new board games. Again, I am so thankful for sweet and sharing neighbors.

We are looking forward to a weekend of fun!

Happy Savings to All!

MY Top 5 Items to Donate to Food Pantries

Yesterday the kids and I took a big stack of egg cartons to a local food pantry. A friend, thanks Brittany, had shared a post from this pantry saying that they had received a huge donation of eggs but they didn't have a way for the people to get the eggs home. Mark had been saving egg cartons on top of our fridge for months - why? who knows - but I took our huge stack to a very thankful food pantry staff.

In every city I have lived in, I've always served at food pantries. My parents, our churches took us when we were young and I've always felt such a pull to feeding people. How can children play and learn with empty bellies? How can adults work and be healthy without proper food? The simple answer: they can't.

In volunteering I've really honed in on what our family likes to donate.
Here are our Top 5 Suggestions for Donations:

Special Diet Foods
I search clearance bins high and low for special diet items - gluten free, sugar free, nut free, dairy free, etc and donate them anytime I can. I be sure to label that donation bag(s) with something like "These are ALL DAIRY FREE please hand-out to families who have that special dietary need" As a family that has many kids in our family who need special diets, I know just how expensive it can be to purchase specials snacks, flour, etc. I feel like buying these foods and donating them allows families in need to have food items that are safe for all members of their home.

Hygiene Items
I always hit the Dollar Tree for name brand toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, soaps, etc. I also watch clearance sections for higher dollar items like femine hygiene products, acne facewash, and specialty creams for skin conditions like eczema. Most of the items I have listed are considered luxuries for people striving to just buy food. I cannot imagine having to choose between toothpaste and food for my family and yet others make that hard choice each day.

Birthday Items
I LOVE to donate birthday cake mixes, frosting, decorations, and even birthday candles. I know for many families I've met at pantries birthday desserts are often passed over as the family tries to get together a small gift for the child. I remember one mom crying when we were able to give her strawberry cake and frosting for her daughter's birthday. Her daughter was in elementary school and it was going to be her first birthday cake! The mom had always chosen to spend that little bit of money on a small toy for her daughter. That moment in college sealed the deal for me to always try to keep special occasion items available in the pantries I've served with.

Check the Pantry's Wishlist
Call ahead or check online before you donate! Some pantries I have served at love getting boxed mac and cheese or tuna helper because they also give out milk and eggs and their clients have access to a stove top to make those items. Other pantries have served mostly clients who are living in hotels, motels, or shelters and they need the just add water cups that can be microwaved. Knowing what the pantry is asking for will help you better understand and serve their clients.

Use What You Have
I know many people don't have wiggle room in their own family's shopping budget but making little changes can make a huge difference to others! For example, our family is always swimming in candy following Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. We make little snack baggies with pieces of small candy and donate them to the Meal Bags at the Church of God in Franklin. Another time a family member was given a ton of Panera Bread leftovers following a meeting. We bagged them up, labeled them, and were able to bless a ton of families at our church's food pantry that week.

I am thankful to be in a position to buy food for our family. When we first married our total grocery budget for the month (food, toiletries, household items) was $125. Our budget has grown some over the years and in turn so has our ability to bless others! I hope posts like this encourage you to give more!

Frugal Friday 248

Happy Frugal Friday!

Here is how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Saturday, we celebrated Owen's third birthday. We had a nice, quiet day at home where he opened new books and craft supplies from us and then spent the day playing with them. We had our families over for a Happy Meal Party for dinner. Owen chose this theme months ago and it was a big hit. He also requested a "cheeseburger" cake so I found a cute idea on Pinterest for cheeseburger cupcakes and cookies as french fries. Happy #3 Mr O!

While trying to get family pictures, my Mama caught this look between

Owen and me. I love this picture so much! Hard to believe our baby is three 

Cheeseburger and Fries Dessert for Owen's Happy Meal #3!

- Sunday, the kids and I took my family to Brown County. We owed my parents their Christmas gift from 2016, a day in Brown Co, and my Dad his birthday gift from April, a trip to Rich Hill's Magic Shop. We had so much fun learning some new magic tricks and buying more to learn at home. The kids played on the nature playground and we enjoyed treating them all to a wonderful lunch at Brozzini Pizza. We came home and the kids played out back in their new slide and pool from Aunt Lu.

Helping Grandpa (and Grandmama - see her in the reflection) explore Brown Co

- Mark escaped with a friend on Sunday and took a nice hike. It was only about 80 degrees and he said they enjoyed hiking a new trail. We were thankful he missed stepping on a six foot snake!! Eek! The kids did love seeing its picture though.

- We cancelled our subcription to our local paper. It just went up a bit in price and we really only get it for the coupons. There have been fewer and fewer coupons so we haven't really been saving with our coupons as we spent more money to get them. We have also found that Meijer often has the same coupons online as in the paper so I can continue to clip and use those.

- We also cancelled our cable subscription. (Yes, frugal friends, we have had cable all this time! We went years without it and when we moved to our current house we were debt free except for our mortgage and decided to splurge on something we really enjoyed) Our cable bill has steadily increased over the four years that we have been here and it just isn't worth it anymore. Now that our kids are older, we are looking more and more at taking bigger vacations and we are excited to use the savings from the newspaper and cable to help fund them!

- Wednesday night I got to go to the grocery, ALONE! I spent a bit more than I had planned but Owen's swim pants were skin tight, to the point he was refusing to wear them, and new ones weren't on sale yet but I got them anyway. I did score $.70 leggings for Annabeth in the next two sizes on the 90% off rack. Our bill for the week was still under $95 including those five unplanned buys.

- Yesterday morning, the kids and I met our friends the Peters Girls at our new park in town. We played there for an hour and then as it began to get hot we headed to the library to play for another hour. We also turned in our completed weekly challenge and earned three free kids meal coupons! Kelley and her girls also brought us a big bag of things to use for school. Thank you all so much!

We are looking forward to a really fun weekend with a special event in town, Eagle Scout projects, and a birthday party.

Happy Savings to All!

New Year's Resolutions: April Recap

We have made it through another month!

We are so thankful that springtime and sunny weather seem to be here to stay!

Here is how I did on my New Year's Resolutions:

Financial:
We wrapped up the spring consignment sale this week and I was able to add money to my 30th birthday trip savings.

Cooking:
- I made this panko-crusted oven "fried chicken" It was much healthier than fried chicken and a big hit with Mark.

Relationship:
- Mark and I had an at-home date day with Owen. (Mark's parents took Annabeth to a musical that afternoon) We enjoyed a Sunday tv movie (Mark's choice) and a nice walk with Owen (my choice) We also had dinner together at home and enjoyed some good conversation with minimal interruption.
- Mark and I went out alone for a funeral visitation. We took a walk around downtown Franklin after. Walking Franklin is how we spent a lot of college weekends doing the first 8 months we were together. It was fun to take a few minutes to reflect on our dreams from ages 18 and 19 and the dreams we now have at 28 and 29.
- We had an at-home movie date. Mark made a Digiorno pizza and we watched Yours, Mine, and Ours.

New Year's Resolutions: March Recap

Happy April!

It is hard to believe we are already a fourth of the way through the year. Time seems to be flying by! I am thankful that warmer weather is here so we can spend more time outside.

I did slightly better in March at keeping up with my resolutions.

Cooking:
My original goal was to make one or two new recipes a week, I failed miserably in January and February my finally got my act together in March. Annabeth and I had a lot of fun cooking and learning together!

- Annabeth and I made a gravity-defying cake for Mark's birthday on March 3.

- I made this honey garlic chicken crockpot meal.
- I learned to make cold-brew coffee at home.
- We had friends who eat a low-carb-diet over for dinner. I made this slow cooker zucchini lasanga. I am a carb lover so I was unsure about lasagna without noodles but it was really good!
- I made creamy portobella mushroom chicken from Homemaking Hacks.
- I made shrimp po' boys and they were SO good! Here is the recipe! This was my favorite new meal this month and it only took as long as it takes for the shrimp to cook (11 min)!
- Lastly, I made buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese. Mark loves buffalo flavor so this meal was for him

Financial:
- I worked on getting everything ready for the spring consignment sale. Most of the money from this sale will go to the kids' savings accounts but I will also be keeping some for my 30th birthday trip fund.

Relationship:
- We had a few at-home date nights. We watched PBS documentaries and really enjoyed quiet time while the kids were sleeping.
- We REALLY hope to get out for a date in April! We know that we for sure have one afternoon of just us + Owen. Annabeth has a special outing planned with her Nana and PawPaw and we are looking forward to being the other three of us. We haven't done that since we were in the hospital with him. That being said, we'd also love a real date!

Mark's 28th Birthday

Mark's 28th Birthday was Thursday.

Mark bought a new-to-him truck last fall and as he has spent quite a bit fixing it up he asked that we not purchase him any birthday gifts. We followed his wishes but the kids and I did have fun making him homemade birthday cards.

We hopped on Pinterest for ideas. I made him a cute stick figure card and Annabeth made a cute monster card. The monster had lots of googlie eyes and said "I only have eyes for you!" We were so proud as she handwrote "Happy Birthday, Love, Anna" all on her own! Since we both already knew what we wanted to make, I scrolled through for ideas for Owen's card. That's when I found a "No ifs, ands, or buts about it...you are the best Dad!" card. Instead of the word "but" it had a behind print. Not many things are cuter than baby bottoms so Annabeth and I painted Owen's little behind and stamped it on the card. It was absolutely adorable and SO funny and perfect for Mark. Annabeth and I kept laughing about it all day! We ended up having to give Mark his card a night early because we kept laughing about it! :)

 Birthday Eve Cards

In our house, the birthday person gets to choose the meals for the day. Mark had breakfast and lunch during the workday but chose dinner. We had Italian meatloaf, stuffing, and brussel sprouts.

Last year, Annabeth and I made Mark the cutest candy sushi for his birthday dessert. We haven't made it since then and since it was such a hit, I had planned to make it again. Annabeth had other plans. She said that Daddy had to have cake for his birthday - I think she was just very interested in eating the icing. Again, I got on Pinterest and found the most fun anti-gravity-illusion cakes. I wasn't sure how long the assembly would take so we used store bought cake and icing (funfetti and vanilla) and then decorated with M&Ms. I used this tutorial and I think it turned out SO neat!

Happy 28th Birthday to Mark! I am so thankful for this man who God has allowed to be my husband and Annabeth and Owen's Daddy. We love him so much!

Owen Merit's Woodland Baby Shower

Yesterday, my sweet friends Rose and Sarah hosted a Woodland Baby Shower for Owen.

They are both so creative and the party had so many unique touches. I am thinking that they should go into business together with Rose's mom, who helped so much as well, and do parties!

They created the most adorable woodland animal themed cake, cookies, and food:

We shared the day with some of the most special women, and little men SJ and Asher, in our lives. I am so thankful for friends and family who are so generous as Owen was gifted some very wonderful items. I am also so thankful for people who share our lives so closely. We really could not ask for more!

The party favors for the adults were tomato seeds with a cute little note:

We feel so incredibly blessed to be a family of four and we are so thankful that the Lord has seen fit to give us two beautiful children! We look forward to welcoming Owen in about 8 weeks. To God be all the glory!

Candy Sushi

Today is Mark's 27th Birthday!

He has a busy work day scheduled as well as a busy evening so we celebrated his birthday yesterday. Annabeth and I made homemade birthday cards and took him out to eat at Pizza King (his request). We also surprised him with homemade candy sushi rolls for dessert.

I first saw the idea on Pinterest and knew I HAD to make it for my sushi loving husband. I also knew my sushi loving daughter would enjoy playing with all of the candy. My favorite designs came from The Sweetest Kitchen and her blog post on an adorable Japanese themed birthday party for her daughter.

Annabeth was really excited to make her own pieces.

She was also excited to try Air Heads and Fruit Roll Ups.  

My Candy Sushi 

I made three different kinds of rolls. On the far left is a Rice Krispie bar wrapped around a gummy worm with a Fruit Roll-Up outside. The middle are Rice Krispie treats with a Sweedish fish on top and then finished with a Fruit Roll-Up. On the far right, are Air Heads on top of the Rice Krispie made to look like salmon pieces. I really like how those looked but unfortunately the package of Air Heads that I purchased only had one red one in the whole bag so I was only able to make two pieces of that one.

We had a lot of fun assembling the sushi and I think Mark loved this special dessert.

Our "Taste Tested" Pinterest Board

Want to know what we have been baking and cooking lately?

Check out our Pinterest Board Taste Tested.

*These are all of the recipes that we liked. Any that I had pinned that we did not care for I do not pin on this board.

Happy baking and cooking! :)

Freezer Meals: Part Two

As promised, here is the followup to Freezer Meals: Part One.

The menu I used was from this blog.

We have now made each of the meals one time and I thought I would leave the exact recipe I used and what our family thought about each one.

BBQ Chicken

2 Onions

4 Potatoes

4 Cloves Garlic

2 Chicken Breasts

400g Tomato Sauce

1 Tbsp Worcester Sauce

1 Tbsp Sugar

1 Tbsp Dried Mustard

1 Tbsp BBQ Sauce (per bag)

Split all ingredients between 2 freezer bags

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

- This was the perfect size meal for our family of three. Mark and I were each able to eat our normal serving size and Annabeth had a large toddler portion as well. If you are a family with more people and/or older child(ren) you would want to put all of this into one bag for a complete meal. 

- As for taste, this really was not a BBQ Chicken meal as we generally think of BBQ. Mark said it was more of a sweet tomato chicken meal. 

- Her original recipe did not contain more vegetables - which I omitted because Annabeth is allergic. It also added salt which I did not do because we do not salt our food.

Mediterranean Pork

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

2 Cups Chicken Stock

4 Cloves Garlic, Chopped

1 Sweet Potato 

2 Tbsp Dried Oregano 

2 Tbsp Dried Basil

6-8 Pork Chops

Split all ingredients between 2 freezer bags

Cook on low for 6 hours

- Again, this was a good size meal for the three of us. I do think I would use one sweet potato per bag in the future.

- Mark and I both really liked this meal. Annabeth did not. That surprised me as she likes pork as well as sweet potatoes so it must have been something in the seasoning. 

- Next time I think I will use that recipe for one bagged dinner or double to have two freezer meals.

Teriyaki Chicken

6 Carrots

1 Red Onion

1 Can Chopped Pineapple

2 Cloves Garlic

2 Potatoes

2 Chicken Breasts

1 Cup Teriyaki Sauce 

Split all ingredients between 2 freezer bags

Cook on low for 8 hours

- This meal made four healthy sized portions. It was the first of these meals that I would consider working for a family of four.

- Again, Mark and I both liked this meal and Annabeth did not. Mark did say the sauce had a strong taste so it may have been too much Teriyaki for her taste.

- I served it over rice which was quite yummy!

Overall, I am glad that I tried freezer meals. I had such a hard time figuring out which ones I wanted to use off the internet but these three recipes were all very good and were ones that I would use again. Back to Pinterest for more ideas... 

Halloween Potluck

Friends of ours invited us over for a Potluck Halloween Party.

I got on Pinterest weeks ago to see what fun food ideas where out there. I was shocked to find so many really gross looking foods! Some looked so lifelike (bloody and such) that I did not think they even looked appetizing - especially not for children! So, I went went some gussied up grocery finds. They were basic but cute, simple, and went over well.

First I made little turkey sandwiches. I used cookie cutters to make some pumpkin shaped and some bat shaped. It also helped tell the difference between the condiments on each one.

I also saw a cute idea for little mandarin orange cups with jack-o-lantern faces drawn on them. I thought it was such a simple idea and yet really fun. I also wanted to make sure that if the kids didn't finish everything we would be able to use the rest of them up. Since they are individual packs I can just open them as we need them.

Annabeth and I dressed up as Mickey and Minnie for this party. She received her costume from her Nana and PawPaw for her birthday. I found my sweater on sale and then modified some Minnie ears we found at Walmart to make them work for Mickey. I had fun dressing up too!

"Laughter is timeless, imagination knows no age,

and dreams are forever." ~ Walt Disney 

Happy (almost) Halloween!

Our "Pinned-It-Then-Did-It" Pinterest Board

Curious about what we have been baking, cooking, and crafting lately?

Check out our "Pinned-It-Then-Did-It" Pinterest Board!

Happy Pinning! :)

Freezer Meals: Part One

Since I joined Pinterest a year ago, I have been wanting to make freezer meals. As homeschooling has begun taking up more of our days and as we have been busier with activities outside of the house I have been searching for Crockpot Freezer Meals.

I chose this post to follow and made 3 of her 4 recipes.

Why did I chose her post?
1. Since it was my first time, I liked that there were only a couple of recipes.
2. The recipes were fairly basic and easy to follow.
3. They actually had ingredients that we are not allergic to (although I did have to modify some).

What did I make?
Mediterranean Pork, Teriyaki Chicken, and BBQ Chicken
Each recipe made two meals for our family of three but they look rather small so if you have a larger family and decide to use these you may want to put all the ingredients in one bag/recipe.

How much money did I spend?

All of our items from the grocery

I spent $32.59 on ingredients and freezer bags.
Since I made 6 meals that comes out to $5.43/meal.

I chose to do it this week was the meat we needed and the freezer bags were all on sale. I was able to purchase all the meat for just $10 and freezer bags were on closeout for 50% off.

How much time did I spend? 
55 minutes. (40 minutes of food prep and 15 minutes of cleanup)

Meal One: Mediterranean Pork - 10 minutes prep

Meal Two: Teriyaki Chicken - 20 minutes prep

These look different because I chopped the carrots for one and shredded them for the other

Meal Three: BBQ Chicken - 10 minutes prep

Honestly, I was shocked at how quickly this went!
I realize that it would not take much time in the morning to throw one of these meals into the crockpot, but it was really nice to do all of the trimming of the meat and chopping of the vegetables in one session. Plus I only had to clean my kitchen once!

Any tips for others?
1. Wear comfortable shoes. I kept reading this online and it really helped as I don't generally stand it just one place for an hour.
2. Label the bags before you put ingredients in.
3. Pour sauces in first so you can press all of the air out of the bags easier.

I am glad I...
1. Ran the dishwasher this morning. It made cleanup SO easy! The only thing I had to handwash was my food processor.
2. Used the #1 tip from above and wore my comfy shoes.
3. I did this as soon as we came home from a grocery trip. I think it saved time because I didn't put everything away just to get it out another day.

I wish I...
1. Would have paid attention to #3 above because I did the sauces last and it made a mess! Oops!

Our family will try these recipes over the next week or so and I will write a follow-up post with how many servings came from each recipe and how we liked each one. Stay tuned!

Snow Day!

We were blessed with the first "real" snow of the season this weekend!

It started snowing late Thursday evening and did not end for about 24 hours. It was a slow, gradual snow fall which made it extra fluffy and beautiful! Our trees are beautiful and the limbs are gorgeously covered in snow. Mark estimates we ended up with about 6-7 inches.

Annabeth's first two winters she hated the snow. Hated it! Poor girl would burst into tears anytime we even walked across the backyard to the garage at the old house. She was just not happy so we were a bit worried about how she would fare this winter. She is such a nature girl and loves to be outdoors from morning until night so I was hoping she would learn to love the snow so we can continue enjoying days outside.

She loves it this year!

We spent Saturday afternoon outside as a family: making snowballs, making videos of the snow, and tromping around our yard as well as the lot next door. It was a beautiful day and we loved just being together.

We came inside, mostly due to the cold and Annabeth's wet mittens and hands, and made snow ice cream. Mark said that was something he had never done so I think he may have enjoyed it even more than Annabeth and I did! :)

Snow Ice Cream

4 Cups Snow

3/4 Cup Milk (we used vanilla soy milk)

2/3 Cup Powdered Sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Add sprinkles or your favorite topping if you'd like!

Fill one very large bowl with snow and fill another smaller bowl inside of that one with the 4 cups of snow. This keeps the snow from melting as you mix the ingredients.

Mix all ingredients together.

Enjoy!

Originally we had planned to go back outside but once we were indoors and warm we decided that we would just let Annabeth play with the snow in the kitchen. We filled our largest mixing bowl and got out measuring cups and spoons and let her go to town!

Snow much fun! 

One of "those" dinners...

Monday we took a "quick" trip to Wal-Mart, it took 15 minutes to find everything we needed on our short list and more than 1 hour to check-out! Ugh!

I got home and browned the meat for lasagna - I had noticed on Sunday that our cottage cheese was set to expire so we needed to eat lasagna ASAP! I had the meat browned and all the ingredients out only to realize that we had just 2 lasagna noodles in the pantry. Two. I thought about going back to the store but worried the lines would still be too long to make it worth the wait. Oh well, people can enjoy lasagna with just two noodles right? So I went to get our small, square Pyrex pan out to put it all together. All of our square pans were in use, storing freezer meals. So, I assembled our two noodle lasagna in a round cake pan. It wasn't pretty but it was together so I put it in the oven.

Then I remember that in the midst of solving the lasagna issues I had not gotten the rolls out of the freezer to thaw. Short on time, I got them out, put them in a pan - now I only had a heart shaped pan left to bake in - and put the pan in our guest bath, the warmest room in the house to thaw. 1 hour later they were thawed and I put them in to bake.

Also please note that Annabeth would not nap on Monday so she was awake and screaming at me the entire process. I called my sister-in-law for our weekly phone date and prayed for sanity. She was able to witness to our crazy over the phone and even got me to laugh about it all. Desperate for quiet, I put jackets and shoes on and we went out to the backyard to run off our 'angries' before Mark came home. Then she decided that she did not want to come inside to eat dinner. Thankfully the weather was warm enough to bundle up and eat at her picnic table outside.

In the end, dinner was edible and we enjoyed a November Evening Outside. I also tried to make up for our crazy dinner by baking our favorite chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

 Eating their cookies, still outside even in the dark!

(It was only 6 pm - the time change makes it dark far too early here!)

Linked Up To: Teach Me Tuesdays @ Growing Home Blog

D.I.Y. : Crockpot Apple Butter

After baking two more loaves of our Apple Cinnamon Bread bread yesterday, I STILL had more apples from our orchard trip. So...back to the pinterest board where I found this recipe for Crockpot Apple Butter. I did modify it some for the amount of apples that we had left and for the spices that we had on hand.

I used:

6 Apples: Peeled, Cored, and Chopped

1/4 Cup Water

1/8 Cup Brown Sugar

1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg

Directions:

I peeled, cored, and chopped all six apples.

I then combined the dry ingredients in a bowl and then tossed the apples in the sugar mix.

I poured all of it into our Crockpot and turned it on low.

Start Time: 7:45 am

At 6:00 pm I took everything out and blended it on the "baby food" setting. I poured it into a mason jar and let cool for two hours before placing in the fridge. My official taste tester Mark approved!

*I did not have any small mason jars but I think the six apples made enough to fill one of those. It ended up being about half of a big mason jar*

Do you make your own apple butter? How do you use up apples?

Happy Fall!