Celebrate Blogging Link-up Party #19

It is all over social media. It is all over the news. Today is the big day and all day I have seen people share their "I voted" posts. Have you cast your vote yet? If not, there is still time to do so. Regardless of who you are voting for, participating in this process today is what makes this work. Your vote counts. 

So find out where to vote and what to bring. Then.please.go.vote. Thank you. :)

And now we shall resume our normal program. We are welcoming two new hosts for our Celebrate Blogging Link-up Party this week. I'm very excited to see these two ladies join our team and am looking forward to not only read their posts but yours as well. Please join us, I'm happy to have you. 

Simple Moments

Moments that I'm grateful for and that shaped our week --

Green moss we used for a project and warm temperatures. 

 #unpaintedtoenailsbecauseithoughtitwasbootsweatheralready

Firewood. Because the temperatures also now are cold enough {again} that we have a fire going.

Her and j have had the best times playing outside in the leaves. 

The Casting Crowns concert Saturday night, because they shaped my weekend. 

Also sharing here

Library visits

We've had decidedly too many posts with pictures for fall on here lately that I decided we could use a post decidedly not about fall. With pictures. About once a week we make our way uptown to the local library for story time and the use of their wonderful selection of toys. You see, library visit days, together with our walk through the woods day, our grocery shopping day and others, are part of our weekly rhythm. And my two love it. The library visits, I mean; not so sure about the grocery trips but we have to eat, right? 

The main library we use is one of three locations in our county and in addition to printed books also offers a wide variety of online resources. Before I had children I used to go by after work and get lost for hours looking for 'the' book to take home. Since then those days are long gone and now our main purpose to coming here is for them to spend time in the children's section. We can pass an entire morning flipping through books, playing with the toys they provide and listening to one of their talented storytellers. The whole staff in all locations we have visited so far, have always been quite welcoming and have shown my children loving attention every time, which is probably why all of us are always looking forward to coming here. On days I do feel like taking home a book myself, I have found it quite helpful to already pick out an author and title online while still at home, it makes taking home the chosen book a snap. 

At home, we continue to focus on reading and listening to stories to foster a healthy relationship to books {and music}. What we like to read {and play} will be for another post, but for now, please enjoy some moments of our morning last week. 

Having a wonderful and well-stocked library in our town also makes our decision to live minimally a lot easier. I can keep a handful of well-made toys and books at home for daily use, and between spending lots of time outside and coming here I know my children will always have "new" toys to grab their attention. My only regret with all three locations is that we live too far away. We have to take the car to come and visit. On the upside, though, we live within walking distance of our local state park. More on that later, though. 

Simple Food: Ginger Pear Crisp

When you are embracing fall, with it's still somewhat warm sunny days and a brisk wind that is blowing more and more leaves off the trees, covering the lawn in a blanket of browns and yellows, and the first fire is crackling in the fireplace as it is the moment I'm typing this, I can't imagine a better dessert than a fresh pear crisp to complete a seemingly perfect autumn night. But then again, if the weather is not quite cooperating with summer temperatures still lingering in the air and the windows still open all day, baking this crisp filled with fruit and cranberry, topped with vanilla bean ice-cream, still sounds like a good idea.  This kind of dessert is great no matter what the weather decides to do, I think.

I looked at a few different recipes, but always seem to fall back on one of my two favorites, adapted to our own taste preferences. Instead of using store-bought gingersnap cookies, however, I chose to use homemade instead. It gave e and me a wonderful morning of baking and bonding in the kitchen. To me, the extra work of homemaking is worth the time. On the other hand, if time is an issue, the store-bought alternative will work just fine.

Cranberry Peach Crisp

Fruit Mixture

• 1 can (16oz) whole berry cranberry sauce

• 2 TBS all-purpose flour

• 5 medium pears, peeled and sliced
• 
  

Topping

• 1 cup (about 15 cookies) coarsely crushed gingersnap cookies 

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 2 TBS brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2. In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients for the fruit mixture

Pour into a medium to large oven safe dish

3. Prepare the topping by mixing all the topping ingredients together

Sprinkle over the fruit mixture

4. Bake 30-35 minutes or until pears are tender and topping is golden brown, remove from oven and let cool slightly

Enjoy still warm with vanilla ice cream if desired

Sharing with some of these beautiful blogs

CELEBRATE BLOGGING LINK-UP PARTY 18

And just like that, November is here. We are recovering from a candy filled last day of October hangover {read: sugar crush and meltdowns all day today}, which means we spent a looooooong time outside this morning in the woods, close to nature and leaves, snails and spiders, mushrooms and acorns. It was very relaxing. 

Also, with the new month, we are changing things up a bit on our Link-up Party. We are now, Celebrate Blogging Link-Up Party and looking forward to your beautiful posts. Please read on below for more information :)

Continue to Celebrate Blogging Party . . .