Live Thanks

Around this time last year I created a board on Pinterest called Live Thanks. The goal was to pin at least 365 things to the board that I'm thankful for.  I started out strong. Pinterest is a great place full of inspiration. Unfortunately it can for many turn into a negative thing. It often makes you desire things that you can't obtain due to lack of time or resources. I often find myself comparing my own life and abilities to that of others that may or may not even be reality. I thought when I got on Pinterest if I turned my focus to what I was thankful for that would help keep it positive. Well I only pinned 107 things to my board. I didn't meet my goal but I'm gonna keep pinning things I'm thankful for. If you want you can join me. I would love to follow your Live Thanks board and we can help keep each other focused on Living Thanks.

If you still want to create something special for your Thanksgiving table maybe the picture below will inspire you. I grabbed an old wooden cheese box from the basement and filled it with acorns. Then I added 3 baby pumpkins, left over from a project I did at school with my students, and two candles.  I love it's rustic simplicity! So start searching your own home. Is there anything you can gather together?
Thanks so much for stopping by today,  I'm so THANKFUL for you!

Brown/Food

This weeks photography challenge is all about capturing brown and or food. In my case this is also the finale. What a fun challenge this has been, even though I did struggle to find time to capture and share each theme.

The leaves on the trees have all fallen and things are looking pretty brown around here. To be honest it can be kinda depressing especially if the sun isn't shining because then it's brown and grey. There is HOPE for the future though. I'm so thankful to live in an area where we get to experience 4 distinct seasons. The pictures I'm going to share remind me of that HOPE. They were taken toward the beginning of Fall when the leaves were just starting to change.

Do you know what this is?

This is something that was left behind by the previous homeowners. Thankfully they told us what it was because we had all kinds of other interesting ideas.

If you guessed an apple picker than you were right! I still can't believe we have our very own apple trees. We have 4 total. I don't really know much about apple trees so I'm learning as I go. Apparently we have 2 trees with apples for cooking and 2 for eating. One tree didn't produce any apples at all this year.

When I get discouraged over the barren lifeless land that this time of year brings I think back to the time when we picked apples from our trees.

Blanca enjoyed the apples too!

Of course I had to make a special treat with all those apples.

Pie meets cake and had a party in a skillet.

Are you drooling yet? I bet you want the recipe. Well lucky for you I'm sharing.

It's pretty simple really. First you need a cast iron skillet. If you don't have one, you need one, go get one immediately. Basically you make up an mixture for the apples to soak in. Then you mix up a batter. You butter up the skillet, pour the batter in and then spoon the apples over top. Then you bake it until deliciously golden on top. Still need more details? The full recipe is below. Enjoy!

Purple

The most recent photography challenge was to capture the color purple and or Halloween. This year we didn't really do anything for Halloween so I'm going to focus on the color purple. A little while back we were invited to participate in a grape harvest at a local vineyard.

 The grapes were perfectly ripe and the Autumn day couldn't have been better for picking.

We filled buckets and buckets full of grapes.

It was peaceful at the vineyard and so much fun to try something new.

 I was delighted to find a birds nest among the vines that a few grapes had fallen into.

 One of the perks of volunteering to help a winery harvest their grapes is the loot! 

For those who are Hurting

I woke up early this morning delighted to find patches of blue in the sky and the sun peeking out between the clouds. We have lots of work to do this weekend. There are so many leaves to clean up and on top of it the destruction Hurricane Sandy left behind. While the sun was out I wanted to get some pictures to document the damage on our property.

Yeah I know it's not a big deal especially in comparison to what others have suffered. It's absolutely heartbreaking to see and hear of what people have lost. No matter what your loss big or small it's still difficult. We just bought our first home and we're living in a new state. We are clueless as to what to do when something like this happens. I suppose we learn as we go. Just the little things produce anxiety. Like how do I clean all this up and where do I take all the pieces, does someone come and pick this stuff up? As I was walking around taking pictures I discovered another home that was lost but this home belonged to a bird.

As I thought about this beautiful nest, the following song came to my mind and I found it so encouraging.

Peace be to those who are hurting you're in my thoughts and prayers!