Tell Tale Signs of Fall

Since I am already a slacker and completely forgot a super yummy recipe on Friday, I am going to double up on the perfect combination....the tell tale signs of fall.  Fall in Ohio is completely different than fall in the South.  I don't even know if you can classify "fall" as a season south of Tennessee but the change of seasons is one of the things I miss terribly about being home.  You always know fall is hitting when the wind blows and you can smell the falling leaves ( and yes, there is a smell to falling leaves), the cooler air that is just a little crisp in the morning and it feels like clean, purity when you breath in deep.  The changing colors....it is like the precious beautiful, gorgeous, explosion of color right before old man winter hits and everything turns to shades of browns and grays.  One of my favorite fall memories of being a kid is apple crisp almost every weekend.  Yep, almost EVERY weekend when I was little.  This time of year, there is no shortage of plump, ripe apples and there are as cheap can be, so we took advantage of them by making applesauce and apple crisp.  The recipe is for apple crisp with vanilla whipped cream.  This is soooo yummy!  Head to the local grocery store and make sure you enjoy some of the bounty of the season with this delicious dessert.

4 medium apples (I use 2 granny smith and 2 golden delicious)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. oats
1/3 c. butter, softened
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
Heat oven to 375.  Grease bottom and sides of a 8 x 8 cooking dish with shortening (or butter).  Spread apples in pan.  In medium bowl, mix remaining ingredients, sprinkle over apples.  Bake 30 minutes.  Top with a spoonful of vanilla whipped cream.

To make vanilla whipped cream beat 1 cup heavy whipping cream with 1/4 c. confectioner's sugar and 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.

So the other falling leaves and "Martha Monday" tie in?  Okay, here it is....on Halloween night, I took down all the decorations and Connor had gotten himself all worked up.  He had an all and out temper tantrum as I tried to explain to him that Halloween was over and we put the decorations away for next year.  I tried to tell him that it was fine and there was another holiday to look forward to.  His eyes lit up when he asked, "What?"  And I responded, "Thanksgiving."  The look of dejection was almost comical and he just said, "oh" and walked away.  But it got me to thinking, Thanksgiving is such a letdown for kids (sorry Jo, but it's kind of truth)...think about it.  Poor Thanksgiving is quietly sandwiched between candy and presents!  It's hard to compete with that.  So I wanted to find a fun way to have Connor look forward to this forgotten holiday and also start to teach him to have a heart of gratitude for all the blessings we should be thankful for in our lives.  I made the "Tree of Gratitude" and every night after dinner each one of us adds our leaf of thanks to the tree.  This was so easy!  It took me one nap afternoon to get it all together.  The trunk was made of 3 pages of brown construction paper and I used 2 pages of yellow, red, orange and a burnt yellow color each and drew 6 leaves on them.  Cut them out and now we just tape our leaves on each evening.  Some of things Connor is grateful cracks me up.  Last week he was grateful for the letter "v" as well and tonight for milk and cookies.  Ahhhh....the sweet, simplistic brain of a 3-year-old <3

(This picture was taken a 2 weeks ago....the leaves now are over-flowing off the side branches and we are really starting to get quite a tree on top too!)