Fall Drive in Maine/Ruskaa

It is starting to be peak Fall foliage in Northern Maine.
(I think a whole month ahead of Southern New Hampshire! Am I right?)



I have been itching to go for a Sunday drive with my camera.



Today, after (home)school, the girls and I headed out.
(On a Monday afternoon drive.)



There may or may not have been an incentive to go out for ice cream afterward.



I am so glad we were able to go.



The world was glorious today!



The colors vibrant and and overwhelmingly beautiful!



I love Fall.



Especially in New England.



We stopped by a farm stand.



Admired all the flowers.



Bought ice cream vegetables.



And drove home.

The end.

Linking this post to Hip Homeschool Hop!




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Ruska on kauneimmillaan pohjois-Mainessä juuri nyt! Tyttöjen kanssa lähdimme ajelulle kameran kanssa. Mahdollisesti pysähdyimme jäätelölle reissulla. Maisemat olivat henkeäsalpaavan kauniit! Onneksi menimme.

Sunday Snapshot {Family Hike}

Sunday Highlights:

- Great little village church to attend.
- A beautiful Fall Sunday in Maine.
- The Captain safely home from his trip to Canada.
- So many hiking trails to explore - this one became a favorite so far.
- Family time all together!

All Those Blueberries/Kaikki mustikat?

So what do we do with all the blueberries we've picked?

The first batch we just ate raw. With cereal, with oatmeal, with ice cream, with nothing at all. Yum. Just pure yumminess. Wild Maine blueberries are the best! (Unless you are a Finnish reader, in which case Finnish blueberries are the best! Truly, mother!! :)



And from yesterday's blueberries we decided to make a blueberry pie. We've made blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, but I can't remember if we've ever made a blueberry pie before. So I googled "blueberry pie" and found this recipe.



For our apple and pumpkin pies, we always use our never-fail-pie-crust-recipe. It's called Pillsbury Pie Crust. I decided to stick with the same recipe today, also.




Since we bake with honey, not sugar, I had to tweak the recipe quite a bit.

The Mothership Adventures Amazing Blueberry Pie

2 pie crusts
4 cups of fresh wild Maine blueberries
1/2 cup honey
6 T cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 T butter
egg white
vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 400F/200 C. Mix honey, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon. Pour over blueberries.
Line one pie crust in pie plate, pour cinnamon mixture into the crust. Dot with butter. Cut remaining pastry into 3/4 inch wide strips, and make lattice top. Crimp and flute edges. Paste with egg white (or milk). Bake 50 minutes. Make a foil tent over pie if starting to brown too soon (I had to do that). Let it sit for an hour before cutting into, otherwise filling can be too watery. Serve with vanilla ice cream and pinch yourself - you haven't died and gone to heaven yet - this pie really is that good!

And here's the proof. Yum. (That was the seventh pie in less than a week. And I'm planning to make another one for lunch tomorrow as the Captain's parents and Nanny are coming over for a visit. Shhh!!!!)

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Ekan mustikkareissun mustikat söimme sellaisenaan, tai murojen, puuron tai jäätelön kanssa. Eilisistä mustikoista tein mustikkapiirakan, yllä resepti (jos kukaan haluaa reseptin suomeksi, laittakaa sanaa kommenttilootaan - pohja oli ostopohja). Taivaallista piirakkaa, suosittelen!!

Two Lessons/Kaksi opetusta

We learned two things today while blueberry picking.




1) Going blueberry picking with boys is a whole different experience than with girls.



2) Never, ever, wear crocks to blueberry picking.


So now you know.

Linking this post to Hip Homeschool Hop!

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Opimme tänään kaksi uutta asiaa mustikkareissullamme. 1) Mustikkareissu poikien kanssa on ihan erilainen kokemus kuin tyttöjen kanssa. 2) Älä koskaan, koskaan mene mustikkaan crocs'it jalassa. Nyt tiedät sinäkin.

Yummy Fall Goodies/Syksyherkkuja

Fall is in Northern Maine, for sure. The leaves are turning, the weather is cooler, and our rental house kitchen is producing all kinds of yummy Fall goodies.

So thankful to have a real kitchen again! The RV kitchen (without an oven) just didn't invite us to do any baking (and not much cooking, either). I will share an apple sauce recipe though, that would be as easy to do in the RV as in any kitchen.

This weekend we made four apple pies, two pumpkin pies, and a big pot of apple sauce. The apples came from our own trees at the camp, we think they might be macintosh apples, but not sure. Very tart!

Crockpot Honey Applesauce

15-20 Apples
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup Water
1 tsp Cinnamon

Peel, core and slice apples. Fill crockpot 3/4 full of apples, add honey, water and cinnamon. Cook about 7 hours on low or 4 hours on high. Mix well and serve warm.

PS. We have one pie left, and a small bowl of apple sauce. Time to pick more apples :)

Linking this post to Sunday Snapshot at Ni Hao Ya'll.

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Syksy on tullut pohjois-Maineen - ilmat viilenevät, ruska värittää metsät kauniiksi, ja keittiöstä tulee oikein syksyisiä tuoksuja.

Teimme neljä omenapiirakkaa, kaksi kurpitsapiirakkaa, sekä ison kulhollisen omenahilloa, jota söimme amerikkalaisittain välipalaksi lusikalla kulhosta. Yksi piirakka jäljellä, ja ihan vähän hilloa - aika hakea lisää omenia :)

Thankful Heart/Kiitolllisena

After two weeks of camping out, the girls and I headed out to civilization (aka town of the closest Walmart - an hour drive, seriously). We had fun, and now have a stocked fridge and pantry.



We desperately needed to make the trip for more provisions, but a) the weather up here had been so beautiful last week I didn't want to spend the day in the car and shopping and b) at the camp we had no space for any food. Cooking, eating & cleaning up had been a major chore. We had been surviving on pizza, canned soup and sandwiches. Pretty much on paper plates, taking turns eating at the teeny RV table (while our camp is being rebuilt).



But as of last night, God provided. SO clearly. He arranged a house for us to rent. On our road. It takes about five minutes to walk from this house to our camp. This house is large enough for our family, everyone actually has a real bed. We have a kitchen! We have a dining room table big enough to seat all seven of us, a living room, a bath tub, laundry. And as of tonight, hot water and heat too.

God is good. All the time. (And this mama is so thankful.)

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Kiitollisin mielin kirjoitan, että kaksi viikkoa leirielämää on vihdoin päättynyt. Taivaan Isä järjesti meille ison vuokrakodin samalta tieltä, missä meidän mökkimme on. Kapteeni voi kävellä aamuisin työmaalle seuraamaan mökin uudelleen rakentamista, ja me muut voimme pitää kotikoulua ja normaalia arkea kauniissa, isossa, mukavassa talossa. Tänään tyttöjen kanssa jopa ajoimme viereiseen kaupunkiin supermarketiin (tunnin ajomatka) hakemaan ruokaa ja tarvikkeita - leiriarjessa kun elettiin paljon pizzan ja nakkien avulla.. Kiva reissu, ja tämä mama on kiitollinen kun sai taas toimivan ja mukavan pesän ympärilleen :)

Blueberry Picking/Mustikassa

What would you do on a homeschool day when the internet doesn't work and your school is online based and the library is closed and you live too far away from free public wi-fi spots?

This is what we did:

1) First we read through our Apologia Who Is God? Bible lesson, which is the only subject (other than PE) not online, then notebooked a little about the lesson (which is our handwriting practice).

2) For an hour or so, our 7th graders picked up their laptop computers and joined our neighbor on her porch. When she heard we didn't have internet she graciously invited the children over to use her connection. They each worked on about 1.5 lessons.

3) After lunch the boys joined the Captain in picking up loose siding and roof shingles from around the camp. PE? After two plus hours they went swimming. A little more PE?

4) Us girls joined our neighbor in blueberry picking! And as we are kind and generous souls we shared our bounty with the boys. Next time we'll all go! Wild Maine blueberries are yummy :)

What a GREAT homeschool day today turned out to be!

Linking this post to Hip Homeschool Hop - come check out other GREAT homeschoolers and their blogs:

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Meillä ei toiminut internet tänään, mikä voisi tehdä kotikoulupäivästä hankalan, meidän kotikouluohjelmamme kun on netissä. Mutta me keksimme keinot: Pidimme ensin uskontotunnin (ainoa koulukirja, joka meillä on), sitten 7. luokkalaiset saivat käyttää noin tunnin ajan naapurin internet-yhteyttä heidän kuistillaan. Lounaan jälkeen pojat auttoivat Kapteenia remonttisiivouksessa pihalla, ja me tytöt lähdimme naapuritädin kanssa mustikkaan. Mainen villit mustikat olivat samanlaisia kuin suomalaiset, mutta kasvoivat pellolla, ei metsässä. (Tosin saattaahan niitä metsissäkin kasvaa, tämä oli meidän eka kertamme Mainen mustikoita poimimassa.) Nam, olivat ihania, saimme niin paljon että annoimme poikienkin syödä vatsat ja suut täyteen. Pian uudestaan :)

We Remember/Me muistamme

Photo credit

9/11/2001 We will never forget. Emme koskaan unohda.

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields[d] with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 46
(Suomeksi/In Finnish)

Photo credit

These Days/Näinä päivinä

Running a household is a bit.... challenging these days. We have had to escape to the library to homeschool as our camp has been turned upside down and sideways, and the clanging and banging is enough to drive a saint mad. I'll spare you all the details, just trust me when I say it is not pretty.

But what IS pretty is turning our backs on the camp and looking out to the lake. Peaceful, perfect, beautiful, soul-soothing.

At least after the construction crew has gone home.






I remember now why we are here.

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Arki Mainen mökillämme on näinä päivinä todella hankalaa. Viime päivinä olemme lasten kanssa karanneet kirjastoon kotikoulua pitämään, äänekäs remontti saisi pyhimyksenkin tulemaan hulluksi. Mutta iltaisin voi kääntää selän remonttisotkulle, mennä laiturille viinilasin kanssa istumaan ja nauttimaan. Ja muistamaan miksi olemme täällä.

Hiking Bald Mountain/Patikoimassa

On a wet, wet Labor Day, we ventured out on a family hike to Bald Mountain. Our trail map said 1.3 miles to the top, a moderate hike. The Captain and I disagree - this was way harder than Mount Monadnock (1.9 miles to the top) in New Hampshire where we got engaged. It may have been the wet trail conditions that made it so challenging. (Yes, that's it, at least that is the story I am sticking with!)

I told the Captain this was such a hard trail I hope it wasn't the last hike of the season with the kids. Soon after that, while we were still climbing up, our older kiddos skipped and hopped back toward us and said the top was ways and ways away still, and how they took nice long 10 minute breaks and finally decided to start their way down.

At the bottom one of the kids said it was so much fun he wants to go it again tomorrow!

If only mom & dad can still climb out of bed...

And yes, today I can definitely feel the hike in my old body :) And no, we didn't go hiking again today. We started school and worked on organizing our bedrooms!

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Kävimme eilen koko perhe patikoimassa, vaikka oli sateinen ja märkä päivä. Reitti vuoren huipulle oli kaksi kilometriä pitkä, ja vitsailin alussa että no kyllä me ainakin se jaksetaan patikoida. Huipulla pitikin kerätä kaikki voimanrippeet että jaksoimme patikoida takaisin alas - tai siis Kapteenin ja minun piti - lapsilla ei ollut mitään hätää, ja hyppelehtivät edellämme niin että heidän piti ihan alkaa kiipeämään takaisin ylös kun meitä ei alkanut kuulumaan, heh heh. Kivaa oli kuitenkin kaikilla, ja kunhan kroppa tästä toipuu niin uudestaan uudelle reitille!