A Goal?!

So November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  The point is to write an entire novel within 30 days.  It is very ambitious and I'm not going to attempt it.  There is not way I could accomplish that feat while working, trying to make Christmas presents and doing all the other stuff that I do.  Which isn't a whole lot.  I just like to try to lead a slow and simple life.  But what I will be attempting is writing for 1 hour each day in November. 

About three years ago I had a few extremely vivid dreams that I could not get out of my head.  I can still remember them very clearly, and just like the cliche, I decided that these dreams would be a wonderful book.  I began writing and have about 60 pages worth of book finished.  But I got stuck and haven't worked on it for about two years.  I kind of just put the story on the back burner.  So for the the month of November I am moving it to the front burner again and will concentrate on writing something for just an hour a day.  It doesn't seem so hard.  We'll have to see how I do! Wish me luck!

Grape Juice

My mom makes grape juice every year in the fall.  Her grape juice is the best I've ever tasted.  She grows her own grapes, picks them, steams them, and bottles them.  And then we all drink the delicious juice for the rest of the year.  The grape juice is so wonderful you can drink it straight from the bottles.  No sugar or water is needed at all.  Pure grape juice! The absolute best!!

The grape vine covered patio

Joe picked us a few buckets full of grapes.  

And we then spent many hours removing all of the stems and putting the grapes into the steamer.

After the juices was steamed out of those grapes we put it into bottles and sealed them up.

And finally we enjoyed some of the juice!

We bottled about 36 quarts this year.  Lots of sticky messes but a lot of great juice to come this year!!

Cookies and Fall!

Cooler weather makes me feel like baking and since my mom asked me to make my peanut butter cookies for her, I just couldn't say no.  I found a recipe on Allrecipes but I changed it up a bit about a year ago and I think its delicious.  When I first made them I did not know they were gluten free or what gluten even was.  When my mom found out that she was gluten intolerant, as was my brother and sister, I realized that I had the best cookie recipe ever for them.  They are super easy and the ingredients are ones that are usually on hand.  These are my absolute favorite peanut butter cookies!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients.  Form into balls and press with forks in the traditional criss cross pattern.  Bake for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy!

On a side note, the mountains are simply stunning this fall.  I don't remember them ever being as beautiful as this year.  This is what I get to see each day.  And they become more and more colorful each day.

 

 From the back yard.

 

My favorite view.

The vibrant bush in my parents front yard.