Cranberry Orange Scones for The Homemaking Party

 

Lately I've been in this kind of a mood. Warm baked things, atmospheric classic reads, contemplating my existence... Late autumn into winter is my favorite time of year. I like to live life slowly; and this time of year, things tend to slow down with me.

I made these Cranberry Orange Scones a couple days ago for the kids' breakfast. It had been awhile since I'd baked them something. I like making scones for the same reason that I sometimes don't like making scones: they take time.

You can find the recipe for these on one of my older posts here: Cranberry Orange Scones.

Thanks for stopping by The Homemaking Party!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

She's Baaaaack!!!

Hello friends! Last night I had a dream in which someone said, "No one reads blogs anymore. Blogging is dead." I woke up and wondered, could this be true? It's been quite a few years since I've devoted attention to this once very thriving blog. Life has always happened... but life started happening super fast for me and I needed a break. I don't think blogging is "dead" --- but I do see a lot of my old friends' blogs have gone missing.

So let me reintroduce myself. I'm Sarah Coller, a 44 year old mom of 9 and now grandmother of 2 living in NW Arkansas. (When I started this blog, I was a 30 year old mother of 6 children under 10 years old living in Eastern Oregon!) This blog has seen most of the children above go from super little kid status to grown adult. 

Jamie and I have celebrated 14 anniversaries since I began this blog! So why did I quit? Honestly, it's because this blog just got too successful! In 2012, I started working with national brands doing sponsored posts and social media influencing. I did that for quite a few years --- and those were good years. But somewhere in there, this blog began to lose its personality. No longer did I put up pretty pink vintage things for Beverly's Pink Saturday or Vintage Thingie Thursday. I stopped visiting my friends who would link up for The Homemaking Party. I just got busy and a bit overwhelmed and lost the joy.

So I put it away for awhile. I spent a few years adjusting to older teens, graduating teens, moving out teens. I grieved the loss of my father in 2022 and rejoiced in the marriage of my oldest son, Michael. I'm now navigating the ropes of grandmotherhood with Emerson and soon-to-be born Daxton. I started a YouTube ministry. When that got stressful, I started a literature channel, too. Haha!

A lot has changed since I began blogging back in 2009. I'm realizing that many of my blogging friends' blogs are closed because they have passed on. This makes me sad that I missed that time with them --- it's kind of like coming back to your hometown after being gone for years. But I'm hoping to reunite with old friends and rekindle my joy for simple, fun, blogging about homemaking. Maybe I'll even restart the homemaking party?

I'd love to hear from my old friends so please feel free to check in in the comments and let me know what you've been up to lately! Enjoy this cozy season!

Sarah

Looking For Persimmons in NW Arkansas -- The Homemaking Party

 

Good Morning Friends! How's everyone holding up? We're all doing well. Jamie is still working from home (going on nine months now!) but, other than that, the big things in life have been relatively normal. We've just gone on holiday break so I'm hoping for a lot more time to read, write, and create over these next couple months. We shall see...

Last year on my birthday (October 23) we discovered a persimmon tree near our property. Do you know about the South's legend of the persimmon seed? Well you're about to be educated! This season we got back to it a little late but we did happen to spy a couple fruit left on the very bare branches!

We started by shaking the tree real hard---one fell down. Then I grabbed the stick from Selah and went after the other one. It was a team effort but we managed to snag those last two.

The legend says one can tell what kind of winter is coming by slicing open the seed of a persimmon and seeing what shape is inside.

Here's Liam's (10) explanation: "So if you find a persimmon, this is what to do: so wash and dry the seeds. Then cut it open. If it's a fork, you will have a warm winter; if a spoon, lots of snow; if a knife, a cold winter."

We cut open these three seeds and saved the rest so the kids could try to grow one in our yard. The general consensus was that the majority of these are spoons. 

Kynthia (9) drew this diagram of the steps to making it to the inside of the seed. She came up with this idea so she wouldn't have to ask me how to spell everything---ha! Very smart!

Here is Avalon's (11) journal entry: "Me, my siblings, and Mom all found two persimmons, and nine seeds and the majority of the seeds were spoons. Hopefully the legend is true!"

Brenna (7) is really really hoping for some cold weather and snow this year. Me too!

Thanks for stopping by The Homemaking Party! I'm excited to see what everyone has got to share!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking with: 

Beverly's Pink Saturday

The Fabulous Party