I love this time of year. Fall has finally hit here in Pennsylvania, and I am here for it. We are enjoying all things fall–a hay ride, apple cider, apple cider donuts, apple picking, getting pumpkins, apple blasters (shooting apples out of a compressed-air cannon), pumpkin spice lattes, soups, finding trees that are changing color, day trips to local farms, and more.

This past Sunday, we had our ladies’ fall event at church and had a blast. It was such a great time, I thought I’d share it for this week’s post. For our activity we had chicken and rice soup and bread, and then we decorated fall front door mats. I’m so happy with how they turned out. We had so much fun doing them.

It’s an easy craft to do at home if you want a fun fall project to work on. Macey, our ten-year-old painted this rug at home after the event.

Here were a few others we got pics of.

We used acrylic paint from Walmart. I ordered this fall pack of paints. We were really happy with the colors. I also ordered a few bottles of this black paint. The black ended up being the best for painting words. It was much easier to read on the rugs. We ordered the coir rugs from Hobby Lobby on clearance, but it looks like they are no longer available. But you can get these rugs from several places–Amazon, Walmart, Lowes, etc. I got these stencils from Amazon, and we used cheap paint brushes from Walmart.

We did learn that you don’t really “paint” on these rugs. You kind of “blot” the paint because of the coarseness of the rug. And the larger the stencil, the better it works. The smaller stencils just made the paint all blur together.

If you’re looking for a fun fall idea to do at home for yourself or with your kids or even as a ladies’ event like we did, I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

More Fall Fun

Another idea is to get together with a group of friends and go on a hay ride together at a local farm. We just did this with our Growth Group and had a blast. We finished off the night with hot dogs and marshmallows roasted over a fire.

Our chili cook off is coming up soon. This activity is one of our favorites. It’s so fun and easy and requires little to no extra work. Everybody that wants to, brings a chili; and everybody tries them and then makes a bowl of their favorite. Everybody, including the kids, gets to write down the number of their favorite and drop it into the box. The winer is the one with the most votes.

Easy Chicken and Rice Crockpot Soup

I don’t really use a recipe for this soup, but this is the basic idea for what I do. You can’t go wrong with however you decide to make it. This makes one full crockpot; mine is 7 quarts.

Ingredients:

• Family Pack of Chicken Breasts
• Cream Cheese
• 32 oz. Cheesy Melt (or Velvet)
• Two bags shredded carrots
• One full pack of celery cut up
• 3- 32 oz cartons of Chicken Broth
• 2-3 cups cooked rice (I use brown rice, but you can use any kind)

Directions:

• Cut up chicken into large chunks. (You will shred it later when it’s cooked) and put in crock pot.
• Season with garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper
• Add two bags of shredded carrots to crock pot
• Add entire bag of chopped celery
• Salt and pepper the veggies
• Add about two cartons of chicken broth

• Cook on High for four hours
• Shred chicken
• Warm up the cream cheese if it’s not room temperature and add to crock pot
• Add cheesy melt (start with half the box and add to taste)
• Stir in cream cheese and cheezy melt until fully melted
• Stir in rice
• Add more broth if it gets too thick

• Serve with bread and crackers

Another Easy Meal Idea

You could also make this copy cat Panera tomato soup and make a bunch of grilled cheese sandwiches. We did that with our Growth Group this past Tuesday night, and it was a hit. It’s an inexpensive meal to serve lots of people. (Our group is thirty-plus people.) I made one large crock pot of this soup, and we bought bread and cheese slices from Aldi and took our griddle to be able to crank a bunch out. We did somewhere North of forty grilled cheeses for our group, and everybody loved it. It’s really great if you have lots of kids, like we do in our group.

Fall is such a great time to gather with friends and family and church family. I hope this post gives you some ideas to get started and do something fun to celebrate the season.

Happy Fall!

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post, 12 Fall Things That Create Breathing Room for Your Soul.