Grace at Home No. 225

Hello, friends, and welcome to this week's edition of the Grace at Home party! I'm so glad you're here to celebrate all the ways we make our homes places of grace. Can you believe that next week is November?! The weather here has just turned fallish in the past week or so--I'm not quite ready for it to be the month of Thanksgiving!

Here are some links from last week's party that caught my eye:

If you're hosting a Halloween party and you'd like some last-minute decor inspiration, check out this post from Lori at Dining Delights. Just the right amount of "spooky" with lots of fun, I think.

Penny from Penny's Vintage Home created a beautiful mantelscape for the Thanksgiving season. If you like romantic decor, you'll love Penny's home!

If you're in the mood for Autumn baking, you'll want to check out these wonderful recipes for Fall baked goods.

And I've saved the best for last. If you're a parent, or a grandparent, or a person who loves kids and wants to know how to relate to them, you must read this post by Marian Vischer: The Ministry of Netflix. 

A big thank you to everyone who joined last week's party!  I'm so grateful for each person who links up each week. If you've been featured, feel free to grab the "I was featured" button.  I'd be so proud if you displayed it!

Now for this week's party!  Grace at Home is a place for you to share anything related to making your home a place of grace. I invite you to link posts about

• DIY projects
• decorating
• recipes
• hospitality
• homemaking tips
• parenting
• marriage
• faith
• self-care
• soul care

Whatever you do to make your home a place of grace, I'd like to hear about it.  Here's what I ask of you.  Please include the permalink to your post, not your blog's home page.  Please let people know that you've linked up.  No more than three posts per person, please.  Note that if you link a post here, you are giving me permission to share your post, including a photo.  And visit at least one of the other party participants--that's what really makes it a party!

Favorite baked goods for Fall

It's finally Autumn in North Carolina! Can I get a "hallelujah"? I know that some of y'all have been enjoying Fall for awhile now, but our summer just hung on and on this year. And then of course Hurricane Matthew hit and made things interesting, but not fallish.

Well. Now. We're finally enjoying cooler temperatures, which have me in the mood to do some baking! Look what I made this weekend:

Aren't those the most beautiful muffins you've ever seen? One of my birthday gifts was a bag full of pumpkin goodies, and the Nordic Ware pan was my favorite thing. Click here for the recipe I used to make the pumpkin muffins--absolutely delicious!

In case you're in the mood for some Autumn baking, I want to share my favorite recipes for this time of year.

First is my pumpkin bread. I promise it's the very best I've ever tasted--and in 53 years, I've tasted a lot.

For a little sweeter treat, try this pumpkin cake. With its decadent cream cheese frosting, it's always a hit.

Apples are plentiful and delicious this time of year. There are lots of great apple pie recipes, but here's one for apple cake. It's amazing!

And if you want a scrumptious accompaniment to any of these baked goods but don't want to make frosting, try this cream cheese glaze. It's a breeze to whip up in the food processor--quick and simple and so tasty.

These recipes have stood the test of time and lots of taste-testing in our family. I hope you love them as much as we do!

Do you have a favorite Fall baked good? Please share!

Joining Thoughts of Home on Thursday

Grace at Home No. 224

Hello, friends, and welcome to this week's edition of Grace at Home!

I'm sorry that I've been absent from my online home here this week. I hope you know you're always welcome here, but I've not been here the last few days to open the door.

If you will, I'd like to ask for your help. A very kind reader let me know that she's been experiencing an intrusive "pop-up" ad whenever she visits my blog. The ad covers the whole screen and looks something like this:

If you've experienced anything like that when visiting my blog, will you please leave a comment below to let me know? I have a couple of ads on my site, but there should never be anything that pops up and blocks the screen. I deeply apologize if that's happened to you. Please let me know if it has--I'm trying to get to the bottom of the problem so that I can fix it!

Now on to the business at hand--our weekly Grace at Home party, where we celebrate all the ways we make our homes places of grace. Here are some posts from last week that caught my eye.

Jolena at While I Linger has been busy decorating her house for Autumn. I love what she's done in her kitchen and dining room--take a look!

Judy from JBigg's Little Pieces showed us the "spooky" Halloween decorating she's done for her grandsons. I like this--a little Halloween fun but nothing extreme.

Susan from The Sparrow's Home gave us great instructions for making freezer apple pie filling. I'd never thought of doing this, but what a great idea! Apples are delicious and inexpensive in the autumn, so I'm going to be doing this.

And Dr. Michelle Bengtson shared great insight on how to walk through the doorway to joy.

A big thank you to everyone who joined last week's party!  I'm so grateful for each person who links up each week. If you've been featured, feel free to grab the "I was featured" button.  I'd be so proud if you displayed it!

Now for this week's party!  Grace at Home is a place for you to share anything related to making your home a place of grace. I invite you to link posts about

• DIY projects
• decorating
• recipes
• hospitality
• homemaking tips
• parenting
• marriage
• faith
• self-care
• soul care

Whatever you do to make your home a place of grace, I'd like to hear about it.  Here's what I ask of you.  Please include the permalink to your post, not your blog's home page.  Please let people know that you've linked up.  No more than three posts per person, please.  Note that if you link a post here, you are giving me permission to share your post, including a photo.  And visit at least one of the other party participants--that's what really makes it a party!