Slices of Life

 My husband and I love to plan long weekend trips to New Hampshire for hiking.  I am definitely a day hiker as I like to have a cozy hotel room, shower, and comfy bed to come home to at the end of a long hiking day.  But the more we hike and the longer/ more difficult trails we tackle, the more I invest in the right gear as it really does make all the difference. Today, I thought I'd share 10 of my "must have" hiking essentials.   1. My hiking boots -- I tried on so many pairs before settling on my hiking boots and now I just love them. In fact I've nearly worn them out and just ordered myself a second pair.  Ignore the pack; that's my husband's pack and much too big for me 2. My little backpack -- I rarely carry much with me while hiking and hadn't thought to get myself a backpack but my husband bought this for me for Christmas and I find I use it on every hike now and just love it.  I even used it the whole week walking around Disney/ Universal because

I LOVE seeing inside other people's homes because I truly feel like each house has it's own personality set off by the people that love it and live in and make it a home.  Perhaps that is one of the reasons I enjoy blogging to much.  Bloggers are wonderful about inviting us each into their homes and giving us glimpses of their lives.  We had so many wonderful posts linked up with us last week but there were a few where the bloggers shared about their homes and it really struck me how much personality they each had... and a totally different personality at that!  So this week my features are all about some lovely homes that were lovingly shared with us.   And Now, It's Time for This Week's Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop!     Join your Encouraging Hearts & Home Co-Hosts each week for encouragement and support for your heart & your home . We hope to provide a space that builds each other up and lends a helping hand along the way. With all the negativity i

I don't whether to jump for joy that fall is here or be sad that summer is over.  I do so love those slow, summery, sunny days but fall in New England is pretty great too.  I swear I just wrote up our What's Up Wednesday for August but here I am re-capping our September already! What We're Eating This Week: Saturday: We celebrated Evan's birthday with the grandparents and he picked steak, baked potatoes, broccoli and strawberry shortcake. I was so proud of how well my first ever homemade angel food cake turned out!  Sunday:  We ended up with take out pizza, French fries, and salad.  Monday:  Crock pot lasagna for most of us and chicken/broccoli/rice casserole for Alec and Evan (Alec will use leftovers from the casserole for his lunch all week).  Tuesday:  BBQ pulled chicken over baked potatoes (we call them potato boats) with salad.  Wednesday: Burgers/ hot dogs with fries/ butternut squash fries and salad.  Thursday: Crock pot spaghetti (a new recipe from Miz Helen