A Happy Thanksgiving

Ah, Thanksgiving!  Who doesn't love getting together with extended family and feasting?  No presents to buy, no extensive decorating, just delegate the menu, clean the house, fix broken chairs, break your foot in the process... Yes, I broke my foot gluing our old chairs together in preparation for Thanksgiving.  It just made for a more interesting day.  My family jumped in and carried out my every order to finish the work on my list.  God bless them.  We did have a lovely time.  After our feasting, I went to the urgent care and got a boot.  I will be good to go, er hobble, until Christmas.  Online shopping, delegating the baking, ordering groceries for pick-up will be just the life-line I need. I am thankful for all the modern conveniences and that I can still drive with my good right foot!  How was your Thanksgiving?

Fall Continues to Charm Us

Mowing in November?  Riding bikes, too?  This cannot be!  We are truly enjoying this fall weather.  I do believe it has been a rather marvelous fall here in Indiana.  This past week, we have enjoyed a couple trips to get apples from a local orchard.  Pink Ladies are my new favorite, a crisp sweet and tart apple.  Also, we were privileged to have Ryan participate in an all-district honor jazz band last Sunday.  He is going to audition for the all-state honor band as well.  The younger two are doing amazingly well in their new school with A averages.  I am very happy with their efforts.  Now it is time to start preparing for the holidays!

Good-bye October

October always ends with the celebration of our "baby" boy, who is now fourteen years old.  Amazing.  This year, we had two extended family parties and also made as much of his actual birthday as we could on a school day.

 And then there was Halloween a couple days later.

The weather was dry and not terribly cold, so we set up a fire on the driveway and greeted our neighbors as they came by with their kids.  We had almost 90 kids.  We do not celebrate Halloween.  We take this opportunity to be a light for Jesus on a dark night.  We show the love of Jesus, not hide inside on a night that our godless neighbors are out.

Winter Can Be Good, Too

The fall season is one of my most favorite seasons of the year.  Alas, it is also the shortest.  This year, the trees have seemed more brilliant than years past.  Must it be our super dry weather?  Anyhow, I have decided that I need to work on a list of things to look forward to about winter because it is coming and I dread it.

• The holidays!!
• Two family birthdays to celebrate.
• Baking more often
• Crock pot meals
• No yard work
• Kids will shovel the snow for me. 
• No bugs.
• More time for reading. 
• Decaf coffee after dinner.
• Our annual winter hike at Lake Michigan
• My cats will suddenly like sitting on my lap. 
• Seasonal allergies will be gone.
• Get to wear comfy sweaters.
• Watching movies under cozy blankets 
• No humidity
• School is half way done. 
• Snow days!
• Sledding

I am sure that there are many more things to enjoy about winter, and I am going to keep on looking for them. Life is a gift.  I do not want to waste time dreading any of it. 

Fall Break 2015

For my birthday and our fall break, we headed up to see Grandma who lives in Northwestern Indiana.  We rented our favorite cabin and enjoyed some great walks, three apple orchards, an antique mall, and lots of family time. It is hard to believe that the next time we are up it will be winter, as we were blessed with wonderful weather, temperatures in the upper 70's even. Now it is time to finish the semester and prepare for the winter holiday season.  I will miss my lake!

21 Years

Newly engaged

New bike seat

Gifts

Sweetest cat ever 

Last week, we celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary.  We had to cancel our cabin plans, due to band. We ended up having a nice steak dinner just the two of us between band drop off and pick up times.  Jeff allowed me to get a new bike seat for our inside bike.  (Everyone has an inside bike, right?) It is going to help keep us active this winter.  Grace and Trevor completely cleaned the house while we were at dinner.  It was a great surprise.  They had also baked cookies and made us a card.  We are blessed to have such dear children.

My Marching Warrior