October Memoir

   So here we are, half way thru November and no post yet... in fact no new post in over a month... Where have I been? What events, activities, joys and sorrows have filled my days and kept me from writing? Many, many... oh where do I even begin?

   October was a calm before a rush with beautiful autumn weather,  golden skies, golden fields, and golden moments turned memories.

 

   An impromptu photo shoot with my lovely sister!💗  

   We planted two new apple trees. Meet Harold (short for Haralred)  and Honey (Honey-crisp) our apple trees! 😉

     I had great fun decorating and preparing for Mom's birthday! The bouquet is made of mint and roses from our garden.

   I spent one morning clearing a path along our maple trees in the woods, it will be oh-so-nice this coming sugar season to be able to drive the ATV back in the woods for sap collection instead of manually hauling out full 5-gallon buckets!!! The skid steer made clearing a path a really fun and quick job!! :)

   October...  visiting Grandpa M. at the nursing home... holding his hand, fall yard-work, Mom's birthday, a hike through the woods and along the river at a near by State Park... talking with the Lord, October a beautiful, calm and golden month...

State Park path

To Add A Few Words...

   I hope you enjoyed the Summer Picture posts! I thought that pictures would be the best way to give you a glimpse into my summertime, without exhausting you and myself with words! :) But to add a few words about my summer I would say... 

   It went by way too fast, but doesn't it always!?  


   This spring we planted a smaller than normal garden, because we weren't feeling like super ambitious gardeners. So our harvest has been smaller, with less variety than "normal", but never-the-less a blessing! Our sweet corn patch did very well and we froze over 60 quarts, which will be enough for our family for the next year or two!

   I took a road trip to Indiana in July to attend WIT ALIVE, a conference for Christian singles. It was an amazing, refreshing experience and time away! I am so glad that I went. :)

   In case you are wondering if my life is "perfect" and "lovely" all the time... It's NOT! I know that pictures and the short captions that go with them can give a false impression... believe me I have been there and thought that, while looking at other girls' blogs; "Wow she has a perfect family, she is an amazing cook or she dresses with such class!" and *maybe*  it's true... but you know what is probably truer?? That they are real girls, with real lives, that are sometimes less than perfect, amazing and classy... And I want you to know that I am one of those real girls, ...sometimes I eat boring food, on a plainly set table with miss-matched dishes, sometimes I don't get along with my sister, (even when we are on a "fun" trip, where we had a "good" time), sometimes I am not patient and kind with my words... sometimes I feel discouraged about things in my life. But I didn't start this blog to air my dirty laundry and vent my frustrations... I started this blog to proclaim God's goodness, God's daily graces! The pictures that I post are but beautiful nano moments, frozen in time. I take pictures and share them here, not because my whole life looks like that, but because I am crazy for beauty, order and simplicity, crazy to see through the lens of God's goodness! So I hope you enjoy the pictures I share, just remember that a real, less than perfect girl is behind them and this blog! :)

   Now that we have taken a look back, in my next post, we will look ahead, as I share with you my hopes and plans for what's in-store here on The Riches of His Goodness in the coming weeks and months!

Summer Pictures: July Edition

   July...mowing, weeding, pruning, trimming and repeat... I loved every minute of it! 

 A farmyard bouquet 

Summer picnic and cookout

Another prairie evening sky

Farm fresh eggs

 

 Indiana Wildflowers 

Summer Pictures: June Edition

Holly and I enjoying an afternoon of thrift store shopping and a visit to our favorite local coffee shop! 😊

h

    Flowering Cilantro. (That re-seeded itself from last year!)

     

A Misty Morning

Sugar Season 2017

   

   This was our 7th year processing maple sap into syrup and sugar! The idea of tapping our maple trees had never crossed my mind until we visited a local event where they were demonstrating it. When we got home, Dad said "let's tap our maple trees!" My first thought was; What? We don't have anything to do that with! But then again... if Dad thinks we can figure this out... let's do it! And so we did! For make-shift taps Dad took copper pipe and cut it into 3-4 inch lengths, drilled a hole in our front maple tree, tapped the pipe in and hung a milk jug from the piping! And that was that, the beginning of a new family farm tradition! Over the years we have invested in more "sophisticated" equipment. Including real taps, hoses, 5 gallon buckets and this 20 gallon boiling pan.

One extra cold morning the sap had turned to ice in the buckets!  

When it is getting close to done, we bring it in the house to finish it on the stove.

  I made a batch of syrup into a sugar. Here are some pictures from that process...

 Boiling the syrup into granulated sugar is a bubbly, hot job, that requires constant stirring, so it doesn't burn or boil over!

At one point it looked kinda like I had a big pot of boiling peanut butter! ↑  

And here it is...  Maple sugar!↑I would say that it tastes pretty much exactly like maple syrup, just in a different form. It is excellent for baking!

February Journal

   February went by quickly for me! Yes, I know it is the shortest month of the year... but really, time seems to be flying by! Lately the Lord has been bringing Psalm 90:12 to my mind "...teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" I don't know about you, but I need that reminder from God's Word!  

    Earlier in the month we celebrated my niece's 1st Birthday! What a joy she is! And what a joy it was to be there for her birthday party! It was a quick trip, but totally worth it! Time spent with my nieces and nephews is never short on laughter, smiles and fun!

    With many days in the 40's and 50's this past month, we no longer have any snow to speak of. And longer walks outside have been enjoyable! (If it's not too windy!) February's unusually warm weather brought on an early "sugar season" (maple sap harvesting and processing!) We've already boiled down our first batch, resulting in 2 qts. of syrup! Hopefully we will have much more production in the coming days and weeks! (Stay tuned for a sugar season post!) 

  The days are flying by... Spring is just around the corner and some days it feels like it is already here! Time is marching on! 😉

 

So teach us to number our days,

That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

To See Goodness

What is it about looking at life through a camera lens... that makes ordinary moments near spectacular? And what is it about looking at life through the lens of truth, that brings abounding joy, abiding peace and deep, sweet contentment?

 

Even when nothing in life changes, except the way we choose to see. We find that seeing is the path to the change we really needed. That we need heart changes, more then circumstance changes. 

When you know in the depths of your being, and choose to focus your heart on, the truth that God is good in character and deed, a beautiful thing begins to happen... you begin to see what was there all along. God's goodness displayed in simple, humble, everyday-ness. Thousands of grace gifts, wrapped in God's goodness... FOR YOU!

The photographer's focusing lens draws spectacular out of ordinary and the Christian believing in God's goodness grows contentment where once lay worries, frustrations and unhappiness.

It's where we put our focus that makes ordinary into spectacular and life worth living! Are you looking at life through the lens of cynicism or the truth that God is good?

Because the way we see changes the way we live.

 

An Almost Super Moon

   Sunday the night sky held a "supermoon". (Don't know what a Supermoon is? Go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermoon to find out!) My photographer Grandpa insisted I get out and capture it. Though I wasn't able to get a good one Sunday night. The moon was almost as super on Monday night and I was able to get some good moonshots! Here is one of them.

    
   It's hard to believe it's already the middle of November!  Especially since the weather has been so unusually warm! (which I am wholeheartedly enjoying!) 😊 So you see, blogging just isn't as delightful as being out in God's BEAUTIFUL creation! Snow is in the forecast for Thursday... Which will be just as Lovely. The first snow of the season always is! And when those cooler snow-flurry days come, I have a feeling the indoors will be more alluring and then maybe I will start real blogging... you know... deep thoughts, topical series... or maybe not! This is all really an experiment... To see if blogging is for me.  Hum... time will tell! 

          Before the snow flies... here are more autumn pictures...

    

   

    

10-29-16

Glory

Goodness 

Grace

Gifts from God...