November-A Whirlwind Part 2

   In mid-November I flew down to Georgia and attended Wit Ministries Women's Retreat "4 Days 2 Hope". The retreat was held at a beautiful cabin in the mountains near Blue Ridge, Georgia.

The scenery was beautiful, but even more beautiful was the fellowship, the teaching and the work that God did in the hearts and lives of the young women there! For me the weekend was eye-opening, life-changing, life-giving and yes 4 days to hope!! I am so grateful to the LORD that I was able to go!

  

   Grandpa M's funeral was 3 days after I returned home from GA. Almost all the extended family was able to gather together for the services. The emotions surrounding  the funeral were bittersweet... Bitter was the loss, sweet was the bonding closer to the family that remains.

   Thanksgiving was the following week and it was truly a time of thankfulness in my heart. Thankful for God's work in my life, thankful for the years that I had had with my Grandpa M. and all the precious memories of him that I have to remember forever! Thankful for a heart full of hope! Thankful for home, family and friends...

and homemade pies too! 😊

 We hosted the Thanksgiving feast and festivities!

    So there you have it, the highlights of my eventful November 2017! Oh wait-a-second... I forgot to tell you about going to my nephew's musical and spending two more delightful days with all my nieces and nephews, and starting my new job as a Church Secretary and...  

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

Jeremiah 31:14b

Summer Pictures: August/Itasca Edition

   All my pictures from August are from the camping trip Holly and I took. We went up north to attend a Family Music Festival and do some exploring at Itasca State Park. We had a good time together and came home, happy and tired!

Holly and I at Itasca State Park! 💕

 

Wading in the headwaters of the Mississippi.

Lake Itasca ...a breath-taking scene of God's creation!

We spotted this cute little fella, while hiking through the woods.

Sunday morning's closing concert by the Wissmann Family. 

 

Sisters + picnics + camping + music = fun times!

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! 😊

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

     

May Day Snow

   About 4-5 inches of heavy, wet, cold, beautiful, snow arrived this morning to "celebrate" the first day of May 2017!

Wow, I just love the beauty of the springtime green & "winter" white! 

Springtime is here... It's just under the snow for today! 😊

Sunrises

   The beauty of the rising sun is one of my favorite things! And though a digital picture can never truly capture the full glory of the morning sky... I still often find myself grabbing for the camera in hopes that today will be different, that today the mirrored image will somehow be able to reflect the real-life beauty dawning before me! And so my camera card fills up with sunrises... May the splendor of these pictures brighten your day! 

   One morning a few winters back, I purposely woke before the sun was up and went snow-shoeing out onto the snow laden field and just waited for the sun to rise... Eyes on the horizon...the moment I saw the first gleam of the sun, is burned into my mind as one of the most breathtaking moments of beauty I have ever beheld! 

Do you have a favorite... sunrises or sunsets? I have always been partial to sunrises!   
 

From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same  

the LORD’S name is to be praised. ~Psalms 113:3

A Misty Morning

Morning Light

Pink Tulips

   Dad gave me these lovely tulips on Valentine's Day! Oh how I've been enjoying their fresh & bright beauty! Since they are potted, I will transplant them into my garden this spring, to be enjoyed for many more years to come! Thank you Dad! 😊

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...