Sunday Afternoon

A glimpse of last Sunday.

One of the pleasures of summer is being able to have a full vase of flowers on the piano for church every Sunday.  The last of fall flowers, these chrysanthemums, are a wonderful bright way to finish off the season.

Little fingers found the piano after potluck, and many interesting tunes serenaded the air. 

 The Sweater Club.  We were very much amused to find that every single man in the church were dressed in some sort of sweater or sweater vest! :)  So we had to take a manly picture. Dashing!

~Chs

Bits and Pieces from October

 So, I realize it has been rather quiet on the home front here.  Life has not been boring at Lily Spring Gardens and Farm, and right now we are going through some pretty major changes, which I will try to inform you all of sometime soon. 

 In the meantime I thought I would endeavor to update and amuse you by sharing the often left out miscellaneous photos from the unimportant bits and pieces of our life that happened in the already vanished month known as October.

A couple of dead trees in our glade were begging to be taken down, and since mother deemed them too tall for the boy and his ax, Mr. Reiche kindly offered to take down the offending tree with his chain saw.

"Timber!!"  and down came the tree.

 Not only did Mr. Reiche fell the tree, he also sawed into manageable pieces and stacked them to perfection.
{the above collage was taken by the photographic genius known as Josiah Sauve}

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One time in October when Josh was up north at drill, Theresa came over to spend some of the weekend with us.

We made soap, and desserts, worked in the garden, and watched Miss Potter.  A very successful weekend if you ask me:)

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No this is not a picture of a burglar, nor is the subject a hillbilly nurse.

Rather this is the only photo I managed to take during the fall emptying, sweeping, cleaning, and painting of our chicken coops.  Memories:)

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And last but not least, one of the breathtaking sunsets which were signature of the latter part of the month.

"The glory of God is all around you.   Look and see!!!"

~Chs

Charity's Birthday: A few days late

(This post was supposed to have appeared a couple weeks ago, but somehow got overlooked.  Enjoy)
Due to Tim and Grace's reception, and some other business, we were forced to move Charity's birthday celebrations a few days past the actual date.  But, I did manage to have a photo shoot with her on her actual Birthday.

Charity is a truly beautiful lady, gentle, thoughtful, and as firstborns apt to be, very very smart ;)

Over the past year Charity has taken over feeding and taking care of the chickens.  As with everything she was extremely thorough in her study of it all, and the chickens have flourished with her care.

She is also an avid book reader.  Very avid book reader. Charity started reading at an extremely young age, and hasn't stopped since.

Charity inherited Dad's beautiful hazel eyes and dark hair.

A woman of many interests Charity has been fascinated from childhood with bugs.  Bugs of all variety but butterflies in particular.  Every year she raises some sort of Caterpillar, from wiggly little green worm, to full blown gorgeous winged creature.

We finally got around to having our party and celebrated with Charity's requested brownie cheesecake swirl cake.

We are all very thankful for our oldest sister/daughter Charity Joy Sauve, and are extremely grateful for the good health God has given her recently!

~Chs

Tim and Grace's Reception

Tissue flowers danced from the ceiling amid swags of fabric and twinkling lights. The whole garage was transformed for a particular purpose: Grace and her husband Tim's wedding reception.  

It was a beautiful day for the last Saturday of September, and we set up out on the deck underneath a canopy as well as in the garage.  Grace, the fashionable designer, had wonderful ideas for decorating and made everything look positively lovely.

Little helpers were abundant, and the kitchen was full of busy hands and wonderful smells.

{The food line}

Everything was perfectly lovely when all set up, and Grace had a slideshow of her wedding going on her laptop.

The couple of the hour!!

Our good friends, the Ostranders, were so kind as to bring along the beverage station for the event.

Soon everyone was arriving and food, conversation, and fellowship were all partaken of.

One of the most wonderful couples ever!!

Our amazing and long time friend and professional cake decorator was so kind as to do the dessert for the party; in this case Cake Pops as Grace had requested.  She did a fabulous job!!

As the evening progressed and the temperature dropped, the hot section of the beverage table became hands-down favorite.

Grace and Tim were very blessed, and had a delightful time visiting old and new friends. Thank you all who attended.

And as for our Garage.  I am afraid it has long since returned to it's former state.

~Chs

2nd Annual Harvest Party

The last Friday in September (also the day before the first day of Autumn) marked our second annual Harvest party.

Like last year the girls of the families were invited to come in the morning.  We had a delightful time making soap balls for our craft, delicately scented and rolled in pretty flowers and herbs. 

Then we served our Luncheon.  Creamy potato soup, garden angel biscuits, Zucchini melts, basil and mozzarella stuffed cherry tomatoes, and of course plenty of tea, completed our menu!

Once lunch was completed the preparations began.  We divided the girls into 3 groups and sent them about varying tasks.  Faith's girls were in charge of the pies, while Megan's and my groups each created breads, as well as sundry other side dishes and desserts.

We took a break in all our flurry (midafternoonish) for a snack, and also to practice the song that we were planning to serenade the families with.

 Then we got right back to work.  Everything went right on schedule so that when the time came we all were able to trot outside to pick flowers for decorations.  Soon the Families arrived and everyone gathered in the garage, since like last year it was a bit drizzly outside. 

 The garage was filled with chatter and laughter, as well as the smell of good food tantalizing the senses.  Everyone had a wonderful time and though exhausted I think all of the girls had fun making it happen as well!! 

My favorite part of it all.  Getting to spend time with these delightful daughters of the King! 

~Chs

The Rest of September

Once again I am behind on blog posts, and with something happening every weekend, that means really behind.  So I am going to squish most of the rest of events from September into this post, and hurry up and post the rest soon!

Back in the middle of September, I (Christianna) had the wonderful opportunity of spending a week up at the tip of the Thumb with my Aunt Carmen and Uncle Tim, helping out at a Missionary retreat.  It was a very full, thought provoking, gorgeous, encouraging, stunning, and challenging week.   I was very privileged to witness some amazing parts of God's creation (including the rising and setting of the sun over Lake Huron) as well as do my best to be a blessing to the missionaries there, and in turn was very blessed by them!

I arrived back home on Friday, and Saturday morning I was back in the car, this time with Dad, Josiah, and a friend to travel up west of Grayling to visit a Farm open house that Josiah and his friend were interested in.

Back home, the garden was extremely successful  and just a little overwhelming!  Take a look at this Zucchini.    Josiah think it looks like the Lochness monster, while most everyone else thought it resembled a very muscular arm.  ;)

Bushels of Tomatoes had taken residence on our front porch, and it seemed that no matter how many we processed, there were always more to take their place.  Not that I'm complaining!  Quite the opposite, we are very grateful for the invasion of the vegetables.

Josiah's room, is many things.  Museum, red worm residence, abode of Charity's new meal worms, Germination station in the spring, and now a dehydration station, for all our herbs, mints, beans etc...

The little niches of September (when we weren't canning, gone, running hither and thither, or hosting parties etc..) were filled with ....

Biking...

Rainbows...

 Puppies posing next to harvest...

 Spotting Deer in our back meadow (when Josh wasn't there of course)...

 Finding an adorable Garter Snake (and scaring my sister-in-law with it... :D )

Doggy Dress up...

Climbing trees (both Josiah and Josh when he was over)

Can you spot him?  :)

And just "hangin" with our chicks :)

~Chs