October Days

October is a visually stunning month.  Here are some random photos of our October.

{The last garden bouquet}

{Fallen Leaves}

{Berries are abundant}

{Autumn walks}

{Fields of dry corn}

While "fleeing the house" during one of our house showings, Faith Sadie and I went for a lovely October walk. The trees were gorgeous, and the weather perfect.

The mums suffered from the hard winter last year, but the flowers that did blossom were as stunning and lovely as always.

Kitten quite enjoys being outside with us and pouncing at nothing and anything.

We are enjoying these October days, and believe it or not, there aren't very many left! So we had better make the most of them!

~Chs

A Puzzling Kitten

The season for puzzles has begun, and apparently Kitten likes puzzles too.

She loves to sit on the puzzle and get in the way. :)

But her favorite place is in the puzzle box, snuggled among the miscellaneous pieces.

So far we have done 2 puzzles and have started on our third. :) Josiah and Charity are the main puzzlers, and we have to go extra fast at the moment to fit a puzzle in between showings while we try to sell our house.

Puzzles are a wonderful fall/winter past time, when the sunset is earlier and there is time to squeeze in a little reading and listening in the evenings, and just like our books we seem to continue to collect puzzles and never get rid of any so we always have another one to do!

~Chs

Declaring the Glory of God

"The heavens declare the glory of God"

{The Moon Eclipse October 8th 2014}

Comfortable Kitty?

Kitten has become quite the fixture in our home.  She has pretty much everyone wrapped around her "wittle" paw.  Even Mother with her self proclaimed dislike of cats. :)

As the saying goes "Cats are connoisseurs of comfort" and Kitten is no exception, one of her favorite spots is actually on the laptop... so if you see any odd posts show up on this blog, it's just Kitten trying to voice her opinion, and tell the world how she feels :)

~Chs

P.S As is apparent in the post "Kitten" has not yet found a proper name. We have thrown many titles at her but as Faith say's "they haven't stuck".

Fall Farm Tour

October 4th wasn't the most beautiful day in history, but it was educational and entertaining, as despite the weather we, along with some friends participated in the Fall Farm Tour that was held in our area.  The first farm we were going to visit, unfortunately, was not open for tours due to a family emergency, so we moved on to the second one-

The Decker Farm

The Decker's farm is a CSA farm. They grow vegetables and also raise meat chickens.

Examples of their CSA buckets, which are put together and picked up by customers weekly.

Their artistic chicken coop. :)

Inside one of their 2 hoop houses, out of the rain and cold.

The gardening season is of course mainly over, but there were still different types of greens, lettuce, peas, and a few tomatoes.

The second hoop house was a mainly inhabited by fruit.

Mr. Decker was very informative and kind in answering questions as he showed us around his farm. The Deckers also own an off sight apple orchard and they make and sell variety specific applesauce.

The other stop, was the Elling Tree Farm, which along with selling a huge variety of tree saplings, also makes Maple Syrup and many beautiful wood creations...

...Including this beautiful picnic table.

Mr. Elling demonstrated his incredible sawmill.

So despite the chill and misty weather we had a wonderful day, met some nice people, and even learned a few things! :)

~Chs

Happy Birthday Charity!!

Sometime life is too busy to celebrate a birthday on just one day, and you just have to spread it out over a few days. That is what we did with Charity's birthday this year.

Charity has always loved the idea of having a cat, (especially a cozy, friendly, purry cat) so she kind of counted Kitten as an early birthday present.

Charity's cake was a triple layer gluten/sugar free chocolate cake, with peanut butter filling and frosting...... yup.

Charity is the classic firstborn. Brilliant, talented, sweet, and so so much more. We are so grateful for her analytical mind, and attention to details along with her computer genius.

Happy Birthday Charity!!

~Chs

ELIM A Wonderful Week

For the past 2 years now the second week of September has been a very special one for yours truly. :) And this year I was thrilled to be able continue the trend.

Each year my Aunt Carmen and Uncle Tim's church helps/runs an "ELIM" missionary retreat, that is held on some gorgeous private property at the tip of the Thumb in Huron City, right near Port Austin.

It was a wonderful week full of laughter, cooking, discussions, singing, serving, eating, walking, praying, loving, and reconnecting. 

Below is a glimpse of what it looked like on the surface. :)

{Some of the food purchased for the week}

{The view}

{Putting together the welcome bags for the guest}

{"Abide with me"}

{So much interesting wildlife}

{Looking back at the lodge}

{Lu, the queen in the kitchen with the 30lb Turkey for our "Thanksgiving Dinner"}

{First dinner with all the missionary guests}

{The sunrise up there is always stunning.}

{"Abide" the theme for the week}

{Point Aux Barque Light House}

{Cook out night!}

{Lovely evening for a bonfire}

{Time to talk and relax}

{Visit to the legendary Grindstone General Store for Ice Cream}

{The whole group}

{Sunset on the lake}

{Breezy day at Lighthouse park}

{Found this Rock at the park}

{Chatting around the fire}

{Group photo on the last evening}

There is so much I could say about the week, but putting it into words would be difficult, so I will be succinct and say that... It was an incredible time of serving, learning and being blessed, all rolled into 7 brief days.

~Chs