A Little Raking of the Leaves

 

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.

- Stanley Horowitz

 "Autumn begins with a subtle change in the light, with skies a deeper blue, and nights that become suddenly clear and chilled. The season comes full with the first frost, the disappearance of migrant birds, and the harvesting of the season's last crops."

- Glenn Wolff and Jerry Dennis

Thankful for Weekends

"Thank you for the world so sweet.

Thank you for the things we eat.

Thank you for the birds that sing.

Thank you, God, for everything."

-Anonymous

Looking forward to a beautiful, crisp, fall day

spent with friends out in God's world so sweet!

Another Year This November

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;

my heart exults,

and with my song I give thanks to him.

Psalm 28:7

Yes, every November I grow a year older, and yesterday I began that special day sipping coffee with a few ladies studying the Word together. Some time spent sharing what we are learning about prayer. Specifically how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with the Father, and how foundational digesting His Words day and night are to our communion with the Father.

Romans 8:26 "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."

John 15:7 "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

"Neglect of the Word makes praying in the Holy Spirit an impossibility." - R.A.Torrey

Psalm 37:4 " Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart."

"What is the desire of the heart of a good man? It is this, to know, and love, and live to God, to please him and to be pleased in him."  - Matthew Henry

"Whom have I in heaven but you? 

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:25-26 (A Prayer of Asaph)

What a great way to begin any day, but a birthday, even better! 

A slight head cold and a zillion errands to run in the November rain slightly dampening my spirits. But a short visit with my mom amidst the errands, many sweet birthday wishes online and in the snail mail box, Chinese take-out, a birthday cake, and presents from my three guys made my heart swell! A day full of reminders of all God's blessings! A great birthday indeed!

Blessings

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his,
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

- Psalm 100:1-5 

We as a family are compiling a basketful of our blessings this November in preparation for a special Thanksgiving eve service with our church family. Garrett and Carson LOVE projects like this, so it's going to be fun filling our basket with pictures of things God has blessed us with. I can't wait to share with you what we put in our basket! What are some of your blessings this November? Just click on the comments link at the end of this post, if you'd like to share. Hearing what others are giving thanks for is SO encouraging, don't ya think?

God bless and have a thankful day!

November is . . .

November is a time for many things, but the obvious thought this month brings is its time devoted to giving thanks. I always look forward to the Thanksgiving season and enjoy reading poetry, scripture passages, quotes and such, the whole month through in order to focus specifically on being thankful.

The following is one of my favorites . . .



For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.



For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light.
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.



For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild.
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.

--Folliott S. Pierpoint


I have more favorites to share in all the coming days of November!  :)

Casting My Vote Today!

Lots to do today, of which making the trek around the block to the borough building to cast my vote is right up there near the top of the list.  The boys, for whatever reason, are fascinated with the whole voting thing.  I took them with me to the polls during the last presidential election and they thought it was the coolest thing, to go behind the curtain and make a "secret" choice and help our candidate win the race. :)  (My competitive little guys were VERY disappointed when our presidential choice did NOT win that race!)  What a great opportunity to teach them about how God is in control of who rules the nations and all things work together for His good! I find that many times when I'm explaining these well-known biblical truths to my boys, that my heart is in need of hearing them again! Very convicting teaching your little ones, isn't it?!!

Anyway, they can't wait to accompany me later this morning, and "participate" in the election process again. Plus it doesn't hurt that there's a playground right behind the borough building that we will be making use of after Mommy casts her vote! :)  Hope you plan to vote today, too!

Forgive Me :)

I'm playing around with all the Blogger options again.  It seems that whenever I get "posting block", all I need to do is change a few elements of the blog and the creative juices flow once again. So, new blog posts should be forthcoming.  :)

A Pefect Saturday

The boys just love it when they can spend a lazy Saturday exploring with Daddy in the woods. Last weekend we checked out a park near us and the boys enjoyed climbing around on the rocks, throwing stones in the river, playing on the playground. Ya know, all the things boys enjoy doing! :)


Mommy is perfectly content to follow along taking pictures of her guys enjoying special time together. Simple pleasures!









A little rock climbing.

Daddy is showing them how to skip stones. They can't quite do it, but are very content to spend tons of time trying.

I don't think the boys would ever get tired of the water.

 Carson's little legs needed a break.

Checking out the bridge.

Oh, and here was a bonus! We didn't realize this park had a playground, but we discovered one tucked in the woods along the trail. Playgrounds are how our boys rate a park, so this one got five stars! :)

Another Saturday well spent!

Beach Day!

Since we decided on a camping trip this year, we planned a single day trip to the beach. Believe it or not, our boys had never been to the beach before this week. I know, I know, how terrible! We live so close to the coast and we haven't managed to get there in six years! Unforgivable! :)  We're just more of a mountains kind of family.  But even we knew we had to show the boys the ocean and all that sand!  So this was the year, and since we only planned one day there, we made the most of it!

Here are the photos to prove it . . .

And there ya have it! A perfect day at the beach! Maybe next year we'll spend several days there, and just maybe Mommy will get more than her shadow in a beach picture! :)