September Fave Five #4

Yay for Friday's!

Here in the Capital Region of NYS, we have completed our 2nd full week of school.  Things are going along very well.

And....each Friday I participate in Susanne's Friday Fave Five.  To find out more, just click here.

This is a chance to give God thanks for 5 special moments or things during the last week.

Silk flowers/cattails
in antique milk can
on front stoop

• Decorating for Autumn around my home and yard

Coffee table centerpiece
family room
Cinnamon potpourri in glass bowl

New Autumn flag
from front stoop

"Welcome All" hanging on front porch

New Welcome mat
on front porch

Dried sunflowers, pumpkins, leaves
with ivory raffia ribbon
on front door

• A Saturday Hike! Hiked a 4 mile wilderness trail with my good friend Lynn, her 11 yr old daughter and my youngest daughter. It was a special day followed by a delicious dinner at Appleby's.  Lunch by the river with no one else around was just priceless.  We never made it to the trail's end.....I'll tell you why in another post coming up soon!  Yes...there is a spiritual lesson involved! :)

Claire at end of hike

Marissa and Claire
Hiking Buddies

Me with my 11 year old (Claire)
on Suspension Bridge over the
West Branch of the Sacandaga River

Silver Lake Wilderness Region
Trail to "Big Eddy"
South-Central ADKS
Sept 2010

The Quiet section of the
West Sacandaga River

• Flowers picked by a 5 year old and given with love and excitement!  There is a little boy in the classroom this year, named George, who is a typical kindergartner.  He does not have special needs so I don't work closely with him, but he brought all the women on the team, fresh-picked flowers from his backyard.  He had them gathered with twine and said "Here, Mrs. T----these are for you from me". He was so proud of giving us these bunches of flowers...... It was priceless!

Wildflowers handpicked by George!

• Folded Laundry.  My 17 year old daughter totally surprised me by folding my laundry and leaving it neatly on the bed. She does her own laundry and on Tuesday evening, she told me she had room in her load if I wanted anything done. I had a few things so she added my stuff but I never expected her to fold it!  What a wonderful surprise when I went upstairs for bed.......what a blessing she is to our family.......

Courtney, age 17
at Jarod's (new friend) soccer game

• "GOT TEENS?"  Small Group for Moms.  Yeah.......I had my first small group meeting last evening. We meet the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month while my youngest and hubby are out at Youth Group.  I am leading a group of moms who have tweens (ages 9-12) or teens (13-18).  6 women, besides my self, came into my home and sat around my family room and we discussed Chapter 1 of the book.  It went well, I think.....we all shared, and I was able to meet a new mom from my church.  My neighbor, who attends a different church here in town, came too and it was just so great to introduce her to my church friends.  We can all  edify and encourage one another.  It was such a blessing...and although we didn't cover everything on my agenda, we really connected with each other and the things we did share were topics that we could all relate to.  I look forward to going through this book with this group of friends and sisters in Christ!

So those are the 5 main things that blessed me this past week....there were many more things that I appreciated all week, from having the honor of praying for a dear friend, to enjoying a delicious lunch by my self on my deck in glorious weather.

Up next, sometime over this weekend, is a new recipe for you to try and a "lesson" the Lord taught me about the hike I took last Saturday......

Also, come on back if you have tweens/teens because my "Intune with Teens" label is coming back here to Gold in the Clouds!  I will be posting a summary of things we are learning about as a small group.  However, I won't be able to share "real life experiences" with you due to confidentiality agreements.  I will be sharing content of topics read/discussed and Scriptures relating to our parenting roles.

For now...enjoy the start of the weekend!!  It's HOMECOMING weekend for us here in our school district so I am busy with the teen going to the game, parade and then the dance on Saturday evening.  A fun time for sure....and bittersweet...it's her last Homecoming Weekend!!


and....scroll down to the next post because you are tagged!!
Please answer the 8 questions found at the end of the post (if you wanna play along!) and let me know in the comment section.
If you don't have a blog but you still want to participate, just email me the answers. My email is found on my profile page!......many thanks to Susanne for starting this!