It's almost the new year. Like many teachers, my year begins in September and ends in June.
The wonderful summer break is something I call my much needed pause.
And it's been glorious this year. For the most part.
Looking back on this last full week of summer break, I was able to find some faves that really wrap up the summer.
Join in with those of us finding 5 blessings from the week by going to Susanne's site. This is called the FFF (Friday's Fave Five).
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| Claire (in the center) looking to bump Daddy Great Escape 2013 |
- COMPANY PICNIC DAY! Each summer the company Dave works for hosts an "all employee and their family picnic day" at this place. It's a huge blessing because they pay for the entire day: parking, admittance for each person in the family, the BBQ picnic lunch, and any drinks (not alcohol) throughout the day. We have missed the last 3 summers due to other obligations, mainly college visits and taking the oldest to her dorm. SO...this year, because Courtney had to be back to college a week earlier, we told Claire we would do the picnic day. She had a blast! It was fun to do some of the rides with her, watch the diving show, and while she and Dave did all the water rides, I sat on a chaise and did some reading in the sun. We followed up the day by discovering a new-to-us dinner place on the way home. It was the best place we have eaten at all summer. The link is here and if you are ever in the Saratoga/Glens Falls area, I highly recommend it. Don't do what we did though: we didn't know by the look of the outside, that it was a dress up kind of place. SO...there we were in our tee shirts, shorts and boat shoes......thank the Lord we could eat outdoors in their tented area and that we were early enough so that the place was not full yet! The hostess, manager and waiters said it was fine...they get lots of tourists :) It was such a blessing to be with my youngest and my husband for the day, having fun in the sun!
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| Part of the North Trail up Hurricane Mountain Gulf Brook was something we had to rock-hop across |
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| the summit at 3,694 feet! |
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| The fire tower and Carla taking a rest |
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| The High Peaks as seen from summit of Hurricane Mt Keene Valley, High Peaks Region Adirondacks |
- HIKING! My friend Carla and I spent our Sabbath hiking in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks. We started out at a very small mountain (Belfry) just so I could check that fire tower peak off the list. Unimpressive hike (and short...only 1.2 miles round trip) but the views from the tower were awesome. Go here to see the view. Then we got to the trail-head for the big hike of the day. We started out a little late on the trail (1 pm ish) as we had trouble finding the town where the trail was located...long story to that....but we finally got to Crow's Clearing to park the car, registered and got on the trail. We made it to the summit by about 3 pm. We hiked faster than I would have liked but.....wow...the views at the top were so worth the sweat! It was only 78 degrees and just gorgeous! Sadly, we couldn't spend as much time as we would have liked on the top as there were some annoying small black bugs biting us and landing everywhere and they were not leaving us alone even though we had repellent on. I had never experienced bugs on a summit before other than dragonflies or bees buzzing around the flowers. It was strange. Of all the summits I have been on, I had never seen biting bugs! So we took some pictures, ate a quick snack, guzzled down more water and back to the car we went. It was such a great hike and almost a high peak (4,000 feet is considered a high peak in the ADKS). The good news is that now I have only 8 more mountains to hike in the ADKS before I am done with the ADK Fire tower Challenge! What a blessing to have friends who love to hike!
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| photo courtesy of the 18th Air Force homepage |
- ASSURANCE I was chatting on FB with my sister in law about a rather annoying minor health issue that I am dealing with for the 3rd time since December! and because of that, my doctor wants to send me to a specialist. I'll see him on Tuesday morning but meanwhile, my gut was telling me this is related to the menopausal changes my body is going through. I started doing some online research, and found that yes, it can be something related to menopause. Well, I was sharing this with my sister in law who is 5 years younger than me, and guess what? she had the exact same thing because she went through menopause last year (even though she's younger than me!) and I felt a little more relief that I wasn't the only one! Now of course I am praying that that is all it is....but....that assurance from her that things do get better once you are "through", just made my night! What a blessing that God put her in my life at the very moment I need some assurance.
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| photo courtesy of flickr |
- SCRIPTURE IN FICTION I was reading my book on Thursday morning and there in the story-line were some special verses from Psalm 116. I loved that I was reading for pleasure and God spoke to me via His Word that the author put into her plot line. In fact, the verses helped calm some anxious thoughts I was having. What a blessing the Word of God is at exactly the time we need it!
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| Columbia Spring Congress Park Saratoga Springs, NY photo courtesy of Claire |
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| ""Lily Tiptoes Through 'Toga" located in front of the Lily Pulitzer store photo courtesy of Claire |
- SARATOGA! Some of you may have heard of Saratoga Springs, NY. Well, we live about 20 minutes south of that marvelous small city and enjoy many trips there throughout the year. Summer is one of the most bustling times in that city due to the horse racing season at the track, the NYC Ballet and Philadelphia Orchestra at the outdoor performing arts center, and the many other events like music, opera, shopping and walking tours. Claire and I went up on Thursday to do the Pointe Shoe Sculpture tour. There are 24 of them placed around the city. We only saw 12 as we stuck to the main thoroughfare. We will see the other 12 in a few weeks. We had so much fun! We started out by parking in Congress Park (downtown). I enjoyed a nice drink from the Columbia Spring (photo above) and then we started our tour after spending a few minutes looking at the racing/horse art exhibit in the Visitors Center. That exhibit was free!!! Actually the entire tour was free until we stopped in at this new chocolate cafe and bought 3 different kinds of fudge! Claire had a free sample. I waited til we got home. Then it was on to more sculptures. The pointe shoes were created by 24 different artists and are just amazing to see. There were all kinds and each one has a title. One of our very favorite ones was this
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| "All that Glitters" located outside City Hall Photo courtesy of Claire |
I am assuming that if you have children or college-aged young adults, that they are either back in school or about to start after Labor Day. Let's pray for all our children to have a safe and productive new year.
Enjoy the weekend!
4 comments:
The family picnic day sounds like lots of fun. What a treat for the employers to do for their employees.
The summit on the hike looks gorgeous. That's a lot of hiking for one day! My hubby prefers walking trails with little or no incline so we mostly stick to those. No summitting kind of stuff for us. LOL.
The pointe shoe exhibit looks interesting. I love how different cities and towns all have their own personas. Calgary, being a cowboy city in it's roots, has cow sculptures all over town. They are fun to look for and some are really interesting.
The chocolate cafe sounds wonderful! And those sculptures are quite interesting.
It does help to get some reassurance that our symptoms are probably normal. I was the oldest of five girls, so I went through all that before anyone else - my mom is no longer living, but she'd had a hysterectomy anyway at around age 40, so she didn't go through a regular menopause, and I wouldn't have been able to ask her about it. But I was able to ask a couple of people and was reassured they went through the same thing, and my dr. confirmed it as well.
The company picnic sounds wonderful! And being encouraged from Scripture via a book is sweet, too. That's one thing I love about Christian fiction that you can't get from other novels.
The picnic sounds like SO much fun! And so does Saratoga.
What fiction are you reading, Faith? Do tell!
Do you start back to school on Tuesday? Regardless, have a great week ahead, Faith!
Ahhh to be able to stand on my toes like ballerinas.
I wish I had gotten to do hiking this summer but my breathing issues held me back from doing a lot. Hopefully getting answers from docs soon so I can start living again!!
What a blessing the company picnic is. All employees need great stuff like that.
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