Special October Faves

The week flew by and we are facing a wonderful 3-day weekend....(Columbus Day!). NO SCHOOL on Monday!

Which means a couple of hiking trips for me!!

But first, let's take a pause in our day to find FIVE FAVES from the past week and join in with Susanne by linking up at her blog

These are some very special October faves:

• LETTER FROM OLDEST GAL!  Our oldest child, a junior in college, wrote us an old fashioned letter!  YES....not a text, not a facebook message, not a skype chat, not a phone call....a real letter, hand-written!! Along with a check for her portion of the cell phone bill for the last 2 months.  I was super excited and so proud to know that she really did listen all the times I've said that people like getting "real" mail.  It was so good to hear from her!! We haven't been out to Boston to see her since we helped move her back into her dorm in mid-August. Oh how I miss her!!  Hopefully we will get to see her at Thanksgiving time in November. That will be the longest we've gone without seeing her.....meanwhile I wrote back and sent a 2nd care package :) Our oldest daughter is such a blessing.

photo courtesy of twitter

• COUPLES NITE OUT! Saturday evening was supposed to be our annual bonfire evening with the mom-friends from small group plus our husbands.  I had made a huge pot of chili, as did my friend Carla.  Another mom was bringing dessert.  However, around 5 in the afternoon, it started to rain, so we went to Plan B.  Dessert night out with the hubbies! There were 4 couples who went and we all had a great time at the above fave diner. We all love this favorite town hangout and there's a new pastry chef.  I had Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake(even though I"m not a huge fan of cheesecake) and could only eat half...it was just too much "sweet" but I had numerous cups of coffee and thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship on a rainy weekend evening.  I love the friendships that are being formed from "doing life together" and I think the husbands all had a good time too! We are looking forward to our next Couples Night in December.

Claire is ready for the Homecoming Dance!
5 October 2013

• DANCE DRESS!  Claire, our 9th grader, had her first Homecoming Dance last Saturday evening. She went with a few of her good friends and they all looked so pretty!  I love to see the girls all dressed up in their semi-formal wear, which is a requirement by our school district. Even the boys had to wear khaki's or dress pants, a shirt and tie and NO SNEAKERS!  I love seeing the teens all dressed up and walking into the school.  She had so much fun and the timing worked well as the dance got over just about the time we were done with dessert night! The big blessing from this though was that she found the dress in her big sister's closet and since Courtney didn't need it at college, Claire tried it on and it fit!  I love when that happens!

• AFTERNOON BIKE RIDE!  On Tuesday, I got home from the school about 3:15 to discover that Claire's homework was done. She didn't have a lot that was due the next day and ballet on Tuesdays doesn't begin until 7 pm so we had time for a spontaneous bike ride before dinner!  We like the cul de sac shown above, about a block from our street, because the cemetary is on the historical registry and it's so peaceful there.  We enjoyed a 10 minute bike ride together and then she went on home to get some practicing done while I rode for another 25 minutes. How blessed we were to have this time on a work day....the sun felt great and the exercise gave me so much energy to do the evening routine!

• HAND MADE CLAY BOWLS!  There is a program called the Empty Bowls Project that a local pottery group is raising money towards. The group is called The Collar City Clay Guild and is located in the city to the east of us, just across the Hudson River. One of my husband's colleagues made the bowls shown in the photo above and we donated the money to buy them. All the proceeds to towards the Empty Bowl project.  I LOVE these bowls and they are even more special because our money went towards stamping out hunger across the world AND they were handmade by someone my husband works with! We have used them for our morning cereal and they are so pretty!  It's a blessing to be able to give to this worthy cause.

Those are just some little things from my week.

I also love seeing the Scriptures in art/photography. This one caught my eye this past week.

Enjoy the weekend, friends, and Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian neighbors!!