Mid-July Faves

So we have about another week left in July and things around our house have been rather busy with many special moments.

Let's take a break from the busyness and reflect back on FIVE special blessings that top our list of things to be thankful for.  Join in by linking up with Susanne.

• PRAISE EVENING!  Most of you know that Dave and I belong to a church that is one body of believers but 4 different sites. We go to the Latham site which is our own community/town. 2 of the sites are to the north of us in Halfmoon and Saratoga Springs and one is across the river in East Greenbush.  The Latham site typically sees about 2100 people in one weekend over 3 services.  The other sites see about 350-500 folks on a Sunday (two services).  Last Friday evening, all 4 sites combined to have a praise and worship night at our Latham site.  The place was packed with believers singing praises and praying.  The worship team consisted of all the main worship leaders for each site.  What a special time of refreshment for our souls.  I sat with Dave of course and 2 women who are very dear to our hearts (our friend Lynne who used to mentor our oldest girl, and my good friend Monica). We have been told that these praise and worship nights are going to be held 4 times a year so I'm guessing the next one will be sometime this autumn.  I'm already looking forward to it!

After 1.6. miles, this is the way to go to begin climbing
15 July 2017.

• HIKING!  So Saturday was supposed to be partly sunny.  And it was, in our town, when my friend Gerri and I left to go northwest to the southwestern Adirondack mountains.  We were hiking a new-to-us trail in this town.  When we got to the trailhead it was partly sunny and rather cool. It is an area with 5 different hikes from the same trailhead and we were going to do the one where you climb to the top of Good Luck Cliffs after turning off the main trail near Good Luck Lake.  Well, we never saw the sign (it was about 12 feet high on a tree, pictured above and we were watching our footing due to major rainstorms the day before).  After hiking along the main trail for a little over 2 miles, I realized the trail was never going up!  In fact, we started to go downhill!  So....we turned around and walked back 1.6 miles and all of a sudden something made me look up and there was the sign.  We also ran into some guys with their children who said we still had another mile to go and it was all climbing and very muddy and wet. Oh boy....can you tell by the following photos how difficult this trail was?  It had started to pour before we realized we were on the wrong trail and so we hiked back towards our starting point in the rain......thanking God we were prepared as both of us had rain jackets in the bottom of our packs.  

Couldn't go through these boulders and the entire trail was very muddy
so we went around them, getting stuck in muck a couple of time.
The summit isn't all that high but the climbing was significant over these large boulders.

Major blow-down along the trail to the summit
we had to climb over some of this!

Making my way through the mud!
photo compliments of Gerri S

The ever changing skies from the summit

the southern Adirondack peaks as seen from the summit of
Good Luck Mt Cliffs
It was from this vantage point that we saw a few eagles soaring!!

• SALES!  I had to get Claire some items for her dorm.......things like a clothes hamper, drying rack, brita filter, ottoman.  All of these items were either on sale or I could use the coupon code at this favorite place for dorm shopping.  We are almost done with everything she needs and it feels so good to have the check-list shrinking!

• CENTRAL AIR!  I probably say this every summer but I am very thankful for central air conditioning.  We have it programmed to come on at various temps and times and it is so nice to walk in from work and errands to a cool house.  And sometimes I just find it to hot and humid to grill, like the past several days, so with the central air on, I don't mind the stove/oven.  We have had some high temps with high humidity this week!

• FARM FRESH VEGGIES:  Of course summer wouldn't be summer with out farm fresh veggies and we have enjoyed many different kinds for dinner this week.  NYS has plenty of farmers markets and even the chain grocery stores feature local produce.  We've enjoyed corn on the cob, a zucchini and summer squash with chopped tomato and basil dish, chopped zucchini in a tuna pasta salad, and fresh, cold sliced tomatoes on cheese and avocado paninis  this week!  I'm very thankful for fresh produce because it gets harder and harder to find at good prices come December.

That wraps up the week......I hope everyone has a very relaxing and fun-filled weekend with family and friends.


For those of you who asked about our Italy photos, Day One is posted and you can find it by clicking here.