Mid-Autumn Faves

 

It's a Friday and that means it's time to share FIVE of the blessings that came my way this past week. Things that were my favorites. There's almost always more than five blessings a day, isn't there, let alone a week?  This is a chance to be intentional about looking back and really seeing what made me thankful. I do this with  other bloggers and we all link up at Susanne's site. 

Ready for the winter months....
just need to put the tarps over them

deck furniture packed up...
we keep the chairs and table folded up
and tucked between the large table and bench seat
during the winter months.  They'll come out in mid-April!

front flower bed still going strong

all ready for the rest of Autumn

Thanksgiving decor is out

• YARD WORK COMPLETE!  Last Friday I spent most of the day raking the rest of the backyard leaves that Dave  didn't get to the previous  weekend; putting away all the yard chairs into the shed or garage along with the deck decor and folding up the deck chairs/a table to put between the deck benches and table (the umbrella stays up all winter in the down position and the table is made from 100% recycled soda bottles via LLBean so can also stay out all year.) We  obviously have no room in the shed or  garage for the Adirondack wooden chair or the wooden rocking chair so the week of Thanksgiving, those items will be covered with a tarp. I left out a couple of the autumn decor items on the little tables as we do still sit out there in the morning sunshine as it's been pretty warm. I then re-organized the front yard flower bed and put away the porch Halloween stuff and took out some Thanksgiving decor.  I'm thankful I spent the day getting the outside of the house ready for the colder months/Winter. It will be here in another month!

The first mile of the trail to 
Tenant Creek Falls #1
Southern Adirondack Mountains
4 November

The grey skies turned to blue after 
the first hour of hiking!  The sky stayed blue and the sun came out
This was on the upper trail leading to the other 2 falls on Tenant Creek

The First Falls on Tenant Creek after hiking
1.2 miles.  Most hikers stop here, eat lunch, then turn around
we did not.....we  continued up the bank and along the creek
on the marked trail to the other 2 (upper) falls

The 2nd Waterfalls on Tenant Creek
this is about 2.2 miles in and up along the ridgeline
from the parking area
Many hikers don't bother going this far into the forest

upper part of Tenant Creek....
the trail is to the right of the creek and
this is one of most remote areas of
The Wilcox Lake Wild Forest Area 
in the southern region of the Adirondack Mountains
Staying on the trail is a must!

Falls number 3 and the last on Tenant Creek.  
The trail ends here.
My friend Ping took this shot because  Anita and  I didn't make it to the third falls.
The trail became much too steep for us.....there's always next year!

• FUN AND FITNESS GROUP HIKE! I'm a small group leader with my church and this school year I am leading a "Fun and Fitness" group.  We meet 1-2 times a month on Saturday mornings for a meditation/Scripture reading and power walking as a group. We stretch together then either go on a power walk or a hike.  This past Saturday was our first official hike as a group. If everyone comes there are 7 of us. Only 3 of us went hiking.  I took them to one of my favorite trails in the southern Adirondacks about 1.5 hours from our town. I've hiked this trail for over 40 years and it never gets old. It's been re-routed by the state several years ago and is a little bit longer now.  Our goal was to make it to all 3 falls.  It is a 2.8 miles hike one way.  The last mile is rough and extremely remote.  We did see other hikers but for the most part we had the entire trail to ourselves except on the way back to the cars. It was a crisp 38 degrees when we began at 10 AM but it warmed up to about 52 degrees and with the sun we were soon shedding our layers. I'm so thankful the other 2 women loved the meditation time along the first half mile and then the lunch at the first falls.  My friend Anita and I chose not to climb up the rock wall to see the final falls as it was much too steep for me.... my neck and back were doing well with no headache so I chose to play it safe. Anita cannot do steep sections either so we hung out at the 2nd falls.  Our friend Ping made it but she fell on the way back to the cars in the icy water at the stream crossing.  Thankfully, she was ok...just her feet got wet....I loaned her a pair of extra socks and we made it back to the car around 3:30 pm just as it was getting dark in the woods. I'm so thankful it was a great trip. We cannot wait for our next event!!

Peppermint Mocha Latte
the low calorie way: 
 Almond milk, no whipped cream or chocolate chips,
only 1 pump of peppermint syrup vs the standard 3
First of the season for me!

Tuesday lunch date with my youngest girl!
Chicken Teriyaki  crepe for me
Vegetarian crepe for claire
Peach passion iced tea

• SPECIAL TREATS!  Our youngest daughter, ever since she moved into her own apartment in 2022, has been coming over for dinner almost every Monday evening. Due to her new work schedule she can no longer do that, but she has every Tuesday and Thursday off for a while and so rather spontaneously, we got together for lunch this week.  She chose our fave local Japanese crepery place.  Neither one of us had been there in awhile. I also stopped this week to grab a hot coffee while I did a bunch of errands around town and the treat was so good.......I'm thankful for spontaneous  things like this. 

image courtesy of religion news service site

• PRAISE REPORT:  A couple of you have known that I've been a little concerned about my oldest daughter for a couple of reasons and we've been praying for her spiritual walk. Last week I shared that  I am happy and thankful that she has come back to church, and this week I found out she is reading the Scriptures again!  I saw that she has been highlighting some verses in Jeremiah via the Bible app we all use. If you have an iphone then the app will show you all of your contacts who also use this app. When I was doing my own devotional on there one morning this week, I saw that she had been reading Jeremiah. I'm so thankful for God's faithfulness and for the Holy Spirit nudging her to come back to church and get back into the Word. 

image courtesy of N*tflix news site

• EPIC DRAMA!  This epic drama, available now on Netflix and done in 4 episodes is the best drama I have ever seen on a streaming service thus far. I've seen many.  I read the book when it first came out in 2015.  It took the author ten years to write it. And yes, the little girl and the older girl who both play the lead role are blind. This was phenomenal.  I'm thankful I had the time this past week to watch it during the evening.  My husband wasn't interested even though I told him it's not like any other historical fiction movie based on a book set in WWII. The acting is superb.  I highly recommend this. 

Those are the FIVE blessings that stand out to me and make my FAVES list.  What about you?  What made you smile this week? share in the comment section or link up your own post!