First Week of Autumn Faves

 

It's been a busy first week of Autumn, but I'm taking time this morning, to pause and look back at all the busyness to find FIVE things to be grateful for.  There are actually more than five, but here are the FAVES.  Join in by heading over to Susanne's blog, Living to Tell the Story. She's our host!

Cortlands!! 

• APPLE PICKING DATE!  My husband asked me to keep part of Saturday free (for once I didn't have a SoulSteps hike scheduled) so we could go apple picking together. We used to take the girls when they were little, every year. We made a whole day of it with them. We chose to go to this orchard that we had never gone to, although I had stopped in at their store a few years ago. I'm so thankful it was a beautiful day.  We picked lots of apples, bought a half dozen of their fresh baked cider donuts, and bought a 4 pack of their hard apple cider after we did a taste test and found it was super refreshing with just a hint of a "bite". I'm thankful for a fun day with my husband.  When it got close to dinner time, we  also decided to burn more brush in the fire pit. It was the perfect day for outdoor activities. 

walking to the apple orchard 

he wants a lot of Cortlands

"how many apples up on top?" 

yummy lunch!
my once a year splurge!

afternoon fire and reading time

• UNEXPECTED CONVERSATION:  Dave and I were at the 11 AM church service this week and didn't expect to have a long conversation with our old friends B and A ( we thought they went to the 9 AM service; they were friends of ours from years ago in a former church and they left shortly after we did to join Grace Fellowship like we did).  They had some serious news for us and wanted us to pray. We are praying for the situation and then later in the day A sent me a text thanking me for praying. I'm thankful we can be there for one another, in the body of Christ, when situations arise that seem impossible but with God anything is possible!  I'm so thankful for old friends and the power of prayer.   

raindrops on basil

rainy Thursday morning

• RAIN!!  I'm thankful that we finally had 3 days of rain! Tuesday was on and off again rain; Wednesday it rained most of the day except when I was out early for my PT appointment; and yesterday it rained all day long, hard and steady until about 3 pm. We were in a drought and the yard was turning brown.  Everything looks pretty green again although I don't know if our creeks and rivers had any significant levels raised. I'm thankful for rain to replenish the dry wells where my sister Hope lives and for adding to the water table.  The last time it rained in our town was Sept 6th and before that, we had one rainy day in July and then most of May (as in every weekend and many days during the week) we had rain. I'm also thankful I had safe travels on Tuesday afternoon to the central part of the state while it was pouring because I had to pick a friend up at the airport and get him to our childhood hometown.  

a pretty resting spot in this rather new nature preserve 
Rensselaer County, NY

normally this is a babbling brook
according to member Jill but due to our drought,
it was pretty low on Tuesday 

walking in the Valentino Community Forest

Some SoulSteps members: l-r;
Jay, Anita, Kathy, Pat, Maggie, Lori, me in the bright orange,
Meg, Cindy (our guest hiker who will  join the group in a couple weeks), Jill
photo compliments of Joan; missing from pic is Geoff who was lingering behind

• FIRST HIKE for AUTUMN SEMESTER:  I had scheduled a local hike (across the Hudson River from us and our church by about a half hour drive heading east towards Vermont) for Tuesday morning.  Since I had to be at the airport by 11:30, I had Jill, the member who first told me about this trail system and who agreed to be a leader if necessary, lead the group.  I hiked the first mile and then had to turn around to get back to my car and get home, shower, etc and get to the airport. I had 13 members signed up for this morning hike on a cloudy day.  2 of the people ended up not going and one member invited a guest.  That guest is a long time friend of mine so I was thrilled to see her!  She is now interested in joining the group.  I sent her the paper work to fill out and once she returns it, she will be an official member of our SoulSteps group.  I am now up to 55 people in this group. I'm thankful the rain held off for most of my hike.  WHen I was about .3 miles from my car, the skies opened up and it poured!  But I was wearing wick away  material so it started to dry when I got to the car and turned on the AC.  I'm super thankful Jill made sure all were with her and that everyone reported back to me that they had a good time. 

• MOVIE NIGHT:  Saturday evening, after the fire died down and dinner was cleaned up, Dave wanted to do some stuff up in his office so I sat in the family room to watch a movie I had saved on Netflix. My two daughters loved this book when they were in about 4th grade. I did too!  The movie was excellent. I'm thankful Netflix still has good family movies that are clean cut, no swearing and no  explicit s*x scenes. I'm also thankful it was a nice evening with all the windows open, a cinnamon-vanilla candle going and a nice icy glass of that hard cider we had bought. 

Those are the things that made me smile and take notice.  There's other good blessings as well like I heard from a good friend I hadn't talked to in awhile; I saw an answer to prayer via an extended family member, and I had a coffee and lunch date with another friend when I was out in the central part of the state. 

I hope you all have a happy, relaxing weekend doing the things you love.