October End Faves

 

It's Friday and Halloween! We have our big pumpkin bowl filled with treats for children who will begin ringing the doorbell around 4:30 pm and if it's like last year, the costumed children will keep coming until about 8 pm.  I'm not planning on going anywhere this weekend, as we have some outdoor things to do around the house and vocal music to practice for our rehearsal on Sunday afternoon. On Fridays, I look back on the week and list the blessings from it that stand out....the top five that  are "Faves".  

Join in with us at Susanne's site. 

FIVE FAVES

me with the amazing salesman, Bryan
HIGHLY recommend Matthews Kia
if you live in the Capital Region of NYS

meet Shadow, my 2025 Kia Soul!
This is my church parking lot, south end on Monday AM

• NEW CAR!! I shared a week ago that my husband and I wanted to sell my 2015 Honda Civic to a young family in our church who are in desperate need of a car.  We are able to do that this year and I was able to buy a brand new Kia Soul (same  car my oldest daughter bought in 2020 although hers is a 2019).  I love it and am so thankful the whole process was easy, even though there were a couple of glitches with getting hold of our insurance agent. My salesman went above and beyond to help out with this and I picked up "Shadow" (yes, I name my cars) last Friday night. I'm very thankful for the blessing of a car and for good deals and great salespeople. 

SoulSteps members at Rock River
l-r: Kathryn with hubby Adam, Joan, Evelyn, me, Cindy H
Central Adirondacks in the Blue Mountain Lake Wild Forest

• DEEP WOODS HIKE: Last Saturday, there were 7 SoulSteps members signed up to hike a 6 miles round trip deep woods hike into the forest to a very remote river called Rock River. One person texted me that she could no longer attend, so there were 6 of us.  A young married  couple joined the group in September so this was their first time being able to do a hike.  They loved it.  The trail was one of the toughest I've ever hiked (to navigate)...it was fairly flat with just 2 inclines that were both steep but the overall trail was filled with blowdown and branches/weeds very close to the trail that needed trimming back. In one area, the last mile of the 3 miles to the river, we had no markers to follow so had to go by my gut sense. Thankfully, more markers picked up closer to the river. It took us about 2 hours to hike the 3 miles to the river and we enjoyed the sunshine while eating lunch. We started out when the temp up in the central ADK was 38 degrees and when we got back to our cars, it was a high of 55.  It rained on and off during the hike back to the cars but in the last mile, the sun came out and it was glorious. I'm so thankful we  got to the Rock River.  We were the only humans there! Here are just a few of my fave photos from that day.

The 1st mile into the woods was beautiful
and easier to navigate than the last 2 miles

Rock River looking north-east
 from the end of the trail

small falls on the Rock River
looking west

This is somewhere along the trail 
after hiking for 2 miles

• AN ORGANIZED MESS:  Last Friday morning, we had a flood in one quarter section of our basement due to the washer pipe (the overflow pipe) bursting (it took me an hour to get all the water cleaned up and bins moved out of the way)....our plumber came Saturday morning and found the problem which was a quick easy fix and not too expensive so after he and Dave solved the problem, Dave sanitized the floor and after it was dry, he re-organized all the bins down there.  Most of the bins are our daughters' childhood books or special things they're saving (like American Girl dolls/accessories) that they don't have room for in their apartments. Some of the bins are my seasonal decor. I was able to clean the rug for our little sitting area and decided to only put out one papazan chair vs both. The other one is folded and leaning against the closet wall behind the yellow post to the left. We call it an organized mess. Dave did a fantastic job of this while I was leading the hike. He was tired but thankful the plumbing issue was minor.  I'm thankful for a hard working husband! (Now to just convince him to get rid of that monitor/old tv since no one uses it....it's what  the kids used to watch old videos or play Mario Kart).

• SPRING BLOOMS!  When I was mowing the yard on Wednesday morning, I discovered that we still had some spring blooms...my petunias I bought on Mother's Day are still blooming, although they're slowing down, and the wildflowers along the trellis are still showing some good color! And our smaller maple tree has finally turned a golden yellow! I love it when the morning sun comes through it.  I'm thankful for the spring colors amidst the autumnal earthy color. 

• FAVORS:  This past week, the Thanksgiving favors I ordered for the clan, arrived and I was able to get them put together and in a bag all set to bring with us to Plymouth County come Thanksgiving week.  It's our turn to cook so we will be cooking at my mother-in-law's home (me and the girls/niece) while Dave and his brother/sister-in-law cook the turkey and stuffing at Pete's house.  Dinner will actually be at Peter's house. Since it's our turn to cook, that means it's my turn to do favors.  I chose a bookmark card and a cute pen. The kit came with everything I needed. Each pen has a different eraser: pumpkin, farm truck with pumpkins, pilgrim hat, turkey.  I'm thankful for good ideas on various websites and that Amazon had what I wanted. 

BONUS FAVE:  I just had to share this: Every Monday morning, I take a class at church called Faith and Fitness: Proverbs.  I can no longer do the fitness part of the class (8:30-9:15 in the gym)due to the nature of the exercises and my cervical spine, so I come to just the class part (9:30-11) that meets in one of the bigger classrooms. We are a large class (about 30 women) and I love it. However, on Mondays, Dave works from home in the upstairs office and usually doesn't leave me enough coffee to take in a travel mug to class so I pop over to Star$ to get a fave kind.  This week I chose the Cappuccino with almond milk and 1 pump of the espresso. Here's what the barista handed me:

"Always have faith"
I'm thankful for fun baristas who go above and  beyond to make one feel special.
it definitely brought a smile to my face. 

That wraps up my week....whatever you have planned for the weekend, I hope it's full of relaxing things. Me? I don't have a hike scheduled so I'll enjoy the company of my husband.