AUTUMN FAVES

 

Here we are.....into our 2nd full week of Autumn and into October already. 

I'm sharing FIVE of my FAVE blessings from the past week with other grateful bloggers. Head over to the host's site to join in.

SoulSteps Hikers at OK Slip Falls lookout
l-r: Evelyn, me, Dave D, Charlie, Joan 
Missing from photo: Jill H

• FIRST SOULSTEPS AUTUMN HIKE:  Although I hiked up Rooster Comb Mountain with 2 friends a few days before this group hike, to celebrate the start of Autumn, this hike to one of the tallest Adirondack waterfalls was our first Autumn Semester SoulSteps hike. I originally had 8 people signed up.  It ended up being 6 of us. When our Capital Region area (where we all live) was having pouring rain and wind from the nor-easter last Saturday that was coming up the East Coast, we had very  good weather in the mountains. We started out with sunshine, then it got cloudy, then the sun came out again and it ended up not raining.  We are thankful we were able to do this 7 miles hike and not have it rain. Some of us stopped for a small cup of ice cream on the way home to celebrate our hiking success. The leaves were just starting to show some color last weekend. It should be peak up there by the middle of this next week. 

The top of the waterfalls up close: OK Slip 

Ok Slip Falls in the central Adirondacks
after a 3.5 miles hike into the deep woods 

• Fun Pic:  I was thrilled that our oldest daughter texted me a photo of her boyfriend and her from a state park I used to go to on Lake Ontario when I was in college!  Tyler and Courtney were out in the Rochester area last weekend to attend his 5th year class reunion and Homecoming at his alma mater, which is also mine, Roberts Wesleyan University (College,  until recently). They decided to pop in to Hamlin Beach State Park so she could see Lake Ontario up close as she had never been. I'm thankful they had a great weekend and had fun at Homecoming. 

Tyler and Courtney
at Hamlin Beach State Park on Lake Ontario
Rochester NY 

• QUICK REPAIR:  On Wednesday, I had to stick close to home because we had a gutter company coming to fix a loose trim piece above our gutter in the front of the house. Because we replaced all of our windows and doors with Renewal by Anderson (if you know how $$ those are, you'll understand this sentiment) and that piece of trim was starting to bang into one of the bedroom windows,so my husband hired a professional to come deal with it. The young man who came to do the work was the nicest person.  He even took pics so I could see where the damage was and carefully explained what he was going to do. After about 5 minutes, he rang the door bell again and asked if it was ok if he put an extra piece of  trim on as we were missing the back end of it and if he didn't fix that,  the water wouldn't properly run into the gutter. He explained the materials cost would be less than $20 (it was) and within 10 minutes I was writing him a check and he was on his way.  I was dreading the whole process as Dave has to go into the office on Tues/Wed/Thurs and can't work from home but because this young man took pics and explained everything in simple terms after I told him I knew nothing about gutters, I had a lot of peace about it and the entire project only took about 25 minutes! It also wasn't nearly as expensive of a repair as we were led to believe. I'm thankful for good workers! 

• PHONE CALL: My friend Joan and I talked for quite awhile on the phone this past week.  I can't go into details but it concerned a younger person we know who is very needy and struggling and needs professional help. This person has wanted us to "help" her but the relationships were beginning to be too much for us.  Just knowing that we both have made our church leadership aware of what's been happening on our end, and that we both feel like we need to step back, really helped.  It is good to have friends  who share your concern for others but who also discern when you can no longer help. We both prayed at the end of our conversation for each other and for the young woman and this made me especially thankful that I have a friend I can lean on and trust and who seems to be very discerning, and feels the way I do about our roles as small group leaders. The icing on the cake? Our Spiritual Formations Director who works full time for our church and is our "boss" in our roles as small group leaders, sent out a leader-wide email explaining that sometimes we need to allow the members of our various groups and ministries to struggle. That it is not our role to step in and be their "Messiah" (which is what this girl wanted...she's not even a member of Joan's or my ministries although she was a member of the hiking group last year).  He reminded us that only Jesus can really "fix" people. That God would give us discernment over which people to come alongside and that we do need to be praying for all of our members of course but that we don't need to "rescue" every one. It was so timely!

Veggie White Za

• EASY DINNER:  This past week I had a lot of fresh veggies to use up along with some mozzarella cheese.  So I made homemade white veggie pizza:  I buy the frozen pizza dough and thaw it out overnight in the fridge. About a half hour before needing it, I place it on the counter to warm up as then it's easier to roll out.  I had red, green and yellow peppers to use up along with a sweet onion and broccoli. I use extra virgin olive oil on the crust and then sprinkle on basil, oregano and freshly minced garlic. Then i add all the rest of the veggies and the mozzarella and then sprinkle on paremsan cheese. The salad was mainly baby romaine, some leftover buttercrunch, cucumbers, tomato and carrots. The pizza came out great and Dave took the leftovers in his lunch the next day. I love a nice easy dinner and am thankful for fresh veggies. 

BONUS FAVE: 

His and Hers ice cream!

I typically don't eat cow's milk ice cream any longer unless it is soft serve.  I tend to buy the Oatly brand of ice cream made with oat milk. It's so creamy and no animal fat!  BUT....this past week, our iconic  convenience store (only found in NYS with headquarters in Saratoga Springs, the small city near us) had all 33 flavors of hard ice cream on sale.  That's 2 half gallons for $8! The regular non-sale price is $5.99. So I surprised Dave with his favorite flavor: Chocolate Peanut Butter cup and I bought myself the Brew HA-HA which is basically like a cup of coffee with espresso bean chocolate flakes.  These will last us a while as we don't eat dessert every evening. I'm thankful for a great sale!

That wraps up my last week of September!  I'm off to Cape Cod with my friends Maggie and Meg for a mini girls retreat from Sunday to Wednesday. We have an adorable AirBnB ranch style house in Falmouth and neither Maggie nor Meg (who is originally from Indiana) have ever been on the Cape. I'm super thankful we get to do this and that our husbands will be fine with us away.