My Favorite Season

One of the trees from our recent Arboretum visit

 I love Autumn. 

There are so many simple things I love about fall, and I find that treasuring these little blessings brings peace and joy to my heart. I decided to make a list of some of these things I love about it.

• The crisp, fall air and the beauty of the leaves as they change color.
• All things pumpkin; pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin decorating, visiting a pumpkin patch while my son picks out his pumpkin.
• Finally needing a blanket at night and cuddling underneath its warmth as the air is cool around me.
• The beautiful colors of fall; the deep oranges, reds, browns. So rich and lovely.
• Baking all different kinds of treats; cookies, breads, etc. Using the oven freely.
• Catching glimpses of various migratory birds we rarely get to see.
• The melodious honking sounds as the flocks of Canadian geese fly above on their migratory journey.
• Curling up on the couch with a blanket and reading a good book.

Over the weekend, we celebrated my husband's 50th birthday. I have to say L is one of the most nonchalant people I know. When I asked him how it felt to turn 50 (he is 8 years older than me), he said "It's just another day." I tried to make it special for him. We had a nice visit to Devil's Lake in Baraboo on Thursday and then took a lovely walk in our local Arboretum on Saturday. 

Here are some pictures from our time in the Arboretum:

Homeschooling

Nature ABC's

We are enjoying our homeschool time. What a blessing this is. I am so glad I found Hearts of Dakota with the lessons all put together for me. I just look in my manual and know which page to go to in each different subject (handwriting, fine motor skills, math, history, Devotional/Bible study, science, phonics and reading). My son and I are having a lot of fun with it. 

This quote I found from Mom Heart Online really spoke to my heart as one of the reasons I cherish this opportunity to homeschool.

"To prepare our children to fully live out God’s plan for their lives, as parents we must: intentionally pour into them God’s precepts and truths, fill their hearts with grace and love, expose them to beauty and mercy, and whisper into their lives principles that will guide them when the world gets loud and distracting." 

I feel this is one of the main things we are doing in spending my days with my son while homeschooling. Time is such a precious commodity and it moves so quickly. I know the years will move fast and then my son will be leaving the home to be on his own. Investing in him in this way is what I feel called to do and a response to what God teaches in Deuteronomy about raising children. (Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19). Choosing what my son learns is a huge part of why we homeschool, yet redeeming this time (that would otherwise be lost to public schooling) is deepest in my heart. For such a time as this and our budget allows, I cherish spending each precious day with my son and like in Ephesians 5:16 to make the most of every opportunity.

Investing in our Marriage

This summer my husband (L) and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. What a blessing! It is also challenging and yet such a huge opportunity to grow when we allow the Lord to convict us and surrender (our junk) to Him. One of the things we find so important is spending quality time together. We like to take time each day to reflect together over what's going on in our lives, and how the Lord is at work in us and through us. I like the Greek word "koinonia". This word occurs 20 times in the bible, usually translated as "fellowship" but meaning a type of communion or spiritual intimacy with another believer.

When L's summer schedule doesn't allow very easily for this, we see how important it is for the health of our marriage. When we seem to be drifting apart or not getting along, we know we are in need of this special time. Right now, we are going through a book by John Piper called This Momentary Marriage. John Piper has become somewhat of a mentor in my husband's life; we even traveled over 250 miles this summer to meet him and hear him preach. We are looking forward to how the Lord will be working to strengthen our marriage and continue to help it be a signpost to others. 

These are just a few of the things that have been going on in my life lately. So happy to be able to share it here. 

Thanks for visiting!

Random Things of Beauty

So I've been wanting to do a personal post for some time now ... but I just didn't have the inspiration. Then today I had a sweet new visitor to my blog who left a wonderful comment and I took some time to visit her site. I'm so glad I did, because it was the inspiration I needed! She is over at The ArtsyGirl Connection and had a beautiful fall craft that she made out of old bottles. Go check it out! With that in my mind, I realized there were some neat things that I had been wanting to blog about and my ideas came together.

I have some random things I'm posting today ... but they are all things that have brought me joy in some fashion. I am really enjoying the beginning of fall here. I love this time of year when the air gets crisp and the leaves start to change into such beautiful colors and then fall and get blown around everywhere. I love being able to snuggle into my blankets at night without having to put the heat on and then wearing sweaters again in the daytime. Below are some other things that have brought beauty into my life.


Isn't this morning glory just beautiful? I love how the light shines through it. It is amazing to me the tiny blessings the Lord brings. The ones that if I'm not looking closely and paying attention I would totally miss; like this single little morning glory flower that bloomed in my vegetable garden. It somehow crept and climbed its way from over in my neighbor's garden on the other side of the fence into mine. It must have made its way over sometime last year - because my neighbor doesn't have that morning glory vine in her garden anymore! You can see how tiny and easily missed it could be surrounded by all the vegetation of my little garden.



So, I didn't even realize until I brought this watering can home that I have a collection of them! I didn't know what I was going to do with it until I collected some wildflowers and saw what a perfect fit they would be. It was on a hike with my son that we collected these pine cones and small turkey feather so I added them to the display. This goes so well with my names of God poster with the fall colors in it.

This was another wildflower arrangement I made after another hike this time with L and J.

It is barely visible (more so in the first picture), but I stepped outside during a rain shower yesterday when the sun was shining behind me and caught a glimpse of a faint rainbow. In the second picture, you can see the sunshine reflecting off the leaves. I thoroughly enjoy watching as the leaves are changing colors.


Now for some fun pictures of my little J:

He just loves this little chalkboard I found on Amazon. He is starting to draw people and creatures now and he is so excited to show me and tell me all about what he is drawing. This picture was Oscar the Grouch! It just lights up my heart.



This little guy is a climbing bear that his Grampa Bernie MADE for him. It is really sweet. You pull the wooden knobs and the bear shimmies up to the top. We've all had fun playing with it together. I love hand-made toys!


J is really into building and creating things now more than ever. His daddy is really enjoying it too. Here they put together a cool boat using his Trio building kit. He loves using the diagram and helping to make what's in the picture.



He was really creative with this little guy; using his Trio blocks to make a body and then putting his Mr. Potato Head pieces on to make the face, arms and feet. We both were laughing really hard when he was done putting him together. It looked so stinkin' cute and he thought of it all by himself!



I just love how he never seems to tire of dressing up and playing fireman. Here he got his helmet, gloves, jacket and boots and then off he goes to "fight the fire" and rescue people.

Well, those are a few of the things that have been touching my heart lately that I thought I'd share. Thanks for taking the time to visit and spend some time with me here!