I am Thankful

Tonight was a night to just sit back and reflect on the good things in our lives. It was a night to feel good about ourselves and a night to give thanks. My friend (and co-worker) asked me to come and enjoy a night of song and fellowship for women. Of course there were treats involved.....specifically chocolate and cheesecake bites!

The best part of the night was the music performed by Nikki Clark. Who would ever imagine that this ordinary local farm wife would be called to write and perform christian music! I was taken back by her talent. Seriously, I was amazed.

I needed this outing night..... just to sit back and reflect on the positive. We have so much to be thankful for. Our families & friends, our living conditions, our food, our transportation, our jobs. I think you get the point.

Thanks to all my loyal blog followers!

Last Day of October

This is certainly a day enjoyed by many children of all ages, some adults too. I'm off to help with our second annual "trunk or treat" festival at church. Lots of children, candy, food and happy faces. I'm very thankful for sushine and blue skies today. Have a good Halloween my blogger friends.

Sunday Ride

Left for church this morning, and then met Kim, Neil and Jonathan after church service for a ride on the Red Cedar trail. Bike man met up with us at the trail head and then we headed out on the trail.

Bike man and Neil, plus the rest of us, stopped at the Chippewa River bridge to check out the flood-like conditions of the river from last night's rain storms.

In the past, I've posted pictures of the young people hanging out on the sandbars along the Chippewa River, but today, you can see their was no sandbar. Everything is under water from the last couple days of severe storms.

When we finished our ride today, I snapped a photo of the guys. Pastor Randal is on the right (red shirt) looking all macho!!!! We had a great ride today, as the group was all pumped up to ride at a good pace. I worked hard....seriously.

What about my groin problem? Woke up this morning and I felt 100% better. Even on my 33 mile ride today, I felt much better. I'm still stumped to why I was in pain last night.

Ended our day by grilling burgers and cooking corn on the cob tonight....now I'm ready for bed.

Spring Is Happening

I salute anyone today that has a Irish heritage.....me? My heritage stems back to the wild Irish.

Several times a month, I forgo my exercise workout and attend bible study on Wednesday night. Had a deep discussion tonight about wisdom.....having wisdom.......and using God's wisdom in our everyday lives. Something struck me tonight as we went through our hour-long study. My friend, "little Ruth," stayed awake for the whole bible study. Now little Ruth is in her mid-eighties (I think) and for over a year now, I've known her to nod off or fall asleep during our bible study. Sometimes I was worried she would fall off her chair! Well tonight, little Ruth was wide-eyed and talkative for the whole hour. Wow! What was up with that?

I drove little Ruth home tonight and just happen to mention to her that I was proud of her for staying awake for the whole hour. She giggled and said, "oh my, did I really stay awake." She's such a sweet little lady. I shared a few stories with her about my great aunt Elsie that also use to fall asleep sitting in her chair too. We just had the best giggles. I hope everyone can have an elderly friend or two in your life. They really can be a joy and blessing.

Trunk or Treat Highlights

The church I've been attending really puts a lot of emphasis on children and their families, so one month ago our church started planning a "trunk or treat" alternative Halloween party for kids. We were asked to decorate the trunks or back of our vehicles. As you can see I'm dressed very warm....it was cool, cloudy and breezy today.

How do you like my artwork & puppets?

I particularly liked this vehicle's trunk display!

We used the church's parking lot for our trunk or treat event today. I just wish it would have been a much warmer day.

Momma bee keeper and her little baby bee.

Our outdoor kids party went from 4-6 pm, and then we moved indoors for cookie decorating, door prizes and then a movie on the big screen. The local theater donated lots of buttery popcorn, plus we had endless amounts of donated candy. From what I could see, the children had lots of fun going from game to game and earning lots of candy. I was pooped however. I worked from 12:30 pm - 8:15 pm. This was a great community outreach event for children, even if it was a lot of work.

Blustery

Courtesy of flickr.com

The rain finally stop, but the winds kicked up and blew leaves around all day. Big wind gusts kept everyone walking fast and heads covered. Walking to the Post Office was like walking in a wind tunnel.

A quiet day at work, which was well appreciated since it was Friday. Confiscated all the animal puppets from the library before I left work. I'll be helping out tomorrow at a "Trunk or Treat" church event, which is meant to be an alternative event for Halloween & trick or treating. I'm planning on decorating the back area of my Ford Escape with animal puppets and a backdrop of trees, water and grass. I just hope I can put this all together to look half way decent. I'm not good at decorating for kids stuff. (Pak Art I need your help). I'll be sure to post tomorrow and show you what I came up with. Tomorrow will be a long day....yikes!

The Kiwi Bush is Beautiful Right Now

The Kiwi Bush Turns Color

During the summer I've posted pictures of our Kiwi bushes.....we have three. During the growing season the leaves go from a frosty green, cream & pink, to a dark burgundy color in October. It's one of my favorite bushes/trees in our yard.

Today's weather was a disappointment. I had all my bike gear in the car this morning because I wanted to ride the trail after church, but right as I was leaving for church the skies opened up and we had heavy drizzle and cool temps. Of course I wimped out and opted to just come home after church service. Instead of riding, I made a dutch apple pie. With the apple pie baking and the apple fruit leather drying in the dehydrator, our house smelled delicious......cinnamon to be exact!

Took the pie tonight for our college-age bible study. The pie was still warm and gooey, so it was a hit with the students. I think this is going to be a good group of young adults to mentor too. I'm glad God placed this new adventure on my heart because already tonight one of the girls came up to me and gave me a big hug and basically said , "thank you, we like grown-ups." Going off to college and away from your family can be fun, but a confusing time in your life. I hope we (I) can make a difference for some young person.

PS. Hi Margo....thanks for visiting my blog!!!!!!!

Super Easy!

Plum & Amaretto Jam

Another busy day, but I did get a chance this afternoon to cook up a small batch of Plum & Amaretto jam, thanks to Kellie who gave a bag of wild plums from several plum trees in her yard. The recipe is super easy (see recipe below).

Tonight, we had our first meeting with a small group of college students who attend my church. I'm really interested in connecting with this particular age group because there are many college-age kids that want to practice their faith, but they don't know where to go, or maybe they feel intimidated by the whole church scene. On Sunday nights we are planning on meeting at a church members spacious house to give the students the opportunity to socialize, eat, interact with a bible study and just basically have fun. I wish I would have had that opportunity when I was going to college.

Plum & Amaretto Jam

3 cups chopped tart red or purple plums

3 cups sugar

1/4 cup water

3 Tblsp. lemon juice

1/4 cup Amaretto liqueur

Combine plums, sugar, water and lemon juice in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan.

Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium and boil rapidly until mixture forms a gel....forming a gel can take anywhere from 20-50 minutes. Stir frequently. Remove from heat and stir in liqueur.

Ladle into hot jars and process for 10 minutes in a water-bath. Just for your information, I put the plum jam in plastic jam cups and will freeze the jam instead. Yields 4 cups.

Note: Forming a gel means when the jam coats the spoon and the drips become slow and heavy.

Too Busy For a Birthday

Gosh, it was a busy day today. Actually, too busy to remember that today was my 49th birthday. Good thing we celebrated yesterday with the cheesecake, because today I was on a fixed schedule. Arrived at work this morning, but then left to attend a library workshop in Eau Claire. Came home, quickly ate supper and then headed off to my Wednesday night bible study.

Since our regular pastor is currently serving in Iraq...he's a Chaplin, our Interim pastor (pastor Mac) holds Sunday service and bible studies on Wednesday nights. I decided it was time to snap a photo and send it to pastor R in Iraq. I tried to get the group to act goofy, but that didn't happen so the above photo is rather "posed." I hope pastor R likes the photo. We have a few people missing, but hopefully just the familiar faces will brighten his day.

No cycling again tonight. I hope to make up for that tomorrow morning. Will try to do a solo ride before heading to work.

Long Day

The Clematis is still blooming around our yard

It was a 12 hour day today. Got to work by 9ish and worked until mid afternoon then took off to a county library meeting in Menomonie. After the meeting I headed over to Acoustic Cafe with my librarian friend for a yummy sandwich. Then did a quick grocery shopping trip at Aldi's. Got an email this morning from my pastor's wife saying that a family in my church was in need of food because of a hardship, so I did a quick 20 minute food shopping trip to buy some much needed food for our church friends. Then raced over to the church tonight for our Wednesday night bible study. Wow, I could actually sit down and take a deep breath. Finally arrived home tonight by 8:45 pm.

Missed my bicycle ride tonight, but that's ok, tomorrow is another day.

Breezy Sunday Ride

Striptease (hosta)

Gosh, it was an active Sunday today. Went to church this morning and helped out in the nursery. Then stayed for a potluck lunch, and then met up with my son so we could go grocery shopping together, then lastly, went for a bicycle ride over the river and through the woods to Aunt Krissy's house (well make that corn & soybean fields), hee, hee! Despite the massive winds AGAIN today, it was an enjoyable ride. Had to learn how to maneuver through freshly graveled roads, but I only aborted once out of my clipless pedals...it was pretty much lack of confidence on my part. Once I lessened my grip on the handle bars and shifted my weight forward a little, the gravel wasn't too bad and my skinny tires performed nicely. Thanks Ruby girl!

Nice Day For a Wedding

We attended an afternoon wedding today. The wedding was held at a newly built Catholic church south of Eau Claire. What a cool church. The landscaping at this church was great, not too mention the architecture of the building.

I've never been in a Catholic church where the altar was all glass windows. Outside the windows was a beautiful rock waterfall, which seem to attract a lot of birds. I kept looking out the windows at all the birds playing in the water....it was simply gorgeous & peaceful.

The young lady getting married is someone Ted will be working with all summer long, as they will be doing lake monitoring throughout three northern counties in Wisconsin. It's hard to believe that in less than three days from now, the pretty bride will be out in a boat, on several lakes each day conducting tests for invasive species (and getting sweaty & dirty). No honeymoon for this young couple! The wedding was very nice and I'm glad we attended.

Something else very new to me....cupcakes in place of wedding cake! The groom owns a tea shop in downtown Eau Claire and right down the street from the tea shop is a cupcake bakery. Maybe the cupcake owner gave the bride and groom a good deal on the cupcakes. All I know is that the cupcake display was beautiful, and the cupcakes were very tasty. The cupcakes were definitely a big hit with all the little children at the wedding reception.

Wednesday Night Study

Full day at work, then ended my day with a friend, sharing a small meal and engaging in good conversation. No biking or spinning tonight. Wednesday's are my bible study night. Had an interesting study of the Holy Trinity tonight....God in three persons, the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. How lucky are we that God can present himself in three unique ways. It's comforting for me, and I hope for you too.

We Love Potluck Dinners In Wisconsin!

This was a lot of food...Mexican food to be exact! The potluck was successful today and no one walked away hungry. Sometimes they choose a theme for our potlucks, so this one was all Mexican food.



I decided to dedicate my post today to Pastor Randal who was absent at church because he and his battalion are now over in Kuwait serving for our country (Army National Guard). The crew will only be in Kuwait shortly and then will move on to Iraq. He will be there for nearly a year, so I got the idea today to use my blog as a way to connect our church with his blog. It's unsure of how and when Randal can post on his blog, but at least I can post pictures so Randal can feel connected to his church. Click here for the link to Pastor Randal's blog.

The kids didn't waste any time as they were hungry!

I think this table likes the feast...they are all smiling.



It was a happy day to come together for worship and delicious food. Pastor's wife in the center and two hardworking women always willing to help out at church when needed.

Weather Report: It rained all morning and afternoon. Temperatures hovered around 47 degrees. Not a good day to be outside.