Thanksgiving is Coming

The next blog post should feature Lanaya Elizabeth's wedding, so I thought I'd get all of the regular stuff posted now before the big day!

It is surprisingly calm right now. I think I like to get stuff done ahead of time so that I won't be nervous right before whatever I'm likely to be nervous about happens. We will have a simple chicken-and-noodles meal for Thanksgiving and then pack up and leave Friday for Bella Vista, Arkansas where the wedding will be. We have several days of wedding doings, and then Jon and Phoebe will do a college visit at Ozark Christian College before we head home. Elizabeth has done so much of the planning; I really haven't had much to do! 

Someone asked us if we thought we'd get emotional. I know I will be when it's over, no doubt. With so many people around and thinking through all the details that need to happen during the ceremony, I'm sure I won't be able to emotionally connect with the moment. But you never know. I might dissolve in a puddle of tears.

Phoebe is working on basket weaving for one of her Home Ec projects for school. The instructions have not been superb, so it's a bit of a struggle. She'll get it though. 

We had one of the families from our Shepherding group over last Sunday. They foster and have adopted so they were a family of 10 that day! It was a joy to have them over. They brought us farm fresh eggs too. Yay!

And that cold front that went through brought us snow! The first snow of the season. 

Harrison is sitting on his.... snowman? I think he just rolled up a ball and sat on it. Jon made a couple of redneck snowmen. Everything melted pretty quickly that day though.

This is where I'm at on Someone's Daughter shawl. Small beginnings. 

This is what it should look like when I'm done!

Christina Sutton Photography

Jonathan went with the youth group to Glow Bowling. Lots of good friends from youth group. He and two others from church are taking a preaching class and are preparing a short sermon to share some Sunday night. I'll have to post that. He's putting a lot of time and study into it.

 

Phoebe Sewing Projects and Church Revival

Life is on warp speed right now! 

Not really. 

But kinda.

Phoebe made this skirt. 

It's from the Edwardian time period (1901-1910). She found the shirt to go with it and some cute shoes (not shown). She looked so lovely at church!

And she finished an outfit she's been working on for over two years! The above picture is her hand-sewing the dress at our Texas home in 2020.

It's a Medieval Dress from the 14th-ish century.

She made the pattern herself. There is an undergarment called a chemise or shift and it's of linen.

The dress is of yellow linen (it would normally be wool for that time period, but wool was expensive for this project).

And the linen apron with smocking decoration is more from the 15th century. 

She doesn't like to tell us what she's making while she's in the midst of the process because she's afraid she won't finish it. So while we could kind of tell it was dress-like from peeking in her room, we were never positively sure until last night. The sleeves gave her fits which made her stop the project for a while. But she completed it, and it's gorgeous!

BlueSkyDaisies.net

The CopyWorkBook for Kids has come out this week. I collected writings of Charlotte Mason that are relevant for kids into this CopyWorkBook. I've always loved buying copybooks for my kids because someone has pulled all the work together for me, and I can hand it to them and have them practice handwriting, spelling, punctuation and a host of good things. 

This copybook for kids is a great companion piece to the one pulled together for Moms. Moms can practice beautiful penmanship too! 

Phillip is now an elder at our church, so we are inviting the families over that are in our Shepherding group. Kimber and Wes have birthdays very near one another, so we sang Happy Birthday to them over those cute cupcakes they made.

We're planning to have soups for each Shepherding meal. It's cold outside and soup seems like a simple way to go. Last week was White Chicken Chili and tomorrow we plan for Ham and Potato (which we also call Refugee Soup because someone called it that a while back and it stuck). If you have any good soup recipes you want to suggest, please tell me!

Christy Franke Photography

Papa had knee surgery about a month ago, so he asked Jonathan to do the Communion Meditation for him. It turned out to be Revival Sunday, and Jonathan did an excellent job. We are very proud of him!

Christy Franke Photography

It was Phillip's Uncle Earl who preached the Revival this year, so we got to hear a great Bible series from Daniel. Just good truths about staying faithful and being strong and courageous.

Christy Franke Photography

The hard working kitchen crew! 

Our Sunday School was partly in charge of food and clean-up on the last night.

Christy Franke Photography

Mike, our youth minister, with Phoebe and Harrison. 

I'm so glad Christy gets pictures because I took nary a one.

Christy Franke Photography

Christy Franke Photography

Christy Franke Photography

Da Boys being cool and casual.

Christy Franke Photography

Da Boys being Boys.

Christy Franke Photography

The teens helped serve and clean-up the revival meal on Monday night. 

We also had a children's revival going on, so the kids had something to go to. And we had great music from a music minister who grew up in this church. 

Uncle Earl is the oldest living Timothy from First Christian Church Vandalia. And Tyler, the music leader, is currently the youngest Timothy from this church. (A Timothy is someone raised in a local congregation who went on to serve God via ministry.)

Christy Franke Photography

Mimi and Papa are a little in the picture on the left there. Phillip sitting across from them.

Christy Franke Photography

Hi, Harrison.

Praise the Lord! We have new sidewalks! 

Just in time for cold weather to hit. I'm so excited that we'll be able to step out onto gravel and right onto a firm sidewalk and be able to stay out of the mud this winter.

Our van went kaput, and Phillip found this awesome car for me on Carvana. This was our first Carvana experience and it went mostly smoothly! 

I Love the car.

Our first term of school is over (we're 1/3 done!). Lanaya and Amos get married in two weeks. 

Thank God for good things in life.

 

Amos Visits for Pumpkin Season

 

We are getting some wild sunrises and sunsets lately. 

It doesn't seem right that they just show up unannounced. You stumble upon them instead of them announcing themselves with fanfare Space Odyssey style. 

Harvested corn field in sun glow.

 A bit more cloudy here, but you can now see our place from the gravel road.

Phillip's sister Galen & her husband and her bio brother & wife came over for supper one night last week. Galen and Gil live in Florida, so we don't get to see them often, and we had never met her biological brother (she has several bio siblings that she has connected with, and it's very cool to be able to meet one of them). 

Amos and Lanaya Elizabeth came to visit this weekend! I loved having them here. It was fun to spend several days with them and get to know Amos a bit more. 

Less than a month until wedding time!

Playing the ubiquitous Slap.

Lots of book and theology discussions! This is going to be fun.

They made eggs and pancakes for supper one night.

Jonathan was inspired to cook a steak. He watches videos about the science of food and then he wants to cook. He did a superb job on the steaks. Phillip was impressed.

Pumpkin carving. We skipped this last year, so the kids were ready for it. Silas came over to participate with Harrison.

These cats are always underfoot! They let us pet them though, so at least we get interaction.

Harrison's, then Jon's, then Phoebe's.

We made garlic pumpkin seeds and brown sugar/cayenne seeds. They are both very good, but the brown sugar ones were gone first.

Harrison was a train robber for trick-or-treating.

Phoebe and Gabry took the boys out on the town for candy. That's a wonderful deal when your older kids can take your younger ones out!

And I am working on a knitting project after several years hiatus. Weirdly, if my kids are really into something, I can't seem to be into it at the same time. Or I step aside anyway. When Liz was home baking, I didn't do much baking. Maybe that's because I can only handle one person at a time having all their stuff out for the "thing." 

Anyway, I'm using one of her knitting patterns that she authored, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Find "Someone's Daughter" pattern here if you want to try your hand at knitting a shawl for yourself!

I just happened to catch this and snapped a picture real quick.  

Unbelievable. Cue fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra.