Just chatting

 

 Just thought I'd take a minute and check in with you all.  I  haven't been around much in this space except on Sundays for the Scripture posts, so I'm stopping in for a quick hello.  Grab a cup of coffee or tea and let's chat.

Let's see, what have I been up to?

This week is a busy one.  

Yesterday, my hubby and I spent the day at this conference at The Wilds of New England.  Although he is not a pastor, the conference was for other church leaders as well.  My hubby is a deacon in our church and we felt this conference would be a blessing.  It surely was!

This conference ended at 3 pm so we did some errands on the way home, ending with having supper at Route 104 Diner.   My hubby had a coupon which needed to be used in September, his birthday month, and it was a blessing for me not to have to cook supper.  We actually both got breakfast -- omelets.

We have other activities coming up this week as well, so I hope to blog about those maybe next week.

 For the past couple weeks I've spent a lot of time just trying to rest and get lots of fluids as I fight off a nasty cold.  I think I'm finally on the upswing.  

Because of that, I just wasn't feeling well enough to spend the night at the ladies retreat last weekend.  My sweet husband was kind enough to drive me down to The Wilds of New England for the day on Saturday.  (He did a few behind-the-scene work projects in the wood shop and maintenance barn while I was attending the sessions.)  I am so thankful that he was willing to do this, as the messages from Jeanie Stewart were a huge blessing.  

The sunrise photo below was taken during a previous year's ladies retreat.

Again, I will hope to blog more about this soon.   The things that Jeanie shared could be considered in some ways Christianity 101, but many believers don't have them at even a very basic level.  As she clearly stressed, there is such a need for every believer to glorify God and to leave a godly legacy.

Life seems to be getting more and more challenging and we need to be joyful warriors.  I recently purchased multiple copies of a Bible study on the armor of God for many people on my gift list.  I was originally intending for many of these to be Christmas gifts, but I'm rethinking that.  I think they may need them sooner. 

The above is the Daily Grace study on the armor of God for men.  You can find it here: Stand Firm.    There's a women's version too, which can be found at the same link.  I've purchased one for myself too.

It's really hard to know how things are going to go with our foliage season.  We usually have such gorgeous fall foliage, but this year some leaves, particularly on maple trees, are looking shriveled and unhealthy.  Not sure what that's a result of, maybe a late frost we had in May.  Or something else.  It seems that they are just going to fall off rather than turn color.  And all the rain has been knocking them off.  Thankfully, not all the maples are affected, just some of them -- but more than I would like to see.

At the time of that frost in May, many of the newly emerging oak leaves wilted and died, but the trees apparently recovered and went on to leaf out just fine.

We are certainly hoping for a lovely fall, but it's hard to know how things will turn out.  Thankfully, God is in control of all things!  Below is a scene from fall 2022.

 Let's see, what else have I been up to?  I've been stitching a little bit on my January sampler on days when I just don't feel like doing much else.  

And I just finished a crocheted dishcloth in the Lavender Meadow color.  I've started one in Denim now.

That may be all the news that's fit to print right now.  See you Sunday!