Fall is Here!!

It's time!

Time for apple pie and toasted pecans.

Time for crunchy leaves and cider.

Time for soft, chunky knit sweaters and corduroy pants.

Time for whipped cream on hot chocolate.

Time for long walks downtown on dark evenings with warm cups of sweet, rich coffee.

Time for babies in stocking caps with chin straps and mittens in bright colors.

Time for pumpkins, pine cones and hay rides.

Time for jigsaw puzzles and audio books.

Time for hot, creamy soups and fresh breads.

Time for candles, books and piles of blankets.

Time for fall.

Catch Up

So much since I last blogged...or journaled... I'm so far behind I don't know how to start catching up!

We moved. The move was uneventful, but involved a massive amount of work on our part and help from friends and family. So many man hours were packed into the 8 days that we owned the house before we were completely moved in that there was no way to keep track. My younger siblings volunteered so much time, and friends like Sarah and Esther came and spent a couple days helping, and my older brother Josh, brother-in-law Nathan and a few others moved my piano in.  My Grandma spent an entire morning and afternoon helping me mix paints and glazes and painting my fireplace. It only took a few days to get mostly unpacked, due to the fact that Sarah and Esther unloaded box after box while I directed unpacking and my sister, Jonnah, spent endless, tireless hours watching Gavin.

We've been able to have guests- so far we've gotten to have two of my older brothers and their families over for dinner, and we had almost 30 guests here for Gavin's first birthday! We're loving the ability to host people and events and are planning on having hymn sings here once a month through the winter.

Our third bedroom also became very quickly occupied- Quinn's little sister Tabitha moved in with us a couple weeks ago. She spent the first several nights on the couch, but some dear friends had a mattress they were replacing and my old twin bed frame came in real handy.  I'm on the lookout for a small desk now, so that she can do her school work in her room. We've enrolled her in orchestra and this afternoon I felt like an old Mommy with my teenager practicing violin while my baby boy screamed because he didn't want to eat his oatmeal... It was different! 

She spent the weekend with friends in Branson, and Quinn and I found it a little odd that her 48 hour absence had us missing her, even though she's lived with us such a short while. She's such a funny, spunky little personality that fills up so much of the quiet around here. We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves with her gone!

A few days after she moved in we got word that Quinn's granpa George had passed away. He had had a stroke and was paralyzed on one side and requiring a morphine drip. We were very grateful that the Lord didn't ask him to live in that condition for long, as he'd always been a very active, independent person. 

We headed out from here on Tuesday morning and drove to Rockford, where we spent the evening with family then left Tabby with her Dad for the night and went to stay with some of Quinn's old homeschool co-op friends. Wednesday morning was the visitation, then early afternoon we had the graveside service. It all went well and was very beautiful. We all miss him so much- I know that even just as an adopted grandaughter for 2 years, he had such an impact on my life and made it better in so many little ways- I can't imagine how those who knew him for a lifetime, such as my husband, (who wrote a lot about George on his blog)  have been missing him. Especially his handwritten notes, but including his corny email forwards.

In typical George fashion, he had written his own obituary and saved a poem (clipped out of the newspaper and taped into a folder with handwritten instructions) that he wanted read at his funeral:

I look out through my window

At the world I've always known

I think about my blessings

The things I call my own

I've been given many gifts

I've been given sorrows too

We're not weighted by what we have

But rather by what we do

If all the world's a stage

Then they judge us by our role

But we don't read from a final script

The part is ours to control

So here's your chance for an impression

A chance to show you care

If you never leave any footprints

Will they know that you walked there?

For satisfaction, meaning, community

Repayment, virtue or fame

Give credit to your existence 

And meaning to your name. 

-Mark Diffenderfer

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We got back Thursday evening, late, then Friday morning we were off to orchestra. Home from orchestra, then finally a day (mostly) at home. Saturday evening we went to the wedding of a dear friend- one who I've known most my life and Quinn met soon after moving here from Rockford in '03. Erik and his bride have a very old-world idea of romanticism, and their evening, tent wedding was a beautiful picture of pure, virtuous love. While sitting there listening to them read their vows to each other I slipped their program out of my diaper bag and found one of George's funeral programs in my hand with it. In the same week to watch a 68 year marriage be fulfilled in the death of one partner and a brand new marriage relationship begin with vows before God to be faithful until the end, and to know that one marriage was proof that, in Christ, those vows can be fulfilled in the same way 70 years from now was such an encouraging, beautiful thing.

This afternoon, I was sorting through winter clothes and came across my simple, linen wedding dress. Memories of our sunshine and laughter filled day- of the aching love in the eyes of my groom, of my beautiful maid of honor who is now my sister, of the praise songs and the fellowship- then looking into the eyes of my baby boy who was searching mine to try to find why I was suddenly so still after a morning of bustle and hurry to see the embodiment of God's word that "two shall become one flesh"- I am so overwhelmed with gratitude for my beautiful, love-drenched existence in Christ.

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Gavin is asleep, and I'm out of soda. It's such a beautiful day- I would wake him up and go for a walk if the small stroller wasn't in the car with Quinn, who will be working until 8 tonight.

*sigh*

We'll just have to play in the backyard a bit when he gets up.

I'll be your crying shoulder,
I'll be love's suicide
I'll be better when I'm older,
I'll be the greatest fan of your life.