How to Survive the Winter

I had intended on writing a new year post and now that we're in the middle of February it's not so new of a year anymore. Matter of fact  it's already been enough time for me to have dusted and cleaned all my bathrooms at least twice since the beginning of January. So I guess we're well on our way now aren't we? 

I was excited about the change of calendar because I got to start a new bullet journal. I've been using this method of organizing myself for a year and a half. I will never go back. I put almost everything into this composition style notebook made just for me. Other than the adorable colour and pattern of the notebook, it's not necessarily pretty inside. I'm not an artist. I don't calligraphy. I can barely draw a stick person. For me this method of organizing life is completely utilitarian save for the brightly coloured sticky notes I occasionally use to arrange my thoughts on a whole new level. 

On the inside of my journal I've written my Scripture for the year - Psalm 39:4-8. I've also stapled a copy of the New Year's sermon for quick reference since it was profound. (just scroll down to New Years).  Yep, this method rocks. It's small enough to fit in my purse and big enough to get the job done. All of my thoughts, lists,  ideas, and reminders are in one place and all listed in the front in my Table of Contents I make as I go along. Somebody pinch me! 

I've recently embraced the Danish concept of Hygge. Which really is just putting a name to what I'd be doing anyway - hunkering down for the winter, drinking lots of warm beverages, and keeping my twinkly lights from Christmas up (no led allowed). Unfortunately it offers no motivation for getting exercise, going out in the cold or doing regular housework. I've fine with that. 

I've accumulated a ridiculous amount of tea that I've been working on day by day. For those really cold and long winter days? Somewhere around 4pm if we don't have anything to go out to that evening I put on a pot of Red Rose tea, get out the amaretto and Grand Marnier and settle in for a Blueberry Tea. I prefer a stick of cinnamon in mine. (1 shot each of liquor in mug and fill up with tea). 

Magic!

Another most needed warm beverage that makes the winter bearable is always a mug of hot chocolate. I don't often waste my time with mixes though and came across this incredible easy peasy way of making up a batch of chocolate balls that I keep in a baggie in the freezer. When I'm ready for a mug, simply heat up some milk in the microwave and pop in a chocolate ball stirring until it melts. After another quick zap to get it to the temp I want, another good stir gets some froth going on top and it's ready to go. 

1 (12 oz bag, 2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1/4tsp salt

Microwave chocolate, cream, and salt in large bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. Roll 3 Tablespoons chilled chocolate mixture into ten 2-inch balls. Individually wrap balls in plastic wrap and transfer to zipper-lock bag. Refrigerate for 5 days or freeze for up to 2 month. To make 1 cup of hot chocolate, combine 1 unwrapped chocolate ball and 1 cup whole or low-fat milk in large mug. Microwave, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 2 minutes. Serve. 

So good!

My love for reading fits the hygge lifestyle perfectly and between the two of us, we can often be found reading something. I've been participating in several Bible studies/book studies that have kept me busy. I read 2000 Demons - No match for my Saviour as part of a Facebook book club. It did not complement the "cozy" atmosphere I was going for and quite frankly, I couldn't read it fast enough so I could move on. Not that it isn't worth reading ... 

I'm studying Walther's Law and Gospel with a fellow pastor's wife and I am loving it! It is just the right balance of intellectually demanding but readable and gives me a whole new appreciation for what my husband and other Lutheran pastors do. I don't know how they aren't freaking out every day with the weight of that on their shoulders but then, it's not them it's the Holy Spirit. 

My eye just twitched. That's what thinking about it does to me. 

I have been living far, far away in the town of Bradbury, Illinois while reading the Anthems of Zion trilogy by Katie Schuermann. I'm currently reading the last instalment and never want it to end. It follows life in this small town and more specifically the individuals in the local Lutheran church. It's reminiscent of the Jan Karon books set in Mitford only Lutheran instead of ... what was it ... Anglican? Anyway, these books have made me look again at my own congregation, the personalities that make it a family, and life in the pastor's house. I've cried like a baby and laughed from the belly. It's precious reading that mirrors the messiness of real life and God's redeeming grace and mercy.

... speaking of the messiness of life - what does it mean when your client brings you a "tip" that hits a little too close to home? Am I that obvious?! BTW - it was yummy;)

Also in the spirit of hygge, I made bread. There is nothing more cozy that the smell of yeast mixed with just ground wheat kernels and the feel of dough stuck to my hands. Wait a minute ... that last part is a big pain and I wonder every single time if it will turn out as it seems no amount of flour will keep it from being a sticky mess. But somehow it works and I get 3 loaves of bread to show from it. 

It took her over three years but Z finally realized there's a vacant room next door to her and she's moved in.

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We also recently realized that she may have been watching too much "Love it or List It" and "Property Brothers" as she's been talking about removing the wall that separates their two rooms. She feels that the extra square footage and carpet upgrade would be beneficial. 

And now Lent is upon us. We sang farewell to our Alleluias on Sunday, and life in a pastor's house gets a bit more complicated and contemplative. I'll be using this free daily devotion throughout Lent. 

This week company arrives in anticipation of Z's birthday and we are looking forward to celebrating 12 years of this amazing young lady we get to call our daughter!

I'll let you know if I think of anything else we need to make it through the rest of winter! 

Dear Maddie: A letter to a future pastor's wife

Dear Maddie,

I am so excited for you! I'm thrilled not just for your upcoming marriage and the happiness that wears all over your face, but I'm also excited for you to join the exclusive club of pastor's wife. Don't get me wrong, you're in for it. By that I mean that you are sure to experience frustrating and difficult times directly related to this vocation.  Those times will come and be assured that the Lord will guide you through them and He will work good out of it. What I want to share with you today are the many blessings that are yet to come because your husband will also be a pastor. What I share with you today is taken from my own experience and you will have your own blessings. Be looking for them!!

Even if you are far from family, your church will become your family. 
I'm not insinuating anyone can replace your mother (heaven forbid!!). But the Lord provides and He will provide you what you need. I remember first arriving to our new home after 2 days of driving, a border crossing, and a 2 year old in the backseat (who was on a Bob the Builder kick). I was tired, nervous, and scared by the time we pulled into the driveway. The semi wouldn't arrive for another few days with our belongings but we found a kitchen pantry stocked with food and a fridge full of needed dairy products, fruits and veggies. The house was clean, the lawn had been recently tended to. Before even meeting the people I would come to know as parishioners, they had already sent their love.
Over the years we've been here, our relationships with many individuals and families have grown roots and are deep. They can be full of verbal affirmation and encouragement, hugs and friendly smiles on a Sunday morning, or thoughtful gifts at Christmas time. This last Christmas, each of my children received a hand-written letter from a dear member who recently became a widow.  In the time that she took to write these notes, she put herself in my kids' shoes. She imagined how excited my son was to be home from school faraway, gave him advise to take with him in the future, and included American money so that he could have a break from cafeteria food. My daughter received a similar thoughtful letter and her's included a piece of jewelry she had searched out just for her. My children's grandparents may not have made it to our home at Christmas but God had deeply touched this special lady to show such grandmotherly love.

You're faith will grow as never before! 
We know that faith grows by being in God's Word and through the Gospel message in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. There will be plenty of opportunity for both!!

• You will live a liturgical life defined by the church year. This church year is meant to always remind us who we are in Christ and what He has done for us in a predictable and constant cycle so that we never forget. The colours on the altar, the banners that match the season and Sunday theme we are celebrating, the nuances of how the altar is set up and maintained will be on your radar in a way that it wasn't before. It all points to Jesus and is a constant learning opportunity to be reminded of Christ and His work. 
• You will go to church a lot. Unless you are stuck at home with a 104 degree fever or some part of you is bleeding and won't stop, you will most likely will be at church when there's church. I have never regretted going to church. I may drag my feet sometimes to get there but I'm always glad I did. The Word of God never returns to me empty, always speaks to me, always builds me up, always puts my life in perspective. 
• You will have access to your pastor's library AND have lots of opportunity to ask your pastor anything. These men are well trained and well versed in Scripture. They have a personal library to show for it (although younger pastor's may have more books on their computers). If you are reading something theological and a question pops into your head, you can just ask if he happens to be there (or send a text or put a pin in it for later). You can even ask questions you feel silly asking because he loves you know matter what (it's part of the marriage deal). 

You are better "in the know" of what the needs are in a congregation and where you can serve. Not that good works and service are limited to church related areas, but as your faith grows so will your desire to serve others. Sometimes we don't know what to do with that! Not so in the life of ministry. There's always something to do and this is a blessing. 

Everybody has a story. Your church family is a hot mess underneath it all.  I have yet to really find an exception to this rule. We all may have ebbs and flows where life is going a bit easier or we're really going through a trying time. You'll catch any given individual somewhere on that spectrum of life. It may come out as wearing their heart on their sleeve, or they may be really hard to get along with, or they may be the most caring and giving individual. They may be active in the congregation or seldom seen apart from worship. Some will be harder to like than others. 

Why do I list this as a blessing?! 

Because you, dear sister, will be in good company. You and I have stories too. We're hot messes underneath it all which is why we all need Jesus so badly! As Christians we are all struggling with our Old Adam and New Man and it's exhausting!! Knowing this helps especially with those hard to love souls because we're reminded we were all hard to love and Jesus loved us anyway so much so that He died for our sins!  And even though we're all His children through faith and eternal life is ours, we still struggle. Some just hide it better than others. Pray for wisdom to see them as blood-bought souls, for the ability to love their warts and all, and that they might be able to do that for you too. 

Your prayer life will grow.  It often takes some time for people to trust you and know you but when people become honest about their struggles and challenges in life, you may be someone they come to. This is a gift and a high honour when these precious souls entrust their secrets and struggles with you.  You may want to keep a prayer journal because I know when I tell someone that I'll pray for them, I really don't want to forget. I'm a list maker anyway and maybe you're different. I think it's pretty incredible to be able to keep these people in prayer and have a front row seat in seeing how God takes care of them. 

You will be married to a man of God who is in the Word daily. The power of the Holy Spirit changes a man who is regularly feeding his soul with God's Word - not just for work related purposes but to build up his own faith. It's hard to preach to others what they should be doing when you're not doing it yourself so they will hopefully desire to practice what they preach. A faithful pastor will strive to be the spiritual leader in his own home, lead a godly and upright life to not tarnish the good name of the Lord, and be mindful of his own spiritual health. All this he will surely struggle with but if there's a struggle then the fight within is real. He has the Holy Spirit to strengthen him and Jesus to forgive him when (not if) he falls. 

CFW Walther says in the third lecture of Law and Gospel that a pastor should rightly distinguish the difference between Law and Gospel and that both should be taught in every sermon. Not only that but he should approach it in such a way as to preach it to himself first. A pastor is just as miserable a sinner as the rest of his flock and lest he think otherwise, must have the Law convict his heart so that he too sees his need for a Saviour. When this is realized and felt deeply only then can the Gospel show him his Saviour and allow him to rest in the arms of Jesus for real comfort. A person who has not been put through this experience is a sound without meaning, a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. But a preacher who has personally passed through this experience can really speak from the heart, and what he says will go into the hearts of this hearers. ... He enters the pulpit a humble man. People can tell whether his preaching comes from the heart or not. (taken from Law and Gospel)

When your pastor preaches in this way week after week, your pastor husband changes. The man I am married to now is not the same man I fell head over heals in love with - he's better. I've seen the evidences of the inward changes and stand in awe of the power of the Holy Spirit. I couldn't ask for more. I am so very blessed to call him husband and to walk by his side through this life on the path to eternity. 

Don't get me wrong - he's not perfect and never will be this side of heaven. Your husband will be sure to disappoint you and you will get to witness his hypocrisy. All the more reason to pray fervently for the man who is your husband and has the responsibility through his vocation to shepherd the flock God has called him to. 

You get to live in the proverbial glass house. At first glance, this is not so great a blessing. Who wants the pressure of their lives on display like that? But honestly, shouldn't all Christians feel this load to a certain extent? As Christians we are all ambassadors of Jesus. People are watching us more than we know. We might as well accept that just being a child of God holds us to a higher standard. We're not in this alone - we couldn't by ourselves. We are redeemed children of God and when He looks at us He sees a glass house with no fingerprints and smudges. The pressure is off and we are free to live our lives for Him. Let them look in the windows! Seek His help in setting a good example, gain wisdom for godly living, and be mentored by those you look up to. And when someone has their nose pressed against the glass (is that a new smudge?!) and witnesses a not so great moment in your life? There's an opportunity to be honest and real about your struggle, contrite in nature, and another moment in life to experience the awesome forgiveness of Jesus. 

Welcome to the pastor's wife club. There's not really a club, per se. There is a private Facebook page though. I kid ... but what I really want to say is that because there's no such thing as the perfect pastor's wife and we all have a vocation in common that helps us relate to one another in a way that's difficult for others, we're in the club. Come as you are. These are some of the nicest people I know. You can unload on them like you can't (and shouldn't) on others but they will also build you up, pray for you, and encourage you in the Word of God like nobody else. They are often down to earth, struggling in their own way, and happy to lend an ear. We can bounce ideas off one another whether ministry related, family and children related, or other. Our kids just might become best buds. They may even go to Prep together but that's jumping ahead of myself ... ;)

The bottom line is - every challenge that we face will be a blessing when the Lord uses it to instruct us. It won't always feel that way at the time but He promises it will work out for His good. 

Maddie, I am honoured to have been your pastor's wife. It has been a joy to watch you grow from a young lady to the women you are now. May God richly bless your marriage and ministry!!

In His Service,

Rachel

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2018

Christmas is Coming

Nothing like a good flu and lingering cough to slow me down in an otherwise busy and hectic season. But honestly, aside from being miserable for a solid week and then just slightly annoyed by my cough for another two weeks it's given me a good excuse to get back to the basics. That's not so bad. 

The church ladies and I enjoyed a fun afternoon making our own wreaths. The results were the one I made for our front door and the two for church. They turned out lovely! 

I was really sick the day of Advent by Candlelight so I missed attending, setting my table, and having a lovely evening focused on Christ's coming. However, I managed to make it to the funeral of one of our dear members the day before. There's nothing like having the opportunity to see the results of Christ's coming in the stark reality of death and the comfort found in knowing without a doubt that our salvation is found in the life, death and resurrection of that baby we are waiting for in the season of Advent. 

We had the privilege of knowing Bruce after he had experienced a health scare so extreme a few years back that they thought he wouldn't make it out alive. God had other plans for him though and extended his life here on earth by another 5 years or so. The man we knew had a new lease on life and the gift of clarity to know what was really important in light of eternity. He sat behind me in choir, he was one of my regular clients who let me cut his hair (or what was left of it!), and was a father/grandfather figure to me. I will miss him dearly and look forward to our reunion in heaven. 

We celebrate Advent in our home a number of ways. I always give the kids an Advent calendar, we have our Advent wreath and nightly devotions, and the nativity manger is up but baby Jesus hasn't arrived yet! This year I splurged a little on myself and decided mama needs an Advent calendar too. So Hosanna got a Lego friends, Will and his Prep roommate each got a Kinder surprise, and I got a David's Tea calendar. Every day is a different flavour of tea. I think I might be on to something!

Yes, there should be purple and a pink candle in there. But I ran out and only had white. It's not liturgically correct and frankly, embarrassing;)

Lights have plagued me this season. Lights at church, lights at home, lights outside, other people's lights. I think it was last year I wrote about my extreme hatred for LED lights. It makes me angry. There's nothing warm and cozy about them and they hurt my eyes. So why on earth would I want them on my Christmas tree? I don't.

Last year I purchased boxes and boxes of bulb lights from Target. Wayne was confused as to why I felt I needed ten boxes of lights on our regular sized tree. But really, the only thing worse than a tree with LED lights is a tree with not enough lights. That sweet man still does what I ask even when he may not understand. Last year we had a lot burn out which doesn't bode well for the future. One strand was on the fritz. So I bought two more backup boxes. This year he even verbalized that all those lights look beautiful ... until they all went out. 

There's my tree all lit up with hundreds of ornaments looking practically perfect - until I walked by and not one single bulb was working. Long story short, Wayne saved the day and fixed it without having to completely undress the tree. Thank goodness! But boy those bulbs have been trouble. 

Oh! And not that I want to turn this into a commercial or anything but at Thanksgiving my Mom gave me Mrs. Meyer's Iowa Pine Hand Soap and Dishwashing liquid. It is so Christmasy and I love it! I'm so sad I can't get it in Canada but at least it should last me into Christmas. I'll be stocking up next year for sure! 

I bought this three tiered basket from IKEA last February. I've only seen it that one time and I wasn't even sure I wanted it. I'm so glad I  picked it up when I did! I've had a blast changing it up for the seasons. For winter it's full of hot chocolate and varieties of tea, tins of cinnamon sticks and marshmallows, and winter produce. 

Hosanna and I have been practicing some violin pieces to play over Christmas and the next few Sundays. I love playing with my kids! She's been plowing through her Grade 6 studies and is looking forward to a well deserved break!

Will's last day of school is today! Tis the season where I chew my nails and pray to God (literally) that he makes it home without too much trouble. Between weather and the craziness of the travel season, it's always a sigh of relief when he arrives safely home. I also include in my prayers all the kids travelling home for Christmas. I used to be one of them! I can't wait for Will to get home so I can cut his hair the way I want to hug him to pieces!! 

Also on the Will front, it's official that he's been accepted to Martin Luther College! He plans on pursuing the Bachelor of Arts pre-seminary degree. We are excited to see what plans the Lord has in store for him. 

What's really crazy is that the last time we were on MLC's campus, Wayne graduated. So that was spring of 1998. We were married that summer. Little did we ever dream that 20 years later, our son would start in the fall of 2018! 

On the baking front, there are the yearly treats that all hell would break loose if I didn't make them. That includes wreath cookies and Carmel corn which are both Grandma Nork's recipes. This year I added a crockpot Christmas Crack that sounds horrible (why name a treat after additive drugs?) but the point is that it's addicting. I get it. I also made Nanaimo Balls inspired by the popular and in my opinion one of the yummiest Canadian delicacies - Nanaimo Bars. 

Tonight it's off to Costco for one more pre-Christmas trip. There's a few more gifts to be wrapped. I need some rum. Yes, need. (How else am I going to make Rum Cake and drink eggnog?). I also need to figure what I'm doing for Jesus' birthday cake. 

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! 

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Thanksgiving: American Edition

We made our fourth annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin to celebrate an American Thanksgiving. 

Do we look like we're having fun? Because it's totally fun driving for two days, listening to the news of yet another sexual allegation against someone in government or media, passing Sunday drivers (on Monday) on a two lane highway, and looking forward to the sweet relief of a Tim Horton's stop. Seriously, I have a love/hate relationship with these trips. I am however very grateful that we are close enough to even make the drive. Timmies is a perk. 

Since we've been making this tradition to meet up with Will at my Mom and Dad's to celebrate Thanksgiving together, there are a multitude of expectations and family traditions that some of us look forward to more than others. They include but are not limited to:

Our initial arrival to Grandma and Grandpa's house where they welcome us into their home and serve us a meal as we await the coming of my mom and Will. It's a lovely time to catch up with my sweet grandparents and play a game of hand and foot.

The car lights flashing into the living room that alert us to the coming of Oma and Will! Why does he keep getting taller?! 

Racing home to catch the finale and final results of Dancing with the Stars. 


Wednesday prep day. Ladies in the kitchen, men at the hardware store (or wherever they go). 

Wednesday night Thanksgiving church service. Opa meets us there having come from deer camp. 

A Halloween to remember! 

This year includes a visit from my sister and her husband from England! They're at the home waiting when we return from church.

Thursday arrives! Skype call to German family in the morning, taking turns in the bathroom to get ready, finishing up the cooking and smelling the turkey while the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade plays in the background. 

Big afternoon meal where we pretty much stuff ourselves. After cleaning up, we start some card games. Grazing for an evening meal coincides with the annual viewing of A Muppet Christmas Carol - the best Christmas movie in the world. We sit around the TV and laugh as if we hadn't all seen it a million times already. 

Time to eat!

Pie, glorious pie

Black Friday. Yes, we are those crazy people. Only we do it in the big city of Rhinelander so it's not so overwhelming. After a few years of practice, this year we were in and out of Kohls in an hour (which is very impressive if you saw the line snake through the department store). The ladies enjoy shopping the rest of the afternoon away and the guys head back to nap, drink, and do whatever it is they do.

The guys find a comfortable spot to wait in Kohls

Friday night fish fry. We all meet back together for this blessed event. There's something about deep fried fish that warms the cockles of the heart! 

Grandma and Grandpa

Tom wears the fetching Christmas jacket he found at Kohls

Sisters! 

Saturday bowling. Nothing like a little healthy competition among family:) 

Big fun

Opa wears the hat Zanna made for him

Sunday church and goodbyes as we take Will back to school and spend the next few nights with Wayne's brother and sister-in-law. 

Back to Prep

We were so grateful to have this time with family. It always seems to go so fast! Happy Thanksgiving! 

Our Homeschool Year: Grade 6

This is one overdue post! I usually write about what our homeschool plan is in August or September when we're just starting our year. I did manage to take some pictures of our learning area but that's as far as I got. I didn't even get a back to school photo of Zanna although I did get a First Day of 6th Grade printed. 

Better late than never ... 

6th grade is the sweet spot. I really do love this year - wrapping up elementary school and just before the middle school/junior high years. 

As Sonlighters, I love this year. It's my favourite - Eastern Hemisphere. It's so different from the others years in that it's more of a unit study over many countries in the Eastern Hem. So far this year we've studied the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Antartica, and Japan. To wrap up our study of Japan we just ate a dinner of sushi and miso soup! As we study each country we learn about their culture, language, customs and religion. I include two fabulous books I invested in called Material World and What the World Eats. We also pray for the people in the 10/40 window north of the equator. It's incredibly eye opening and fascinating!!

Our other daily lessons include:

Religion: 
CPH Growing in Christ New Testament 4 - middle school
Retirement home services with Dad (1-2 times a week)
Wednesday choir and Bible study, Saturday CAP (congregational assistance program) class, memory work and hymnology 

Math:
Saxon Math7/6
Mathtacular Word Problems

Language Arts:
Easy Grammar: Grade 6
Worldly Wise 3000: Book 6
Institute for Excellence in Writing: Student Continuation Course
All About Spelling: Book 5
Sonlight Readers/ Book studies: Eastern Hemisphere

For Language Arts I spread it all over the year concentrating on one area for a quarter. Grammar is all year. The other three will be taken one at a time. 

We've started with Worldly Wise which is vocabulary. This one is new for us and I thought since she's such an avid reader and great speller, that I would encourage expanding her vocabulary. Honestly I though it would be easy for her. It's actually very challenging and she hates it. She threatens to throw it in the green bin every week which makes me laugh that she's still willing to recycle it - haha! 


SHEP - Science and History Enrichment Program
This is a class Will took for years when he was home. There's a fall session and a spring session. They meet one day a week and in the morning they have gym and art class (taught by an actual artist). In the afternoon they are in a classroom for Canadian History and Science taught by a retired school teacher. Her teacher is absolutely wonderful and she comes home full of information! She has homework throughout the week, weekly Science quizzes, a unit test, and projects in both subjects. It's a great learning environment and gets her prepared for traditional learning.  

She's busy with some extracurricular activities. In some ways she's an only child so I suppose she gets spoiled being allowed to participate in so many activities. She continues to be in weekly swimming lessons, violin lessons, recreational synchronized swimming, Lutheran Girl Pioneers,  and monthly cooking class. In the winter when there's a break from SHEP she'll add on downhill skiing and indoor soccer. 

After reading through that list it seems hard to believe but there's still plenty of time in the week for playing with neighbour friends, knitting hats on her loom, reading ferociously, sporadicly creating art projects, and free play. 

I'm only too aware that I've got precious time with this girl. I'm trying to soak up the less than three years we have together before she goes to Prep. There's so much I still want to teach her and experience with her. I'm so blessed to be able to spend my days with her, watch her blossom into a young woman, and observe her maturity. 

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:5-8
               


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Autumn Days

Where did October even go? I honestly don't know! Thank goodness I took some pictures occasionally to remind me exactly what we did!

Pumpkin picking is the best! We always pick four - one for each of us. I like to throw in a white one just for fun. 

Everything's coming up fall around the house! Our apples from our September apple picking became a table decoration in my Grandma's milk glass fruit bowl. 

Our Friday night football evenings came to a close as Prep wrapped up their season. It's been so cool to be able to watch the games from the comfort of home. There's something about being able to see my kid in live time and know what he's up to at that moment that's so comforting when he's so far away! Livestream has been awesome!

We had a wedding to attend (and Wayne to officiate) from our Quebec church. This is always a perk in the ministry and I love to watch new families being created through marriage. 

And then there's the official arrival of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. After visiting Germany in the spring and building our VBS and outreach event around it last summer, we were ready to wave Reformation Red and sing our hearts out to A Mighty Fortress is our God. 

After hemming and hawing over what to make for the Reformation potluck at church, I finally settled on a fall pasta salad using my Martin Luther shaped pasta from Wittenberg. I also used my Luther shaped cookie cutter and put some chicken salad sandwiches together. 

Then there was the big reveal of the new church paraments using the Luther's seal fabric from Ecclesiastical Sewing. Our resident sewer/member made the beautiful altar dressings seen in the pictures below. It was stunning! 

In between our remembrance of restoring the teachings of God's grace alone to the pulpit's of churches, there was an annoying holiday that's always celebrated in our culture on the exact same day. We managed to put a little Lutheran twist to it ..... 

Fall traditions in our household included caramel apple making and leaf cookie cutouts. So far we've managed the apples and have enjoyed their gooey goodness. We have yet to do the cookies but it's on my to-do list and Zanna won't let me forget!

Our Reformation celebrating ended with the joint service with the other area congregations at the downtown church. It was a fantastic display of Lutheran love of the Word of God, liturgical teaching and worship, and music through song, pipe organ, instruments and teaching found in the words sung. I got a balcony view as I joined the instruments up there with my violin. 

These autumn days are flying by. I'm wrapping up some loose ends of Christmas shopping, homeschool, and hair appointments. We'll be heading to Wisconsin for our annual trip soon and I can't wait to see my sweet family!!!