In Thanksgiving for ...

Every year as Thanksgiving approaches, the season of fall makes me a little bit hungrier for family and friends and for the comforts of home.

I am thankful that my family lives relatively close by. My kids have grown up knowing their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

I am thankful for good friends who help us celebrate the season of thankfulness as well. This week we will gather with some dear home school friends and make candles, learn more about the pilgrims and create felt leaf garland that I hope will become a treasured heirloom.

Again, we are hosting Thanksgiving and I am spending this week preparing: making lists, baking bread, making pie crusts for pumpkin pie, cutting up ingredients for sausage ~ pear stuffing, baking sweet potatoes and making cranberry sauce.

This year I am focusing on putting my recipes on recipe cards! I know. It is the 21^st century and I could easily store them on the computer.

I have done that in the past.

But my husband has this blue plastic box of wonderful, slightly-stained recipe cards given to him by his mother when he left for college. It is so much fun to look through the cards – dinners that my husband loved, cookies he baked, and casseroles he maybe didn’t really like. I love thinking about how his mother wrote with love all these recipes that he would take with him over 14 hours away and then back again. I want my children to one day open a treasured recipe box filled with memories and love. So this year I am making a Thanksgiving slot in my box filled with all of our traditional Thanksgiving family favorites so that one day my girls can reminisce about the memories that we are making today.

Now for that other list: washing the floors, dusting, setting the table, making “thank-you” cards, etc.

Wishing you and your family and friends a love-filled Thanksgiving.

My youngest had a birthday this weekend.

My beautiful new baby holding my hand

Yes, my youngest just celebrated her birthday. It is exciting and sad all at the same time. My baby is growing up.

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that we brought home this new little addition to our family. She was a good sleeper. Content. Smiley.

Now, she is writing letters, counting and teaching us about compassion and love.

But there is a unique story to her birth – one I hadn’t planned on.

I had planned to have my baby with just my husband, my doctor, the nurse and me. It seemed reasonable for a sort of private person.

Well, while my husband had lunch my mother-in-law came in to chat. She always has had a rather calming effect on me, so I welcomed the distraction.

But then, baby was coming. In the rush of trying to get my husband to the room (he made it, just barely), she asked (well, sort begged) to stay.

There wasn’t time. She stayed. It wasn’t in my birth plan.

She watched me during probably one of my most difficult moments; that was humbling.

It was my mother-in-law who announced to me that we had a baby girl. She saw my baby before I did. She told me I had done a good job. She cried tears of joy.

My husband cradling our newborn's sweet little feet

At the time, I don’t think I appreciated having someone there, seeing me perhaps at my worst. But, when I think about my mother-in-law sitting with my daughter during church and whispering, “I saw you be born,” I realize just what a beautiful bond that created for the two of them.

So, five years on, I am incredibly blessed. Happy birthday, sweet child!

Thankful for our Veterans

Veterans Day is a day to honor our Veterans.

My grandfathers both served. My father-in-law served. My uncle served. My father was injured in boot camp. They all served, but rarely spoke. In fact, I couldn’t tell you one story from any of them.

Not that long ago, I was privileged to write a story on a veteran. Talking with him helped me more fully understand the gravity of the decisions made by those who serve – and the effects those choices have on the rest of their lives.

Today, years after my grandfathers and uncle have passed on, I have had many opportunities to interact with veterans – whether it is writing for VFW Magazine, doing stories for the local papers, volunteering photography time at a local therapeutic riding facility or just walking the streets of my hometown, they are there – and they deserve a “thank you.”

These men and women put a name and a face to the military. I am proud to know them. I am blessed beyond belief that my children know them. They do not wear masks, they do not wear capes, but they are superheroes nonetheless.

There never will be any words to express the gratitude I have towards them, but I thank them all the same.

This weekend, a very large crowd gathered for the unveiling of a permanent Veterans Memorial at our local Harley-Davidson dealership. What an honor it was to be able to photograph this event and write about the dedication for our local paper. Over 1,000 people came out to support veterans and to be there for the unveiling. The two-hour ceremony included guest speakers, honored veterans, The Military Color Guard, a flyover and a POW/MIA remembrance table. Many of the veterans spoke of the camaraderie they felt at the Harley-Davidson dealership - that the people they met there were a continued source of support for them. Here is just a sampling of the photos I took there. Bricks were made available for purchase in honor of a veteran. Bricks still are available here. It was a beautiful day and an even more beautiful ceremony to honor our heroes.

Thank a veteran today – better, thank a veteran every day.

The Woodstock Independent news story can be found here.