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.

Made to Shine

My husband loves being the very first to lift the top;)

Not everyone does Halloween, I get it – and, I must admit, it isn’t my favorite day of the year.

But, what I do like about Halloween is reading stories, getting warm and cozy and carving pumpkins with my family ~ mostly because I love to roast the seeds!

My husband's favorite part of pumpkin
carving is the seeds!

A lot has happened over the past week or two. My husband lost a friend, I lost a co-worker, our niece lost her best friend at age 20, a Special Olympian who won a medal at an equestrian event I was photographing tragically lost her aunt and uncle a few days before she competed in their memory. One of my best friends lost her high school classmate. Another good friend lost a neighbor. My daughter’s hamster died.

Sometimes sorrow comes in giant waves. Sometimes it is tough to stay afloat.

You know what stays afloat? Pumpkins!

When I feel a little overwhelmed by the difficulties life throws at me, I turn in – I turn in toward my little family.

My girls had so much fun carving their pumpkins. All those ooey-gooey fleshy insides turn out pumpkin seeds. They might not look like much, but a nice soaking, a little olive oil, your choice of spices and a few minutes in the oven turns them into a delicious snack.

How we are like those pumpkin seeds! Sometimes we don’t look like much – we are ragged with sorrow, we are burdened by day-to-day chores, we are weary from the stresses that come with our jobs. But, if we take the time to do what recharges us, give ourselves grace and appreciate the fruitful gifts we have been given, how beautiful we become.

We shine with the light of Christ. As you fill your dark, cavernous pumpkins with an abundance of light this week, may God also fill you with the light of His love ~ that you might shine for someone who needs it, that you might shine despite your sorrow, that you might shine – because you were made to shine.

So cute -- the kids are feeling the slimy inside flesh for the first time this year!

I love the Cranberry series ~ great values and storylines. This is Cranberry Halloween. My kids love Mr. Whiskers,
Grandmother and Maggie. 

Pumpkin seeds!

Fun captured by our oldest!

Visit me on FB ~ Just Writing Through or TLC Photography and Portraits

What lies beneath

Here in the Midwest, we are continuing to enjoy amazing autumn weather. Last weekend we visited a local pumpkin patch.

Every year, my kids enjoy just being outside, running around, going through the corn maze, and sliding down this silly and fun bumpy slide.

This year, my kids happened to be jumping in the bouncy house with another little girl, and I ended up making small talk with her mom and grandfather. It turns out they were just in town for a few days for a family funeral.

She told me how her grandmother truly had lived a long and lovely life. Despite her strong front, she was grieving all the same. We talked about childhood memories and her daughter enjoying some time with her grandparents. Throughout the morning, we ran into each other at different sections of the pumpkin patch and offered to take each other’s family photos.

We saw these:

These gourds are not very attractive on the surface, but, like their smooth-skinned counterparts, they are just as soft and full of life on the inside. Sometimes people are the same. We might be pleasant and attractive on the outside, but hurting and full of pain on the inside. It is hard to wear your emotions on your face all the time – in fact, I think we work hard to put on a stoic face. Because of that, we don’t always try to look beneath the surface.

I’ve missed plenty of opportunities to find out what lies beneath. It is a hazard of harried family life, I suppose.

But another thing I’ve learned is that sharing is beneficial for everyone ~ myself included. I am grateful for those who listen to me as well. We all need someone to walk with ~ someone to see what lies beneath. Because we all put on a façade – and we are all dealing with things we don’t wear on our faces. And, we all need to look at and share what lies beneath.