Change of season...

Fall is far and away my favorite season of the year. I love to watch the change of color and it always brings a bit of change of heart for me with it. My favorite thing about fall is seeing that even as the leaves are dying, they are filled with new beauty. Even as the plants and the soil prepare to lay barren until spring they are not going silently.
Did you know that the color of the leaves in the fall is their true color? The green we see the rest of the time is the photosynthesis required for growth. It is not until they have reached their full potential and yet before they fly from the life giving tree that their true beauty, that has been there all the while can truly be seen. I know what others see as they look at me on the days when I must do and be all the things I need to, for my family to be successful, and I know that is not all there is to me. God has filled me with passion and joy that can at times be hidden or harder to see... but it is never really gone. In my transparent moments with those close to my heart all that color shines through.

I want my children to understand that they may look just like so many other people on the outside, that at times they may feel plain and unimportant, but they have already been painted by the master into a beautiful vibrant person. Someday that will be obvious to everyone who looks at them... but you have to do a lot of growing to get there and you have to stay connected to the source of all life while you do it. I never thought I would learn such a valuable lesson from Cindy Lauper and yet... if only we can see our true colors shining through.

She's our dog now!...

Our dog beautiful has one of those dishes that you can use a two liter bottle to keep "ever full". We had several friends over this weekend with their dogs and since we rarely have two liter bottles around, one of our friends tried something a little more common around these parts... and it worked! LOL

Well Beautiful... you're our dog now!

Where did that come from...?

The kids are getting ready to start this new partnership school (like the one from before just closer to home) and they have two campuses... so we drove up to check out the second one this morning. Here we are driving by old dilapidated houses and "ghost town" is all I could call the string of three store fronts on the main street and out of NOWHERE... we see this!

Apparently, at some point the state completely refurbished this turn of the century schoolhouse to it's original glory and then like all good government officials... decided they didn't need it so... our school took it!
Above is the mother's room (both campuses have these) where all the moms can hang out with smaller kids. There is a small kitchen and comfy furniture. The woodwork in this building is amazing! You can see how the center of the room is lower because they added lighting. The windows go all the way to the ceiling all around every classroom and the sills are over 6" deep!

Everything is original and as BJ so aptly put it, "It feels like a big warm welcoming house" and it does! This is part of the Library. The walls of the school are filled with framed copies of famous US documents and oil paintings of the presidents.

Not EVERYTHING is original.... as you can see here in the computer lab. LOL

All the doors are really thick solid wood and they are gorgeous!

Around the back they have a fully fenced park for the children. Complete with wrought iron benches and an "old school" slide and swings.

Yes, as you can tell, I loved it.... but the children did too. They are looking forward to meeting new friends and trying out some new classes. All good things...since they start tomorrow!

Congratulations are in order...

That's right, you are in the cyber presence of the newest member of The Elk Homemakers Club!!! It is official and these are some of the coolest ladies ever! We talked of canning, planning, the medicinal benefits of local honey and chickens all in one sitting. We exchanged ideas, stories and memories all for the low low price of $4 per year for membership. They started the meeting with prayer and we even said the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag!!! I LOVE IT HERE!!!

The big surprise of the day was that the first lady I really got to talking to turned out to be the mother of one of my dearest friends of my heart. She and her family are living in Germany now and it was hilarious to me that I had to go the basement of the local VFW on a random Tuesday to meet her mother for the first time but hey, considering my socially checkered past... not all that strange or unusual LOL! I love you Sharon and I adore your mom! I told her I am the Amy you wished you could have taken to Ireland with you! She wanted me to tell you that she is having trouble with her connection (Ben gave her some tips that will hopefully fix it) and she loves you (yes, even after spending an afternoon with me LOL).

The sun sets on summer...

The fog hung in the valley trees this morning and we had a light frost in the garden... summer alas is drawing to a close. I finished registering the kids in their enrichment classes this morning and had to write a "what we did this summer that was educational" summery and it made me realize that it was time to get back to blogging.

So... what DID we do this summer? Well, our chickens are on a steady laying pattern of a dozen per day. I think it is safe to say that I am now fairly familiar with the egg section of my better homes and gardens cookbook! LOL I don't know what the deal with roosters crowing at dawn is, because I have news for you... they crow all the bloody time (or at least George does)!
These pics are for Miss Linda who said "didn't see any pictures of the living room" so here is the living room and dinning room. They are separated by the wood burning stove in the center.
Dinning....
Living...
Together...
I absolutely love my dinning room table. It is actually two put together and they both have leaves that tuck down into it. It is Mango wood (really heavy) and has a vintage finish that is fire engine red underneath the black so as it wears it will show red through... very cool.
I am getting better at the greenhouse thing... kind of! LOL We now have an orange, lemon and lime tree (one of each) and two different kind of grapes. I am optimistic that it will be a huge help come spring getting starters up and running early.

The re stain went well and we have temporarily painted the lower half until we can afford to do the faux (I think the spellcheck doesn't recognize this because it's French... I can't spell however so... not really sure...)rock.

It really helped everything look more uniform and although a little darker than I thought it would be... I'm still happy with the overall progress.

This is the product of Ben and the kids chopping for all their worth the last couple weekends. The pile goes four stacks back and we are hoping to have 6-8 more before the first snow. These are from the trees we fell our first weekend in the house

(you can look back if you want to... Nov. 08)

And so, the sun sets on our first summer here. We have had company nearly all summer long and every visitor has plotted out where they want to build their cabin. I think that means they like it here! We are learning more every day and as scary as it can be (don't even get me started on the bats... oye) it is so well worth it and we wouldn't change a thing! (yup, this was taken from our back deck this week... yeah, I know....)