Random ramblings...

Only a few days left of summer.

Autumn is around the corner.

This time of year the markets are full of the harvest - I made ratatouille the other day and no recipe is better with fresh eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini.

I just finished a beautiful walk in the warm sunshine where as I enjoyed the quietness, the still small voice of God my Father spoke something into my mind and heart.  I am doing some writing on the "seasons" and transitions we experience in our lives (physically and spiritually) and getting divine insight was something I needed.

I found another fun blog that will not only inspire me to write and eat but possibly go to Berlin (she just wrote a book which I will pass on to you but haven't read...looks great though!)

http://www.thewednesdaychef.com/

Go to her blog and you can see how and where to order this, plus her schedule for her book tour.

Author:  Luisa Weiss

You know me...or maybe you don't but...I love any book that deals with food, cooking and other countries.  This could be a fun read :)    And I need a book for my upcoming flight.

I leave in a week and a half to join my husband in Europe.  He is away and sharing in some mission schools where young people are training for the field and learning how to navigate their own relationship with God and sharing their faith with others.   My youngest daughter is in Germany and wish we could pop down to visit her (she's not in Berlin, but maybe...  :)   She's only been gone three weeks though, so perhaps I should wait until she is really homesick - or I really miss her, which happens to be the day after she left :)    I should wait.

Our home is alive and well...three adult children who seem to be always hungry.  Good thing I enjoy cooking :)

The other night I put out the leftovers....they were quickly devoured, so I was left to rummage through the fridge and see what I could throw together for just me...

I love rummaging...

I visited Trader Joe's today and found this

I have a love affair with pumpkin in the autumn...and so it begins.

I am done rambling; just had to write.  Heart 2 Heart, joy to joy, beauty to beauty as the leaves begin to change color and the air takes on that chill which accompanies a cup of tea in the evenings.  We are entering into one of my favorite seasons.  

More to come....adventures ahead and stories to challenge, bless and encourage our hearts together.  I will try and write again before leaving on a jet plane (music in the background) but if not....next time, reflections from Riga.  

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1st Day...Last Year

I sent my youngest son (18 in nine days) off to school today...his last first day. As he sailed out the front door memories came rushing back.  Today all us moms of seniors are a bit teary-eyed and for those of us where this is our last...a lot teary-eyed.  Actually, I am smiling amongst the bittersweet memories.  The last year of school supplies, signing notes (do I do that after he turns 18??), obligatory meetings, being homework "cop", and "you should really be in bed by eleven so you can get up tomorrow morning".  Alas, in the midst of the "where did the years go?" there is the "whew, I am glad this is almost over" :)   Good years!

I homeschooled all my children for their first beginning years of elementary school.  Although the youngest son went to school earlier than his older siblings.  He entered first grade 11 years ago.  With excitement, mixed with a bit of nervousness, off he went to join in the adventure he had watched his older brother and sisters embark upon.  I'll never forget that day.  Along with the myriad of emotions, I received a phone call from my mom.  Dad was coming home after months in the hospital, now to begin hospice.  They didn't expect him to last many days.  Would I come home?  And so, with a heartache only a mother knows, I left my youngest in the care of my husband to maneuver his first week of school and headed home to help my mom.  Two days later my father passed into eternity.  It was a difficult week.  Nearing the end of the second week, the family joined me for the funeral, September 14th, my youngest son's 7th birthday.

Yes, this time of year, the beginning of Jamie's school year, always brings back the memories.  But they are good ones.  My father, a month before he passed on, gave his life over to God and became a believer.  His funeral was a celebration!  Jamie survived his first year of school, made many friends and decided he would rather play than do school.  Eleven years later, he still has many friends and still would rather snowboard, play basketball, wakeboard or just plain play, than "do school".  That's okay....he'll graduate with a fairly high grade point average and go on to be a professional snowboarder....Jim and I will retire in style :)  Or at the very least be given a house in the mountains.

Moms, dig out those photos!  These years go quickly!!  Hug those little ones...or rather big ones these days!  There's a new season ahead for them...and a new adventure just around the corner for us!  

And I will forever be grateful for Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1827, first photographic image) and many others in between all the way up to George Eastman (1889, invented film) who enable me to remember...

First day September 4, 2001

To the present...

September 5, 2012

You gotta love this guy!!

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