How October passed me by

October is almost over and I really have no idea where it went.  I can't even remember what I've been doing for a whole month to have passed by.   Really, I haven't done much. 

Two Sunday evenings ago, we were at Aaron and Kendra's for potluck.  We have a really good potluck group. We are diverse enough that we have very good discussions. Which I love.  And then at one point two-year-old Gabe brought a spider to show his dad. He had it pinched between his fingers and then let it drop on the ground. It was still alive.  I shrieked. It was a while before I put my feet back on the ground.  I do not appreciate spider season.

Speaking of which. One found its way into my car and made its appearance while I was driving down the interstate. I prayed my way home. It truly is a miracle that I did not drive off the road.  I just stared at the road, bit my tongue to keep my mind off the spider, and prayed that I wouldn't see it until I got safely home. I barely breathed that last two miles of road. I was so tense, my muscles were sore for days afterword. 
That is a phobia. 
And if I am ever found dead, crashed in my car on the side of the road with no explanation. That is why.

A couple Friday nights ago, a few girls came over to ask questions about my job. They were interested in the field and volunteering opportunities.  It was fun. I love to talk about my job, because I love it. Normally I try to keep my mouth shut, but I finally had any excuse to talk all I wanted. :)

Saturday, we worked outside despite the drizzly weather.  We burned off the garden, cleaned up the grill, and cleaned out the garage. Then I cleaned the whole house. :) I love productive days. I had so much more energy than I normally do. 

Saturday night, the song leaders from Washington sang at the Eureka nursing home benefit dinner. I got to tag along. I used to waitress the tables at it every year. I'm so glad I don't have to any more. :)  

My Monday evenings have been filled with practices for the Messiah. :) It's so much fun to sing but so ridiculously hard. It's been so long since I've had to sight read and count to sing a song, I am badly out of practice. 

So, yes, there has been things going on, but my calendar is strangely blank. It's probably good because the holiday craze will be on me before I can blink. 

I probably should be using this time to work ahead on something... but the couch is just too nice. :)

In Christ
~Michelle

Chicago

Last Saturday, I chauffeured  Lori and the kids to Chicago for their appointments.  My trips up to Chicago for work has made me quite used to driving in crazy traffic and so I loaned my services out. :)

The bean

The city

Michigan Ave. 

The cost of parking in Chicago is ridiculous, by the way. 

We left down town and headed to Woodfield Mall and Ikea. 

The Cheese Cake Factory :)

It was fun. I always enjoy Ikea and Cheese cake. :)  I think Cliff was a little less thrilled than the rest of us. But, I think he survived :)

In Christ

~Michelle

Funeral

Nathan's Grandma, Edna, died this past week. Her funeral was on Thursday. 
I didn't know her very well but she always made me feel very welcome in the family. :)

Nathan and I went out to Princeville on Wednesday night for the visitation. We stayed the night at his parents and then went to the funeral on Thursday.   It was nice, I guess. I still feel uncomfortable calling a funeral "nice", but it was.   

~~~
I have decided that some people must appreciate the way visitations and funerals are traditional performed, or else they wouldn't be the way they are.  I however, would prefer visitations and funerals to run slightly different. Don't ask me how. years of cultural tradition has impaired my ability to think creatively about the rituals we perform after someone has died.  If it were my choice I think I would have something like the Indian tradition of floating candles down a river or maybe sending the family member over a water fall.  They are both very legitimate ways to symbolize the letting go of a deceased loved one. 

In short, I have had few people die in my life. I watched the family stand for hours on end receiving the same comments over and over, with the occasional odd comment thrown in,  and I realized how emotionally and physically exhausting that would be.  It would be so much easier for them to stay home curled up in bed. And, yet for some reason, it is good for us to pull ourselves out of bed and face the reality that she is in fact dead. 

Anyway, enough of my rambling thoughts about culture, traditions, and death... On to ramblings about emotions... :)

The atmosphere of a visitation or funeral tends to be very somber. Or at least it is expected to be. But, I've decided that is an incorrect assumption or expectation. Funerals are emotional. Not sad.  Not somber. Not even a "celebration of life".  They are all of the above. In one moment some of the family is crying while others are laughing.   People grieve in different ways and heal in different ways.  And, when you pile a whole bunch of grieving, healing, reminiscing people in the same room together, you are going to get the full range of emotions. 

~~~

People do say some odd things at funerals though. I will keep most, due to it being my opinion, to myself, but the best comment of the weekend was: "She looks so natural, she could just start snoring" :) 

After the funeral, we spent the afternoon with the family. 

On our way home,  Nathan and I decided to go to Tanner's to buy apple cider donuts. :)  They are wonderful. 

When we got home,  just as the sun was setting, I got to jump on the combine with my dad for the last few rounds in the last field of the season. 

Sunset. 

They are done!

We were both back at work on Friday. All week I kept mixing up the days and calling Thursday the weekend. It got quite confusing.  

Thanks for all of the prayers for Nathan and his family. I know they are appreciated! 

In Christ

~Michelle

Fall things

September turned into October far to quickly.    We've been busy with random things and lots of quiet evenings too. 

Early on in September, after we got back from Maine, Nathan and I went over to Clayton's house and helped him get a few things done before move in. 

I did some spray paint

Jake took out a window. 

Nathan worked on the floor. 

A couple Saturdays back, Jenny and my mom and I went to Ikea.  It was fun. I love the way the store is set up, it's just fun to walk around. 

our new Ikea table:)

Last Saturday, I finally did tomatoes with my mom. We still have plenty of spaghetti sauce and salsa, so we only did chili sauce. 

we made quite the mess. 

This Tuesday, we  went over to the farm to make cider. 

the men decided to change the light bulb :)

apples

the cider press 

washing apples

Cider!

We made 21.5 gallons of cider. :) 

Work has been difficult lately.  Thankfully this week has been a little bit of a break, but lately it's seemed like drama and crisis and crazy things just never ended.  It's all part of the fun of the job, but it does make things more exhausting and stressful. 

In Christ

~Michelle

Party Business

September 22nd. Bilbo Baggins birthday. 

One of the first books I can remember my mom reading to all of us kids was The Hobbit.  From there, a family of Tolkien fans was born.  I have reread The Hobbit many times and each time I am drawn to hobbits. :) "For they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth." ~ JRR Tolkien 

Chapter one begins:
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. 
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill—The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it—and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours’ respect, but he gained—well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end."

It really is a must read. :)

Anyway, in honor of Bilbo's birthday, and for a good excuse to eat good food (hobbits love food), Nathan and I had my siblings and Aaron and Kendra over for a hobbit themed party. 

the table set and ready

The food :)

The menu consisted of: stuffed mushrooms, minced meat pies, bread and jam, apple tarts, Bilbo's seed cakes, salad, creamy mushroom soup, and a rotisserie chicken with potatoes and carrots. 

apple tarts :)

Everyone come in "hobbit inspired attire", which in our wardrobes means greens and yellows.

Jenny and Bob win the award for the best dressed hobbits though. Bob came complete with suspenders. :)

The food. notice the seed cake ring. Jake made them and they were really good.

A birthday party is not complete without a cake.

Bilbo's birthday cake. 

It was a great evening with family and good food and a shout out to good literature. :)

In Christ

~Michelle

Our Maine Vacation:Part 6: The Road Home

Leaving Acadia wasn't actually the end of our trip.   The captain of the lobster boat had suggested teh Maine Lighthouse Museum. And,  well, I like lighthouses.  

poor Nathan. :)

There were large models of nearly every lighthouse in Maine.

These are some of the lamps used.

There were stories of light house keepers, information on the lights, the towers, shipwrecks, lightships, and everything else pertaining to lighthouses.  We didn't stay long, but it was pretty cool and worth the stop. 

Our next stop on the way back was the Newport Mansions in Rhode Island.   We stopped at The Breakers.  

Maybe Nathan's family dropped the 'e' a few generations back...:)

Actually the Breakers was just the name of the mansion. The Vanderbilt family built and owned it.  I's built on a cliff overlooking the ocean, has 70 bedrooms, 125,000 square feet, and is incredibly beautiful. The rooms were decorated with gold and platinum wall panelings. 

the back yard

:)

From there we pretty much drove straight home.  

a foggy morning in Pennsylvania

It was a wonderful trip.  A week away from the busyness of work and everyday life in such a beautiful place.  I hope I can go back someday.

In Christ

~Michelle

Our Maine Vacation: Part 5: The Park Loop Road and other things

Our adventures in Acadia continued. 

We spent a lot of time driving the Park Loop Road.  As it's name suggests, the road loops around a majority of the park and has overlooks and parking areas for some of the highlights of the park. 

Thunder Hole.

Under the right circumstances, tides, time of day, depth of the water, amount of wind, wave height etc., this hole makes loud thundering noises.  We of course heard only sloshing.   

more rugged coast

Sand Beach

monument cove

Other wonderful bits of Maine.

Food :)

Nathan ordered lobster one night. 

He wasn't impressed. I still like it.

my pasta was wonderful

Driving about the island, we saw many lovely houses. 

one of my favorites.

I love all the flowers!

Of course while touring, we needed Ice Cream. :)

And, we needed a better picture than all of our selfies.

One evening we went out to eat, we realized Maine has a different time table than the Midwest. 

the restaurant 

at 6:00 pm it was completely empty.

We decided it must have something to do with the lobstering laws.  Lobster men can only lobster after sunrise and before sunset.  So, we guessed this moved the entire day back.  Who knows for sure though. 

Our last night at the campground, it poured.  All night long.  And, all morning.  We packed up most of our stuff the night before, but taking down a tent was still a very wet job.  

our soggy camp sight

And, so ended our week. 

In Christ

~Michelle