Today...

I give thanks for a loving Heavenly Father who cares for my every need and is the reason I have purpose in life.
I give thanks for a husband who loves me more than any else.
I give thanks for job for both Jeremy and I.
I give thanks for family, without which I wouldn't be here!
I give thanks for friends, both old and new.
I give thanks for an apartment with character, warmth, and most of all a place to call home.
I give thanks for a church to worship in.
I give thanks for abundant food on our table three times a day.
I give thanks for the beauty of nature that is a reminder of God.
I give thanks for the beauty of the written word, music, and deep conversation.



As a believer, everyday should be a day of Thanksgiving, yet, I'm thankful for a particular day to remember the blessings of the year.

Today has been a very different Thanksgiving for me. In fact, it's the first Thanksgiving in my life that I haven't spent with my family. I'm not going to lie, that was a little sad to me. However, I decided that I still wanted to make this day special for Jeremy and me. I love Thanksgiving and holidays are very important to me (whether there is just the two of us or a whole bunch of family.

So, we had a quiet celebration today. Lunch was around 3. I made a turkey breast (6 1/2 lbs of it!), mashed potatoes, corn, steamed broccoli, green beans with lemon vinaigrette, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. This evening we put up our little Christmas tree. We spend quite a lot of time together normally :), so today wasn't terribly different. But, we did spend some time thanking God for this life and the many blessings He's given us.

I know it's late in the day, but Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

It's only the beginning...

The trees outside my window are trimmed in winter white. Much too early for my liking! For one particular reason (my commute to work which doubled when we moved back in March) I've been dreading this winter with greater intensity. And then Lady Winter decided to display her imminent approach with a half a day of snow flurries on the 5th of November! Oh dear.

Twice I've encountered this poem in books I've been perusing this week, and while it is indeed true and beautiful, I'm still not excited about 5 months of winter...

If we had no winter,
the spring would not
be so pleasant: if we
did not sometimes
taste of adversity,
prosperity would not
be so welcome.
~Anne Bradstreet

If you're not familiar with Anne Bradstreet (though likely many of you are), she was, I believe, the first female poet, maybe even writer, of the New World. In my freshman year of college I wrote an American literature paper comparing and contrasting Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley (African American poet of the 1800s, I believe). For that reason, I've got a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Anne.

Well, enough about winter! I'm off to spend some time in my cozy kitchen baking some pumpkins, trying out a couple new recipes, and generally keeping myself entertained on this wintry-like Saturday.

Family

This past week's been full of family, which is a rare treat around our place. Last Sunday evening my sister Alaina drove up with her boys (a little absorbed in Mary Poppins at the taking of this photo). They spent two nights with us. I don't get to enjoy the company of my nephews all that often, so it was fun to have time with them. Calvin and Patrick indulged us by reciting their many history statements their learning for school. Hearing words like Renaissance and plague and Charlemagne come out of their mouth is endlessly entertaining. Titus would have happily joined in, I'm sure, if he had all those words to say. Instead, he played with us and gave many, many smiles. Alaina and I enjoyed chatting, as well as talking food and blog related stuff.

Then this past Saturday night my younger sister Elizabeth and her husband Luke drove up. There purpose was two-fold...to deliver a futon and cabinet to us, and to visit. We didn't do much beyond talking, eating, playing some euchre (very evenly divided...guys won one, girls won one), and watching a movie called Frozen which I plan not to watch again. We also checked out an awesome new restaurant a couple miles from us.

This week is back to work as usual, which means I need to hit the shower and run a couple of errands before I head to work.

Happy Monday!