These are the words I’m mulling over this Thanksgiving week. I hope you’ll take a few moments to let them settle on your heart as well.
ThanksLiving (Written by blogger Kate Conner)
Giving Thanks is the Only Response (Written by blogger Ann Voskamp)
On that note, I’m thankful that Liam enjoys reading with Matt!
Don’t worry—Daddy made sure I didn’t eat any leaves. They were a little too crunchy for my taste anyway.
My first time on a real swing!
I told Mommy she was overdressed for the 70 degree weather, but my toes were as happy as could be once she let them see the sunshine.
Can’t wait to show you my new tricks at Christmas! xxxxxxooooo
We desire thankfulness to embed itself deep in our family roots.
It sounds easy, being grateful and all, but if we’re not intentional, we tend to take things—and people—for granted. Oh, you too? So we skipped right past No-Shave-November and instead kicked off the month by setting up a simple basket to be filled with notes of gratitude.
I took this photo early on, but our little basket is starting to fill up with words that bring a bit of flesh to the thoughts that flit through our minds between the busy and mundane and joyful hours.
Come Thanksgiving day next week, together we’ll read through the words expressing gratitude—a tiny tribute to all the blessings that God lavishes on us—yes, lavishes.
Who knows? Perhaps the basket will stick around past November, because the reality is that this crusty heart of mine needs more than one month to cultivate a habit of thankfulness.
I’d love to hear how you bring a bit of creativity to the season. Share, please!
P.S. Speaking of No-Shave-November AND blessings…
Pardon more pictures of our ugly basement. The good news is that now our basement is at least ugly and semi-organized.
It seemed that no matter how hard I tried to keep things orderly, they just kept piling…
Then my dad came to the rescue—for about the millionth time—by mentioning that he found a good deal on sturdy shelves at Sam’s Club for his business inventory (SHAMELESS PLUG: Live in the Midwest and need some great automotive, tire, or lawn & garden service? Check out the family business here). We grabbed three of them while my parents were in town.
Thanks to some quick work by Matt and Dad, we had ourselves some shelving!
I’ve basically designated one shelf to staging decor, another to baby items, and the last one to miscellaneous gear. It felt so delicious to get stuff off the floor and into a space where I can now see what I need at a glance.
While I dream of built-in storage tucked into cozy spaces…
I’m thrilled that we have a workable solution for our current season of life.
Fall festivities never fail to excite me—sipping hot apple cider, driving into the mountains to take in the changing leaves, decorating with warm tones, baking comfort foods, carving pumpkins…and what better way to enjoy all of our favorite fall traditions than to host an Oktoberfest party?
Last year we held our first Oktoberfest shindig, complete with soups, a cream cheese pumpkin roll, carving competitions, a fire pit—you name it, we had it. This year was no exception, and we followed much of the same format as last year, although for dessert we served up these mini pecan pies,
chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin chocolate chip bread. For table décor (cannot believe I didn’t snap a picture!), I borrowed some Pinsperation from Layla by covering our dining table with butcher paper for people to decorate during dinner (it then doubled as a protective cover during carving). Guests also jotted their guesses on it, since we included a game of “guess how many Reese’s are in the jar” (Midwest blast from the past, anyone?). Of course, I couldn’t resist these $0.98 paper straws on clearance at Target, which added a bit of bling to everyone’s drinking glass.
Since Team Braham completely failed at last year’s carving competition…
we decided to actually think through carving ideas ahead of time. I fell for this sweet looking owl on Katie Bower’s blog (I believe the original idea is from Martha Stewart).
Matt did a great job on the carving, but alas, we still didn’t beat out our friends who carved a pumpkin complete with a moustache and cigar (plus ours didn’t light up very well). I’m thinking our pumpkin was a bit on the long side...
It was so fun having friends over for a cozy evening celebrating the best of autumn. We’re already brainstorming carving ideas for 2013!
What have you been up to this fall?
P.S. This is what happened to our pumpkin after the squirrels got to him…they literally stole his eyes and feet one at a time until he looked like a creepy voodoo pumpkin.
