Tag Archives: September

September

September
“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”
– John Updike, September
“The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes
Isaiah 40:8
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.
Ecclesiastes 3:1,2
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—

A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

Genesis 8:22

“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

Looking forward to all that September brings…

Back to School Hodgepodge

This collage above is from a first day of school in Ventura, California back in 1985 and a first day of school in Bothell, Washington in the very early 90’s.

Jo From This Side of the Pond asks the questions and here are my answers this week. Thank you, Jo!

1. As we begin this brand new month tell us, on a scale of 1-10, where does your life fall in terms of being in ‘apple pie order’? Please elaborate. (1=nowhere near it, 10=practically perfect in every way)

Yikes, perfect and neatness. That’s a tall order. The only thing I’ll attribute to perfection in my life is that I am perfectly forgiven and saved by Jesus Christ my Perfect Savior and Lord. I’m thankful for that position in this life and for what it means in the next. On a physical not spiritual level I’d say I’m about a 6. Most places in our home are tidy enough for surprise drop ins. I’d need a couple days notice to get everything perfect in every way! Outside in my flower beds, etc. I’d need a month to get things perfect!!

2. An apple a day keeps the doctor away…are you doing your part?

Not an apple but our new daily regimen since the Ch*na V started it’s spread is a multi-vitamin, vitamin D3, vitamin C, Zinc, Quercetin, and we just added N-Acetyl Cysteine.

Red or green?

Either.

Sweet or tart?

Like them both.

Ever played the game Apples to Apples?

Yes.

Do you like apple pie?

Yes.

If so, ala mode or just gimme the pie? 

As my dear old Pop used to say he’d like his “pie alamo”

3. Tell us about a time recently where you ‘upset the apple cart’ or the last time someone ‘upset your apple cart’? 

A good true quote is something that ‘upsets my apple cart’ in a constructive way.  Here’s one that makes me ponder, “Nothing is more deceitful than pride. We are inclined to believe anything about ourselves if it is favorable.” From a commentary on 1 Corinthians.

And from Spurgeon: “My own weakness makes me shrink, but God’s promise makes me brave. Lord, strengthen me according to Your Word.”

4. What are three words that come to mind when you think of September? 

School because traditionally school started in September. Birthday because Dear’s birthday is in September. Fall/Autumn because this great season of the year starts in September.

5. What are you most looking forward to this month? 

Our road trip to North Carolina and Dallas. Those are the two destinations in our 20 day trek that involve seeing some of our loved ones! Technically we won’t be in Dallas until October.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Flashback to September 2016

From the Other Side…

…of the Great Divide. The only side of Washington that is predominately red in their politics. The line between the blue and red counties cuts along the Cascade Mountain range. The blue side has the highest population, largest cities, with Seattle (652,405) being the largest. The red side has the most farmers and ranchers and many small cities. The largest city on the red side of our state is Spokane (210,721), then Spokane Valley (91,113) and Kennewick (76,762). All the population numbers I’m sharing are from 2013. The city I live in on the blue side of the state has a population of 21,611.

https://i1.wp.com/media2.s-nbcnews.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Interactives/_swf/Politics/Elections2012/images/overview/maps/PresidentWA.jpg

Dear and I travel across the great divide when we visit our son and daughter-in-law. We enjoy our time on that side. We find it refreshing. There are lots of great fences and barns to photograph. Here are some of those fences and barns all taken in Stevens County.

chewelah 032

P1060552

country scenes 045

Happy First day of September to all of you! I started the morning off with fresh strong coffee in a new cup to me that I bought at the Habitat for Humanity Shop in Colville, Washington (population 4,668). It was half off and I only paid 40 cents for it. It’s Churchill made in England with a population of 53.01 million.

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May September bring good things to us all.

“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”
–   John Updike, September

Here is it September 1, 2017 and we are off again to the other side and I hope to share many photos with you as we travel a different road across the mountains to a wedding reception and then on to our kids home in Colville. Our little Addy May started crawling and I’m excited to see that new milestone and I’ll be getting lots more steps keeping her out of trouble. May September find new joy and fullness for y’all.

From the Other Side…

…of the Great Divide. The only side of Washington that is predominately red in their politics. The line between the blue and red counties cuts along the Cascade Mountain range. The blue side has the highest population, largest cities, with Seattle (652,405) being the largest. The red side has the most farmers and ranchers and many small cities. The largest city on the red side of our state is Spokane (210,721), then Spokane Valley (91,113) and Kennewick (76,762). All the population numbers I’m sharing are from 2013. The city I live in on the blue side of the state has a population of 21,611.

https://i0.wp.com/media2.s-nbcnews.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Interactives/_swf/Politics/Elections2012/images/overview/maps/PresidentWA.jpg

Dear and I travel across the great divide when we visit our son and daughter-in-law. We enjoy our time on that side. We find it refreshing. There are lots of great fences and barns to photograph. Here are some of those fences and barns all taken in Stevens County.

chewelah 032

P1060552

country scenes 045

I’m linking up to Good Fences #128 with TexWisGirl and later in the weekend I’ll be linking up with Tom for The Barn Collective.

Happy First day of September to all of you! I started the morning off with fresh strong coffee in a new cup to me that I bought at the Habitat for Humanity Shop in Colville, Washington (population 4,668). It was half off and I only paid 40 cents for it. It’s Churchill made in England with a population of 53.01 million.

14192582_10210558912637326_8162176853949963890_n

May September bring good things to us all.

“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”
–   John Updike, September

Waiting to Land…

…instead of circling around and around.

My life right now seems a bit irregular. I’m getting things done but in a random fashion, moving from one thing to another. I’m still waiting to find a rhythm to my life in this waiting time. In the meantime I’m not fretting just observing my randomness.

Although I feel disjointed, I’m still finding contentment in beautiful things around me. I’m grateful for encouragement that comes my way daily and for the peace in the midst of randomness.

I’ve continued my walking from Monday through Friday. This week I found an old 3×5 index card spiral pack that I have several Bible verses printed in to take along with me on my walks. Something good and encouraging to read while I walk by myself. So not 21st century, though, as I don’t have those buds in my ears listening off a device. It’s still my hand held device in the written form.

I’ve been managing to get something on the table or the counter most every night for dinner and yesterday I was inspired by Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S.A. to make some Italian Cookies that I’ll share sometime soon on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog.

Dear and I joined a group at our church for the next 8 weeks called, Who Needs Theology?

Here’s one of the introductory thoughts shared: “Your theology -your thoughts on God-are your most important thoughts because they determine everything else in your life. If this is true, then we ought to dig deeper into what we believe and why we believe it.”

Bourton-Gloucester 073

Forever, O Lord, your word
    is firmly fixed in the heavens.
Your faithfulness endures to all generations;
    you have established the earth, and it stands fast.
By your appointment they stand this day,
    for all things are your servants.

Psalm 119:89-91 ESV

Hope you have a weekend filled with contentment in your small and big accomplishments. I’m off to scrub my shower before I finally jump in it today! RANDOM!

Reliable…

…is what this good old address book is to me. It’s come to the rescue of many a family member who has needed an address but failed to come up with it in their new modern devices. If I had $10 for every address I’ve supplied for weddings, baby showers, Christmas cards etc., I’d be able to take a little trip somewhere.

Do you still have a good old address book, tattered and worn?

In other news…

We’ve had more wind this weekend so the patio covers came off again and we decided to go ahead and put most of the patio furniture back in the loft area of our garage.

I’ll be busy this week again dealing with the fallen leaves.

We enjoyed the breezes with the door open until things got too wild. Lots of wind but very mild temps!

How was your weekend?

Mid September Walk…

Yesterday I was sitting reading blogs and visiting Pom Pom’s Ponderings and she said ” I’ve decided to walk more and do it in the morning before it gets too warm. ” I left a comment about the fact that I should be walking but was sitting and then low and behold, I got up, put on my walking shoes and made it around my circuit before the rains came! I’ve been talking and talking about making exercise more of a daily thing. I was happy to have gotten off my duff and here’s some things that I saw.

Look at all these ducks in this neighbor’s back yard! I’m glad they haven’t chosen my yard for squatting!

Across the path they squat regularly at this home, too.

My route is not long. I read recently that walking just 25 minutes a day will add 14 years to your heart life. Or something like that. My walk around the bend and up the hill and along the busy road and down the steep descent to home takes me about 30 minutes. Of course it take a little longer if I stop and smell the roses take the photos!

On the home stretch I enjoyed this view of “this old house” through a couple of our neighbor’s landscaping.

It really has come a long way these last few years. A new roof and new siding really make a difference. We hired a company to do the roof but Dear did all the siding himself. He’s a keeper! Our house is the oldest house in the neighborhood by many years!

That huge maple behind our house and in another neighbor’s yard will keep us busy this fall raking leaves! We talked to the neighbor about getting an Arborist out to check the tree to see what it’s condition is. We wouldn’t want it coming down on our house or anyone’s house for that matter. Our recent wind storm is what motivated us to ask.

This new hydrangea I planted this year is still pink and getting it’s fallish tint. I’m curious to see if it will come up pink next year or if it will change to blue or purple like our other hydrangea did in our soil.

I’m headed up to get my walking shoes on again and see if I can beat the rain. We are moving right along through September. What’s new in your neck of the woods?

New Space…

Our son Josh and his two partners have recently acquired new office space and were ready to invite clients and friends to celebrate with an open house. Josh and his partners are branch managers of Capstone Home Loans.

This is our son, Josh.

His new office.

A wonderful spread of good eats.

This was a great cascade of veggies that I’d like to recreate at a future event!

Everyone we spoke to at the open house had such good things to say about Josh and his work ethic. Dear and I were happy to hear these reports and we are so thankful to God for how he has blessed Josh and his work.

While I’m on the subject of Josh and his company I’ll share some photos from a Client Appreciation Event he had at Sounders game the last Sunday of August.

Josh is a huge soccer fan and this was an event he really enjoyed hosting.

Free tickets for the game and a pre-game buffet in the Coach’s Loft with VIP entrance. A fun way to show appreciation. And the cherry on the top was the fact that we beat the Portland Timbers!

Wednesday already and September is half over! Hope your week is going well.

September

“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”
–   John Updike, September

Two years ago September Dear, Josh, Laura and I were in England. We were there from September 13th for 10 days.  Two years ago September 13th my dear old mom went to be with Jesus. My dear old pop was melancholy today with all the memories and regrets.

We started a new series at church this morning called You Are Here. We will be looking at why we are here as a church body in our community and in our world.

September always brings new things in the midst of old things. I have started reading an old book that I enjoyed before and now am enjoying again. I found a nice old copy of this book in England on our September trip in 2013.

flight-souvenirs2

When I am finished with this book I have two more books in my queue. One is the new book by Louise Penny, The Nature of the Beast an Inspector Gamache murder mystery and another one which is called The Hole in Our Holiness, Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness by Kevin DeYoung. Yikes, that one will be a convicting one, I’m sure.

September is almost half way done. Dear continues in a holding pattern about future work. Katie has a 2nd interview with a company close to us. We have an open house at our son’s new office space on Tuesday. Work goes on for Dear and Andrew at our son and dil’s home with initial inspections ordered. The newlyweds are counting down the days to their honeymoon in Maui. Life goes on in the midst of waiting.

Hope you have a good week…

A Busy Start…

…to September.

Spiders really have been busy. We are always amazed at what they accomplish overnight when we walk from the house to the garage brushing the new webs off our faces!

It seemed like the leaves changed their colors overnight, too. This is our Dogwood.

This is our Chinese Flame Tree.

These are the 3rd and 4th Jalapenos we’ve gotten off our little bush. It’s a new plant for us this summer.

Our lavender bushes still have a few blooms. I love working around them and enjoying their great scent.

Early September brings Dear’s birthday, too, which is a good reason to set a table for a celebration.

Decided on some nice bold colors for our dinner table. We had a great time at the table getting caught up with each other.

Dear and our SIL Andrew are very busy working on Josh and Laura’s remodel. Living without a kitchen is always an interesting challenge. Katie is busy interviewing for a job. I’m the support vehicle during these busy times for everyone else. Running errands, making dinner, and running that ever full dishwasher. I’m thinking about getting busy adding more daily exercise to my routine. Hopefully this week the thinking part will become reality in action!

Today Katie and I are going shopping to refresh her work wardrobe.

Have you been busy with changes in September?