i cannot emphasize enough how today is gorgeous.  it was 38 degrees here this am...so my geraniums and gerberas are now inside the house as is the rosemary.  i forgot the little aloe, but it seems ok.  what a most beautiful day.  sunny sky, blue color, no clouds, breeze ringing my windchimes on the back porch.
and today the Lord sent us a blessing from the bank.  i would never think the bank could bless us... but i have been trying to pay the car loans off...and thought i had 2 more payments on one car instead of 5.  BUT today we got title in the mail with the note from the bank saying PAID IN FULL.    paid in full.  that was WOW.  so now I have no more payments on that car.  and all of a sudden i thought of the bill i have piling up in heaven. of my angers, my mistrust, my disbelief, my hurting others.... all of those things in me i don't want to talk about.  the bill is huge ~ so huge i can't pay it.  and i know in my little heart that Christ has paid them.... all of them... even the ones not committed yet. 
today is good.  tomorrow will be better.  and the next day even better.  and i can hardly wait until winter gets here. 

it is the most beautiful day here.  i have been busy.... but enjoying the sun, the breeze the blue sky. 

here are my tomatoes... the last ones from the garden.  romas.  my romas.  sad to see them go, but it was 38 degrees this morning, with a chill factor of 33 degrees.  so Fall is officially here.  and i need to bake cookies, laundry, grade papers.  you know, the weekend stuff.  but it is absolutely gorgeous here.  thank you Lord.

  i love the Fall season.  glorious warm days, cool evenings, chilly nites and mornings, stars bright in the dark sky, colors are brilliant. i love the Fall.

absolutely beautiful day here.  gorgeous blue sky, white clouds, warm sun, bees still working in my flower beds. I purchased a bale of straw, cut it loose and then scattered it all over the garlic bed.  got about 9" on the bed for winter.
waiting on winter.  Fall is glorious right now.  was at a wedding this afternoon.  the bride was radiant.  white dress, her red hair against the trees outside. 
the fields are brown.  tall dry corn, low sweeping soy beans. dust on the road where bales have gone to the market. green of fall plantings.  hope of Fall, that in the planting and with Winter rest Spring will bring new growth.  i look forward to the Winter. 

I read several blogs.  one of my favorites is Ann VosKamp.  she is an amazing writer.  but today she is here: inCourage .  i cannot believe how she reveals herself to all of us.  she reveals what Christ has done in the midst of her brokenness, her sorrows, her joys.
i have a son.  he is adopted.  he will be 21 in january.  he is angry and confused and so very broken.  we have loved him, cared for him, given him what we could.  and he has rejected all of it.  he is homeless more or less. he believes we are the reason for his situation, for his life the way it is now.  he screwed up in high school and did very little of his work.  he joined the Marines and quit.  he had a job at a Salvation Army, and quit.  he has quit on himself.  he is especially very angry with my sam.  sam represents the father figure my son wants to hate ~ so he hates sam.  sam is flesh and blood ~ the father that my son doesn't know is represented in sam.  and my son blames him for everything. i want so badly to bring my son home.  to let him stay here ~ but that would only harm him.  enable him.  give him the impression that he doesn't need to work, or pay bills, or be responsible for his own actions.  so we pray for our prodigal in hopes that his eyes will be opened, his heart softened, his mind awakened to the family that loves him.

Just in from planting the garlic.  I will need to get a bale of straw and cover it for the winter.  I am hopeful that it will do well this time.  I have it in a bed that is screened in from animals, has been planted for the last 3 seasons so it has been dug well, and I am putting it in a totally different bed than what I have before. It is rather cool today, no sun, clouds are heavy grey and moving fast.  No rain yet, but it is supposed to be here this week.  I am ready to be done with canning.  I am tired of Saturdays being consumed with canning, gardening, composting, trimming.  It will be very nice to have the first frost. 
Rather reflects my life as I have said before.  I am tired of the politics, of people using people, of the lack of what someone says isn't what they do.  I have been reading on this and thinking of myself.  I wrote somewhere else I have become Job's wife.... not the part where she is without her children, her home, her husband ~ but the part where she is the nagging, selfish, unfaithful in her beliefs... that part.  I am afraid I have become her because of how disillusioned I am with the 'church'.  I am not going to church.  I have withdrawn from people.  I work, I come home.  I am overloaded with students this year, so I can use that as an excuse, but inside I know I should worshiping corporately.  I should be learning from someone out of the Word. but I stay home.  I do not want to see the people that I have seen in the last 5 years that have taken from us. It is much easier to withdraw.
And I see what the Lord has done for me... how He has cared for me, blessed me, loved me, let me learn to depend on Him alone.  but each day it is a lesson to be relearned. So this winter I will cover myself up in Him and hope to grow as He would have me.  To learn the lessons I am in need of, to seek Him as I did when my heart first blazed with His love.  blessings for the week to each of you.... it is busy for me....

i love the Fall... got married in the fall... had a baby in the fall.... there is so much about the Fall.  i wonder how God did it ~ to think of all of this?  fall in Ohio.  i am getting the garden to bed... ready to rest for the Winter.  there is a slow drizzle this afternoon and I knew it was coming.  i worked this morning cleaning out what Sam and i had worked on last night.  we got all the tomato plants pulled up and into compost bags, dug the rest of the potatoes, and pulled the pepper plants.  so this morning i took all the tomatoes, green and red, and got them off the plants.  my composters will rest as well... too cold to breakdown anything in the Winter.
i have the pressure canner going right now too.... as well as chocolate chip cookies to bake.  Sam is off with the youth tonight and will be home later.  there is soup in the canner.... a carrot, potato, chicken soup with onions and garlic and celery in it.  it is good for when we might be sick or have a cold or just need soup.  i usually add rice or tiny alphabets to it to serve.  and a good bread.  yum!
work is extremely busy. with 19 juniors and 15 seniors i have much to keep up with.  but one day at a time and it will go very very fast. 6 weeks are in already.  soon it will be report cards and conferences and November.
Em seems to be doing well in school.  she is trying to find a part time job which in ohio is a very difficult thing to find.  i am praying. 
and that is a little of life here.... and here are some pics from this morning.