Reflections

So does anyone else feel incredibly blessed today??? I was sitting here just thinking about how wonderful life is. I have such an incredible family (both my side and my hubby's side!!!) and some of the best friends in the world that a person could ever have. Even though I don't actually live close to any of the closest ones anymore I still have that feeling that I can pick up right where we left off in our last conversation with most of them. That is amazing to me. Life happens. And boy---life has happened big time to me!!! Most of you know that it has not always been smooth sailing for me or for that matter of fact for any of us here on this earth. We all experience those ups and downs and sometimes it seems that there are more downs than there are ups but through it all...God is good. I kind of think that as long as I stay focused on that I can handle just about anything that is thrown at me.

Somewhere along the line I discovered that I am a person of worth. That was not always an easy concept for an awkward, gawky, gangly pre-teen and teenager. I didn't have the greatest self esteem in the world and never really liked who I was. But somehow I figured it out (that was definitely a God thing) and once I figured it out I liked who I was and realized that God had made me just like I am for a reason. I am still on that journey of trying to figure out what my purpose in life is but for right now I think I am just hanging out, trying to listen to what God has in store for me each and every day and then to DO IT!!! That is the hard part sometimes!

So today I count my blessings and am grateful for this day that God has given me. I hope I can make Him proud of me today and that I can show someone out there that this God thing is a worthwhile investment----that it seems amazing and it is AMAZING to be loved so completely and totally. It is definitely something that you can bank on and in this day of uncertainty isn't it nice to have something that is a sure thing---an investment that will reap benefits????

The Little Brown Church in the Vale!

On the way home on Sunday we stopped at the Little Brown Church in the Vale which we have seen signs for every time we head to Ohio! It was well worth the small side trip! The song "The Church in the Wildwood" was written about this cute little church and it was a beautiful place!!! It still has an active congregation and the info there said that they expected to celebrate the 73,000th marriage in the church in 2009!!! Now that is a lot of weddings!! It was a beautiful place, beautiful setting and a worthwhile side trip if you are ever in the Nashua, Iowa area.
This following selection is from their literature telling all about the history of the church if you want to know more!

HISTORY

The first settlers came to the Bradford area in 1848 and with an abundant water supply and virgin timber, the town grew. By 1855 the first members of the Puritan-Congregational Church had begun holding meetings. By 1856, Bradford had 500 residents and was the first town in this part of Iowa.

A young music teacher named William Pitts was traveling by stagecoach from Wisconsin to Iowa to visit his future wife. While waiting for the stagecoach horses to be changed, he walked down Cedar Street and saw the empty lot where the church now stands. Being a romantic young man, the thought came to him of what a charming setting the spot would make for a church. Returning home, he wrote the poem “Church in the Wildwood,” and later set it to music. He put it away in a drawer and forgot it.

Meanwhile, church members grew tired of meeting in places such as the lawyer’s office, abandoned stores and parishioners’ homes. They began making plans to build a church. A family in the parish gave them the property. When Rev. Nutting arrived, talk of building became serious. Limestone was quarried and by 1860 the foundation was laid. The Civil War slowed the work, but when one family gave trees and another donated the sawing of the lumber, the work never really ceased. By 1862 the building was enclosed and not a penny had been spent. When it came time to paint the building, the cheapest paint to be found was Ohio Mineral Paint, which would protect the wood but which was unhappily brown. With help from friends in the east, the building was finished, complete with bell, in 1864.

Mr. Pitts had married and was living in Wisconsin. In 1862 the couple moved to Fredericksburg to be near her elderly parents and Mr. Pitts was hired to teach singing class at the Bradford Academy. Imagine his surprise when he saw a little brown church nestled in the very trees where he had stood some years before. He went home and found the song and taught it to his class who sang it at the dedication service of the church. Pitts had written a song for a church that wasn’t there. The congregation had painted their little church brown without ever hearing of the song.

History was hard on the Little Brown Church. The railroad by-passed the town and a flour mill moved to New Hampton to be on a bigger river. The railroad and other industry moved to Nashua. The town, once the county seat, slowly disappeared. In 1888, the church building was closed, although the congregation continued to hold Sunday School every week at the school. Occasional services were held at the building. In the early 1900’s a Society For The Preservation of The Little Brown Church was started and by 1914, services were again held, as they are now.

History took another turn when the Weatherwax Quartet traveled throughout Canada and the United States between 1910 and 1921. Their theme song was “The Church in the Wildwood” and they talked about the little church. After World War I, highways were improved and cars brought many visitors. When a School superintendent and a merchants’ daughter were married at the church, a new tradition was started. Over 40,000 visitors come to the Little Brown Church each year, and over 400 weddings are performed annually. In June of 2005, the 72,000 wedding was held at the church. The congregation is alive and well with an active Sunday School, youth groups, choirs, ladies’ fellowship, Bible study, a prayer chain group, and weekly services at 10:30 on Sunday. They remain, as they were founded, a Congregational Church. The song continues to be sung in a little church that is painted brown and sits in the wildwood.

In 1998 the bell tower was completely restored. In 2000 with help from the State Historical Society of Iowa Site Preservation Grant Program, a new foundation was placed under the church. This project has enabled the church to be completely handicap accessible. Air conditioning has been added for the first time.

Worship services are held every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. starting with a sing a long at 10:15 a.m. Everyone is welcome to join us.

Amana Colonies

One of the homes in Amana.

One of my favorite pictures...may have to get prints of this one!

Everywhere we went there were neat photographs to be taken!

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Chris and I did an overnight away to the Amana Colonies and had a great time!!! He always wanted to go there----since high school I think, and it was really quite interesting as well as beautiful! The weather cooperated and we avoided the rain that was predicted and had such a great time! Learned a little bit about the history of the colonies and their people---German Pietists, who shared a communal lifestyle until 1935 when they separated the religious side from the business side and discontinued the communal style of life where everything was shared. It was all pretty interesting to see all the history and to know that the descendents are still living there in Amana and the other colonies close by. The buildings, sandstone, were beautiful and of course they all have beautiful gardens and flowers so I spent a lot of time taking pictures of some of the more picturesque things around.

We ate dinner at one of the great restaurants there and I had the best chicken I think I have ever had while Chris opted for the sauerbrauten. Of course we had all the family style fixings and ended up with rhubarb pie for dessert (we had only eaten a very small breakfast so we were famished!). It was fabulous!! And great service. It is nice to go places where the service is good, the food is hot and timely and people act like they want to serve you! The waitress even made Chris a special coffee since they didn't have cappuccino so you can be sure she got a good tip!

We stayed in Homestead, about 3 miles from Amana, and stayed a a nice old place that was beautifully decorated ---each room had a theme and ours was the Vintner Room so it was done with grapevines and burgandies and greens and was really quaint and nice. They served breakfast in one part of the inn and it was really yummy this morning with waffles and fresh baked bread and muffins, pastries, fresh fruit and fabulous coffee. I am all about the food these days it seems. :-( Maybe not a good thing! But it was a great stay (other than the trains that were VERY close ) and the random wrong number at 1 am.!!!!

I have included a few pics but will post more later as well as some pictures of the Little Brown Church that we stopped at on the way home today! Ready for a new week!

Feeling Mighty Fine!

Isn't it wonderful when you feel like you have actually accomplished something? I don't care if it is just clearing off your desk at work---there is something that strikes such a positive chord with me when I feel like I have made headway on something. Today is a good day! I am getting there. I have the distinct pleasure of being the "trailing spouse" right now and not being gainfully employed. But with that life of leisure comes a bit of responsibility---it is mainly my responsibility to make sure the house is up to snuff, so to speak. So....while I have dragged my feet on many things lately I have been gung ho on the whole "revitalization of the home" process and it has proved to be a little more than therapeutic for me. As I clean, paint, wallpaper and redecorate a bit it has helped me to erase some of those negative feelings that I had surrounding our renters. I am still miffed at them for their lack of respect but I have come to terms with it and as I revamp things a bit it seems to have helped my attitude. Which is a good thing. I had a horrible attitude for awhile. I admit it. I was less than enamored with life. But God is so good and I have seen that first hand repeatedly that I realize that I need to just get over it all and move on with things. So I am.

So today I worked on the "guest room" of which we have many in this house!!! Being empty nesters and all means that only one of our 5 bedrooms is actually used which seems quite silly and a bit of a waste but it is what is is. After a frustrating online experience with a discount wallpaper company (and I am still waiting on hearing back from them about a return I need to make) I finally found a border that would work at Menards. I should have just gone there first! The border went up in record time and I am quite happy with the results--may need to change out the bedding but things are looking good in the basement area now! If anyone chose to come visit us we could accomodate them nicely!!!

All in all---life is good! It is finally raining, the washer is humming, my hermit crabs are making scritching scratching sounds here on the bookcase next to me, I still have some Harrington's corn to cook for supper and I have a good book next to me by Brennan Manning that I have been wanting to read for some time so I think that will be my afternoon project. After all---i got a lot done early this morning so I should be allowed to kick back and enjoy life a bit!!!

I am getting a little bit scared....

Yesterday while I was walking through the neighborhood I saw a shiny red pickup truck. Now that in itself is not unusual but .........on the front of it was a snow blade. Yes, September 14th and this dude had a snow blade on his truck. Now I am hoping against all hope that he just got a new toy and was trying it out ---seeing how the truck drove with the blade on and all....yes...that has to be it!!! I do not want to think about the alternative. And today at the assisted living place in our little development the discussion turned to the weather and there were differing opinions----easy winter vs. hard winter. I am being optimistic and thinking that it is going to be an enjoyable winter!

Add to that little scenario that I now have a hummingbird trapped in my garage. It is flying relentlessly as hummingbirds do but just can't seem to figure out to go low, under the garage door to escape. I have talked to it and tried to lead it but to no avail. I now have a red bowl with sugar water sitting outside the open garage door. I anticipate in the morning there will be weird insects in the bowl and the hummingbird will either be dead from exhaustion or still flitting about the garage. I tried to get a bird out of a garage once in NC with a net and had dismal results so I don't think I can do any better with a faster smaller hummingbird. So if anyone has any brilliant ideas---I am open to them.

A veiw from one of the highest points in Iowa!

I realize that it is not that big of a deal to some of you to say that you have been at 1450 elevation but here in Iowa that is pretty unusual! Chris and I hiked a bit in Pilot Knob State Park on Sunday and got a nice view from the observatory of the surrounding land. It really was a beautiful day and we are trying to enjoy the last few days of summer while we can! We were also taking a break from our work weekend of pressure washing the garage and deck.!!! Gotta reward yourselves when you have worked hard!

I got the deck stained yesterday, am working on one of the bedrooms downstairs today and hope to paint the downstairs bathroom tomorrow. The painter / construction dude was here today and we should have estimates soon for the repairs we need done and then we are on the way! It will be so good to have all this work done. I have been trying to figure out how to decorate/minimize/declutter and it is coming together! Feels good to be making some headway on it.

Enjoy the pics and let me know if you get dizzy from just looking at them---or if the air becomes thin....LOL.

What I did on Summer Vacation!

The fountain at Copeland Oaks!

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Flowers in the beautiful gardens at Copeland Oaks.

The beautiful Sebring House in Sebring, Ohio which is going to be an Inn and Spa when finished.

Artsy shot!

Mural of the Schrenkengost mural in Sebring---very amazing!!!

This seems only appropriate to talk about summer vacations--remember when you were a kid and you went back to school in September (Yes---AFTER Labor Day) and the teacher asked you to write about what you did for summer vacation??? Well, not everyone was always able to take a vacation or do something spectacular but I sure have been blessed this summer with plenty of things to do!!! I have not really written much about my Ohio trip but here ya go!!! The above pictures come from my time in Sebring, Ohio with my mom! Chris and I had a great time with her there and are sooooo very happy that she is at Copeland Oaks. It really has been a blessing to know that she has a great support system there and friends galore who check on her and make sure that she is doing okay. Add to her busy schedule her yoga and step classes, working at the library once a week and all the other villa and church activities and she is way busier than I am at this point! Now that is pretty good for an almost 80 year old!!!

So here is the lesson----keep active and do all the things that you love for as long as you can. Especially in this day and age you just never know what is around the corner so you have to take an example from my fabulous mama and do all that you can do!!!

It's Been Awhile!!!!

Buddy and Holly basking in the sunshine

Carlton trying to choose which cookies to buy!!!

Meredith and Buddy----he obviously LOVES her!!!

I took a little hiatus from blogging while I was traveling --basically because my internet connections were not always that great and picture uploading took forever!!! But I am back and will post a few lines about my travels east!!! I had a great time---first of all in Lima, Ohio staying with my brother in law while Chris and his dad went salmon fishing. Then on to Ashland, OH for a quick visit with my brother and wife and niece, Sebring with my mom and some time with my sister in Columbiana and finally coming back to Iowa via Freeport, IL where we used to live!!! Put some miles on the car but definitley had a good trip!

The fishing trip was great and the men both caught nice salmon but more importantly had some great father son time! I had fun staying with Carl and as long as he gets his food and stays on his schedule he is fine!!! I tried not to mess up his schedule too much!!! It was great to be with him and have some one on one time with him!!! And to be able to spend time with Chris' sister, brother in law and niece was another great thing!!! I took a picture of Meredith and one of our kitties, Buddy, and will try to post it if I can get it off of my phone !!!