Oh how I enjoyed looking back through all of these photos to edit and choose them, and they were not that long ago!

November was a full month of many normal things and many additional things too!

Off course our school work marched along – including my NaiNai school days with my grand kiddos!!

Another normal thing that you all already know about is the fact that we eat!

And we eat GOOD!

And we LOVE to make all the things we eat!

November was no different, and Thanksgiving celebrations made that even more fun.

I’m still the Friday morning shopper, but I still have good helpers in our sweet little kitchen.

I also still go to workout with my trainer at the Pilates Studio while I am in town on Friday mornings – but after getting groceries I think my workout has truly already been accomplished!!

Just look at all of these yummy things we made in November!!

Some of them are staples, and some are new things…but all were yummy!!

Let me add here that Tate cooked dinner and dessert almost all by himself for everyone for family night this week.

Be still my heart!!!

I hope that where ever his love for food, cooking, and this kitchen take him that he always remembers standing next to his Mama in this kitchen over his years here at home.

Sharing the kitchen with all of these kiddos over the years has been one of my greatest joys!!

I found some fun treats while doing all that grocery shopping!

I won’t buy those cinnamon chips again…well, maybe I will!

You can’t stop at just a few – just saying!!

They are super yummy!!

We always find creative ways to keep busy here at home, besides cooking and baking all the time I mean!

We worked on a snowflake cutting project for a couple of afternoons in an effort to cover our sliding glass door with snowflakes so that the birds would see it and quit running into the glass.

A bird ran into the glass while we were sitting there cutting them out and stunned itself so much that it sat there for over an hour before finally flying away again.

I do not have a photo of the completely finished windows, but you get the idea!

We also had a project of decorating for Christmas.

We are a “decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving” kind of family!

Are you all?

That HUGELY blessed us this year, because when illness hit, our decorating was already done!

I am not sure we would have even had a tree up if it had not happened this way!

And how I LOVE to sit by the lights of the Christmas tree early in the mornings and have my Bible time.

Addie and I had added some new ornaments to our tree this year from Hobby Lobby.

They are beautiful and I am thankful for them!

You can see them in the photos below.

We find lots of other things to fill our days too and I am forever grateful for how resourceful our trio is in keeping themselves busy!

Our dogs on the other hand don’t always use their time wisely, ha, ha!

They are our JOY though, and I love them probably more than anyone else!!

I bought this new storage system for my oils in November and it is much better than having a shelf on the wall that constantly needed dusted!

I set this in our bathroom linen closet and it is easy to retrieve and easy to use.

And does not need dusted.

I took this photo of Addie leaving for work one morning!

She is a BRIGHT light here in our home and we miss her when she is at work!

November had us at the polls.

Voting is IMPORTANT stuff!

Can we just pause here for a second at this next photo?

THIS KID.

He is A GEM.

(Actually, they ALL are!!)

I love capturing photos like this one, zoomed in from across the room, of real life with Tate.

Do you see his resilience there?

Do you see his strong character there?

Do you see how nothing about his stature or size gets in his way?

He is an inspiration!

And I AM HIS MAMA!!!

Tate also is super helpful when the driveway needs cleared of snow.

He is STRONG!!

And always the first one outside – even before he eats breakfast!

That favorite realtor of ours sent me this one afternoon.

I think Chad looked for this to see if he could find it, and find it he did!

It is the listing of our land (and the home that sat here) before they tore it down to build the one we live in now.

SO neat to see!!

Do you all remember that tree stump that sits in the foreground of that photo in the listing?

The second photo is where it stood in relation to our home – do you see it to the right of Tate between the two big trees?

The third and fourth photos are from the day we cut it down, back in 2017!

SO….

About that illness.

It is a story that will continue into my December posts.

But it is a story of God’s goodness to us EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

As I type this, we are still dealing with this illness that will NOT go away.

It all started the weekend before Thanksgiving when I lost my voice.

No other symptoms really, just that.

I forced myself to stay quiet and in bed for two days thinking it would help me recover quickly.

There were a lot of things coming up that I did not want to miss!!

And then Eliza got sick the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

She ran a high fever for 24 hours and was 100 percent back on her feet the next day!

Praise God!

Grant was next with a slight cold and the symptoms that go with that.

I took him some oils, cough drops, and soup and he recovered easily!

Illness didn’t stop there….but I will wait to say the rest with the photos I have to go along with the story from December.

We missed going to church for five weeks but got to listen through live stream.

In the last photo you can see how Ruby feels about church at home, ha, ha!

Since I have been absent from this space for so long, I will add my signature to the end of this post!

Now you know it is me!

November.

It went fast.

It went slow.

It was full.

Is it just my age, or do you all feel the weight of how quickly time is moving along?

I just want to freeze it!

Keep these kiddos little.

Then I want to speed it up!!

And see God write the rest of our story!!

I am currently sitting at the kitchen island, watching our little bird restaurant through all of those snowflakes on the windows while the snow falls.

Let’s freeze time right now, Ok?

I hope you all see God gifts in the snow and birds and good food and children and friends…and even in illness too.

It is ALL from Him!!

Praise God for ALL he allows!!!