Thankful for...apples, pears, tomatoes - Harvest!

I don't love the 7-8 months of dreary, rainy weather we get in the Willamette Valley (notice I did NOT say Oregon, because where I come from it's a lot drier in Bend).  But I do LOVE  all the produce, vegetation, berries, etc, we get to enjoy in the late summer and fall.  God has blessed this area with amazing vegetation and much of it goes unused (sadly), so much of the produce we have enjoyed has been the blessings of strangers, friends, family, and just gleaning from places that aren't being use.

I have dried lots of pears, made pear butter, applesauce, frozen apples, BBQ sauce, Ketchup (from home grown tomatoes).  And today, I had the pleasure of pressing apples through a cider press that is likely 100 years old.  It was so fun!  And the apple cider is DELICIOUS!!!  I didn't take any photos (sorry), but it was a lot of fun.

Feeling blessed as we approach winter, and to know we have such yummy, wholesome, organic food stored up - when many go without any.

Thank you Lord.

Thankful...for photos, smiles, and memories

I love photos.  I love looking back on new and old photos and remembering.  Remembering good times, hard times, and meaningful things.  Such precious treasure God has given us in our memory - both good and bad.  I may not always remember as I grow older.  I think of Tobin's Grandfather that we are helping care for this weekend.  He is 99, and his memory is very poor.  He can't remember moment or moment or much day to day.  But he remembers Tobin and I.  And whenever we come up and visit it is such a joy to see the smile that crosses his face when he realizes we've come to visit.  I know some that have illnesses, ugly, that attack the memory - very, very hard.  So for now I will be so thankful for memories, and the ability to look back on photos and smile, cry, and feel loved.  Thank you Lord for this blessing.

In no particular order.  I was just looking through our photos on the computer, and here's a few that made me smile, laugh, remember, recollect.

Ah...we love snow - Tobin all geared up for snowmobiling

We've walked up Pilot Butte in Bend as a Miller fam, several years now...Our family keeps growing!

I laugh at this because this was our first apartment with our camping chairs for furniture and dining room!  Good memories!

Love my sis and the crazy times, difficult times, and funny times we've been through.

Good family memories...being together

Summiting Mountains with my Love.

Thankful...belly distorting kicks.

One of the most joyful things I have experienced this entire pregnancy, is getting feel our daughter moving, kicking, rolling over, hiccuping, and elbow jabbing me.  I think continuously of the verse:

For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well. Ps. 139:13-14

So amazing to live this verse first hand.  Thinking God is forming, and knitting together our child.  He is making her - fearfully and wonderfully - and my soul knows it very well.

Very well. 

Thankful in all.