Just Plain & Simple Me

Friends to share a meal with.

Night time at our little country church. (Ignore the blue paint, hopefully we'll get to paint in the coming year!)

The table. All set and ready.

We've had a very busy fall! Sometimes I wish the leaves would all fall off my maple tree at one time, so that we could just rake a couple of dump truck loads all at once and be done with it. I love that old tree, and the leaves are so pretty; it keeps us nice and cool in the summer, as we sit on the swing cooling off. I wasn't ready for summer to end, but wow!! It's almost December and the days will start getting longer again!

My Finnish Cardamom Bread

This month, our little Bible study group had a Thanksgiving meal together.  I think we all came really excited, it's the first time we've done something special, and it WAS a special time. I was really looking forward to celebrating God's faithfulness with this little group.  We are so blessed to have this little place to share, to learn, to grow in. These people God has put in our lives. Celebrating what He's brought us through, trials and hard stuff. His providing us with this quaint little country church. He is is so good to us!

It's been that busy time of year for me. November is hectic with bread baking, and I've had a lot of fun baking and selling my bread. I've had a few sell-out days, that's always a nice thing! Except for one more sale in Columbia City, outside of St. Helens, in December, I only have a couple days of special orders, and I'm through the busy baking season, and can do some leisurely homemaking.

This week, we're going to be doing something I love to do before the holidays. Cleaning! I'm talking about sending my husband out onto the beams in our living room with a vacuum lol. Today we got the bedroom all dusted, floors done, everything all nice and clean. I like to spring clean once in spring, once in fall/winter. All the knicknacks cleaned, all those books dusted. When I met my husband I had NO IDEA he was such a book freak! At least his books are beautiful! Well, when the cleaning is done, the nice warm fire is going, the Christmas music is playing, it'll be a day of decorating. Not all-out decorating, but a little holiday cheer. Some warm welcoming on the porch for visitors. Sometimes the stress of what this old world brings gets me down, but you know, I just keep looking up! There is a very good plan to it all!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of blessing, full of reflection on how much we have all been blessed! ~Karen