Remembering and Celebrating!

When we celebrate the independence of the modern state of Israel, it is a serious thing, that is done in depth and width and with so many aspects to it. As a family we started the season by going to the Hall of Independence in Tel Aviv on Friday last week. What happened there in May of 1948 was very well known to all of us, but being in the room was a first experience, and we were all touched by it. Sitting there and watching the seats David Ben Gurion and his people sat on, as they decided on the final wording of the proclamation of independence. Listening to the recording of his voice saying it: – …a Jewish state, the state of Israel. We heard of what Golda Meir had tearfully said as she sat there and was part of it, and thought of all those who had been brutally wiped out in the holocaust just a few years before; – it is all too late… But then there was the next thought, of the coming generations; – it is not too late for them. 

As we stood there together and sang HaTikva at the end, I was really moved. Ok, I admit it, I am always moved singing HaTikvah, but this was very special, standing right there, joining our voices to their broken and heavily moved ones from 66 years ago.

Sunday night this week started the day where we respect and honor the memory of those who have died for what we get to live, – the modern state of Israel. We remember both soldiers and terror victims, as they have all fallen for our freedom here. Oh, and there are so many stories, so many individuals. 23 169 to be exact. And as a people, we take a real break and think of them and actively remember them together. At 8 o’clock Sunday evening we all stood in one minute’s silence in their memory, and at 11 o’clock on Monday morning we stood remembering for two minutes. Let me tell you, a LOT can go through your head during two minutes. I am thinking of all kinds of stories, individuals, heroes, who have fallen. I am feeling with and crying with their wives, mothers, sisters… And I am thinking of my dear ones, thankful to have received my own soldier back home time and time again.

As our children get older, they get to take a deeper and deeper part of this remembering as well. Our ten year old son was more touched by it than he has been before. At school they have a place to honor the fallen ones from their school, and they are always remembered in the ceremony at the school. Most of them were graduates who later, in their army service fell as soldiers. Those are of course very tragic too, but there is one that the children can really relate to already, and that is Sivan. Sivan was still a student at the school, when she on a spring afternoon of 1997 went with another girl to buy some school supplies in Ben Yehuda. And there was a suicide terrorist with a bomb strapped to him, who blew the girls up along with himself. They both died instantly.

A Yom haZikaron photo from Facebook

Then there was the story his teacher had told him this year. Of her father being a young soldier, scheduled to do a certain flight. At the last minute, another soldier came and said: – you just got married, I’ll do this flight. He never came back. Had he not done that… we all know what that would have meant for the teacher and so many others. I am sure this young air force soldier is one of those that she remembers as we stand in silence.

As the sun sets at the end of this very emotional day of remembrance, we enter into total celebration, of what these people fought and fell for, of the victory, of the miracle, of Israel!!! And really, – we know how to remember, but we also know how to celebrate!!! And one would not have been what it is, without the other. They are so connected one to the other.

As you float through the streets of Jerusalem on this night, the overriding theme in your head and heart has got to be: AM YISRAEL CHAI!!! The people of Israel lives!!!

The amazing joy! The crazy celebrations! The singing! The dancing! The togetherness! All the flags everywhere, on everyone and on everything!

This year it was also a particularly beautiful night. We have such hot days that they can be hard to bear, but then what helps us bear it, is the knowledge that there will be a beautiful night. Not too cold, not too hot, just perfect for being outside together with everyone else.

The fireworks were spectacular! Really, better than I can remember them from the past few years. So big! So overwhelmingly taking over the sky! So celebrating!!!

We fell into bed, slept well, and woke up to continue the celebrations today. And what everyone does today, is barbecue. It does not make a difference that it is so hot no one really feels like eating anything big, – that is the tradition, so that is what we do.

My daughter’s plate at our barbecue today

People fill up the parks from early in the morning to get the best spots (*read: the shady spots). We felt like quite the winners this year, when we, after sleeping in a bit, went jeeping with friends of ours. This way we could escape the crowds and get to see our beautiful country that we are celebrating today. And, yes, find a good and quiet and nice spot for our own big barbecue.

I really enjoyed the ride in the car. In the beginning I was suggesting songs about Israel, that the children learnt in gan (preschool), because we have been singing them ever since on this day. But, no, now they informed me that they are much too old for those now. So we ended up sitting there singing Arik Einstein songs. Good times indeed.

And as we drove down from Jerusalem, through Shaar HaGai, the old tanks standing there decorated with flags are again a reminder of those who fought and fell for what we get to live.

The decorated tanks in Shaar HaGai, photo from the internet

Along this road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, there is a lot of work going on to improve the road. We are always fascinated by all the large vehicles that work relatively constantly all along the road. Today, however, they were taking a break, and I totally LOVED seeing those too decorated with Israeli flags.

This just goes to show that we are not only fighting for and defending our land, – we are BUILDING our land, our roads and everything!

And just driving through our beautiful country, coming close enough to smell the flowers, and even catch the butterflies (yes, that was during the hike, not the actual drive…), is always a joy!

Going with those particular friends has its fringe benefits, because they get us out relatively early, and therefore also back relatively early. So here I am, enjoying the shade of our umbrella in our garden, watching all the flags we have decorated with here. Not all bad, either. I always love it when all of a sudden there is some surprise free time that doesn’t have anything planned yet.

Our son has gotten into the snow-spray part of the celebration this year. (He did help clean the car afterwards…)

Anyway, – whatever I am doing, I am still celebrating! Happy 66th birthday, Israel!!! And, – thank you, God, for this wonderful modern day miracle!!

 

Pumpkin soup

November is here, and that means majoring on pumpkins, doesn’t it? I did not grow up eating a lot of pumpkins, so the pumpkin pies I make mostly for my American husband and for our son who also loves this. Pumpkin-soup on the other hand, is something my tastebuds can share a love for.

Last week I made this soup for our weekly Thursday Torah-study group. And afterwards I have been asked for the recipe, so I thought I might as well write it here on the blog. As with many of the things that I make, it is really simple and easy. The secret behind its wonderful taste, is a lot of pumpkin! Or a lot of butternut squash, or a mixture of the two, which is what I did the other day.

I start by cutting a couple of onions into relatively small pieces, and frying them in butter over medium heat, so that the onion pieces turn shiny, but not brown. Meanwhile I prepare the pumpkin or squash, – peal, remove seeds and cut into quite big cubes. Those pieces I throw on top of the onions, and then I just barely cover it all with water. The less water, the thicker soup, naturally. At this point I add salt, pepper and bullion, quite a bit of it to add good flavor.

You cook it until the pumpkin pieces are soft, and if there is time, you let it cool slightly before mushing it with a mixer of some sort. I prefer a stick mixer, but a regular mixer works too, or even a food processor, but it is a mess having to transfer the whole thing. When it has all turned into soup, I add cream, which of course makes the flavor all the creamier and yummier (*this is a step that can be skipped and if you do oil instead of butter in the beginning, you have a parve soup). At the end you taste it and add spice to make it just the way you want it.

We had leftover soup for lunch today, which was perfect for our prince who was home from school because he was not feeling well. I am hoping we are all just getting mild cases of colds and flus now in the beginning of the season, so to speak, and that this will make us immune for the rest of the winter. One can always hope. And plenty of soup and good rest should help it too!

Free IKEA-visit and New Garden-couch.

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog post. Here, anyway. And this is the only blog I have, so the other place I have written blog-posts is in my head. Like, – I was going to write about how much fun one could have without spending any money. Going flower-picking, or rather, picking wild herbs like rosemary or lavender, in our case. Or, going biking, if you already have the bikes, that is. Or just hanging out reading books or playing games. Or going to IKEA.

Fun 2 shekel IKEA ice-creams!

Yes, we did that the other day, when we had errands to do around the country, and one of them was something my husband had to do near IKEA, and the kids and I decided to wait for him in the nicely air-conditioned IKEA for about three hours! Without buying anything at all, other than cheap meals for the kids!! They had a GREAT time! We had so much time at every place, the playroom, the movie-place, the shop itself, the restaurant, – everywhere! The children said, – this is so much fun, it is like we LIVE at IKEA! 🙂 And then they asked; – Imma, do we have to pay to get into IKEA??? – No, I answered, – normally we have to pay quite a bit to get OUT… hehe… 😉

watching a movie at IKEA, while enjoying the ice-creams. Nice life.

And, what I have looked forward to showing you is this new garden-couch or bench-thing that I made out of our old baby-bed!

I just put it up with only one of the long sides, and the mattress placed high up, painted it white, sewed some new pillow-cases for it, and walla, – I have a whole new look on my terrace!!

It made me SO happy, – and the whole thing was totally free! How satisfying! Reusing everything! (*By the way, if you want to do this yourself, also get some type of strengthening for the seating, because of course, most of us are heavier than babies… I found some pieces of wood that others had thrown away, that I just added on top of the support that was already there, and now it is nice and strong.)

The other night, just as we came home from gymnastics and baseball practice, we got some big drops of rain filled with dust, which equals mud, and we quickly brought our “new” garden furniture inside, and found that this garden couch works very well as a bench at the end of our dining room table too! How convenient!

I even found another good use for the one side-piece of the bed that there was no use for here, but I will show you that in another post. Haven’t painted it white yet. It is such a blessing to be able to renew the look of one’s home by just using what one already has. Really makes me happy!

To be. To be alive. How wonderful!

Summer has most definitely arrived in Israel, and we enjoy beautiful candle-lit evenings outside. Like, right now, I sit here on my new garden-couch. Candles and wine on the table in front of me. Nice Life.

Hamentashen

There is no doubt about it. Purim is in the air. And it is a happy, crazy type of atmosphere. Today the kids went to school in their pajamas. Every day this week they are dressing up in some type of different theme. Tomorrow they are going as someone from the movies. We have one Pippi Longstocking and one James Bond. Very different choices, very different kids.

Here at home we have costumes and masks and face-paint all over, so there is no forgetting that we are in the month of Adar, and that Purim is right around the corner. And, we are enjoying Oznei Haman, the Purim cookies maybe most commonly known as Hamentashen. Their Hebrew name, “Oznei Haman” literaly means “Haman’s Ears”, so that is what we are eating for treats these days…

I thought I’d share my recipe with you here, if you wanted to try them out yourselves. They are really pretty easy to make, but it is somewhat time-consuming as each one has to be made in several steps individually. Anyway, it is totally worth it. The homemade ones are so much better than the store bought ones, and just think of the lovely smell it spreads around the house!

My recipe is quite big, and makes about 150 cookies, which will come in handy, because you want to make sure to have plenty to fill your sweet Purim gifts for your neighbors and friends. But if you want to, you can just cut everything in half and make a smaller batch too. 🙂

OZNEI HAMAN

Dough:

600 grams butter

300 grams sugar

3 eggs

the peel of two lemons

2 teaspoons vanilla

900 grams flour

1 teaspoons instant yeast

2 teaspoons baking powder

Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Then beat in the vanilla and the lemon peel. In the end fold in the flour, yeast and baking powder. (I never quite understood why the yeast is there, and you could probably skip it, but I have always added a little bit of it since the recipe asks for it.)

It is best to let the dough cool before shaping the cookies. Anything from an hour to overnight is good.

Poppy seed filling:

200 grams poppy seeds

the peel and juice of one lemon

raisins and chopped nuts

lots of good jam

some water

optional : sugar (I normally don’t add sugar, but I really put a LOT of jam.)

Cook the filling over low heat for about an hour. Taste and adjust along the way.

And then there is the option of filling them the way I did the ones in the photos here, – with Nutella. Simple, easy and delicious!

The way you make them, is to roll your cooled dough out flat on a floured surface. Stick out round shapes with a cup or something. Put a little bit of filling in the middle of each round, and fold them closed so they end up in the shape of a triangle in the end. 

Bake for 8 – 10 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.

ENJOY!!

Rosh Chodesh Adar

There is no moon to be seen in the sky these nights. We are at a new moon, which means a new month in the Jewish calendar. And this is not just any month, – it is the month of Adar! And as the popular song goes: Mi She Nichnas Adar, Marbim be Simcha! – When Adar begins, our joy increases!

What are we so joyful about in Adar? Most of it is probably linked to the holiday that is celebrated in the middle of Adar, – Purim, where we celebrate that the evil Haman did not succeed in carrying out his plan to kill our people. It is all written in the book of Esther, for those who need to be reminded of the details, it sure is quite a story!

The excitement in the house was great when we brought our “Purim-box” out of the storage-rooom yesterday. We have these types of boxes for all the holidays, and the kids (ok, me too!) just LOVE when we bring them in once a year. I wish you could hear the shouts of joy as they go through the content and are reminded of when they made that and who gave them that and so on and so on.

The Purim box has a lot of stuff related to dressing up, like face-paints and wigs and masks and that type of stuff. The truth is our kids like to dress up all year around, so we actually have a box of dress-up-clothes easily accessible in our home, but it all goes one step up around Purim. Good times!

Rosh Chodesh Adar, or rather that last day of Shvat, is also “Yom Ha Mishpacha” – “Family Day“ in Israel. It is what used to be “Mothers Day“, and in our modern and politically correct times has become ” Family Day”…. Either way, – it is all good. We are happy to celebrate family any day! The kids brought sweet gifts and cards, and my husband bought me a beautiful plant. I am one blessed mother, and I have so much to be thankful for!

And we went out and got what we needed for the kids´Purim costumes this year. Our boy is going to be dressed up as a cowboy, and our girl as the little mermaid. Cute ones! Pictures of this will come later, when the fine-polishing of their costumes is all done… 😉 The photos in this post are from last year´s Purim, when they were dressed up as a pirate and Pippi Longstocking.

A very good Chodesh Adar to you all!

Another blessed Shabbat.

Here in Israel we are rejoicing over a very good start to our rain-season this year! This is the best beginning of the winter that we have had in over twenty years, as far as rain goes! This past Friday was one of those days when it just felt like the skies were open, and it just POURED big time! Thinking it was going to stay that way, I prepared hot chicken soup and hot apple cider for Shabbat, and we brought out all our puzzles to enjoy during this rainy Shabbat. And yes, Friday night was perfect in a warm home with comfort food and family fun with puzzles.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But come Shabbat morning, and the weather had cleared up quite a bit. It was still very cold, but the wind and the rain had moved on. So, as we say in this family, – there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes, – we put on good, warm clothes and walked to the Western Wall, the Kotel. In the Women’s section, one could notice that a lot of the regulars had decided to stay home on this cold morning, so those of us who did make it out, were blessed to get the best seats, – all the way up close to the Wall!

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I felt so privileged sitting there praying, looking up at the huge stones above me, and at the cracks next to me stuffed full of prayers written on notes. Those notes were soaked wet from all the rain that God has blessed us so richly with lately. I felt so deeply rich who got to sit right there and pray in anticipation:

ותחזינה עינינו בשובך לציון ברחמים. ברוך אתה ה” המחזיר שכינתי לציון

May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in compassion. Blessed are You, HASHEM, Who restores His Presence to Zion.

Then later, we got to hear the whole Torah Portion read right there, including the very exciting words: I am Josef! Those words carry within them the anticipation of the coming of our Mashiach, and He will say: I am the Mashiach!

Today, Sunday, is the tenth of Tevet, a fast day in the Jewish year, and I just listened to a very inspiring lecture about this day by Shira Smiles. She said that we have to live every day in the anticipation of the coming of the Mashiach, of the awaiting redemption, which she called ציפיית ישועה – TZIPIAT YESHUAH! The expectation of Salvation, of Yeshuah! 

Wow! Isn’t it just so exciting to be alive??! To get to live and work towards such a wonderful hope! To get to be a part of something so much greater than ourselves!

Related articles

• Shabbat at the Kotel. (teenainjerusalem.wordpress.com)
• Oh, Shabbat… (teenainjerusalem.wordpress.com)

For the love of candles!

Hanukkah may be over, but winter is most definitely still here, which means it is still a very good time to light candles, – lots of candles! I love candles! They just bring with them a special sort of relaxed atmosphere. There is something alive and beautiful about them. Somehow candles encourage us to enjoy the moment, don’t you think? And hello, – they literally LIGHT up our world a bit!

I can be found to light candles even in the middle of the summer. Here in Israel we have warm and dark summer evenings, and to then sit outside in the garden with a few candles, is a very nice experience! But there is no competing with how perfect candles are in the cold and dark fall and winter! To me, they add to the quality of life! So, yes, I go through a fair bit of candles during a year. But I am not a person to waste stuff, and in this post, I want to show you what I do with the left-over wax from large candles like the big one featured in the pictures above. I keep the left over bits of wax in zip lock bags in my large candle drawer, and once a year I melt the wax to make new candles from it. (This activity is ideally done during Hanukkah, but this year we just weren’t able to fit it in, and anyway, it was nice to have something fun to do the day after Hanukkah too!)

By the way, this is a GREAT way to use broken Hanukkah-candles too! Anyone who has put candles in a few hanukkiot night after night, knows how easily they break, especially when children try to “help”.

So, step one, – collect all your left-over wax from old candles.

left-over wax from old candles

Step two, – prepare the moulds, cups or glasses that you would like to make your candles in. Glue a piece of wick to the bottom of the mould, and tie the other end to a stick on top that will keep it in place. (At this point I also added various flavors and smells to my candles, but in retrospect I think the oils would have mixed better had I added them straight to the melted wax.)

Step three, – put the wax in old empty cans in boiling water, to heat and melt. Be careful not to let the cans fall over and get any water in them. It is helpful to use a pot that just fits your cans, and stay nearby to help keep them upright.

Step four, – pour your melted wax carefully into the prepared moulds. I didn’t get any pictures of this part, as I naturally needed both hands to pour… But I did get a photo of my children dipping candles into the colored can of wax, and thereby changing the color of their candles and giving them this handmade kind of look. (By the way, this is what I want to do to simple hanukkah candles before hanukkah next year! Writing it down here to hopefully help me not forget…)

Here are my new and homemade candles at the end of the night:

It is such a satisfying thought that all this fun and beauty comes from stuff that could have easily ended up straight in the garbage! Now I am going to enjoy those candles without feeling that I have to save on them, – because they are bonus anyway! And some I will give away as gifts. I love to give something that I have made, – no worries that someone else will bring them the same thing, right?!

Here is a picture of our breakfast-candle:

Fun stuff!!!

Half Way Through Hanukkah.

Could someone please stop the time?!? The beautiful moments and wonderful days just pass by way too quickly! Even the long-burning candles burn down too fast! I try to hold on to the moments, the relaxing mornings, lazy days, the good times with friends and family, the beauty of all the hanukkiot (hanukkah-menorahs) that grow brighter every night, the wonderful flavors of all the sufganiot, the feeling of the hot cider in my mouth, – all of it! There is just so much to enjoy!

On the first night, the children got some new really cool dreidels, which were very popular. We have quite a collection of dreidels, as we add a few new ones every year, and still keep the old ones.

On the second night we celebrated our princess’ birthday, and after the very girly party we did a walk in the streets Jerusalem by night. It is always beautiful as all the hanukkiot shine so brightly through the windows and in the doorways.

The walk ended by the Western Wall, and that is always a special sight by night as by day!

We were already together with some good friends, and ran into another good friend at the Western Wall, who also joined us home for some hot cider and sufganiot and another lighting of the hanukkiot. Oh, life is so good!

The day after came bright and beautiful, and we did another fun walk in the streets of Jerusalem, – by day, and this time in the new city. 

It was a wonderfully crisp winter day, and just perfect for a stop for some yummy hot chocolate.

Oh, I so enjoy these days free of the regular pressure of every day life. Just time together. Moments. Walks. Lights. Memories.

During our walk we went by an impressive exhibition of hanukkiot done by some amazing artists. Look at this one with Jerusalem in it for example!

Or this one with a star of David in it!

As it was becoming dark outside, we ended up at home again, where we lit three candles on our hanukkiot, in addition to the shamash, the servant candle, that lights the others. It was just lovely to rest in the warmth and brightness of our home after our long walk and all the fresh air during the day. The children went to bed early, as the night before had been really late. And the grown ups got to have a fun movie-night. I love how relaxed hanukkah is, compared to many other holidays!

On the day of this third candle, our family got to do the mitzvah of visiting the sick, as we have someone in our community who is recovering from a fall and a broken leg. It was a blessing for us to be able to be a blessing and come there with a bit of hanukkah-joy to those who are not as fortunate as us, and don’t get to celebrate the holiday in the comfort of their home. I think they especially enjoyed it when the children sang some happy hanukkah-songs.

On the evening of the fourth candle, started the birthday celebration of our dear Abba, as our family has two hanukkah-birthdays! (Just think how convenient it is if we had forgotten to get birthday candles, – we can just take from the abundance of hanukkah-candles!) My in-laws live just up the street, so we first lit the candles with them and had a little celebration there, – of course with sufganiot! (This time with Irish Cream filling! Yum!) Well at home we had homemade pizza and the cake of his choice; chocolate cheese cake! (We hadn’t planned a big party for this evening, as he was not even supposed to be home, until something changed last minute.)

Tonight will be the fifth candle, which brings us into the second half of Hanukkah. I am sure glad we still have four days to enjoy this wonderful Hanukkah-atmosphere! The hanukkiot just keep getting more and more beautiful as more candles are lit, and we try to hold on to the moments and make the most out of all of them!

Favorites.

Shopping for Shabbat Flowers last week was the first time I came across Nuriot this season. (What is this flower called in English???) I happily picked out two bunches in different colors, and felt they spread a good mood just sitting there in a vase on our table.

“I was so happy to find Nuriot today! They are my favorite flowers!” I told my husband later in the day. “I think you have several favorite flowers…” was his reply. And you know what? He is right! Not only do I have several favorite flowers, – I have several favorite songs, times of the year, foods, candy – you name it! And I guess that is nice for me, don’t you think? I have so many reasons to rejoice…

These are my Shabbat flowers this week. Aren’t they beautiful? My favorite… 😉

I have truly enjoyed this Friday. (My favorite day of the week…) This has been a relatively busy week for me, with a lot of time out of the house, so today I enjoyed being at home, the smell of granola filling the house. One of my favorite smells. I guess that is the way I should put it. One of my many favorites. 

It is a beautiful day outside, and I have been out for a nice walk on the streets of Jerusalem. The children and I even had lunch outside in the garden. And afterwards I did a much needed hair cutting session for Junior out there. NOT my favorite activity, as he hates the itchy feeling of the hairs falling down his neck. But today we succeeded in limiting this by twirling toilet-paper around his neck a couple of times, so that made for a more pleasant experience for the both of us.

Now I just need to put some cookies in the oven, and then the children and I are going to make hanukkiot (Hanukkah-candlestick), something we love to do. (Another favorite??) When Hanukkah comes around, you will see, we have A LOT of hanukkiot, and this might be because we make new ones every year, but still hold on to the old ones…

This Shabbat we are reading about Jacob wrestling with the angel, so we have a few little angels on our Shabbat-table this week. You know, these little items really help bring the weekly torah portion up in our conversations during Shabbat dinner. (Definitely another favorite time of the week!) This angel though is really interesting. Who was he? Bad guy, good guy? Could he have been the Mashiach?? I am looking forward to our dinner conversation tonight!

Shabbat shalom, everyone!

Primrose-sign of fall.

We are in the month of November. And I am longing for some fall weather. RAIN. Even wind. Temperatures below the Norwegian summers I grew up with. I want to enjoy hot chocolates with the children in the evenings. I would like to get out our boots and jackets, and put away our sandals for a while. I miss my slippers! I want to sit inside with my cup of tea, book and possibly blanket and look at the rain falling outside. Our country also desperately needs the water, after such a long dry season. I am looking forward to that lovely fresh air that comes after rain. Oh, and imagine how nice to be able to go for a run without feeling sweaty and dried out from the very beginning…

Anyway, this is not going to be a complaining post only… Because there is one sign of fall that is here already! And that is the rakefot, as this lovely flower is called in Hebrew, and I think it is Primrose in English. I noticed them outside a flower-shop a little while ago, and they immediately made it onto my wish-list… Then, when I was looking through a drawer yesterday, I found a card from our local flower-shop, where I noticed that I had just about made it to the sum needed for me to get to enjoy a nice bonus! Wohoo! Guess who was off to the flower-shop today?! Yupp, – that was me! And there, basically for free, I got to pick out various very nice rakefot to decorate my home and garden, and give it that sense of that, yes, fall is just about here!

I added some nice pine-cones too, that we brought home from our fun hike last week. Next time I’m at the shuk, I will pick up some pumpkins and squash as well, – just to complete the picture. Oh, yes, fall is here! Now we just need to feel it in the air really.

We do notice the trees changing the color of their leaves in spite of the warm temperatures, and there most definitely are leaves falling already. The children bring home the most beautiful ones whenever they are out for a little walk. Actually, I am planning a fun fall craft with leaves this week, – and yes, I am planning a blog post to go with it! 🙂

I want to also take this opportunity to say thank you to all those who have chosen to follow my blog. Just this morning I noticed there were some new ones, – and you know, it really encourages me! Some people out there like to read my blog! Yeay! It makes me happy!