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There's no question about it. Autumn is my favorite season. It's often short-lived here in Missouri and we often spend a day or two each September with a taste of Autumn before jumping back into high temperatures for another week or so. However, I am hopeful that yesterday was our last day in the 80's for a while. Bring on the colorful leaves, misty mornings, Pumpkin Spice-everything, scarves, and cozy hooded sweatshirts. Since making my decision to put down the camera and focus solely on my new role at school this year, I've had a lot more weekend time at home. It's not basketball season yet and our nephew's football games have been in the evenings, so I have been able to wake up on Saturday mornings and spend some time in the quiet of the farmhouse front porch, taking in the crisp, cool morning breeze.
When the long summer days start to get shorter and the hot, humid days start to get cooler, I feel a renewed sense of urgency for enjoying every moment in my home with Mr. Farmhouse and the girls. I start to think more about crock pots with simmering soup, evenings spent around the fire pit, and the smell of fresh-baked cookies wafting through the house.
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Every single year, I take pictures of the girls and purchase Christmas cards in the beginning of December. Every single year, I don't send them on time. Like really... Every. Single. Year. In fact, when we moved out to the farmhouse, I literally kept three prints from the last several years' of cards and threw the rest away. 😫
And in mid-December, I mailed some!
I mailed a whole SIX cards, in fact! I also handed out some cards at church and even gave some to a few of our family members! That is a definite improvement from years past. However, come January 31st, the rest of them were still in a pile in my office...ready to be mailed out. So I set a goal for myself to mail them by Valentine's Day. And this morning, I am dropping them off to the post office. I didn't order as many cards as I did in the past and didn't even get to some of the people on my Christmas card list...so I still wouldn't call it a success. But it was an adequate effort. Maybe 2018 will be the year that I get my Christmas card life together. We'll see. Merry Valentine's Day from the Farmhouse, friends. 'Tis the Season! ❤️🎁🏡🎄❤️ Last week, I wrote about my grandmother's time (for the last sixty years) as the organist for Adrian Christian Church.
This got me to reminiscing. I have so many memories in the church and one of my favorites is visiting with "the quilting ladies". For the first 25 years of my life (at least), there was a group of ladies who met every Tuesday to quilt in the basement of our old church that used to sit smack-dab in the middle of town. Before I was in school and in the summertime after I started school, I can remember going to the church with our grandmother and great-grandmother on quilting day. I can still hear the chatter of the quilting ladies and picture them sitting around working diligently on their masterpieces. I can picture so many special women who have gone on to see Jesus before us sitting around those quilts. When I think about these women, I think of patience... I think of attention to detail... I think of friendship. When I think about these women, I can see in my mind some of my most precious spiritual mentors through my young adult life... I can hear their laughter as they shared stories of the good ol' days... I can still smell the food they brought to share a meal together each week. Looking back, I realize how much I learned just watching these ladies work...week-in and week-out. The quilting days of Adrian Christian Church have come to an end. But it just takes a second for me to close my eyes and be transported back to that church basement, back to a simpler time...spending time with some of the most wonderful ladies I was ever privileged to meet. What a sweet, sweet memory. ❤️🏡❤️
December 31, 2017 marked the ending of an era in our little town.
My grandma played her final song as the church organist. She has played the organ at Adrian Christian Church for my whole life.
In fact, the first wedding she played for was for her cousin Ed & his wife, Darlene. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year.
My parents reminded me that when my brother and I were preschool age, we would sometimes go sit at the funeral home on the couch in the piano room while Grandma played for a service. We must have been pretty good kids, because I cannot imagine having my sweet three-year-old Mattie-girl sitting in the piano room during a funeral! I can remember Grandma practicing her hymns on the piano in their dining room and the organ that set in their bedroom. I can remember sitting on the front row on the organ side while Grandma played for the church service every single Sunday for years and years. Actually...that's still where we sit. And from now on...she will sit there too. Surrounded by her children, by her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren. Surrounded by some of her dearest friends from Sunday school class for the last five decades, or more. Surrounded by church family...young and not-so-young, new friends and old friends, meeting every week to worship the One who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If you have any memories to share of Grandma's organ playing years, we would love to compile them for her. If she played for your wedding, for a funeral of a dear loved one, for your Sunday school class, to accompany you for some sort of special music...please share these stories so we can share them with her. ❤️⛪️??❤️ |
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