maternity shopping

One fun thing about having a pregnant sister is assisting with her expanding (haha...) wardrobe. Any time I'm at a second hand store these days I browse the maternity section to see if I can find any Blueberry-Betsy-ish items.

Although my sisters and I have differing clothing styles, we always keep an eye out for each other as we're shopping for ourselves. Betsy's baby gives us a broadened clothes shopping opportunity.

Of course, as much as possible, I try to stick to Betsy and Josh's standard closet color theme ;).

apple muffins

If you're feeling apple muffin-y these days, you might want to check out this recipe.

(Of course, after you've checked out the recipe, you might want to bake a batch of said muffins... and after you've baked a dozen, you might want to invite some friends, brew a pot of tea...

and enjoy apple muffins and tea together!)

{sorry... it seems my camera is incapable of producing anything but blurry photos anymore :(   }

Autumn

there's nothing like a good pair of leathers :)

My favorite thing about Autumn is that my favorite shoes are in style.

[My second favorite thing about Autumn is the acceptability of pumpkin and/or apple everything in the kitchen.]

(I may or may not have taken a few too many shoe pictures...)

Happy Autumn, All!

PS- I just realized my first blog post was four years ago today!

Daily Digest (there must be a better title...)

[this is a Google image]

I thought I'd share one varied snippet of history from my life each day this past week:

Sunday: We hosted an out-of-town guest in my bedroom Sunday through Wednesday; she's from California and was shocked to hear insects at night here in our little neighborhood! She asked if there are bears nearby. [There actually are bears nearby... but not in our yard as far as I know.]

Monday: Lunched at Square Bean (my first visit to the little coffee shoppe in Dillsburg) with four others-- two Pennsylvanians, one Californian, one Floridian, and me, a Michigander. We discussed traditional Pennsylvania Dutch foods, and local architecture.

Tuesday: Helped with meals for over 50 people at a leadership event at work... baked this peanut butter apple baked oatmeal as a part of their breakfast, and helped with various kitchen items throughout the day, including prepping 60 individual lettuce salads for lunch. {after hours: booked a hotel for a weekend with Amy and Libby in November. weeee!}

Wednesday: Participated as usual in a weekly prayer time at noon. I recently wrapped up a couple major projects at work, and this week began a new project which included compiling a spreadsheet to track 100+ global projects that use money for things like school scholarships, hospitals, and economic development in at least a dozen different countries.

Thursday: Ate lunch with Betsy (we talk on the phone and both eat lunch at the same time in our respective locations), and dinner with the Miller family-- niece Ellie is an absolute riot! One of her many funnies of the evening was her pretend laptop, which was actually a red folded board from the game of Scattergories :).

Friday: Cooked broccoli soup (I added a cup of sharp cheddar cheese) for dinner and watched the movie Race (Jesse Owens, 1936 Olympics in Berlin) with Sara, Sharon, and a friend. Olympic stories are inspiring :). I could not believe the racial realities portrayed in the film and wonder if they really happened that way... incredibly Sad.

Saturday: Cleaned carpets and the kitchen at a friend's trashed rental house (she and her husband live in Asia these days)... was not inspired to invest in a rental property even if you can make money at it sometimes. The stench (carpet) and bugs (cockroaches) were Gross.

Hershey Chocolate World

a classic Hershey add painting on the wall near the chocolate train

A couple months ago, Heather discovered I had never been to Hershey's Chocolate World.

The following weekend, she booked our calendars for a date to Hershey.

We had a fun time celebrating the "kid" in us-- riding the chocolate train and wandering the massive candy store below.

Tumbling Run Hike

I spent Labor Day morning hiking Tumbling Run trail with a friend.

Splendid.

(included some of the most steep hiking I've done in Pennsylvania)

I couldn't believe there were already colored trees (not pictured) atop the ridge!

After the hike, we enjoyed lunch at the little cafe in the picturesque little town of Boiling Springs.

deal

(Nalgene for size perspective)

When Heather and I found this giant can of chick peas for less than $3.00...
I splurged and brought it home with me.

Chickpeas, anyone?

a jar of sunshine

cheery gift from a friend

Virginie

tickle time

Last month Sara and I drove down to Virginia to visit our Nahumba neighbors.

What a great time we had catching up with friends.

On our trip, we drove through parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia... 

not bad: four states in two hours!

(previous posts: Neighbor Days at Nahumba: one, two, three)