Finleyville Community Day

I seem to be running 2 weeks behind on my posts. I apologize!

Two weeks ago on September 13th, Go Time Ministry hosted Finleyville Community Day. It rained on & off all day but God was faithful & brought the crowds out to patronize the booths. We all had fun & got to meet many new people.

We got there early to set up. We were all given bright blue T-shirts, so the people knew who the Go Time workers were. There was an opening ceremony with prayer, raising of the flag, & placing of wreaths. Pastor Brent gave recognition to many important people in Finleyville & who were involved pulling this day together. Throughout the day were various events you could go to. Higher Ground Praise Band came up from West Virginia & lead us in worship, as well as our own wonderful Go Time Band. The drama team presented their dramas off & on, Dan is involved with this ministry. And then there was the community choir that ended the day with a fabulous performance. They had all kinds of activities that you could participate in or watch. There was a pie eating contest & a pie judging contest. There was an antique car show, a 3 point contest in basketball, & plenty for the kids to do. I spent the day doing what I love to do, spend time in the Prayer Room. I did come up for the performances. It was a fun day for all! Can't wait till next year!

Take a Look

Dan has finally updated his blog!!!

Stretching

I am learning very slowly to allow God to stretch me. He's taking me out of my comfort zone. He took me there today. I had to do something that is so not my personality. I fretted & prayed about it for weeks knowing it was coming up. But I gave up control of it, & expressed to my loving Saviour that He opened the door, He will do the work. That was last night & this morning true to God's character, He did the work! I wanted God to have the glory, not me. I wanted those involved to see Him, not Debbie. And I certainly did not want to dishonor Him in any way. So I had the opportunity to lay it at the cross last night, & leave it there. He is so good! and so faithful!

Deep Creek - September Trip

In September, we returned to Scott's mother's place at Deep Creek. I had so many photos I didn't want to upload the whole album. Instead I found a way to let you see the pictures in a new way. I hope you enjoy them!



The 1st set of pictures are of Scott's mother's place that we stay at. She has graciously let us stay there every year. We drove up behind the campground & found 2 great views. One was a view of the campgrounds themselves. That was a neat perspective. And the other was a neat high mountain field where a picturesque farm was.

The next set of pictures were of the Saturday after we had gotten there. It was a rainy day, not a good day to hike, so we took his mother's advice & went up to the top of Wisp Ski Resort. They have a neat man made white water rapids. It was a blast to watch all the various "riders" go through the rapids. We spent at least an hour or so watching kayakers & rafters go through the courses.

The following day was nice & sunny, but the ground was too wet to hike, so we drove down around Oakland area. First we went to a little community lake just on the other side. It was a well taken care of park. THe boys had a great time goofing around & making their way to the other side. So Scott & I joined them. On the way back we stopped at a farm & got sweet corn for dinner. On the way we spotted a neat train mailbox. I had to get a picture.

Monday, we headed down to Swallow Falls State Park. This time we went into the park to hike around. We started out at Muddy Creek Falls & made our way around to Swallow Falls. Scott & I enjoy resting with our game books on the rocks while the boys take up the challenge of climbing rocks & trees. When we arrived at the top of Swallow Falls, the guys took off their shoes & walked through the water. Last month they couldn't do that because the water was too deep. While there, we struck up a conversation with an interesting couple. They asked how many kids we had & somehow the conversation turned to having a daughter in Egypt. And the woman replied that she is from Jordan!

That night it was finally dry enough for a campfire. So we got out the makins for smores. I'm not a fan of them, I like the roasted marshmallow just by themselves. It rained again Tuesday, so we drove around again. After dinner we headed home.

Butterfly or Moth?

I just happened to see this butterfly fluttering around my white phlox out my kitchen window & of course I had to catch it on camera. When I got out there to take the pictures, it looked more like a moth. So I'm not sure which it is, but it was pretty & I enjoyed watching feast.

At times it would hang upside down like a bat!

If you have any idea let me know, I'd appreciate it.

Fresh Spaghetti Sauce

We started last week to once again process our tomatoes into either spaghetti sauce or just canned tomatoes. If I have enough left over I will make pizza sauce. But I rarely make pizza any more. This is a month later than we usually get it going, because of the lack of rain in August.


Since Dan had to work, that left Aaron & Andrew to pick the tomatoes. But they made some fun out of it.

They got 5 of these 5 gallon buckets & 3 small buckets full of tomatoes for me to cut up.

It's an all day process for us just to get them juiced.
After I clean & cut them in half, Aaron ran them through the Victorio Strainer, which take off the skin & gets rid of the seeds.

He dumps the juice into a big 20 quart pot & 2 of the biggest cooking pot that we have to cook down as much of the juice as possible making it thicker. I cook it down until it's just in this 20 qt. pot. then I add the sugar & spices, and ummmm, is it oh so good!

Then I can 7 quart jars at a time to put up for the year. Last year I had 54 jars made; only 4 are left. With 4 big guys in the house, we go through 2 jars each meal.

This is a good start! God is so good isn't He?!

They are Here!

I have added more pictures to the bottom of the post below, so take a look!

Deep Creek - August trip

We went to spend some get away time at Deep Creek in both August & September. Scott's mother has a place at a campground there. The trip in August, we needed to get some family time in. All our other trips we've taken this year have been with extended family. We love going down there, but because we had so many other obligations we couldn't get down there but 2 times this year. My goal is to get down there more often than we do. We have such a blast when we go. It's a beautiful hour and half drive down. This is a picture of a farm just inside the Maryland border.I know that this is a popular lake but it's also a beautiful one.





This is the northern tip near where we stay, in the town of McHenry.












Here is the main body of the lake. It's a long meandering lake.
















This is Mom's place. She has it beautifully decorated & it's a comfortable size to stay a few days in. Now this is what I consider fancy camping!

GARRETT COUNTY FAIR

In the August trip, we went to the Garrett County Fair the day we arrived there. The fairground is right next to Scott's mom's campground, so we walked over. And because it was Monday, it was one of the 1st days of the fair, so it wasn't packed with people yet. We had wonderful weather that day. We started out in the pigs quarters. It must have been nap time because they were all sleeping.



















Sleeping beauty!

Next were the sheep & goats.
These guys aren't shy, they
come right up to meet you.

Awww, snuggle time.

Next were the horses.
Dan talking to Lady Gale.

But my favorite were the cows.

They can be ornery.
But they can be sweet too.








This one is get a shower which
he didn't seem too happy with.

But when they are done they look like fluffy teddy bears.





















You can't go to a fair without checking out the tractors big & small.

This is my favorite picture.
This little tyke was so excited to be on this huge tractor.

I took some artistic pictures too.

This was so colorful.

CAMPFIRE

We usually have one night that Scott builds a campfire for the boys. This night we cooked our brats on it.















Each evening, God blessed us with a beautiful sunset.
















By night fall it was a bit nippy, but that makes a campfire nice.














Dan roasting his marshmallow.

Dan warming his feet.

I'll be right back to post the rest.

SWALLOW FALLS STATE PARK

The next day we went investigating a couple of parks in Garrett Co. but I forgot my camera, so there were no pictures. There were some beautiful views too! It was killing me not to have my camera. The day after that though, we went to Swallow Falls State Park to hike around.
We chose to hike on the other side of the river & falls for a change since we had never done that before. It was pretty cool! A nice change. We were fallowing this narrow path for a long time. And the Lord kept speaking to me about the path of life and how a Christian follows the narrow way & that there was only 1 way to Jesus. We were on a path higher than the one across the river, so the Lord spoke to my heart that we are to take the higher road. As you can see the path we were was rough at 1st, but later on as we came under a canopy of evergreens, it became smoother. And I realized that sometimes life can be rough at 1st as a Christian, but then as we get to know more & more the God we serve, our path becomes sweeter & sweeter. The river flowed beside us the whole time reminded me that Jesus is the River of Life that flows & gives us strength from day to day. He spoke many more things that I can't remember, I was truly blessed!




















And here is Swallow Falls. People often slide down it if the water level is high enough to glide down it without bumps & bruises. Later on we will end up where that lady is standing out on that rock looking over the falls. You can click on the picture to make it look bigger.





















The guys had a blast climbing every rock they could & investigate anything that came along including a big ole spider! This thing was the size of a hand.

Time for a family shot only without Scott.
He was taking the picture.

Here he's telling the boys about the fish that got caught in this pool. Although later it does swim out. Aaron said that he touched it.

Beautiful view upstream.













We finally made it down to where Muddy Creek comes out. It has a high falls of its own. But we did not see it this time. We usually go there 1st.















We decided to head back. Scott taking one last look.








He reminds me of Mr. Wilson on Home Improvement! He was showing me the rhododendron flower still in bloom.










After lunch, we crossed the river & hiked down through to Toliver Falls.


































A neat mood picture of Dan.










Here we finally ended up where that lady was standing above the falls. The one in the red is where she stood. Andrew is sitting to the left of her overlooking the falls.

This picture is up river toward the bridge we crossed to walk down there.

As we sat looking over the activities of the falls, this couple caught our eyes. They were gingerly making their way over (because its very easy to slip & fall, a guy had just done that very thing & cracked his head off a rock. We felt so bad for him). The guy tried several times to get in under the falls without success. Then the girl decided that she couldn't take any more & show him how its done. She popped right in! Then he decided to follow. Later he tried to show her how manly he was by climbing the falls.

This is the 1st time I have ever seen this place this crowded.

After a full day, we decided to head on back.













I can't remember, but I believe we packed up & head back home that evening. And again, there was a beautiful sunset!

There was a dramatic sky that evening.

The sunset was a great way to end a great trip!