PUMPKIN PEOPLE

It's that time of the year again when Pumpkins come into their own. They start to take on personalities. 

Welcome the Pumpkin People! 

I've invited many into my home over the years.

Here's one from a few years ago watching for Trick and Treaters with Lulu.

And here's one who preferred the outdoors. He was a bit of a scoundrel.


This year we took a trip to the local orchard and found a couple beauties.

My ballerina and I both brought one home to create a couple of pumpkin people.

Lauren worked diligently on hers and did an excellent Job!

Her mother will be glad to know Lauren still has all her fingers - I know I was!

I also carved out one and I'm pleased to introduce you to this year's pumpkin people aka Jack-O-Lanterns:

EUGENE AND RALPHIE!

Have a safe and candy-ful Halloween everyone!

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

I love October, it is one of my favourite months. So I took a week off work to enjoy the show! Alas, there was very little time to kick back and be in holiday mode.

I had things to do....I was Taking Care of Business!

Ever looked in your fridge and went.....hmmm... how long has THAT been in there? Time to give it a good cleaning.

I'm Taking Care of Business!

Then it's off to the Lawyers to revise that long overdue Will. Revisions have been made and we are good to go. Cha-Ching!

Next up was the Dentist for a cleaning. My hygienist, Andrea, always does a great job on my pearly whites.

Thanks Andrea!

I'm on a roll, why stop there? I take all 3 pets, at once, to the Vets for annual check ups. I was serenaded in the car all the way there by 2 cats howling and one dog panting nervously in the background.

Old Man Frodo wasn't in the mood to give me the thumbs up sign. Had to do it for him. 

Now before you tell me to take a chill pill I did go for a drive in Prince Edward County with my girlfriend. The weather was perfect, the colours breath-taking and I got a head start on some Christmas Shopping. 

Why not have a dinner party? Chicken pot pie, warm salad with roasted vegetables and Hot Chocolate cake for dessert!

Thumbs up on that!!

Today I got a head start on raking all those leaves that insist on falling.

That was my week. Between the Lawyers, the Vets, the Dentists and Christmas shopping it would seem Taking Care of Business can get pretty pricey. Time to give my Visa Card a break and get back to work.

Thumbs Up!

COMING TO THE END OF IT

Some people relish change, even thrive on it. Some people avoid it. I'm somewhere in the middle.

Today was a glorious day - warm, golden with a cool breeze, but I'm coming to the end of my back yard time which means yard work and lots of it. 

I started with trimming down flowers, now past their prime. Some though, were still hanging in. I could not say good bye. 

My rose bush has struggled all summer and now I have this one little bloom.

Some people, when they are coming to the end of: a relationship, a job, a life, they stay strong to the very end.

Next up was to take down the covering on the gazebo. I've come to the end of my coffee time out there and I will now move inside to the big comfy chair by the fireplace. 

But this is a job for tall people, which I'm not. However I am independent and somewhat stubborn. So I go looking for a ladder, which I find, up high for tall people. 

I find a chair, clamour up on it (short people are good at that) and wrangle that ladder down, only to find it is still too short for the job. 

I need the BIG Ladder. I find that one, which is twice as tall as me and manage to get it under the gazebo. But there is more trouble ahead! As I'm taking down the canopy a Big, Fat Spider drops down right in front of me. Lord Ha' Mercy - I nearly started hyper ventilating. There it hung with an abdomen I swear, as big as my thumb. It can get difficult when you are coming to the end of things! But you have to keep moving forward. So I found myself a broom and helped Fat Albert down to the ground. 

Up the ladder I went. The backyard looks pretty good from this vantage point!

When you are coming to the end of something you soon find you have a different point of view. 

With great difficulty, I get the canopy off and from the top of the ladder throw both arms in the air giving myself a full Victory sign!

 After a whole lot of trimming, picking up plants, ladder and spider wrangling and the canopy packed and put away, I'm ready to for a nap. 

If you are coming to the end of something I hope you stay strong to the end, that you come through victorious no matter what you face and discover, in the end, you can see things differently. 

SORRY FITBIT, BUT IT'S THANKSGIVING!

A couple of weeks ago I got a new Fitbit Charge 2. I joined the Fitbit phenomenon last year when my Mom picked me one up for my birthday. 

My new one has all sorts of cool features like monitoring stats on not just how many steps I take but different activities like treadmill, weights, biking, or a basic workout. It monitors my heartbeat (a steady 60 beats is my average, thank you very much) and has a party on my wrist when I hit 10,000 steps or nudges me to get take a stroll if I've been sitting on my arse for too long. 

Yes, I'm firmly entrenched in the grasp of the Fitbit, which rules over my physical activity with an iron fist. 

But it's thanksgiving. And the Turkey is perfect!

A time to give thanks, get together with family and eat.

Eat a lot. Eat indulgently, bordering on Gluttony. 

Cause Dad made his lemon pie, you see.

And I made these little bite-size pumpkin and grape jelly tarts

So, there will be no 10,000 steps made and I'm ignoring those nudges telling me to back away from the table, get up and give me another 250 steps you lazy, gluttonous  human. 

Sorry Fitbit, but it's Thanksgiving.

TAKE ME TO CHURCH

I'm on a 7-day straight work week right now as this is my weekend to work. Which means I won't be going to church tomorrow. 

Now it's not very often I miss church. I've been going every Sunday with few exceptions since I was about 20. My life had been spinning out of control and I basically cried "Jesus, take the wheel!" I figured the best way to get to know the guy now in the driver's seat was to go to church.

Sadly, most churches are dwindling down to gray haired saints keeping the faith. But there are lots of good reasons to still go to church. 

For on thing, there is a great sense of community, where we can support and help each other. Here is a pic I took a few years ago of my church community:

We are fortunate to have a healthy mix of both young and old!

That's Glen, our oldest member with Andrew, our best hugger!

You can have opportunities to travel and make new friends

Or pretend to be Indiana Jones!

And you can sing your heart out with the band

I know how busy our lives are and Sunday is the only day you can sleep in. But what is a couple hours on a Sunday morning? Sunday afternoons are a great time for a nap. I believe you are made up of Body, Soul and Spirit all of which need to be fed and nourished. The church is called "the body." Each part is important and needed. But if you cut off a finger or lose an eye the Body will live on; the body part, separated, will not.

Next week is Thanksgiving, one of my favourite times to go to Church and acknowledge the many blessings I have. Maybe you too, will consider it's time to Take me to Church!