6:55AM. I went hiking in pajama pants and dress shoes.

I accidentally found a lakeside hiking trail when I got lost on my way home from our friend's apt, where Chris and I crashed after attending a military event aboard the Intrepid in Manhattan. (hence the dress shoes... and the pajamas).
Despite the weird looks some joggers gave me, I really enjoyed my hike! I walked across a stone bridge then alongside a still lake that reflected two tree covered hills. AKA the water was yellow and orange! One particular family of yell low trees looked like they had all caught a contagious cold and sneezed leaves everywhere. Yellow covered the path, the water and the rocks in between. I love autumn and I am lamenting its pending ending.

Oh and the Intrepid- that was quite interesting and fun. The staff turned the information desk into a bar and played Academy football footage on the wall while lieutenants and generals in service dress socialized on the deck of the famous aircraft carrier.

Wouldn't it be terrible to work at a landfill? It is so much better to just pretend they're not there.

. . . please sense my sarcasm. We need to live in a way that takes care of the earth. (I live on Staten Island- (New York City's garbage dump until 1997. The landfill here can be seen from outer space).

I made apple pie by myself for the first time last week. I have made two since and they are dang ugly but boy do they taste good. :) I have also spiced cider and toasted pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin bread cupcakes tomorrow!

This weekend at the historic village, we celebrated Old Home Day:

blacksmithing, tinsmithing, carpentry, basket making, rope making, weaving, quilting, butter churning, cider pressing, bread baking in a historic brick oven, apple butter making, stewing (beef, veg, pumpkin), Indian weaponry making, dulcimer playing, hay jumping, historic game playing, historic building touring...


On week days I give tours the farm to elementary field trippers. The kids pick pumpkins, ride a hay wagon, dig, carry a yoke and buckets, beat a rug, scrub on a washboard, tour a farm house, learn about 19th centry equipment, (and chase chickens :P).

We drove to Western New Jersey where the October hills are covered with a patchwork quilt of heathered red, orange, yellow, and green fabrics. We wound down country roads between meadows and forests past goat farms and cider mills then stopped at an orchard to pick apples. After that, we hiked to a waterfall in tranquil Hacklebarney State Park. Lovely.

My Daddy's Devotional

A devotional that my dad wrote was published in The Upper Room devotional book this week. :) Here is the link:
http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/default.asp?month=10&day=12&year=2010

What Not To Buy

http://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Justice-Global-Impact-Choices/dp/0830836284/

Many in my church are reading this book. I ordered it yesterday. In the meantime am looking through these websites. I do not want to be one of those Americans who unknowingly oppresses people elsewhere with my purchasing decisions. So I am trying to inform myself of "what not to buy" as well as how to help.

http://free2work.org/
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
http://love146.org

Strong Woman

The opening page of the book I am reading reads, "In loving memory of my mother whose strength always amazed me." When I read that dedication, I wrote a prayer, "Lord, make me that kind of a woman. Show me how. Make your strength my strength and keep me thankful, prayerful, and humble. Amen."

I was thinking later that the first step to becoming a strong woman is deciding that you are not the center of your universe. No, I do not mean "realizing," I mean "deciding."


"Strong women, may we know them, may we raise them, may we be them."

Child Trafficking Issue:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/09/07/anatomy_of_an_adoption_crisis?page=0,0&sms_ss=email&at_xt=4cab4e70f4fe7cd1,0

Anatomy of an Adoption Crisis BY E.J. GRAFF | SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

"...The State Department was confident it had discovered systemic nationwide corruption in Vietnam -- a network of adoption that was profiting by paying for, defrauding, coercing, or even simply stealing Vietnamese children from their families to sell them to unsuspecting Americans. And yet, as these documents reveal, U.S. officials in Hanoi did not have the right tools to shut down the infant peddlers while allowing the truly needed adoptions to continue. Understanding how little the State Department and USCIS could do, despite how hard they tried, helps reveal what these U.S. government agencies need to respond more effectively in the current adoption hot spots, Nepal and Ethiopia -- and in whatever country might be struck by adoption profiteering next.

....In a cable from Jan. 8, 2008, Ambassador Michael Michalak wrote, "I am becoming increasingly concerned at the growing evidence of large-scale organized child buying in Vietnam ... a system under which unscrupulous orphanage directors and agency facilitators have turned infants into a commodity amidst rampant corruption ... Local officials are willing to create documents to cover 'discrepancies' in a case ... [T]he miraculous arrival of over 30 infant girls at Hanoi Center 1 within five months of the opening of that center for international adoptions is not an atypical trend in Vietnam. We have frequently seen that areas and orphanages not engaged in adoption only have older children and those with special needs. This is a clear illustration of the supply being created to meet demand."

I read an Upper Room Devo the other day...

(http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/) in which a British woman named Emma wrote, "Sin clouds my sense of God's nearness." The line could be easily skimmed over. In fact, I doubt Emma thought much of the wording of this particular sentence. When I read it, I realized that I have always subconsciously thought that "Sin makes God not near." But that is not true. God never leaves us or forsakes us; He is ever near. Our sin just hampers our ability to sense Him.