THOUGHTS OF THE PRESENT MOMENT
The busy and exciting month of November has arrived!
What a unique month November is We get to spend a whole month doing nothing but being thankful and giving praise to God for the blessings He has bestowed upon us.
Now that is my kind of month!
Plus we are constantly surrounded by beauty in our landscapes and on our tables. The tree above is one that I pass on the way to work each day. I just couldn’t resist stopping and taking a photo to share. I hope your daily drive is just as wonderful. This time of the year I always feel like we are living inside a post card. Our hills and valleys were blazing this past weekend.
I love fall!
Today, as the season marches quickly on, I’m still looking back and pondering the progress of The IN SEASON Lifestyle blog that happened during the lovely month of October.
I’m so pleased to say that October was quite a wonderful month for The IN SEASON Lifestyle.
I think the most articles were written in the SEASONS section of the October blog posts. We all shared and celebrated The Feast of Tabernacles in such a very joyful and beautiful way. I hope you enjoyed each and every post. I’ll guarantee that you will be hearing bits and pieces of our family’s time together throughout all the rest of the year; because that special time has always been a blessing which spills over into every other facet of our days. Each new moment also brings memories and thoughts of what we learned and how well we loved back in that beautiful season of our year.
We’ve all arrived back home from the feast; and our Fall home has started taking on a more festive; and “thankful” style.
Harvest is still a central theme in our November; but it is more about the harvest of blessings! It is wonderful to share out thanks to God; for we are well aware of where those blessings come from.
Every day is a new way of getting ready to share our thankfulness. This comes in many different forms; some of them old and traditional and some of them new and unexpected.
Last month I promised that I would be posting some articles in THE HOUSE DOCTOR section of the blog which would show off the fall season in our home. Because I took that much appreciated week off during The Feast of Tabernacles; I’m going to have to move those fall decorating articles on over into the month of November. In reviewing them all again; I can see that they are more appropriate there anyway.
THINKING ABOUT THE PRESENT DAY
That being the case; I am presently working on posting articles that speak of the way we’ve changed the decor of Landgraf Castle (our humble little abode which would only be called a castle by us) into a fall month-long time of celebration.
The first post I’ll present in THE HOUSE DOCTOR in early November will be one from our Thanksgiving of last year that shows a more classic type of fall decor. I think most of you will be looking for such ideas to use around your home for Thanksgiving and I hope these will spark a few classic fall designs in your own imagination.
The second post for THE HOUSE DOCTOR, again in early November, will be the one I’m actually using this year and I’m calling it: THANKSGIVING BY THE SEA.
I decided on this theme for Thanksgiving of 2017 simply because I don’t want to let go of the beach season that was going on within our walls at the end of summer. I decided there is nothing wrong with taking fall to the beach. Not literally; but my typical fall decor (though I love it) has been put aside for some beach-house fall looks that I wanted to enjoy inside our home this season.
You know you don’t have to live at the beach to do this; just bring the beach inside your home. Watch for these two articles that I’m presently working on for THE HOUSE DOCTOR. Hopefully; they will come out this week just in time to inspire a few home decorating ideas for fall.
I’m also working on completing an article I promised on Fall Train Rides for the OH THE PLACES WE SHOULD GO section of the blog. These are almost done and will be published in the next few days.
Another half-finished post is one about Fall Hiking Trails in the South. This article will be finished this week and I think you are really going to enjoy it!
So you see; we are headed for many more Fall festivities here.
THINKING ABOUT FUTURE ARTICLES FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER
THANKSGIVING IS IN THE AIR
You KNOW this month will be all about Thanksgiving!
It is one of my favorite holidays.
Of course I’ll have the old standby meal plan for an easy Thanksgiving feast that you can follow (just in case you are looking for a little help at the last-minute.) I’ve published it many times before; and if I forget to include that meal plan along with its handy recipes and grocery list and budgeting ideas; people complain.
So look for it and you will not have to plan at all – just go buy the groceries and get to work cooking up a feast. This article will include a menu and recipes that anyone can easily follow.
Then, you know I have to put a special twist in sometimes. I’m pondering a Thanksgiving meal at our house that isn’t at all traditional.
It will include seafood as well as steak – because I’m decorating for Thanksgiving by the Sea this year – so if you are looking for totally un-traditional and out-of-the-ordinary – you might need to be watching for this THANKSGIVING BY THE SEA menu and recipes which I hope to post soon.
FALL RECIPES FOR MONDAY NIGHT MENUS
Thanksgiving isn’t all about that one day you know; just like enjoying the seasonal recipes of fall can happen all through the month.
So how is your fall cooking coming along?
I hope you caught last month’s article full of special suggestions for your tail-gating party or your gathering of friends at your home for a football game or two. If you missed it; check it out here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/football-recipes/
There will be more seasonal fall foods coming your way in our MONDAY NIGHT MENUS section. I found lots of good fall cooking ideas on our trip to the mountains and I want to share them. Pumpkins, apples, pears, cranberries and squash, all seem to be the stars on our MONDAY NIGHT MENUS of the future. We are also going to get a little spicy for the Thanksgiving season with some ginger and cinnamon recipes.
Thanksgiving also brings out the desert ideas for a crowd. It is a good time to show off your best baking skills.. I have a few new ideas up my sleeve for November.
THINKING OF THE HISTORY OF THE PAST
The IN SEASON Lifestyle for November will be sharing some interesting articles and facts centered around the history of Thanksgiving. I can assure you your child is probably not learning these facts in the public school.
At the same time; we hope to delve into the whole act of being “thankful” in an even deeper and more meaningful way than we ever have before. AN APPLE A DAY will be continuing with its 365 DAYS TO A BETTER LIFESTYLE and we are featuring some facts about thankfulness this month and how it affects your health.
I also have more than two Thanksgiving decor articles to share with you in THE HOUSE DOCTOR section which will feature some pretty Thanksgiving table-scapes that you might want to consider trying out. I’m blessed and surrounded by very creative friends who love to decorate and use their tables during this season. I hope to be sharing those blessings. There are some friends who write that have made Thanksgiving at their table a whole way of discipleship in their home. I hope to be writing about some of these ladies and making their recommendations easy for you to share.
PEN ART will be sharing a great collection of Thanksgiving books for kids; as well as my feature article about a friend’s new book that took place in the fall at the time of the barley harvest.
November will be an important month to be checking on the COME AS A CHILD ARTICLES. Moses is moving on with God’s instructions to his people and we are finding lots of ways that these things affect our own lives and relationships with God. I hope you are still catching these every Thursday.
PIECES OF THE PUZZLE will be unraveling some future events. We will delve more into discussing how the holy days have affected some of our current holidays; and we will ponder the meaning of certain dates and times and explore how correct our churches and history books have been with the task of teaching God’s faithful.
PONDERING THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN OCTOBER
Even though I only had three weeks to write in October (instead of four) I am excited about all the sharing of good information and the steady progress that the blog made toward living our lives inside out and upside down (like Jesus did) during this past month.
SEASONS
We did a whole series on The Feast of Tabernacles and you can catch these articles here if you missed them. https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/feast-of-tabernacles-christian-sukkot/
The hard subject of how Halloween affects our fall living was also discussed in another series. You can catch some of these not too popular views here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/the-haunting-subject-of-halloween-first-thoughts-in-a-series-on-the-subject-pieces-of-the-puzzle/.
PRODUCTS
I think one of the things I personally enjoyed the most about October was the fact that The IN SEASON Lifestyle became an official Amazon Affiliate.
We are now very busy carefully choosing new products that we think our readers will relate to. You will notice that we are occasionally putting new ads from Amazon into our blog every month. You can read our disclaimer for guarding your privacy here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/disclosure-privacy-policy/. I’m excited about the upcoming features that will present some of the products which have been carefully chosen just for you. You will begin to find them scattered here and there in some of the articles. Our main goal will always be quality reading for our readers though. The use of the related products will be the icing on the cake.
The first of our new products was introduced this last October when we told you all about The IN SEASON Lifestyle’s FAMILY TREE. You may have already noticed how often we have used this tree in our home over the past years as you have read our seasonal posts and caught some of our frequent photos of family gatherings. Now we are delighted to be able to show you where you can order your own family tree to use in your own way for some unique new family experiences.
The first product article that offers the purchase of The IN SEASON Lifestyle’s Family Tree can be read here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/family-tree/. I do hope you decide to order one of these amazing trees before we are too far into November; because there are a million new ideas for using it coming up daily. You know I’ll be writing about and sharing them with you.
UPDATE ON CONTESTS
On another note; back in early October I offered a short story contest and a photography contest that did not get a lot of response. That was pretty disappointing; but life goes on.
I guess most of you have been like me; too busy to tackle extra projects. That is sad though, and to make the offer open-ended I’ll just say The IN SEASON Lifestyle is always looking for good seasonal short stories and photographs to place in our PEN ART section of the blog.
If you are ever interested in having your short story or photograph published in some of the blog sections here; simply send your submissions to wordcastlepublications@gmail.com. This is the company from which I showcase and sell my own freelance writing and photos; and I will be glad to consider showing off some of your talent too; giving you all the credit of course.
From time to time I pay for an article or photo; but mostly it is just a good free opportunity to get your writing out into the public arena. Feel free to send me anything that you like. I’ll be looking forward to reading and viewing your work. I will admit that most of my replies may be delayed or not at all; simply because I do not have the time to keep up the blog; attend to my other career and my own freelance writing projects. If you hear back from me though; you can be pretty sure I love your writing or photography!
OH THE PLACES WE SHOULD GO
I hope you caught the article on Old Baker’s Farm’s Fall Festival in October. If not; you may review it here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/beautiful-october-days-at-old-baker-farm-oh-the-places-we-will-go-fall-festivals-series/. We are planning to continue to offer some information on more upcoming fall festivals that will be taking place in November.
Keep watching the OH THE PLACES WE SHOULD GO section of the blog for these fun ideas.
IF YOU NEED TO CATCH UP ON THE ONGOING BIBLE STUDY CALLED COME AS A CHILD
October was a wonderful month for our COME AS A CHILD weekly bible study.
It is hard for some people to catch these every Thursday; so I always try to include the links to the posts at the end of every month.
Here are the links to the October articles: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/the-lord-is-a-jealous-god-come-as-a-child-lesson-184/, https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/when-god-passes-by-the-cleft-of-the-rock-come-as-a-child-lesson-183/, https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/show-me-your-glory-come-as-a-child-lesson-182/, https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/seeking-gods-face-in-the-tent-of-meeting-come-as-a-child-lesson-181/
MONDAY NIGHT MENUS
In October we explored ways to entertain a football crowd in this article: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/football-recipes/. We also showed you a great way to cook up some of that apple-picking bounty you gathered into a sumptuous apple pie: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/the-best-apple-pie-ever-monday-night-menus-sweet-treats-series/.
AN APPLE A DAY
This section of the blog featured some great healthy after school treats as well as a warning about the effects that sugar can have on those young students. It is well worth the read: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/healthy-after-school-treats-an-apple-a-day-day-four-365-days-to-a-healthier-lifestyle/
Just click into any of the above links to discover anything that you need to catch up on from October.
It was such a lovely month!
I could not feel more blessed!
Here is wishing a home full of love and blessings for your family during the upcoming month of November.
Tiny Tim said it best: “God bless us every one!”
Gail Landgraf, Editor
The IN SEASON Lifestyle