Blessings Hodgepodge

 

Well, it's been a while since I've had the chance to blog...or participate in the Hodgepodge. Joyce provides the questions, we provide the answers. To see how others answered, click here. 

1. It's often said we should be grateful for small blessings. What is one small blessing you are feeling especially grateful for today?

Time. Maybe it's not such a small blessing, though.

2. How do you feel about leftovers, not just on Thanksgiving but after any meal? Favorite thing to make/eat using your Thanksgiving leftovers? 

I love to eat leftovers for my work lunch. There's no need to make anything out of Thanksgiving leftovers; I just like reliving the dinner!

3. Sherwin Williams unveiled it's 2022 Color of the Year-Evergreen Fog. Are you a fan? Would I find this mid-tone gray green shade anywhere in your house? Does your house need painting? Inside or out? What one space is most in need of a paint job? Are you a do-it-yourselfer or do you hire a professional? 

That's green??? We have a similar color in our living room. The inside of our house really needs some paint, especially the living room, hallway, and master bedroom. After painting every single room in our house with several coats before we moved in, I'm all for hiring it out. I painted the regular bedrooms but had someone paint our kitchen and it was well worth the money.

4. What is one aspect of the way you were parented that you are grateful for today? 

Routines. Or schedules. Very consistent routines/schedules, for sure. There are way too many kids who don't have that consistency and they are a mess. 

5. Write an acrostic for the word-thankful

Time with family

Highways are calling

Always a fun time

Napping is required

Kidding around

Football games aplenty

Unending chatter

Lots of love!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It's so hard to believe that it's already Thanksgiving! The trees around here have been stunning over the past couple of weeks. This is my favorite fall tree in the park next to my house. It's almost like there's a light shining down right on it!

{Friday Foto Friends} Leaves, Smoke, & Just What I Needed

Foto with Friends is my way of summarizing what's going on in the Small Town during the week through pictures. Deb at Breathing in Grace is gracious enough to host this every week!

The leaves are still pretty spectacular.  This was taken during our camping trip last weekend.

Another picture from last weekend. Love the leaves against the blue sky!

Leaves in the creek near the campground. Pretty cool reflections, too!

CH snapped this picture as we were finishing up a hike.

Fast forward to Thursday: Around 1:00, there was an announcement over the school intercom for everyone to come inside. I thought maybe there was a bear-sighting (I was at my mountain school), so I looked outside. I saw the SRO (School Resource Officer) walking toward the gym, so I knew it wasn't a bear. Then, the fire alarm went off. We all went out to our normal spots, but then we were evacuated to the ballfield across the street.  The mountain in back of the school caught fire. We've had virtually no rain in a long time, so it's extremely dry. This was taken when we were walking down to the field:

The church is next to the school.

The buses came and took the kids home, and some parents came to get their kids. All of the teachers stayed calm and calmed down the students who needed it. This is what the fire looked like after about 90 minutes:

We were allowed 3 minutes to grab what we needed out of our rooms, get our cars, and leave. When I got home, 13 miles away, I saw this:

It was an exhausting day, and I wasn't even one of the ones in charge! I just checked on kids and did what someone told me to do. When I got home and checked the mail, this was in it:

My Blessed is She Advent Journal! I wasn't sure if I was going to get it in time for Sunday (1st Sunday of Advent) because I never received a confirmation email, but there it was! It was exactly what I needed at that specific time!

Please pray for the community where the school is, as well as for the firefighters. The fire has spread to 500 acres, and we're expecting winds tonight. There may be some rain, but it's not going to be the amount we need. As I write this, no homes have been lost, and the school is okay. 

There was no school there today, but since I split Fridays with my mountain school and my other school, I went on to school this morning. There was a hint of smoke in the building all day; they're about 10 miles apart from each other. Here's what it looked like outside of my window:

You hear about fires in Colorado all the time. Then there are the fires in NC, which is close, but this hits home. The fire chief said "we've been living on the edge, and we know that, and every day we wake up and thank the good Lord that it didn't happen, but today it happened." 

Probably the dumbest question was when a newscaster asked the chief what it looked like in the fire. He just kind of looked at her, and said, "It looks like a mountain is on fire. It's smoky." Wow. 

Hopefully we'll get the rain and it will be more than expected. And hopefully things will get back to normal soon. The beautiful mountain behind the school won't look the same for a long time, but, eventually it will. And this will be something we'll all be talking about for a long time to come.

{Weekend Wrap-up} Some Chilly Camping

 I hadn't been camping since July. JULY! We decided to go back to a State Park that we hadn't been to in a couple of years. The last time, renovations were just about to start. One of the things we like about this campground is the trails that are all around. This kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

We walked, relaxed, and got away from some craziness. It was a little chilly, so I built my first fire:

At one point when I was sitting around the fire, I looked down & saw my boot smoking. I like my fires blazing! Check out this picture:

Doesn't it look like there's a face in the coals? (You may have to click on the picture to enlarge to see it.)
While we were sitting around the fire, I kept hearing leaves crunching. It was a raccoon...at first. Then, we saw a skunk. I'm okay with raccoons...you can make a lot of noise and they'll go away, but a skunk!  I may have hid behind CH & told him I wasn't okay with a skunk! Luckily, Laika was already in the trailer since it was dark. That could have been all kinds of bad! The skunk didn't hang around, so we were able to go on about our evening.
The moon was big and beautiful. It was a perfect night for moon-watching.

Surprisingly, the leaves are still very pretty. Since it's been so dry, I thought they would already be off of the trees. Some pictures from one of our walks:

These leaves were incredibly yellow:

I thought these trees were interesting how one of them wraps around the other:

It was a little cold when we got up on Sunday:

On the way home, a deer ran out in front of the truck that was in front of us. It appeared to just clip it; the deer jumped a couple of times and then laid in the median. It just made me sick to my stomach. The truck pulled over, and when we passed it I took a quick look back but didn't see any damage. CH said it's possible that the deer was just stunned and may have gotten up, but I think he was saying that to make me feel better!
We spent the rest of the day relaxing (after showers) and went to our favorite Mexican place for dinner.
1 full week of school, then a 2-day week...I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving! Don't you just love this time of year?

Exploring East Tennessee: New Fall Sights!

This weekend, CH & I stayed a little closer to home. I saw a segment on a local tv channel a couple of weeks ago that highlighted a few places in Sevier County that I didn't know about. It took some time on the internet (they didn't have the maps linked like they said they would), but I found maps for each place.
The tour started at the statue of Tennessee's favorite (and arguably most famous) daughter, Dolly Parton:

I didn't think it looked very much like her, but I can cross that off the list! The statue is just outside of Sevier County's Courthouse; I had never been to it but had seen it many times from the road next to it. It's an absolutely beautiful building on the outside.

Next, we went to a community college to see a plaque commemorating a civil war battle not far from that spot. Fair Garden is considered a "minor battle", but a couple of people who were involved in it are interesting: Colonel Eli Lilly (founder of the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company) and General Sturgis (Sturgis, SD is named after him). 

The next stop was Harrisburg Covered Bridge. I had no idea there was a covered bridge so close to me; I love covered bridges!

Harrisburg Covered Bridge is one of 4 covered bridges in Tennessee.

In 1975 the Daughters of the American Revolution raised the funds to renovate the bridge.

Here is another covered bridge that I saw a few years ago when I visited OS & we went hiking:

Next on the list was the Fox Cemetery. The first person buried here was Mark Fox, who was scalped by Indians. I walked around but couldn't find his grave. I told CH that it's too bad they don't have it marked, but maybe they aren't sure which one is his. 

Some of the headstones were interesting.

English Mountain provides the backdrop:

Civil War Veterans rest here:

I thought maybe he was killed during the Fair Ground Battle, but he passed away 2 years after the battle took place.

Our last stop was Blowing Cave Mill:

 It's currently under renovation, and it looks as though there's quite a bit of work to be done.

The brothers who built the mill also built the Harrisburg Covered Bridge. (per http://www.fitzwaterwheel.com/FitzMills.html)

I snapped a couple of pictures along the way. This just screams "FALL", doesn't it?

 And, purple rocking chairs, because this is the South and we love our rockers!

Have you found some places in your area that you are just now discovering?

Fall in East Tn/Western NC

I honestly believe that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the country, but especially during this time of year. Even when we have the heat on one day and then have to switch over to air conditioning the next, you just can't beat East Tennessee.

Last weekend, CH & I went for a ride in the mountains. I thought we were going to find a couple of places I heard about on a local tv channel, but CH wanted to go somewhere else, and I was just along for the ride.

Technically, we weren't in East Tn. for most of the pictures I'm sharing. I'm not 100% sure if we were in NC or East Tn.; we probably went back and forth between the states several times. CH had us on backroads, so I didn't know where we were. (Which, could've been bad, especially when he mentioned that if someone wanted to get rid of a body, throwing it down the side of the mountain would be ideal...no one would ever find it!)

If the leaves weren't peaking last weekend, they should be this one. The colors weren't as vivid as last year; we haven't had as much rain this year. Last year, it seemed like they stayed pretty vivid for a long time.

And...I'm rambling. We left the house just as the sun was coming up, so we were treated to a spectacular view as we left the house.

(Click on the pictures for bigger views.)

I love how you can see the clouds in between the mountains just to the right of the sun:

This is the kind of road we were on:

But, hey, if you don't go on the back roads, you can't stop and take pictures like this:

Or this:

And, if you don't take a wrong turn, you miss out on seeing this:

We finally got to our destination: Cataloochee. We ended arriving a little later than we wanted, but we did get to see these girls:

Along with this guy watching over the 4 females we saw:

Truly spectacular!

Families settled in Cataloochee in the early 1800's and lived there until the area became part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There are still structures around the area, like this barn:

There was a wedding about to take place at Palmer's Chapel:

There are plenty of hiking trails:

And, again, beautiful sites:

As we were heading back to the Interstate, we stopped at an overlook:

(I was able to get a couple of leaves that were falling in the above picture. You may have to click on it to make it larger.) 

On the way back, we stopped at this restaurant where we met OS a couple of months ago. We hit it just right: it was their last day of the season, so they'll be closed until late February. The tourist kayak/raft season is over, and that's where they get most of their business. It sits right on the river with indoor or outdoor seating. If you're in the area, I'd highly suggest eating at Bean Trees Cafe. You can find information on their Facebook Page.

Take a ride this fall and leave the main road...just see where it takes you!