Fall in Watersmeet...Complete with Our First Few Snows

Hello from Fort Wayne!

We are wrapping up our second week of vacation (for the year) in Fort Wayne. It was kind of a last-minute plan to come down and try to get together with Chris' brother and stepmom to try to help sort through some of their dad's things. It's been a full but good week trying to get things done and visit with family. We will be leaving early tomorrow morning to return home to Watersmeet.

In my last post, I shared some of our experiences this summer; here I'll share some of our fall highlights.

First, we adopted a new member into our family! Meet Mr. Tumnus, one of the sweetest kitties you'll ever know:

Charis and Mr. Tumnus: Love at first sight!

Another joy we had this summer was watching the sunflowers blossom in front of our house. Josiah had begged and begged to plant sunflowers - they're his favorite! - but after we were done planting our garden, the only place we had left was under the front living room window of our house. I thought they might reach to the bottom of the window, but I obviously hadn't paid close enough attention to the back of the seed packet...as before long, they reached past our window and one or two surpassed the roof of our house! They were a beautiful sight all summer long...but next year, I'll be more conscious not to put them in front of a window. 😄

Our biggest "Monster" sunflower 😯

In September, our church hosted the Revive LIVE True Woman conference simulcast. We had women from five different churches (including ours) attend for part or all of the weekend. It was a wonderful time!

Beautiful sunflowers from our yard!

Chris was thrilled to be able to act as an assistant coach to the Cross Country (XC) team at our school this fall. He was able to help out at practices, attend meets, and even go to the state meet (an overnight trip) with the team.

The last three runners in this picture are Watersmeet guys

We've also enjoyed living nearby other Village Missionaries and getting together every once in awhile for "VM Fellowships". There are five VM fields in or near the U.P.: Watersmeet, Bruce Crossing (30 min North of us), Calumet (about 2 hours North), Rock (about 2 hours 40 min East), and Land O' Lakes, WI (8 miles South of us). In October, we were invited to the house of Adam an Tamara Hamill in Rock. It was such a fun time - both for the missionaries and the kids!

Our family with the Washburns (Bruce Crossing) and Hamills (Rock)

The kiddos had so much fun together!

In October also, we were blessed to have a visit from Chris' Grandma and Grandpa Soliday (his mom's parents) from Nappanee, IN. They spent several days with us using their spare time to help us with organization we hadn't yet gotten to, exploring our beautiful area, and even watched the kids for an evening and gave us a beautiful date night! We truly appreciated their visit and encouragement. 💓

We have so enjoyed fall in the U.P. The trees and leaves were beautiful - while they lasted!

I realized at the end of my last blog post that I hadn't shared any photos of our house, so here are a few:

Front door and half of the living room

Living Room

Kitchen: The table Chris built fits just perfectly!

Kitchen, complete with my own personal professional Dishwasher 😉

Kids' room

Second half of kids' room

Nursery

The photos framed here were gifts from a dear friend in Ohio - so if you're from our VCC Family,
please tell Luana these pictures are used and well-loved!

Several people from the church worked hard to clean and prepare the parsonage before our arrival, and we are so appreciative! It is beautiful and absolutely perfect for our family! We've made a few changes since I took these pictures in the spring (such as adding curtains in the kids' rooms and decluttering those spaces a little bit), and I've also gotten a lot more organized and set up in the basement/homeschool area, which I don't have any photos of here - I'll have to take some when we get back and share those next time! Our backyard also has a beautiful view:

And yes, that photo accurately represents our current state (admittedly we've been gone for a week, but I assume it hasn't changed much 😉). We are loving the snow!!

Yooper in his natural habitat

At the end of October, the U.P.-area Village Missionaries switched churches for Village Missions Sunday, which was a lovely way to practice the fellowship we have together through VM. We traveled up to Grace Christian Fellowship in Calumet, MI, and thoroughly enjoyed our time there! The congregation was so sweet and welcoming to our family, and we appreciated their generosity and hospitality!

Grace Christian Fellowship in Calumet, MI

We will be sending out our Fall Prayer Newsletter in the next couple of days (I'll admit it used to be monthly, but it's turning into more of a seasonal newsletter lately...), so if you would like to receive that but don't currently, just send us your email or snail mail address and we'll add you to our list. 😊

We are to set off early in the morning for home, so I really need to get to bed, but I wanted to get one more update out while I can! Thank you all for your prayers and care for our family! 💗

Welcome to Watersmeet!

Hello!
Lest you all think we fell off the face of the earth or simply gave up on blogging, let me assure you that neither is true. We've just been really busy!

Proof of life

I'm not sure how it's November already, but that's what the calendar says so it must be true. That means we've been in Watersmeet now for 7 months today! 😯 (And yes, I think that means we've hit a new record for the longest time between blog posts 😬 Oops!)

This was what greeted us on our arrival

I don't know that I can adequately express how much we love it here in the Northwoods and how thankful and excited we are to be serving the community of Watersmeet. Before we moved here, so many people told us how beautiful it was - and I'll admit I was a little skeptical, like "Ok, there's lots of trees...I guess that's pretty to some people?" (I've always been a hills girl myself!) - but as soon as we arrived, we really did begin to see the beauty of this area. The woods really are beautiful (we definitely didn't have this many trees in Northern Indiana!), but there are also mountains and waterfalls and lakes and Great Lakes too!

Bond Falls is only about a 20-minute drive from our house!
If you come to visit, you can bank on us taking you there :)

I feel like I FINALLY understand all those "Pure Michigan" commercials! 😁

Beautiful in every season!

Ah yes, I almost forgot: The U.P. is also the Land of Pasties! Um, how did I go my whole life up until now
without knowing about this deliciousness?? (This restaurant isn't in Watersmeet but a nearby town) 

I'll be honest, though, about my one disappointment: I have yet to see a bear. I was excited when I heard that last summer one had been spotted behind the parsonage, and was even more hopeful when we heard of evidence that one had been roaming around the road the runs a quarter of a mile or so behind out house (separated, of course, by lots of trees) - and I even found some scat myself while picking wild blackberries with a friend and thought maybe driving back through the wilderness we would spot one... but alas, no bear sighting for me. 😔 (I know my mom thinks I'm nuts, but mind you I'm not wishing to PET a bear - I just want to see one out my window or while driving! And even if I did see one in person, everyone says that as long as I wasn't inadvertently between a mama and her cubs the bear would likely go the other way because they greatly prefer to avoid contact with humans... So really, I don't think it's crazy. I've just never lived anywhere where I could see a real live wild bear before, and I think it would be an amazing thing to see!) Anyway, I know there's still time for me to fulfill my bear-sighting dream... I'll try to wait patiently.

Ok, moving on: Wow, where do I start?!? We arrived here as projected April 3, and were greeted by a wonderfully friendly and helpful group from the church who helped us unload the moving truck.

We'd hoped there would still be snow on the ground when we arrived...and there was!

 Our first Sunday here was Palm Sunday, and our second was Easter. What a beautiful celebration and a wonderful introduction to our new home!

Pretty soon after our arrival, Chris was able to get involved helping out with the track team at the school, which of course he loved!

In May, sweet Charis turned 3. How is she getting so big?!

I have been able to attend the Northwoods Quilters meetings almost weekly, which I have really enjoyed! Most people who know me probably know that I've never known the first thing about sewing (I could get a detached button back on, but even that wasn't pretty!), so I have SO appreciated the willingness of a couple of ladies who have taken me under their wing to teach me the basics and help me complete my first few projects!

Guys, I know this is hard to believe but I
(along with guidance from wonderful friends) MADE THIS!!!

I've also enjoyed getting involved with the food pantry here. It's a nice excuse to get out of the house for a bit (sometimes with a baby on my back, sometimes totally kid-free!) and get some exercise carrying boxes for people. 😉

This summer, a new friend invited me to bring the kids to a weeklong Language and Cultural Camp that the local Lac Vieux Desert tribe was hosting. We learned so much, and made many new friends! It was so fun - as much for the kids as for myself! You who know me well know how much I enjoy languages and LOVE learning about other cultures, so this was right up my alley!

A wonderful and talented friend helped Josiah make this
authentic birchbark mini canoe! It's so beautiful!!

Learning traditional games and practicing traditional skills: Trying to spear the "deer"

Sweetie pie 💖

I was also invited to take part in an online Anishinabe language class (the traditional language of the tribe here), which I have thoroughly appreciated - though I'll admit it's about a thousand times more difficult than Spanish 😳 Just about everything about the language is the exact opposite of Spanish (which I studied in/after college), which complicates my language learning a bit! I really am enjoying learning, though - the teacher is fantastic and the other students (much farther along than I am) are always so encouraging 💕 I've actually missed several classes in the last month or so due to special church events and traveling, but am really missing it and look forward to getting back into it regularly again this month!

This summer we decided that since our Village Missions conference was in IN, we might as well double it up with our vacation to visit family so that we'd only have to make that trip once (I think it takes us around 12 hours one way with all the stops the kids require...). We had a great time visiting family and friends!

Ft Wayne Children's Zoo with my dad and stepmom...
Can you find all the Clelands in the picture?

4th of July Tincaps baseball game with my mom and stepdad...
Love this picture of all my favorite guys 💘

So thankful for the evening spent with these dear friends and mentors!

So glad we got to visit with our CIAR family and friends also!

And Sovereign turned ONE! Woohoo!!

 Looking through my pictures now, I'm realizing how many friends and family members we saw but didn't get photos with -- here's my resolution to do better next time! Hold me to it, friends!!

From Fort Wayne we headed to our Village Missions conference in Cedar Lake, IN. It was a great week full of encouragement and reconnecting with beloved friends!

Chris shared a song he had written during one of our services

We got to see these dear friends from Ohio! 💖

It's a bird! - No, it's a plane!
...No, it's our SUPER D.R.'s!

We made some special capes for our District Representatives and
Chris serenaded them during one of our mealtimes 😄

Conference is a great time for the kids as well! Josiah and Charis had THE BEST teachers ever

and even got some power tool experience while we were in sessions!

When we got back from conference, we were full-swing into planning for VBS. It was such a fun week, and we had over 40 kids come! We couldn't have done it without all our wonderful adult volunteers!

I was so impressed with this bulletin board that a woman in our church made. So cool!

And let's be honest: This is how ALL of our volunteers felt by the end of the week! 😄

Oh yes, and we celebrated 8 years of marriage in July as well:

In August, we were able to rest a little bit and recover from that nonstop summer. We are working on homeschooling - preschool for Josiah and Charis. Josiah turned 5 in August!

Well, that at least wraps up the summer for now! It's past my bedtime, but I feel so much relief at finally getting a blog post up. Sorry it's taken me so long to do that! I hope you've enjoyed the pictures, and I hope to be back later this week or maybe next week with some fall updates and pictures of our house since I forgot to put those here.

Have a good day, and THANK YOU to all who remember to lift us up in prayer!

“The greatest thing you can do in ministry is not speak or create or manage, but pray.” – Malachi O’Brien (@malachiobrien via Twitter)