Happy Thanksgiving {Weekend}

Dear Readers,

Thank you for following Teacher by Nature for another year! I’m so thankful for all of you, and it is such an encouragement and a joy to write for you. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends, and if the holiday season is more challenging for you than anything else, I pray that you would find rest in the peace of God through Jesus, which surpasses all understanding.

We had a fun day with my family. Our menu consisted of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon and mushrooms, butternut squash soup, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, cherry pie, and sugar cookies. After we ate dinner, we all took a walk until the cold wind chased us inside, and then we ate our desserts.

I love spending an afternoon in the kitchen. Brian and I made the pumpkin pies together–I did the crust, and he did the filling. I made the dinner rolls from scratch, and substituted some of the all-purpose flour with freshly milled whole wheat flour. I also made the soup. My kids helped out in the kitchen this year, too. My son stayed as long as I required him to stay, but my daugther helped the entire afternoon. I taught her how to make pie crust and how to knead bread, and then both kids helped me shape the rolls.

I know some of you have Facebook and some of you don’t, so this won’t exactly apply to all of you, but I decided to delete my Facebook account. (Again!) I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, but just wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye. I am now, however. I’ve really been considering my goals as a writer and songwriter, and in the future, I would like to focus on the community that is closest to me. That doesn’t mean, though, that I won’t keep writing here! I consider those of you who have signed up to receive my posts to be ‘close,’ as I know you’re interested in my creative work and would like to keep up with me here. I’m hoping that I can find some places to perform my music in the area in which I live, even if that’s just a small concert now and then for family and friends. I’m also hoping that I can find other artists to join me. I’d love to put together a local community of artists of all types that can get together and discuss theology and the arts, work in the same room together, and share what we create with each other. I’ll see what the coming year holds. God is faithful and all the work he does is good.

Thank you again, dear readers! I look forward to another year with you, encouraging each other through words and music, and growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, forever and ever, amen.

Much love,

Hannah

Featured photo: A close-up of the pumpkins on our porch