Life is full of change

In my last post I shared pictures from the beach, and now we've spent the last few days enjoying snow storms! It feels a little surreal, how quickly time passes. But I absolutely adore watching the snow fall! <3

Ryan made some pretty strong improvements and experienced a few setbacks in the past couple of months. You'd think we would get used to the changes, but it always seems to take us by surprise. Exposure to gluten is always something we're trying to prevent (the last time he accidentally consumed gluten, it left him sick and dealing with another severe bout of depression and anxiety for a couple of weeks), and we're still working to find the right combination of medications to help manage his symptoms from his brain injury. Most days we are able to see the many blessings we have received over this past year+. We still see multiple doctors on a regular basis, but telehealth options due to the pandemic make those visits easier. Ryan has been working hard to fulfill church callings, and the stress of that has felt unbearable to him at times. But he is learning new coping strategies to deal with stress, and is grateful for everyone's help and understanding natures. It's interesting to see how many little things we used to take for granted. Now we notice God's hand in so many more things!

As the weather started to get cooler this fall, we made a few last trips to the mountains to enjoy the views. Ryan taught the girls how to shoot arrows with bows, and how to use his little bb gun pistol. We're all so grateful that he was able to do that this year! Then winter came on fast, and who knows if our tiny car will be able to make it up the mountain roads again until summer next year.

Ryan and I were blessed to be able to attend a wedding reception of a young man that we used to teach in Sunday School! He and his family are very dear friends of ours from Oregon, and we were so pleased that the wedding happened here in Idaho! :) We also were blessed to be able to attend the wedding of a high school classmate and good friend. We haven't attended a wedding in years, and suddenly we get to celebrate two in one season!

Halloween was fun and quiet this year. Nicole knew that she wanted to dress up as Rapunzel, but she was very specific about being the Rapunzel from Wreck-it Ralph II, wearing pajamas. :) God sent us a few tender mercies, and we were able to find the necessary clothes at thrift stores, and my amazing sister-in-law made us stencils so we could paint on the details. Nicole thought that it would be great if Becca dressed up as Vanellope Von Schweetz (from the same movie), and Becca loved the idea! Unfortunately, it was a lot more difficult to find the pieces for that costume...but once again God sent us tender mercies (in the form of a hoodie for a 2-year-old that still fit Becca, and one roll left of just the right color of duct tape at the store), and I think things turned out pretty adorable! What do you think?

We also had the opportunity to go to our favorite corn maze this fall! We hadn't been to it for a few years...in fact, the last time we went to it, Ryan was very ill with a perforated ulcer, but we just didn't know that was the problem yet. Because he was in so much pain, we didn't have the chance to finish the maze and had to cut out early. But this year, even though the maze was long and left us all exhausted, we were able to finish the whole thing! We took another family selfie (or two...) to celebrate. :)

 Among other things, we've been trying to figure out what's wrong with our 2-year-old laptop and get it fixed. Normally I wouldn't be so stressed about it, but now I use it for my work, so it has become a necessity. I didn't realize that Dell's aren't really built to last...maybe we should've invested in a MacBook, but hindsight is 20/20... 

We had a pretty bountiful harvest from our garden and fruit trees this year, even with a family of gophers taking their cut. I learned a lot more about gardening and preserving foods, which was fun. 

Ryan and I put in a lot of hours this year towards fixing our fence and figuring out ways to keep our little Houdini of a hound dog inside our yard. I think we've finally succeeded *knock on wood,* because she hasn't escaped in a few weeks!

Becca has been begging for us to try our hands at baking macarons...those notoriously finicky confections... I'm slowly warming up to the idea, and hopefully I'll have pictures to post about our adventure if we decide to take the plunge. ;) Any tips would be appreciated!