Valerie's Voice – Page 5 – Musings on Life

Week One in Virginia

We left Northfield a week before Thanksgiving to go visit our son and his family in Arlington, Virginia. On our way to the airport I realized I still had my slippers on! Fortunately, we were close enough to home so we had time to turn around and get my shoes! (I won’t mention the full cup of coffee I spilled all over my backpack at the airport.)

I guess I was excited. We were going to spend time with our son and his family. They are moving to India. We were happy to have some quality time to create more memories before they leave… and it was fun to take the grandchildren on adventures while mom and dad stayed home to work and pack! 😉

The nice apartment building where our son’s family has lived since January 2025.

This blog post will be a diary: a photo essay, with one, or maybe two, pictures per day to capture our first week. It was challenging to select the photos out of the hundreds I took!

A walk in the woods with Ezra. Still a touch of fall in the air.

Our first full day we dropped Zoey off for Portuguese lessons and Gary and I went for a long walk with Ezra. This is the day we made chocolate chip cookies which I blogged about a couple weeks ago.

We also “packed” Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes online. This is an outreach project by Samaritan’s Purse that delivers gift-filled shoeboxes to children in need worldwide.

For breakfast on Sunday morning our granddaughter, who especially likes to cook and bake, made waffles. Her brother made blueberry syrup.

Ezra had a play date scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Zoey and I made a mosaic candle holder from a craft kit.

On Monday, we walked the kids to school. We did so each morning, and we also picked them every afternoon. It’s a .8 mile round-trip walk.

…a beautiful building made with marble from Italy.

On our first Monday while Tim & Andrea worked/packed, Gary and I took the Metro to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts. We walked down the Hall of Nations (flags from all countries) and the Hall of States (flags from all states). Minnesota’s new flag was on display. The Kennedy Center is a beautiful building, made of marble from Italy, with chandeliers from Sweden. We had a fantastic tour guide…all to ourselves.

A hall inside the Kennedy Arts Center, with beautiful crystal chandliers.

Tuesday morning Gary and I went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. This is a somber, yet incredible, must-see museum.

Pictures of shoe piles and pictures of hair piles (from the victims) left a lasting impression. We also went through a special exhibit designed just for kids, which was very well done.

Tuesday afternoon, Zoey taught grandma how to make Flan!

The kids Thanksgiving break started on Wednesday. We took the grandkids to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center which is a Smithsonian Museum near Dulles airport (not to be confused with its companion museum, The National Air and Space Museum).

The Udvar-Hazy Center displays hundreds of air and space craft, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Concorde, and a Blackbird SR-71 (fastest manned jet).

The space shuttle Discovery was a sight to see. There were so many interesting aircraft in this museum. It was impressive, and a lot of fun.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner together. The kids and I made apple crisp to go along with the pumpkin pie.

Of course the kids were off school on Friday too, so Gary and I and the kids hopped on the Metro …

The Metro system is so easy to use and a great way to get around DC.

and took it to the National Gallery of Art.

I really liked this place.

I was immediately drawn to the first painting I saw in the museum. I envisioned myself in the painting…looking out over Lake Superior.

One really needs multiple visits to do justice to this art museum (I could say that of all of the museums), but this first time for me in the National Art Gallery was a lot of fun. We each chose an animal, color, and object to look for in the art works.

In the courtyard of the apartment building.

On Saturday, we walked through the Farmer’s Market near the apartment, took a short drive along the Potomac River, the kids showed off their skills on their hover boards, and we all went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

*****

Night falls over Washington DC…

6:49 pm on November 24, 2025.
Views of the capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Performing Arts building (the large building with white lights on left side of photo) to name a few…

December’s Full Moon

December’s full moon, also called the cold moon, over Washington D.C. from the rooftop of our son’s apartment building.

Happy Thanksgiving

Morning sunrise at 6:36 am on November 2, 2025 in Northfield.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
    to sing praises to the Most High.
It is good to proclaim His unfailing love in the morning,
    His faithfulness in the evening...

Psalm 92:1-2

Runaway wild turkey on the streets of Minneapolis…November 8, 2025

Evening sunset at 6:05 pm on October 30, 2025 in Northfield.

Oops…

We are spending a few weeks with our grandchildren in Virginia. One of the activities we like to do together is bake. We found the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies in the cupboards so we decided to make a batch.

It’s a team effort…the three of us… our oldest granddaughter, her brother and myself. We don aprons, wash our hands, and always take turns measuring the different ingredients, adding them to the mixer, stirring them all together and rolling the cookie dough into balls to drop on the cookie sheet.

Into the oven they went…one cookie sheet at a time. We checked them after nine minutes, the lowest time of the suggested 9-11 minute time check. As we opened the oven door, all three of us were there to inspect. And what we saw was not what we expected. Hmmm…

They don’t look like they normally do…what did we do wrong?

Let’s go over the ingredient list...

Sugar – check
Flour – check
Baking soda – check
Salt – check
Butter – check

Wait...oops...the recipe calls for 1 cup of butter. Oh, Oh...we only added one stick of butter when it called for one cup, which is two sticks.

Darn! I’m sorry kiddos, I told us the wrong amount of butter to use.

“It’s OK grandma…they’ll probably still taste good.” (They’re so sweet!)

And, surprisingly the cookies were tasty! We finished baking all the cookie dough and ate them all up over the next two days. In fact, I may use only one stick of butter the next time I use this recipe…they were that good!

It reminded me of a Thomas Edison quote: “I have not failed. I have successfully discovered twelve hundred ideas that don’t work”

…only this mistake worked!

“The Sherlock Carol”

Charles Dicken’s “The Christmas Carol”, is one of my favorite stories. Over the years I have gone to many different live performances, watched a video annually, and collected books with this title. A fun fact: ““The Christmas Carol” has never been out of print since its first publication in 1843.”

“The Christmas Carol” is truly a transformation story. Sometimes I need a reminder to be of good cheer and be generous with my time and money.

The program for “The Sherlock Carol”, where I used the quotes for this blog.

I have seen the traditional play many times. I have seen the play which incorporates the gospel message in the production “The Gospel According to Scrooge” (although the original already has a good news message). And now I’ve seen the play with twists and turns in “The Sherlock Carol”, a melding of two Christmas stories…”The Christmas Carol” written by Charles Dickens and “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s billed as a “fun holiday mystery” as the play blends aspects of both stories together in surprising ways. “A merry & mysterious mash-up” for sure! The writer was so creative and clever to combine these two stories. It is well written.

A very busy stage. Different stage settings were made by adjusting a table and shifting the lights.

Commonweal Theatre is in the small town of Lanesoboro, Minnesota. The theatre is starting its 37^th year of providing the community with amazing productions on stage. And they are all professional actors (this is not community theatre…although I think community theatre is wonderful too!)

“The Sherlock Carol’s” main characters are, of course, Mr. Scrooge and Sherlock Holmes. The remaining four actors (total of six actors in the play) are acting out the remaining 22 characters in the show! And they do an excellent job accomplishing that feat. It is witty, and funny, and very entertaining.

The stage of Commonweal Theatre, with patrons filling up the seats.

Theatre capacity was filled on this third performance, with many more performances scheduled through December. The stage was full of props, yet it jumps from different locations by “shifting the lights and adjusting a single piece of furniture”. Another feat accomplished well.

Although Lanesboro is a rather long drive from Northfield, stopping for breakfast on the way down and for a lite supper on the way home and seeing an excellent play in-between, made for a delightful day.

It’s “elementary (my dear Watson)” to highly recommend this uplifting production of “The Sherlock Carol”.

“God Bless us everyone.”

The Northern Lights

Tuesday, November 11, 2025 (Ford Street, Northfield)

It’s not often one gets to see the northern lights, especially in town, and in southern Minnesota, but the last two nights there were wonderful displays right outside our front door. A neighbor sent a photo in a text alerting me to check out the spectacular show on Tuesday evening.

I have seen the northern lights a couple times in my life. Once with the naked eye from a parking lot at our church. That was many years ago – at that time I did not have an ever-ready camera (cell phone) to look at them through the lens that illuminates them. I remember faintly seeing green streaks in the northern sky.

However, in May 2024, having heard on the news the northern lights may be visible, I drove a mile out-of-town to watch for them. There were several of us folks who had driven away from the city lights to look for them. There was excitement in the air as we did witness a spectacular light show.

In May 2024 the colors were purple and green, with some yellow and red.

Tuesday night the colors were dramatic reds and greens…(maybe because Christmas is coming? HA)

Wednesday, 11/12/25 Ford Street, Northfield.

We didn’t see as much activity on Wednesday night…at least the times when we checked, but we did catch on fabulous green streak with purple hues.

What an awesome, glorious, “free event”, put on by the Father of Lights.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, 
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 
who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

Impromptu Purchase

I had a short time between appointments last week, so I decided to tuck into a gift shop in downtown Northfield. There were fall items on sale, but a large part of the store was already decked out for Christmas. I wasn’t planning to buy anything.

A 5″ x 6″ Wooden Plaque: Primitives by Kathy ~ Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

But, the moment I saw this painting on a wooden block, I knew I wanted it. It was a totally impromptu purchase, which I rarely do, but I loved the image and the joy it brought to me. Maybe it’s because I had been out to helping on the farm earlier this week; feeding two horses, two donkeys, two goats, two Nigerian Dwarf goats, two sheep (they’re new), eight chickens and four cats. I have grown fond of these beautiful creatures.

Most of the farm animals I work with are represented on this picture plaque. The horse, donkey, sheep, goats, and rooster are so familiar to me. The picture made me feel happy and joyful, and worshipful even. I loved to see the animals gathered around the manger, worshiping baby Jesus. Although it is a Christmas scene, I plan to keep it up all year long.

Later that same day I was driving to an art exhibit and passed a farm. “And on that farm” was a row of sheep that caught my attention. Several sheep were all lined up along a long wooden fence, with their heads hanging through the first horizontal rail. All their heads were lowered…they looked to be eating something off the ground. And then I noticed one, big brown (black?) sheep (or possibly a goat) facing the others – outside the fence. The whole scene made me smile and I turned the car around to go back and take a picture.

Artist: Julie Fakler – Pet Portraits in acrylic paint & clay.

I went to the art gallery to see one exhibit, and afterward was lured in to another studio with a special exhibit of animals painted on clay, and other mediums. Farm animals seemed to be the theme of my day, so I took more photos.

Artist: Jule Fakler – Pet Portraits in acrylic paint & clay.

Artist Julie Fakler offers a variety of pictures to choose from on her ‘Pet Portraits” business cards.
She is a local artist in Faribault, MN.

I do love animals. It was a good day.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful, 
The Lord God made them all. 
		                                                            Stanza 1 by Cecil Frances Alexander

November’s Beaver Moon

I took this picture from our car window driving up Cedar Avenue towards the airport last night, November 5, 2025 at 5:01 pm. The coloring changed so much from 8 minutes earlier.

The most common name for November’s full moon is the Beaver Moon. Apparently it’s so named because beavers are busy building their winter dams in November.

The is the first picture I took from the car of the full moon rising. I zoomed in and the photo is a bit grainy.
(11/6/25 4:53 pm.)

November’s full moon has two names…it can also be called the frost moon, because frost is usual in Minnesota during this month.

November’s full moon, on November 5, was a supermoon. It was the largest and brightest moon of year (the distance from the earth was the closest). There are three supermoons in 2025…October, November and December.

No matter what time of the year, it’s always spectacular to see the moon.

Epilepsy Awareness Month

November is Epilepsy awareness month. A close family member was diagnosed with epilepsy. We didn’t really know much about this disease. In the past, I have donated items for the Epilepsy Foundation, but that’s about it.

The book cover – written by Hailey Adkisson, Illustrated by Kelsey Diaz.

We were gifted the book What is Epilepsy? A simple explanation of a complex diagnosis. It is a children’s book, which is very helpful in keeping explanations simple and easier to understand.

The book starts out explaining our brains are electric, and our brain power “sends messages to your entire body. But in some people, the electric activity in their brains becomes stormy and chaotic, causing a seizure.”

It goes on to say, a special doctor, who studies the brain, is called a neurologist. He studies pictures of the brain to see how it’s working.

And, “There are many different reasons people can have epilepsy.” And, “No matter the reason for someone’s epilepsy, it is always very important to try and stop seizures from happening.”

According to the website cureepilepsy.org, each year more than 150,000 people are diagnosed with epilepsy.

At this time there is no cure, but as with many diseases, researchers continue to discover more and more about epilepsy and possible cures.

The color purple is associated with epilepsy awareness month. I have a purple wristband I will wear as a reminder to think about, and pray for those living with this disease.

Here are two links for more information: Epilepsy.com and Cureepilepsy.org

Greetings

We are delighted with our new twin house, and love it when friends come to visit. This past spring, some friends came over and gifted us with an unexpected present and a card. It took me awhile to unwrap the gift because I was admiring the picture on the front of the card. It was colorful, festive and joyful. It looked like people were celebrating, but it wasn’t quite clear what they were celebrating. My friend was watching me closely as I read the sentiment. In her own handwriting she wrote out a blessing for our new home…she wrote it underneath the sentiment printed on the card, which was printed in another language.

I looked at her and she smiled as she told me the story behind the card. She found the package of cards while she was on a trip to Iceland. She liked the picture on front of the cards and asked the clerk if they were blank inside. The clerk indicated they were blank (possibly lost in translation?) so my friend purchased the beautiful cards. Back home, she was surprised when she opened the cards to see a sentiment printed inside, and it was not in English. What to do? She decided to ignore it. She did not even look up the phrase to see what it meant, and decided use the cards anyway… for any occasion she needed…she just wrote her own sentiment underneath the printed one.

I laughed when she told me that story. I liked her idea a lot, and was delighted to get one of these special cards.

(I did look up the translation and it says “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year” but I won’t tell my friend that. Obviously, she doesn’t want to know.)