a good day and the garden's end for the summer

today was a simple sort of sunday.
church.
lunch.
momma got a nap with the little milligans.
the rest of the family played and worked outside.
it was a beautiful fall day!
we picked the last of our garden's produce (except for a few green tomatoes left here and there).

little pumpkins

acorn squash

cherry tomatoes

the children also helped mark cut out stuff from our lilac bushes - dead branches, mulberries, weeds with burrs. . .
our neighbor girl even helped transport the piles of stuff to the city brush pile.
she joined us for supper too.
we topped off the day with a campfire in the backyard.
mark and hogan worked on carving some bows.

so unless we photograph the garden clean up process (which might not even happen with the arrival of baby milligan???) this is our garden's end for this summer.

here's a look at the corn's final height
it got up to the garage roof!

this was owen a couple of weeks ago harvesting tomatoes from his beefsteak plant
given to us by grandma strub
after our heirloom tomatoes didn't survive transplanting

surprize!
we found 3 big pumpkins hiding by the rhubarb plants
they volunteered themselves from our compost pile
nikao is helping uncover one of them

summer has ended well and we are looking forward to a beautiful fall - our favorite season of all!

another baby update

well, they say third time's a charm.
that's what i was hoping for.
instead we got 3 strikes, but baby milligan #7 has yet to come out.

we have had 3 exciting preparatory labor days.
wed. 15th
sun. 19th
fri. 24th
each of these days we've made the phone calls to have the midwives and grandparents join us for baby's arrival.
twice now the midwives have spent the night in our guest bedroom.
our due date was the 21st.

though i'm not anxious that we're "overdue," nor frustrated over these funny days, i am looking forward to meeting this baby in God's timing.
i've had to surrender myself to waiting and God has been using the questionable labor days to better prepare us for the arrival of this child.
psalm 37 has been a favorite section of the Bible to me for some time, and has comforted my heart, mind, and spirit this week.
"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him . . ."
that might be this baby's verse!

thanks for your thoughts and prayers!!
we have definitely sensed the blessing of being prayed for throughout these days.
this baby already has an interesting birth story, but we'll be sure to send out the news once we have new baby news.

baby milligan news

so a baby news update . . .
i woke up early this morning to some contractions.
they were fairly regular, so we called our midwives and the grandparents.
once i got up, the baby activity slowed down.
by 2:00 pm, we decided that labor was not progressing, so the midwives returned home.
so i'm calling this preparatory labor.
it sounds so much better than false labor.
and really, i believe it's all working together to bring this baby to join our family.
it has been a good day.
i'm not disappointed or frustrated at all.
God's timing is in the works and we can trust Him!

so please keep us in your prayers as we wait and trust this baby to arrive in God's timing.
love in Him,
kim