Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

Tom and I had a very fun day right before I had to go back to work at the schools. We started by visiting Rowsters Coffee. It was started by Stephen Curtis, the owner of our favorite spot for many years in Caledonia-Essential Bean. Stephen has opened a new coffee spot in Easttown Grand Rapids. We enjoyed our visit and Stephen whipped up great drinks for us. We then went into Grand Rapids for lunch at San Chez. I know there wasn't much time between morning coffee and lunch but we did walk around down town GR for a while too. The memory of that day will linger with me long into the cold weather. Since that time we have been working hard. I'm working in three school districts-Hopkins, Caledonia and Byron Center. I've had to set a more predictable schedule so I know where to go. Monday/Wednesday/Friday I'm in Hopkins. I split both Tuesday and Thursday between Caledonia and Byron Center. It depends on which teachers I will work with. Makes the week go by very qui...

We are at the cabin now and enjoying it even though it is very wet and cold. The National Weather Service is even giving a wind chill of 41 this morning. We're going to be outside all morning watching the Bells show their horses at the fair. I will be digging a winter coat of out the closet soon. We traveled up to the Soo on Thursday evening. Our plan was to avoid the heavy traffic of the weekend and it worked well. As we were coming close to Gaylord on Alba Road, we spotted this beautiful rainbow. I wonder if the farmer who works this big farm noticed found the pot of gold that must have been in his field. This is a u-pick strawberry farm that always looks so well-maintained to me. So I guess this field is a pot of gold for the owner. The weather has been really interesting since we got here. We arrived in a very heavy rainstorm on Thursday night. The rain continued off and on all during the night. Our yard is too wet to mow which it real...