"Unwrapping Love..." Fall Retreat 2011

The Heart & Keeper of the Home Fall Retreat - at
Rancho Palmas Country Club
in Rancho Mirage

"Now unto Him who is able..."
Eph 3:20

"Unwrapping Love..."

Focusing on love in the common things,
our emptying nests, and with our husbands.

"It is the beginning of list season. Lists of holiday menus, lists of handmade projects, lists of must-buy gifts. Could I begin another list, a list of thins I love? Across the backside of a scrape of paper I begin. Not of gifts I want but gifts I already have. Sometimes you don't know when you're taking the first step through a door until you're already inside...that is the beginning and I smile. I can't beleive how I smile. I mean, they are just common things and maybe I don't even know they are gifts really until I write them down...Gifts He bestows. This writing it down - it is sort of like...unwrapping love." by Ann Voskamp from her book "One Thousand Gifts"


Workshop with Ruth -
Homemade Raspberry Preserves


With a devotion from Duet. 6:4-9



Bon Appetit!








Janie, always a good student!!
And actually Janie gets an A++

I asked Janie to make a menu and put together breakfast for us and away she went!!! She made the most adorable cookies that looked like acorns, and her dishes had acorns on them and after a close look my invites for the retreat even they had acorns on it! Well from small acorn grows a big oak trees with long solid roots and acorns represent longevity, we decided that described our group perfectly!





Don't leave Lyn alone in the kitchen by herself!

























Did I say Lyn, I meant Chrissy!

(She assures me she has not caught anything on fire in the kitchen in a long time!)















T.J. and Ruth working side by side. (they look like they are having fun!!)












Thank you Ruth.

Your Raspberry Preserves are the best!

You made it look very easy!!











An acorn ornament I picked up to represent our weekend together!! Well we officially decided our charm to represent this retreat would be an acorn. I had fruitlessly looked for charms before our weekend together and couldn't come up with anything, and like Lyn said, "Sometimes you just have too discover it together!"