Beanfest, Scottish fest, Family, and new Family all in one month!

October was filled with all kinds of fun and excitement as my youngest daughter and newest grandbaby came for a visit and to join me for the Scottish festival. After all, she is the one who convinced me to watch Outlander and I loved it. Turns out we have Scottish DNA which was really cool. The Scottish festival takes place in Batesville every year at the Lyons college. As you walk up you hear the bagpipes playing along with a rock beat which set the tone as we wandered through booths and food vendors. They had a free petting zoo, Scottish games that was for the toughest Scotts, tents with singers and bands, and kilts everywhere! The rain threatened the fun but not before we watched a dance academy dancing the old dances with perfection as their teacher looked on. My son in law surprised us by taking off and enjoying the next group of activities with us.........The Beanfest.

I had booked two cabins for a family that was coming for the Beanfest on their mother's birthday wishes. The other cabin was also booked, so we had a full house! My own house was also full as my husband and our friend James came down to see what all this Beanfest was about and also to check out the Outhouse races. I mean, we have a lounge that is called The Outhouse, so we have to compete soon to win the golden toilet seat and bragging rights! The first guests to arrive was a sweet lady I had talked to about a month ago. She was interesting and shared some of her life this year so far. She had lost her son who was this great guy-super positive and always a devout Christian. He had raised an excellent son. I could not imagine the grief of that loss as it has always been my worst fear. She opened up and I listened and I hoped this place in all its beauty would give her a little bit of peace. Little did I know she would be such a generous and talented individual. About a week before her and her family arrived she had made my boring plain welcome documents into an exciting and interesting read with color and pictures! She put them into video form as well! This was such a blessing to me as I have no abilities when it comes to web graphics or whatever the term may be for that type of design. I am not used to such a gift from someone, so all I could do was say thank you. It deserved more. Days before her check in I went to several stores looking for the perfect book to get her for inspiration. Nothing ever stuck out, so my daughter and I settled on some homemade sweet and salty treats and some bath goodies to finish her cabin. She called before leaving and asked if I needed anything from the grocery store! No one has asked me this before, but I do lack cilantro here because they sell it in Arkansas like they sell dill-in those tiny plastic containers. Cilantro is used a lot when you cook Tex-Mex like I do. Our meeting was great, and her family was so nice. She got me several bunches of cilantros which was amazing! We did not get to see a lot of each other after that because there were places to go and things to see........The Beanfest!

I was a shock when we arrived at the quaint town of Mountainview. This was our first festival there and the sheer number of people there was not expected. This is a huge event with hundreds upon hundreds of people all eating beans and cornbread supplied by the competitors of Beanfest. They had massive cast iron pots with paddles to stir. Not knowing what to do we started to stand in line for beans when a gray-haired man with a long beard came up and said there was no standing in line, every man for themselves! He said there are several tables and they all have beans and cornbread. I bet I tried ten different beans! As I am looking around, I never seen so many people with cups and spoons. They had people set up to take your cups when you were finished. I got some cinnamon roasted nuts from a food vendor and a Charlie Kirk shirt at a booth. My husband got a cap and pressed emblem right there within minutes. There was a band playing on the square and the man singing I bet was in his seventies but had more energy and spunk than a twenty-year-old. When the Outhouse parade started both sides of the street were lined and the different outhouses had themes like "The General Pee" It was hilarious and everyone in my family had a great time and my daughter is so impressed with how everyone is so friendly. I will definitely be checking out all the other events the city puts on.

Sunday the guests checked out, and my family had to get back to their homes. I had a hard time getting motivated because of missing everyone, but I had to get back to my work as well. When I walked into the cabin, I find a card from my new friend along with personalized coffee mugs with our logo, cabin keychains, extra coffee pods, toilet paper pack, and much more! She did it again!!!!

I called her and she said it has kept her mind occupied and that she was working on my new logo I had talked to her about. She is unreal. Awesome. What I have taken from this month is how much family means to me. I also know God is always with us on our paths and sometimes puts people on our paths that feel like family.