4th of July / Shower / Blessings

Here it is, our "Lumberjack" parade float! I really thought Paul Bunyan, made by Eli, was pretty cute! Babe, the ox, not so much. It doesn't matter what I can draw, I cannot draw an oxen for anything! Finally Arthur made it after many attempts on my part, and then I ruined the face because I can't draw an oxen's face either! Josh amazed everyone by walking behind, juggling.

And then the fabulous maze crew passed out ad cards! More than any other year! See the silly face on Babe? I tried, really I did. Maybe I can fix it before the Roseau parade!

We had a 4th of July picnic at Arthur's parent's place with lots of great food and fellowship! 

On Saturday, Hosanna's sisters gave her a bridal shower at our church. Priscilla did a couple of games, including a "How we do you know Nate and Hosanna" and wedding emoji one. Naomi, Aimee, and Miriam made a salad bar and ice cream and brownie dessert. Karen and Rebekah decorated, and it was very pretty!  Grandma Krahn did a devotional. And everyone brought such nice gifts. As soon as Hosanna got home she unpacked everything and took pictures to show Nate and then repacked everything, really tight, to make sure there is room for everything! Arthur is bringing all of Hosanna's stuff down to Ohio later this month, with Hosanna of course! And the big day is August 3rd!!!

This is the front of the ad cards the maze staff passed out. If you live anywhere close, we'd love to have you come out! Oh, this really isn't the card we passed out! (Just noticed by previewing this post) The ad cards we passed out had 2019 instead of 2018 on it!

This is the back side of the card. To be honest, I really struggle with announcing all the things we're doing before we are even ready! It's just a little scary!  But God is faithful and somehow it always gets done.

Speaking of God being faithful, Arthur was working on the concession stand and we needed to get some flooring and a small freezer. We didn't have the budget to get them right away. Anyway, the next day, Arthur was mowing lawns with Aaron and heard someone call for him. He looked up and it was "Spud" who had just taken out some linoleum from a house he was remodeling and wondered if Arthur could use the old one. Yes! Then he kept mowing and saw a small freezer, the perfect size we were looking for, in a guy's yard for sale! God is so faithful!

 Then we decided a couple days later that we really needed some money. Remember we got rid of the dairy cows? Well, we haven't had a regular check since then and haven't had any problems because, again, God is faithful! Well, the same day we decided we needed to find some money, expecting that we should ship a couple cows, three different people who owed Arthur money showed up and gave him some. We hadn't expected any of it anytime soon! God just delights in doing this kind of thing! 

I think more than anything, God was using these blessings to confirm that we are suppose to be doing the maze this year. Our prayer was, that if we weren't suppose to do it, that God would not fund it. Our plan was to plow ahead until God stopped us, which I kinda thought He might! But no, He has confirmed to us again and again, we're on the right track.  So thankful!

One last thing, as a mother, Monday's are always hard after busy Sundays. I don't know if I'm alone in this opinion or not, but my wisdom for today is, "Schedule easy things on Monday!" That's why I'm blogging today. That's why I go through emails. That's why I do all those no-brainer things on Monday! That's why when the kids were young, instead of making Friday's school easy, we made Monday easy!  Just thought you might like the wisdom from this quickly-getting-older lady!:)

Have a great week everyone!