Early February

Last week we had the privilege of watching Aaron and Naomi's three oldest for a few days. As a girl, Priscilla had these Indian dresses she lived in, and is really excited now when her nieces love to wear them! They also dressed up in some clothes from the "dress up trunk" so we could have a tea party all fancy dressed like.

I had no idea when I made homemade play dough that Aaron would play with this stuff for hours! He just couldn't leave it alone. It made for some easier days watching this little guy!

The kids loved getting sled rides too! Both Arthur and Eli read lots of books to them as well.  So, it was a busy week, but fun.

Other than that, we've had some colds in the house ;(

We've been working on the Valentine Banquet at our church this coming Sunday. You're all invited! It's on the 12th at 6:00 pm and is for the whole family. We'll have a banquet meal followed by a program. Please RSVP though if you come!

Arthur has been diligently getting cattle separated and making plans for shipping the calves on Thursday. A yearly highlight! We won't have as many to sell this year because he is saving most of the heifer calves.

I really wanted to do more Bible memory this year. The last few years I've been doing various verses in the Bible but really wanted to tackle a passage. I decided to go through Scripture Memory Fellowship and learn the Ten Commandment passage, Exodus 20:1-18. I'm sure I've learned it before, but still have so much trouble remembering from day to day what I learned the day before. Teach your children a lot of Bible memory when their young! I'm convinced that those who learn their Bible when young remember so much more than when you wait till you're my age to learn it!

Well, you all have a wonderful week enjoying God's blessings!
Count them, and name them one by one!

Little Angels

We sure enjoyed going to Aaron and Naomi's Christmas program last night.  I'm not sure what Anna is doing during this Away in a Manger song :) Guess she's already onto the stars part!

Anyway, I think these are some pretty cute little angels!

Our Trip to Tennessee

Mom here - We put on a lot of miles in the last week and a half.  First we headed down Chicago way to drop Priscilla off  at the IBLP headquarters for the Vessels of Honor program. (The picture was taken there.) It was hard to leave her but sometimes we have to do hard things in order to do the right thing!  Then we headed down to North Carolina to drop Hosanna off at a chalk talk class.  While she was there Arthur and I headed west of Nashville to visit Aaron and Naomi and the sweet little girls.  I'm not much of a traveler but you couldn't help but be awed at the glory of God's creation.  Those Smoky Mountains are beautiful!  So was the snow and thunderstorms!  I think we saw snow in every state except Ohio.  Anyway, it was beautiful and we enjoyed seeing a little taste of spring before heading north again.  We picked Hosanna up and made a stop at the Creation Museum.  We also enjoyed Steak and Shake (the nearest one is hundreds of miles from here), a Bass Pro shop, The Smokey Mountain Knife Works store, and of course we enjoyed all the southern drawls.  I enjoyed doing a little shopping with Naomi, and we loved spending time with Esther and Anna.  I wish I had pictures but Hosanna had one of the cameras, Priscilla has one, and Isaac has one.

Meanwhile, back at home, it snowed, Silas kept the farm going with Miriam and Amos' help.  Today we have a federal dairy inspector coming.  You can pray we'll pass the inspection!   It's the first time we've had a federal inspector here, usually it's just state ones.  Okay, I'll turn it over to Hosanna because the rest of the photos are of her part of the trip.

Hosanna here- Here I am working on the black-light  image for a chalk talk. When the normal light comes on all of the chalk you see glowing now will disappear.

This is the same picture that I was working on in the above photo. I actually did this one in  our church  but we used different colors, and changed a couple of other things.

I met some great people while I was there, and made some friends. Here I am with  two sisters that were there together.  Their easels were right next to mine so we got to talk together quite a bit.

It was fun looking around the room and seeing everyone's chalk drawings of the same thing. Some of the people there were really good

This is the picture of our whole group. The man standing on the far right hosted the classes, and the man standing behind me and to the right is Matt Bowman, our teacher. He is a great teacher and I learned a lot from him. He not only teaches how to do gospel chalk talks, and travels around doing them, but he also makes the chalk. We learned how to do six different chalk talks, and how to come up with our own. I thank God for the opportunity to be there and learn more. Please pray that I would be able to use it in the way that God would want me to.

The Grandchildren & Some Other Stuff

Well, the sheetrock is almost all up and Arthur finished insulating in the peak.  Close quarters up there.   We sure appreciate Ben H. coming over and working such long hours to help us get things done.  Some nephews and my father-in-law have put in time too which really helps. 

Oh, did we ever have fun with Naomi and her girls!   (I have no idea why my face is so shiny on this photo, it really isn't!)  Anna is pretty much a mama's girl although she sure doesn't mind anyone holding her and has such a sweet smile.  Esther has a sweet smile too and says the cutest things.  The girls enjoyed being called "The aunties" by Esther.  Not a dull moment!

So many smiles!

Amos and Rebekah and the boys joined us for family devotions one night when the cousins joined Hosanna on the stairs.  Oh the fun of having cousins! We also love having Amos and Rebekah and the boys here for devotions!  

Anna does have an adorable smile!

And we can't forget little Gideon who seems to change by the day.   So cuddly! 

I know icicles are a sign of needing insulation, but I sure enjoy seeing these works of art. Can you see the one reaching down to the window below? They get so long  this time of year. That little window on top is in our bedroom and I just love looking out at the sun shining off the icicles during the day.  Sometimes it's hard reading and hearing about people down south who are looking at spring knowing we have almost two months of winter ahead of us, or more.  But then, I think of all the projects I need to get done and I say,
Let it snow!
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful evening and take time tomorrow to fellowship with God and other believers!  

Busy Weekend

 

It was a busy weekend!  We picked Naomi and the little girls up for a few days.  We had a lot of company including a family get-together to celebrate Jeriah and Anna's birthdays.  It was so fun to see all the little cousins playing together.  We also had a friend stop over for the night.  Mr. A. and his wife were missionaries for many years to France and I had the privilege of staying with them for a few months after I graduated from high school.  Anyway, his wife went home to heaven this last year and he is continuing on.  Amazingly, he had some churches to visit not far from here so he stopped by. Amazing because no one really comes this way in the country!  We had such a good visit and I look forward to seeing him again someday, hopefully on earth, and his wife too, not on earth! Mr. A. still goes to France every year and shared about how things are going politically over there which should be an eye opener to us over here.  Anyway, the cure for this worlds problems is God and nothing else.  No candidate or law will change hearts or eternity. 

Well, he left today as well as Naomi and the little girls. All the sweet visits we had this week makes me awed at how sweet the fellowship will be someday at the feet of Jesus and all the saints that have gone on before us!!  May the Lord return quickly!

Christmas at Our House

I have to admit, probably the most fun thing about Christmas is the grandchildren!  Esther is such a sweetheart and is SO much like Naomi was when she was little I can hardly believe it.  Takes a person back in time!



Little Anna is adorable too and looks more like Aaron's side of the family.  She has such a sweet smile and when she got a cold it was hard to see her not feeling good.  These little girls will be greatlly missed!

Then there's the active little boys!  I loved this picture of Jeriah reading the Cowboy Small book upsidedown.  I don't have a really good picture of it, but they each got new cowboy hats with pistols and holsters.  Jeriah especially seemed so tickled and pleased that he had something that big brothers weren't taking away from him.  Little girls are sweet and little boys are so much fun! They have such energy and eagerness to do things. 

Um, I almost feel bad mentioning the word gun after this last week.  Very, very sad.  It's really sad too that people are unaware of how many lives guns save every day.  Of course we know the only real answer is our Savior Jesus Christ.  What a wonderful time of year to share the wonderful gift God has given us to all the hurting people in this world.  No, God doesn't take all the problems in life away but knowing there is someone that loves and cares about you makes such a difference. Try to find someone to share this great gift with this year.  That was our challenge this week in church and I challenge you with the same.

I'll post more tomorrow now that things have slowed down.

Grandchildren :) Hay :) Raspberries :)

By the time you read this, Naomi and Aaron will be back home in Tennesee.  One thing we loved watching was Esther. She was really into the twirling thing until she got dizzy and fell down.  Over and over she did this making Anna laugh.  I've never seen a baby her age laugh so hard!  I would guess Esther taught her sister how to giggle and laugh with her.  Waht fun those two have!

Saw my father-in-law unloading a hay trailer the other day.  We bought this trailer of hay as we won't have enough off of our fields this year.  Thankfully we've finished the first crop of hay and hope to get a second.

And then Arthur was up in the hayshed grabbing the bales as they fell off the elevator.  Miriam is up higher stacking the bales.

Prsicilla was really good at making Esther laugh by making faces and saying funny things.  Can you tell we miss them? ;(

Last year I decided that this year I would deal with herbs earlier in the summer.  So yesterday I tackled some of them.  We dehydrated parsley and mint.  Froze dill and summer savory for soups this winter.  Froze basil, oregano, and cut up chives in little pieces and froze them.  I left enough for fresh use and enough to put fresh oregano in canned spaghetti sauce this year.  The kitchen smelled quite good!

The girls picked raspberries again yesterday. Yes, it really is as jungly as it looks! We got lots of volunteer sunflowers this year and just didn't have the heart to pull them with the weeds. Actually, there are tons of weeds in this picture but somehow God lets the plants produce even when we're too busy to weed. I guess we put on enough fertilizer for both the plants and the weeds!  (It really doesn't look this bad all over!)  A good year for raspberries although I think with more rain they would've been bigger.  We've frozen lots, canned lots of jam for us and to sell at the maze, made lots of raspberry fruit leather, and eaten tons!

 Have a great day enjoying God's blessings!

This and That

Yesterday Arthur (with help) worked on building a small shed to house the grill at the maze.  Miriam and I took a walk through the maze and some of it was over our heads!  Taking mostly the right trails, it took about a half an hour.  We did go slow and made some wrong turns.  We're so thankful for the rain as the corn looked pretty bad before that. 

Oh, the joy that little grandchildren bring!  Anna is such a doll and we have really enjoyed having her and Esther and Naomi here.  They're in GF right now with Aaron but should be back sometime.  Yesterday we had the little men (David, Daniel and Jeriah) over while Amos and Rebekah did a few things.  They sure keep us busy and say the cutest things!  Like David said, "Are you Grandma Camille?" I guess he'd never heard my name attatched to Grandma before.

I am mortified!! Since the whole town will probably talk about it, I'll tell you.  I was on the phone calling about a perscription this morning.  I went on to tell the nice lady that "one of my husbands will pick it up later today." Agh!!  I meant to say one of my kids!  Arthur was there and thought it quite funny but said that maybe I better pick up the pills. 

Have a great day!

We're Done!

It took three long days to cut the maze but we're done!!  My legs are so sore today from all that walking but it's a good feeling to know the maze is cut.  It doesn't look like it in the photo, but in the three days it took to cut the corn it grew to over knee high in most places.  Now that may not seem like much in most parts of the country but up here the saying is, "knee high by the fourth of July" so we're ahead of schedule.  The girls and I marked the trails then I walked them with Arthur as he cut them with the weedeater.  I believe today Silas is going to start mowing and dragging them.  It's almost unbelieveable how Arthur buzzes the corn down to the ground and by the time we were done, the first corn cut was already about eight inches high again!  I'm also excited about all the boxes of things the UPS man has been bringing for the maze.  Banners, new worker teeshirts, store things, etc.  Thank you to everyone that "liked" us on facebook.  Arthur says he feels like a sixth grader again wondering if people "like" us :)

We had an enjoyable, very short, visit from Aaron and Naomi a couple of times this week with their adorable little girls.  They were up near here with a group from their church to help out another church.

Miriam and Hosanna have been helping out a mother who just had a baby yesterday.  I know a lot of people think they should go to college or at least have a full time job.  However, because they are home, in addition to doing a lot of farm and house work, they are flexible enough to help out different ladies when they need it, something they enjoy doing.  They very much have a full time job!

Priscilla is excited because the UPS guy delivered a box of 250 "180" movies she bought to give out.  If you haven't seen it, she would want you to.  I'm sure she'll have a copy if you ask!

Silas is excited about his Explorers graduation coming up.  It's been a great program at an important time in most of these young men's lives.

Isaac has been doing the farm work this week while Arthur's out in the corn field.  Both he and Arthur and Silas have been fencing (a never ending job) and cleaning out the hayshed to put new hay in.

So it goes.  Have a great day in the Lord!

Trip to Tennessee

Since Arthur had school, and I'm not much of a driver, Isaac graciously drove Hosanna and I down to see Naomi and her family down in Tennessee.  He read lots of books and played ball with Esther.  Naomi would want you to know that we were going through clothes and that's why it looks like a mess!  We managed to organize all the girl clothes she had so it will be easy to find different sizes.

We planned our trip so we could be with Naomi while Aaron was gone.  It worked nice and Esther got so excited to hear Aaron talk on the phone.

Baby Anna is so sweet!  Isn't she adorable!!

Hosanna and Isaac both practiced their trick roping and Esther thought it was pretty neat.

Naomi and her two sweethearts! And just for the record, Naomi is feeling good and pretty much back to normal, at least as normal as having a new baby can be!  We also enjoyed visiting Aaron and Naomi's church. 

Esther is already taking after her Mommy and wanting to play piano.  It's so cute to watch her! Can you tell I'm a proud grandma? 

So, we had a good trip.  Aaron got back early and I had a funeral to attend so we came home a few days early.  The funeral, today, was for one of my highschool friends dad'. He was also my boss at a mink ranch during my highschool years until I got married.  Both he and his wife treated my sister and I really good and we have lots of great memories of those days.  As always, funerals are a good reminder of the brevity of life and the importance of being ready.  Meanwhile, Silas has lots of pictures building up on his camera so I'll try to make another post one of these days. 

Anna Elizabeth

Anna Elizabeth
She is so cute!!  Thank you Naomi for letting me post these for you!  (She's kinda busy!)  Naomi said the delivery was harder than with Esther, but it went good.  Esther is enjoying her Tennessee grandparents and gets to meet her little sister tomorrow.  I always was surprised at how grown up the "baby" seemed after having another baby and I'm sure Naomi and Aaron will notice that Esther seems to have grown up overnight!  How nice for her to have a sister!

And the happy daddy!  We look forward to seeing you all soon! It might sound trite to say it so much, but God is SO good!!! 

The Hay is Done, The Wheat is Done, The Oats are Done!

A relief that the the fall work is drawing to a close.  Soybeans and Corn left.  Isaac and Silas have spent a lot of hours working in the fields leaving Arthur free time to work on the maze. Thanks, Guys!  There wasn't as much hay as we need so Arthur's looking to buy some.  It's been really, really dry around here which hasn't helped.  So dry that the pastures are pretty much brown, meaning the cows need hay already to stay happy and healthy.  I don't think we've really had any rain more than a few sprinkles in over a month.  If you think of it, you can pray for rain!

Sweet little Esther!  We will miss her, and Aaron and Naomi so, SO, SO, SO much when they move down to Tennessee on Friday. 

I'm so glad for little Daniel, David and Jeriah that live so close!  Here's Daniel on my dad's old Ford tractor.  If you look in the background, you can see the results of a fire at my parents.

My kids actually got there before the firemen and DNR firecrew.  (We were gone).  Accidentally, their barn started on fire and with how dry it is, it just spread all over and into thier yard and woods. 

And this is the barn now.  No, there wasn't anything really valuable in it other than an old tractor that was my Grandpa's. And maybe that wasn't even valuable to anyone but Arthur and my dad.   Most valuable were all the memories that are gone!  My sister's and I's old playhouse corner in the sheep barn.   The tricycle that my sisters and I used and each of our children used when they visited.  Old jars that Silas was slowly collecting.  That kind of stuff.  Oh, the fun we had in the big old barn as girls.  Kept some calves, pigs, and sheep at times but for the most part it was like a big empty playground with old stuff that no one wanted to throw out but didn't know where else to store. 

What a good reminder that we cannot take "stuff" with us.  Someday all our possessions will be worthless and what really will matter is whether we trusted in Christ or not.  After two days of firemen and dnr guys working on putting out hot spots, the fire was finally out for good.  It was really windy and dry so it kept spreading in their woods.   Good thing my dad has trails all over in his woods that made it easy for them to drive around. 

The Bible Bee locals for 2011 are history and we wait for the results of who made the top 100 in each category.  They post it on Wednesday!  The girls enjoy this so much and don't really care whether they win or not. 

Weekend two at the maze went good.  We had a good turnout and the weather was nice.  People like to comment to us on things we've changed or added.  One person told Arthur, "Next year you should add a farris wheel".  How did she know!!! ;)

The "Little People" and Hard Questions

We've been watching Daniel and David while Amos helps with evening milking while Rebekah recouperates.  Daniel especially just loves "horsey" rides and blanket rides from Grandpa.

Aaron and Naomi were by one day and we enjoyed seeing how Aaron and Naomi treasure this little sweetheart. 

Daniel of course treasures David and gives him big hugs.  Isaac mentioned how he saw Daniel was dragging a chair to the kitchen sink and David was on the floor in the way.  He didn't want to push him over, this time anyway, so he dragged him out of the way by his head!  Brotherly love alright!  We've sure been entertained with these little guys and Esther.

And a neat picture Silas took of the moon.

Otherwise, Arthur's been busy getting rid of some old equipment by cutting it up to sell for scrap metal.  A hard job but nice to get rid of some things.  He made a call yesterday to another corn maze operator and if there's anything that creates instant fellowship other than both being christians, it's two farmers!  It always amazes me how two farmers can talk and talk without having ever met!  About cattle, tractors, and mazes of course!  I guess two homeschool mothers probably could do the same thing about school!

We've been watching the "Demolishing Strongholds" videos in the evenings.  Very interesting and have provoked lots of fun discussion as a family.  I think of all the things we do as a family now that the kids are older, there is nothing I enjoy more than our evenings together after the work is all done and we can just visit and fellowship with each other.  Inevitably, conversation turns to "what should Isaac be doing?", "do we really have to have a maze this fall?" (that coming from Miriam who is not a social type person), "what else needs to be done on the farm?",  and, "is there anything else we should be doing to serve God?"

Lately we've been doing lots of talking about what we should do to serve God.  If we knew we only had two years before the Lord returns, what would we do?  If we have many years to serve, then what should we do?  How is the best way to reach lots of people for Christ?  Is it better to get lots saved or to disciple one or two?  Knowing God's will is not always easy when you ask such hard questions.  Anyway, it leads to lots of discussions and desires to serve God in anyway that we can.  I hope and pray my children will all be, "I'll do it!" kind of people and not be afraid to serve God in anyway they can.