Road Trip

 

Okay, these are a little out of order. Oh well! Arthur's been a roll recently to restock our firewood for next year and the rest of this year, plus to help out Amos and Silas with wood. It's a good thing he has grandsons and Eli around to help out!!

We went to the North Dakota Home School Convention last week. We mainly went because Priscilla was doing a book booth at the vendor show and thought we should make it a family trip. We had a great time! One night however, we got a room on the way home that was SO cold! Arthur messed a long time with the heater and finally, after we were in bed with our coats on asked for more blankets. The lady came by a little later with some nice warm ones right out of the dryer with an apology. The next morning Miriam tried one more time to get the heat on and just like that it kicked on.  

Since we no longer homeschool the workshops just don't hold the interest they used to to Arthur and I, did a bunch of shopping. Arthur attended a bull auction and the steak dinner that went with it but didn't buy any of the $4,000+ bulls. We also checked out the Missouri River and the keelboat replica of Lewis and Clark. I did enjoy the vendor show and came home with way too many books!

One look at the Missouri River and we decided there was no way you were going to skate down that river like our local Warroad River! What a beautiful city Bismark / Mandan is.

Priscilla also did a workshop on self publishing. 

Forgive the mess in my living room! These are some trikes we picked up to use at the maze and Arthur, the girls and Eli were testing them out by biking in circles, and down the stairs. The grandkids had fun testing them out too.

I just enjoy this picture with the girls enjoying each others company.

Living up north we don't to a Cracker Barrel very often so we stopped there for supper one night. If I could pick up their store and plop it down at the maze I would. I love that place!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Don't forget to pray for our country!

Catch Up Time!

Okay, we haven't blogged for a LONG time! I've had several people tell me in the last few months that they miss it though so I will try to do a few more posts than in the last year!

Probably the same where you live, but the news this week is the bitter cold! We've had quite a few days now where it hasn't reached 0 degrees F. My father-in-law keeps a thermometer in the valley behind our house and one morning it said 59 below!!! That happened one other time in my memory. It's been tough on the cows, and the water pipes to the cows. Poor Arthur is pretty busy keeping them with fresh drinking water.  

Backing up to Christmas, I had fun making a special pillow for each of the older grandchildren with my new Cricut machine.

The Christmas highlight was having Nate and Hosanna come up for a whole week with their adorable little Ruth. By the way, Hosanna is expecting again!

In January our nephew Josh, who has been on this blog a lot over the years, and Priscilla's friend Jessica got married! What a beautiful wedding with two of the sweetest people!!! I can't wait to see what God has planned for their lives.

It doesn't matter how cold it is, Arthur keeps on working, and anyone else he can get to help. Last week, he got a bunch of firewood with Eli and some grandsons. I hear their going out again today. Brrr! And I'm freezing in the house!

For Valentine's Day I made everyone in the family a hot chocolate bomb. They were so fun to make even if it took me a long time. I'd like to perfect them a little and then maybe sell some at the maze.

Speaking of the maze, this is the first 2021 project for the maze getting worked on in our kitchen. I also had the fun of attending a virtual agritourism conference. Getting together, even if its online, with a bunch of other maze owners is so much fun. Everyone shares their ideas and what works for them. They share pictures and farm video clips. Plus there were lots of workshops.  My brain is "amazed" at all the things we could do! My family wasn't so enthusiastic!

At our church we've been having a ping pong tournament. Pretty much everyone is in it from young children to us older ones. It has been so much fun watching people play that we don't normally see play. 

So that's about it for now. A quick catch up on the last few months. Again, I will try to do better. I actually like blogging way better than facebook because I like to write more than people read. I hope you all stay warm, and count your blessings from God, and name them one by one!

 

Busy Days!

I'm sure you are all getting tired of the Coronovirus shutdown like we are. One thing we have enjoyed is doing a drive in service at our church. It's not like being in person, but sure better than sitting home watching it!

We were looking through some old pictures and found this one of Arthur, far left, from back in our college days at Northland. Those of you that know us, should know who is standing beside him as well! This was taken in our apartment when they were getting ready for a nightime campus event.

Another oldie picture we found was this one from the April Morning drama. It hardly looks like Arthur! 

The guys have been out sucker fishing a couple of times and one thing I did with them was make some pickled fish. Okay, as a girl I loved pickled fish. Ate it whenever I got a chance. But then one day I made some and realized that its really just raw, pickled fish. Haven't been able to eat it since!

Today my project is to take some old beans I had, both black beans and garbanzo beans and cook them up. They've been soaking all night, and after draining, rinsing, and putting in fresh water, they are on the stove as I speak. I love both of these beans in salads, in chili, in omelets, you name it! This time of year I always get into "empty the freezer and pantry" mode for the new garden season coming up. 

Arthur enjoyed taking Daniel sucker fishing and teaching him how to filet a fish. He loved it! Suckers are a great fish to learn on because if you mangle the filet all up, who cares! There's more!

Backing up to Easter Sunday, the girls took time to dress up and fix their hair to celebrate our Lord and Savior's death and resurrection!

They couldn't resist a Coronovirus facemask photo!

Arthur and I went for a drive last night, which we very seldom have time for, and looked at the fields. This is last years flax crop that never got harvest because of the fall rains. The field is still too wet to harvest. Such is farming.

Meanwhile, we are having calves born every day and its so fun to see the mama and baby pairs in the field!

Meanwhile, Priscilla works hard to finish up the rough draft of a new book.

Meanwhile, Miriam got her plane tickets for this summer. We will sure miss her!

So that's it for now. Continue to pray for our country and its leaders. Pray too for church leaders around the country that they would have wisdom in when to reopen and how. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Early March

Well, this has been an eventful month so far, hasn't it? Things haven't slowed down a whole lot at our house. In fact, everyone I know in our entire town is pretty much still working almost like normal. There are no cases of Covid 19  in our area that anyone knows of, so that could change if there gets to be some. Meanwhile, we've been watching grandchildren here and there.

One of  AJ's favorite thing to do at our house is play with play dough. Literally, he can do this for hours! Having sisters join in helps too!

Priscilla had a birthday this week and decided to try her hand at making cake pops, which we've never done. They were very good! Little nieces helped her.

Arthur had a wild game of Apples to Apples with the older grandchildren.

Mike enjoyed all the extra attention he got!

If you remember this fall, it was really, really wet. Arthur was unable to get all the corn harvested. This is the strip left of the corn maze, trails and all. Another field with corn we just put the cows in it a few weeks ago to finish it off and to stretch out the hay till spring. Wait, it is spring. Well, Minnesota spring!

Ready to fight the Covid19 virus! Seriously, I think I'm the only grandma who lets her grandkids take over the entire house having battles and games destroying it all in the process. Where is my common sense? Hopefully some day they will appreciate it and remember the fun they had at our house! And yes, they're really good at helping clean it all up when the battles are over. And no, they didn't use real paintballs in the paintball guns!

School. Can't get out of that!

Priscilla did the girls nails and they dug out the dresses from our dress up chest.

A birthday picture of our lovely daughter. I so appreciate Priscilla's creativity, hard work, heart for God, imagination, and the fun she brings to our house! We love you, Priscilla, and hope you have another great year!

I've still been plugging away on maze projects. I did a couple more macrame hangings. 

I made some reversible snowmen / scarecrows. Also made a pile of aprons, dishtowels, and some earrings. If this virus continues for months and months, guess what family members are all getting for Christmas! I actually love doing crafts and its a great way to enjoy these long winter days.

Arthur is still doing some construction. We're hoping it will warm up some before spring calving starts in a month or so. When he has time between construction, and feeding the cows, he's building shelves for the Granary and doing some work in the 2020 escape room for the maze.

I hope those of you that read this are all doing okay. The world is kinda crazy but how good it is to know that we have a God that is in control of it all! One of the facebook groups I am a part of has people who are very genuinely scared that they might die and are so afraid. These days are great times to share our faith and the peace of God that comes with it. The world is so needy and we have the answer they need. That being said, even those who trust in Jesus as their Savior can sometimes be afraid. Read your Bible, pray hard, and put it all in Jesus' hands. He cares so much! It might not calm the fear immediately, but at least you can know you went to the one who can and will calm those fears! Our family loves you all! Have a great weekend!

Christmas 2019 - So far!

It seems as if the whole month of December we have events that remind us that we should not be celebrating the birth of our Savior only one day of the year!  These are Aaron and Naomi's children at the Immanuel Baptist Church program this last Sunday. For as many programs as we've seen over the years, each one is still special including this one!

Okay, this isn't Christmas but its something that happens most years in December. We ship the calves that were born in the spring. They sold okay and we are happy. It sure cuts down on Arthur's work this time of year! Some years I go along but this year I stayed home and watched it online.

Our church ladies had a Christmas Tea. Jaime D. was in charge and she did such a good job! The theme was Christmas around the world and included foods from around the world, a skit about how Christians aren't able to celebrate Christmas in some countries, and devotional by Arlette, and more.

The young ladies in our church have a Christmas party each year as well and take turns hosting it. Priscilla took the job on this year and made "Gingerbread" houses for the girls to decorate. I wish I had picture of it, but they did an awesome job with them! They sang carols, exchanged gifts, ate, watched a Christmas movie, and had a devotional.

I was asked to share a devotional at the Berean Baptist Church ladies tea this year. I did it on the shepherds and how they were anxious to tell everyone the good news, as we should be. Priscilla, Jessica and Krystal came along and did a couple of music specials. Miriam came along for moral support! I only got this one picture because I thought this wreath made of clothes hangers was pretty creative!

About 35 years ago this year, I returned home from a visit to France and gave Arthur a sweater I had bought for him in France. We got engaged that Christmas! Anyway, every winter he digs it out and wears it. A LOT! It looked good for quite a few years but now he just wears it for work on the farm because its almost see through in places! Last year I thought he must've misplaced it because I didn't see it or that that maybe I chucked it. But one day a few weeks ago, here he was again in the sweater!

We watched Amos and Rebekah's children one day and Miriam and Priscilla entertained them with 5-Day club style Christmas songs, and stories and taught them the verse I Timothy 1`:15 ...Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners...  Such a good reminder that it isn't just about the baby Jesus, but why He came, to save sinners, all of us!

If you have time this special season, take time to pray for our brothers and sisters in countries of the world where they are persecuted, tortured, or even put to death for celebrating Christmas. Pray that God would bless them and allow them to celebrate it in their hearts with joy and for His protection.

Trip to Ohio

We took our first family vacation in years to Ohio in November.  We stayed at a gorgeous hotel on the 11th floor next to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center where Priscilla and Miriam helped judge at the National Bible Bee. While the girls were there, Arthur and I enjoyed visiting Hosanna and Nate who were only an hour away. The hotel had this beautiful gazebo in the center of the building.

One day we went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton. This is a WWII RAF plane. If you've ever read the children's books about the RAF you will appreciate this! Good books for boys, by the way!

Priscilla in a space suit at the museum!

This museum was a pretty awesome place to go. There were SOOOO many airplanes starting with WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Others, Presidential, and space. It was during the week and we had the place almost to ourselves.  If you ever get there, go! Plan for a long day though!

My favorites were the Air Force One planes. And yes, you got to walk through them! This was the newest one they had that a number of recent presidents used.

The whole way down to Ohio we could hear a strange noise in the vehicle. We pulled into Nate and Hosanna's place and right away the water pump went bad. So thankful that it didn't happen on the road! God was watching over us! So Arthur was able to use Nate's tools to replace that. Then one of the breaks started squealing really  bad and he ended up replacing that too. He didn't want to get his shirt dirty so we popped into a thrift store and he bought a cheap suitcoat to wear to do his car repairs!

The view outside of our hotel window! This was taken outside but this is what we watched at night. So beautiful and so nice and warm compared to home!

We enjoyed watching the Bible Bee finals that were held at the Ark Encounter. I get so edified listening to these young people quote scripture! Also, we are so thankful for the Bible Bee and the help its been even in our family.

We took some time to go through the Ark. What a great place!!!

The Ark had all their Christmas lights up.

And this picture, a little blurry, shows just how big the Ark is!  Pretty impressive!



Priscilla and Miriam in front of the Ark.

Nate and Hosanna were living in a studio apartment when were there but just got a bigger apartment with two bedrooms. Which they will need come next summer!!! Around June 20th to be exact! So we helped Hosanna clean the apartment. It was already clean but you know how you like to KNOW its clean! They moved in right after we left and Hosanna said she is already enjoying the bigger kitchen and space!

And the sisters together once again for the first time since Hosanna and Nate's wedding. We sure missed them!!! And its hard not knowing when we will see them next. So thankful for phones!!

On our way home we took a few hours to spend at the Creation Museum. I've been there before but I just love this place. We really enjoyed the 4D theater of the six days of creation. Their bookstore is pretty awesome too!

With a trip that long, you need to eat out and we enjoyed Steak and Shake which we don't have up here. We also did a lot of Christmas shopping.

Okay, my family groaned when I said I wanted to go to a corn maze but they went along with my passion for that kind of thing and we visited the Rader family farm. Their maze was closed but their gift shop and food stand was open. They let us look around and we got some great ideas and enjoyed some good fellowship.

When we got home it was hunting season and Arthur got the two deer he was wanting. So our freezers and pantry are full despite the difficult fall for gardening and farming.  We never did get all of my father-in-laws beans harvested and none of the flax.  We get so many flax calls in the fall that finally we just quit answering the phone. People just didn't understand that with 12+" of rain, the fields just weren't good for driving in. Hopefully nobody's septics will freeze this winter.

So now, after a good Thanksgiving, we look forward to all the activities of December.  The house is decorated and warm and I can smell the corn chowder Priscilla made for supper so I better go.  Don't forget to be thankful every day for the blessings God sends your way!