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!

End of February!

This isn't our family, unless you want to count Eli, who says he's our Swedish exchange student, or Priscilla's little brother!  If the church guys want to play soft air, one of their favorite places is the corn maze. With all the buildings, fort, corn box, deer stand, etc, its just the perfect place to run and hide and have fun, even in the winter!

Today there was a broomball tournament fundraiser in Roosevelt and a bunch of our church guys, including Arthur, had a team. They got 1st place!

Meanwhile, Arthur and his dad decided that the corn, still standing in the field waiting for harvest, had too high of moisture content to harvest, and since we're a little shy on hay this year, put the beef cows in the corn. They love it!

I've been working on sewing aprons for the corn maze Granary.
Priscilla did a test set up of her table for next weeks home school convention.
Miriam's been plugging away on updating our church's photo/scrapbook.
We tore down last year's escape room to start on this years room.
The days are getting noticeably longer, both morning and evening!

Have a great weekend! If you need something to add to your prayer list, please pray for Mrs. M and Mr. G who both have cancer.

Churches - Trip to Ohio Part II

Okay, I one thing we enjoy when we travel is to visit different churches. I know when we have visitors at our church, which is a small church, it is such an encouragement. So we like to visit other churches, make new friends, encourage them, and learn from God's Word at the same time! (Hopefully we're an encouragement!)

On this trip to Ohio, because it was over a week long, we visited three different churches. Each was an Independent Baptist Church. It was one of the highlights of our trip! On the way down we stopped at Park Meadows Baptist Church in Illinois as we flew through the town to get to Ohio. We have always loved going to this church but hadn't been there for five years. They have a different pastor since we were there last who preached a great message on the Prayer of Jabez.

That evening we visited Nate and Hosanna's church in Xenia, Ohio. They had a special speaker and for a small church, their singing was fantastic and the fellowship was so good!  So nice to meet the people Nate and Hosanna hang out with! I loved how the people hung around and visited afterwards, a good sign of a healthy church!

On the way home we stopped by a church in Superior, Wisconsin. I want to say it was the Twin Ports Baptist Church. The singing was great there and the message was just what we needed to hear. Being hunting season, and being Wisconsin, they decorated their church with deer and fish mounts. Arthur loved it! We had driven by this church many times and were so glad for the chance to finally stop and visit.

So, my takeaways are this:

#1 - I heard one time about how churches cater to women, from the praise music where the men don't participate as much, to the decorations. Well, The Twin Ports Baptist Church didn't have to worry about the decor! The music was great in all of them too!  And I don't want to criticize those that use praise music in their services, but every time we are somewhere that uses it, with a worship team, aside from my personal music convictions, I am disappointed because I feel like the songs are high, and geared toward the women and good singers. Those of us that sing alto, or lower, and aren't the greatest singers in the world, just don't fit in and can't hardly sing along. I encourage you next time you're in a church like this, to see how many men or ladies that sing alto are really enjoying the singing. Can you hear the parts? Maybe the melody is great, but God made everyone with different voices. Just my observation. I also struggle standing in one spot for fifteen minutes singing. It must be even more difficult for people older than I am.

#2 - Where are the young adults?  Maybe they're all in our church? I don't know but it seems like everywhere we go, my adult girls are the only single ones their age.  Just a sad observation.

#3 - Churches that have children's church are missing out on the blessing of having children in their services. I love having children in church during the service even if there is some noise with it. As I get older the noise bothers me a little more, but I am still so happy for the parents who set an example for their children by sitting with them and teaching them to listen to God's Word being preached.

#4 - The next time you travel, take time to visit a church you normally don't. You will be blessed, maybe make some friends, and it will help you appreciate the church you normally go to! It will also encourage you because, I don't know about you, but sometimes it feels like the church as a whole is slipping into the world and it is so encouraging to meet other believers who are like minded and care about the things of God more than what is popular today.

Just some random thoughts about churches and our trip to Ohio!

Early June

Okay, Mike, and Amos' dog Holly, got in a fight with a porcupine! Mike got it the worst and it took a long time to get them out. Like 100+ of them!

We finished cutting the maze. Like a few minutes before it started to pour! Yeah! I'm so glad to have this part done. It's a relief knowing that it came out right!

VBS was so fun this year. It was nice seeing the grandkids and their cousins together.

Eli made a great captain in the skit and Krystal made the perfect stewardess with her safety speech she gave each day with Joanna as her assistant.

Our theme was "Kids on a Mission" with a mission theme. We also taught the children how to tell the wordless book for themselves.

We did a bunch of babysitting grandkids last week and they made a "Cousin's Creation Museum" with things they found outside.

I had been wanting to work on sewing with the girls sometime, and finally we had time to learn a little bit. I had Esther start out with a doll blanket.

Anna made a doll pillow. Little sister Grace will enjoy her birthday gift from her sisters!

(More VBS) Here's Anna showing the verses she learned!

Miriam and Priscilla did registration and the memory verse contest.

Priscilla dressed up for the different country we learned about each day. Hosanna played piano. Neither Hosanna or Priscilla have been at our VBS for two years so it was nice having them.

We decorated tee shirts for a craft and it was so nice seeing all of them at the program.

And one of my favorite lessons was by my brother-in-law Bruce who got Aaron and Cedric up to talk about the military since both boys dads are involved in the military. Here they're demonstrating a crawl and it was so cute!

Well, Miriam just dished up some ice cream to celebrate the end of maze cutting so I need to go. Have a wonderful Lord's Day tomorrow!

May - So Far!

First of all, we have been spending a lot of time getting ready for Vacation Bible School at our church. If you're in the area and have children, come on out!  Not in the area, take a vacation and come this-a-way!

My winter project this year was to make a cookbook for Hosanna, and the rest of the girls. Hosanna was wanting some recipes that we have written down here and there before she got married, so we cooked / baked them so we could get pictures, and I assembled them into a cookbook that I gave the married girls for Mother's Day. It's actually a Shutterfly book so they are pricey, and not for sale unless someone really wants to spend a fortune! Anyway, I thought you would enjoy seeing a few pictures of the inside for inspiration of what you could do with your favorites!

Also added in some things I've learned over the years about having company over.

Last week we had our yearly Ministry Training for those helping out at VBS and fair ministry. We are making teeshirts for a VBS craft this year and had the workers at training make theirs.

We emphasis sharing the gospel and counseling for salvation. We don't want children or adults to just "say a prayer" without having any idea of what they are really doing. So, we teach the questions to ask, the verses to share, etc., to make sure children understand. This year we worked on teaching the gospel using a marker board and drawing the gospel out with illustrations. We also went over the wordless book which we are going to be teaching all the kids to tell at VBS this year.

What a fabulous group of young people!!!!!!!! I love these guys!  They are awesome! They have such hearts for God and desire to serve Him! They have such godly wisdom for their age! They are so fun and a joy to be around!

We went over songs that we are singing at VBS.

Lots of visiting!
Then in the evening, the young people came over to our house for games and snacks. We learned how to play group juggling which was so fun for a group that size!

And a blog post wouldn't be complete without a picture of grandchildren! This was taken on Mother's Day. I love how Martha, the middle girl, is sucking on Ilana's finger! These three girl cousins are going to have so much fun together someday!!

Tomorrow is another big day - petunia planting!

So, hope you enjoyed the long post. May God bless you all and give you a great week!