Congratulations!!!!!

Our first congratulations goes to Hosanna and Nate! He surprised her this week by knocking on the door and giving her a beautiful ring! 

We are excited to see what God has planned for this awesome young couple!!! Hosanna is just beaming these days!!

Then a big congratulations goes out to Amos and Rebekah on a gift from God - an adorable little girl - Ilana Joyce!!!

She is such an adorable little girl with lots of dark hair. What a joy she brings to the family!

Okay, this might be boring to most of you but Miriam and I cleaned the pantry this winter! It was getting so bad and after Miriam painted most of the shelves, and we chucked a bunch of stuff, you can finally walk in the room! I'm so glad for this little room of ours!! Then Arthur built some extra shelves on the short wall you can't see so that was a blessing too!

Last Sunday we celebrated both Hosanna and Priscilla's birthdays by having the relatives over.

Like always, the ladies hang out in the kitchen!

You can't have a party without a large game of Dutch Blitz!

Can you guess what song the grandkids are illustrating? We enjoyed having them stay here when Rebekah had the baby!

Arthur has made a lot of trips out to the forest to get wood for next winter. Big pieces for this stove, little pieces for another stove! Around here you can buy an area that loggers have cleared off to get wood. Some of it is kinda scrappy but its fairly easy to get.

Yesterday Naomi and Aaron stopped by with the little ones and they showed us the cakes they made for the Homeschool Fair.

So that sums up the last few weeks.  Now we wait for Naomi to call and ask to watch her children so she can have their baby!

Have a wonderful day everyone enjoying the blessings God sends your way!

Winter is Here!

Winter is finally here and with that all the things we have been waiting for, like a change of pace! From April through October its go, go, go. Now its just this event or that event. Quite nice! I also enjoy having more time to have my personal devotions instead of just doing what I "have" to do! I much prefer just reading my Bible till I feel like I've learned what God wants me to learn that day without time constraints! Also, there is no shortage of things that need prayer and so its nice to have a little extra time for that as well.

Today Priscilla had her book signing for The Fudged Up Murder book she wrote. She held it at Caribou Coffee and her table looked so pretty! She enjoyed visiting with family and friends that came, and a lot of strangers too. This is her "old-lady fiction book" as its something those more my age would read. People were actually brave enough to try out her fudge samples!

It gets dark so early! That makes for some really long nights to play games! We tried out an escape room game and loved it! No, I am not endorsing escape room table games. Most have themes that you probably don't want to waste your money on. This one had a little time travel in it, and was fun.

We do a lot of babysitting here at home and one thing the girls love to do is play dress up! Over the years we have collected quite an assortment of things so it's always fun to see what they come up with!

Every year when the maze is done I work on a room in the house and give it an update. This year Miriam was needing a dresser and I really wanted to give her my grandma's that I was using.  That led me to think I should give away Arthur's dresser too which was from his grandma and Amos and Rebekah took that. So, I got a new small dresser for my side of the bed, and we took Miriam's old dresser and cut it down to match mine. This dresser was made by my great grandpa with no screws or nails and has to be around 100 years old!

Miriam painted the room for me. Thank you!!! And we did some other fix it projects at the same time including some drywall work which I am starting to really enjoy after doing it so much over the years.

Last year we got Priscilla a wall jewelry armoire. It is really nice but I really wanted a bigger one. I looked all over online, and unless I wanted a $1,000+ one, there just wasn't one as big as I wanted. So, Arthur built me one! It looks like a picture on the wall except the trim which is a little crooked. That's my fault. I made the frame when he was gone one day to save him time!

The inside has room for all my jewelry and then some. Plus a couple of shelves for perfumes, and other stuff! The door has more necklace hooks along with earing hooks and storage. I've had the glass door knobs around for awhile for a different project and instead they worked great here. I really don't wear jewelry that much but sure enjoy having a place to put it all instead of trying to keep them all untangled in a drawer! I still would like to mount a mirror tile in it instead of the little mirror. If anyone has one laying around, let me know! If we have time this winter, we will work on our bathroom too. It really needs some tender loving care!

Our church is having their ladies Christmas party on the 15th. You're all invited!

On another "note", we have been singing through hymnbooks during our family devotion time. We finished two that we had, after a long time, and I just bought the Living Hymns hymnbooks to start on. It has around 900 songs in it so we can sing out of this one for a LONG time! We could use some other voices since our family is shrinking if anyone ever wants to join us!!

So that's about it for now. Have a great evening everyone and make sure to pray for your pastor tomorrow, tonight too!

The Last Week, Or So!

A lot of work has been done in the last week. The guys started the week, okay, this would be last week, with building some walls in our dirt basement and had cement delivered to shore up two sides that were starting to collapse. Arthur said it should be good now for another 100 years!

Over at the maze, the guys built a shelter to go over the corn box. I guess this was "practice" because they are going to do the same thing over the Farmball game, only a much higher roof.

Heidi was sitting in the cornbox watching!  Her smile always makes me smile!

Meanwhile, I spent my time working on our maze parade float. Isn't Farmer Bill adorable! The blocks turned out pretty good too. That's Eli under the float!! No, he's not hiding from work like some might think ;) he was painting the wheels a nice yellow color.

We had a 4th of July picnic over at Arthur's parents. Lots of people, lots of food, and lots of fun!

Then we headed to the parade. Here's some of the cousins just waiting for the parade to begin. It was hot!

And here it is! We actually won a parade award so that was fun. People loved the float, and enjoy all the orange shirted workers that pass out maze flyers.  A BIG thank you to them for bearing the heat to walk that far!!

We had to make a quick walk in the maze to see if the corn made it to the "Knee high by 4th of July"! Yup, it did!

Meanwhile, Miriam and Jessica headed off to camp to join Hosanna and Priscilla. I'm not sure I can run the house without her, but so far so good :) Miriam works so hard it might take three of me to do what she does!

Have a wonderful week enjoying the gorgeous weather God is sending our way!!

Easter and Bathroom Re-do!

We had my family at our house this year for Easter. I was a too busy to take a lot of pictures but I got a few. My sister Kim brought these adorable "nests" for all the kids, as well as Cherries in the Snow and a Caramel Apple Dessert. Mmmm! This was after we had a very nice service at church this morning celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord!

After a big meal, you need to sit back and relax!

This is my Uncle Norman holding his great, great niece Heidi.

Backing up a bit, our project for January / February was to redo our downstairs bathroom. And how badly it was needed! Well, we didn't get it started until early April and then we really had to hurry to get it usable by Easter. This is a before picture. There were actually mirrored doors over this tiny closet.  Cracked mirrored doors! In layers, there was lath and plaster, wallpaper, foam, old linoleum, and some paneling.  I know this will grieve a lot of you, but I suggested Arthur put the sheet rock over all the layers. For some reason I love knowing the history of the house is buried for future re-doers to find! On the top left you can see where there was probably a light at one time. We always wondered what the switch was for in the kitchen, and now we know!  It's a plug in now!
We had a lot of problems with pipes breaking, plumbing leaks, wiring challenges, unsquare walls, etc.

And this is how it looks after we got done. I didn't have time to stain the shelves. I kinda like them like this. Anyway, I don't have time to change them for now so it will have to do. The things that were in the closet now are stored in the baskets. Spray paint make the toilet holder and towel rod match the dark woodwork. The paint is called Canterbury Cream. I wanted to do a tile floor but it just didn't happen this time.

And this is the rest of the bathroom. Arthur cut the mirror down and added a frame. I also spray painted the light fixture. We couldn't fit sheetrock behind the toilet so we put milkhouse board behind the toilet and sink area. There are still a few little things we need to do, but I'm just happy that it looks so much better than before! I'm thankful for a handy husband as well!

When we moved into this house about 26 years ago, this little corner off the kitchen was the laundry area. We moved the laundry upstairs, best thing we ever did in this house, and made the little bathroom with supplies we could afford at the time. It was really nice for little ones who struggled to make it to the bathroom fast enough as it's the only bathroom downstairs. 

Don't you just love the cute little chicks on the shelf?! Yes, Priscilla, that's your mug I used!

And the big metal flower came from Hobby Lobby.

I really wanted to get rid of the old pocket door which was a thin hollow core door. I found an old house door in the garage from years ago and it worked just right for the bathroom. A little paint and it looks as good as ever.  Someday I'll stain and varnish the other side because it doesn't look too good right now.

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend remembering the victory we have in Jesus! Just remember, we can, and should be celebrating it every day!! Have a good one!

Hats

I was over at the maze yesterday and saw Josh enjoying the "new" little tractor.  It's been great for cutting maze trails and mowing the maze yard.

Arthur, Eli and Josh all have their own cowboy hats they wear around here. After moving them here and there to keep them off the counters, I finally had my cowboy put up some hooks for the hats. Eli's actually wearing his so we put an old one of Arthur's up just so you could see it. I kinda like the look!

We miss you, Miriam!!!

Have a great day everyone!

Spring!

It's spring and that means beaver trapping. Isaac is enjoying having a willing, excited helper this year!! Pretty impressive! Isaac also took a couple of guys out trapping and camping.

This was taken a couple of weeks ago. Not good!  Thankfully the mud has dried up and roads are once again passable. 

It's the third year that I've been working on our courtyard. I'm not sure it will ever get done! I laid out landscaping blocks this last week. They looked so nice and even and I was so sore! Now some of the blocks have started coming up. I'll have to have another go at it and do some repair work. After that we will have to enjoy the uneveness if it happens again. I do enjoy the work outside though and we're already sitting on the chairs and glider dreaming about the flowers that we need to fill the extra spaces with!

We had a pile of rocks in the yard so Arthur and Matthias so graciously moved them in the courtyard area, under the eaves. Very cheap landscaping material with some of them having a lot of "character" to them.

When we cut a tree down to build our addition a few years back, we found this root growing in the shape of a cross.

Enjoy your week everyone! Don't forget to honor your mother this weekend, and don't forget that it's really all about the cross!

Christmas Party

It was Priscilla turn to host the yearly "Girl's Christmas Party".  They had fun playing Human Clue, singing carols, reading scripture together, exchanging gifts, and of course, eating. From a mom's point of view, I am so glad my daughters have so many good and godly girls to be friends with.  Thank you girls!



Some of you have seen this, but we are redoing the boys room into a guest room and found this cool flower print linoleum
"rug" as its called, under the old carpet.  As far as I could research, its from the 40's.  Anyway, we covered it up with some carpet that I found on a good deal.  And now, I am adding the finishing touches to make it feel a little more comfy. (That's not my foot ;)

Otherwise -

Arthur is busy adjusting to milking cows again full time.  Amos got a job at Marvin Windows and he had been doing the bulk of the milking earlier.  So now, in addition to Arthur's 60 - 80 hours a week of work, he now milks cows.  I think it might be a long winter! Thankfully, the girls, as well as Mathias and Sarah, and sometimes the sons, have been helping out when they can.

No, we did not get Christmas cards out this year so we haven't forgotten anyone.  Merry Christmas anyway!  Maybe next year!  Sometimes there just isn't time ;(

Priscilla is back to her writing after the Bible Bee break.

Miriam and Hosanna have been doing some Christmas baking and wrapped all my gifts. I'm afraid that's one job I don't really care for so I'm thrilled to turn it over! They also continue to volunteer at the Senior Living Center and deliver Meals-on-Wheels.

We have a bunch of snow now, and so we look forward to Christmas and the celebrating of our Savior's birth!



 

End of the Maze for 2015

Well, the maze is officially over in one hour.  The girls are over at the maze, in the freezing cold and wind, with just a few guests here and there all day.  It's been a good season with several really nice, record breaking, weekends.  In fact, the total count as of this weekend makes it our biggest year ever.  It is all so weather dependent as next year could be our smallest if  God should choose to send lots of rain. We are thankful though that God did send nice weather, that no one got hurt  "too" bad, and that everyone seemed to have a good time.

While the girls are at the maze, I've been home cleaning up from the mess of putting in a new floor.  Both the dining room and kitchen are done and I think it looks pretty good.  Thank you, Isaac!  It was actually done a few days ago but we haven't had time to put the furniture back till today.  As you can see, I put up a few fall touches, including Arthur's deer mount that we always put up in the fall where we can all see it.  I'm not sure I ever mentioned the buffet, but I got it from my mom, who got it from my grandma way back when she was first married, after Grandma had used it for many years.

Now, I'm tired.  We all are.  We always are after the maze is over.  After a few days of cleaning up at the maze, we can finally clean up the yard that has really gone downhill in the last two months and get the house clean again! Hopefully get caught up on sleep too!

Have a great week everyone!

Winter / Spring Projects

After Christmas when things slowed down, I started a few organizational projects.  I'm still not done but thought I'd share what I've done so far.  The office was the biggest area that needed help.  I found a good deal on these nice 12"x12" boxes and went through all the papers and tried to put them in categories, and then in boxes.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I wanted to make fancier labels, but that will have to wait till some other long winter.  Some of the boxes are different years of VBS programs that we rotate.  They were a real mess so I was especially glad to get them in order.

Then, I had some papers I just wasn't sure where to put, so I made a "Keeper of the Home" binder since I couldn't think of any other name.  In it I have a section on gardening, cooking, Christmas, and a few others.  I haven't got this one really going yet but look forward to having time to use it and put the things in it that need to be in it. 

I had a whole stack of notebooks that I keep lists and notes in.  I can't ever find what notebook I put what in!  So, I made a smaller 7"x9" binder to keep all those lists and stuff in.

I added pretty pager and pictures to the dividers and used laminate to make them extra tough.   The categories pretty much cover the things I write notes on the most.

I even made a few pocket pages to slip in other things.  I enjoy making paper craft type things so this was a fun thing to do and I already LOVE using it!

In the office there was a corner full of shelves and two file cabinets blocking the shelves off.  We moved the shelves.  One thing I haven't done yet is paint the corner, as you can see.  I ripped out some of the old wallpaper from the 70's or sometime way back.  Most of the stuff on the shelves are in the brown boxes now.  We got rid of the file cabinets and put most of the stuff in the wood boxes under the new bench Arthur made for me.  We don't usually sit in the office, but with daughters nursing babies, we wanted someplace they felt free to sit without people around, and still hear what's going on. I made the cushions out of pillows and pillowcases sewed together.  See the globe in the top left corner?  That poor globe had no stand and has rolled around this house for years!  I wasn't sure what to do with it because we still look at it so I hung it from an upper shelf.  Eventually, I hope to have a place for a playpen in this room too for sleeping babies.

We built the new living room on the other side of this office and the window just sat there empty.  I showed Arthur a picture online of someone who put shelves in their window and it wasn't long before he had shelves put in.  It's a great place for all those tiny crafty things that get lost in my other cupboards.  Also went through all my fabric and craft stuff in the office which was a huge job.  Glad to have it done for a long time to come!  Well, there's still some things I'd like to do but it might have to wait till next January.  Meanwhile ... 

Spring is here and that means sucker fishing which opened today.  I'm not overly fond of suckers as straight fish but they taste good smoked or pickled.  You can't see it but the guys are wet up to their shoulders!  Guess the river was  pretty deep!  Karen and Priscilla and Arthur went along too.

Behind the house, in the "courtyard" area, we made a sand pile (more like gravel) for the grandchildren.  We don't have a wall yet on the far side so we put some wood there to give the little ones a boundary.

We outlined the sand pile with logs and they have just as much fun with the logs as the sand.

It's a gorgeous day out today!  Warm and sunny!  God sent us a little rain last night so the grass should start growing a little more.  I hope you all have a wonderful day enjoying the great weather wherever you are!