Loving Winter!

Okay, you wouldn't live in this part of the world if you didn't love winter! I could live without the icy roads, but other than that, its pretty nice. One thing everyone up here loves is hockey. You can't live in Warroad without loving it some anyway!

Once a week a group from our church, plus a few others go skating and play hockey. This week Esther and Anna showed up and Miriam helped them skate around the rink some since they're just learning.

Arthur and Caleb going for the puck. 

Eli as goalie. Yes, they miss Hosanna because she was a fabulous goalie. Eli is good too!

Okay, I was a little disappointed when I dreamed it was summer the other day and woke up to a very cold, windy day!

Other things we love about winter:
Getting house projects done.
Time to work on maze things.
Time to fix tractors and equipment.
The crunch when you walk in the snow.
The crisp, clean air.
It's easy to cool a room down for sleeping.
Everything looks so clean outside.
A little extra time to sleep.
Bright days- the snow reflects light!
The reminder that God can wash away our sins white as snow!
Ice fishing!
Snowmobiling (We don't do this a lot but those that do, love it!)

Tonight some of the grandchildren came by and we got a smile out of little Glorie! So adorable!!!

On the farm this week, Arthur butchered a couple of cows to feed various family members with help from a few nieces and nephews and friends to cut and wrap.  He also worked double hard to keep the cows fed with how cold it is this week.

I finished up another macrame project and then did some dishtowel embellishment using my Cricut machine. Both maze Granary projects. If you remember back awhile we made a "Come and Dine" cookbook, well, I remade it, with some changes and additions and am having it printed in magazine format. This is way cheaper than the hardcover and hopefully I can sell some at the maze as well.

Have a wonderful week! God loves you!!!

This and That, a Random Picture Post!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew I had to try it! Well, I have a three year old granddaughter who already loves tea, bandaids, salve, elderberry syrup, etc and so I knew it was time to make these for her birthday. I mainly wanted to try out the new embroidery feature on my new sewing machine and this was a fun project to try it on.  What a fun project. Now I need to try something harder!

Over at  the maze, its been raining for almost three weeks now. Pretty depressing! This was taken a couple of weeks ago when we had 10" in one week. It's a lot better now, but still really muddy.

I've been trying to get pictures of workers this year. These are some of our Maze Patrol guys, Darren, Ethan, and Eli. Couldn't run the maze without them!

And this is the fabulous food crew: Priscilla, Jessica, and Krystal. Awesome girls!

We had some company last Sunday and pretty much if you come to our house for any amount of time, we're going to make you go through the "Sven and Ole Escape Room"! 

Our company from the other side of the border! 

We're swamped in peppers this year so Priscilla has been making lots of jalapeno poppers and some to freeze.

Can you smell it? I love the smell of
spaghetti sauce cooking on the stove! Miriam has been so faithfully taking care of the garden while the rest of us are over at the maze, including canning lots of tomatoes, and freezing a lot of corn.

Arthur had a birthday this week and so he took a few grandchildren out goose hunting on his birthday. They didn't get anything, but they sure had fun!

And then the maze! It keeps on a going week after week, regardless of rain! The grandchildren love coming over to volunteer work or just to play with their cousins. What great memories they are making!

Well, that's about it. I scheduled workers more this fall so I would have more time at home so that's why I'm free to post in the middle of a Saturday afternoon! We're in the home run stretch though and have groups almost every single day till closing day on the 19th.  Pray that we can keep going without getting sick or something!!

You all have a wonderful day and Lord's Day tomorrow and enjoy the blessings God has sent your way!

The Last Week

This last week we have really enjoyed the beautiful sky and trees with all the frost.  I think God is just waving his paintbrush making this one of the most gorgeous places to live!

For the girls birthdays, we took a day and went shopping. We really enjoyed it! The girls each managed to get a pair of black boots, and not all knowing the others were getting them. There were lots of winter things on sale so we had fun seeing who could get the most out of their money!

Hosanna made a fun purchase this week and bought an accordion! She's been playing Aimee's and so now she has her own. This is a ladies size one and is very pretty.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful week and if you still have snow like us, enjoy it! It won't be here forever! 

It's a Snow Globe World!

I'm not sure who was more excited to get a tractor ride, the girls or Grandpa!

We had a gorgeous snowfall yesterday and Priscilla said she felt like she was living in a giant snow globe!  It's so hard to imagine in the summer when everything is green and flowering that things could be so pretty when the leaves and flowers are all gone!  God truly hath given us so much to enjoy!

Daniel, David, and Priscilla's Trip

Just a quick picture of Daniel and David before Priscilla tells about her trip.  The boys are loving the "spring puddle" that takes over part of our yard every year.   For the most part the snow is all gone except for a little in the woods and ditches.   Okay, I'll turn this post over to Priscilla -

Ok, so about my trip. I had a great time! I think I said this last year after my Journey to the Heart, but spending ten days just seeking God is always so encouraging. It's so hard sometimes at home to just take and set aside time to really fellowship and spend time with God.

This is myself with Elizabeth B. and Tabitha K. The weather there was beautiful the first few days, and then we had a snow storm, and it was still beautiful, just in a different way.

Jessica J. Alexis B. Abby H. and Rachel M. all went with me, and we had so much fun together! It is such a blessing to have friends who want to seek God and encourage you.

At the Northwoods, some of the girls built this snow bear before we left. One of the arms fell off, but it was still cute. 

On the way down to the Journey, we stopped to visit the Gillette hospital where my cousin Victoria M. was a patient for a while. It was such a blessing to get to see the place, and meet some of the people that worked with her. When we went back to the parking garage to leave, the van broke down so we had to hall all of our stuff into the hospital while the van was towed. We were so blessed that the van had broken down at the hospital, and not on the middle of the free way. It also gave us the oppertunity to give thanks in EVERYTHING. Well it was an awesome trip, I would highly recommend it to everyone else. Keep enjoying spring, and make sure that you're giving thanks in Everything.  Take some extra time today to get alone with God and thank Him for everything, even the things in your life that are less than desirable. Through Christ we are more than conquerors!

It's April

We had a "beautiful" snowstorm the last day of March and early April 1st.  We had a  lot of snow to start with but this dumped close to 20 more inches of the white stuff.  The wind was very strong, so some places it blew almost all the snow off the ground and other places there were up to six foot drifts!  As the picture shows, you can't even see past our mailboxes and often we couldn't see the barn from our house!  I kinda wish it would've lasted a few more days!  We enjoyed staying warm in the house and spent our long evening watching Ben Hur. 
I wonder if God is getting sick of us all complaining and is going to send snow until we get contented with what He gives us!  I notice it's snowing right now.  Oh well, it's only April.  ;)  I'm thankful God gives us daily opportunities to practice contentment!

This and That

I thought I'd tell about a few other things going on around here.  Miriam finished her three year Bible course.  For anyone wanting a good basic Bible education, Miriam is really recommending this program.  It's free, and you get a book to read and study and fill in questions and then take a test. And so forth for each class. You can either read and take the tests online or the paper route.  So, if you need a little challenge and don't have a lot of money, this is a good option.  They take donations of course :)

There's still lots of snow.  We had a couple of really nice days where it melted but there's still quite a bit of the stuff.  Most everyone we know that burns wood has near run out awhile ago and have scrounged around to get some as it is hard heading to the woods to get it.  I guess after the last few nice winters we didn't prepare as good as we should've.

Silas had a hard week last week.  He was climbing the wall of the haymow to replace a light bulb when the step broke and he fell about 15-20 feet onto the wood haymow floor.  He got quite sore but was okay.  He would want you to know that he kept the bulb from breaking. The day after he fell, a cow kicked him in the nose.  It got swollen and hurt but he was okay and you can't tell now.

Priscilla had a good birthday and wants to thank all of you that left comments!

We had our county Republican caucus meeting.  That's always enjoyable especially as we go over different resolutions and have discussions over them with the occasional some strong on either side of the resolution.  Arthur is a delegate and the rest of us are alternates to the district and state conventions.

Isaac's beef cow had the first spring calf. We try to have them calve later in the spring when the weather is nicer but this particular cow paid a visit to a neighbor bull when she shouldn't have.  The poor calf was pretty cold so we stuck her and her mama in the barn. (I say her but I'm not really sure if it was a her!)

Please pray for Pam J.  She's been so out of commission from Lyme's disease and last week she took a nasty fall and can hardly move.  I know she'd love people to pray for her and a card sent her way probably wouldn't be refused either.

I was reading about the sick man in Mark 2 who was lifted down through the roof.  It says in verse five "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." and he went on and healed him.  What stuck out to me was that it was the friends faith that led Jesus to heal him.  Other places too Jesus heals because of the faith of others.  I guess I always knew that, but it was a good reminder that I need to have faith when I pray for the healing of others. I would not want my lack of faith to keep anyone from getting healed.  It's so easy to pray like we would talk about the weather.  We need to pray in faith knowing that we have a powerful God who delights in answering prayer.

Have a great day!

Trip to Tennessee

Arthur, Miriam and I headed down to Tennessee to visit Aaron and Naomi and the grandchildren.  One thing the girls love is Arthur reading to them. Actually, they like anyone who will read to them!  

We thought we would get away from the snow for a few days, but no, they got snow right before we came.  Arthur couldn't resist sledding down the hills around their house but first gave Esther and Anna a ride. 

And then there is sweet little baby Aaron!  What a happy little guy!  We held him, and held him, and held him as much as we could.  I wish I had better pictures of him but our camera just didn't do so good.  He has cute little dimples and a sweet little smile.

They had snow down there but I couldn't resist getting a picture of the green perennials starting to come up.  What a joy to see green!! Those of you further north than Tennessee know what I mean!!

The picture doesn't capture it but there is a nice coating of ice on all the trees and it was so pretty!  The roads were another thing.  We just don't get roads that terrible around here!  They get snow covered but  because its so cold they really aren't all that bad.  The colder it gets the less icy they are.  But down there the back roads were really, really slick.  I don't think I've ever been that terrified of being in a vehicle!  Course up here if you go in the ditch you simply get stuck in the deep snow. Down there they have all these steep hills dropping off beside the road and I could just see us rolling over and over down the hill.  God kept us safe though and once we got to their house we stayed there till the roads had cleared some.

The little girls love their Aunty Miriam.  Someone to tirelessly play with them!  

Esther crawled under a blanket with Miriam.  You can tell she's pretty pleased and thought it quite special!

Arthur with grandson number five.  

We tried hard to get a picture of all the grandchildren together.  Getting them all to look at the camera at the same time with a smile was very difficult but that makes it all the more special!  These kids sure have fun together!  This picture was taken at Jordan P.'s wedding in Illinois.  We stopped by for the wedding on our way home.  What a beautiful wedding with an awesome couple that loves God!!  We are so glad it worked out to go!

Pastor Aaron holding little Aaron at the wedding.  He's one happy dad!

And one more of the little guy.   I wish it was clearer but I couldn't resist posting one more. On our way home Sunday morning we stopped by a church in Duluth. It's amazing how good of fellowship you can have with other believers who you've never met. We were blessed by the service and their hospitality. As much as we loved our trip and had a wonderful time, it was good to get home and hear all the news and things that happened while we were gone.

Pictures of This and That

Just a few things going on:

I love this picture of all the vehicles buried in snow.

Arthur enjoyed the trip to the auction barn to sell the yearly calves, steers, and cull cattle.

Our new couches are FULL of static as Priscilla demonstrates!  I think we need a humidifier!

Some of the cousins got together to wrap DVD's, tracts, and invitations to our church Christmas program.  They headed west to give them out door to door this evening.  Another great way to get the gospel into homes.  No one will turn down a free gift!

"But thanks be to
God
for His
Unspeakable Gift."
II Corinthians 9:15

VBS Part 2 and Other Things

Well the 2013 VBS is over for another year.  We had 87 children and about 30 workers so it was quite the group. Thank you everyone that helped!

Miriam saw this bird nest in the woods so I think we can safely say early summer is here.  We did have frost one day this week but we managed to get out there early in the morning to hose off the newly planted tomatoes and peppers.  Thankfully they survived and a check today showed just about everything starting to poke through the soil.

Hosanna made a cake for Ben and Emily's wedding open house for those that couldn't come to the wedding.   I had a few other pictures I was going to post but for some reason they didn't download off my camera.  Some other day.  Well, have a great weekend!

Lamentations 3:22-23
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning:
Great is Thy faithfulness!

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!