7.12.20 4th of July Festivities

What a great weekend the fourth of July was. Usually we are booked by the hour serving in our community. This year due to COVID 19 we just stayed home and did our own thing. And it was great!

We woke up at 5:30 and I asked Greg if he was going to put the flag up, we debated for a while then he decided to get it done. The boys were the only ones who would get up to join him, sot hey located the flag and climbed the silo! I must admit it is a beautiful site up there. They came home to Addie preparing breakfast. She and Anna had worked on cleaning the front of our house and grills for this activity. This was seriously the first year ever my husbands family had not gone to the church for breakfast. We decided after much discussion to stick with tradition and had scrambled eggs, hashbrown patties, sausage links, pancakes, juice, and milk. It was delicious and so validating for Greg. He got the cooker when he helped someone move about ten years ago. I have wanted to trash it fro about 8. But with this opportunity Addie scrubbed it up, and Harold and Greg created a great new propane hose system and it was found to be very handy! We have big plans to use it in the future family get togethers. 

Thus Addie, Reed, Anna, and Mark cooked breakfast for about 30. Again I love eating outdoors this time of year.

The kids can play and all can visit. It's not so loud it's just peaceful and fun. Harold is teaching/helping Bruce swing on the rope. Harold is quite the monkey as is Bruce.

We spent the afternoon as per tradition at the lake. The blowup water devices are so fun for the shorebound crew. They spent a lot of time just paddling around.

 After a lovely shower and nap and lazy dinner we rushed to Uncle Kevin's for some fireworks. The best part was singing the national anthem as family as the moon rose over the near hill. We are blessed to live in a land where freedom is the basis.
The next day was Sunday, where we had a larger than usual crowd. I did not take these pictures but wanted to. I found after the meeting that Bruce had my phone and was snapping pictures.
Addie was glad to hand off leading the music to her cousin Karadyn.

 Oh he's a precocious young son. He really is coming to his own figuring out the world. he has so many plans for him and Merle. They will jump off diving boards together, drive motor cycles, etc. He made sure I had rootbeer pop and chocolate milk so Merle could get some while nursing.

Addie completely took care of Sunday lunch. This is her perfect brisket. She chopped the vegetables for the salad, pressure cooked the potatoes, marinated and cooked the brisket. She is pretty amazing, and thoughtful. It was a nice change for grandma to just sit and visit not be rushing to get lunch put together. I did the dishes and plugged in the stranger, and pushed start on the instapot.

Merle was so excited by this truck. I remember Mark loving tractors at this age too. Reed loves his littlest brother and is a great help with him.

Later that day I had a feeling to push on Bruce's sore I've been watching for a month. When I did I was shocked to find this slowly come out of it. The scab is on the tip top of the sliver it was straight in towards his bone. He is a tough cookie to have that in his leg for a month. Thank goodness for puss.

 And more fourth of July fun sparklers. Uncle Richard and Aunt Deanne brought fireworks that we enjoyed on Monday. I am not comfortable or encouraging of sparklers but I will admit they are very pretty. The kids really enjoyed them. I appreciate the diversity and fun our generous Aunts, Uncles, and grandparents bring to our life.

In between all the fun there was some work. The kids are putty some straw in the rows to help the corn have a chance to soak up the offered water. This is a small piece of the farm a flood irrigated section on very light white soil. The kids complained and asked why a hundred times but the short  hour it took did not harm them in the least.

There was plenty of time to play in between work. These cousins meshed so well.

Livy loves to dream and imagine at one meal she was roasting peas like marshmallows - all joined in loading their forks one at a time with peas.

We are thankful for family, fun, freedom, and vacations from the norm. We love being with our cousins quaratine and isolation has truly isolated us from our normal friends so these times when we can be together are so heartwarming and invigorating. Life is good together!

7.11.20 Millie's Birthday

Millie is our loan summer birthday. I love her timing because it is always pleasant to get together on the lawn and sit in the shade. Birthdays in say February are a bit harder cuz its cold, dark, and inside. Millie is a lot like June. Pleasant, inviting, and Fun! She is a sweet girl who had been looking forward to her birthday for a long time. Her sisters above and below her have their special days closer together so it seems like eternity for her to wait her turn. 

Her brothers love to light things! She wanted cake with strawberries. 

Finally getting ready to blow the candles she was in this position for seconds!

Sharing with the crew. Oh how I love the relaxation of outside eating, and I love the luscious restfulness of all the grass and trees.

Our grandmas. We are so thankful to interact with family especially grandparents.

Cousins, Vivian and Sam visting with grandpa.

Harold resting against the still uprooted tree roots from the overturned tree. He looks to fit pretty well.

Mark fresh from cleaning pivots. He said it felt good to take a shower.

Oh how we love our kiddos! We are so blessed to have such diversity, energy, and love in our home. While I often feel we are bursting the seams of our house I wouldn't have it any other way. As we work to teach, prepare, and encourage our kids I can't hardly think of the many impending changes without a lump in my throat at sadness of the separations for college, missions, and growing up that need to happen soon. The time seems to have run too fast and I'm sure we didn't have enough time. But I'm thankful for who they are choosing to be and we will still be family even if we don't all occupy the same house.

7.8.20 Hail

There are few sounds so ominous as hail in the summer. A few weeks ago we were enjoying an unxpected visit with Greg's cousins and Mark said you know we haven't had any hail yet this year. Who knew in a short half hour his prophetic statement would be so devastatingly fulfilled. Literally the skys started to cackle and rumble about ten minutes after his suggestion. The electric show was followed by this. Pouring rain and pounding hail! That circled our farm three times. 

 

The nearly perfect corn crop was still standing but shredded from solid leaves to strands. Interestingly even on our small block the damage was different from one side to the next of the fields. 

The garden was badly hit. I'm thankful we don't grow beets on the bench. All the green on the ground are the pieces of leaves from the beet tops. The beets were almost reduced to just the red stems. 

These sickly things are red potatoes. WE have been harvesting them all week, thankfully they have grown some really nice potatoes but will not continue to produce like they would have. Again the leaves punched out on the ground.

Pumpkin plant. Amazingly it has sent up new shoots from the center and continues on it's life cycle.

Oh the safety of the bucket. Plant untouched, the peppers outside the bucket beat up.

Beets a week later.

It was sickening to hear the storm just keep coming back. The first hit wasn't too bad, but the second and then the thrid strike ugh! We were thankful to have anything left on the stems. Neighbors about 20 miles from here got all the leaves knocked off their plants. You never know what each day will bring and what the next challenge will be.
Thankfully as my dad and father in-law promised the corn has put out new growth and is looking better two weeks following. Life is good, the sun kept shinning, and for whatever reason the weather was not suffering hot so the plants could slowly re-gain their strength and stamina and move on. I hope to be like that take the storms as they come and emerge still growing and not shriveled up dead. Like the corn there's still more inside that can balance the damage done.

7.11.20 Summer Food

Summer is a time to do a few things differently. With the incessant sunlight hours there seems to be more time. And fresh food is the best! 

I have a small raspberry patch that valiantly grows luscious berries. The kids do all the picking and most the eating. Afton is pretty good about sharing. We divided this handfull between the both of us.

My semi-reluctant reader was helped by my insistent compulsive cleaner. While trying to hold on to my household I demanded a children's cook book not be tossed but rather offered to the younger set as a possible afternoon activity. Little did I know cookbooks could provide such delightful, no prodding needed, reading practice! And the best part was making the simple recipes.

First recipe birds nest. Addie helped Livy and Millie melt the chocolate. A nice treat after running through the sprinklers. Next up black raspberry and ice cream pie. YUM! I think this book came frmo a book fair when I was about these girls ages. Nice! Life is good I love watching my kids grow in confidence and finding what appeals to them.
The guy in the back has been fixing and fixing things this week. It seems everything is broken in some way or another. Thank goodness my guys and gals are so skilled. They are working on gear box number two complete with ujoints. The first one they did themselves!! This one dad has been helping on just to add a little more instruction and hopefully speed up the process a bit. We have been very thankful for the rain and cooler temperatures, but know that dry weather complete with heat is needed from here on out. Challenge and responsibility make for a happy life, with some yum thrown in life is good!