We watched "The Widow's Might!"

I don't remember where we first heard about "The Widow's Might", but my brothers and I learned more about it at last years' home school convention, during Mr. Escobar's talks. As we heard more about this movie, and learned that it has a bit of a western theme to it, I kept it in mind as a perfect birthday gift for Jacob, as he loves that sort of thing...

Well, I purchased the DVD a while back and it's been sitting in my dresser drawer for several weeks now. Jacob's birthday is this coming Thursday and, as I'm going to be leaving Friday morning for James and Amanda's wedding in Montana (and will probably wish to get to bed early Thur. night), I thought I'd give him his present now so we could all watch it together this afternoon. (Certain members of our family were getting tired of watching "It's a Wonderful Life" over and over.) So, we watched this fantastically done movie!

This film was made mainly by home-schoolers and it was so wonderful to see Christian values coming through so loudly and clearly! We loved it and would recommend it to others (even if you're not a fan of Westerns, as the western theme is only in parts of it.) We also watched the special features about the making of the movie and now have a much greater appreciation for the kind of work that goes into such a production. WOW!



To follow up on yesterdays' remarks about going out with the guys and their guns--I thought I'd just inform you that I did go. I wanted to take some pictures of them... (Can you see the clay pigeon flying high in the clouds?)
They did talk me into shooting too. Andrew let me use his shotgun and Dad threw for me.

Dad: "Are you ready?"
Myself: "I guess so..."
Dad: "Ok, here it goes!"

The clay bird goes flying through the air. I look down the barrel at the little bead on the end, trying to align it with the quickly falling orange piece of clay... I squeeze the trigger... BANG! I close my eyes as I'm so surprised by the recoil of the gun, (even though I'd been thoroughly warned beforehand,) and consequently don't see where my shot went to.

Then--
Dad: "Hey!"
Brothers: "You hit it and sent it into a hundred pieces!"
I was so shocked!!!

The next two shots didn't amount to much, as I think I was still so excited. That, or maybe I was concentrating too hard on keeping my eyes open this time? Anyway, we had a good time. :) Oh, and I'm pleased to announce that the guys' aim was considerably better today than it was yesterday--especially Jacobs'... He was hitting the skeet almost every time!

That was our afternoon excitement. Tomorrow we want to bring the cows home (a 5 mile journey,) so prayers for all to go well would be very much appreciated!

Oh, and as it's now "Tomorrow", I'll wish you all a blessed November. ~

We think we have it rough???

I just read a post on my friend Hannah K's blog and thought I'd share it with all of you here, as a reminder to pray for the persecuted and to realize (and to be encouraged to continue in the fight for) the blessings that we still have in our country today.

Please visit her blog here.

A clean house; fresh apple butter; and happy shooters...

It is such a good feeling to have a clean house, isn't it? :) Ours smells of Apple Butter tonight, so it's extra pleasant! Here is a picture of the apple-butter-to-be, before I stirred in the spices and honey... (If anyone would like the recipe, just let me know and I'd be very willing to share it with you.)


There were various different things going on around our farm today, but probably the most enjoyable, for the guys anyway, was when they decided to take advantage of the sunshine and go out to practice shooting some clay pigeons (or skeet, as they sometimes call them.) I got this picture of them shortly before they took off. When my dad and brothers returned, they reported several hits and said that they had had a very fun time (and now they want me to go with them tomorrow and try to hit some clay too!)

I made something new (to me) for supper tonight--a recipe that Mom said she used to make a lot when they were first married, but I don't remember ever having it. Basically, you make some corn-bread and spread the batter in a pan, then cut some hot-dogs in half and press them into the batter. After that, you put some ketchup, mustard and pickles in the opened hot-dogs and then bake this for about half an hour (putting cheese on top during the last few minutes of baking time.) The guys said it was very good, so perhaps we'll make it again soon so that Mom and I can have some too. :) (We only have 2 more days to go on this cleanse--hooray!!! I'm so hungry for something other than water, lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper!)

As I was looking through the pictures from today, I realized I didn't have one of mother, but had one of everyone else, so I went back a few days and found this picture to share with you... :)

And now to a more serious topic...
I just remembered what "Holiday" it is tomorrow and just want to ask you to pray with me for the safety of everyone--especially children..... We researched the origins and traditions of Halloween many years ago and were horrified by what we learned, but I won't share that with you here as it's too_____yucky. One good resource we've found has been the Chick Tracts (written by Jack Chick) about Halloween. You can visit the website here to read these cartoon-format tracts for yourself... The ones specifically about this time of year are: Happy Halloween; The little ghost; Boo; The little princess; and there may be a couple others by now. One family tradition we have had for as long as I can remember is, on the 31st of October, we watch "It's a wonderful life." We love to celebrate life on this day of darkness and....death. Care to join us?

"The return of the daughters" giveaway...

My blogging friends, Rachel & Jessica are celebrating their Blogiversary today and are generously giving away a copy of the DVD, "The return of the daughters." I've heard a lot about this movie/book, but have never seen/read it, so I've entered my name in their drawing and thought you may like to also... Please visit their blog for more info. on entering and/or to congratulate them!

"Congratulations ladies!"

The secret revealed...(and how to make tomato soup!)

Well, it didn't snow nearly as much as the weatherman was talking about, but we did get quite a bit of rain and then it did snow in the later part of the afternoon. I took this picture around 4:00PM, in hopes that the snowflakes would show up, but they're rather hard to see... Currently, there is a thin blanket of snow covering everything and it's beginning to look like Winter again!



You may already know what the boys' birthday surprise was, (if you read Jacob's blog...) but I thought I'd post some pictures here too.

My parents bought each of the boys a brand new shotgun! My dad's never gotten into hunting very much, but the boys would like to give it a try, so now they can all learn together. :) Dad also bought several "Clay pigeons" and a thrower so they can practice.

Here's Jacob, checking his gun out...

...and here's Andrew, looking mighty pleased! Their rifles look quite similar--the only difference being that Andrews' barrel is 2 inches longer than Jacobs'.

We had a pleasant surprise this afternoon when our hunter friend, Gaylin (he's more than that implies though, as he's the one who got their group to finance our farm 6 years ago...) stopped in for a visit. As he's very much into guns, he was almost as happy as the boys were to see the new rifles in our house! We had a pleasant, hour-long visit with him and then he wanted to get going to hunt some pheasants--in the snow!

The rest of the afternoon was spent in: schoolwork for Mom and Jacob; Dad fixed the furnace and the washing machine; Andrew worked on trying to fix a scanner/printer he bought at a second hand store and helped Dad a bit; and I canned tomato soup and cut up a box of apples for sauce and juice.

As a fellow blogger has asked how we make our tomato soup, I thought I'd share the recipe with all of you here:

CANNED TOMATO SOUP

The recipe calls for:

1 large kettle full of tomatoes (I know, that's very vague, so I'll say that we use apprx. 1 1/2 gallons worth of quartered tomatoes)
1 bunch celery

6 med. onions

1 bell pepper (I use more like 2)

Cook this all together until the celery is soft. Then, remove kettle from heat and allow to cool for a while so that the contents are easier to deal with. (This is the point where I usually put it in the fridge overnight and then deal with it the next day...)

Grind up the tomato mixture and return the soup to the kettle.

Add:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

Heat this up and let it cook for about 10 minutes. Then fill jars; seal them; and can in hot water bath for 45 minutes.

We like to eat this soup with cheese sandwiches or to add it to casseroles (especially Shepherds Pie!) Enjoy~

Drip, drip, drop.....

It is raining outside. My dad said that we are right in the middle of a large area that's supposed to be getting up to a foot of snow--in the time frame of tonight until tomorrow sometime! We were hoping to bring our cows home tomorrow, but don't know if this will be possible if there's a snow storm!

My brothers are pretty excited tonight, as my parents gave them their birthday gifts a little early (for a reason I can't tell yet). Dad and the boys went to Bismarck this afternoon to try to buy some baby calves (they didn't end up getting any though, as the calves were too expensive,) and they came home with two, very nice, brand new.......but I'd best not tell you what they are, as the boys will probably want that honor. :)

Meanwhile, Mother and I kept the home fires burning. (Not actually, but figuratively speaking!) We made another batch of applesauce and juice; I got the canner going with the last batch of sauce that we had made; Mom got caught up on some of her records; we did some laundry; I made a double-batch of zucchini bread and put some in the freezer to take with on the way to the wedding; and then I went through our tomatoes and cut up enough for another batch of tomato soup--to be canned tomorrow. It always feels so good at the end of a long day to come in my room; sit down on my bed; and spend a few minutes writing here. :)

But, it sounds like it's family prayer time once again, so I'd best finish this up quick.

Blessings on the rest of your week~

Cora B.

PS. I thought this was a most appropriate picture, considering the time of year we're in... The hunters are almost as thick as the pheasants!

My 300th post!

I was so surprised to see, upon logging in to my account here, that this is my 300th post!!! It sure doesn't seem like I've posted that many times, but I'm sure the computer's kept better track than I have over the last 7 months... I feel so blessed to have met so many new friends through blogging already (and to be able to keep up with what former friends are up to..) and look forward to getting to know you all better in the days, weeks, months and years ahead!

One of the results of one of my blogging friendships is that I've learned how to make Mozzarella cheese! (Thank you Grace for all of your helpful advice, pictures, and for your recipe...) I made my second batch of cheese today and it turned out MUCH better than the first batch I made. I was so excited!!! It's so nice to be able to make a cheese that melts. I put most of this:

...on the homemade pizza I made for the guys' supper tonight and it browned really nicely. I did save a little cheese back though so that, come Sunday (when Mom and I get off of the Master Cleanse,) I can taste some. :)

Another of my projects today was to make 3 batches of ice cream from the cream we separated the other day. We won't be eating it until Jacobs' birthday (Nov. 5th) and the boys' birthday party (Nov. 14th), but I wanted to make it and get it in the freezer now before the cream soured...

Most of my afternoon was spent in changing my summer and winter clothes around--always a big project... Mother did hers the other day, so now we can focus on the guys' things next...

Speaking of the guys, Jacob was busy with schoolwork today, but Dad and Andrew worked on cleaning out the lot across the road and spreading the "Fertilizer" on the old alfalfa field--the one that someone here will be breaking come Springtime. It is so nice to have 2 spreaders that work now--and 2 fellows to run them!

As I close post #300, I thought I'd share a poem I found just now... When I read it, I realized how it happened that I reached this numerical obtainment: Just by posting one post at a time!

ONE BY ONE

"One step and then another,

And the longest walk is ended;

One stitch and then another,

And the largest rent is mended.

One brick upon another,

And the highest wall is made;

One flake upon another,

And the deepest snow is laid.

Then do not look disheartened

On the work you have to do,

And say that such a mighty task

You never can get through;

But just endeavor day by day

Another point to gain,

And soon the mountain which you feared

Will prove to be a plain."

May all your mountains prove to be plains--with God's help on the journey, of course!

Do you think I'll pass...

...as a cowgirl??????


Some friends told us that the definition of a cowboy/girl is: a person that owns at least 3 cows, so I guess I could qualify as one according to that. However, usually when I think of a cowboy or cowgirl, I think of someone who is on their horse as often as possible; someone who walks around in chaps, clanging their spurs as they go. :) This is NOT me! We don't even own a horse currently and I haven't ridden one for several years.... I do have cows and like cows though, so perhaps I can claim the title of "Cowgirl" anyway? Hmmm....

If you haven't guessed yet that my hat came in the mail today, then I'll tell you now that it did! It's just as nice as I was hoping it would be.... Now I just need to get used to walking carefully through doorways and such, as I'm not used to my head needing so much space. :)

Enough about that...

Mother and I had a delightful time at my former (and current, at times) music teachers' house this morning! We needed to go to Linton (about 45 miles away) so that Jacob could get his calf check signed off at the FSA office and so that I could make a payment on my loan, so we decided to drive the 15 miles farther and visit the Keisters, as I needed some technical help from my teacher on a certain piece of music. He gave me lots of helpful advice and now I just need to put it into practice. :) Oh, I should tell you about this special piece of music... Amanda's (the young lady whom I'm going to be Maid-of-Honor for in a couple weeks) parents have asked me to play piano for them while they sing (at the wedding) the song that they had sung for their wedding. I feel honored to be asked to play, and yet I'm a bit nervous too, as I've never done anything like this before! Prayers would be very much appreciated, now, as I practice the song and try to make it as lovely as possible, and especially on Nov. 8th--the big day!

After we were through at the Keisters, Mother and I went to the FSA office to take care of our business. It was taking longer there than I thought it would, and we were supposed to meet a lady at 1:30, so Mom left me at the office and went to meet Mrs. Ballard...

I'd better explain how we know Mrs. Ballard before I go any further... We first met Mrs. B many, many years ago, when we started attending the Baptist church in Linton--the church that she and her husband attended. I don't remember that time in my life very much, as I was 6-9 years old when we went there, but I do remember a very special moment after church one day, when Mrs. Ballard came up to me and presented me with a beautiful teddy bear that she had made just for me!!! That bear has sat on my dresser ever since. Today I was trying to remember if the bear was for a birthday gift or something, but Mother says that Mrs. B just loved me so much back then that she just wanted me to have a pretty bear. We figured out that it's been 13 years since we've seen Mrs. B!

Now, to get to the reason for this meeting...... When we went through my grandma Erdie's clothes this Summer, (she passed away in April,) we found a nice fur coat and a nice leather one. As no-body's going to wear them, Mother had the idea to ask Mrs. Ballard to make them into teddy bears for us!!! Mom called Mrs. B up yesterday and everything fell into place for us to meet her in town today.

Now to get back to my story of this afternoon, Mother went and met Mrs. B at the church; visited and got the coats to her. Mrs. Ballard said she was hoping to be able to see me too, and Mother told her she could if she'd come over to the FSA building and wait a few minutes, which she decided to do. When I walked out of the building and started walking down the sidewalk, Mrs. B got out of her pickup and came towards me with arms outstretched--ready to give me a giant hug! When she finally stepped back, she said that she'd still have recognized me even if she didn't know I was me. (That sounds funny!) I still remembered her too, but then I think I've changed a little more in the last 13 years than she has. :) It was so nice to see her...

Well, I could write more---about breaking into our Temvik house (because we didn't have the keys along) to get some items we wanted to have at our farm and other such interesting tidbits, but as it's getting late, I'd best bid you goodnight.

"Sweet dreams and may God bless you~"

"Yes, I'd like a large bowl of fruit salad and 11 quarts of Sauerkraut please!"

Mother and I cut up several of our melons before the noon meal and made a large fruit salad for the guys. It was such a good feeling to know that we grew everything in this salad--except for the pineapple. Too bad pineapple trees don't grow very well here in North Dakota!
Later in the afternoon, the boys helped me finish up our cabbage for the year. We made 11 more quarts of sauerkraut, plus saved 2 heads of cabbage for eating later--fried in butter or shredded into coleslaw...

Oh yes, while Mom and I were working on cutting up fruit, we saved seeds from the 4 different varieties of melons we grew this year. In the background, you can see the book that's been a big blessing to us...

We had a lengthy family discussion this afternoon about if we should keep milking cows and raising bottle-calves or if we should sell back and just milk a cow by hand--just to get enough for our own consumption. I, for one, was pretty discouraged by the price we got for our yearling Holstein steers (about $280 a head), and was thinking we should stop, but after doing some figuring, we realized that we did make a little bit of money on our calves this time, and decided to stick with it. There will always be hard times and better times, and I guess this is just one of those harder times... Besides, like my dad said, we need something to keep us busy and active in the long Winter months!

I started writing my review of the movie, "To be one," but I'm only about a third done, so I guess I won't get that posted tonight. We have a busy morning planned, so I'd best get to bed now.

I'll leave you with a quote by Hannah Whitall Smith~

"We must take our troubles to the Lord, but we must do more than that, we must leave them there."

How easy that sounds, and yet how difficult it can be sometimes!

A peaceful day at home~

We had a lovely, peaceful day together--just the 5 of us. We listened to a great and convicting message by Dr. S. M. Davis called "What Impatience Does." The lack of patience is one of my greatest faults, I know, and I realized that I need to pray for patience more often and more fervently........

This evening, we watched an encouraging video called "To be one," but I'll wait to tell you about that until I'm more awake. :)

Pumpkin Bars~

I had a request a while back for our Pumpkin Bar recipe and, as I have a few minutes before lunch, I thought I'd post it now. Enjoy~

PUMPKIN BARS
4 eggs
2 cups white sugar (or 1 cup honey)
2 cups flour (we use whole wheat all the time)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup oil
2 cups pumpkin--mashed
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. clove powder
2 tsps. cinnamon

Mix all together and bake in jellyroll pan at 350 degrees. This will actually make 3 cookie sheets or 2 broiler pans full--depending on how thick you want your bars. :) We bake them for about 20 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting
1/2 cup butter--melted
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese--softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (we DO use sugar for this!)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream butter and cream cheese, then add the sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Spread on bars and sprinkle on the nuts.

Ice cream~

Today my brothers and I separated 12 gallons of milk and got 5 quarts of cream! :) So, after the cream had set a while, I whipped up a batch of ice cream using my dear friend, Dorena's recipe. It is so hard to be on a juice fast at times like these!!!

I thought I'd share the recipe with you all in case you'd like to give it a try. The ice cream turns out about the consistency of store-bought and tastes even better, (probably because we know what the ingredients are! :)

ICE CREAM~
1 quart (preferably raw) whipping cream
1 dozen eggs
1 to 1 1/2 cups (once again, preferably raw) honey--I'm sure you could use sugar if you desired...
1 Tbsp. vanilla
a pinch of salt
flavoring--if desiring anything other than vanilla ice cream. We especially like the following: add a little cocoa powder to the mix to make chocolate ice cream; add strawberries chunks; maple flavoring, or a few drops of Peppermint Essential oil!

Directions:
Whip the quart of cream in a large bowl and set aside. Then, separate the dozen eggs (put the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another) and whip the whites until they make a peek and add them to the cream. Now, mix the yolks lightly and add the honey, vanilla, salt and flavoring to them and mix well. Add this to the cream and egg white mixture and stir all together well. Put the (covered) bowl in the freezer and wait! You'll want to stir it a couple times, we usually do it every other hour or so until the eggs quit sinking to the bottom of the bowl. Once your ice cream is frozen, all that's left is to enjoy it!

Last nights post~

Tonight, the power went out shortly before prayer time and whenever that happens, Andrew has to reset something so that the Internet works. I guess he didn't think about it though and I didn't think to remind him until now, but he's already in bed and I don't want to wake him, so this will have to wait 'til morning to get posted!

Mother and I had another nice time together shopping this afternoon... There is always a large community rummage sale held at the Napoleon Catholic church this time of year and Mom and I decided to attend it. We came home with 4 large black garbage bags full of clothes--things for everyone in our family. Mom also bought a roaster pan, as the one we have now that's that size has sprung a leak! Everything there (except the belts and socks which were 5 cents each) was a quarter, so our total bill was $27 something or other. :)

Once we got home, we started up the washing machine and then Mother taught Jacob some math and I made another batch of tomato soup. We are finally nearing the end of our tomato crop and are down to orange and green ones, so now it's time to focus on the apples...

Around 5:00, our neighbor called and said that our cows were out, so Dad and Andrew went up to get them back in again. Apparently, the electric fencer wasn't zapping very well, so they worked on it for quite a while. Hopefully the cows will respect it now! We'll be bringing the cattle home from pasture soon, but until then, they should stay put. (But tell that to a cow!)

Oh, one more thing I was going to tell you about today is that I ordered a cowgirl hat! I waited until we got home from the rummage sale, as I wanted to make sure there wouldn't be one there (which there wasn't), and then I showed the hat to my mom and placed the order. I don't know a lot about cowgirl/boy hats, but I do know that I like this one a lot better than any of the cheep plastic "Straw" ones we saw yesterday. :) I'm so grateful that I found this one, as it's a brand new, lined felt hat and the total price (with shipping) is $3 less than the already stated plastic one was! (As you may be curious about how much I spent, I'll just let you know that the plastic one was $30 at 50 percent off!) My dad had a good idea too... He said, after the wedding, I can try to sell the hat if I don't ever plan on wearing it again, so we'll see what happens. It does seem a little extravagant to spend so much on a hat when you can spend the same amount and get 4 large bags of very nice clothing! :)

Bundles, boots and more...

Mother and I went to Bismarck today to do some shopping... There were things we needed to get for the farm; groceries to buy; and parts to pick up for Dad's semi, but then we had a couple hours to run to different thrift stores and western stores to look for a cowgirl hat and some lace-up boots for me. I happily found a nice pair of boots at one of the first thrift stores we went in and they were just my size and the color I wanted!!!

However, no matter how many hats we looked at, nothing seemed quite right. There were some really nice ones at the RCC western store, but they were a bit beyond my price range. :) Also, one of Mother's clients kindly offered me her hat, but it wasn't quite the right color. I'm glad that I at least found out my hat size now so I can check on-line for some hats... (Prayers for finding the "Perfect" one would be much appreciated!)

It was nice to just have a day together with Mother... I still so much prefer country life to that in the city though and don't wish to go wandering away from home too often!

Saving seeds~

I've had a request to share what a Love-in-a-Mist plant and blossom look like, so am posting this picture that I took of one of my flowers last year. Some of the flowers are blue and some are white and they make the most unique seed heads when finished blooming! Inside of each large seed pod is 5 or 6 sections and each of these sections has about 6 to 8 seeds in it, so needless to say, I had only to pick a small envelope of pods to get enough seeds for next year--and some to share with friends...

As long as we had plates with seeds spread out all over the table this morning, I thought I'd take some pictures of them and share them here. I also took pictures of our popcorn, here...

...and here...

Here's our heart-shaped tray full of cayenne peppers we grew:

About half of the Straight-8 cucumber seeds we saved this year:

Green bean seeds:

Onion seeds:

Dill seed: (we have a lot more than this!)

Flower seeds: Starting at the top left corner and going around clock-wise are mini-marigold seeds; Love-in-a-Mist seeds; Zinnia seeds; more marigold seeds; and in the middle are a few seeds we got from Mother's one and only Kiss-Me-Over-the-Garden-Gate plant. :)

And finally, here are my Lima beans--in different stages of dryness...

My heart is now singing thanks to the Lord for His great miracle of seeds!!!

This was a very busy day once again, although a most enjoyable one! A friend came for some farm products early this morning; Mom and the boys made some apple sauce, juice, and cider vinegar; I ground up more tomato sauce and got it in the very full freezer; we started the Kombucha; my dad hauled grain all day again; and I babysat from 12:00 to 6:00 (for the same 2 little children that I watched last week)... Oh yes, plus we did the usual chores; schoolwork and meal preparation, etc......

It is so good to all be together again under the same roof, at the same time!

Long day for papa~

Mother just got a call from dad, saying that he won't be home until midnight or so because he's hauling grain from one elevator to the next as they're trying to get a train loaded. He started hauling for a farmer this morning at 7:30 and we haven't seen him since! I'm sure he'll be ready for his pillow when he gets home!

I'd write more, but my brothers are calling and saying they have a John Wayne episode ready to watch, so I think I'll join the cowboys... :)

Prayer request for blogging friends~

I just read this post over at my friends, Rachel & Jessica's blog and wanted to ask for prayer for them, as they had a scary situation happen last night and now have a very trying week ahead of them.

Thank you~

Pictures from yesterday~

Apple picking pictures~



Here's my grandpa Harvey...
My dad putting apples in the boxes...

Mother doing the same...

Here I'm using one of Grandpa's apple pickers to try to reach some of the higher apples...

Two monkeys in the tree...

A closer view of monkey Jacob...

This picture was taken over at my Bornemann grandparents' house. Grandma Marly had found a keepsake that she had from my parents' wedding--a heart candy holder that was on the head table. She gave it to my parents (along with a very nice anniversary present too.)

It was a lovely day~

This was a lovely day also, as a heatwave came through and we had highs of 70 something degrees! We took advantage of the warm weather and did a lot of outside work. I'll just tell you quick the main things we did:

1. Picked the popcorn and found a place for it to dry in the house
2. Hauled corn stalks and giant squash to the goats
3. Made a Fall display and tied it to the old plow that we use as a lawn ornament
4. Tilled up an area and planted 100 tulip bulbs
5. Dad worked on the semi most of the afternoon
6. Picked Lima beans and started shelling them
7. Saved Marigold, Zinnia and Love-in-a-Mist seeds
8. Hung up a load of wash--yes, A load, as there were too many bees around that liked the smell of the laundry

Some things got done inside too:

1. Ground up and froze last batch of tomato sauce
2. Cut up vegetables for another kettle full of sauce
3. Baked bread
4. Made homemade pizza and fried up zucchini in butter and dill

As you can see, our day was full and now my bed looks so appealing. :)

A visit to see my grandparents~

(I was going to post pictures, but blogger isn't letting me, so I guess those will have to wait...)

We went down to Eureka, SD today to visit our grandparents/parents and to pick up the rest of the apples from Grandpa Delzers' tree. We took lunch to Grandpas' house so he didn't have to cook anything, which he seemed to appreciate.

Later in the afternoon, we went over and visited the Bornemann grandparents and our guys ate supper with them, and Mother and I joined in visiting. :) We had a nice time and got home late, but as we don't get to visit with them very often (it's an hour and a half drive down there), we like to visit in person when we can.

I'm praising God that we made it home safely--even though there were several deer out tonight. Oh yes, and a cat ran across the road too. :)

I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.

Sweet dreams everyone~

My forever friend~

I heard this song on the radio yesterday and was blessed by it!

A kitty cake; a new skirt; less calves; happy news...and a rough day.

Here are the results of my kitty cake experiment...

This kitty is looking down on---

---this kitty, while neither of them realize that---

--there's a little mouse close by, peeking out of his hole!

Here's the happy-birthday girl, Sophia! I think by the time that she and her mom left our place, Sophie had figured out who would get which cat... and who would get to eat the mouse...and the ball of yarn............ :)

I was very excited to receive my new skirt in the mail today!!! It's just as pretty as it looked in the photo on-line and it fits well too. If you're interested in buying a skirt ever, I'd highly recommend you check out: http://www.newcreationapparel.com/. They have fast and friendly service and their skirts are all so lovely and modest.

The guys sorted off and loaded up most of our yearling steer calves after lunch when the trucker arrived. They had to set up a makeshift loading area, as the place we usually load out of was very muddy and the trucker would have had to back up the hill to get to it (which wouldn't have worked!) Thankfully, all went well and nobody got stuck.

My life-time friend (you may remember that Mother and I attended her wedding a few months ago) wrote to me today and shared the happy news that they're expecting! :) She's 5 weeks along, and so far everything's going well. I wish they lived closer...

Outside of those happy things, this was a hard day for me as I wasn't feeling well and was just glad to get the cake finished and chop some vegetables up for the guys' supper. So, I really need to lie down again...

God bless and goodnight~

A good idea!

Do you know what a Wig Wag is?

I didn't know what one looked like until today... The "Wig Wag" on our washing machine went out and my dad ordered one while at the Hardware store yesterday, or rather, he tried to order one... The guy at the store called Dad back after he'd gotten home and said he'd never heard of a Wig Wag before, and was my dad sure that that's what it is called? My dad assured him that, yes indeed, that was the name of the part, so the Hardware man said he'd try to get one ordered. Apparently, he found one, as he called this morning to say that it came in today. As we really needed to do some laundry, Dad went to Napoleon again and got the part, then spent the afternoon putting it in and fixing another problem that he found with the machine. He had quite a bit of trouble with that part and needed to weld it and I'm not quite sure if it's ready to go now or not, but I have confidence that it will be up and running soon. :) Here is a picture my mom took of the old Wig Wag:

While my dad (and brothers some of the time) were Wig Wagging, I cut up tomatoes; carrots; onions; and peppers for another batch of tomato sauce...

Later in the day, I worked on making the kittens (out of M.M. fondant) that are going to be on the cake I'll be finishing tomorrow. It's our neighbor girl, Sophia's 8th birthday on Saturday and she wanted an orange striped kitten cake. As tomorrow's going to be a busy day, with loading the calves up to haul to the sale and with regular house-cleaning, I thought I'd get a head-start on my decorating... I'm going to wait until the cake is finished though to show you how the kittens turned out. :)

Now, I'll leave you with a thought to ponder and bid you goodnight...

"Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have."

The view from my bedroom windows this morning~

Let it......snow?

It has been snowing most of the day here and there's now a thick blanket of white over everything... It's so pretty~


My dad headed for town this morning to get some supplies... While at the hardware store, he bought a new faucet for our kitchen sink! Hooray! Our old one has been dripping for months. The guys took it apart a while back and cleaned it up and it worked for a little while then, but it soon got right back to dripping. Dad put the new faucet in and it is SO nice not to listen to that sound anymore, although I'm afraid it will take us a little while to get used to not turning the handle a little up and to the right all the time (to slow the stream down to a drip!)

Mother and Jacob got serious with schoolwork today, while Dad and Andrew worked on fixing things around the house. It is so wonderful to have handymen who live in the very same house with you!

I ground up the pumpkin Mother had baked yesterday and put 4 quarts in the freezer. Then I used the quart I had left out to make a double batch of pumpkin bars--one of our very favorite desserts! The only sad part about making the bars is that Mother and I are now doing the Master Cleanse (otherwise known as the "Lemonade Diet") and won't be eating anything for a couple weeks, so we won't be eating any of them! :)

We made more applesauce and juice today too and canned some salsa... It was so nice to be inside with the snow blowing around outside!

(later) I just got off the phone with Mrs. Dagley... We talked over some of the plans for the wedding and visited. She shared how God's been giving her verses in the Bible everyday to help her as she tries to think of daily life without her daughter's presence.

Amanda & I've been e-mailing back and forth with some clothing issues too... She sent a picture of her brother and sister-in-law so that I could see what the guys will be wearing and what the ladies' blouses look like. Once I saw that it would match, I ordered a pretty denim skirt last night and now can hardly wait for it to come... I'm just so excited and can't wait for November to arrive! I can't imagine how excited Amanda must be now (and James too, of course!!!)

Babies and stars~

I spent my afternoon over at our neighbors' house babysitting. :) The mother needed to take one of the twins to Bismarck for a doctors appointment and asked that I watch their other 2 children--which I was happy to do!

Here is smiley Michael (7 months old)...

And here's energetic Amelia (2 years old)...

I took most of these pictures while Amelia was down for her nap, so that's why there's more of baby Michael than of her. Isn't he a darling? He only cried when I left the room to check on Amelia, and he fell asleep in my arms twice...

I tried getting a picture of us together by taking it in the big bathroom mirror, but that didn't work the best...

I get to watch these little ones again next week Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to that.

The best part of the day though, probably, was coming home to Mom and the boys working on cutting up apples--with a fry sausage and fresh potatoes cooking besides. :)

This evening, we all watched an amazing documentary that Andrew had bought for Dad and Mom (for their anniversary present.) It was called, "Star of Bethlehem". The movie was absolutely awe inspiring--to realize that God orchestrated the stars so long ago to make for this wonderful and significant display in the sky... My family and I would HIGHLY recommend this video to one and all!

We serve such an awesome God!!!