So tired...again...

Tonight, myself and the 3 other CNAs I worked with got a complete workout, meaning we were literally busy until the very last minute of our time there.

It feels so good to be back home again, in my own little room. What a blessing it is to be able to brush my own teeth... What a blessing it is to be able to hop into bed, without needing assistance from another individual... What a blessing it is to be able to pull the pillow down under my head a little more if desired, instead of having to push a button that will summon someone else to do it for me... What a blessing it is to be able to sleep a full nights sleep! These are blessings I'd never thought about before I began work at the nursing home, but for which I am now exceedingly grateful!!!

And now, I'm going to enjoy the blessing of a comfortable bed to sleep in (yes, comfortable, even though it doesn't adjust up and down, tilt, slant, and etc...) :)

~Good night~

Oh to be a child again...

My parents and brothers worked out in the fields today and I was pleased that I was able to stay home and get some work done here!

I washed and dried a bunch of dishes and canning jars; made tomato soup and canned it; then made cottage cheese and 2 flavors of ice cream. I was beginning cutting up tomatoes for another batch of soup when I heard from my family that I may be alone for evening chores and decided to go get them done with while it was yet light out. Sally tolerated my singing pretty well this time as I squirt out her 3 gallons of healthy, raw cow's milk. Then I headed down to feed her calf, Laura her 1 1/2 bottles worth of nutrition. I had just begun milking the 6 goats when my family got home and the boys came out and threw hay and did the water for the animals.

We just now finished supper and family prayer, and various members of my family have gone to bed while others are talking on the phone; reading Muscle car books that came home from the library yesterday; one is installing Windows again on a laptop; and another is posting on a blog. :)

I received the following piece of humor/reality in my inbox the other day and, after editing it a bit, would like to share it with you now... Sometimes I do miss being a child, but at others times it's really nice to be an adult!


~Oh, to Be a Child Again ~

Decisions were made by saying "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."

Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in
"Monopoly."

Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening.

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.

Being old referred to anyone over 20.

Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.

It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big
people" rides at the amusement park.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down would cause
giggles.

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a
motorcycle.

Ice cream was considered a basic food group. (Actually, we eat more ice cream now that we make it ourselves than we ever did before!)

Building a storage shed....

Wellllll,

I did get the pictures loaded on this post this morning, but that's as far as I got, as you may have noticed! See, after helping with morning chores, I helped Dad and Andrew clean out a grain bin. Then, I came in the house and mixed up a batch of bread and then made some of that into a pizza for our noon meal. Meanwhile, I baked a crumb cake for dessert. Then I did some laundry and by that time, it was time to eat, do some dishes, and get ready to go to work in town. And now I'm back again, with tired feet...

Anyway, the pictures I have to share are of the progress that's been made on the large storage shed we're building by our garden.

Getting every thing measured and cut correctly takes the longest...
We started on this building 3 years (I think) ago and just work on it as we have time...

...

As long as I was out taking pictures that day, I decided to get some of my growing chickies too... The 10 of them are all doing so well and have started their flying lessons now: (The box is for them to huddle in on cold nights...)

I also got a picture of one of my favorite flowers, Johnny Jump-Ups:

(Those flowers are right in front of the house here so we get to see them often!)

But, let's get back to the building... On Sunday, the guys built part of the middle wall for our shed.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

Mother took a break from picking tomatoes and digging potatoes to help lift up and hold onto the wall while Dad got it nailed and braced into place...

I was helping also--and Lady was too, of course...

"There! Now it's not going anywhere."

It will be so nice to have a shed to store things in!!! The guys plan to clean out their shop once the building's done so that they're able to get vehicles in the shop to work on them...

And that's what's new around here.

May God be with you 'til we meet again (and after that too!)

I had hopes...

...of posting a picture-full post tonight, but I just got home from town and am too tired to post much now. I'll try to get it done in the morning, after Mom and Jacob head for Bismarck for a full day of appointments (and sessions for Mother to do on clients.) Maybe my dad and Andrew will be able to work some more on the big storage shed we're building?........

~2010 Harvest of Thanks~

As I mentioned last night, we had a wonderful time of fellowship at the Alfred church yesterday! The church was packed with people from far and near...

But, before I share pictures at the church, I have a few from on the drive over there (it takes us about an hour to get to Alfred from our farm).

Our very experienced driver:
A practicing banjoist: (Andrew played a special in the afternoon.)

AND, we had a hair stylist along... :)

Oh yes, there was also a photographer along, but as she was the one taking the pictures, alas, there are none of her to post!

Here's a picture of the Alfred COG7 (Church of God, 7th day) pastor, Pastor Kyner... We have been very blessed by his friendship over the last few years!

Mother and Andrew joined the choir in singing, "Crimson Stream"... (I have several videos I'd like to post also, but I tried uploading them today and it was literally taking hours to load and then up popped an error message. Perhaps another time it will work?)

Pastor Overman was the guest speaker and he spoke on redemption, resurrection, and reconciliation...

Then there was a large feast for everyone to enjoy!

Around 2:00 in the afternoon, there was a special music program where anyone could share a song or reading... These cuties put smiles on everyones faces with their eagerness to sing! I hope I'm able to post the video I got of their song, as it was so adorable. :)

I didn't get many pictures of people singing, as I was using my camera to tape them instead! My family sang the hymn, "And Can it Be?" and Mother sang "You're the only Jesus".

The program lasted for approx. 2 hours, and then there was a mini jam-session up front, which Andrew participated in...

After the music was over, many people headed out of doors, as it proved to be a lovely day weather-wise. PTL! Mom found a lady to walk with (and not a strolling kind of walk, but a walking kind of walk!) and then asked Monica S. (whom I was visiting with at the time) and I if we wanted to come along too. We agreed to, but followed behind Mother and her new walking friend a ways, as we were in more of a strolling mood than a fast-paced walking one. :) We all stopped when we came to this friendly fellow though!

I edited this picture a bit (the sky was really blue and not pink when we were walking, but I thought it looked neat this way...)

When we returned from our walk, the food was once again set out for everyone to eat, if they were so inclined, (which most of us were, even though I can't imagine that any of us were very hungry.)

Then, the boys headed outside to play ball and the girls helped clean up the kitchen and visited. That evening, there was a fun night over at the old school house where you could play games, eat popcorn, or just relax by the campfire outside and visit or sing. My brothers were over there for some time while my parents visited and I babysat a busy toddler so my mom could visit with his mother easier. He and I played songs together for a while (have you ever played piano duets with a little boy?) and just tried hard to stay out of trouble (basically, keep him away from the candy dish...)

Later on, I went over to the schoolhouse to see what was going on there and, it just so happened that, as I went in the front door of the building, my brothers were just leaving the same building by use of the side-door, so we did not see each other. They walked over to the church to find the rest of us, to see if we were ready to head for home.

Meanwhile, upon not finding my brothers in the school, I visited for a while with my friend Whitney until she had to go out the front door to help her brother with something. I proceeded to exit the building by way of the side door and headed over to the campfire, thinking my brothers must be there.

Then, I heard Whitney say to someone, "Oh, she was looking for you!"

When I turned around and looked, there were my brothers, coming in search of me. :) At last we were together at the same time in the same place! We said goodbye to friends, and gave more than a couple hugs, then walked over to the church, where we found our parents nearly ready to leave. It was 8:30PM and high time to be heading home.

We finished chores at 10:00, and I guess I told you the rest of the story last night, didn't I?

It was a special day!

It's so wonderful to spend wonderful time with wonderful friends on a wonderful day in a wonderful state.... It's a wonderful life!

A delightful day!!!

What with a great sermon; a tasty feast; lots of music; and friends to visit with, I guess you could say it would be hard to not have had a great day. :) Mother and I took lots of pictures but, as we got home late and did our chores, then ate home-made ice cream and talked about the day, then prayed, I'm now ready for bed and will leave picture-posting for another day......

Fellowship~

Tomorrow morning we're heading over to the Alfred church for sweet fellowship at the Harvest of Thanks celebration. Hooray!

We spent part of our day getting ready for tomorrow--mainly getting the song Mother's going to sing onto a CD so she has the background music along, and getting everyone's clothes pressed.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of getting the house cleaned; canning tomato soup; and getting a feast prepared (including homemade ice cream and freshly made cottage cheese), we had visitors! The K. family stopped in to pick up a Kombucha mushroom, as they had stopped making Kombucha tea for a while and now wish to get back to it. Dad got home from grain cleaning just in time to visit with them too for about an hour. I spent most of my time with the 3 young K. children, petting Millie; washing off mud from little hands and feet that couldn't resist splashing in a mud puddle; and bouncing on the trampoline. Oh yes, we played "Duck, duck, doose" (as little Edmund calls it) too! :)

Well, I need to post this and get some beauty sleep, (as Mother calls it)...

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Check out Andrew's blog...

...for yet another surprise that I haven't told you about yet...

Oh yes, and as it's late and I just got home from working in town, I'm tired and so will just point you in Andrew's blog's direction for an update on what happened here at home on this rainy day:
http://andrewbornemann.blogspot.com/.



Good night, sleep tight~

Pictures, and tasty home-made tomato soup...

When I uploaded pictures onto my computer just now, I realized I had one (or more) of each of us younger Bornemanns, so I decided to post them here...

Jacob Austin (14), getting ready to beat me in another round of Dutch Blitz. :)
Andrew Robert (19), in need of a hair cut...

...and once again, Andrew Robert, with a much lighter head after I gave him a hair-cut. :)

And Cora Beth, playing princess... (All of the CNAs got thin-cardboard "Crowns" yesterday at work, as a token of appreciation for all we do to care for the residents--and then we were supposed to wear them all day. I took mine off after supper, as I kept on almost losing it while doing cares.)

And now!

Here is the promised,

~TOMATO SOUP RECIPE~
(Thank you for sharing it with us, Mrs. D!)

3 ice cream pails of tomatoes or 1/2 bushel
1 bunch of celery
2 large onions
10 sprigs of parsley

Skin tomatoes then cut in fourths. Chop the rest into bite sized pieces. Put all in very large kettle and cook until tender.

Run through a blender and strain out strings and some seeds.

Bring to a good boil then mix in:

1/2 cup salt
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp soda

Add 1 lb of butter melted with 1 cup of flour.

Mix together and cook 10 minutes. Place in hot jars. Process in hot water bath 10 minutes.

Makes 8 quarts.

When I cook this soup to eat, I add equal amounts of milk or water with powdered creamer. Try not to let it boil if you add milk.

~Enjoy!

Tomato soup recipe coming soon!

This morning, I worked on making a large batch of tomato soup to can. We got the recipe from a friend and I made a little batch to try and we really enjoyed it, so we're making a bunch now. :) I'll try to get the recipe posted here tomorrow.....

My brothers and I did something this morning that we haven't done in a looooooong time--that being: we separated cow's milk with our cream separator and got 3 1/2 quarts of cream. Yummy! When I got home from work tonight, I noticed that the guys had had pancakes again for supper (Andrew had mixed up a batch two nights ago when they all got home late from working in the fields and I was still in town working) and I told Dad that I was kind of surprised they had them again. He explained that now they had cream to whip to put on top of them, so they didn't mind. :)

I went into town early today to stop in at a former, elderly cake-makers (and bakery owner's) house to look at her cake making equipment that's for sale. She has a HUGE Hobart mixer on a stand; (I didn't have my camera along, but it's similar to this one:) a nice scale for measuring ingredients; (again, just similar to this one:) an air-brush; a large collection of pans; a bunch of cookie cutters; quite a few different colors of dies; hundred of tips for decorating with; lots of wedding cake supplies (beads, steps, pillars, fountains, decorations...); a handy cart; cake decorating books; cake boards; and a big machine that shines the design you choose--which she has hundreds of and which you can use your own designs (by the use of lights and mirrors--done in a dark room) onto the cake so you can trace around it with frosting. (Again, just something like this:) It was really fun to visit with Mary and I was so busy looking through her cake-photo albums that I was nearly late for work...just nearly, not quite! Now I just need to decide if this would be a wise investment or not--depending on how many cakes I want to make and sell..... The mixer would be really handy for other things too, like baking bread for instance. Hmmmmmm. What to do? I guess I'll have to give this one some prayer and thought!

And can it be...

...that it is once again the time of year to clean off the garden? But, it is! Mother, Jacob and I picked all our ripe tomatoes; peppers; onions and some more apples and brought them in the house.

And, can it be...

...that it is nearly Autumn? Where has the Summer gone to? The leaves are turning colors already in preparation for Fall...

And, can it be...

...that it is nearly time for the Alfred Church's annual Harvest of Thanks? Well, it is! This coming Sabbath we'll be heading East to celebrate God's blessings with our friends in Alfred. :)

And, can it be...

...that we will be singing "And Can it Be?" as a family for the afternoon music service at the Harvest of Thanks gathering?

We'll see if we have time enough to practice sufficiently before then! If you'd like to join us in Alfred this Saturday, you'd be more than welcome. Visit:

http://www.churchofgodalfred.com/index.php?p=1_5_Upcoming-Events for more info and directions to the church....

Please Lord, help it not to rain....

My family (minus me--who was in town working until just a few minutes ago) was able to get a lot of work done in the fields this afternoon thankfully!!! However, it's supposed to be a cold, rainy week once again and we (and the farmers all around us) really need some dry weather so as to be able to get the harvest in.

Would you please join us in praying for some sunshine? Thanks a bunch!

The 23rd Psalm...

A friend shared this with me the other day and I knew then that it was something I wished to post on my blog to share with you all.....

Listen to Clara Beth recite Psalm 23:

(This is what I would like my daughter to be like someday! Isn't she so adorable? :) )

And yet one MORE suprise!

It snowed this evening!!! The snow melted as soon as it touched the ground, but if one looked out the window at the yard light (without looking at the ground), one could imagine it was winter time.

How strange...

Another surprise!

I woke up this morning to the sound of Andrew telling Mother that he was going to go out and milk. That sounded unusual to me, as it's usually Mom, Jacob and/or I doing the goat milking... As I listened further, I heard Mom say, "Have you told Cora yet?"
Andrew: "Not yet."

Ahhh Hah! Sally had had her baby!!!!!!!!!

Apparently, Andrew had heard her mooing softly last night and wondered if she had calved. Upon further investigation, he found a several-day-old calf by her side. :) I guess with all that's been going on here, nobod's been checking on her daily...

Andrew headed out to the pasture on the 4-wheeler to get her in the barn lot and I slipped on a jacket and went out to help get her in the barn. It's been about 3 months since we dried her up and I knew she'd be a little stubborn. (Can you see Andrew in this picture?)

When we finally did get mother and baby in the barn, said mother was a bit nervous and left a mess to clean up later...

At last, we got Sally to go in her stall and then Andrew milked her (we're doing it by hand these days) while I held the smelly tail so Andrew could maintain a clean face!
As the milk got dirty in all the excitement, the cats were more than happy this morning! We locked the calf up now, so hopefully we'll be able to save a bunch of milk tonight--just in time for Sabbath.

I took this picture of my sleepy Lady a few days ago: :)

The following pictures too are a few days old, from when I made our first batch (for the year) of Freezer Tomato Sauce.

Fresh garden produce:

+Juicy tomatoes!

Now I'd best get back to work. There's so much to do today!

Surprises are fun!

(Sorry about no post yesterday either, but once again, Blogger would not let me get on my blog!)

I just got home from working in town again (4 nights in a row) and I am "Futsch" (which, I learned tonight from one of the residents, means finished, done, had it.... in German) for the week!!!

RANDOM FACT: I found out tonight that the 2 coworkers I was working with this evening both have daughters who are 23 years old (my age). :)

About my title... My brothers and I are arranging a surprise vacation for our parents' 30th wedding anniversary that's coming up in October. (Don't worry. They already know that much, so they can read this! They're even helping to pay for the trip, but they don't know where they're going to...) It's been so much fun making plans and changing plans and remaking plans and booking and scheduling and.............. I can hardly wait for October 10th to come! Actually, I can hardly wait for the 17th, when they get home with stories to tell and pictures to see!

Well, I need to get some sleep. I think tomorrow has farming on the menu for us all--as long as it doesn't rain or snow...

I just got back to home sweet home...

...and am so tired, very tired.

I think that will explain the lack of a long post tonight...?!

At last...and alas...

I've been having trouble getting onto my blog these last few days and, now that I've gotten on, I can't think of what to post....

Hmmm... I guess there are a few things to share:

Sabbath was a peaceful, restful day at home...

Everyone here is praying for sunny days so the farmers can get the harvest in. I don't ever remember such a wet year!

Mom and I are working on getting apples and tomatoes put up for Winter.

The boys helped out at the Braddock Threshing Bee these last 2 days.

Dad's out grain cleaning.

Our calves were out this morning, so Andrew got them in again, but I got delegated to fix the fence, as he and Jacob needed to head out to the fields.

The Hubbard squash are getting really big!

I'm down to 1 turkey poult, but the 6 older chickens (I raised this spring) are doing well and the 10 baby chickies are all doing well. I'm thinking there maybe is not enough of something in the feed I mix for the chicks to sustain the turkeys? (A mixture of wheat, oatmeal, Azure popcorn, field peas, and salt--all ground together--plus some free-choice grit.)

It is really feeling like Fall these days!

I need to get ready to head to town again for 8 1/2 hours.

That's about all that's new!

The boys room--then and now...

Yesterday morning:
This morning:

(Oh, just in case you're curious... Andrew got all 6 pieces of that nice, heavy desk/bookshelf set for a total of $40!) :)

It was a "Seeing-old-friends" day!

*Note. I did intend to post yesterday morning, but I went to work in town earlier than usual to help a friend out, so I had less time to do things around here and decided to wait until yesterday evening--at which time, the Internet was not allowing me to post on my blog!*

This was a good day...

First thing this morning, Dad went to Bismarck and bought truck parts.

Meanwhile, chores got done at home here and Mother, the boys and I piled in the van and headed for Dawson to pick up our (and the K. family's) Azure Standard order. When there, we were surprised to get to see an old friend, Donna, and got to visit for a while with her. Also, there was Carmen to visit with, (and we got to see her relatively new baby girl), so we didn't get out of there for a while. On the way home, Mother dropped we 3 younger people off at a friend's (Isabelle's) farm auction sale. (We've known Isabelle, and her now late husband for about 6 years--and they were the ones we'd bought our first milk cows from--and whom we got our pipeline milking system from.)

Annnnyway, Mother headed home, as Sarah K. was coming to our place to pick up her Azure order, but as I said before, the rest of us stayed at Isabelle's and helped her and her son get household items out of the garage so they could be sold. Dad came later when he was done in Bismarck, and then stayed for most of the afternoon.

Andrew especially found several items of interest to purchase, and Dad found a few as well--mainly: some open pollinated Indian corn seed; a cream separator that's in better shape than ours; and three boxes of tools, wire brushes, and etc....

The boys, loading up the truck:
We saw several people we knew there--neighbors, old friends from the Linton church we used to attend, homeschooling friends, and Dad talked with a guy he knew from Eureka...., but I think the most surprising friend there was Marty---the Marty my dad grew up with near Center, ND. We were surprised he'd come all that way for an auction sale, and he was surprised to see us there, as for some reason, he'd thought we lived near Kulm instead of Kintyre. :)

Here are the two old friends, catching up on what's gone on in the last few years.....

Andrews bulkiest purchase, by far, was this corner desk set! He got it for a REALLY low price, SO, we spent a portion of our afternoon cleaning out the boy's room and getting 5 of these 6 pieces inside it!!! I took before and after pictures of their room, but those pictures are still on my camera, so they'll have to wait to get posted 'til another time....

Our fellas--formulating a plan...

That was our day--outside of getting the house cleaned; killing about 50 flies that got in the house while the furniture moving was happening; and my sortof success with a new experimental homemade no-bake cheesecake. :)

OH! About the mystery picture.... Thank you so much to those of you who guessed!

"It" was:

A foam pillow that has magnets attached to it for supposed health benefits. My mom bought the pillow and a matching mattress at her mom's auction sale, but then heard something about them not being so healthy for you as she'd originally heard, so.... Hmmmmm.... Andrew took the pillow out of the case to see what the pillow looked like and, Taa Daaaaa--where he saw a bunch of cool magnets, I was seeing a great mystery picture!

Thanks again for guessing.

Have a peaceful and restful Sabbath/Saturday. ~

Our tree(s)...

~By Marchette Chute

When spring comes round, our apple tree is very full of flowers,
And when a bird sits on a branch the petals fall in showers.

When summer comes round, our apple tree is very full of green,
And everywhere you look in it there is a leafy screen.

When autumn comes round, our apple tree is full of things to eat
And apples hang from every branch to tumble at our feet.

When winter comes round, our apple tree is full of snow and ice,
And rabbits come to visit it...
We think our tree is nice.


We are still working on apples, apples and more apples! I'm glad apples smell delicous.

Goose weather...

It rained and poured yesterday, amounting to nearly 2 1/2 inches! Our geese loved it and were out splashing (they're pictured below in the driveway) the whole afternoon:


This morning I picked some of my Indian corn. It's so amazing to see the many different shades of reds, yellows, creams and so on--all in the same cob sometimes!
Now to do some decorating.....

This is by far the queerest cob I picked--starting as one cob on the bottom and then splitting into two cobs toward the top!

Oh yes, and I have a mystery picture for you!!! This might be really easy, I'm not sure...

Can you guess what the following picture is of (or, more specifically, what the black things are and what they're for?)
Happy guessing~

Hebrew Lesson...

Does the Bible teach that children should be responsible and have a good work ethic?

Let's have a look and see.....

At the Henry Street Hebrew School, the rabbi finished the
day's lesson. It was now time for the usual question period.

"Rabbi," asked little Melvin, "there's something I need to
know."

"What's that, my child?" asked the rabbi.

"Well, according to the Scriptures, the Children of Israel
crossed the Red Sea, right?"

"Right."

"And the Children of Israel beat up the Philistines, right?"

"Uh--right."

"And the Children of Israel built the Temple, right?"

"Again you are correct."

"And the Children of Israel fought the Egyptians, and the
Children of Israel fought the Romans, and the Children of
Israel were always doing something important, right?"

"All that is correct," agreed the rabbi. "So what's your
question?"

"What I need to know is this," demanded Melvin. "What were
all the grown-ups doing?"

I guess it does. :)

Patty Pan--at last!

You may or may not remember that last year (and the year before that), I had tried growing Patty Pan squash, only to end up with another kind of squash on my vines. Well, this year I tried once more----and the results:

Finally! Fluted squash--and they're not only pretty, but tasty too. :)

Oh, and a couple days ago, Andrew found another chick for my collection!

On the farm-front:

Dad and Andrew got the durum all combined yesterday (an abundant crop--PTL!) just in time, as it's raining again today. Mother and Jacob brought equipment home from Fern's land and then Mom disced and now Andrew's finishing the discing and Dad's trying to get the cover crop planted before it gets too wet out there. Gotta do lots of work today.... It's Labor day, after all. :)

It's a wonderful life~