Above Rubies...

A dear friend at Family Camp asked me if I'd ever heard of/read "Above Rubies". When I replied in the negative, she said she highly recommended it to all women/young ladies. She had even gone and stayed a couple months to help with everything that needs doing in order to publish a magazine!

So, a few days back, I subscribed (I was very surprised to learn that there was no charge) and also ordered all the back issues that are still in print. I was very glad to see that the back-issues had arrived in the mail today, as I actually had some time for reading this afternoon. :) From what I've read and seen so far, I also would highly recommend this magazine to others! You can find out more at ABOVE RUBIES. I especially love all the pictures of families and reading about what the Lord has done in their lives....

It was indeed a peaceful day at home. We listened to one of Mr. Kevin Swansons' messages and sang several songs for our worship service today. In the later part of the afternoon, (after Mother napped, the guys did various things, and I played piano) all of us--except for Jacob--watched "Pamela's Prayer", which I had also ordered from the Above Rubies website. The movie's main message was very good, but we wondered at a couple of the scenes which didn't quite seem to fit with the moral of the story? Has anyone else ever watched this movie? If so, what did you think of it?

Day #22------

I am so thankful for beautiful, peaceful music, like this song:


...and this one:

...and these songs too!



"I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD."
~Psalms 40:1-3

It's a wonderful life!

Almost every year for as long as I can remember, my family and I have had the tradition of watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on this day/night of death and darkness. This year however, Dad and Andrew were not even home until a few minutes ago, so the rest of us watched the sweetened condensed version of our old favorite. (Be sure to skip the ad in the beginning if you watch it.)

Then we watched "Sergeant York" which is another wonderful old movie (starring Gary Cooper, who becomes a Christian in the film....). That movie can be viewed on YouTube, part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE!


Here are a few pictures from cattle moving day:
(Dad on a 4-wheeler...)
Mom drove the trailer to pick up a couple little calves that were born this Fall....

Andrew's on his dirt-bike in this picture, although it's a bit hard to see him on account of the bright sunshine!

Jacob was on his dirt-bike that day and I drove the other 4-wheeler.

If you look closely, you'll be able to see my other brother in the picture below! I took this photo this morning, when Jacob went out to check the fence to make sure it was still zapping...

Mother, Jacob and I got several things accomplished in the house today. Outside of schoolwork, we got another batch of apples done, and worked on switching our clothes around (Summer to Winter). I also baked a crumb cake so we'll have something sweet to put in the guys' lunch boxes again.

When Dad got home tonight, he informed us that he sold another 7 loads of hay today! What a blessing. He also got a call from somebody who may be interested in buying our Temvik house....

Have a wonderful November everyone! We are preparing for the boys' birthdays which are just around the corner. :)

The cows stayed in...

...and we were all home together for the whole day. It was so wonderful!

After sleeping in a bit this morning, Andrew and I did the chores while Dad went and checked cows. We all got cleaned up then and did various things until lunch time.

This afternoon, we sang several hymns, then watched "IndoctriNation"! It was fun to see "Wally" again (from "The Widow's Might"). Before watching that movie, I knew in my heart that I wanted to home educate my children (Lord willing and all that I marry and have some) someday, but after seeing the film, I was even more convinced that this is the only right thing to do! I feel so blessed to have been home schooled!!!!

After Mother took a quick nap and Dad checked cows again, we all played a 2+ hour long game of Agricola (a farming board game). I was so pleased to have tied for first with Andrew, as I've never even been close to winning before. :)

We ate a quick supper, then Mom and the boys headed out for evening chores while Dad showered and I played in my new piano book... This evening, we watched a John Wayne movie about moving cattle across the plains. I sure am thankful for modern transportation methods!

Before I go, I thought I'd share a neat idea I saw on my friend, Rachel P.s' blog recently. Visit HERE to find out how to make roses out of leaves....

Good night everyone and have a great new week!

Happy 31st wedding anniversary Dad & Mom!

May the Lord bless you both with many more years of happiness together!

Last night, Dad surprised Mom by meeting her in Bismarck when she got out of class for the day and then taking her out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, "The Ground Round". Today is their actual anniversary, but we celebrated last night as there's a lot going on today on the farm and elsewhere......

The boys did chores here at home last night and, when I got back at 7:45PM from babysitting the neighbor children, we hopped in my van and headed for Bismarck to meet our parents at the Grand movie theater. Mother was SO surprised, as she thought we were at home!!!

It was about 10:00 when the Sherwood Films' movie, COURAGEOUS began. :) It was SUCH a good movie---highly recommended, especially to the men/fathers of this world! We laughed and cried through many parts.....

We got to bed this morning at 2:00AM, but it was so worth the late night to have the experience of seeing an encouraging movie in a movie theater! I'll remember it always.~

Decluttering; decobwebbing; and blueberry muffins~

Friday is always our house cleaning day, and this was no exception. :) I got my room back in order (I still had a cake mess.......) and used "Old English" polish on my piano, making it look nearly new. While Mother worked on scrubbing pots and pans, I took our nice, multi-colored spiderweb remover brush and, well, did just that----removed spiderwebs that somehow have a way of building up when you aren't looking! Mother made blueberry muffins later in the day, while I swept and vacuumed the floor.

Meanwhile, the guys were having tractor troubles, again. Dad brought two loads of hay home and then he and my brothers worked together to get the 9030 (either a hose broke or an O-ring did, they're not sure yet) in the shop, which was a challenge, as they couldn't start it up, as it would pump oil out very quickly if they did. The guys had to then use the big red tractor (without a loader) to unload the semi-load of square bales. I'll let them tell you about that though.

Oh yes, one more adventure of the day was when Jacob had to pull our mailman's vehicle out, after he walked into our yard with the tidings that he got stuck! At least he had a tow-rope along. :)

It was a busy day and, after all the work was done, we watched a movie Andrew had picked up at the library. It was called, "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and was about a boy who turned out to be a champion chess player (at the age of 7), and the kinds of trials he went through, but how love (and talent, of course) conquered in the end..... It was a pretty good movie, not Christian but had good morals and the little boy, Josh, had great character.

And now I will leave you with a thought from my daily calendar, as I used to do:

"God's grace keeps pace with whatever we face."

"The Child"--a must see!

My family and I sat down and watched "The Child" today... My brother, Andrew, wrote about it on his blog tonight too, I see: CLICK HERE to see a trailer of "The Child". I'm hoping a viewing can be set up at the home school convention and/or the home school day at the capital coming up, and perhaps in some of our local churches as well, as the need for the Parental Rights Ammendment to our country's constitution is crucial... Without it, our freedoms, yours and mine, as (future, in my case) parents will be greatly limited---our freedom and the freedom of all those that come after us!

The time to act has come.

Please visit the Parental Rights website and learn about how you too can help protect the God given rights of parents: the right to pass on to our children our beliefs; the right to discipline them in love when they've done wrong; to educate them as we see fit; to have a say when it comes to their health care......

~Deuteronomy 11:19 (King James Version)

"And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. "

~Proverbs 1:8-9 (King James Version)

"My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. "


Our founding fathers must not have even been able to imagine that America would even ever get to the point of considering parents as inept at raising their own children, or they surely would have made up their own "Parental Rights Ammendment" so many years ago!

Seasons of the Heart~

We just finished watching a movie my mom found at a thrift store recently, and it was very good. It's the story of a little pioneer family and the heartache they go through and the peace they eventually find. It's actually a bit of a Christmas story, so is perfect for this time of year. And the little boy is so cute!

If you wish to watch "Seasons of the heart", just grab a blanket, some popcorn, and the tissue box and click below for the first part of the story. The rest may be found on You-Tube as well...

Spring, spring, spring!!!

I was planning to share this with you sometime soon, and then I saw that my friend, Miss Jen (Blessed Femina on my sidebar) shared a link to it on her blog just a little while ago and decided that I would share it now too... :)

I like to sing this cheerful tune at this time of year (actually at other times of the year too, but it's definitely most fitting now!) It's from one of my favorite musicals, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."

I'm looking forward to the time coming in the near future when our barnyard is busy--in a regular tizzy........

Slide show!

Yay--Andrew got these uploaded to You-Tube last night. :) (Thank you so much, Andrew!!!)

My family and I made this slide-show for my graduation, so the last pictures are almost 5 years old already... The time sure does fly by!

My sleepy Lady~

Here's a short video clip of my cute puppy:

I took this video a few nights ago and can't remember or make out what I said to Lady after I called her and she woke up? Hmmmmm.....

Seven children~

Reverend Mother: " There's seven children, Maria..."

Maria: "SEVEN!!!!"

Reverend Mother: "But Maria, you like children!"

Maria: "Yes, I know, but,----SEVEN!!"

Today, I had charge of seven children, age 5 and under--and all went well! :) The Daycare lady I help needed to go to town all day with her husband for doctors' appointments and asked me to come care for the children. We had a great time, reading; playing games; doing puzzles; eating; napping (they did, not I); singing; and just living.

Here I am with 2 of the little girls--Jada in pink and Lily--who's trying to get me to stand up and swing her around again: (A 4 year old boy took this picture and I thought he did a pretty good job...)

I thought I'd mention that my family and I weren't able to go to the movie (No Greater Love) after all, as the pastor's wife called us and told us they had to postpone it, due to getting 7 inches of snow the day before and not being able to get in the little town of Alfred. We were disappointed, but then spent the day together watching the Olympics, so that was really neat. I hope we're still able to see the movie when they play it, but until then, I guess I can't give you my opinion on it. :)

Be blessed and have a good rest,

~Cora

Have you watched "No Greater Love?"

Today we received an invitation in the mail to join some friends at the Alfred, ND Church of God 7th Day to watch the movie, "No Greater Love" on Valentines Day. I've heard some good reports about the movie already and am now just wondering if anyone who reads my blog has watched it and what your opinion of the movie was? Also, if any of you (for whom it would be feasible) want to attend the movie viewing, everyone is welcome. The movie starts at 2:00PM, this Sunday. There is no admission fee and there's popcorn being served. I'm hoping we'll be able to go!

My dad is still on the road now (and probably will be for another hour or so), but thankfully the roads are pretty good and it's stopped snowing. :)

Mother went to Bismarck for the whole day, so I got to play the part of substitute teacher (which isn't too difficult, as Jacob can do a lot of his lessons on his own these days.)

Andrew worked on the grain cleaner some more and Jacob helped him some later in the day. A man (a friend of the man Andrew bought the cleaner from) came today to deliver the 3 augers that were promised to Andrew, so that was helpful...

I mixed up a batch of bread and used some of the dough to make a pizza crust; a pan of caramel rolls; fry bread to go with our vegetable soup; plus I had enough dough left over to make 4 loaves of bread.

It was a good day and will be made even better when Dad gets home (Lord willing) in an hour!

Out with the old and in with the new...

Well, my calves from last spring are all sold now. Jacob and I headed into town around 4:00 to see if they'd been sold yet and to watch the sale if they weren't yet. When we went into the main office and asked the lady there if "Cora Bornemanns" calves had been sold yet, she said, "Hmmm... I thought I saw a name like that come through here... Let me check."
She dug through some files and then pulled out a piece of paper that had a check attached to the bottom of it.
"Here it is." She handed the page to me.
"Oh, thank you!" I looked at the paper with baited breath--to see if the sum was enough to cover my operating loan payment that's due on Tuesday... Yes, it was enough--and then some. I'm praising the Lord so very much tonight!!!

So, that was the "Out with the old" part...

The "In with the new" came to me in a loader bucket this morning--a new black bull calf from one of my cows! He needed some warming up and, later, when we took him back out to his mommy, she was obviously not going to take care of him, so he ended up back in the barn and I bottle fed him his supper. Hopefully tomorrow we can get Mrs. Trouble in one of the barns and then hopefully she'll still remember her baby...

Enough cow talk for now though...

I heard a beautiful song on the radio when I was making supper and later looked it up on You-Tube. I'd like to share it with you now, if you have a few moments.~

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run,
and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint."

Isaiah 40:31

A peaceful day~

As the roads were slippery and there was a good chance of a blizzard this afternoon, we spent a lovely day at home together:

• singing hymns;
• reading in the book we're studying together;
• dining;
• and watching the newest version (which is now my favorite version!) of Emma...

Emma makes so much trouble for herself, but how delightful it is when everything comes out right in the end. :)

I am reminded now of the verse in the Bible where it says:

"...We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
~Romans 8:28

~One of my favorite Marty Goetz songs~

Are you living the good life too? :)

~I just found this video

and thought it would be a nice one to share with you all.

(minus the part about the wine...)

It's very late...

...so this will be extremely short.

My family and I just finished watching "Pride and Prejudice" for the very first time! My mother had thought it was a movie quite different from how it turned out to be, so we had avoided it all this time until a neighbor said she thought we'd really like it...

We enjoyed it (what a happy ending--a double wedding!), although I felt so very sorry for that poor Mr. Bennet--to have to live with that wife of his (she reminded me so much of the woman described in Proverbs 27:15!)

With the Lords' help, may we ladies all have wisdom in the things we say and do each day, and may those who live with us not have to suffer because of our foolishness and lack of responsibility!

A friends' entry in the film festival...

As today was a usual day on the farm (even the fact that it's snowing again has begun to feel usual), I thought I'd share a video that a friend of mine and her family made recently. I realize it's a little past the holiday season now, but I really want to share this with you all anyway!

This is how Hannah explains their entry on her blog:

"...we entered a video for the ChristianFilmmakers.org 12-hour contest. That's right - we had to film, edit, and download the whole thing in just 12 hours. You might think that's pretty easy (since it IS only a 1 minute movie!!) but when you have a time crunch of only a few hours when everybody is available . . . it can get pretty hectic!"

Enjoy and, ah, "Happy winter!"

An attentiveness test...

I've been saving this video to share with you on a day when I lacked other things to blog about and, seeing as this seems like one of those days, I'll share the link with you now. :)

You are only supposed to watch this video once. Seriously, just once! Then come back here for further directions.

In the video you will see a group of basketball players, some in white and some in black passing two balls around. Your goal is to count how many times the ball is passed by those wearing white shirts. It‘s that simple. Remember, count just the passes of the ball by those wearing white. Once the movie is over, write down the number of passes you have counted.


Watch the movie HERE before proceeding any further--unless you wish to know what's so interesting about the test before you've taken it (in other words, if you want to ruin it!)....




....Did you watch it yet?





....How many passes did you count?







....OK, good...





Now let me ask you something: Did you notice some kind of a critter walking across the screen while the players were tossing the ball around? A mouse maybe, or perhaps a gorilla?




Hmmm... Maybe you'd like to go watch the movie over again.....






I, for one, did not notice anything the first time I watched this, and most of the friends we've shared this with have not either--so don't feel bad! It's just interesting to see how easily we can be deceived by having our attention drawn to other areas, isn't it?

May God help us to be wise!!!!