The first real blizzard of the Winter!

There is a storm raging outside, even as I type. We were all very glad to hear that Andrew and the young men he went with (the head ND Ron Paul guys) decided to stay in Dickinson tonight to wait out the storm! They hope to be in Grand Forks tomorrow evening for another endorsing convention there. I'm not sure if Andrew will go along to that one or not? First, they'll have to see if the roads are even passable in the morning!

We spent a quite day at home. I'm so glad I do not need to work in town tomorrow, as there is talk of the storm continuing.............

We sang this hymn this morning and I thought it was a most fitting one for this day.



I praise the Lord for how He has kept us safe through the storms of life!

We're Republicans---officially. :)

This evening, my parents, Andrew and I attended our districts' (Republican) reorganization meeting in Linton. It was run well and we learned several things, having never participated in such a meeting before.

One of my FaceBook friends shared the following video recently and I thought it was full of good thing to think about for us professing Christians in this critical decision making time:



Let me know what you think!

Quick frog!

If you know me well, you'll know that I really like frogs! (My grandma obviously knows me quite well, as one of my Christmas presents this year was an adorable, bright green tree frog figurine.) :)

Well, when I saw this video yesterday, I loved it and wanted to share it with anyone who reads my blog who might like a laugh too....


This was a pleasant, usual sort of day. Mother had 5 clients here throughout the day; the guys worked outside/in the shop; and I went to work at the nursing home. I'm pretty tired tonight, so will say good night now. "Good night!"~

Things we say wrong....

A labor-full day...

Yes, we spent this holiday laboring. :)

The guys worked on hay and combined a bit of the wheat. Mother and I made more apple sauce and juice; cleaned the front refrigerator thoroughly (and then washed a bunch of jars); we did a LOT of laundry; and Mother did 3 health sessions, 1 of them being in person. We also made another batch of our new favorite dessert, called "Baked apples with walnut chunks". We laughed at the originality of this recipe's title, but the resulting product is quite out of the ordinary! If anyone would like, I'd be happy to share it (the recipe). :)

Here are 3 great songs that are arranged/sung by the Maranatha Singers... Be blessed.~




My dear friend, Dorena taught me this one:

And now, for one fun thing before I go.
See if you can make any sense out of this:

‎7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4 LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C34R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15. R3 P057 1F U C4N R35D 7H15..

Good night~

It was a lovely day~

Peaceful, quite, restful and fun..... That's how our day was.

I had time to play piano for quite a while this morning and also looked up some of my favorite songs on-line. I decided to share the following one with you all, as it is lovely and inspiring! May we all be His servants each day!

Aren't you glad you're you?

We watched "Bells of St. Mary's" last night and I thought this song was so cute! After all, aren't you glad you're you?

We had a peaceful, restful day.

This is one of the hymns Mom played on the piano and that we sang this afternoon as a family. We are blessed to have had Mom teach us to sing parts (and Dad has sung in choirs before too), so, even though we don't sound as grand as this choir, we do hear the harmony of notes blending together as we sing to the Lord above....

Be blessed as you go where He wants you to go!

Misc...

We had a very much needed delightful and restful day today.

Outside of playing the game I'd bought a couple days ago, and watching a movie we got at the thrift store a couple weeks back, we also read from the story of John Birches' life; sang hymns in the living room; I worked on my dress for a while (it's still not finished, but I'll get it done in time!); we dressed up our puppets for some Bible scenes they'll be reenacting at Prairie Days; I talked to Mrs. Dagley and Hannah D. about P.D. plans and updated the website--probably the last time before the actual event; Andrew and I dug out some of our unusual instruments to take along and enter in the "Instrument Petting Zoo"; Mom found one of my dresses that she likes and will wear to Prairie Days; and now I just uploaded the pictures that were on my camera from this week and thought I'd post them here tonight.

This is from a few days back, when the guys helped me with the big black plastic project...
Done! Now to just get it all planted.... It's been so wet lately, which we're really not complaining about, as the crops need the moisture. I'm just so thankful that we have a greenhouse so I/we don't feel so terribly behind. Did I mention that we've had a lettuce salad already and that the peas are blooming?

Here is proof that you just never know what you'll see when you look out your front window:

This next picture is pretty dark, but if you look closely, you'll be able to see what our Friday, "Clean-up the living room" task would entail...

Our dear former neighbor and friend, Gladys was back "Home" a couple days ago with her daughters to start on the long task of cleaning out her house. Her husband passed away last year, shortly after she'd had a fall, at which time they needed to move closer to family in Fargo. Now she's going to sell her place, so was going through things and gave us a bunch of her (and her husbands') clothing to go through.

While digging through the bags, we discovered this cute porcelain prairie doll! We're contemplating taking it to Prairie Days to decorate a table with or something, but as she is delicate, she may be staying home....

Our jolly good fellows had fun going through the box FULL of hats! Andrew tried on a few for size, or was it for laughs?

I did not post last night (did anyone notice? :) ) as my computer was still hooked up to the projector and everything after we watched an old-time movie, and by the time I discovered it was so, I was already ready for bed and quite tired, so I just hopped in. It was amazing how refreshed I felt at 7:00 this morning! I think I'll get right to bed now, even though it's too late to be early.

I wanted to thank you all for your thoughtful comments on my last post. I'll be going to work in town again tomorrow and will find out then if that resident has passed away yet or not. I'm not really looking forward to going... This is the 11th resident death that's happened in the 1+ year that I've worked there. So far, the Lord has been merciful and I have not had to actually see someone pass away, for which I am very grateful..... I imagine it will happen one day though, if God still has work for me to do there.

So as not to leave you on a sad note though, I'll share the link to the Prairie Days website once more: (again, for the last time before the event ;) )

www.wix.com/prairiedays/2011

...and will also share a fun song:

~Enjoy it in this, nearly, good old Summer time!

~God Leads His Dear Children Along~

I like the many pictures on this version:



But I prefer the singing on this video: Either way, this hymn is such a blessing to me and I hope it will be to you also!

A giveaway--and choir music...

I wanted to let my readers know of a blog giveaway that a relatively new friend of mine is doing over at her blog, "Girlish Musings". She is giving away a very cute apron that she sewed--an apron with a beautiful bow! You can visit her blog HERE and enter for a chance to win, but you'll have to hurry, as the drawing ends in just a couple days...

A package came in the mail today, a package containing music for 2 songs that are going to be sung by home school students/young adults at the home school convention in March. Andrew will be the only young person in our family who's able to participate, as he and my mom are planning to leave a day earlier than the rest of us to take in the events of Thursday, and then he'll be able to practice with the other members of the choir. I saw this cute video of a song my brothers and I grew up listening to on "WeKids", and as it also has something to do with a choir, I thought I'd post it here...

On second thought, HERE is a link to the song, seeing as my computer won't let me post it for some reason.

My dad drove over to our hayfields by Hazelton to get a sample of our Organic alfalfa hay this afternoon. He will mail the samples to a place where they test the quality of hay, then we will know what we have to work with. My dad has talked to a potential buyer already, an Amish man whom another Organic farmer friend of ours recommended. How exciting this will be if it all works out---our dream of selling Organic hay will finally come true!

Dad has also talked to buyers for grains and has sold some of our corn and wheat recently. Our goal is to sell directly to consumers, but until we are all set up and have enough people buying from us, we need to sell our grains to the "Middle men".......

I have more I could write, but it's getting late and I must get up earlier than usual to milk the goats tomorrow morning, as we have plans for an outing tomorrow. :)

I'm so tiny....

For part of our home-church service today, we watched one of the "Wonders of God's Creation" DVDs---the one about all the stars, planets, and galaxies and, while watching, it made me realize how teeny tiny we really are here on this great earth we know as our big world.

How wonderful it is that the creator of all this immense beauty and splendor is wanting to call us His children!!!




Psalm 8: 3-9~

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! "

Life...

Thankfully, Mother's feeling better tonight and nobody else is feeling iffy, so hopefully that's the end of that!

The guys had a bad tractor day again today, so I was told, so their day was about the same as yesterday.

I baked bread before heading to work today (and it rose nicely!) and then, at the end of the day, one of my coworkers gave me a bag of nice dresses (mostly denim) that she got from her mom when they cleaned out her closet, so I had a good day. :)

In closing, I thought I'd share here the song that my mom's been asked to sing at her dear friend, Elizabeths' daughters' wedding this Sunday. It's called, "1,000 miles". Enjoy~

What makes 101%?

Another blessing from a friend... This is great!

How to sing...

I just found this video, via a friends' blog, and it seems most fitting to post today as we are preparing to go visit our friends, the K. family tomorrow (Mr. K. was my music teacher for a year and half and both he and his wife are very talented singers). Enjoy!

The perfect video...

...to listen to right before going to sleep!



~Sweet dreams~

My fair Lady...

We're leaving for Bismarck in just a few minutes, but I wanted to share this video of Lady (and Millie) before we head out. Lady was feeling rambunctious the day I took this and kept barking at Millie. :)

The choir's practice performance:

*See post below for details about this video*

God writes the music for the whippoorwills...

While busily cleaning the house this afternoon, I heard the following song on Rejoice Radio (our very favorite radio station--out of Pensacola, FL--that we listen to on-line!) When I did a search just now to try and find this song about cattle on a thousand hills and whippoorwill songs and the freedom the Lord gives to us, I was pleased to find a version that was from the Pensacola Christian College, home of Rejoice Radio! Listen below:

I Give You Freedom (The Whippoorwill Song)

I set the boundries of the ocean vast,
Carved out the mountains from the distant past,
Moulded a man from the miry clay,
Breathed in him life, but he went astray.

CHORUS:
I own the cattle on a thousand hills,
I write the music for the whippoorwills,
Control the planets with their rocks and rills,
But give you freedom to use your own will.

And if you want Me to, I’ll make you whole,
I’ll only do it tho’ if you say so.
I’ll never force you, for I love you so,
I give you freedom – Is it “yes” or “no”?

I hold the waters in My mighty hand
Spread out the heavens with a single span,
Make all creation tremble at My voice,
But My own children come to Me by choice.
(chorus)

Even the oxen knows the master’s stall,
And sheep will recognize the shepherd’s call
I could demand your love – I own you twice,
But only willing love is worth the price!
(chorus)

My holy word now I give to you,
As a shining lamp to guide you through,
My yoke is easy and My burden is light,
Keep looking up, your Heavenly home’s in sight.
(chorus)

The Lord is so good to us, isn't He?

Oh, and as a side note of joy, we're all very happy this evening to be nearly done combining. The guys finished the flax harvest today and now just have a small field of corn left to do. :)

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? :) )