6-22-10 Restmor Tuesday

“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12

Impatience, frustration, anger, selfishness, laziness, stubbornness…I fail so often, but it is time to seek the Lord UNTIL he comes and rains righteousness upon me. “And this is the promise we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him.” I John 5: 14-15. So I will keep asking in faith, believing, knowing he will answer, knowing he will rain righteousness upon me.

7:00 and it’s thundering around again – 50% chance of thunderstorms today again. This is one weird weather pattern we’re in – hot and humid (high mid-90s today) and rain/thunderstorms every other day (or more)(at least it seems that way). Good thing we know who the Weatherman is or we might be tempted to complain.

******************

Library, a garage sale, Restmor, and Colby before home for lunch. Thankfully LauraLee and her children were there; their enthusiastic singing helped a lot. Afternoon was sewing projects, mp3 player (Tori, of course) and other computer things (Tori, of course)(like putting songs from the computer onto Jesse’s phone)(!!!!!). She’s not nearly a Josh Moser, but she’s the closest thing to it around here. Her computer knowledge is miles beyond mine, and that’s fine with me; keeps me from having to do it, and she really enjoys it too. Read to kids, naps, walk, email, just routine stuff. We had an early supper so we could go to Chuck’s visitation as soon as Dad got home from work. Joshua enjoyed his casserole. Good thing messes clean up!

We took the 6 youngest children to Grandpa Kaiser’s while the oldest 3 went with us to the visitation at the Fellowship Hall. Back home again, we did Bibletime right away so the older boys could get to bed a little earlier. Bibletime got interrupted for squirrels frolicking.

Then Dad and I took a walk while Joshua found a puddle and the other kids played or read.

Home for baths (imagine that) and showers, then beds for all.

6-10-10 Hidden Treasure

Another gorgeous morning; the sunrise was just beautiful. A picture hardly does it justice but I’ll post it anyway.

Cats on my porch chair.

And Squirrel 1 (2?) was busy enjoying his breakfast. I’m kind of amazed at how entertaining these little rodents are. Thanks Grandpa!

Dad went to Uncle Jerry’s early, then back to pick up Jesse at 7:00 so he was to Uncle Randy’s by 7:30. Levi and I went to Dr. Luce for a 7:45 appointment. Two weeks ago he reacted to a weed while fencing, and this past week his back, chest, arms, and legs have been more and more irritating to him. It looks awful besides. Dr. Luce put him on a steroid; hopefully this will kick it or we’ll be seeing a dermatologist. We were home again by 8:15; I picked up Kate and headed back to Walmart to get Levi’s prescription and be home again before 10:00 when he went to CIT. We made it, and so he got his first dose of med. before he went to work. Back home, I read to littles; there were also jobs to do and a fussy babe to care for. We got everything done in time to go swimming at Uncle Jerry’s after Dad was home for a brief lunch. After swimming, I walked solo while little girls rested (slept) and bigger kids did chores.

“On a day in August when the blackberries are ripe, we will take the berry pails and go to the clearing at the edge of the woods. When we come to the place where God’s sunshine and God’s rain have helped the blackberries grow, we will eat some of the black, shiny berries and then pick, pick, pick from the tangled, prickly branches. After awhile our fingers will be stained purple, but we will not mind. When our pails are full, we will go home.” [excerpt from Berries Berries Berries by Beverly S. Gordon]

Wrong month, but same scenario…kind of.

Jacob was very excitedly telling me about the hundreds-- no, THOUSANDS! of blackberry bushes down at the South Grove. He shared a few blackberries with me, and they were pretty tasty. So he, Ben, and I whipped down there on the four-wheeler, and I was amazed. What a treasure trove of blackberries...well, they were actually black raspberries. I still don’t quite understand why no one has ever told me about these before, except that this is the first year Jacob has spent serious time down there planting trees and mowing. At any rate, Jacob started blazing (stomping) trails through the brambles, picking as he went, and Ben and I started picking too. We had 3 tiny yogurt cups, which were filled in no time. Somewhere along then, Levi finished chores and brought the dirt bike to help…he quickly decided a machete was in order and made a trip back to get it. Tori and Kate were working on kitchen jobs, and Kate could hardly finish fast enough to come help. She ended up running the whole way, bucket in hand, and joined the picking crew too. And then Jesse showed up to help too…what is it about enthusiasm that makes it so contagious that everybody chooses to come pick berries in the sweltering heat, tromping through thorny weedy buggy (poison ivy? poison oak?!!) brambles to have ‘fun’ with everyone else? I didn’t think Tori would want to miss out, so I went back home for more buckets and to send her in my place, but she was content to stay in the air-conditioned house and finish the snack mix squares she was making. Smart girl! So…I headed back to the patch and picked some more. Jesse was going to grill steaks for supper, but when it was time, he didn’t want to go back – no one did! We all ended up staying until 5:45 (!!!) when we raced back home, showered (all 7 of us!), threw the steaks on the grill, got the rest of the meal ready, and were ready to eat when Dad got home a little after 6:00. What a crew!

Machete action.

Beautiful berries.

Lots to come yet…

We ended up with almost a gallon of berries…and oh, the fun of picking them (and eating them). We’ll see if any of us get poison ivy from our adventure…although Levi said it was everywhere, we were pretty careful not to get close to it. And we all showered right when we got back home and threw all our clothes into the laundry, so we’ll see what happens. We’re all pretty determined to get some Round Up and improve our trails so we can more easily pick the delicious berries.

After supper and dishes we loaded up and drove to Pekin (by the prison there) to check out a hayfield. The drive was beautiful.

Home to beds.

“Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art.”

6-9-10 Squirrel Tales

“But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and everlasting king…the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth…he hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion…he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.” (Jeremiah 10:10-13). These verses are so alive…especially since we’ve had so much rain lately, and so many thunderstorms…complete with lightnings, rain, and wind, all created, controlled, and orchestrated by our true and living God. We serve an awesome God. He is so good and majestic and powerful; it’s awe-inspiring that this same Creator God loved each of us so much that He sent His ONLY PERFECT Son to live and die here on earth, shedding His SINLESS blood for our sin…MY sin…YOUR sin…the sin of every single person on earth. That’s humbling; we are so unworthy…but yet SO THANKFUL.

************

Grandpa Steiner brought this little fellow out a few days ago, and Jacob made this innovative feeder for him. Rascal has been almost glued to the tree, hoping for a taste of this little morsel, but of course Squirrel won’t come down, oh no. Thus the feeder. The pair of them has been quite entertaining to all of us as Squirrel occasionally attempts to descend only to be chased back up again.

Levi and Jesse milked like usual. I combined an early morning Morton errand with a few stops at garage sales. This photo was taken while I was gone. Evidently when the Mom is away the cats will play.

I came home to find things relatively in order; soon Tori was in the garden weeding the beans. She does such a good job in the garden – doing the things I would love to be doing but don’t because I’m changing diapers, wiping noses, drilling phonics, organizing, managing, disciplining, refereeing, and so on. If she didn’t weed, it might not get done. And we would still have a good harvest, but I wouldn’t be posting pictures because everything would look like…well, like a weed patch. But she does enjoy it, and then she took these pictures for me. We all love watching things grow and thrive; it’s both fascinating and rewarding.

Levi went to CIT after milking; Jesse worked here. He and Jacob have been trying to figure out how to prevent these little scavenger bugs and larva (that would be worms) from eating their butterflies in their collection. At this point many specimens had to be pitched because they were destroyed AND housed eggs of more live bugs; this is quite disappointing because at one point they had a very nice collection. I’m confident they’ll build it up again, better than the first time even; and they’re learning how to prevent the bugs from re-infesting their collection. So J & J worked on that some today in addition to jobs that Dad and I had for them.

While I read with littles and did phonics with Sarah and Jewel (during Joshua’s morning nap), Jesse, Jacob, and Tori put up tomato cages; Kate and Ben joined in when I was done reading to them.

I’ll have to try to remember to post a few pictures of Grandpa’s tomatoes – they are HUGE! Somehow he buys them big, plants them early, and has these huge plants that already have tomatoes on. Ours look good, but his look GREAT.

Contender beans look great. In the background are Grandpa’s tomato plants; a close up picture will be forthcoming.

Watermelons are coming right along…slowly but surely.

Muskmelons are barely up (I think these are the muskmelons).

Cucumbers are a little farther along.

Colored peppers are doing just fine.

Nice sweet corn patch.

We had a lovely picnic lunch outside; it was sunny, hot, and somewhat humid, but not terrible…just another beautiful beautiful day, thank you Lord. After lunch, I supervised Sarah, Jewel, and Joshua in their little pool while the big kids had free reading time. Joshua was not very happy at all; he still has a cold that landed in his eyes, and the mattery tears just smear all over his face. Poor little chap, he just doesn’t feel good. I put him down early and he took a very good nap while I walked with Karol. Afterward he enjoyed his smoothee snack while I played some Move Up with Tori, Jacob, Kate, and Ben. Sarah and Jewel both fell asleep looking at books, which was a very good thing because they were both pretty exhausted from playing hard all day long.

Joshua thought he was pretty special in his little chair at his little table.

We played Move Up until 5:35…

View Full Album

…at which time we all quit and jumped into supper prep. Jacob grilled pork chops, Tori worked on lettuce salads for Dad and me, Kate started the cheesy macaroni, and Ben did a great job watching and entertaining Joshua outside. I woke up Sarah and Jewel, which was NOT an easy task, and helped finish getting supper on…we were ready with everything by 6:00. Which I thought was pretty impressive! Especially considering that Grandpa Steiner stopped by in the middle of our supper rush to drop off another squirrel. Rascal went nuts when she saw it; Squirrel 2 promptly jumped from the north oak tree to the next one south and then to the crabapple tree…and the kids got to see it all. Squirrel 2 is definitely more lively than Squirrel 1.

Since Joshua has such mattery kitten eyes and just generally doesn’t feel good, we decided not to go to church. We do so enjoy going but it’s just not worth it with a fussy little one. L & J got home from milking while Dad and I were walking after supper; how’s this for a view of the prettiest place in the country? It’s hard to imagine how beautiful heaven will be, when earth is so beautiful here already…

Looking east over our neighbor’s cornfield. Blue and green must be God’s favorite colors, because He sure used them a lot in creation.

We cut up through the orchard to check on apples. So far so good…Jesse did a good job propping up branches for us today. These branches are really heavy with fruit…and very little fire blight in the Lodi trees, thankfully.

I’m holding one of the biggest apples, but they all look really good. Dad’s diligence and wisdom in spraying them regularly definitely pays off (timing is so important - it helps when the rains don’t come right after he sprays).

The Jon-A-Reds won’t be ready for a couple months after the Lodi, so they’re smaller, but that’s ok; they’re doing well, too.

And…the raspberries are doing great, despite occasional oopses when the kids don’t put the chickens in at nighttime. (That means they’re out all the next day and pretty quickly get to the raspberry bushes…)

View Full Album

Big fat meat chicks, 11 weeks old.

Meat and layer, same age.

Jesse moved his pheasant brooder up so the chicks can move farther away from the heat.

At 3 weeks old, they’ve certainly lost much of their cuteness.

But my how they fly. They’re very jumpy, and fly all over the place when someone is in the room; which is ok - it’s good for their flight strength.

Playing Catch.

During supper we all chuckled while Squirrel 1 tried to eat out of his whipped topping lunch box…and inadvertently dumped it out. So Levi made this lunch box…it certainly looks much better, I have to say.

And this is what Rascal was seen doing many many times today. Just sitting and watching…

…and watching…

While some of us played Move Up (yes, again!), Sarah and Jewel had a grand time on the porch, playing house (what else?).

Sharing their water with thirsty siblings.

Squirrel hunting.

Baths, Bibletime, beds.

That’s all, folks.