September 2025

September 2025
Over the years, we've always compared our family life to a wagon train heading west. Just as everyone had to do his part to get to Oregon years ago, so everyone in our family must do his/her part to make our journey through life successful. If somebody climbs in the wagon and lets the others do the work, we just don't make any progress. We all have to pull our weight and work together. Along the trail we find lots of pebbles that make for a smooth ride and some bigger rocks that jar us a little; we hit the occasional pothole that can slow us down. But if we purpose to search diligently, there are countless gold nuggets and precious gemstones along the way as well. This journal is an attempt to preserve some of those precious moments for our children, and our children's children, as together we travel this trail called life.

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11


Showing posts with label trailer project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trailer project. Show all posts

Friday, November 5, 2010

11-4-10 Baked Oatmeal

Well, today was pretty routine as far as a school day goes; but there were several unique things that made the day more special. For one thing, the girls made baked oatmeal for breakfast which was a treat, hence today’s title. With strawberries and real whipped cream, I call it a dessert breakfast because it’s almost-but-not-quite strawberry shortcake. Mmmm!  Even before that, though, (actually some of the kids were still in bed, even), I looked out my bedroom window to the south and saw a coyote beside the evergreens there, 30 feet from the house! Needless to say, the whole house was on full alert immediately, and the kids watched it wander into the front yard, right in front of the picture window. It circled the entire farm before heading across the road into the pasture, at which time our observant (full alert) eyes caught sight of some deer!  Years ago we would often see deer in the field over there, but the last few years we haven’t seen many. So when they jumped the fence as deer do so amazingly – just jumped straight up and over, no running start or anything – everyone was pretty excited.  Oh, there was quite the excitement on our little farmstead this morning, I’ll tell you!  And then in the afternoon, a storm passed by a couple times before finally showering us with a little (very little) rain and sleet. It was amazingly beautiful – just clouds and sky, but oh how incredibly breathtaking. What an awesome Creator God we serve. 

Well, those were the highlights, but other nuggets abounded also. School meetings went well, kids did well on their schoolwork, ASK stopped by for lunch on her way home from Morton, I had a brisk walk with Karol, boys milked twice, AND…it was very cold…SO COLD, indeed, that for the first time this year we fired up the woodburner. Aaah, I love cozy winter evenings with all of us crammed into the warmest (smallest?) room of the house. What an incredible blessing. Bibletime – more on wisdom – and beds for all.

Found this on the camera – don’t know who took it.

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Mr. Coyote is between the machine shed and the wood shed, looking at me with his yellow eyes shining.

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Beautiful sunrise.

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Trailer project is coming along…it looks great.

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Studying memory verses.  (???)

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Smiles.

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Biology 101. (Winterizing the snapping turtles which means moving them inside.) Josh is SO CUTE about turtles – in books, at the nature center, every time he is taken into the shed to see these 2, he just tells everybody within earshot that he sees a “tuu-tle.” Many times he’ll say it in his precious baby voice.

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Psalm 47:

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O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.

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He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

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God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

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God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

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Precious family time in the family room…beautiful nugget of winter.

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In case you don’t recognize those knees, they belong to Jacob.

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Josh loves to watch the slideshow.

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I’m not sure what he was doing or thinking (wouldn’t it be great to peek inside a little tyke’s mind?)…obviously he’s pretty pleased though!

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And…another recipe to remember:

Baked Oatmeal – (one of our family’s favorites)(except Dad who doesn’t like nuts).

4 1/2 cups quick oats

3/4 cup honey

2 cups milk

3/4 cup butter, melted

4 eggs

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

Mix all ingredients. Pour in greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes, or until brown around edge. Serve with fruit of choice and milk or whipped cream. Mmmmmmmm!!!

That’s it!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

9-29-10 Beginning of the End

Another beautiful day in central Illinois, absolutely beautiful. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm 19:1.

Morning school and jobs until I, along with Sarah and Jewel, took Tori to the ortho and she got her bottom permanent retainer put on…the first step to the end of her 2.5+ years of braces. She has no bottom wire and no rubber bands now, so it is indeed looking like she’ll be braceless by Christmas or close to it. Exciting! Home to lunch and school meetings, while Tori worked on supper prep and the other kids played outside. Joshua was so good – as fussy as he was last week is as happy as he is this week. PLUS his incessant drool of the last 18 months has almost completely ceased. ??? Does this mean it’s all teeth related? It certainly could be so, although we’ll never know for sure. Anyway, after putting him down to nap, the 2 girls and I picked up Jesse at Uncle Randy’s and took him to Precision; Levi was working there between milkings. Home again, kids started in on chores and I took a delightful walk. More supper prep then, and everyone enjoyed being outside while supper baked. After supper Dad and I took a walk, and the boys had a little time to work on the trailer in the shed. Dad joined them for a little then before everyone came in for Bibletime. Lovely singing, memory verses, Proverbs 19, and discussion, then some wild time and some story time before evening chores and beds for all.

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Oops. I forgot the most exciting happening of the day. Dad stepped outside after wrestling (I think to cool off) and his foot (clad only in a sock) landed right on something that really felt odd. Turning on the outside light, he saw this ugly little critter. Where it came from we don’t know; it’s just a baby. Where its mama and siblings are we don’t know either! We do know it won’t return, as its heart stopped beating due to severe trauma to its head.

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So ends the ‘possum story and our day.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

8-28-10 Saturday

Another wonderful day, thank You Lord.

The girls and I did our kitchen jobs in the morning, and then spent the rest of the day doing outside jobs and enjoying the beautiful day. Dad went to work early, leaving a list of jobs for the boys; when he got home they had gone to Morton to do some errands. Dad paid bills then took Sarah and Jewel with him to do payroll and banking in Morton. The boys got home and we had lunch outside; about the time the boys went to do some fence repair in Uncle Harley’s pasture, Dad and the little girls got home and had lunch. Dad joined the boys in the pasture, then they all came home to start repair work on the cattle trailer. This project turned into a supply run to Tractor Supply in Pekin; I read to the girls awhile, took a catnap, and we had started chores when Dad’s crew came home and joined in chores also. Kate started making pizza, and the kids did a great job getting supper on. After supper we enjoyed a beautiful evening outside until baths, Bibletime, and beds. Blink. Day over; how do the days fly so fast???

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First sign of harvest – Uncle Randy got the combine this morning.

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Lunch.

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Trailer repair.

Audience.

Planting some fall lettuce.

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Afternoon fun.

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The kids have spent so much time in this treehouse this summer. Ben made the chair that Sarah is sitting on – he did a great job!

We’ve learned a fun way to get the greatest smiles from Joshua – we all start clapping. His face just lights up and he looks at each of us like he’s done something great – which he has. He just IS, and that’s enough. How we all love our precious little guy..he brings so much joy to our life.

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Tonight’s fire turned into quite a show. First the kids were throwing scrap paper in it; I’m not sure what started that or how that led to the hot air balloon, but that was next. Aunt Sarah gave it as a Christmas gift years ago, and every now and again we get it out and have fun with it. Tonight was the first time it was heated with fire (instructions say to use a hair dryer). After many unsuccessful attempts, this one finally seemed to be working…

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Okay, so it stayed up this high for a total of about…ummm…4 seconds maybe? before it sank back down again. A far cry from the 20 or so feet depicted in the instructions, but we sure had a lot of fun and laughs with it anyway.

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THEN…oh my. The can of fire in the above picture turned into this:

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Pretty benign, right? Well, did you notice the air compressor in the background? And it’s not in the photo, but there’s a jug of kerosene off to the side too. So what? Well, call it a science lesson about fire or whatever you want, but I think we all know now what air does to a fire. Then they added a hose to the experiment, and…

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Who needs fireworks?????!!!




Too much fun!

That’s it.