March 2024

March 2024
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


Saturday, August 27, 2022

Second Week Of August

This is the week Ben was in CO with some buddies. He had a great time.


Sunday evening.


Dad dug some potatoes for me for Sunday night supper; later we all admired the ones that weren't consumed at supper.


Monday morning walk.


And yes. The pole is leaning further every day. Ameren has been notified but it's not urgent so we're on a list for a repair. Hopefully it gets repaired before it becomes urgent😏

Thankful for a crowd to help with the biggest peach day yet.


Thankful for this cutest,


and these,


(thanks Jewel for these px)


and these.


Thankful for willing hands.


Meanwhile, Josh was helping Troy and Tyler at Levi's.



Tuesday. Josh helped at Levi's again.


Another picking day😁


Another evening checking out the progress at Levi's.








Josh, Natalie, and I helped Kaitlyn in her classroom a couple days.


Pretty sure this day I was working solo.



Blocks done, Dad helped tar.



Ready for more canning...



I think ASK helped me this day, but no px😖


Thankful to attend Aaron & Haleigh's wedding Thursday night.


Friday morning walk.


Cloudy but nice Lake Day.







More peach picking.



More peach canning, on Saturday.


The biggest one!


"Daddy one."



Kindercrisp are starting to taste sweet.



Jonareds are falling like flies.




Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Peaches

 Going back to the beginning of August -

Seriously the word of the month is PEACHES. They were beautiful, they were plentiful, and they were delicious. They were also time-consuming but what a nice thing to consume time with. Between thinning them, propping branches, picking them, sorting them, canning them, freezing them, sharing them, and eating them, peaches kept me kind of busy this month. Dad did an amazing job spraying them which is partly why they are so pretty. The other part is that our God just creates beautiful things. Dad and Josh also did much of the picking and carrying and sorting; I had good help for the freezing, canning, and eating too.

I am grateful.


As pretty as this picture is, and as much as I enjoyed this view out my bedroom window so many days, now that most of the peaches are picked and preserved (or eaten, ha, lots of that got done), I really don't miss this view. I'm thankful to have full freezers and jars. Our last three trees are not ready yet but certainly will  be enjoyed when they are. Oddly enough, no one seems to be tired of peaches.


A lovely rain day during the first week of August. Idr when. I'm just throwing these up here in somewhat random order. I think the first Tuesday? Not my favorite way to blog but it is what it is.


This lovely rain was actually a pretty severe storm in some places. Thankfully we lost very little fruit.


That day we had a few sweet visitors. 



That same evening we went to Levi's; Dad helped tar the new basement walls. Dad got a haircut later that night bc somehow some tar ended up in his hair, oops.





I wasn't much help at Levi's so took Josh and Jewel with me to help Jesse clean up this tree that fell during the previously mentioned storm.




💖



The next morning, Wednesday. Some of our nice collection of cats.


The rain also created some settling of the trench where the electrical work was done awhile ago. One of the horses found (or created?) this hole, yikes. Thankfully no damage was done to horse or rider, and the hole is now filled in.


Lake Day



😖 Sometimes propping heavy branches just doesn't help. The peaches all finished fine but the branch is done. We lost four branches this year which is far too many but what do you do? So many of the heavy branches were too high to prop. 


😋





Another Lake Day - Friday I think.
Thanks BB for the px!





That night some cutests stayed us while their folks did a Menards run.



I remember this was a Saturday morning bc Dad was ready to go to U. Earl's funeral. What a blessing that he could gain the victory of eternity with Jesus but Ino he will be missed. He was such a special uncle to Dad and me both.


Thankful for lots of help with peaches that afternoon.


Work done, time for fun!




Monday, August 22, 2022

Over

 No this blog isn't dead. 

It's just taking a break while its author is busy with other things. Here are a few peeks at August:







There might be details coming later, and there might not be - - -
 but for now - peaches are almost done, lake days are almost done, tomatoes are almost done, apples are just starting, and school has started. 

And all that means that 
summer 
is 
over
😳

Smoothie Pops

 Way back here I explained how we do Smoothies. Well, years ago we started turning leftover Smoothie into Smoothie Pops. This is simply smoothie poured into popsicle cups and frozen. A super delicious healthy refreshing summer treat. Well, then I forgot about Smoothie Pops until one day this year they just kind of jumped into my mind; and they've been just as much of a hit this summer as they were in bygone days. 


The popsicle cups I have are from Tupperware, but any thing with a removeable handle would work just as well. And something I've learned - little girls prefer the taste of the pink handled ones😄


And that's it!


Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Life Beyond The Pictures - August 2022

 Hello Steiners.

Was great to see many of you at the reunion last month. Was a super nice day, and those who missed were missed. It’s been a really busy season here so this will be short. Brandi’s puppies are gone a couple weeks already and we don’t miss them… but they were sure fun while it lasted and we’ve talked about getting another puppy in a few years and starting over. We’ll see. Levi’s house project is moving right along. Jesse started a new job at Precision Planting a while back which he is enjoying. Not much is new with Tori and Jacob&Natalie. Kaitlyn has been getting her preschool classroom ready for students next week. She’ll be teaching preschool at the Preschool Family Education Center in Pekin and is looking forward to meeting her little students soon. Ben is currently bt semesters and hiking in CO with some friends; nothing else is new with him. Sarah’s books are here now and she’s (kind of) ready to start her full-time college career at ICC pretty soon. Jewel & Josh keep busy with chores here and various jobs elsewhere; they’ve done some bean walking and Josh helped the block layers at Levi’s for a few days. Nothing’s new with Tim and me. We’ve been blessed with a lot of peaches again which we’ve thoroughly enjoyed. Freezers are filling up with various produce; we’ve also found some time to spend at the lake now and then. Not as much as I’d like but owell. There will be slower summers sometime!