A Little Wild Life

On Thursday afternoon the guys (Jonathon, Josiah, and Dan, Christi's Dad) went to sit in a blind to watch for deer. The buck deer boy has been wanting to do this all year and it is finally deer season, so the boys had some good quality time in the woods. Here are a few pictures from their exciting time.

Grandpa looking through his binoculars while Josiah is holding up his wooden gun that Grandpa Dan made, ready to shoot a deer.

And the boy, one hour into the experience sound asleep on the ground. Way too exciting for him I think. At least they didn't have to worry about him making noises.

On Sunday while we were cleaning the house, we had some visitors in the field beside our house. We had them last winter but haven't seen them all summer long. They are back and we love watching them. There were 23-25 of them....turkeys that is. We sure love where we live just because of the wild life. Love the nature all around.

Diella is "5"!

Well, we are a day late, but yes, Diella turned "5" yesterday. Can't believe it! She had a great day and was treated very special. The adults were a little glad when her day was over so we didn't have to hear ".......because it's my birthday". She got to make doll clothes for her and Alegra's dolls with Grandma Deborah, go to the library to pick out a movie, we ate her special flower cake that she and I made, she picked pizza for our lunch meal (homemade with pineapple and turkey-interesting selection for a 5 year old), and she wanted hot chocolate after supper with Grandma Deborah's special white chocolate, raspberry flavoring. What a day! Tomorrow we go to Grandma Linda's for ice cream cake.

It is obvious that she is a year older than last year. She has almost all of her letters memorized and has learned the sounds along with learning the name of the letter. I love killing two birds with one stone. :) I finally feel like she will be ready to start kindergarten next year. And she loves doing her workbooks when Alegra does her school work. She is our silly girl. She loves to laugh, sing, and have fun. If you hear her laugh whole heartedly, you will no doubt crack up yourself just from hearing her laugh. She is a joy for sure! And she loves helping me in the kitchen. As soon as she sees me fixing up something, she is soon coming, pushing a chcair to be right by my side. I love it most days.

Diella's favorites:

Song- Open the Eyes of My Heart

Food- Macaroni & Cheese and Broccoli Soup

Color- Pink

Book- Little House on the Prairie

Movie- Treasure Island (from the 1950's or 60's)

Toy- Doll

Dessert-Strawberry Cake

Animal- Puppies

Game- Uno

Thing to do outside- Play on playgrounds

Ice Cream Flavor- Bubblegum

Bible Story- Moses and the Ten Commandments

Clothes to Wear- Skirts and Pajamas

We look forward to watching her grow another year and pray that we are given wisdom in how to train her and help her develop into a beautiful (on the inside) young lady who desires to serve and follow the Lord.

And here is our 5 year old! We are so blessed by her being a part of our family. Love you Diella Rose!

Memories - Jonny

At the gentle promptings of my wife, I have decided to take the time to satiate every ones curiosity concerning my most treasured childhood memories. I must confess, this is a bit of a daunting task for me, as I have so many fond recollections of days gone by.

Growing up on a large farm in northern Indiana, I had the opportunity to take part in numerous "boyhood adventures"; however, my most vivid memories are of those times spent working with my dad. There was never a shortage of learning experiences and my dad was a masterful teacher - and he did it without making it seem like a lesson. Having my own son now, I am realizing even more just how patient of a man he was. Josiah (my boy) is the embodiment of me when I was younger, at least according to my mom (and it seems she would know as well as anyone) - anyway, Josiah is forever asking questions and wanting to "help" with whatever project I am currently working on - and he is only 3. Since I can distinctly remember being in a tractor with my dad at around this age, I can only imagine what kind of questions I bombarded him with! On a farm that housed over 400 hogs, 100 cattle and 27,000 chickens, not to mention several hundred acres of farmland, there were ALOT of questions to be asked! So, to make a long story short, one of my favorite memories is growing up on a farm. To be a little more specific: helping deliver baby pigs and calves was pretty um, neat (once we came home from church to find that one of the sows had died during delivery of her piglets and since we didn't have any idea how long she had been dead we dragged her out of the farrowing pen and performed an "emergency C-section". We delivered a whole litter of still-born piglets. It's little wonder that dissecting animals in anatomy class wasn't all that exciting for me). Helping work on tractors was fascinating (Some kids got to see cars tore apart in their garages - whoop-de-doo - I got to see whole tractors split in two pieces in order to work on the transmission or the clutch. Have you ever seen the size of a friction plate on a 250 HP tractor? Now that's cool!). Treasure hunting in the woods was always a good time (I once stumbled upon the skeletal remains of a cow; so I painstakingly gathered as many of them as I could find - and believe me, I hunted - hauled them up the barn and began piecing them back together. I nearly had a complete skeleton including the teeth! Again, why am I surprised I slept through anatomy class? Sorry Mr. Meyers and Prof. Nash).

I sincerely hope that my little anecdotes were worth the wait that you all had to endure. I apologize for not getting to it sooner; however, since writing isn't one of my stronger points, it never seems to make it to the top of my 'to do' list.

A Little Prodding

The children are playing cards, I am getting e-mails caught up and then will be baking some cookies after I fix the fire in the wood stove. Yum! If some of you are anxiously awaiting Jonathon's "Good Ole Days" post, I'm working on it. He doesn't seem to have time right now, but maybe after we go to his mom's house this week, and I find some prime pictures for his post, he will have memories sparked and be more motivated to write something...not to mention the time to sit down and relax a bit.

Diella's birthday is this week, so we will have to do a post on her special day. Can't believe how quickly they all grow. And before we know it, number four will be here. Amazing how time flies!

Well, hope you are all staying warm. It's pretty nasty today. Hoping tomorrow is nicer as we need to do some grocery shopping and head to the library. We set a card table up in the children's room this year with a big puzzle on it for all of us to work on this winter. Alegra started it today, and I haven't gone in to see how it's coming. Josiah and Diella worked a little on it, so I'm hoping I don't find puzzle pieces all over. That's my only concern! Oh well, it's good for them to focus on here and there.

Gotta keep my evening moving. Soon will be supper time, so I best continue on.

Psalm 115:1,12-15,18

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,

But to Your name give glory.

The Lord has been mindful of us;

He will bless us;

He will bless the house of Israel;

He will bless the house of Aaron;

He will bless those who fear the Lord,

Both small and great.

May the Lord give you increase more and more,

You and your children.

May you be blessed by the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

But we will bless the name of the Lord

From this time forth and forevermore.

Praise the Lord!

comment issues resolved

To all of our friends who may have been trying to comment on our blogs to no avail, I believe I have the issue resolved - so comment away!!!

Blessings to you!

This is a picture of the first snow of this winter and the joy our children find in the cold white fluff.

A Visit To My Past-Christi

When I was a young girl, we lived just a mile from the state line of Indiana in Bronson, Michigan. The location was perfect for children, being out in the country, down the road from a lake that we often rode our bikes to to swim after mowing the large (or maybe it just looked large as a child) yard, and a short walk across the fields to pot holes, which were a small wet woods area. We would build forts in the woods all day and revisit it day after day to make fort improvements and check up on it. Summer days were wasted away not with video games and watching TV, but with outside play, hard work on our small hobby farm, and good ole country living. We were close to our neighbors and everybody looked out for each other.

One particular lady that lived down the dirt road from us, was a widow lady in her 70's whose children all lived far away. We attended the same little country church as she did and eventually my parents developed a relationship with her that leaked into their children's lives. She was a bike ride away and enjoyed company often, especially mine and my brother's company. She would watch us while my mom and dad worked in the fields, she taught us piano, she baked cinnamon rolls with us, gave us warm milk to drink, let me have a drawer in her desk to keep my papers, stickers, and crayons to play mailman, she read scriptures to us, played boggle with us, let us play with the cats and dog, and was a great example of godly living.

I can remember her writing so much (obviously e-mail wasn't around), and sending lots of letters out. She kept in close contact with many missionary families and had a board of all the families she lifted up in prayer. Those families sure were blessed to have a prayer warrior interceding for them. She also journaled most every day. This is something that I would like to improve on. What thoughts and feelings she must have journaled during her life. What the Lord is doing, who needed prayer (I'm sure my family was on the list often), and what was going on in her life. Could my children benefit from learning when I am dead and gone, the things that the Lord are teaching and showing us in our lives? I think so. And what about the trials and struggles we face that God helps us through. How do we respond to those situations and what or better yet, who do we call on during those times? To hear older, wiser people share of life in their younger years is something that we can all learn from. Why do some think that the older generation are just a waste of space when they hold so much that we can learn from?

Another thing that we have been pondering lately is whether we are helping the orphans and widows as much as we should. My dad cut wood for Grandma Bowerman (even in her 70's she still kept a wood stove going), repaired things on her house, kept her yard clean, my mom took her to visit others in the nursing home, took her to get groceries, and took her to the laundromat to do her laundry. Life was more simpler then. She canned all her apples as applesauce, listened to Bible teachings on the scratchy radio, played her piano to pass the time, and read her Bible and prayed a lot.

Are we prepared for such simpler times? What if things go back to the way they used to be? Not able to go to town as often, having to take care of the food we grow ourselves, not having all the luxuries that electricity brings, etc.

So, I have been encouraged to journal my life happenings more on paper, take care of the elderly widows more, prepare myself for simpler times, and continue teaching my children to do with less busy entertainment and enjoy the wonders that God gave us to enjoy. And for your enjoyment, some pictures of me in those good ole days.

The top left is me with my brother and my best dog, Ginger. Bottom left is Grandma Bowerman (I was so glad to find this picture of her) with my dad and her grandson from Alaska. The picture on the right is what I spent half a summer working on.....preparing my turtle that my dad caught at the pond down the road for the Vermont Settlement Days in Orland. And I must say, my turtle was the fastest and we won! Those were the good ole days indeed! Anybody else have memories from their good ole days as a child and the simpler life? Please share!

**** Gonna see if I can get the hubby to post about his good ole days along with some pics. Stay tuned, you'll enjoy it!

Laundry Helpers

Last night I had lots of laundry to get done, but the children had their own agenda of what the evening was to hold. But after I told them that we needed to get laundry done before anything else happened, they looked like they were thinking. Next thing I know, I find them in the bathroom.

The laundry basket is almost full of clean clothes, ready to hang on the rack. It appears that they are all trying to figure out how to get the clothes at the very bottom of the washing machine. They even took the little bench in to stand on. They were thinking that's for sure.

This is a classic picture. They decided to help little brother, so he could reach the bottom. Thankfully they didn't drop him in, but it didn't work so well either. Onto the next thought. Only a big sister can decide this.

"Outta the way, I'll do it". Alegra just decided that she would get the job done, and she did. What good helpers. They drug the laundry basket out of the bathroom and even started hanging the laundry on the rack. All that work just to have calendar time. Fine by me. Maybe I can get them to do work like that every day before calendar time. Nothing will probably give me as much of a chuckle as this did though. I love my children, especially when they work together. Time to start another busy day.

The First Snow

Yesterday was a busy day for us. It felt good getting so much done! We are always thankful for God's Sabbath day to give us rest, but it does feel good to get back at it again.....until Friday rolls around, then we are glad to rest again. :)

Alegra went out with Jonathon to get wood from a neighbor's house. In the sleet and snow, they were busy working. Just as they got back, I had chicken noodle soup and croissants ready for us all. But first I sent Diella out to let the hard workers know it was ready. I watched her out the kitchen window go tell them, then take her precious time coming back up to the house. With every slow step, she had her mouth wide open, looking up to the sky and catching all the flakes she could. Wish I could have taken a picture, but I enjoyed standing there watching her too much to think about a picture.

So, the winter is approaching us and though we aren't looking forward to the cold or snowy conditions, we are looking forward to cozy evenings by the woodstove, hot chocolate, a slower paced schedule to just sit and have quality time teaching our children. God is good to us and we are thankful for all that He blesses us with.

Our three sleeping children. They fell asleep right here in this spot. Wish they always looked like they loved each other this much. Was a cute pic. though.

Psalm 51:15 "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise, for you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart-These O God, You will not despise."

A Clearer Picture

We have not had internet service for almost a week. I have been anxiously waiting to get back on and now......I feel like I don't care a thing about it. I have had more time to spend in God's Word, I've gotten some fall cleaning done (so glad the windows are done) and have had some great snuggle time with my children. Those things cannot be replaced by any computer. But I was so very glad to see a beautiful picture of the new addition in our church family to the Ferris Family. Congratulations to them! Thankful all went well!

In my readings, I am being blessed immensely! Scriptures that I could never figure out, now I am reading and they make perfect sense. Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty that I don't understand because His ways are far higher than what we could ever imagine, but I feel I am getting closer and that brings joy to my heart. As we read in the New Testament, we recall where it is also said in the Old Testament, why? To bring more understanding of what it all means and to prove that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. That has been happening for Jonathon a lot lately with the Psalms. I was reading in Romans and what I was reading was what He had just discussed being in Jeremiah, and originated in the Psalms. God wants us to understand His ways so much that He has placed His ways all over to get us to see it. Some things we never saw until now. I am thankful that I am seeing it now. Makes things so much clearer! Praise Him!