Family and Critter Friends

Over the weekend, we enjoyed wonderful time with friends and family.  

Sunday we had Jonathon's niece, Alyssa and her children over for dinner and fun on the farm.  His mom was able to come as well which is always a nice treat for everyone.  We had chicken n noodles, mashed potatoes, layered salad, and strawberry pretzel dessert. Oh, and Mallorie had eggs.  That girl loved the eggs off the salad.  I had cooked one too many eggs to fit on the salad, so after seeing her eat so many off the salad, we decided we cooked the extra one just for her.  I peeled it and she ate the whole thing.  After supper we headed to the back yard to play and to show them the chickens.

 Mallorie was going to help gather eggs, but the rooster flapped his wings as she was walking over there, and she decided that was enough for her and ran to her mom.  So, Grandma Linda and I gathered the eggs and then she was good with helping me wash them and package them up for her to take home.  I hope she enjoys those eggs!

 They had so much fun in the water.  First she discovered the hose and giggled and giggled as the other children ran through it.  Then we hooked the sprinkler up (less likely for the adults to get sprayed that way) and they all had a ball running through it.  Kyle was most funny as he was discovering the sprinkler with nobody else around and trying to take drinks without getting his face wet.  So cute!

 Not sure how I managed it, but we got a fantastic picture of all of them within about 20 seconds of them gathering around the rock.  Less picture torture the better.  :)

This morning after breakfast and cleaning up a bit around here from having company, we headed out to the garden to work.  Jonathon had taken care of a large area with the tiller, but the rest is mulched, so it needs some hand weeding in between plants.  The children and I weeded what was mulched last year.  We found 2 volunteer potato plants, and I don't know how many volunteer tomato plants.  If you follow our family's happenings, you'll know that we lost all of our tomatoes and peppers to frost.  We were very saddened as we started them from seed and worked hard to get what we had.  The Father is so faithful though.  As I was weeding, I found tomato plants from what we had last year that already have blossoms on them.  The ones we went and bought and  planted, they don't look so hot, so it was refreshing to find these healthy, happy blooming tomato plants.   I also found a volunteer cherry tomato from last year's planting.  We couldn't find any of that kind around here at greenhouses, so I was so glad to find this.  They were delicious and sold really well on the produce cart.  Thankful we'll have more of those again this year.

God's faithfulness at still providing what we needed in our garden despite how horrible it looks and how sad my plants have been looking compared to other's gardens.  I finally devoted to stop looking at other gardens because they only got me down.  :)  I feel HIS love today though and know that he cares about how I feel, even in these little things of how my garden grows.

We finished the 4th row of weeding and mounded up 2 rows of potatoes before the rains came pouring down.

 While we were working, Jonathon came home from work.  He walked out to the garden holding a little box.  Hmmmm, what does he have in that box?  The children all cheered with delight as they gazed in to see a little tiny  painted turtle.  Our came the tank, a rock gathered up and water put in before I could even say, "do we really need to have a turtle?"  The older children have fond memories of having a baby turtle when we lived in Sturgis.  It was a sad day when it died, but they loved the memories of it.  We'll try it again.  Before adding all the plants and such, we are leaving the tank sit to make sure it won't leak.  Then we'll figure out where to put our new pet and finish decorating the tank.  Everyone loves it!

Now the rains are over, the sun is coming out again, and the children are just giddy with their new pet.  Summer memories of 2014. :)