A New Friend

I really don't remember a time when we didn't have a pet kitty in the house.  But when something happened to the last one, I decided I wouldn't get another one.  I'd found out just how nice it was not having to worry about buying cat food or cleaning a litter box each day.  I had no intention of getting another one, in fact I never thought about it. 


Then one cold day last week, I got a call from my son Kyle.  He was just leaving the school where he teaches and asked if I would want a kitten to put out in our shop.  He said it looked cold and scared and he felt sorry for it.  I said sure, we can put it out there.  Fifteen minutes later, he walked in with a tiny little ball of fluff.  I said "Oh! No wonder you couldn't resist that!"  He said, "Yeah, I couldn't just leave it there."  The poor little thing was scared to death, skinny, and a little on the wild side.  I don't know what happened to separate him from his mamma, but it was obvious he wouldn't survive much longer without her.  Of course, I was hooked.  I made a little home for him in a shower stall we never use, fed him, and tried to tame him down.  Once, trying to pick him up, I scared him to death and he bit down on my little finger so hard it took me several seconds to get him to turn lose!  While cleaning the blood off my hand and applying a band-aide, it occurred to me that this was a stray kitten I knew nothing about.  After a few anxious moments worrying that I may get rabies, I realized I was being a little paranoid.  But I did jokingly tell my family, "If I start foaming at the mouth and growling at you, you better take me out and shoot me!"

Eddie sleeping by my computer as I work

It's been three days now, and he doesn't seem quite as skinny as he did, and he has a name.  Because of his coloring, I started calling him Tigger.  Then Mark said he thought I should call him Eddie because Kyle found him in front of the school where he is a special "ed" teacher.  I decided that was a better name for him, more original.

Eddie's starting to adjust to life away from the wild.  He's taken a liking to me and purrs continually whenever he's around me.  I can see the future holds buying cat food again, and cleaning a litter box each day, even though I had no intention of finding another cat.  I never counted on one finding me.

ABC's of Thankfulness

A - Autumn, so boring but so true!  I think Autumn is the most beautiful season of all but even more than that, especially after the hot, miserable summer we just had, Autumn is a sign to me from God that even after stressful miserable seasons in my life, I will live through it and I will see relief

B - Bryan, Brett, Bryce, Blake, Brandon, Burney and the soon to be two new Babies!

C - Caleb

D - Daughters in laws!  We could not have been given more wonderful daughters in laws.  Amanda and Dani are both beautiful, smart, sweet, and accept our crazy family ways.  But most important, they couldn't be a better fit for both of our sons

E - Elizabeth - My 97 year old mother who becomes more precious to me with each passing year

F - Friends - I have been blessed with some of the most amazing friends.  They are like me, they don't have a lot of time to hang out, they are too busy raising families and being a helpmate to their husbands, but they know, and I know, that if ever a need arises the others would be there with a shoulder to cry on, a hand to help, and a prayer to give

G - God!  My heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have lovingly guided me, gently rebuked me, been my guiding light, my unwavering support, and my everlasting hope

H -  Happiness - something I have been given an abundance of all of my life.  The only times I lacked it, was when I chose to feel sorry for myself rather than be happy

I - Immortality - Something we all have when we know Jesus.  Because this earth is not our permanent home, we can rest in the assurance that all will ultimately be well

J - Jamie and Josie!

K - Kristi, Karen, Kyle, Kyson, Kierstyn, Kollyn, and Kailyn!

L - Lexi - the one who made me a grandma, the one whom is becoming a young woman, who is so full of love and wisdom, but who is going through the usual Jr High problems that comes with that age and those new hormones.  The one whom I wish I could shelter from the hurt feelings that she will face, but who makes me realize that women of all times faced the same emotions, and she will get through them, just like I did, my mother did, and her mother did, and she will be stronger and smarter on the other side!

M -  Mark - He has been the biggest blessing God could have given me, to raise a family with him, to work with him, to play with him, to watch our children become wonderful adults with him, and to be a grandparent with him!

N -  Noise! - The noise of Mark working in the shop, and the trucks coming in and out of our drive, the noise of the vacuum running, the food frying, the noise of grandchildren squealing and playing, the noise of our children laughing and teasing one another, each and every noise represents something to be thankful for!

O- Onery little grandsons!  I love getting a call or a message on facebook telling of the latest things one of those little guys said or did!  They sure keep their mamma's on their toes!

P - Preston and Popcorn!

Q-Quart canning jars!  I have really gotten into canning this summer and I want to continue to do so this winter.  I love going down to my basement and see all the full, colorful jars greet me!

R - Ryan

S - Stacita and Shane, and all of my other son-in-laws, even though I've mentioned them all by name, I want to mention them again!  Just like our daughter in laws they would not be better if we'd handpicked them ourselves!  They are all hardworking men who provide well for their family's, love our grandchildren, and who make our daughters joyful and happy women!  What more could parents ask for!

T - Tyler

U - Underwear - I mean really who would want to go without them?  And to be perfectly honest - Granny Panties - they're comfortable and it's what I wear - so laugh all you want!

V-  Voluptuous Body - No, I am not using it as a complement, it sounds better than plump, or chubby, or worst of all that mean "F" word.  Truth is, I would love to be forty pounds lighter but I'm not.  My body still catches hubby's eye, but more importantly it is strong and healthy!  It easily gave birth to six children, nourished them their first two years of life, it can do lots of physical labor and at fifty five years of age, I don't feel much different than I did at twenty five!

W-  Work - It feels so good after a day of working hard and getting a lot done.  There have been many times at the end of the day, I thank God for the gift of work and tell him I sure hope there is work to be done in heaven!

X - Extraordinary Life -  When I see on TV the lives that so many people are living, I cannot help but believe if you have love that lasts a lifetime, children who love you and each other, and it is the simple things in life like family, cooking, and gardening, that bring you joy, you are living an extraordinary life!

Y - Yogurt - My own homemade yogurt.  It is so easy and so good!  The first time I made it, it became just like cucumbers, tomatoes, and melons - ever since I ate the homegrown kind, I never buy them at the store because it doesn't even taste like the same thing!

Z - Zipcode - No, not the actual thing, but the fact that I no longer am working for the institution that uses them.  Although I am grateful for the money I made and the experience, I am so glad to be back home.  I like being able to plan a day with Mark or the girls without having to ask for a day off weeks in advance, I like being Mark's "Beck and Call" girl again, I like having time to enjoy homemaking and my bookwork instead of it just being a rush to get it all done so I can get to work

Things I Have Learned

Microwaving socks to warm them up is not a good idea

Teenagers physically require more sleep


Nothing is accomplished by using bad language, especially for a woman


You may not be able to choose anything else, but you can choose your attitude


Self pity is one of Satan's most effective tools


If you don't make time for friends you will lose them


If you want to feel good when you get older you have to exercise and eat right

Marriage is even better after 50

The less you try to manipulate situations, the quicker they correct themselves

People will always, ALWAY'S disappoint you , but no more than you have disappointed them

There are people who are only happy if they have a crisis going on in there life and therefore they create them

Don't drink a half jar of honey because you have heard that honey helps boost your immune system and you have been exposed to the stomach flu or you will never touch the stuff again as long as you live

Most people that you say you don't like, you find out you really do once you get to know them

A habit does not form in 21 days, for 21 days you choose to do something and then if you wake up and choose not to do it, the habit is "over"

Nothing is more peaceful than having a baby fall asleep in your arms

No one thinks alike, not even members of the same family, and that's OK

The happiest people are those who don't let the small things bother them

Snot nose teenagers grow up to be your very best friends

Husband's become "cool guy" when they are around other men, and laughing about it with the other wives is the antidote, not to make them stop, but helps you still like them after you go home

You can hold on to hurtful things that people say to you, but why would you want to?

Kids sports can bring out the best in parents and the worst in parents

When you read that fennel seed helps with indigestion, you should check and see if the grocery store sells a small bottle before you order five pounds from the internet

Mother's become more precious with age

It's not what you do through the day that makes you tired, it's what you didn't do that you should have

If it won't matter six months from now, it don't matter

The things you dread the most usually turn out to be no big deal

A walk in the snow, especially a woodsy area, is well worth the effort - and take your camera

It takes many many years to learn who you are and even more to learn to be yourself

True heroes very seldom get any recognition

When your kids grow up, you will forget what all you did for them and only be able to remember the things you didn't do - and they will assure you they remember what all you did and don't remember what you didn't

"A son is a son until he takes a wife, but a daughter is a daughter for the rest of her life", is a stupid saying and one that scares mothers with only son's and is absolutely NOT TRUE!

You remember and celebrate all the little milestones of your grandchildren's lives even more than you did with your children because you have more time

You need to read the Old Testament in order to fully grasp the New Testament

Worrying about and trying to live according to what other people think is a sure fire way to be miserable

And finally, if you are surrounded by people who love you, no matter what else your circumstances, you have been given the biggest blessing that God could ever give

The Night a Preacher Got Me In BIG Trouble!

Every Halloween our four girls come home to take their kids trick-or-treating, one of them even driving 3 1/2 hours in order to know her little ones are receiving candy from people she has known all her life.  The logistics of taking thirteen children including eight who are four years old and under makes for some very happy little cousins but some awfully exhausted mommy's.  But last year it was soooo much better thanks to our bus.  MaMa and PaPa strung orange lights on the inside of the bus, blew up orange and black helium balloons to tie on the back of each seat, and a plastic pumpkin lit up with electric lights peaked out the back window, saying hello to anyone driving behind us.  I was the official driver leaving the mommy's to the task of helping little ones get their robot box back on, their princess dresses in order, their candy bags back in each hand and lead their little goblins down the steps and out the door.

After a couple hours we adults and the little ones were getting tired and ready to call it a night. My three and a half year old grandaughter, Maddie Mae had come to sit on my lap as we drove slowly around town, her little face snuggled into my neck.  We tell the big kids we will go around one more block.  Up ahead we see one of our town's ministers handing out candy from his front porch.  He has been a minster in this town for a couple decades, knows everyone, everyone knows him and everyone just calls him Tom.  We pull up to the curb in our lit up bus, Tom sees us and brings the candy bag out to us to see what/who on earth this is.  When he sees and recognizes us he greets us all in his usual enthusiastic friendly way.  In his "preacher who loves everyone way",  he reaches down and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek.  Maddie Mae's little head popped up and stared at me, then at Tom and back at me again.  He gives all the kids candy then heads back to his house, us hollering goodbye and thank you and him hollering goodbye and your welcome.

  As I pull the door shut Maddie Mae with the most concerned little voice asks me, "MaMa, why did that man kiss you?"  I assure her that he was just Tom, and he loves everyone so he just gave me a quick kiss to say hello.  She laid her head back down, but soon, lifts up her head and again asks, "MaMa, why did that man kiss you?'  I laughed and tried again, I said, "Honey he is a person who loves everyone, just like Jesus loves us and so he just gave me a kiss on my cheek to say hello".  Down laid the little head again, for about ten seconds than popped back up with the same question.  I laughed and hollered at her mamma that this was really bothering her so Karen came up to the front to explain the same thing to her, that it was just Tom and Tom kisses everybody on the cheek when he says hello.  Maddie Mae looked at her and then at me, and laid her head down again, but it was quite obvious that she wasn't buying it.  As we drove on, I thought maybe Mommy had finally convinced her, but when we were almost home, her little head raised one more time, but this time she didn't have a question, she made a statement!   She looked me right in the eye and in all seriousness told me, "MaMa, PaPa needs us!"  I thought, Oh my word!  What is going on in this little childs mind!  "Honey," I told her, "You don't have anything to worry about, I love PaPa, and Tom was just saying hello.  Tom has a wife and he loves her, he was only saying hello, ok?"  She said a meek little okay and didn't say anything else.

 In all the excitement of getting home and the kids piling out the door, rushing in to dump, look over and count their haul, I forgot all about it.  But when I walked in the door, there was Maddie Mae standing beside PaPa in his recliner telling him all about it.  He said she was the first one in the door, ran right up to him and cupped her little hand around his ear and said "PaPa some man kissed MaMa!"  To Maddie Mae that trumped all the candy in the world and she took her duty to tell PaPa what had taken place very seriously indeed!  PaPa acted dutifully shocked and Oh so glad that Maddie Mae had let him know what had taken place in town!  We all cracked up as Maddie kept looking at me with such an accusatory look on her face.  PaPa thanked her over and over again for letting him know and he would take care of it and make sure that it NEVER happened again!  That seemed to reassure her, she went and joined the other kids and we never heard about it again.  But you better believe, I know how closely I'm being watched and I better not ever try pulling anything off on PaPa!   He has his very own little private detective ready to report my every move and if I do ever step out of line, I'm going to be in very big trouble indeed!

Water Shedding Dust

About a year ago I read the first Psalm and was struck by these verses:

Blessed is the man who's delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Psalm 1: 2 & 3

I remembered how in the few days prior, I had let my garden plants go too long without water and they had wilted down, looking like they were done.  But I watered them anyway and to my surprise the next morning they looked great and went on to produce more veggies.  I realized how the Psalm speaks to this very thing, not about plants, but to our hearts.  When I neglect time with God, (which I seriously had for months and months on end), never opening his word, my faith, my relationships, my everyday life became a dry shriveled, lifeless shell.  But once I made it a priority in my life to read his word and spend time in prayer, I felt alive again, full of life, hope, and renewed energy.  Bible reading and prayer, except for a few exceptions over the past year have been a wonderful beginning to each morning.

But lately, I have felt a restlessness, a critical spirit in my heart towards Mark and others, a mini-pity party taking root in my heart.  My bible reading for the day again took me to Psalm 1. As always, I am left in awe of God's timing, and his gentle rebukes as he uses His word to guide me back to the right path. Again I saw a "garden analogy".  We have about two acres west of our house.  The first half acre we use for our garden, west of that is a sparsely wooded area with no vegetation on the ground, just bare dirt.  Back in the corner of this area is where our turkey pen was.  When Mark and I watered and fed them each day we watched as the hose would hit the powdery dust on the ground and just run off the top.  It amazed us how when the dirt had gone for so long without rain, it would literally shed the water instead of let it soak in.  As I read the psalmist words above, I saw how that is exactly what I was doing.  I was reading God's word, but instead of letting it soak into my heart, I was letting it shed off my back.  Thank you Lord Jesus!  For opening my eyes to the way I have wasted your precious words!  I have been using them for entertainment, as a "feel good tonic" instead of for the precious life-giving resource that they are!  My new prayer is:

Lord, help me not be like the dust that sheds water,

When I read your word, let it penetrate my heart.  Amen

I Had It All Along!

This year I can finally quit figuring and re-figuring a number in my head to see where we are at.  This month we will have lived at our current house longer than we lived at the farm, where we lived our first 18 1/2 years of married life.  A place that was so full of memories, a place we brought all six babies home to!  A place that for our oldest ones contained all of their childhood memories, for our youngest, it is just a place they hear us talk about with hardly any memories of their own. Our oldest moved to this house just one month before her high school graduation, our boys were just five and six years old.

Like just about everything else in life, there were good things and bad things about life on the farm, but over the years, the bad memories faded and they were replaced with idealized memories.  Forgotten was the living seven miles from town and all the driving that entailed when raising six kids.  No longer did I remember driving the tractor for hours on end while Mark was working in town trying to feed our eight hungry mouths!  All I remembered was the sunsets I could see from my west windows, the peace and quiet, watching it rain from the porch swing, and the countless rainbows we saw on that same swing. I remembered hearing the birds sing in the morning, the frogs croak at night, and the coyotes howling at the moon.  Heck I even missed the way our old farmhouse would shudder and rattle in the wind!  I would complain that this house was so tight you couldn't even tell what the weather was doing outside!  

I spent several years mourning the loss of those scenes and those sounds and that peace and quiet.  All I saw here was the countless trucks Mark worked on and all I heard was the traffic on the highway our house is close to.  I would daydream about how nice it would have been if we could have kept the farmhouse as a weekend getaway.  Mark always assured me that it would have been a disaster trying to keep another house, keep the grass mowed, keep it insured, keep people out of it during the week if no one lived there.  And I could see his logic, but Oh, how wonderful it would have been to get away from everything and everyone, from all the noise of this place, to just go out and sit and watch the sunset.  More and more years passed and every now and then Mark would ask if I still missed the old farm and I would answer "Yeah, I do, I miss living in the country and the peace and quiet out there."

Late in the summer, about five years ago, we got in the habit of sitting in a lawn chair as the day came to an end, visiting with each other and our son who was still at home.  I saw that I could see the sunset very well from where we were sitting, and the few trees in the way didn't take away from the view, in fact, it seemed to add to it!  Every evening we would take a glass of tea and watch the sky turn orange and pink until the big red ball dipped below the horizon.  I also loved hanging my clothes on the line outside and that summer the locust serenaded me as I hung every basket.  And then we found an old hammock at a yard sale and put it up in a couple close trees in the back yard.  Although I must admit it doesn't get laid on very often (who has time?) one Sunday morning, I laid down in it, and looking up through the pine tree above me, I watched a couple birds playing on the branches and listened to the wind gently blowing through it's needles.  The sound reminded me of what you hear when you are hiking in the Colorado mountains.  I realized I hadn't heard a single vehicle drive by all morning, all I had heard was the soft wind and the birds twittering.   "Wow Lord," I thought, "look at all the years I have wasted pining away for what was no more, when what I so desperately thought I missed was right here in front of me all along!"  

It was an eye opening moment - a "what an idiot I am" moment, and a moment that helped me see the ways I had wasted precious days of my life wishing for something different then what I already had, not seeing that God had already given me all I thought I wanted and then some.  My idealized longings of life on the farm faded into the place of realistic memories that they should have occupied all along.  And now, when Mark and I are out for a country drive, and he asks me if I still miss the farm, I can honestly answer, "Nope! Not at all!"  Now I don't see the trucks and the highway, now I see what I've got, five acres to plant a huge garden, a massive yard with big shade trees for the grandkids to play in, big enough for an impromptu football or softball game, a big clothes line to hang my clothes on, a place for my chickens and turkeys - I'd say that's just about as peaceful and quiet and country as one can get!

Four of a Kind was Just Fine!.....then Surprise!

Although I ended up with a family of four girls and two boys, I can still very much relate to the mother's of all the same sex.  For eleven years we were the parents of four daughters.  We thought our four little girls were wonderful, but I well remember the comments of others and expectation of family every time we were expecting.  I know people just didn't stop and think before they spoke, but some of the things that came out of people's mouths were downright cruel.  Here are some of the ones I remember the most:

"Oh, I'm sorry!  I bet you were trying for a boy"

"Oh Darn!  Mark needs a boy!"

"Oh, another girl?  Well, better luck next time."

"Oh, I bet Daddy was awfully disappointed"

"Another girl?  Well, maybe you guy's need to just give up."

"Poor Dad"

"I beat you, I got a boy the first time!"  (Mark just rolled his eyes at this bundle of intelligence!)

When people heard we were expecting again, they always assumed we were "trying for a boy".  Nope, we actually weren't trying for anything.  Only one baby was planned out of the six, the others just happened.  I especially remember two times.  I remember who it was, where I was at, and how we were standing.  One was in a restaurant when they looked at my precious little baby I so proudly was showing off and said, "Oh another girl, well better luck next time".  I tell you, it was like a knife in my heart!  I finally got my wits about me and said "We are very lucky this time!  The second one was in the grocery store when again, I was so proudly smiling down at my sweet baby girl, showing her off, when the person said, "I bet Daddy was awfully disappointed"  Taking a deep breath I managed to smile and say"No Daddy is awfully proud of her!"

When you have four little girls and are expecting again, you just assume that you will have another little girl.  The thought of it being something else even seems a little foreign to you.  So when #5 arrived and the doctor said, "It's a boy!", I remember having to lean up and check for myself!  And sure enough, something definitely looked different!  I had only packed a little pink dress to bring the baby home in, but the girls came to the rescue, going through our baby clothes at home and finding a little white sleeper that they cut the lace off of!  Of course we were excited to have a boy, but it was not the ultimate goal of our lives as so  many people thought.  Again, people would speak without thinking, right in front of the four big sisters.  Then we heard things like "Finally!  Now you can quit!"  or "Oh I bet your're so happy you finally got a boy!"  I was so proud that Mark always answered, "Yes we are, but no happier than we were when we had our girls!"  And man, it really blew everyone's mind when nine months later we were expecting again.  Then we heard, "Oh, Wow, I figured you guy's would be done once you finally got your boy!"

Well, that boy we got, the one that we brought home in a white sleeper with the lace cut off, and the one who along with his younger brother introduced us to a whole new set of hormones, toy guns, bows and arrows, endless ballgames, and living room wrestling matches, turns twenty five years old today.  And although he is no more special than his sisters, he still holds a special place in all of our hearts!  Happy Birthday Bryan Mark Ricke!

Fall Cucumbers

  Because of the extreme heat this summer, our cucumber harvest was virtually nill.  Still hungry for the taste of fresh picked cucumbers I looked up our state extension recommendations for planting cucumbers for a Fall harvest.  Much to my surprise, there was none!  It said cucumbers should be planted in the month of May for a July harvest, and although there was lots of other vegetables suggested to plant for Fall, the cucumber was not one of them.  I decided to ignore what they said and give it a try, All it would cost was the price of a packet of seeds.  I planted at the end of August and this is what I picked today, with many more coming on!  Sometimes you just gotta go with your heart instead of your brain!

Delivering Miss Jamie

Twenty nine years ago today, I gave birth to our youngest daughter Jamie.  Her birth was one of those where I can really impress people with my "strength" and "courage" and "stamina"!  Not the labor and delivery, but what I was doing before that point!

We were still back in our farming days and I was driving the tractor working the ground ahead of the wheat drill.  As I went around and around I started feeling those old familiar twinges and realized that we were going to have a baby that night.  It didn't seem too serious so I wasn't overly concerned.  It was back before cell phones and although the tractor I was in had a cab and a two way radio, the one Mark was driving didn't.  I knew within a few rounds I would catch up to Mark and let him know.  Then I saw Mark drive his tractor over to the corner of the field where the trucks that held the fertilizer and wheat were, he backed up and filled the drill up.  I stopped at the corner waiting on him to come back, but instead he climbed into the truck and drove off!  I couldn't follow because the cultivator I was pulling had to be manually folded up to get through the gate to go home and I dang sure didn't want to walk the three miles home so I kept working the field.  I was getting a little nervous when I fianlly saw the dust flying on the road letting me know he was on his way back, but his cousin was behind him.  I saw them both get out and start talking.  I know it was dumb, but I was embarrassed to go over and say anything in front of the cousin, so again, I kept going.  Finally he headed over.  He came up to my tractor, climbed the steps to see how I was doing and I told him.  Being it was number four, neither one of us were overly concerned.  I said I don't think I'm that close but I am going to go home and take a bath.  He said alright, he would just finish cultivating with the tractor I had been driving, because there was only about twenty minutes left, then he could bring that tractor home.  Sounded good to me.  He drove me over to the trucks, I climbed out of the tractor and into the wheat truck and drove home.

 But,once I got home and was on my feet walking around, taking a shower, getting dressed, I realized things were moving along a lot faster than I thought!  I called him on the radio to say "You better hurry home, this is a lot more serious than I thought"  Of course he had to raz me saying, "You've waited nine months, you can wait another few minutes for me to get done".  "NO MARK!" I stressed, "YOU NEED TO GET HERE!"  Of course he was already heading home full speed ahead.  Once home he took a quick shower and we headed to town.  When we got there the doctor did a quick check and said I was ready to go to the delivery room!  "Wow", I said, "I just got off the tractor thirty minutes ago"  Fifteen minutes later we met our little Jamie!

 Again, I would love to end saying something like "Yeah that was back when women were women!" or something equally as dumb, but the truth is it only shows how very easy birth came for me - but it still makes a great story!

Gateway to Joy

For years my family have teased me about my planner.  Of course, I really can't blame them.  I sometimes think I can have borderline obsessive compulsive disorder and one way it can make itself known is through my planner. I have been known to write something down that I already accomplished, just so I can check it off!  But the few times I have gotten out of the habit of using it, I found that I just "spun my wheels", feeling disorganized, disoriented and discouraged.  So, even though I get teased mercilessly about it, I continue to write down each little task I want to accomplish the next day.  There is one danger though, and that is to become too engrossed in pursuit of that little check mark!

This morning I started out my morning in my usual way, walking Mark to the shop, filling his water pitchers, looking for any tickets I needed to take to the house and so on.  Mark started walking around picking up tools and saying what a mess he had out there, how many tools he was missing and the more he talked the more stressed his voice sounded.  I helped him pick up a few things, but my main objective was getting out of there and getting back to the house to start on the "list".  I said, "Well, maybe we should get up early on Monday mornings and we could come out and clean for a couple hours each week."  Then I finally stopped and listened to that still small voice telling me he's feeling stressed today, he needs my help today.  So, I took a couple hours and helped him put up some tools, and straightened his office.  I still think the Monday idea is a good one, but when I stopped to remember that my biblical role as a wife is to be my husband's helper, I saw that he needed some help and some company right then, not several days later!

I have always loved Elisabeth Elliot www.elisabethelliot.org and her writings.  She always says that one of the ways we serve God is to "die to self" and the way we do that is to do the thing we should do instead of the thing we  want to do, (with a cheerful attitude)  It always amazes me though, when ever I do that, the thing I ought to do becomes the thing I want to do.  I actually enjoyed helping Mark clean this morning and there wasn't a single thing on my list that I would have rather been doing. Another Elisabeth quote "Anything, if offered to God, can and will become your gateway to joy"  Even something as simple and easy as cheerfully helping clean a shop, cheerfully cooking dinner, cheerfully wiping a little nose a dozen times a day, cheerfully reading the ABC library book again, cheerfully_______________ you fill in your "gateway to joy!"

DEER - not Dear!

Mark and I were just heading out to the local garage sales yesterday when we got a call from son-in-law Ryan.  They were on their way to Lexi's volleyball tournament when a deer got in their way and their old Suburban was history.  We told them to sit tight, we would be there soon.  Calls were made to locate a car trailer, Mark took off with it to bring the "Burb" home and I followed in another pickup, feeling so badly for them as we knew getting another vehicle was not in their plans.

Once we got there, along with lots of grandbaby hug's, we got the scoop on how it all went down.  Seems Ryan was talking to Karen and had glanced over at her when she instinctively put her hands across her six month pregnant tummy and loudly said "Deer!"  Ryan kept looking at her and said "What?"    "DEER!"  She yelled and he again asked "WHAT?"  He said he was worried she was going into premature labor because she kept holding her stomach yelling "Dear".  Of course by that time it was too late and when it was all said and done and the Burb had come to a halt in the ditch, Ryan looked at her and said "Oh my gosh Karen, what did I just hit!!!!!???" I guess she calmly looked at him and deadpan replied  "Deer - the same word I've been yelling at you for the last quarter mile!"

But they are a couple who don't sweat the small stuff, or even the big stuff.  Even though it sure wasn't what they would have chosen, they knew all that mattered was no one was hurt, (except the deer) any vehicle can be replaced, and Karen now has a great story to tell on Ryan. We got the Burb loaded and the kids car seats exchanged into our pickup, we headed home with the Burb and they headed off in the pickup to go vehicle hunting.  And if it ever happens again, hopefully Karen will have enough time to yell out "Large brown mammal standing in the road!"

Long Live Our Latest Fad!

My four girls and I tend to mimic each other. When one gets into something, we all do!  Calls go out about what we discovered that really works and we all have to try it.  We've gone on exercise binges together, money saving binges together, and organization binges together.  Our latest "fad", as my husband calls it, was couponing.  Stacie showed us how we could get a lot of groceries for free or a few cents using coupons and watching the sales and we were all hooked.  We scrambled around trying to find as many newspapers as possible, then spent hours upon hours cutting and organizing the coupons we had.  Preparing a shopping list, instead of a few minute ordeal, could easily turn into a couple hour ordeal.  We stuck with it a few months, but then we started realizing how much of it was pure D junk food that we were bringing home.  Slowly we realized, no matter how much we saved, this was not the way we wanted to spend our time or the way we wanted to eat.  Even though each of us have enough free toothpaste to last us the rest of our lives, no one was more glad to see that phase leave than us!  Now, on to the next one............

And that is healthy eating.  We are all learning what the healthiest most natural foods are, how to find them, how to cook them, and how to get our families to eat them.  I've told my husband that this isn't one of our fads, this one will last!  He just laughs and says "We'll see".  Who can blame him?  Heck, we all laugh at ourselves!  But..........I really think this one is a keeper.  Jamie went to whole, natural foods about a month before we did, and she was able to lose the ten pounds that have plagued her ever since her last baby.  The others are learning just how much fun they are having cooking and serving their family good, wholesome meals that they feel really good about.  Karen pretty much started this trend when she started a private group on FB about healthy eating and it just exploded with people wanting to learn also.  We have a couple people on there who are very knowledgeable and have given us loads of information.  I know I have learned some things, that are quite honestly, completely different than what doctors have told us.  Since I have a husband who is a cardiac patient, I didn't just believe everything that I saw, but having checked it out and researched it, I found that most everything new we were learning is fact.  And then I read an article by Dr. Oz, a cardiologist himself, who validated all of the things I had been questioning, like the benefits of whole dairy products and coconut oil.  I've learned that when you take all the fat out of milk and other dairy products, you are left with too high a concentration of natural sugars which interacts in a potentially harmful way with your insulin.  And that the fat in butter is a lot better for you than the fat in margarine and it has nutrients like vitamins A & D instead of just being empty calories.  And that coconut oil, once thought to be the worst possible saturated fat known to mankind is actually full of nutrients that majorly boost your immune system, and in countries that use a lot of coconuts and coconut oil there is hardly any cardiovascular disease.  BUT, the most important thing is MODERATION!  Such a hard concept to grasp on to!  But, I have found, that when I know that what I am using is high in fat, I pay attention to how much I am using and portion size whereas when I was using low or no fat, I didn't.  

 I do have to admit, eating this way does make me feel better and have more energy.  And feeding Mark whole, unprocessed foods, and paying attention to what we are eating feels a lot better than worrying about what I've been feeding him that might be clogging up that "Oh so precious" new plumbing in his heart!   So here's to our latest "fad" - may it live a long and healthy life!

Poisonous Watermelon Vines?

 Almost thirty years ago, I came down with the most horrible case of poison ivy.  I got it from helping cut and load firewood that unbeknownst to us was full of the stinkin' vines in the summer, but since it was winter we didn't notice it.  One would think that since they were dead they wouldn't be potent, but since we were cutting into them -  they were!  There was not an inch on my upper body that was not covered with it!  The doctor had me come into his office every night for a shot and to see how I was doing.  The only reason he didn't admit me in the hospital was because I was exclusively nursing a four month old baby, which wasn't easy in the condition I was in!  My mother stayed with us and took care of both me and the kids.  Once I finally recovered though, there was a silver lining, I learned what every single poisonous plant in our area looks like and I stay a mile away from anything that even remotely resembles one.  So the dreaded, torturous rash was just a bad memory from the past.

Until a couple weeks ago.  And the worst part is, I have no idea where I got it!  I have been nowhere other than my own yard and garden.  Thankfully, it never went anywhere but my lower legs, but that just adds to the puzzle.  If Mark had gotten into it and I got it off his clothes, I would have had it on my arms.  That morning, I had waded through our watermelon and cantalope vines looking for melons and they came up about knee high, but who has ever heard of poisionous melon vines?!?  I tried to stay sensible about it, telling myself there has to be an explanation, but I would go out to the garden and feel a blade of grass, a leaf, or a weed touch my leg and literally run back to the house in a panic.

I took it for a week, treating myself with all the home remedies that I knew of, but it kept getting worse and spreading.  I looked on the internet for other home remedies.  One said to scrape all the blisters open, wipe it down with bleach and then rub salt in the wounds!  I thought, Yeah, Right!  I could also pour gunpowder on my legs and set them on fire but I don't think I'm quite that desperate yet!  Finally after much prodding from kids and hubby I went to the doctor.  After being put on Prednisone I started seeing improvement right away.   Why do we resist the doctor so?  (Could it be the $2500 deductible?)  Even though I don't like the way the Prednisone makes me feel, all jittery inside, at least I am not having suicidal thoughts from the insane itch anymore!  Now, if I can just conquer my new-found fear of watermelon vines!

Right Tune, Wrong Song

There's a new song playing on the radio now by Billy Currington that has the most catchy tune, one that stays in your mind long after it stop's playing.  When you hear it's first notes you can't help but feel a little more peppy and start to sing along.  The only thing is - I hate the words!  It's about a couple who don't love each other anymore and how they should just face the inevitable and call it quits.  The song says, it's no ones fault, but the bells have stopped ringing, the music won't play and that "crazy little feeling" has faded away, it's just Love Done Gone!  I'm always annoyed when it comes on.   A song with these words should not have a catchy, happy tune:

"Like snowflakes when the weather warms up,
Like leaves on the trees when the autumn comes,
Like the dogwood blossoms in the late spring rains,
Like a red kite lost in the big blue sky
It's just love done gone"

But you know as I look at all the above analogies, I see something completely different.  Do you remember late spring snows when the flakes were so big and fluffy you couldn't help but comment on how pretty they were, and then how fast the snow melted leaving needed moisture behind?  And who on earth would not say the leaves on the trees are at their most beautiful in the fall even though you know before long they will fall off?  And yes, the spring storms may knock all the pretty blossoms off the trees and bushes, but in our neck of the woods this year, we found out what a summer without those spring storms was like - brown grass, dried up ponds, rivers, and a temperature so hot most of our gardens wouldn't produce anything!  And I remember flying  kites with the kids and our theory was the more string and the higher we got it to go the better!  It was extremely hard to keep track of that small red dot in the sky, but Oh, how excited the kids would be when one of them spotted it screaming "There it is!" and pointing it out to the rest of us.

I actually agree with the verses, I just come to a different conclusion.  I remember the days in our earlier married days when things were more difficult, disagreements came more often, and ugly words were said.  The storms could come on suddenly, without warning, and leave devastation in their wake.  Sometimes the loving feelings could be awfully hard to find, but when we found them again, the days without were quickly forgotten and we discovered that the  rainy days had watered and nurtured the future, making it that much easier and sweeter.  I try to tell young woman that I am around, that if they lovingly and prayerfully work through the tough times when they are young, struggling to make a living and raise a family, doing their best to put each other first, they will be rewarded with a second honeymoon when they get older and the nest empties.  I think God intended for marriage to get better and better as we get older and I think the troubles he guides us through earlier is all part of the process. We grow and learn from them to make the later years even better.

So now I don't have to cringe when I hear the song come on, I can sing along with Billy with one exception, when he comes to the end of each chorus and sings "It's just Love Done Gone", I belt out louder than him that "IT'S JUST LOVE GOIN' STRONG!"

Yes, I Flirt With Turkeys!

 There are dog people and there are cat people, me, I'm a poultry person!  For the past several years, I have had a little flock of chickens who have provided me with wonderful fresh eggs and meat.  Yes, I love my chickens, but when I got them, I knew I had to keep things in prospective, so I call them "pets with a purpose". I did learn the hard way not to name them though, so now I just call them "Ladies". Except for the rooster, who being the "cock of the walk", so to speak, I thought  needed a name, and that name is Gilbert.  He is a Buff Orpington, a breed that is very calm and not aggressive, so he should live a very long and happy life.  Unknowingly, the first rooster I got, named Willie, was a  Rhode Island Red.  Too late, I read that they are a very aggressive breed and he loved to attack me whenever I had my back turned.  On more than one occasion I chased Willie around the chicken yard with a board screaming that I was going to kill you little sob  and that he wasn't near so tough when I had a weapon was he!?!?  (Yes, he would make me so mad I would bring out the cuss words)  Once, I looked up for an instant, and saw a couple dozen golfers across the highway, shading the sun from their eyes with their hands and looking my way.  I realized that the chicken yard's fence was full of weeds, therefore they had no idea I was chasing a rooster, for all they knew I was just running around my yard with a board cussing and screaming that I was going to kill someone or something.  I should have been beyond embarrassed, but instead I got a good laugh out of it.  Willie attacked me one time too many and he ended up flavoring a big pot of homemade noodles.

Once you have tasted eggs that are fresh from the nest of hens who get to run around, bask in the sun, scratch in the dirt eating grass and other natural foods, you will never go back to a store bought egg again.  I know, before I got them I thought an egg is an egg, but now I know different.  The guy's out in the shop like to tease me about my "happy chickens".  But when they are lucky enough to receive my surplus eggs they say my "happy eggs" taste awfully good!  Mark, bless his heart, not only puts up with my poultry hobby, he does everything he can to make it easy for me to take care of them.  He has made me a bin so I can have my feed right there and it only takes a few seconds to fill their feeder, and he even put a water hydrant inside their pen to make it easy to water them.  What a guy!  Is it any wonder I love him so much?!?

This year we tried something new.  We raised turkey's.  This picture was taken on May 1st, the day I brought them home.  The above picture, taken this morning, is of one of the Tom's, at four months old.  We ended up with six Tom's and one hen.  Since we were raising them for meat, I guess that is a good thing!   We have got such a kick out of  them!  We can't BELIEVE how much they eat!  We learned they like to eat weeds so every morning we pull weeds out of our garden and take them a couple big handfuls.  It makes pulling weeds so much more enjoyable when you are pulling them for a reason!  Once they see us coming, we hear them gobbling for us to hurry up!   We had heard they could get mean, especially the Tom's, but they are so gentle and tame. When I am feeding them they come and stand about a foot from me and watch what I am doing.  I have even got in a pet or two, but I can't say they enjoyed it, they tolerated it if they couldn't get away from me.  As the Tom's get closer to maturity, whenever I go out to take care of them, they puff themselves out and spread their tail feathers, turning this way and that way to show off the whole time I'm out there.  I go on and on telling them how handsome they are, and I swear,  they eat it up and try to puff themselves up even bigger!

 The kids have asked why we have them, isn't it cheaper to just go buy one at the grocery store and a whole lot easier?  The answer is YES and YES!  I do think it will be nice knowing the turkey I am eating this winter will have been fed no antibiotics or anything else unnatural, and that they spent their life in an uncrowded area, and like the chickens, out in the sunshine and fresh air, scratching in the dirt and eating greens and other natural things.  But the way they have eaten in the past and the way I am sure they will eat in the next month or so, they will cost about double what one would cost in the grocery store!  But who can put a price on the fun we've had raising them!

Although I do keep things in perspective, reminding myself they are "pets with a purpose",  I don't at all look forward to the dirty deed that comes before you clean them.  I don't mind the butchering process once the deed is done, but thankfully, hubby dear knows the first part is hard on me and he is willing to do it for me.  But as the turkeys get bigger, and we know the day is coming closer, both of us are beginning to realize getting one of these forty to fifty pound birds to the table is not going to be quite as easy as it is with a chicken.  But I imagine with the help on an old homesteading book we will get it figured out, and if that fails, there is always the internet.  Come Thanksgiving, when I host my extended family for dinner, I'll feel that much more like a pilgrim/pioneer, knowing my Turkey, Potatoes, Sweet potatoes, Green Beans, Apple's for pie, Broccoli, and Corn will have all came from our own back yard and were grown with no pesticides, no herbicides, no hormones, and no chemical fertilizers, just lots and lots of love!

An Empty Chair

There is a special corner in my husband's shop that will long be remembered by the people who know him.  It is the area with the coffee pot, and the refrigerator full of water, pop, beer, gatorade, and popscicles.  There is a table which you can barely see the top for all the shop manuals on it, but you can always find a big container of unshelled peanuts or pretzels.  There are several chairs, mostly tall bar stools that we have picked up at garage sales.  All of this sits beside an old wood stove and in the winter there is a huge pile of wood that keeps this little area warm and inviting, as long as we don't forget to throw a log in it every now and then.  At least a couple times in the winter, I will take some straightened wire hangers and a bunch of hot dogs out to the shop so Mark, me, and the customers out there at that time, can eat roasted hot dogs for lunch.  When I go out for any reason, because Mark needs me to help him just a minute, or I've returned with a part for him, or I need to ask him something, I usually get an invitation to sit down for a minute.  We visit, have a cup of coffee and play with the dog, throwing pretzels in the air for him to catch.

  With him being the owner as well as the worker, there is no such thing as a closing time.  "Quitting" time comes when he is tired and he says "I've had enough!"  That time is somewhere around six in the winter and seven in the summer.  When I go out to the shop around that time, there is always a group of five or six men sitting around the wood stove with Mark, eating pretzels, peanuts, or popscicles, drinking a pop or a beer and shootin' the breeze.  I have sometimes been amazed at the conversations that I have come upon.  Of course the local gossip is told as well as discussions about how to fix things that are broken down. Young guys get teased and razzed about girlfriends or other things going on in their lives.  Jokes are told, ideas are shared.  But there are also deep conversations about faith, life, death, what the future holds, how important family is to each other and so on. On more than one occasion, the older men have talked about mistakes they have made in their past and what they had learned from them.  I think there is more than one young man who has benefited from the things they told, and possibly even been stopped from making a bad decision.

Yesterday, we attended the funeral of one of the "good old boys" who frequented this little corner of our shop.  He had fought the cancer living in his body for years and fought it valiantly, but it finally won.  Mike was a guy who didn't know a stranger.  He had such a unique personality, you never spoke to him without laughing and leaving the conversation feeling more joyful than you came.  His funeral was touching in so many ways.  Hearing how the minister came to love and be inspired by him even though he had only known him for a few short weeks.  Hearing him tell how Mike knew he was going home to be with Jesus and the peace it brought to him and his family.  Seeing his plain, pine wood, casket be brought to the burial spot on his ranch, in a wagon pulled by a team of horses.  Mike had been a volunteer firefighter for twenty four years and at the end of the short graveside service, we heard one of the other firefighters radio squawk and the dispatcher called for him.  She did it three times and then another voice came over the radio advising the dispatcher that Mike had taken his final call.  The dispatcher than told all other units that Mike would no longer be taking any calls, and she ended by saying "Good bye and God Bless".  There was not a dry eye in the place.  A fitting tribute to a life well lived and a man who will be missed by many.

Lying in bed last night, I pulled out a book called "Last Flight, Lone Survivor".  It's about a man who was the only person to survive a plane crash, who was in a coma for three days with injuries no doctor thought were survivable.  He then relates the things he experienced during those three days, knowing without a doubt that he visited heaven during that time.  I read the things he wrote about, seeing himself leave his body, go rushing through the darkness toward a light, accompanied by two angels, coming to a beautiful city of gold, with vivid colors he had never seen, with beautiful sounds and a fragrance so beautiful he could not even begin to describe them in words.  Feeling a love that we don't even know here on earth, being drawn to the center of this city and knowing that he was about to meet Jesus before he was suddenly dropped back to earth.  I envisioned Mike experiencing all of this, being amazed with all he was seeing, being free from the pain and worries of this life, and I smiled.  I just wish God would let him come back one more time, to sit in one of our bar stools and tell us all about it.  I have a feeling all other conversation would cease as Mike would tell us that nothing else matters, that all worries of this life are not worth worrying about, that our lives are such a small little speck of time in the spectrum of eternity.  He would tell us to stop sweating the small stuff, to stop worrying about "things," how to get them, and how to keep them, to just concentrate on loving one another the best we can until we get to join him in that golden city above, where there are no problems, no tears, no worries, and the warmth never leaves, even if someone forgets to throw another log on the fire!

Uncle Benny

How many people can say they know someone who was attacked by a bull?  How many people can say they know an eighty three year old man who had his pelvis crushed when attacked by that bull, who not only lived to tell about it, but who six months later is walking like nothing ever happened?  I would guess that puts the people in my area in a relatively small group of people.  And Mark just happens to be related to him, it is his Uncle Benny.

It all started last January when we had record breaking cold temperatures in this area.  Benny still loved helping his son on their dairy farm and nothing could have kept him from being out there even though the temperature was 17 degrees below zero and who knows what the wind chill was!  While his son was finishing up in the dairy barn, Benny drove the pickup out to a water hydrant that they used to keep the cows watered.   The hydrant had frozen up overnight so he brought a couple buckets full of hot water with him.  He says he remembers pouring the water and then all of the sudden he was flying through the air.  The more than 2000 pound bull was relentless as it kept coming after him again and again.  He remembers trying to climb back into the pickup to get away from him but not being able to.  That is about the last thing he remembers.  When his son realized that his Dad should have returned he went out to see what the problem was, and that is when he found him underneath the pickup.  The first person to respond to the 911 call was a neighbor who is a volunteer fire fighter and heard the call come over his radio.  He later told Mark that when he first saw Benny he thought it was already too late.  When they got him to the emergency room, the people there thought the same thing.  He was air lifted to a larger hospital and the family was told to expect the worse.  He was given twenty units of blood just to keep him alive.  I can only imagine what his family went through those first few days.  I know every day we expected to hear bad news.

But Benny had other plans.  It seemed like each day we heard more encouraging reports.  First of all, when he was stabilized, they were able to take him into surgery, and although he had a shattered pelvis that had to be put back together with plates, screws and who knows what other hardware, he had no injury to any internal organs.   Then we heard that he was awake and eating.  It was hard to believe he was really doing as good as they said, but before we knew it, he was back in the local hospital and we were able to see it for ourselves.  Whenever we went to visit him, he was always in such a good mood and had such a positive attitude.  He was able to sit in a wheel chair but could put absolutely no weight on his feet for three months. That was his only complaint, he was sure if they would only let him stand up he could walk out of there!

Eventually of course, the long months in the hospital were over and he got to go home.  His wife Betty and their children, expecting many months, if not years of rehabilitation went to work on their home making the rooms wheelchair accessible, and had a lift put in.  Tonight we went and visited them and they showed us all of the changes they had made to their home.  The wonderful thing was though, Benny walked around showing us all of these things, without a cane or any other kind of support, even walking up and down the stairs!  They laughed as they told us they really never needed all of this.  But we all agreed that it is still a good thing.  Maybe in twenty years, when they are old (like over one hundred), they might need it then and they will already have it in place.  But, I wouldn't bet on it,  I have a feeling Mark and I might need those things before they do!  

I know that his experience amazes me!  Who would have ever thought an eighty three year old man could survive such trauma, let alone completely recover in such a short time frame?  There is a lesson to be learned here, it is a testimony to prayer, to a body kept strong and healthy by good old fashioned work, a positive attitude, and the love of a family.  I know that if someday, I have to face a "bull" of my own, those are four things I want in my arsenal.

The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round.....

One evening about a year and a half ago Mark was killing time looking through internet auction sights when he saw a city bus for sale.  He hollered at me to come take a look and said we ought to buy this for our family.  I wholeheartedly agreed so our bid was placed.  All of our kids were so excited hearing of this and I think every one of them was glued to the computer when the auction time ended.  I was at work delivering mail watching the clock myself, eagerly anticipating the call saying if we won it or not.  The phone rang about four times in a row letting me know that WE NOW OWN A BUS!!!  I think all my co-workers thought we were nuts, but they thought we were nuts anyway because of the size of our family so this just gave them a little more proof!  When I got off work, my son and hubby were waiting and we headed out on the road to pick "her" up.  Filling it up with gas for the drive home was a bit of a reality check, but heck, how can you put a price on fun and family togetherness!  We went home through the town most of the kids live in, picked them all up and cruised for about thirty minutes and thought we were having the time of our lives!  We chatted happily about what all  we were going to do with it.  We tried to come up with a good name for it, but having never settled on one, it is affectionately just known as "the bus".

Every trip when I sit down in the drivers seat or one of the passenger seats I get a very pumped feeling!  It just adds an element of fun when we all ride together.  Makes it feel like that much more of an adventure.  Many of the trips we've gone on, us women and children end up singing at the top of our lungs. Sometimes Christmas Carol's, sometimes other songs we all know.  We always have to break out "The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round!"  They have never said so, but I imagine all the men are very thankful when we come to the end of our songs!

So far the bus has been on local geo-caching trips and took a load of us to Kyle and Dani's college graduation reception.  It has taken all of us girls to Amanda's bridal shower, taken us on two or three picnic outings to Great Grandma's house.  Has taken Granny and her brother and his wife and several of us out to eat at a well known bar and grill situated way out in the boonies.  It has surprised many grandkids when it pulled up to their house all decked out with lights, balloons and banners, full of family and friends ready to celebrate their birthday at a surprise location.  We filled it to the brim with kids, orange lights, balloons and battery powered jack-o-lanterns to go trick or treating last year.  The mommy's said it made the night much MUCH easier and funner for them!  Then when December came we decked it out in red, green, and white balloons and lights to go Christmas Caroling and light seeing.  Shortly thereafter it helped make our oldest grandaughter's "coming of age" party more festive as we took her out for a special night.  This spring it took the family on a trip to the zoo.

Our latest adventure with the bus was to take the entire family to a lake camp about two and half hours away.  You would not believe how fast the miles go by when you have all the people you love laughing and talking in the same vehicle.  Knowing that so many of the ones you love are in the same vehicle is a little concerning, so when we first start out we all pray for safety and thank God profusely when we get home.  I especially like to think about the memories we are making for all the little ones who are going to grow up thinking everyone has a family bus and fills it up with cousin's, aunt's, uncle's and grandparents.  I can honestly say it is the best thing we've ever purchased and when, hopefully in the distant future, it breathes it's last, I can guarantee that we will be online looking for another one.  But we already know that next time we'll have to look for a bigger one.  We are already too big for this one.  Twenty three of us went to the lake and we had to bring a pickup along to not only help hold the luggage, ice chests and other equipment, but also the people who wouldn't fit.

I don't know where our next adventure will take us, but I can relate to the song my granddaughter Wiggy likes to sing when we first pull the bus out on the highway......"On the road again, I just can't wait to get on the road again!"

Fish Hook!

Do you ever have experiences happen to you that make you think "something like this would only happen to me!"  Seems like I have one of those about once a month or so, but today was a doozy!

It all started with a call from hubby dear, asking me to run into town and get him 20 gallons of hydraulic fluid.  Off I went to our local Co-op, went into the office and told the girl what I needed.  She told me it was located in the hay shed and told me where to go.  She said she would send someone out there as soon as they could to load it for me.  I drove around to the back of the building and even though no one is around, I jumped out and let the tailgate down.  The back of the pickup is full of stuff because this weekend we went to a nearby lake with all the kids and grandkids and I hadn't cleaned it all out yet.  I was in the process of moving stuff around so the jugs of oil would fit when I noticed a not very pleasant smell.  I lifted up the lid of an ice chest and sure enough, some meat was left in there.  Thinking that I need to get that out of there when I get home, I shut the lid and started to step away from the pickup when I felt something sharp go into my forearm.  Much to my horror I look down to see a big fish hook very deep in my arm.  I tug on it a little and that suddenly made me remember what they always say about fish hooks having barbs and that you have to push them the rest of the way through in order to get them out.  At that precise moment I knew without a doubt that what they say is absolutely 100% true!   I take a couple seconds to access the situation.  I have this hook deep in my arm, the hook is on a large pole that has two heavy ice chests on top of it, and I can't move.   I think a little, I cry a lot, I holler "can anybody help me",  but no one is there to hear.  Thankfully I had my cell phone, so I got it out of my pocket and try to decide who to call.  Mark is several miles away and I don't think I want to wait that long so I dial the Co-op's  office number.  It doesn't ring.  I try again and again and again.  I am in the bright sun and can hardly see the screen.  Finally I realized the stupid phone is froze up.  (I am sure anyone who has a Samsung phone knows what I am talking about)  So I wait and wait and wait for what seemed like hours.  Finally it starts working again, I made the call and with a very stressed weepy voice say "This is going to be the weirdest phone call you will ever receive, but I have a fish hook stuck in my arm and I can't move so could you please bring a scissors out and cut me free!"   She must have run like the dickens because she was there in no time flat, she and three guys all show up at the same time. I don't know if the three men just happened to show up to load my oil or if they all thought, "Man, I have got to see this!"  I did think one of them was going to pass out.  The sweet girl cut the fishing line which set me free and asked if I needed them to take me to the doctor.  Even though I couldn't stop crying, I felt fine and I said "No, I'm okay, I'm just mad it happened."  So I headed home, gave Mark his oil, showed him my boo-boo, and when he reached his hand out while looking at it I screamed "NO, don't touch it!"  He said, "Norma, I'm not going to but it's got to come out, let me take you to the hospital!"  I said "No, I'm fine, I'm going."  It took a little bit to convince him that I was alright and could drive myself but I finally did and headed back to town.

Feeling like a real idiot because I can't stop crying, they get me in immediately to the sound of my voice telling them "We have to deaden this, PLEASE tell me you are going to deaden this!!!!!!!!!!"  They told me of course they would deaden it so I felt better but still the tears flowed.  I told them I was sorry I was being such a wuss but they said if they had that in their arm they would be a wuss too.  The deadening shot hurt worse than the hook going in but I'm sure it made the removal a tremendous amount more bearable than it would have been without it.  Once the doctor said it was out I felt like a new person.  The nurse told me I did really good, that most men who come in to have one taken out usually pass out before it is done.  So maybe my endless river of tears wasn't so bad after all.

I guess that's one more thing I can cross off of life experiences - I can now say I have had to have a fish hook removed from my body.  I would like to leave you with a "The moral of this story is..............."  But since the only moral is so stinkin obvious I'm just going to go out and do it!  I'm heading out to finish cleaning out the pickup, get the stinky meat out of the ice chest, clean it and the others, remove the fishing poles, snap them in two, run over them with the truck several times, burn them in a very hot fire, and scatter the ashes into the wind!

Not Too Young

On July 4th, 1974, at 2:00 PM,  I was getting married for the second time.  People who were guests at the church where I walked down the isle, had no idea that we were already married and that they were only watching a formality.  One hour earlier, Mark and I said our vows to each other in a hospital waiting room with only our witnesses, parents, and minister present.  We did this so my Dad who was in the hospital with cancer could be with us.  I was seventeen years old and three months pregnant.  Mark had just barely turned nineteen.  I wish I had a dollar for every time we heard that we were too darn young.  I can only imagine the people who were placing wagers on if we would even last a year.  So far, we have been true to our vows.  We stuck with it through times when we were at our best and more times when we were at our worst. (For better for worse)  We have finally made it to a time when it isn't such a struggle financially, but we have seen tough, uncertain times that came from farming and from raising six children. (For richer for poorer)  I am never ever sick but Mark has some major health issues.  (Sickness and health)

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a marriage splits up and I hear someone say, "Well, they just got married too darn young!"  I argue that I don't see what age has to do with it!  I think just as many marriages fail when the bride and groom are in their thirty's as do the ones when they are teens.  Out of my small high school class, several of us got married right out of high school or shortly thereafter and most are still together.  In fact one of them got married when he was sixteen and she was fourteen, they raised two daughters, and are about to celebrate their fortieth anniversary.

Mark and I have said many times that we think getting married so young was good for us, we finished raising each other!  Marrying as young as we did, made it easier for us to mold to one another, to chip away at the two different family dynamics we brought with us, until we had the right combination to form our own, new, unique, family unit that works for us.  Over the years we have both grown so dependent on each other the D-word is not an option.  I think we need to thank all those nay-sayers for telling us how young we were and how we weren't going to make it, and thanks to Mark's aunt who said that I wouldn't make Mark a good wife because I was a "city girl" and he needed to marry a farm girl who would be able to help him with his work.  (I came from a town with a population of 55)  It rubbed me the wrong way and I was out to prove her wrong!  I think (know) that neither Mark or I deserve any credit for beating the odds, for without the good Lord's help we would be just another statistic.  For his love and guidance I am exceedingly grateful!

I do know that thirty seven years has gone way WAY too fast.  I sometimes get blue realizing it would be very unusual for us to be able to spend another thirty seven years together.  Too many couples don't even reach their fiftieth before one of them is called home.  That is only thirteen years away!  How is that possible!?  I'm glad Mark and I started our life together so young.  That many more memories made, that many more experiences shared, that many more fusses and disagreements that we learned from, that much more time to have gotten to know one another inside and out.

 I guess we've come full circle. Now we actually sometimes hear "you're too old for that".  We just smile, knowing that we will never be too old any more than we were ever too young!

Kyle's Clam

Kyle and Dani went fishing last night at their local lake.  We received this picture from them, with the explanation that this was the first "fish" he caught!  We are thinking that maybe he should have kept it and notified Ripley's Believe it or Not to see if it was possibly the biggest clam ever!  At least it sure impressed all of us land-locked people!  I bet I received a dozen calls from hubby today to bring my phone out to the shop so he could show the picture to his customers.  I finally just printed the picture off so he could keep it out there!

A child is... what he lives

Today, Dani and Kyle borrowed our pickup to haul fencing material for their back yard.  They asked if a storm came up, would I please put their car in the garage in case it hailed.  Sure enough, it looked like weather might be moving in, so I drove their car into our garage.  As I was driving it in, I thought, I need to be careful so I don't hit the step on that side of the garage like I did my son Bryan's car one night.

Our two boy's have never been "car junkies".  Quite the opposite!  In fact, Mark always said, that was one lesson he tried to teach them, to not waste their money on cars, that he might have drilled into them a little too much!  Their vehicles were beyond old.  They were dented in, broken down vehicles that somehow, miraculously, still ran.  Bryan's was a 1992 Oldsmobile with over 250,000 miles on it, that he had purchased from his sister and brother-in-law for $200.  Being one who never liked to spend ANY money, he drove it all through his college years and beyond. Finally, last year, at the age of twenty four, he broke down and bought himself a nice car.  He was understandably very proud of it.

One night, I drove his car into town and when I came back, I drove it into the garage.  Since it was parked on the opposite side that I park my pickup, I forgot about the step.  I didn't feel a thing and got out and started watering my flowers in the yard.  Bryan came out and sounding a little annoyed and a lot amazed asked, "Mom!  Could you not feel  that you were driving my car into the step?"  I said, "No I didn't!" and went running in to defend my honor.  When I got to the car, I just wanted to die!  In fact I sat down with my head in my hands and started to cry because one entire half of the bottom of his bumper was caved in a good six to eight inches.  He said, "It'll probably come out", but when he got in and backed it up, no, it didn't.  The dent was still there and looked ten times worse.  But instead of yelling and screaming and being mad, he came over and started comforting me, saying, "It's no big deal, it's just a car."  Which made me feel even worse.  He and his Dad were able to pop most of it back out, but it still left a crinkle. I felt horrible, but Bryan just kept assuring me, it was no big deal.

As I contemplated how kind he was being to me, I started seeing flashbacks from the past.  I remembered how everyone was amazed that when we bought our pickup, the first trip it went on when we got back home, was a two hundred and forty mile round trip to a ballgame, driven by our two boys and some of their friends.  At the time Bryan was a junior and Kyle was a sophomore.  People couldn't believe that we let them take it.  We told them that they were a lot more important to us than any vehicle.   I then remembered how a couple years earlier, Bryan had borrowed our pickup, got caught in a storm, and compliments of hail, strong wind, and a huge tree branch it received over $6000 in damage.  When he called to say what happened, one of the first things he said was, "Sorry about your pickup".  We let him know without any doubt, that we couldn't care less about the pickup, we were just glad he was okay.  Don't get me wrong, we definitely had a "this really sucks" feeling, but it in no way translated into mad feelings at him.

Now, not one part of me is going to take credit for this attitude.  It has been through the gentle guidance and love of the Lord that we have learned what is important and what isn't.  My poor older kids received tongue lashings that they never should have received because we were young and stupid.  But, again, thanks to Jesus, they turned into wonderful adults that don't hold it against us and I am so very grateful for that.  I know that Bryan responded to me, when I damaged something of his, the same way he had seen us respond earlier, to him.  Several sayings came to mind, one of them - you reap what you sow!   But mainly, I remembered a poem that I had seen that goes something like this:

If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.

If a child is ridiculed,
He will have no confidence.

If a child is shamed,
He will always feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,
He will be patient.

If a child lives with praise,
He will learn to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness,
He learns to be just.

If a child lives with security,
He learns to have faith.      And.........

If a child lives with forgiveness,
He learns to forgive!
           

Our "Quad's"

Five years ago we started anticipating the arrival of our "quads".  Four grandbabies, born to our four daughters all within four months of each other.  Their arrival and watching them grow will always be one of my fondest memories and most poignant reminder of how good God is.  We used to call them "the babies", but we changed it to "the toddlers" when less than three years later we had four more, born within a little more than a year of each other, two of those just two days apart!  As the original four creep closer and closer to that five year mark, we will had to come up with a new name for them, henceforth - "the quads". 

We are so very fortunate that four of our children and their families are close, within 35 miles of us, and the other two are less than four hours away and we see them often.  All of our grandkids are close to each other and have grown up as each others best friends.  But there is such a special bond between the "quads", it is a joy to behold.  We have pictures of them while "still in the womb", pictures of them barely sitting, sucking on each other's toes, pictures of them in the bathtub together, pictures of them sleeping together, blowing out candles together, sitting on the potty chair together, being flower girls and ring bearers together.  But my favorite pictures of them will always be the ones when they are walking somewhere or looking at something hand in hand or arms around each other.  When we get together, rather it's only two or three of them or all four, they are naturally drawn to each other, they grab a hand or two and head off on new adventures.  I rarely remember any fights between them, other than occasionally when the girls would pair off to do girl things or the boys would pair off to do boy things and it would upset the other two.  It seems like those times are becoming less frequent as they get older.  Grandpa came into the house the other day and said "Our trouble is just beginning!"  He had witnessed the four of them, looking for something together, grabbing a bucket and the other three helping one of them up on it so he could reach the latch to the dog pen!


This weekend found us crashing after a morning of hitting over forty garage sales in our small town.  One of the sales had baby chi-uah-uah puppies for sale.  We were talking about how cute they were and one of the quads went up and told her mamma she wanted a chi-uah-uah.  Her mamma answered "she could have one when she got married."  She turned to the other three, started jumping up and down and excitedly exclaiming "We're going to have chi-uah-uah's!  We're going to have chi-uah-uah's!"  In their minds, they will be a group of four forever!

And the fun just keeps on coming.  As I said, we have four more ranging in age from twenty eight months to fourteen months.  And we just found out we have two more on the way, both due on December 31st!  God just knows we like our babies in bunches!