Silas Is Home

The last 14 days or so Silas has been in Chicago and Michigan attending the Journey of the Heart program.    He really enjoyed it and recommends everyone to go at least once.  They even have jouneys for dads and moms.  While we had fairly nice but cool weather, they actually got some snow.  The southern guys seemed to enjoy it more than Silas did!

Silas only got a couple of pictures of himself.  This one has John Duggar and Travis _?_   with him.   Silas is pretty friendly so he really enjoyed getting to know everyone.

This was taken when Arthur, Priscilla and Hosanna went to pick Silas up.  Look at those green leaves and the green grass!!  I'll try to be patient!

You can't see it really good but Silas assured me there was ice in the lake.  Some of the guys braved running out in it but didn't last long.  Silas remembered getting ice water in his boots before he left and figured actually running in the water was a little crazy so he didn't try it.

The main goal of the Journey is to go over different issues of the heart so there was lots and lots of time spent in Bible study.  They ate good too Silas assured me.

With that many guys you need some action so they played some volleyball,

and did some sightseeing.

There were about 40 guys on the trip altogether and they were broken up into teams.  This is Silas' team.   So, he had a good time, learned a lot, and we are glad to have him home.  Have any of you reading this been on a Journey of the Heart?  Ask Silas or Priscilla if you need some motivation to go!

At home, the field work is progressing.  Arthur headed down to pick up some soybean seed but everyone else was doing the same so he got caught in a line up for seed.  The girls and I planted a part of the garden today.  I've also been ordering maze stuff so we get pretty excited when that nice brown truck comes up our driveway!

Yesterday I went to, I guess it would be my second cousin who was 35 and his mom's funeral.  Nothing like a funeral to remind us how short this life is.  It was a sad funeral, mainly because there wasn't any mention of how a person could have hope of eternal life.  I believe my cousin was saved but I'm not sure about his mom.  Anyway, this cousin of mine was one I babysat for for years when I was a teen, even staying at their house for several months one time.  His sister died a few years back and she was only 30 or so.  His parents were divorced when he was little but I remember being a flower girl in their wedding.  I'm so glad that we have hope that is sure of seeing those we love, who are saved, one day again in heaven!

Have a wonderful day enjoying God's blessings!

More Fishing

Yesterday Arthur and Isaac took the M. and C. cousins sucker fishing.  This has got to be their favorite type of fishing.   You get in the river, which they assured me wasn't cold, and chase the fish toward the ones with the nets or into their own net.  Yesterday they got about 60 of them.

It got so late last night cleaning all those fish that the cousins spent the night and they went out again this morning adding Caleb J. to the crew.  I believe they got another 70 today give or take a few.  That's a lot of fish!  It's not the kind of fish you want to bake or fry because of the large amount of bones.  Mostly people smoke them.  My dad is smoking a few for us and I'll probably pickle some.  Isaac ground a bunch up to make fish patties or something out of and the rest we either sent home with the cousins or froze to smoke later.

Have a great day!

Fishing

Isaac took Hosanna and Miriam fishing today for northerns.  You can't see it on this picture but there's still a lot of ice on the lake further out.  This is a 39" northern but Hosanna had to throw it back.  It was in the slot limit between 30-40" where you can't keep them.  Pretty nice anyway!

Miriam also got a 39" inch one.  They did get a few to take home that were under the 30 inches. This time of year people fish off the docks for the northerns and my family is waiting for the suckers to run in the rivers as well.

Meanwhile, the cows are almost done calving.  Even though it's been a tough year weather-wise, the calves seem to be doing okay.  Arthur was at a cattle auction last week and the owner shared with Arthur that a lot of calves have died because of the weather around the area so we're pretty grateful.  A few more days of dry weather and they should be out in the fields, both the cows and the tractors.

Took a jaunt over to the maze yesterday for the first time this spring.  Everything looks okay and we spent some time figuring out where we're going to put this or that so we can plan where to plant the corn.

Arthur, Priscilla and I also headed down Chicago way again to bring Silas to the Journey of the Heart program.  It was fun to see green grass and blossoming trees down that way and we always enjoy driving through dairy country in Wisconsin.  What a wonderful world God made for us to enjoy!  Everywhere you drive there is something in creation to enjoy:  Lake Superior, the Wisconsin Castle rocks, blooming trees, forests, raging rivers, starlit sky.  All so enjoyable!  Have a wonderful day delighting in God's creation wherever you live!!!

Calving Problem

Well, the calving continues with so many of the cute little ones out there.  We did have a problem this morning.  One mama cow "threw" her uterus when she had the calf.  In other words, it was hanging outside.  It happens every once in awhile.  Anyway, Arthur cleaned it up good and put it back in and stitched her shut so it stays there.  He's done this a few times for us and neighbors and it seems to work. Silas took a picture for me but I wasn't sure it was something anyone would want to see, unless you're a farmer anyway! It will be nice when it warms up just a bit and the snow melts, and the puddles disappear. It will make spring field work very busy but we're still grateful for the weather God sends. It's so easy to get complaining about it but we really have no reason to complain when God is in control. Sometimes its so easy to forget that. We did manage to find some older hay from a farmer down the road.  It's not the greatest but it will keep the animals going until the pasture grows.

Meanwhile, Arthur is out grinding some feed for a neighbor.  Isaac and Silas headed out to see if they can round up any beavers before season closes May 1st.  The girls and I just finished up our cooking day.  This time of year we finally get some space in the freezer after eating all winter on those "almost as fresh as the day they were picked" vegetables, beef and venison.  We did up a bunch of meals for those busy days when no one has time to spend in the kitchen and filled that empty freezer space.  Had enough extra that we sent a couple meals over to Amos and Rebekahs.

Remember Silas' hint about how to clean glasses with toilet bowl cleaner?  Well, he says he has another household hint to pass on.  When you have a rip in your work jeans, just glue it shut with super glue!  Really!  Silas always takes care of his own clothes and he glues his barn jeans all the time.  It seems to wash okay without coming apart. Mmmm.

Have a wonderful day delighting in God's blessings!!

Homeschool Tournament

Well, the 2013 Homeschool Tournament is behind us.  I thought I'd post a few pictures before  we forget what happened.   First of all, I want to thank all those that helped judge!!!!  What a blessing to have so many willing volunteers!!! 
There were some great displays.  This one way made by my nephew Ronnie.

There's always a lot of competition in chess. Here's Priscilla playing John K. Silas and his cousin Elizabeth judged the chess and checkers.

Miriam helped out with registration and worked with the written tests.  Here she's giving the younger kids a spelling quiz.

Tracy T. headed up the speed stacking.  

For some reason the little guys like the remote car best!

We had a couple of family contests, bread making and chocolate chip cookies.  The adults present got the honor of testing them and judging them.  It wasn't an easy job to decide on!

Here's our row of piano judges.  Hosanna helped with this and speech. Isaac judged the table tennis.

This last Saturday we had a baby shower for Mae J. and the guys had a diaper shower for  Nathan.  We don't usually do that but since it was his first child the guys thought they would do this for him.   Sounds like they had a lot of food and a lot of visiting.

Well, that is it for today.  Our plumbing is having some issues so Arthur is working on that today.  The calves keep coming even if the weather is still cold.

Have a great day!

The Silence is Over

I'm back!!!! Any silence that the house might have had, left the moment that I (Priscilla) entered.
This is one part of the lodge that we stayed at when we were up in the North Woods. The first ten days of my trip was the Journey to the Heart program. I think that everyone needs to go on a journey. Spending a week up at the North Woods just spending time seeking God, is something that everyone should do. For me personally it was very refreshing and life changing. When you realize that we are the bride of Christ, it gives you a whole new perspective. We think we're doing good if we commit to spending ten minutes a day with God in the Word. But can you  see a bride telling her husband that. "Honey from now on I'm going to spend ten minutes a day with you." The whole trip just drew me closer  to where I ought to be, and I think everyone needs to go on a Journey.

The girls on my team were from all over, including Florida, Texas, California, and everywhere else, so watching them in the snow was really fun. I'm afraid I'm spoiled, when we left Chicago, the grass was starting to turn green, and then I get home, and it's snowing and thirty-four degrees out. The girls just loved the snow!

There were fourteen girls on my team, and we all got these green polos to wear  anytime we  left  HQ, so that we were easy to spot, and it helped us stay as a group. From left to right it's Deborah, Sarah, Me, and Asia.

While we were at Head Quarters, a group from Korea that was traveling around America  with there small music group stopped by. They played for us, and it was beautiful.

After our photography class, we went to a park, and split up into groups  take pictures.  Heather  took this one of me next to a old building.

When you live with someone for four weeks, they become like family, and it wasn't long before we were all doing each others hair. This is Mary curling my hair after M. did my makeup.

This is Rachel and I. Since the two of us don't normally wear makeup, or fix our hair too fancy, the other girls had great fun "Painting us up" as I say.

We had a hair fixing class and one of the teachers fixed all of our hair.

We went to the Shed Aquarium in downtown Chicago. It was really big and  very fascinating.

Here is the outside of the building.

My three awesome leaders!! From left to right, Hannah, Tabitha, and Dakota. This is right next to lake Michigan. I love my leaders!! They were really great, and so sweet. 

Macayla and I in Chicago.

They took us to see "The Bean." I had never heard of it, but it was really cool. It was awesome to stand under it and look up. While we were there, our group got in a circle, and sang some hymns. People were videoing us on there cameras, and when we were done, they clapped. As you can tell from the above picture there were a lot of people there.

We got to go to the Billy Graham Museum. It was really nice, and for those of you that didn't know this, yesterday George Beverly Shea died at the age of  a hundred and four. In case you didn't know this, he was Billy Graham's song leader.

Here I am standing behind his traveling pulpit. It was especially designed to have adjustable hight. As you can tell, I love preaching!

We had two full sets of twins on our team and one half set.(Her twin is a boy, so he wasn't there.) The set of twins above, wrote a song that we learned and sang at the closing banquet that we put on for the staff. Yes, they are identical, and yes, I can tell them apart.

This is the chef Clayton. He has been through some culinary arts schools and worked at a professional bakery. So he did our cooking classes. He also helped us prepare the banquet.

One day in the kitchen we got to decorate cakes. One of the girls drew a picture of Mr. Gothard on her cake and gave it to him. So that is my trip in a nutshell. There is so much I could tell about that I haven't, but I don't want to bore you. I didn't get any pictures at the banquet, but us girls served it. It was I believe what they call a Five star dinner. It was very formal. We also got a certificate for completing the Vessels of Honor program. The entire trip was awesome, and yet I was glad to be home. I miss all the girls from my team, and even the IBLP staff, but I am so glad to be home. Well, I've got some school to catch up on so Farewell. No wait! Just a reminder, you can sign up for the Bible Bee now! I hope to hear that some of you are in it.

Isaac's Trip

Isaac got home last night from his trip down to New Mexico to help the Lee family.  I would have him do this post but he has a lot of stuff he wants to get done today.  So, I'll relay what he shared.  Here he's working on putting up a fence.  Apparently there is free range down there and so you may have wild horses or cows wander on your property.   Isaac found it interesting that if you don't tag your cow or brand it, pretty much anyone can take them since they wander all over.  This fence is for the dog however!  



This was their Easter sunrise service.  Mr. Lee and his family run a Bible camp which is where they live and Mr. Lee also is the pastor of this Navajo church.

Isaac did an assortment of jobs.  Here he's fixing a leaking well.  It was neat how God used the skills he's learned here on the farm to meet the needs of this family.

Before Isaac left they started siding the camp church which is also were their church is help when its not camp.



This is the home of one of the church members.  This man paints pictures for a living and Isaac said they were VERY good.  The picture on the wall is one of them.  The Navajo are quite artistic.  Isaac picked up some broken pieces of pottery laying around old homes and they still have the neat designs on them.  



This is the Lee family.  I don't know their names so you'll just have to enjoy the picture.  I do know the daughter is still in  high school, one of the boys just graduated and the other is going to BJU.

Isaac fixed camp bikes and lawnmowers.  Quite the fleet to keep maintained!



Isaac loves the outdoors so it was enjoyable whenever he got a chance to see some of the land.  This Navajo couple took them sightseeing in the hills.



Gorgeous!  No matter where you are on this earth, God made it so enjoyable!



What an interesting land formation!  Apparently flood waters must've washed the dirt to make a round rock.  It's actually attatched to the main rock Isaac is standing on.  Still, can't you see someone rolling it down the hill in a western?!

Well, we're glad to have Isaac home although I never want my desire to have my children around me keep them from serving God.  Far better to never see them and have them serving God then have them near and living out of His will!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!  Have a great day and I'm sure the Lee family would enjoy it if people prayed for their ministry!

Our Weekend, Calving, and Relatives

We headed down south to go to Ben and Emily's wedding.  It was a gorgeous, Christ-honoring wedding and I can't wait to see how God uses the two of them together! I did get some nice pictures of them but I'll let their families post those.  Anyway, Isaac headed north for the wedding as you can see so that was nice after not seeing him for a month.  He stayed down there to see a chiropractor about his knee. 

Rebekah and Amos were at the wedding with their adorable little men!

Cousin Reuben, actually my nephew, came home from Tiawan for the wedding. 

Naomi flew to the wedding with sweet little Anna.  We just saw her a couple of weeks ago which was nice because she wasn't shy at all.

After the wedding we headed over to the H. house, Arthur's sister, and celebrated a couple of birthdays.  Overall, it was a wonderful couple of days with the fun wedding and all the visiting.

Today I headed north with my parents and my sister to attend the funeral of one of my great uncles. The family believes he died of a broken heart because his wife of all those years just died a couple of months ago and he missed her so much.  I enjoyed meeting cousins and other relatives that you only see at funerals.  It was more like a family reunion.  Anyway, there are five of the twelve siblings left in my grandma's family.  They are 88, 90, 94, 98 and 100 years old.  It was the baby of the family that died at 87 years old.  Sure hope I take after this line for longevity of life!  The 94 year old uncle still lifts weights and walks everyday and most all of them are quite sharp of mind with a couple starting to forget names. (Wonder what my problem remembering names is!?)  Anyway, I really enjoyed the spiritual legacy that has been passed down in this family.  How fun to visit with relatives I don't even remember meeting and talk about spiritual things.  I delight in the idea of one day seeing these relatives again someday!  Isn't God good!!!

We've had a lot of calves in the last couple of weeks, beef and dairy.  One beef calf was born and died in a freezing puddle.  The mamma cow was nice in adopting two calves to replace that one.  One other mother wouldn't take care of her calf or let it milk after several days of trying.  It was quite ornery so that one went down the road. We never keep cattle around if their mean.  The calf has joined the dairy calves in the barn.  So, that's how it goes during calving season.  It would be nice if it warmed up a bit as it is hard on the calves and we are getting short on hay.  Seems most of the farmers around here are as we've been getting calls about them wanting to buy any extra we have, which we don't.  Isaac said down in NM some round bales were selling for over $100!  More like $15-50 around here, if there was any. 

So, we enjoyed the wedding, the visits with relatives, and all the new calves.  The next big thing on the schedule is getting Priscilla home this coming weekend, and probably Isaac will be home then too.  Need a few more judges for the homeschool tournament next week too if anyone cares to volunteer!

Well, it's late and I'm really tired.  Have a great evening and don't forget to pray before you go to bed and go to sleep with scripture  on your mind!