Tomorrow...

...my "little" brother, Jacob graduates from high school!!!

 

We spent a good portion of the afternoon decorating the hall in Braddock

(with the help of a couple of friends too).  :)

 

Come join us at 2:00pm if you can!  There will be plenty of visiting and food!   

 

 

Please join me in praying that Jacob will always live his life to bring glory and honor to our LORD!  ~Amen~

 

 



Flowers! (and much more)

NOTE:  Most of this was written last night, but then I got too tired to finish it, so where I talk about "Today", it was actually yesterday...  Confusing, I know.

 

 

This is not a flower, obviously, but she's pretty cute too...

 My mom and I (and Jacob for a few minutes) dug all of the grass out of the front flower bed today and got it ready for planting....  My back is a bit on the sore side tonight!

 The bush out in front of the house apparently didn't make the very long, very cold winter, so I asked my dad and Jacob if they'd please pull it out when they had the tractor and chain out for other things.  It took some doing, but they got it.

Now we need to figure out what to put in that big empty spot of dirt there.... 

(NOTE:  As of tonight, after my mom was in Bismarck buying plants and more flowers, that big empty spot is now home to 5 little flowering bushes!)

 

The maintainer has been doing a lot of work on our roads lately!  The hump was in  the middle of the road the one morning when I went over to babysit.  Made for an interesting drive...

When I got to work, the girls were SO excited to show me their tulips that are blooming!

 

This is at Andrew's house...

 

 They had so much fun with the dining room chairs (that are on wheels)...

 

 They took turns giving each other "Rides"...

 Getting all "dolled up" to go to town to buy flowers!  :)   I just LOVE this picture!!!

This picture was of the Jost family at the concert Tuesday evening...

Flowers---freshly picked!

 

 I found a butterfly!

 Planting more flowers!!!

 

 

 

Today, Friday, was VERY busy! 

 

 My dad was seeding and had quite a bit of trouble.  Thankfully, while he was walking down the side of the Highway to move equipment from one field to the next, 3 different times, 3 different farming acquaintances stopped and gave him a ride to where he needed to go!  :)

 

My mom and Andrew were in Bismarck most of the day, buying supplies for the graduation and getting plants and looking at a piece of equipment for the farm....

 

Jacob helped me a lot with cleaning the house, and also loaded up flax for a farmer when he came to buy some for seed.  Later, he filled the water tank on the truck and I went out to help him unload it into the cow's water tank so we could have water in the house.  On these hot days, the cows will drink from dawn to beyond dusk and we have NO water in the house when that happens.  After filling the tanks, the truck got stuck, so I had to pull him out with the tractor.

 

I baked and decorated Jacob's graduation cake and almost 50 cupcakes too.  Also cooked up a bunch of dry beans and added seasonings so they'll be ready to warm Sunday.  This afternoon, I made a trip into Napoleon to get Jacob's boutonniere and the beef for sandwiches for the graduation...

 

Jacob and I did the evening chores.  When my  mom and Andrew got home, we planted the bushes and flowers I was talking of earlier. 

 

The air smells of rain tonight.

 

 

GOD is SO good!  He gives us strength for the day and hope for tomorrow!  :) 

 

 

 

 

 

Our farmers were in the fields!

Both yesterday and today, the menfolk in my family put in long days in the fields.  My dad finished wheat today and Andrew finished planting the north fields of corn.  Jacob worked for Farmer Dave the past 2 days.  This is the first time he's done farming work for somebody else, so we're pretty happy for him to have taken on such responsibility!  This is the outfit he was driving:

 

 

 

I had a full day of babysitting again...  OH, wait!  I haven't told you all about yesterday yet!!! 

 

  The first part of the day was spent out of doors a lot for the girls and I, then I fed them an early supper and changed their clothes; brushed their hair; and buckled them into their car-seats for a little road-trip.  We went over to Lauretta's place and met up with Andrew there and took Lauretta and another of her sisters along to go hear the Jost family (from Canada) give a concert in a church in Bismarck.   We really enjoyed their music and now have more CDs in our music collection!  :)

 

 

 You may learn more about this family if you like by visiting their website here: http://www.josties.com/ .  Also, for those of you who have seen them, this is the same family who makes/performs "Jostie Flicks" (things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G9OgS37i0I).  We got home pretty late and had some problems with my Mom's Pacifica on the last leg of our journey.  Hopefully there's nothing serious going on there?

 

Today, I babysat the girls all day again.  We had a fun day!  This morning, I took them up to Andrew's place to open windows and air the house out.  Plus, they just LOVE going there, so we just played for a while.  We had lunch at the farm with my mom, then the 4 of us headed to Napoleon to run some errands.  Tracy Jo fell asleep on the way in, so I stayed in the vehicle with her while my mom did her banking business, then Mom stayed with her while Johanna and I went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for Jacob's graduation cake and cupcakes.  :) 

 

   Tracy woke up by the time we got to our friend, Shawn's greenhouse to buy some plants and flowers.  The girls loved all of the beautiful flowers there, but were quite dramatically scared of the bees that were buzzing around them.  Our last stop was Green Iron Equipment, and the girls thought all the toy tractors were pretty amazing.  It's fun shopping with little girls (until they need to go "Potty" and you have to scramble to the nearest place)! 

 

The next few days will be VERY full of graduation preparations (food); seeding (for the guys); flower planting; sewing alterations; cake baking; hall-decorating; song practicing; and hopefully there will be time to put together a picture-slide-show, but I don't know if that will happen this time or not?  Please keep our family in your prayers-----and Jacob too, as he writes his speech.  ;) 

 

 

Green grass means two things...

#1. It's time to get out the lawn mowers! 

(My mom mowed the lawn today and it looks and smells so nice!!)

 

and

 

#2. The cow's are happier and eat less hay!

 

 

 

 

 

Both my dad and Andrew cleaned grain today again.  They'd thought they were done, but then a couple more farmers called....  Now, they think for sure that they're done.  :)  Time will tell!

PICTURES! (farming, a friend, dandelions, shooting, roosters....)

Jacob took these oats-planting pictures on Friday....

 

 

 My dad is driving here....

 This picture is of our farm from a distance on a stormy day...

 A Dandelion Princess!

 Feeding time for the cows means play time for the calves!   I wish you could all see how they put their tails up in the air and run with the wind!!

 

 This is the difference a greenhouse can make!  The bleeding heart plants by the house are only about 4 inches tall, and then there's this beauty in the greenhouse:

 We had a fun and relaxing (mostly) day yesterday.  Towards evening, Lauretta came over for a visit.  After she helped us chase some cows in and we fixed the fence, all of us (except my dad who was too tuckered, I guess) went down to the range to get in some target practice.

 

Jacob... 

 Lauretta...

 My mom...

 Our targets...

 Andrew, shooting the pop-can target...

 Jacob, Me, and Lauretta.... 

This brought back many memories of past fun events shooting beside my dear friend!  I'm SO glad that GOD put Lauretta and her family in our lives nearly 2 years ago!!!!

 She stayed overnight, so she and I had a very long, early morning talk.  :) 

 Brother Andrew...and the sunset...

 This was taken this morning...  My dad was seeding the corn, while Andrew worked on other things and, first, Mom and Jacob picked rocks this morning, then Jacob and I did for a couple hours this afternoon.

 My Lady....

 YIELD!    (for the rock-pickin' crew!)

 This afternoon, some of us went to a meeting and then, once that was over, my mom and I went and bought 3 roosters, as our 2 old ones have died. 

 

Here are our colorful hens...  (4 different breeds)

 If you look closely, you can spot 2 of the 3 new roosters (they're shiny red)...

 Anybody need some chicken eggs?  (We were blessed with 33 eggs today!)  :)

 

Tomorrow will be a busy day once again, and I'm running a bit behind on sleep, so I shall bid you all a good night and go get some sleep. 

 

~God bless and guide you all through this new week.~

Great article! (and the start of seeding...)

With the busyness of Spring (and graduation preparations), I haven't had a lot of time for reading articles/blogs, but this one interested me greatly and I'm so glad that I took the time to read it just now!  May it bless you too---if/when you have a few minutes to spare:  http://kindredgrace.com/connect-on-social-media/. 

 

My dad and Jacob got the tractor and drill out in the field today and I believe they started seeding, but were having troubles.  Andrew is gone helping Farmer Dave.  My mom worked in the house.  I was babysitting most of the day (children from 2 families).  When I got home, the son of one of my mom's friends came over to dig some rhubarb to plant at his place (we have plenty still if anybody else wants some plants).  Then, my mom and I went for a walk as it was so lovely outside!!  Chores were next on the list....and supper....and dishes....and now we're relaxing a little before bed. 

 

We are so blessed! 

                    Just saying...

 

 

A special birthday!

Today, after my dad finished his last cleaning job of the spring (unless somebody else calls) and after Andrew got home from helping Farmer Dave in his fields today, we celebrated my dad's birthday.  :) 

 

Several of us went together on a big present----a new grill!  We enjoyed grilled hamburgers, grilled potatoes, and grilled (fresh from the greenhouse) asparagus for supper!  Delicious!

 

I was looking for recent pictures of my dad and realized that I need to take more of them.  He's always so busy working that I don't get pictures when he's gone, and then on days off, we're all resting and doing other things, but I'll try to do better. 

 

This picture is from February...

 

 

...and this one is from a friends' wedding.  :)

 

 

 

I feel so blessed to have the dad that I have!!  He takes such good care of his family! 

   God bless him.~