They have arrived!

The eggs are FINALLY here! Or at least they are starting to come! I don't know which hen laid these two, I think it was the same hen because they are so totally similar. I am so excited! Hopefully the other girls will get the idea now and there will be some serious egg production! Anyone want to get on the farm-fresh-egg-list?? Let me know!

Sauerkraut

This has been our first successful garden ever, that I can remember. We have planted plenty of gardens in our married years together. We always start off strong. Lots of hard work and sweat goes into planting and mulching or weeding. The years that we lived close to my Mom and Dad they were indispensable when it came to the garden. Dad has tilled gardens for us and provided poles for beans to climb up. Mom planted, mulched, planted and mulched many, many times! The seedlings and the seeds go in the ground, we water and weed and wait. Then we water and weed some more. Then we forget about the excitement of getting those seedlings in the ground. We get busy and the weeding doesn't get done. The weather gets realy hot and we don't want to go out into the garden. Somehow, every year we lose focus and don't really harvest or use what we planted in the first place.

NOT THIS YEAR!

I am happy to report that we have had a great garden. Right now it is rather weedy. but we have harvested, and we will keep harvesting as long as there is food out there and the Lord is willing!

So what do you do with twenty-two heads of cabbage that are all ready at the same time?? You eat a LOT of cabbage, and then you try to make sauerkraut! I am new to making sauerkraut, maybe you are too. This is the process.

1. Select and thoroughly clean the appropriate vessel.

2. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage. Wash and drain.


3. Quarter cabbage and remove the cores. Weigh out five pounds. Finely slice and sprinkle with 3TBS of pickling salt. Wait a few minutes till the cabbage wilts a bit.




4. Layer the wilted cabbage in the crock. Repeat steps #3 and #4 till the cabbage comes within four or five inches of the top of the crock.



5. Press firmly down on the salted cabbage till the liquid brine covers it. Weight it down so it stays covered in brine.

6. Wait for six weeks. Hopefully we will have turned 15lbs of cabbage into lots of homemade sauerkraut instead of a crock full of mold!! I'll keep you updated!

Buddy

We have a kitten named Buddy. He is a sweet and affectionate boy who spends his life outside, mainly! He does not understand the "no-cats-allowed-on-the-table" rule. This is where I found him today. I could not resist a picture.


This was not posed at all. The round basket is where I keep the napkins, well, that may have to change now!... Anyway, the basket was on the table next to the flowers and he just helped himself!! So cute!

Yes, I did let him finish his nap...I'm soft, OK!! Just don't tell! :)

No Pride Left!

You know how I just love to delight you all with stories from my life! Well, hang on to your hats, cause this one takes the cake!! I'm just gonna give it to you the way that it happened, I think that is best.

This past Thursday my husband Glen and the oldest of our four children, Chelsea, were on their way home from Bemidji, MN where they had been for a few days. Glen had been working on fixing up a rental house that we own there. It had been a much bigger bathroom remodel job than what he had anticipated. It took longer than he thought, and pushed back their departure to a much-too-late-for-comfort-time. Chelsea was scheduled to work at Panera Bread here in Eau Claire at 5:00pm Thursday evening. It is a six hour trip from Bemidji to here, so 11:00am would have been the latest time to leave!

They left at 12:00 noon.
They got stuck in construction.
The truck does NOT have air.

By the act of a loving God, and the direct pressure applied to the accelerator by my husband, they somehow made it into town at 4:47pm. I was at the door to Panera waiting with her work clothes. Chelsea hopped out of the car, grabbed a quick hug and her things and ducked into the bathroom. I want you to know that she was clocked in EARLY, and the rest of her night went great! But that is just the background info on my story.

Previously in the day I had decided to fix a nice meal for my Love when he got home. I chose a pork roast and a new recipe with a mustard-herb rub. You cannot go wrong with mashed potatoes and my man, so they were on the list for a side dish. The potatoes were from our garden, and we also had a bumper crop of cabbage. I thought I would combine the two to make Col cannon Potatoes which is an Irish dish (we are not Irish) that we have enjoyed "out", but I have never made at home before. That's alright! I'm pretty confident in the kitchen. I can cook up a mean meal and pull it off with flair! For the veggie I chose broccoli, also from our very own garden. Glen loves his broccoli. I was fairly certain this was a meal that he was going to enjoy. I got started on it as soon as I got home.

Tired from his race-with-time and the job that he had been working on, Glen hit the shower after a quick greeting to Lane, Gabi and Aidan. There were some mouth-watering smells coming from the mustard-herb rub on the pork in the oven, I was sauteing the cabbage when I heard a strange sound. It was a "Yoouu-whooo". It was repeated. "Yoouu-whooo!" I turned around to ask Aidan why he was making this noise, but to my shock I saw my friend Bee instead of my son! For those of you who don't know her, Bee is my friend who went to hear my Bethie (Beth Moore) in Green Bay with me. She is fun loving and somewhat spontaneous and VERY endearing! She brought her husband with her...he is our pastor. Did you all just feel your breath catch?? I sure felt mine! Actually, I think I just stopped breathing altogether for a moment. Now you must understand two things...1. We have not had them over for dinner yet. We have been in our church for 20 months now, and though I have had very good intentions, it hasn't happened. Paul, our pastor, has not been out to our farm until right then. (Usually I would be sure it was CLEAN before I invited our pastor over!! ) You understand! 2. Paul and Bee are incredibly personal and open people. The first time I met Bee, I went to her house to pick up a child of mine who had spent the night there. She met me at the door with her robe on, socks scrunched up and the most adorable bed-head I have ever seen!! Carrying her large cup of tea in her hands she gave me a tour of her house right then and there. I knew instantly that this woman was one I could be friends with!! Folks, it takes a very secure individual to give a stranger a tour of your home in your jammies and make her feel like a dear friend! That is my friend, Bee. She would bless me to tell you all of this.

I ran to tell my Love that Paul and Bee were at our house. He joined us (cleaner and fully clothed) in a few moments. We chatted with the Larsons. Glen walked Paul down to the barns to show him around some and I was chatting with Bee while the impending question whirled in my head..."Do I ask them to stay for dinner? Do I ask them to stay for dinner??" over and over again. I was staying cool on the outside, but on the inside I was really starting to be a little stressed. You just want things to be nice when you have someone over for the first time!! I took a deep breath and a deep plunge and they accepted. Literally praying out loud, "Lord, please let this meal be alright!", I whisked the kids into a working frenzy, instructing them on setting the table and finding the extra chairs. Everything was finished and we sat down. Glen asked the blessing on the meal. I just know that the Lord has a HUGE sense of humor. He just has to.

We passed the dishes of broccoli and Col cannon. The slices of pork were served and we each began to lift our forks and take our first bites. I believe there was a conversation going on about broken toes (Bee had just broken two of hers!), when Glen interrupted. "Wait everyone!" He said. Looking at me across the table and smiling as though about to burst into laughter, he continued, "The broccoli is full of WORMS!!" It was true. Those little green cabbage worms that hide stealthily among the florets of broccoli were there, and they were a numerous force indeed!

Words cannot express to you the emotions that surged through me then, and even now, days later!! Disbelief, horror, a strange feeling of detachment as though it was happening to someone else, not me at all! Can't you just picture my polite pastor with a small pile of dead worms on the edge of his plate?? Or worse, biting into one!! Oh gracious! *sigh* That is it, dear ones! Yet another story from my life that must make you incredibly thankful that you live yours!

I could not find a way to make the evening end on a better note. I had not planned to make anything for dessert, not even a Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake (which I understand, can help guests through a not-so-great meal when they know that they have cake to look forward to). I had nothing. No homemade caramel sauce. No homemade marshmallows. No Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake. Nothing.

Paul did promise not to use my moment-of-shame in a sermon illustration. Later on Bee told me that he thought it was "endearing"!?!?! I still can only shake my head!! There is good news though! It can only get better from here!!

ps. If, at any time you feel like getting a good laugh, feel free to share my story! It does seem to have that affect on people!

Sweet Corn

"Could you use some sweet corn?" It was my neighbor, Rob Olson, posing the question. He was walking toward the house from the tractor that he rode up the drive and was calling out as he came. "Sure would hate for it to go to waste."
Waste?? Sweet corn?? No way, no how! Not if I could help it. "Sure," I replied. "That would be great, Rob. Thank you!"
It was early in the morning yet. I had heard the tractor rumbling up the road from the office where I was making copies for our school day. When I looked out the window to see who was here, I noticed that the morning sun was not over the bluff to the east yet. The fog in the field was glowing that golden pink that takes my breath away. I was feeling very prepared for the day. The house was clean and organized. I was ready to teach the kiddos, ready to tackle the first day of school. I had a plan and I was sticking to it.

Hmmmm.

Rob rolled back into the drive with the pick-up this time. He was pulling a small trailer full of corn. That's when I knew for sure that my day was going to be a bit different than what I had so carefully planned. Truthfully, I was incredibly thankful for the gift. Our sweet corn did poorly, only enough for a few meals. Not enough to freeze for delicious soups and stews this winter. This was not the first generous gift from the Olson's. Rob's mom passed away about this time last year leaving her large garden just ready to harvest. Rob and Lori let us pick tomatoes and wow, did we ever! We still have plenty canned up to last through this winter. Kind and generous neighbors, they certainly are!

I would love to rattle on and on with all the details of the day. How shucking, blanching, cutting and bagging the sweet corn brought back vivid memories of when I was a kid. I just can't go into that many details though...I am so exhausted!

I don't know how many ears I shucked for sure. I only kept track for the first two hours. At that point I determined that I could shuck an average of 2.7 ears per minute for a solid two hours. Then the kids joined me and we really got busy. The pile on the table was huge. At 7:00pm I called it quits on the shucking and we headed inside to start blanching. The younger kids bailed on me. Lane and I pressed on. At 10:00 pm I came inside with yet another load to throw in the water and announced that we would only finish what was in the house at that moment. The grand total for ears of corn shucked, blanched and cut off the cob was 452. Yes, you may laugh at me now. How completely crazy must I be?!?! 452 EARS OF CORN!!! That is only counting the ones that were finished. There are at least two hundred more ears on the table outside.

I can hardly move my wrist.
I am so thankful.
I am going to bed.
Good night.

(Sorry, I can't even sit here long enough to reorganize the pictures!)

The Rubix Cube

Sunday was a wonderful day! I was still feeling a happy "glow" from seeing Beth Moore live. Also, Pastor Paul was back from a summer Sabbatical. We were so thankful he could take the summer off to recharge, but we missed him. The Lord spoke through him on Sunday with a clear word of encouragement. Even when you feel like you are in the dark of life, sing a song of praise to the Lord! My God is good! Forever and ever! He has not forgotten me. I will praise him!

When we got home from church, Glen headed out on an errand, and Chelsea and I started turning our house into a Rubix Cube...here is how it went

move all of Chelsea's belongings into the upstairs hallway
move all of the office paraphernalia into Chelsea's old room
move all of the guest room furniture out of the old office
move the master bedroom downstairs into the old office
move Chelsea's things into the old master bedroom...

Did you follow that?

Basically, we moved four rooms of furniture in, out, upstairs and downstairs. In order to move Chelsea's room hundreds of pounds of books had to be moved off of the bookcase. To move the office another hundred pounds of books had to be moved upstairs. To move the guest room all the furniture had to be carried upstairs. To move our bedroom, two dressers had to be carried downstairs and the boxspring had to be carried out the door of the upstairs porch, lowered down off the roof to Lane on the trampoline, then carried inside through the front door. The height of the ceiling on the stairs won't allow the boxspring to fit! Just as we got the boxspring into the house we realized it was time to be leaving for Bible study. We did leave the house a TOTAL DISASTER! I gave Glen a call to allert him to the changes we were making. He laughed and said he totally expected to come home and find some form of carpeting in the yard. (This house has zero carpeting, all hardwood floors! But it is our standing joke that I haul all the ugly carpeting out of the house and into the yard when he is away and I have had it with the stuff! Trust me, it has happened for real several times!) I am married to the most wonderful man in all creation! He totally rolls with me, well, most of the time!

So now Glen and I sleep downstairs in what was the office/guest room. Chelsea has our old room that is triple the size of her old room, and the office is in the tiny room that Chelsea was using. If you caught the fact that we lost a guest room in the process you are correct. However, we did keep Chelsea's old twin mattress under her new double bed. With a little negotiating we should be able to accomodate guests!

Yes, I was exhausted! I think the changes are going to be great!

Beth Moore Simulcast in Green Bay

This past weekend was a whirlwind of delight for me. Through the generosity of people I have never met who gave to the Living Proof Scholarship fund, I received tickets to the Living Proof Live Simulcast event in Green Bay, WI. For those of you who have never done a Bible study by Beth Moore, I would admonish you to RUN, do not walk to the very nearest opportunity to participate in one. You will be so blessed! Beth has been gifted by God with an amazing mind and heart for the details of God's Word, and she is so capable of putting them into clear language for all of us to comprehend. Added to that is her delightfully personal delivery style that makes each person feel as though she is your very own best friend. For example, I do not refer to her as Beth Moore, but as "my Bethie". Even though she has not had the opportunity to personally meet me, I am certain that we are best friends. We have so much in common it only makes sense that we would be girlfriends. She claims to have hair "that has never done small", but I have to say I can take her on that one! Bethie can have you laughing and crying and in total AWE of the love our God has for us. Bless her, Lord. Continue to bless her!
Chelsea and I have been doing the "A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place" this summer. It was Chelsea's first experience with Bethie, and she loves her too! Anyway, we have been looking forward to going to Green Bay since we first heard about the event. In our present financial circumstance it did not appear as though we would be able to go, but I could not accept "NO" as an answer. What do you know? Thursday morning I received two tickets for Friday and Saturday! Unfortunately, we had not planned in faith that we would be going. Chelsea had been scheduled to work, and could not find anyone to take her place. It nearly broke my heart to leave her at home, but she wrote a personal note to Bethie and gave it to me to give to her. I invited my friend Bee, we both made gigantic efforts to be ready to leave the next day, and off we went to see my Bethie!
Here we are at Bee's house just about to leave for the four hour drive to Green Bay.

This short video is from Friday night just as the first session was about to begin. I was hardly able to stay inside my skin I was so excited. You can tell that we had great seats, right up in front on the left side.



We did NOT film any of Beth's teaching. For one thing, we wanted to be focused on learning and absorbing and taking notes, for another, I am just not sure about how legal it would be to do so. Sure would not want to get into trouble for doing that!
The message was from Psalm 37 titled "The Heart of Our Desires". There were seven fantastic points, but the main message I received was KEEP PRAYING! God IS faithful! Do not give up on prayer, ever!

At the beginning Bethie was down in the audience talking about her very young childhood in Green Bay. She was so close and so real! I wanted her to come sit with me, but maybe she will have a chance to some other time. She was pretty busy.

One of the things that we miss out on in our Bible study is the worship time. I simply adore worshiping the Lord through song! It was amazing to be there in that arena and to worship with my Bethie! Such a sweet, sweet time! Travis Cottrell was the worship leader. The music was awesome!

After the Friday session Bee and I headed for our hotel and had a fun time talking and laughing, and also pondering the question, "What is the desire of my heart?", much later than we should have. Saturday morning we were up bright and early and out the door to try to get good seats again. The sessions that morning went much faster than I wanted them too. I would simply love to sit at Bethie's feet to be taught for ever and ever. The truth of God's word is fresh, clear, cool water for a thirsty soul.
Bethie's daughter, Amanda, wrote this summary of the weekend for the Living Proof blog;

"My Dear Sister
God has not overlooked you
He has not ignored you
He hears every petition
And intimately knows
The heart beneath it.
Give Him full access
To all your longings
Pray every single day
To become a person who delights in Him.
When it seems to disappear
Remember to check your JAW
Are you jealous?
Are you angry?
Are you worried?
Roll it all on Jesus
He's strong enough to carry it
Big enough to handle it.
Trust God with all your heart
Now leave this place
And go into the world
And do some GOOD. "

Wow! That is good stuff right there, and that is just a summary! To all of you reading, God is awesome! He is in hot pursuit of you right now, wherever you are in life, no matter what your circumstance, he wants you to know his perfect peace and love! Seek him! Turn to look for him! He is WORTH it! He loves you so much, dear one. So very much! Take the very next opportunity you have to study with Bethie. She will help you to peel back the layers of your heart and mind and give you motivation to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you up to overflowing with a passionate love for Christ!
Bethie, I love you to pieces! Thank you for being the real deal...sold out to our savior, DELIGHTING in his saving grace, full of fun and life and love and laughter! Keep serving Him with all your heart! Thank you for being a model to so many women, me especially, of the power of Christ to change our hearts and lives. You are a blessing, my dear Bethie! A beautiful, fresh, inviting blessing. I pray that God will continue to care for you and your family, and abundantly meet your every need! I can not wait to someday wrap my arms around you and squeeze! God bless you!

Here is one more look at my Bethie from the very end of the event as the self-titled "Queen of Cheese." How can you help but love this woman?!?



By the way, do you remember the note Chelsea wrote for me to give to Bethie. Well, there was not an opportunity to meet her, but I did give it to an official looking dude who was SO gracious and said "Oh, of course!", as I held the note out to him. I told him, "It is from my daughter." He asked what her name was, repeated "Chelsea", smiled and went behind the curtain where I know Bethie was! Yay! I am sure she read it and I hope she was blessed.