Tis The Season...

For making Christmas cards.

For snowy winter roads. 

For baking cookies.

 

 

For Sister's birthday.

For cold mornings and warm fires.

For bright lights.

And for celebrating the best gift that was ever given, Jesus!

 

For God so loved the world, 

that He GAVE His only begotten Son, 

that whosoever believes in Him should not parish, 

but have everlasting life! - John 3:16

Merry Christmas!

November-A Whirlwind Part 2

   In mid-November I flew down to Georgia and attended Wit Ministries Women's Retreat "4 Days 2 Hope". The retreat was held at a beautiful cabin in the mountains near Blue Ridge, Georgia.

The scenery was beautiful, but even more beautiful was the fellowship, the teaching and the work that God did in the hearts and lives of the young women there! For me the weekend was eye-opening, life-changing, life-giving and yes 4 days to hope!! I am so grateful to the LORD that I was able to go!

  

   Grandpa M's funeral was 3 days after I returned home from GA. Almost all the extended family was able to gather together for the services. The emotions surrounding  the funeral were bittersweet... Bitter was the loss, sweet was the bonding closer to the family that remains.

   Thanksgiving was the following week and it was truly a time of thankfulness in my heart. Thankful for God's work in my life, thankful for the years that I had had with my Grandpa M. and all the precious memories of him that I have to remember forever! Thankful for a heart full of hope! Thankful for home, family and friends...

and homemade pies too! 😊

 We hosted the Thanksgiving feast and festivities!

    So there you have it, the highlights of my eventful November 2017! Oh wait-a-second... I forgot to tell you about going to my nephew's musical and spending two more delightful days with all my nieces and nephews, and starting my new job as a Church Secretary and...  

Summer Pictures: July Edition

   July...mowing, weeding, pruning, trimming and repeat... I loved every minute of it! 

 A farmyard bouquet 

Summer picnic and cookout

Another prairie evening sky

Farm fresh eggs

 

 Indiana Wildflowers 

Sugar Season 2017

   

   This was our 7th year processing maple sap into syrup and sugar! The idea of tapping our maple trees had never crossed my mind until we visited a local event where they were demonstrating it. When we got home, Dad said "let's tap our maple trees!" My first thought was; What? We don't have anything to do that with! But then again... if Dad thinks we can figure this out... let's do it! And so we did! For make-shift taps Dad took copper pipe and cut it into 3-4 inch lengths, drilled a hole in our front maple tree, tapped the pipe in and hung a milk jug from the piping! And that was that, the beginning of a new family farm tradition! Over the years we have invested in more "sophisticated" equipment. Including real taps, hoses, 5 gallon buckets and this 20 gallon boiling pan.

One extra cold morning the sap had turned to ice in the buckets!  

When it is getting close to done, we bring it in the house to finish it on the stove.

  I made a batch of syrup into a sugar. Here are some pictures from that process...

 Boiling the syrup into granulated sugar is a bubbly, hot job, that requires constant stirring, so it doesn't burn or boil over!

At one point it looked kinda like I had a big pot of boiling peanut butter! ↑  

And here it is...  Maple sugar!↑I would say that it tastes pretty much exactly like maple syrup, just in a different form. It is excellent for baking!

Morning Light

Winter Days

Gone is the brown and drab of yesterday... Thousands of snowflakes now dancing down from the sky, lacing the evergreens and everything in white beauty & splendor!

Outside this winter we've had snow and rain and mud and ice, sunshine and clouds and fog, drabness and beauty, warm (40 degree days!) and cold and colder and coldest (Windchill -50!). But inside our home we've had...

Puzzles that take days to complete...  

Homemade soup, cornbread and candle light!

Long Monopoly games!

Fresh fruit for breakfast! (Sunshine in a bowl!)

Tea in my favorite mug! (It's a hug-a-mug, handmade pottery!)