What do others think...?

The other day I put as my facebook update a saying that Geneva was asked to make into a sign...'Cultivate your character, and your reputation will take care of itself'. This is something I had to learn over the years and I think that it is something that every human needs to learn also. We are all human, we care about what others think of us...we don't want to be thought strange, or uncareing, or you fill in the blanks. So unconsciously we are doing and saying things trying to impress others, and end up feeling empty and unaccomplished. Over the years my husband has been very good in helping me to see...that it doesn't REALLY matter what others think. And you know what hes right. I still am not good at laying out a really fine china meal, or the best at keeping my house clean and under control. My flower beds and garden would never pass inspection for the pages of 'Farm and Ranch'. But I have learned that God made me as he wanted me too, and for me to sit and wish I could have a garden like __________ (you fill in the blank), or keep my house with out clutter, like ____________, it isn't going to improve my outlook any!! I said my husband helped me to see this truth about life, and in all honesty others have helped me along the way also. Imagine with me my 'surprise' about 4 years after we were married when I was visiting another Sunday school, and someone that I thought growing up was one that had her 'act' very much together, confessed to feeling very inferior, and needing to grow in that area! Wow, really, so this also started my thoughts to stirring. And then an older lady (who thru the years my mother would have made comments about being such a good housekeeper, making good meals, and has a beautiful flower garden, with florist quality roses) shared with me that she always felt a bit inferior around my Mother, cause she could always accomplish things so much faster and better than she could! So, there you have it...why do we spend so much time frittering away our time worrying about what others think of us and how we aren't getting things done like they do...when we need to be living our lives doing the things that God gave us to do, cultivating our character, and our reputation will take care of itself!!! That doesn't allow us to sluff off and say who cares...because if we are truly being cultivated, we still want to do our best, but the end results are not because of what 'so and so' might think, but because God really does care!! Maybe the rest of you already have this all figured out, and I am the one who is the slow learner!!

OK...

I did not just post that last post as one BIG long paragraph...don't know what happened! :-)

A Jinx water faucet?

It all began several months ago...maybe even a year. The faucet in our bathtub started a slow drip. Ok, I said something to Ivan, and he is like well probably something somewhere is getting bad? Ok, well, I didn't understand, but hoped that he did. Over the course of time, the drip became more insistant, and finally turned into a steady drip. I asked Ivan again, and this time I became aware that it wasn't a simple fix, but that the faucet would probably need to be replaced. Inwardly I groaned, knowing that meant a complete dismantling of the boot room closet, complete with taking the shelves off the wall! So it was easy to try to forget about the faucet, except when going into the bathroom...and then it was no longer a steady drip, but became even more insistant and turned into a steady drizzle. By this time, the steadiness of summer was slacking off a bit, so one day my question to Ivan was if I empty the closet, would he have time to look at it this evening? Now it was his turn to groan! I assured him that I felt the same way, but you know it was hot water that was drizzling down the drain...and it was getting harder to ignore! So after the men cleared out for the morning, I went to the closet. It really wasn't that hard of a job, cause believe it or not, it is one of the closets that had managed to get a bit of order to the chaos, and had things catagorized in boxes! After I got the shelves down, I realized there was a bit of a snag to my smugness in getting the job done so quickly! The last person who put the closet back together had actually put some finishing nails in the paneling...and that person wasn't even close enough to fuss at...he was in Indiana! The memory came floating back, he was blissfully putting things together, and I went in, and am like, oh yeah, you are NOT to nail the paneling fast, cause the shelves hold it in place. He looked at me with a grin, and is like, well, its too late now...there were about 5 nails in place... Coming back to the present...I went to the shop to look for something that might help. Coming back to the house with pry bars, etc in tow...well, I just couldn't make them work. I finally texted Ivan to admit that I hit a snag, he came to the rescue, and helped get the paneling down. That was the only thing left between us and the culprit, the leaky faucet. So he was able to look the situation over, got what he needed on a 'town run', and that evening was able to fix the problem...or so we thought!! Well, this faucet seems to have a mind of its own. When you are running water into the tub, the shower head enjoys leaking...sometimes dripping out of 3 or 4 holes, sometimes out of half of them!! This can be very disturbing, when you unsuspectingly go to turn off the water, and get blasted on the hair!! Oh, well, at least it isn't running dollar bills down the drain all day long...so we are learning to live with this one!! On a different note, yesterday there was a young peoples meeting at Barnwell Church on being aware of what all is involved in a nonresistant lifestyle. I listened in on the afternoon session via phone line, and was able to catch part of it at least. Last evening Marcus Yoder gave a presentation of the CPS (Civilian Public Service) program that was intact thru the 40's. History lover that I am, I really enjoyed hearing what he had to offer, and was amazed at the amount of info he had packed into that hour!! Jesse Halteman came home with Gwynndon for the night. Lyndell had been planning to come too, but had to work, but he ended up coming for today. He and Ryan are budding friends!! And Fri was a strange kind of a day. Geneva and I canned 21 qt of pears,about 10 Andrea called and said the uhaul guy called and said we could go pick up some trucks in Walterboro if we wanted. Well, I really didn't wanna...but he said we could get 3. So with Andrea as the chauffeur, and with a packed lunch, we left about 11:30, with Ivan agreeing to go in the house in 10 min to get the last batch of pears from the canner! Guess we made quite a specticle...the guy who was bringing the trucks up for us to take, kept asking if we were taking them now or what, guess he thought we had a LOT to move! A 26 ft, a 17ft and a 10 fter!! And when we got home one of Geneva and Andreas friends were here to go swimming, plus we still needed to do the Fri cleaning! Such is life at our house!!

june 2012...

Well, well, thought that I would put a glimpse of our life for the last month on here in pictures...for those who care to see!!

When we got home from our journey to ID this little girl came to live with us...I don't like girl dogs...but funny enough, I am the one who named it! Its is Gwynndon's dog, and he was deliberating about a name. One of his friends suggested Jackie, well, I wasn't real impressed with that and one day said, oh just call her Jess...and it stuck!! I think everyone was secretly hoping that Jess could be a replacement for 'Jake', but about a week ago after she spent some time in the shop, one of the children commented to me that Jess really wasn't a 'shop' dog! Her nice white coat was a very splotchy mottled gray!!

This is the flower bed that we had made before we went to ID, and if you notice the puppy Jess had a love affair with the right side for too long! She would dig and get in under the porch. She finally learned to leave it be...but needless to say, it has suffered quite a 'setback'!! And if you look real close in that pet carrier, you will see the nose of yet another pup!! Help, there are 2 more arrived here Fri!! Actually Ryan found and claimed the one on the way home Thurs night...and Delvin found the other one Fri!! We for sure don't need 4 dogs on our homestead...but Ivan and Delvin did make an enclosure under the trampoline for them last night...so they will have room to romp, but not in the flower bed!!

...and this is the wall that Ivan built...we have had problems with our front yard washing everytime it rained for years, so it looked like the bad lands in SD!! Our original plans were to build a wall our from the edge of the shop, which we had got up in May, but then didn't know where to get fill dirt to fit into our 'wallet'. So after sitting there a few weeks, we decided to redo it, back the wall up, and use the dirt we scooped out to fill in! It worked really nice. Ivan was tired of a nasty yard, so instead of sprigging it and letting it fill in with time, and risk being washed some more, he decided to lay it, and have 'instant' yard!

Gary and Cheryl invited us to a party, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary at Lake Warren St Pk community building. They had it nicely set up, and had the foods they had at their wedding. Included were his and her siblings in the south.

We had invited them first to a Sunday evening backyard picnic, and then the children could play ball. They didn't know that it was for their anniversary too, so this was the 2nd party for their anniversary!!

We got Thorton an alligator water shooter for his birthday, that he was more than pleased with!!

Edisto Mennonite Church, the new outreach of Barnwell.

Wouldn't your little guys sleep SO much better on a bed like this!! This is a combined effort of Ryan and Geneva for one of our customers. She ordered it for her step grandson!

This is part of the tomato crop that I am very well pleased with this year...the 1/2 bushel that I picked yesterday are still in the basket sitting on the floor!! ...so much for our life for the last 5-6 weeks or so!!

Well, well, where do I start...May has been a busy month. There were plenty of milestones reached in our family. Gwynndon, our 4 child, made it all the way thru 12 grades of school and he along with 4 classmates received their diplomas the evening of May 20. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of this event on my camera!! We also got to learn to know Ryan's special friend, Kendra Horst from IN this same weekend. She flew in on Fri. Ryan wanted us to have his birthday supper while she was here, so this was the picture that I have of them...

The Tues after graduation, our whole family embarked on a venture west all the way to ID. We had purchased tickets two whole month in advance to get the best deal, etc. Getting them thru Travelocity we had to get 2 batches to get us all accomadated...and somehow, I managed to get 2 tickets for Gwynndon, and none for Quinten, but didn't realize this till a couple weeks later when I went online to choose our seats. After doing some calling and being assured by a Delta worker that the airline agent at the airport would be able to help us the morning of the flight, we left the house about 3 that Tues morning. When we went to check in at Augusta GA...low and behold there was one ticket cancelled, so my worst nightmare was true, we didn't have a ticket for Quinten at all! With one hour to fly and split decisions to be made, we had to call Delta, they were unable to get him on the same flight, and the soonest he could fly was noon. Well, we weren't letting him fly by himself, so got my ticket delayed to coincide with his, and the rest of the family left on the 5:30 flight without us!! We went back out to the van and sleep some more, then went and found a McDonalds, ate a leisurely breakfast, and back to the airport. About 10 we went in so we could get our seats chosen, etc, and flew out at noon. We had plenty of time during layovers, 3 hours in Atlanta, and 3 1/2 in Minneapolis, so I decided this was going to be a learning experience for Quinten along the way. The gate where we waited in Atlanta was right out at the end of the concourse, so he was able to watch planes coming and going, almost every 3-5 seconds!! We also got to see what all the workers do when a plane lands and refills for takeoff. When asked the next day about his day, he replied without hesitation that it was fun! Well we finally got to Spokane, Wa, 10 1/2 hours after the rest of the family. Poor Ivan ended up driving about 500 mile and flying 2700 all in 26 hours! We were ready for bed! Ivans Mom and Dad are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this summer, and this was a gathering of all the siblings in honor of this occasion. We were happy that all 9 of the children could be together for this occasion. A special thanks to all the ones who live in ID that did all the background work to pull this together!!

The weather felt chilly to us southerners, and it was kinda awkward to make breakfast wearing your winter coats, but we had an enjoyable time, and made lots of good memories, even though various ones of us we afflicted at different times with the flu bug!! And as all good things must, this too came to an end. It was back home to canning green beans and digging potatoes! Thanks to my sis-in-laws here who picked and canned the first 2 picking of beans for us. I had planted them 2 weeks late, hoping they would hold off till we got back, but things were early this year...so... This morning was the first service at the new church. We enjoyed a good service, and the weather was lovely enough for us to enjoy a fellowship meal outside. Some of you were enquiring where the dividing line was, so I will list the ones who are attending at Edisto Menn. Mark Hochstetler, Gordan Amstutz, Carl Heatwoles, Sharon and son Thomas Brubaker, Aden Diems, Delmar Diems, Darren Diems, Leon Duecks, Joshua Heatwoles, Eric Heges, Andy Korvers, Lloyd Oberholtzers, Joel Ockers, Conrad Stovers, Duane Stovers, and us. So this is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives!! :-)

Church is dividing...

I don't know how many of you know that since our church has out grown the benches for quite awhile already...there has been actions taken to start a new church. First a committee was set in place to look for a location, preferably somewhere east or south. Then last summer we had 2 ordinations, one for deacon, and one for 2 ministers. About a month ago the location committee finally had a proposal which we all had opportunity to vote on. They wanted at least a 3/4 vote...it passed by a 94%! The location is about 10 mile SE of Bamberg on rt 362 if anyone wants to look it up on Google maps. It is a rented facility, so may be a temporary location, but will be a start. Then it was decided how the ministry would be divided, with Mark Hochstetler, Gordan Amstutz and Carl Heatwole being the ones 'sent' to the new location, with Gary Hege, Chad Brubaker and Michael Strite remaining at Barnwell. The next step was that we were given opportunity to choose which church we are willing to attend. They wanted it to be a fairly balanced divide, meaning, not to have a mother/baby church, but 2 sister churches with at least a 40/60 divide. Also that some of each age group could be involved with each church also, if not, they would take liberties to do a bit of 'tweeking'. Last Sunday those votes were all to be back in. Wed evening the report was that the votes were not quite all in, but of those that were 46% chose the new church with 54% remaining at Barnwell, and the age levels were all fairly balance out! Wow, another sign that God was at work! This morning the list of families of who chose to go to which church was in the mailboxes, when the final count was in, the dividing line was 60/40. It will be sad to leave the ones remaining at Barnwell behind, but as of the first of June, we along with 16 other families will be starting a church in the Hunters Chapel community. There are still a lot of details that will need to be worked out...but so far we are amazed at the working of God thru each of us! Praise the Lord.

Good intentions...

Last fall I was thinking ahead to winter, and what should I try to accomplish this winter...you know all those thoughts that run thru your mind, at my stage in life they were...shall I put in another quilt...should I do pictures...should I sew...?
Well, I decided that it might be fun to just do pictures, you know, nothing major, just get the photo albums updated. Ok, so where shall I set up the operation? ...and then Ivan moved the woodworking shop in the shop to a larger location, and the little boys moved the tool bench that was in the back side of the living room to the shop. Perfect...I will set up a table and get my photo albums caught up. Now, I'm not talking hours of scrapbooking...you know just cutting up pictures and put on pages with hand written notations under them...I mean how much simpler can it get!
Well, time keeps chuggin on, and when Andrea was getting ready to go to Bible School, I made the comment to her, you know I was going to update photo albums this winter, and I was starting to see my good intentions go down the drain....and now...well, Andrea is coming home in 2 1/2 weeks, but in 4 weeks her, Geneva, and Ryan all leave for Nicaragua, and in the midst of all that...spring is arriving way to fast...and I feel my 'good intentions' going all the way down the drain!! The pictures are still in the boxes on the shelf. You know I think there must be at least 5 years worth (it would be 6, but the last years aren't developed yet! And poor Thorton don't even ask anymore, 'Where is my book', like he used too when the others would dig theirs out and look at them.
So one of these days...maybe after my girls are all grown and I don't have all the 'help' that others seem to think I have now...maybe, just maybe I might get more acccomplished than 'good intentions'!
By the way, yesterday, I finally updated my bulletin board from all those nice pictures we got about 3 mth ago from our friends and reletives...
Y'all have a nice day! :-) I think maybe I should do some 'spring' sewing instead...LOL!

Another Sat stroll...

...this one was a little later in the afternoon after I planted some of my broccoli plants in the garden and discovered nickel size green strawberry plants hanging on! I was a bit surprised myself! I couldn't resist taking a picture of those and texting to Andrea in MN, but I neglected to get the picture on the 'real' camera later, when I was taking the 'stroll'!

These blooms are poking out beside the front porch steps...in my mind a bit too early, but hopefully they will survive!

And these are the normal winter flowers, camellias, that usually bloom well over Genevas birthday!

Maurita was in the basement trying to sew on a slip they are making in Home Ec. They were to try to do some of the work at home. She was getting frustrated with the 'slick' material, but I told her not to despair too desperately, that yes, we wanted straight seams, but after all it was an under garment!! :-)

Ivan and the younger boys were working in the shop putting up tin on the walls that had been the wood working shop. The tin had been in storage so long that it needed washed off!

And this is the 'new' woodworking shop area, hopefully this will accommodate 6 of them better!!

With these vehicles sitting in the shop waiting for repair, is it any wonder the other week when a lady was here to do a uhaul rental, that she wondered if we worked on cars too, or just trucks!! :-)

...and Ryans house is still improving...slowly but surely!

Now a few pictures from before, that I never got put on...

This is how our garden got fertilized this year!! The boys were intrigued by the name on the manure spreader...you see the red and green paint...it is a new idea, a combo of red and green!

And this is the welding class that Ivan is in charge of every Fri afternoon. There are 4 boys, Gwynndon, Bruce Diem, Rylan Dueck and Derrick Miller. After they welded awhile, just to get the feel of it, they are now working on deer stands. Gwynndon and Bruce have welded before, and Derrick is still working on the 'memorial' in the background!!

I took another rambling walk...

These are some picts that I found yesterday morning. Ivan was the one who wasn't to be found. I did know where he was tho'...and I hoped to get a pict of his load before he left, but didn't make it. He informed me Thurs that he had 4 gardens to till on Sat. I asked if mine was one of them...but since the farmer didn't bring the manure yet...mine wasn't in the plan!! :-)

Found Ryan and Thorton out by the sawmill. I think that big log grew in a unique pattern. It actually looks twisted on the outside, didn't see what the boards look like when they are cut!

This pile of logs is waiting for Ivan to find time to cut them up. It arrived as semi load of highline poles that we held our breath while it managed to back down along the bank, and get back into the sawmill. Ivan fessed up later that he wished he would never have suggested it, cause the front tires of the semi were right on top of the bank...had it given way!! Well, we are glad it didn't.

Ambling out to the shop, I found some boys industriously doing Sat morning jobs!

I found Quinten 'working' on his 'shack' in the woods... one blessing of the sawmill, the boys have more than enough 'scrap' lumber at their disposal to use to their hearts content!!

Besides taking pictures, this is what I had to show for myself!

Back in the house, Andrea was trying to find a dessert to make for today...

The covered pan in front of her has small broccoli plants coming. I did uncover it and take another picture, but Andrea didn't 'pose' very well...

And this concludes the next episode in Sat morning at Ivans!!

Sat morning business...

This morning I went out to the shop...knowing that Ivan finally received his 'Christmas' gift...an automatic garage door opener for the door where he now keeps his truck. A few years back, he had got another one for the same reason...I think he secretly keeps moving his trucks parking place...you know eventually then all the doors will have openers!! LOL!!
Anyway, I found all kinds of things going on, so decided to do pictures of Sat mornings activities!! I couldn't find Ryan tho'...

I like this one...looks like Ivan and Gwynndon are sharing some private joke!

And the story behind this next picture is a project that started about a year ago. Carl H asked Ivan about building a trash trailer for at school. They needed to do something, and he thought that might fit the bill. Well in the meantime before it was finished, someone else lined up and paid for a dumpster to be behind the school. Carl called Ivan and said could he please not build it...well, when you are in the middle of a project, you can't really just quit, so Ivan had Gwynndon continue to build it. Carl came back later and said to Ivan, 'you know I think maybe they might can use it at Heritage Bible School'. Well, that was a dead end street too, they had just taken the one they had there to Billy Stoll and had them completely redo it. So in the meantime, Gwynndon kept plugging away at this trailer. Last week one day it was finally finished enough to paint, and then they sat it along the road one day this week. I saw it out there and cringed thinking of 'that dead horse' and whoever was going to come along and buy it! 'Oh ye of little faith'! About Thurs afternoon Kylan made a comment about his Daddy having sold the trailer, but something about a door being put into the gate. I inquired to Ivan and here Wendell H stopped in and it was exactly what he and Gordan had been talking about they needed to haul calves between their properties, but it needed a door. So when I got to the shop this morning, Gwynndon was actually working at the 'door', so decided to add a pict of this one too.

...and in the house...

...and I was going to take a pict to show that Andrea was doing double duty...and this is the thanks I got!!

But when I told her what I was up too...she did cooperate a bit nicer!!

Andrea was making some snide comments about Geneva just being lazy, but she had actually got up fairly early this morning, got her cleaning done and was sewing. She had taken a break from that to get some signs finished up! And Me, I guess I was flitting from here to there... hanging up laundry, then took it down again, taking pictures, and I need to go see if I can finish up the jacket that I started for Andrea!

Trouble on this side of the tracks!!

Dannys made a quick trip to PA the beginning of the week and brought Mom and Jean back with them. Fri evening we enjoyed our 'holiday family gathering' at Dannys, hosted by their 5 married children. The supper was delicious, the big thing was the 'whole pig' that we all got to enjoy choice morsels from!
Today we were planning to gather at our house, just Dannys, Garys and us with the children that live at home yet. Well, last night late Kylan made a visit to our bedroom and said his stomach did not feel well, but he couldn't upchuck. I am like well, great, go to bed! I had him take some tums and got him some peppermint gum, which sometimes can have a calming effect. I didn't hear more out of him till about 6, when he said he feels like he needs to throw up, but nothing will come! I am like well please be glad it won't come! I am a sympathizing Mom, can't you tell!
Well, in the meantime, I lost count how many times, but Delvin kept making periodic trips to my bed giving me updates on his progress. Guess he thought if he couldn't sleep, that I shouldn't be allowed to either!! So this morning I was laying there wondering how early I dare call Cheryl to inform her of the night happenings at our house, when the phone rings about 7...and the caller ID said Gary Hege! She wondered how things were at our house, and I told her that I was wondering how early I dare call her, and she said so you didn't get any sleep last night either! Here, her children were taking turns dropping last night too...except it swept thru all 6 of them! So she wondered if she could send her potatoes that she was planning to bring with Ryan, who was there milking!
So...I called Benita to inform her of the trouble on this side of the tracks...and she said they would talk it over and let me know. In a bit she called back and said maybe they would just stay at home. We talked about the food a bit, she had just finished covering a big dish of 7 layer salad!! So we were going to trade salad for potatoes and dessert. It wasn't long and she called back, and wondered if I was the one who would be staying home from church. (I haven't been there since Christmas Sunday, BTW!) I assured her that I would be, cause Ivan had to teach, and she wondered if I needed another 'victim'! Here Jean wasn't fairing very well herself! In talking then, Danny said that they had been exposed, so they might as well come for lunch anyway.
In the meanwhile, after Maurita had heard the details of the night, she discovered that was why her stomach was doing some fluttering around...Ryan came home from the barn and went straight to bed...he wasn't feeling very up to power either! Thorton is taking his turn this afternoon! I lost track of how many times he has come and told me that his stomach hurts, in a whinny tone! I finally told him that I think I knew that, cause he told me before!!
So..we had 'company' and there were a total of 11 at the table! It was fun to have just a small 'table full' for a change, and also was most interesting in the amount of food that was consumed! I think by that time we were all wondering who the next victim might be, and took portions accordingly!! So, not sure what 'bug' was making his way around Friday night, but he did his job well, and was very potent!
...just maybe one of these times I might get to attend church again! :-)!