We are right now in the mts of NC following behind a vehicle…much too close…in the rain.  Oh good…that vehicle got over!  Coming home from a weekend in IN where Ryan got married to Kendra Horst.  They had a lovely day for a wedding, sunshine, not too hot or too cold!  We stayed again with Lester and Evelyn Martin, Kendras gr aunt and uncle, who are a wonderful host and hostess, fraid we acted like teenagers coming in about 10:30 every night!!  They are an older couple with 4 empty bedrooms upstairs of which we used 3 of them with Geneva and Andrea staying at friends, and Gwynndon camped out at Ryans house.  Ryans house was kinda nice…I was able to use the fridge and freezer, and left some ‘leftovers’ in their freezer for them to finish!!  J 

We were blessed to have some of our families from both sides there, plus friends.  Thanks to all who made the journey!  We were able to spend a bit of time over lunch with the ‘Hege’ reletives who were there, sorry to miss out on the Skrivseth gathering Sat evening, we ended up being at the reception hall till 9:30 helping to clean up!!!  But were able to go to the cabin Sun afternoon and spend some time with Norvans family!  Then Sun evening we spent with Doug and Sally Wengerd family.  Its amazing how even tho’ you may not see each other for so.o.o…long you can pick right back up!!  The evening was too short!!

So now back to the real world…school starts at 8:30 in the morning…guess we miss out one parent teachers meeting tonight!! 

And some pictures from the weekend...

The happy couple

The bridal party

Andrea and Maurita were at the guest picture and handed out programs.  Then they were to make sure that everyone highlighted a verse in their Bible and got a song sheet for at the reception...

The 4 younger boys got to stack the gifts on this 'cool' wagon!

...and I find it amusing to observe in recent weddings that couples are resurrecting the age old tradition of feeding each other cake, which the couples my age discarded years ago!!  :-)

Well, well, where has time gone?!?!  Guess we've been caught up in home life...everyday life with a bit of company sprinkled in, a 'trip' to the ocean in the rain, garden work starting...and then there is church life, the regular, Sun, Wed night services, with a few extras sprinkled in! We at Edisto have a regular service the 2nd Sun evening, and it seems the last while we have had special guests, so then we add a finger food afterwards!  Which we enjoy, but you gotta pick your brain to figure out what to have!  :-)  and on top of that there is chorus practice, with an occasional service at other churches...  And then there is school life...the normal, plus all the end of the year activities, field trips, summer birthday parties, end of the year parties, with the list culminating in the school picnic yesterday...so now we can get on to summer!!  and then there is the normal work load...trying to juggle the house responsibilities with all the other activity, and filling in at the shop when Andrea goes to milk, which is supposed to be Mon, Wed and Fri...unless Leon decides to call and have her fill in additional time.  So last week one evening she came rushing in at 4:15 on her way to milk...she usually leaves at 3:30, so I need to drop what I am doing then and go out to the shop!  Such is life.  And on top of all that...my sister Jean came to SC the beginning of May, first for 3 wks (she had broke her shoulder from a fall)...then for longer, till she can care for herself again...at least put up her hair...and now it seems to be extending at least till mid June!  But that is ok, as she regains use of her arm, her care is diminishing, and she has been helping some with the workload here!...and we have been shuffling her between the 3 of us here in the south!  So if we have something going, then she goes mainly to Danny's, but Gary's have taken turns also!

So...in the midst of all this...Ryan announced his engagement planning a wedding in Aug.  I have been asked different times if I was eagerly getting ready for a wedding...well, so far my answer has been, that I need to take care of today, then I will get tomorrow, Randy, the guy who sells Napa parts seems to be puzzled by my reply!!!  And one of these days, we will start to do a bit of sewing, etc...  :-)

my journeying...

Lately I've been journeying thru the book 'Vera's Journey'. I say journeying, because it was due Jan 30...and that was 3 weeks after I checked it out! :-) It takes me awhile to get thru a book, especially one that is this thick! I've been impressed, that her basic journey is much the same as mine, even though hers started over 100 yrs ago! No, I don't have rats in my house, nor have I learned to cook on a cookstove, and carry water to heat for use. I do have the same struggles being weary at the end of a busy day, feeling pulled in many directions, and the desire to see our children grow up to be good Christian men and women! No, I didn't have mumps at 38 that left me deaf with a roaring in my head, but my problems can mount up, and it feels good to be able to 'escape' a bit with my husband to get back on track and be able to handle the stress of the days! No, I am not first a deacons wife, then a ministers wife, but I still have the concern in my heart when I see practices creeping into our midst that look too much like the world around us! And that my grandchildren will still follow Biblical principles and they will have a love for God and not for the 'things of the world'! Some thoughts that I read from the book the other day, and am still pondering...over the time that they were seeing practices creep into their midst that they weren't comfortable with. "We can be a good influence on others if we are careful to do it in God's way. As long as people recognize the world as their enemy, and excess of guidelines is not necessary. I'm afraid that is where the problem lies...that the world is no longer seen as an enemy, but as a friend and something to pattern ourselves after." Now, my ponderings...do we really view 'the world' as our enemy...How do we do that yet be a witness to them? How do we keep ourselves unspotted for Christ, yet live in the world. Who do I really Love...is it really God and the principles that He spelled out in His Word, or am I more prone to choose the 'easy' road, the things that may be simpler, and I can hide behind. Am I ashamed to really LIVE for Him? Maybe I 'think' too much, but have seen too many of my parents friends, who's children have taken the easier road...and its sad where they are today...and not only my parents friends, but see the same route being explored by some of our peers and friends... Do we REALLY see the world as our enemy?!?!

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!!