July Family Time

July started off with a “bang”. Pun intended! July fourth weekend had some of our children and grandchildren at our house. The weather was cool and ideal for cookouts, fireworks and just being together. Many years on the farm we were harvesting and not able to enjoy the Independence Day celebration as we liked to. I discovered that sparklers have advanced from the days when our children were little. The sparklers we had this year had all kinds of beautiful colors and seemed to sparkle in every direction.

I always think of my mother on this holiday as her birthday is on July 5^th. Her aunt always called her a “fizzle”. She was little but mighty for sure! The kids all called her “Mae-Maw”. She is missed at these times.

One son brought his camper and built a nice fire in the fire pit. His wife added color makers to the fire. It was mesmerizing as we all sat around the campfire and visited. Several different games were played and I think Luke who is ten won every hand of Sweep.

“Our family is just one tent away from a full-blown circus!”

Later in July on the 26 we had some more children and grandchildren come out for the weekend. Our son that lives in Flower Mound, TX brought his three teenagers, our son in Great Bend brought his wife and teenager, and our son and wife from Atwood came also. The local Dairy Queen was a hit for an ice cream treat for sure. We also played many board games and enjoyed spending time as a family. The time goes much too fast. Every moment has to be savored. Harper from Texas had one thing on her agenda and that was playing games. Grandma was happy to oblige.

“In my family, crazy doesn’t skip a generation.”

The first of August we traveled to Olathe to spend time with our daughter’s family while she had to head back to school early. It’s sad that teachers and librarians have to head back early but we had a great time helping kids with school supplies and enjoying summer’s last fling.

Where did it go? Summer, I mean.

Family, Fabric, Farmer and Flies

The Farmer and I traveled to Wisconsin for a great nephew’s wedding in June. It was a wonderful family time with the Farmer’s sister and lots of nieces and nephews. His three brothers have graduated to heaven. He is the only brother left. He still has all three sisters. Being with his family has become so much more precious due to this. That’s one reason we decided to make the trip.

It was a beautiful wedding in some amazing country and scenery. We were on a lake and only a short distance from Lake Superior. One day after the wedding we took a boat trip to Apostle Islands. The Farmer who always wears cowboy boots decided the day of the boat ride to wear sandals. MISTAKE! The black flies were awful on the boat and nearly ate us alive. They were fighting with vengeance. We had to warp the Farmer’s legs with this sweatshirt. The scenery was delightful but those flies!! Yikes!

“An optimist is one who believes that a fly is looking for a way to get out.”

“But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land.“

-Exodus 8:22

We saw some wonderful scenery, lighthouses, rock formations, and ships on Lake Superior. We saw quilt shops and fabric shops. We were so fortunate to hit the corner of Michigan at their time of Quilt Hop Shop. Wow, God is so good. As I was driving back to our daughter’s house in Kansas City, I saw a sign for Missouri Star Quilt Company. It was 15 miles in the wrong direction but the car just turned that way. It was a thrill to see it and it fills up the whole town of Hamilton, MO. Of course, I had to buy some fabric. It was a wonderful little trip.

Family, Fabric, Farmer!! And Flies! Memorable!

Year of Jubilee

Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.
Leviticus 25:10

A couple of young kids got married Fifty years ago. Now here we are in our year of Jubilee. We literally blinked our eyes and 50 years passed. We thought we were in love on that wedding day but we didn’t really know what love is. It didn’t matter though, because we learned what love truly is. It’s a determination to decide to love every day. Even when it seems difficult or impossible. It’s not impossible. We have traversed some difficult days during these fifty years. Some were devastating and troubling, but we set our faces to survive with our marriage and our children and most of all our faith in tact. Not just in tact but deeper. And God showed us the way and gave us the tools. Now here we are. We are more in love than we could even imagine at 19 and 24 years of age.

Too be fully seen by somebody, then and be loved anyhow- this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.
Elizabeth Gilbert

People that celebrated 50 years of marriage used to be pretty old. That sure doesn’t hold true anymore as we are still so young. At least in our own eyes. 😉 Our four precious children and our 12 grandchildren celebrated us by planning a get away in Breckenridge for our whole family. Everyone was able to attend. That was such a blessing as everybody is so busy. We were able to do hikes and eat gelato, play games and go out to eat one evening. They rented a house and we were so able to enjoy each day and the gorgeous scenery. A red fox came up below our balcony one day. We were very blessed by their sacrifices and were able to get a family picture. The farmer even took off the John Deere sweatshirt and put on a tie. It was truly a grand celebration.

A huge thank you goes out to our family for making this celebration of our Jubilee year perfect. This grandma was thrilled that all were able to attend. She also wants to say thank you to the Farmer for sticking around for 50 years.