'Bloom' Baby!!

It's that time of year again!!! Bloom Where You're Planted was calling our name today thanks to it's military appreciation day. We absolutely adore this farm. It is perfect. And quaint. And all together lovely.

 
 Me and Isaak both agreed that in the event we ever retire and are fortunate enough to have a little piece of land to call our own...we will be makin' this garden trellis tunnel.

 Complete with massive gourds and larger than your face sized leaves.

The horses are always the girls favorite part.

This little strip of land is my favorite spot here. It's nestled in between the corn fields and horses with grand views of the sky and very gently rolling hills of farmland. It'd be the perfect spot to plop down on a blanket, bask in the softness of 68 degrees, the warm sun, the picture perfect cloudless blue sky, and just watch and enjoy creation....if only horses didn't attract so many flies.

 Moving on, lots to see....

Well, this is new! Every year we come they've added something else.

Isaak thought he'd take that horse saddle swing thingy for a spin after seeing Sydaleigh on it. He nearly biffed it trying to get on. That contraption is not adult friendly. Very wiggly. Much more wiggly than it looks. If only he'd a face planted it...that woulda been hilarious! (not that I get some sick sense of enjoyment our of seeing my husband or any other person face plant it...but well, maybe I do...a little bit! If they don't get hurt that is. I have a twisted sense of humor that finds toe stubbing and whacky falls quite funny. I have a deep love for America's Funniest Home Video's. )

 

Climbing the hay!

"Ta-Da!"

"Come on, jump with me."

"Hmm, I don't think so."

 "WHAAA!!!!"

"Oh. Well that wasn't so bad." 

 "Lets do it again!"

CORN PIT!!!!!

 We do love ourselves a good pit filled with corn kernels.

 the only problem with loving a good corn pit,

 is that when you do things like this....

 like getting buried up to your eyeballs...

means lots of corn in places it shouldn't be. 

It gets in your ears, your shirt, your shoes, your socks,

I dumped out about fifty or so kernels from Marvi's underwear after we got home.

.....after the corn pit we took another pit stop to play on the new tire swing

 dress Marvelly up like a scarecrow, she dug it. :~)

feed a goat and play with a new water device thingy. 

 and then it was off to hunt for some pumpkins

Sydaleigh wanted a big one. So Isaak said if she could carry it, she could have it. 

That girl picked herself out a mammoth sized pumpkin. And she carried it. 

She was very proud of herself and her mammoth five year old strength.We were too.

Marvelly on the other hand was quite content with her "baby" pumpkin. Literally, baby. She cradled that thing in the car and pretended it was a baby on the way home. 

Oh.my. They are entirely too cute. :~) Great Saturday at our favorite Fall hangout.

CHIEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew something was smelling exceptionally funky in the girls room. At first I thought it was coming from the laundry room. But after a thorough cleaning of the litter, the smell remained.

Hmmmm........

"What is the rank smell????"

Unfortunately I did not have time to investigate yesterday, when it started crinkling my nose.

But today, I knew I'd have to tear the girls room apart and figure out what was causing it.

Oh my.

*deep breaths*

I really only thought it would be an old soiled pull-up that got kicked under the bed by accident.

Mmmm mmmm......nope. Worse.

Okay...maybe Chief peed on something.....nope. Worse.

Alright....perhaps Anna coughed up a hair ball under one of the beds.

*gag reflux kickin' it*....nope.......Worse.

When Sydaleigh bent down and told me she spotted the culprit under her bed, I lifted off the mattress to get a better look.

Looked like a hair ball to me.

If only.....if only it had indeed been a hair ball.

Upon closer inspection.....

I discovered.....

that resting under Sydaleigh's bed.....

WAS.A.DEAD.MOUSE!!!! *cringe and shudder*

A mouse!!!!!!

A FLIPPIN' MOUSE!!!! Left under Sydaleigh's bed to no doubt bask in the glory of his catch.

Oh uggghhhhh uhhhhhh..... I don't do mice. Sorry. I shewed Sydaleigh off to the play room, screamed for Isaak, started breathing through my mouth lest that wretched smell of DEATH make me vomit....and Isaak brought that thing outside.

*shivers racing through my spine*

I can't even think about it without cringing. And my blood pressure rises. And I feel a stress induced heart attack comin' on. 

There is only ONE reason why there'd be a dead mouse in this house. ONE REASON!! And that one reason just happened to bring one home this afternoon and try to run into the house with it dangling from his mouth. ICK! "Get back! Get back! You ain't comin' in here!!" 

I had to practically beat that thing from the grip of his mouth with a broom stick. That nasty nasty NASTY cat.

It was one thing to find an occasional snake in the house when we lived in California. It was one thing to discover an occasional dead lizard or frog in the house when we lived in Florida. I'm okay with the cats killing little crickets and beetles that sneak under the door cracks here in Nebraska.

Occasional reptiles, amphibians, and insects....I can handle. That is fine.

But it is another matter en.ti.r.ly. when Isaak's cat brings vermin home. Rodents are NOT okay.

Not okay!!!

That cat BETTER find another place to sleep tonight because I am not opening that door to let him in even if meteorites threaten to rain down, if it drops to -50 degrees, or he is being chased by a pack of wild dogs!!

There are hardly words for how much I despise that cat.

Little Miss Sunshine

"The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple."

-Psalm 119:130

A month into the school year

We are four weeks into the Kindergarten school year. And so far....GREAT! I can not brag on Sydaleigh enough. This little girl, has not one.single.time. complained about going to school. She has never once asked to stay home or complained about getting up in the morning. Each day she is cheerful and enthusiastic to go to school. She is learning. She is flourishing. She is being challenged. She has got a great teacher that maintains much of the same guidelines we have in our home. She is active and engaged and keeps a close eye on the happenings in the classroom. She has a great method for open communication and Sydaleigh enjoys learning under her.

We have had a couple little, not hiccups, but just, things happen in school that have needed addressing so far. The first week her teacher was out of the classroom for a day and Sydaleigh's class had a sub. There was a pushing incident while the kids were walking in line to music class. I got a little riled up and talked to the teacher about my "take no crap stance" with other kids laying their hands on my Sydaleigh. :~)

And then her lunch got taken and hidden from her for fun by another friend and she had to eat cafeteria food. I probably shoulda not gotten so riled up this time. But it's me, and I tend to respond emotionally before I think things through logically. When I informed Sydaleigh I'd be havin' a talk with the friends mommy, she got really upset...knowing that my talking to another mom resulted in trouble for her friend.  So after lots of tears and screaming and some lying....I just felt the Lord encouraging me to step back. So, I told Sydaleigh that I would not talk to her friends mommy. But that she needed to talk to her friend herself and ask that he not take and hide her lunch anymore. But I also reminded her that she is this boys friend. She is not his mommy. It's not her job to make sure he doesn't get in trouble. It's her job to make sure she always tells me what is true.

Oh....how I'd love to step in and fight all my kids battles for them. How I instinctively want to protect and save them from everything the world throws at them. Even small things like this. It's so easy for me to step in and just solve all her problems for her. But, I can't solve all her problems. I can't fix everything for her. I want to equip them to be problem solvers. I want them to be bold and have confidence to speak up and address a situation. And that's not gonna happen if I'm always stepping in, and never giving them a chance. 

I'm just so grateful that we're starting out with small things like lunchboxes!!

I need to be eased into this!

One thing that we are apparently not going to get the pleasure of being eased into is this whole "girlfriend" fiasco.

FIRST day of school a boy came home gushin' to his momma how Sydaleigh is his girlfriend.

Say wha?!?! Not again!

It was the same way in preschool! The boys in her class and in her swim lessons would tell their moms how Sydaleigh was their girlfriend too.

NO!!!!!  She's five!!!

Shoot, I laugh now, but if she's already turning the boys heads, I'm clearly gonna be beating them back with a stick come high school. Probably before that. And I do mean "beating them back with a stick" li.ter.a.lly. I need to find a ninja store so that I can find one that collapses so I can fit it in my purse all inconspicuously, and then BAM! Bust it out all quick and ninja like. 

And then I'm gonna get the girls some of THIS. So they can be protected....and fancy. Gotta equip them against all their admirers....because apparently the line is already forming.  :~)

But school is going well. She absolutely loves it. She adjusted so smoothly. She has made a plethora of new friends. And when she comes home we spend time at the table having a snack and talking about her day. And then her and Marvelly spend time together getting reacquainted after a day spent apart. 

Me and Marvelly have been having a grand time, just us. I have been doing "school" with her a couple days a week. But since she has the attention span of a peanut, we are done in about 15 minutes. But in the past four weeks she has memorized how to spell her name and is developing her fine motor skills learning how to trace letters. Oh, and coloring inside a picture. Very big three year old stuff. :~)

But we mostly play.

One month down. And what a good month its been. Hectic. But good.

9/11-revisited a decade later

We were newly stationed at Beale AFB in California, and it wasn't quite six in the morning when the first plane hit. I was still laying in bed, awake, but hadn't yet found the motivation to leave my warmth from under the covers. I remember Isaak being up, getting ready for work, busying himself in the living room in the back of our house on base.

I could hear him moving around, and he had the news on. I was still groggy with sleep but at some point in the next passing moments I noticed that the ants that liked to grace their presence in our house so much were having a party in my room, on the wall behind our bed. Not wanting to share my space with unwanted guests I scrambled out of bed to kill the trail of ants. And in kind of an instant Isaak rushed in, told me he had to leave for work NOW. I don't remember if I drove him to work that morning. I remember driving away from his work, but not getting there, or if Isaak was in the car with me. I remember looking at the windshield and seeing water droplets coming down and thinking that this was the first day since we moved here that it's rained.

And then I was home again. Glued to the tv. I had school that evening at the education center on base, which I quickly found out was canceled because the professors couldn't get on base.

No one could.

If you had the misfortune of being off base the morning of the attacks...that's where you stayed. If you needed to leave base the morning of the attacks, you were out of luck.

No one came in. No one went out.

I talked to Isaak on and off throughout the day. Lots of uncertainty. It was just all so surreal.

And then everything was different. We were new to the military life at this point, but the eight months prior to 9/11 looked very different after that morning. Our quiet base was completely transformed to a bustling parade of Humvees and tanks stocked with soldiers and rifles. They were on constant patrol. Every vehicle coming on base was searched. Blockades were set up. ID's were checked at every entrance point to any facility on base.

But in the midst of it all, on that tragic day, and all the crazy days to follow...I was never scared. Despite all the uncertainty, being new on a base, three thousand miles from home, secluded, alone, not seeing Isaak hardly at all....I remember feeling quite secure, actually. Maybe that was my naive 19 year old self. Maybe it was the Lord's all sustaining peace at work. I think it was both. I was definitely naive. But I most definitely had peace. Security. Looking back, that's something only the Lord could have provided in such a time. That is something only the Lord can provide, period....

"There were fifteen or twenty people in the area directly around me. 

Some people, seeing the dust coming toward them and thinking, as I had, that it was coming from in front of them, had run back into the building. 

Tragically, they were crushed by the building as it collapsed on top of them. 

I, however, didn't run back, but stood still, arms by my side, 

clutching my cell phone as a symbol of a connection to my wife. 

Those of us who were outside came together and began to form a huddle-

each of us, men and women, piled one on top of the other. 

Each of us wanted the other to provide cover and protection; 

we wanted the sense of connection to other human beings, 

because we couldn't run ahead and we couldn't run back into the building. 

None of us wanted to be alone or lonely. 

At that moment, something in my heart told me that, 

while I had asked where I was going and had been assured by my faith, 

those around me might not have asked the same question of themselves. 

I was filled with anxiety for them. 

I started crying out, 'Call upon the name of the LORD and you will be saved.' 

What I meant was not that we would all get out of the situation alive, 

or that only those who called upon God's name would be allowed to live. 

I thought we were all going to die. 

What I wanted was,

for everyone around me to have the confidence of knowing where they would end up, 

once we all were killed. 

Based on our faith and our walk with the Lord, I thought, we could either end up in heaven or hell.

Even though I was speaking in my own voice, I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to everyone around me.

I forgot my surroundings and started calling out Jesus' name as loudly as I could. 

I called upon the entire group to do the same, 

and we all did. 

We were sobbing and yelling, 

as the ash began to descend on our bodies. 

For what seemed like five minutes, 

although it was probably only a few seconds, 

we called out Jesus' name.

At the crucial point in their lives, when death was facing them, 

this diverse group of men and women, 

of many different faiths 

and perhaps with no faith at all, 

whom I did not know 

and would never meet again,

did not undertake any other practice, spiritual or otherwise, 

than calling upon Jesus. 

I truly believe that, in such a situation, 

the name of Jesus is so powerful that it overwhelms the most desperate of circumstances 

and calms the most terrifying of fears. 

Irrespective of your faith or cultural background, 

it is the one name under heaven and earth that can save you."
-Excerpt from Sujo John's book "Do You Know Where You Are Going?" 
about his miraculous escape from the 81st floor of Tower One on 9/11 and the saving grace of Jesus Christ

Today, ten years later, as I reflect on that tragic day, I am challenged once again to live in the reality that I have limited time.....

“Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is."-Psalm 39:4

To make my life count. Right now. To not wait. To live boldly. To live my life full tilt for the Lord. To be willing to put my life on the line because I know that God is with me. To rest in the assurance that He will never leave me nor forsake me. To really live. To move and take risks despite the fear and uncertainty that seeks to pull me back. Because while I can't control when I die, or how I die, I can control how I live....and Jesus is worth living for. He is greater than any fear. He is stronger than all uncertainty. He is mightier than death itself. And I want my life to honor Him. Plain and simple. 

"May I never forget this day Lord. And since my days are numbered would you teach me what it means to really live?"

A little ditty

teaching Women's Bible Study this fall at church.
getting more rest hopefully now that Isaak is home
working on putting down my baton and stepping out of the world's parade.
hanging out with lots of new friends lately
soaking up this splendid tender balance of weather between summer and fall. 
researching Joshua and new camera equipment
singing Whitney's I Will Always Love You right now...and not well either. :~)
listening to some oldies but goodies lately like "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler and "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. Oh yeah.
playing the newest creation in Marvelly's imagination these days- which consists of me being a gorilla named Turk and her being a baby dinosaur hatching from it's egg.
praying for so many things. Too many to even begin....
saving for our annual trip out East this Thanksgiving. And...possibly a trip to Oregon next summer.
baking chocolate crinkle cookies.
planning on soaking up family time this weekend. 

seeing lots of spiders setting up fort around my property only to have their efforts thworted! Ha HA!
watching God open up new doors.
wishing that Christians would get off their spiritually superior pedestals, that the church would stop being so "religious", and that we could get back to the profoundly simple practice of following Jesus wholeheartedly. 
looking for a cardiologist.
having  to think about what to write at "having"...I'm stumped.
starting to exercise more consistently again. Yippee!
thanking Jesus for a whole slew of stuff.