Preach...Jonah 3:2

The Man is working in the ER today so I went down to the field this evening to move the irrigation wheel line. At first I couldn't see anything, but as soon as I lifted the cover many little blackbird beaks started waving in the air. Too bad I didn't take any regurgitated worms down there with me.

On the mover...


A close up...


I decided to leave the wheel line alone for the evening. I'll let The Man move it tomorrow.

Here's my oldest baby. He preached his first sermon yesterday. In the interest of fair reporting, this is not a picture of him preaching. I ran the video camera from the back of the church and didn't snap still pictures. After the service M got back up at the podium and posed for me.


He spoke about Jonah (how he ran from God) and Elijah (how he ran from Jezebel) and then about how Noah and Abram did what God wanted them to do even though others did not understand. It was a wonderful first-time sermon and nobody complained about getting out of church a few minutes early.

I was so busy running the video camera that I completely cut out the part of the service where S played "Holy, Holy, Holy" on the piano. I'm not sure how I managed that, but I did. Fortunately he performed an encore for me last night which I did get on video.

He was mildly annoyed with me. "We can't put the people singing in church on the video also." True. However, the people did enjoy the youth service yesterday.

Last week, in anticipation of the service, we pulled out old videos of The Man giving some sermons when he was in 9th or 10th grade...about 22 or 23 years ago we were guessing. The man that did the children's story for one of those church service decades ago is a member of our church up here. He's in his upper 80s now and he had signed up to tell the children's story yesterday. How appropriate and wonderful that was!

They washed their clothes...Exodus 19:14

It has been very busy around here the past few weeks. The hay needed to be cut, but The Man was occupied with more important things. I decided that I was perfectly capable of cutting hay, so The Man took the equipment to the field for me. The cutting was fairly boring and uneventful...except for the irrigation line wheel that I got a bit too close to and the broken bushing. We do have a spare wheel that we can swap for the one I munched and the bushing was only $14 to replace (that was probably due to the old equipment and not my driving). I had noticed the mower started making a louder-than-normal banging noise, but since it always makes noise, I didn't stop to investigate until the cutting-thingie quit cutting.

So, while trying to catch up on all the laundry from the recent backpacking trip I noticed the dryer was making a weird noise. Suspecting rocks left in little boys' pockets, I emptied the dryer of clothes and rocks. Even running empty, the dryer was still making noise. Since I had to make a trip to the local Fluff & Fold to wash the sleeping bags in the commercial washers, last weekend the kids and I loaded up every piece of laundry and $30 in quarters and set off to the laundromat. Three hours later we were home with many baskets full of clean, folded clothes.

One of the sleeping bags was unwashed and one load of clothes wasn't dried since my quarters ran out and the coin machine at the Fluff & Fold was empty. As I was showing M how to hang his clothes on the clothesline at home M handed me the quarters left over from when he was helping load the machines. I thought my $30 had disappeared very quickly!

I washed 12 loads of laundry, but the little machines only hold about 1/3 of what my machine can handle, and there were only 3 functional dryers. After spending 3 hours there with four kids, I was inspired to take apart my dryer later that day. More rocks were found. The dryer only makes drying noises now. I hope to never return to the Fluff & Fold. Although the lady that runs the place did tell me that Coca-Cola will remove oil from clothing. It has to be the real stuff, not generic or some other cola. I probably never would have discovered that on my own. Now I know!

After spending the morning in the laundromat with the kids I spent a quiet afternoon in the field raking the hay I'd already cut. I got most of that done before the rake started making a horribly squeaky noise. Given my recent history with the equipment, I quit while it was still functional. The Man & S greased all greasable parts yesterday, so I hope to get the remainder raked today. The kids are all doing well. Above is one A's favorite drawings. She's been drawing quite a few of the example on the left. "This is you, Mommy, when you get out of the shower, before you get dressed." I finally asked if she could draw one with clothes. I find it fascinating that not only does my body and hair change color when I am dried and dressed, but I look taller also.

A brother offended...Prov. 18:19

I was asked to make this sign last night as I was tucking one of the children in quite a bit early. This child thought that nobody was nice to him/her. So it seemed. This child had an altercation with each and every one of the siblings yesterday. Of course the siblings all got along fine, so it must have been a conspiracy against said child. So sad. Fortunately today has gone much better for this child. It must have been the sign. Now all the other kids want one also.

Perhaps I will even make a sign for myself. Maybe I will get better answers from the lawnmower repair establishment that promised our lawnmower would be ready 2 weeks ago. As much as the children love the push-powered mower, it just won’t cut the weeds.

Tomorrow The Man will start the cut/rake/bale cycle in the hayfield. Hopefully he won’t have to do it on our lawn too.

The hay appears...Prov. 27:5

Make hay while the sun shines. It sounds easy enough. Nobody ever said it was. It’s not. Most folks around here can get it from the field to barn in 3 days. Cut it one day, rake it the next, then baled and to the barn on the third day.

The man started cutting the hay 2 ½ weeks ago. He thought it was a bit too easy…until the baler broke after the first 5 bales. The parts that were supposed to arrive the next day didn’t. By the time the parts arrived it had rained. I got to re-rake the field a week ago. Since then it has either been too wet or not wet enough when the man was here, so it wasn’t until this morning that the conditions were right to get the rest of the hay baled and to the barn.

~~~

What is this?

a. bird
b. angel
c. Mom’s attempt at making a batch of cupcakes resemble an airplane in 15 minutes

J turned 9 today! His birthday celebration with the whole family was supposed to be for supper tonight, but we found out at 11 a.m. there was a scheduling mix-up and the man had to go to work this afternoon. That meant he might not be home for supper so I only had a few minutes to put the requested airplane together. J was thrilled. I won’t be looking for a job at Boeing.