Family

Family Photo Session


This past Wednesday we had a family photo taken. The first in three years! The weather was gorgeous for mid November.


This is my favorite one!

Got Maids?

Have you ever read through Proverbs 31 and noticed a small portion of verse 15...the part that says she feeds her maidens? "She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens". When I reread that again, I said,"A-ha! That's how She did it all!She had maidens!" Wouldn't that be nice? Maids? Not one, but two or more? Are you thinking what I am?

Our old farm house has a back staircase, located by the kitchen, that winds upstairs to a small bedroom. This room can be closed off from the other rooms on that level securing privacy. This was the maid's quarters...maid's quarters? Years ago, a family may have hired a maid, who would live here while she worked for the family.

Well, when we moved into this house, I didn't have need for a maid's room - we didn't have any maids! Or at least I didn't think so. We decided to put the laundry room in the old maid's quarters. It was great being close to the laundry makers - five children can keep one busy in the laundry room and no stairs to climb while carrying loaded baskets is a huge blessing. However, it never dawned on me just how much of a blessing it was until we went to a small western North Dakota museum. There I picked up a handout. It read like this:

Grandma's "Receet for Washing Clothes"

Bild fire in backyard to het kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke won't blow in eyes if wind is pert. Shave one hole cake of lie sope in bilin water.

Sort things. make 3 piles. 1 pile white,1 pile cullord,1 pile werk britches and rags.

stur flour in cool water to smooth. then thin down with bilin water.

rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard. then bile. rub cullord but don't boil. just rench and starch.

take white things out of kettle with broomstick handel, then rench, blew and starch.

Hang old rags on fence.

Spred tee towels on grass.

Pore rench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot sopy water. Turn tubs upside down.

go put on cleen dress, smooth hair with side combs. Brew cup of tee, sit and rock a spell and ...

count your blessings.

So, now if you were to visit my house and take a tour, I'd show you my 'maid's quarters'. Yes, I have two hard working maids - my washer and my dryer! Have I learned a lesson? You bet, instead of coveting the Proverbs 31 gal's maidens when the laundry grows to mountainous proportion and things look bleak. I reread the handout now posted above my washer and dryer and thank the Lord for the 'maids' He has given me. And...I don't have to get up early to feed them!

"...and be content with such things as ye have." - Hebrews 13:5

Have a blessed day,
Lori

Patchwork Quilts

Some time ago, I went to a regional quilt show. It was very fascinating. Many quilts were painstakingly hand sewn over one-hundred years ago. I looked closely...I studied..and envied! Some of these were fancy blankets and had colors that were carefully chosen. Tiny precisely cut pieces were placed beside each other in very ornate patterns. Each stitch was perfectly placed in neat,intricate designs.

Other quilts were utilitarian and common - even well worn. They, no doubt, were put together by candlelight, or at best by gas lamp many years ago.

One in particular was extremely old. I imagined some pioneer mom who couldn't sleep at night had probably stitched this quilt, praying for each of her children as she stitched left over pieces of their clothing into her design. She had a purpose for this one - to keep her children warm at night! These bed covers were stitched by tender loving care. Colors that didn't necessarily "go" together; thread that changed colors or didn't match were all carefully pieced. Some fragments appeared to be taken from worn summer and winter clothing. However, when they were all put together, and meticulously stitched, the quilt was beautiful...and well used...most likely deeply cherished by someone; a son, a daughter - a beloved husband.

There were many other quilts, each one unique, each one seeming to tell a story. Each created for a different reason or purpose. Some of these were exquisite works of art for display only, others well worn. Yet, they were all kept here - treasured by someone.

Our families are like those quilts - each member uniquely placed together by the Lord for a special purpose in His design. "And we know that all things"... that He allows in our lives, the blessings, the hurts, the tears, the laughter - "work together"...are stitched together.."for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose." (italicized words Romans 8:28).

As a picture, a friend gave me, so well puts it:

Families are like quilts;
lives pieced together
stitched with smiles and tears
colored with memories
and bound by love.

Have you thanked God for your family and His design for your family today?

Have a blessed day,
Lori

Don't be Tripped by Troubles!

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Many of us are very familiar with this verse found in the book of Romans. We may even quote it several times a day, especially when trouble occurs. Trouble may come in many different forms. It's the pain and sorrow, distresses, worry and difficulties that occur in our everyday lives. We may worry about meeting our financial obligations, or perhaps we have a wayward child that causes us distress and anxiety. It may be stress over the possibility of an unexpected move (or a flood diversion plan running right through your farm), or a husband's change of job. Instead of allowing trouble to turn us inside out, let's allow God to use it in our lives for good. Trouble really can build our faith. We will never know what God can do for us until we are totally dependent on him. We must truly rely upon Him. We must trust Him that He knows what is best for us. I Corinthians 10:13 tells us "There hath no temptation (or adversity) taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer (or allow) you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." Trouble and adversity come our way to help us to get our eyes on the Lord and depend on Him, thus building our faith.

There are many happenings in any given day that may cause us to lose a correct Christian response to trouble: children fighting (Oh, no - never happens in my home or yours, I'm sure), phone ringing relentlessly, boiling over a pot on the stove, a leaking washing machine. Have you noticed that much of the trouble we see in our day really causes us nothing more than inconvenience? Yet, how many times have we come 'unglued' over these bothers? Trouble can develop patience (if we let it). James tells us to "Count it all joy...knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting (lacking) nothing."

Often times going through trials gives us first hand experience, which can give us compassion for others who may be enduring the same thing. God may want to make you the shoulder for someone else to cry on. The Bible tells us to "bear ye one another's burdens" and that we are to "be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another."

Trouble creates humility in us, too. It lowers our pride and our confidence in ourselves. Just when we think we've gotten to where we ought to be, some good 'ol adversity comes knocking at our door. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall build you up" and "be clothed with humility" are a couple of admonitions to keep in mind.

Many of the trials and troubles we see are a result of our own inconsistencies in the Christian life. The biggest instigator of our anguish just may be us! God in His great mercy still forgives us for these self-inflicted troubles. One other thing we can be sure to learn through our own mistakes is to forgive others for their errors and lapses in judgment. "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

The lessons we can learn from troubles are many, but perhaps one of the greatest is this: troubles draw us closer to our Lord and His word. The Bible's very words will have much greater meaning and comfort when we've allowed them to be a blessing to us in our time of need. Then we may be able to say as the Psalmist in Psalm 119, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

While none of us enjoy going through troubles, they enter our lives for a purpose. God has reasons for allowing them our way. Don't let troubles trip you. Just remember Romans 8:28 is still in the Book! "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."

Time off is over........

Wow, time to start up again. Summer is over, school is back in session and I'm back at the computer. I guess it's time to think again...ouch! I really need to get these wintry scenes off here...check back in a few days, friends.

Lori

Whiter than Snow

This just started today (Monday, March 30) around 2:30pm. Nice, fluffy white snow covering all the dirty water, muck and mud. "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow"...Psalm 51:7

The Barn:

"For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth"...Job 37:6


The "Chicken Coop" - now the "Playhouse":

"Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?"...Job 38:22

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool"...Isaiah 1:18

Getting OUT after a week!

After being stranded on the farm due to high water from the Historic 2009 flood, we ventured out via canoe. We were getting kind of used to our dirt and slicked back hairstyles actually - but a shower in town sure felt great!

Skipper of the "USS Guppie!":


A well-looked-forward-to ride over icy waters to showers afar off:


Receding waters leave unique icy formations:

Beautiful Views! Flood 2009

Isn't it just like the Lord to show us the silver lining during the storm? These photos were taken this morning around the farm. Sorry, these were taken by a rookie and so don't have the Eden Photography touch...but I thought you'd enjoy them:

The Fight is On! Flood 2009

Extremely important gear!(These waders have been gettin' a workout)


After the crest height was raised by 1-2 feet, we had to get to work raising the retaining wall. With the help of some really great guys we were able to add the additional height successfully.

Getting the plan down (My husband and Gary O.)



It was a cold, cold, snowy, and wet night of work.(Jeremy B.)


It was a real team effort! Thanks guys. (Doug S.)


Whew!It was a long night. Work commenced from 12:30am until 4:00am.


I continued to bring things up from the basement:


....I think my work has really just begun.

Water, Water Everywhere! Flood 2009!

These are photos of our farm and the flood of 2009.

From Eden Photography photo blog (www.edenphotography.biz):

A lot of people have asked how the farm is doing with the flood, so I thought I’d share a few photos of the damage so far! We get flooded at least every spring, but this year is supposed to outdo the flood of ‘97- when we had to take a canoe back and forth to get from the house to our cars!


Here’s the view on Monday morning before we started sandbagging:


And here's the view from the house:


At first we didn’t think we’d be able to get any sandbags, so we started building a wall!



Then we got the poly out of the barn to cover the plywood:


And then the sandbags arrived:


And finally the sand:


Lots of friends from church came to help us out:


So we made food and hot chocolate for them:



PS: We have the canoe ready to go again!


This was this morning after all the snow:


And here’s a close up of the river which normally is down the hill from the barn:


Thanks for all the help and prayers from everyone- it’s amazing to see the whole city come out and help each other like this!

Getting Out of the Rut

Those of you who have been out to my place know that we have a nice long driveway before you get up to the house. Getting the mail is a mid length jaunt down the road...except in the winter. It then becomes a 'five mile' walk (you know-the kind our parents had when they walked to school as a kid, the kind that keeps getting longer and more life threatening as the years go by). With all the snowstorms we've had lately, (and we've had more than our fair share), we have had to get our driveway plowed out several times already. The last few days have been testing my skills as an Indy 500 racer (well, maybe more like a demolition derby driver) just to get out of the driveway. The "Grandpa Car", that's my husband's car so named by my 20 year old daughter because of its endearing looks, has done a fairly decent job of getting us from point A to point B. That is as long as I stay in the ruts. Unfortunately, those ruts aren't very smooth, they aren't straightat all, and they sometimes fill in. So today, I took a running start:

I need to break and preface this with a DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME admonishment. It may not turn out very well.(I hope my husband doesn't read this, he's over in Thailand enjoying 90 degree weather and hopefully will remain oblivious to my attempts at remedying my poor plight stateside in the frozen Northland).

Anyway, I took a running start to get through the first few drifts. "Yea!" "Good one Mom!" "Cool" "Powder everywhere!" "Way Cool!" At this point, I was feeling pretty confident buoyed by my previous success. The extremely long stretch was fast approaching - huge drift ahead. Yikes! We swerved and slid and almost came to a grinding halt. But, chalk another one up to the "Grandpa Car" - it pulled us through, though it wasn't pretty. But, the end was still ahead, so being the good driver I am; I looked down at least a few miles on both sides to be sure there were no other cars in sight for the last harrowing, daring attempt at getting out on the highway. "Hey, Mom, get over to the right, hurry up!" "Turn, Turn, Turn", as we... well, we turned! More like swerved? slid? ...cut a cookie? Well, we did make it - we weren't in the ditch (Oh,this wasn't the ending you thought I'd have?).

You know, getting out of a rut isn't easy - it certainly isn't comfortable, nor is it uneventful! In fact, one could easily get pulled off to the right or to the left and wind up in the ditch. It can be frightening as you plow into new territory and tread on the road least traveled as the poet said (in my case, hard packed 10 inches of snow). But I have to admit when you come out on the other side, you are glad you attempted and very ecstatic that you made it!

Have you tried anything new lately? Made any new resolves for the coming year? How about reading your Bible through not once, but two or three or more times in a year? or setting side a time each day for the Lord only? Have you noticed that getting started in your new endeavor is probably the bumpiest? Sort of like rattling around in a rut isn't it? Plowing new ground isn't easy either and it is certain when you make a commitment to stick with your spiritual plans that you will get off track occasionally too. Hang in there, the rut isn't the straightest or shortest route to success either. It may have been plowed in a time of despair, or depression, or emotional upset in the first place. Lots of times ruts are soggy, mucky messes that slow us down, throw us way off course or stop us in our tracks. I'm reminded of a verse in Psalms about the mire, "I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing:"(Psalm 69:2). We can get quite wishy-washy while stuck in a rut, can't we? In Psalm 40:2, the psalmist is rejoicing about being brought out of a spiritual rut, "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." Being on an established road is by far the best place to be - you can see it, stay on it and get where you want to be.

Really, we know what to do. It's probably not always the wisest thing to take a running dive into your changes and hope for the best like I did with my driving. You may end up going full force into the ditch! But sometimes some extra oomph is the only way to get out of a rut. It could take extra drive, extra determination, extra initiative and... a lot of extra grace!

Have a blessed day!

Lori

Hospitality

Friends, family, guests, strangers, togetherness, warmth, kindness, joy and happiness. What do these words have in common? They all lend themselves nicely to express the Christian art of hospitality. What is hospitality? It is simply a friendly reception and generous treatment of guests and strangers. One of the biggest blessings I've had recently is hosting several groups, large and small, at my home nearly every week (Lest you think I'm some wonder host - read the ending first.) Romans 12:13 tells us we are to be "given to hospitality", in other words, we are to practice it. God doesn't give us commands that are impossible to fulfill(do you really believe this?), neither are they given to cause us frustration and guilt. Do you believe He will give us the grace to do what he wants us to? Sure, and we'll even find joy and satisfaction in doing it.

Why does God want us to be hospitable? Could it be that hospitality is a reflection of His gracious character? He welcomes and loves each and every one of us in spite of our shortcomings, failures and sins. Hospitality is like saying "thank you" to God as well as sharing His love with others. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Hospitality is mentioned several times in the scriptures, so let's take a look at a few of these passages. I Timothy 3:2 says a pastor must be "given to hospitality" among other requirements for ministry. I Timothy 5:10, speaking about a godly widow, says she should be "well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work." In other words, she should be hospitable. Hebrews 13:1 tells us "Let brotherly love continue, be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." And I Peter 4:9 commands, "use hospitality one to another without grudging."

Without grudging! Have you ever grudged by giving or letting someone have something unwillingly? We are not to grumble when we practice hospitality. Isn't it something that the word of God has to remind us not to grumble about serving others? If it's in the Bible it must mean it happens a lot or God wouldn't have to remind us. Maybe its the pressure of feeling like everything needs to be perfect; the house, the meal, the atmosphere. We can spend a lot of time cleaning and grumbling (I know, I've been there). It's easy to entertain friends and family(afterall, they know us and still love us), but what about people we hardly know? Are we as eager to have them over as our closest friends?

Sometimes we don't show hospitality because it seems like an overwhelming task (lots of experience here, too, just ask my kids ). Really, the house doesn't have to look like a showcase, and the meal doesn't have to be extravagant: comfortable is the key. People really aren't going to remember what type of dishes, silverware or glasses you used, nor will they remember the dusty bookcase or pantry shelves (why do I have this urge to clean every nook and cranny that won't ever be seen by company?) Now, they may remember the clothes piled in the corner of the living room, or garbage over flowing onto the floor. This really takes balance - you live in the house, afterall, but you show respect to others when you tidy it up before they arrive(how's that for diplomacy?).

Maybe the thought of having people over is scary to you. Take comfort, it really isn't a difficult skill to acquire. Like anything, it can be mastered with some trial and error, a small amount of frustration and lots of successes. And because it is really a skill, we can develop a plan to learn it, take the guilt off, get the house in order, cook for a large number of people and even smile all at once! Just look at it like this: I get to learn this skill and even enjoy myself!

Okay, so maybe not everything about hosting others will go as smoothe as you plan. The lasagna might not be done on time (due to oven failure), spider webs may dangle from the chandelier (yep, really happened), a pesky box elder bug may land on the table as you dish up (a real appetite enhancer!), your dessert may remain frozen (unintentionally, of course), the same song on the CD player may repeat 15 times before you notice it and a host of other embarrassing things may occur (yes, this is also from experience). But when you think of our primary focus: to love others in a tangible, touchable, sharing way - it's not about being the perfect hostess that really matters; it's being a loving friend. And you'll find you're the more blessed when it's all over, for it truly is more blessed to give than to receive.

Have a blessed day,

Lori