E is for Ella and Emery

"E" is for Ella, our second grandgirl, a 3 year old(as of next week), rambunctious, adorable, independent, animal loving basket full of laughter and joy!

 This little stinker-poo never ceases to make me laugh with her antics and expressions.   

Miss Ella has a knack for falling asleep in the strangest places.  She just goes and goes until she can't go anymore. :)

"E" also stands for Emery who came to be part of our family in October when her momma married our son. 2 year old Emery is adventurous and can often be found on the tractor with her new daddy or in this picture, it's a loader bucket.

"Eme" is very creative and loves to paint and draw.  She even left this grandma a gift of her art work on a plastic tub the last time she visited.  LOL  Such a cutie!  We can't wait to get to know her better. 

I have a feeling these two "E" cousins will come to be good buddies.

"D" is for Dancin'

I ran across this video 4 years ago and posted it to my blog.  It's been a favorite of mine ever since.

Dancin in the Minefields - Andrew Peterson

Doesn't it describe married life to a tee?  DH & I married relatively young and have encountered our share of minefields and storms.  We haven't always weathered them as gracefully as we would've liked but we've come through, a bit torn and tattered but we've hung in there.  

On April 12, we'll have danced through 34 years of those minefields.

I love you baby and will dance through much more with you any day!

"C" is for Corn

If you are familiar at all with the Midwest, you know that Corn is everywhere and is in many things, from Ethanol fuel to much of what we eat(the dreaded high fructose corn syrup - meh).  

We also burn corn for heat in our multi-fuel pellet stove.  We burn wood pellets and sunflowers too but that's a story for another time.

We even use corn in our decorating, believe it or not.  From corn shocks on the front porch to table decorations at a down home rustic wedding reception.  Our new daughter-in-law found this idea for their wedding reception last October on Pinterest.  Side note:  Don't ya just love Pinterest?  It's a mason jar filled with corn and a votive candle in the middle.  

As we were on our way to their  new home for the wedding reception when we received a call from our son, asking if we were going by a feed store along the way and could we pick up a bag of corn for them as he had forgotten to get some from the neighbor?  We were already too far to stop any place plus there is just something not right about paying $5 for a small bag of corn when the farmer gets paid $5+ per bushel.  Know what I mean?
Well, lo and behold, God provides!  We're bookin' on down the highway and see piles of corn along the road!  DH looked at me and asked if we should we go back?  Uh, yeah!  DH was such a good sport about it.  He pulled over, threw the car in reverse and backed up on the shoulder for approximately 1/4 mile. LOL
We had a few bags in the trunk with reception supplies, so we emptied things out and scooped up as much as we could carry.  
We were very thankful that this highway is mostly used for grain semis heading to the river so it wasn't very busy on a Saturday and for the trucker who was likely overweight and pulled over to dump a bit of his load off before he ran across scales the state troopers probably had set up.  All of this equals provision for us!

Again, for those of you not from this area, our grain semis are limited to weight of 80,000 lbs. A few of our farmers/truckers might overload their trucks on occasion. ;)  Every extra bushel on a truck makes for less trips to the river.  Not that it makes it right but it is a reality.  Many times,  especially in the fall, our law enforcement will pick a spot and set up what is called "temporary scales."  If the scales are out, all trucks must stop and weigh.  The fines for being overweight can be pretty hefty.  We're pretty sure this was a trucker dumping off some extra grain before he got to the temp scales which he was likely alerted to by other drivers over the radio or phone.  We'll never know but were thankful they were there for us!

"B" is for Barn

"B" is for Barn.  

I've always had a thing for old barns.

  

I see so many of them being torn down, including the one in this picture. 

More folks are moving to country and if they don't have livestock, a barn is just another large building to keep up.  Some let them just rot away while others tear them down and maybe put a metal shed in its place.

I'm sure these old barns could tell quite the stories if only given a chance.

There is just something about that weathered red paint.

 How many many of these wonderful old buildings left in your area of the country?

April 1 - "A"

First Day of the Challenge and we start with letter "A".

The letter "A" to me signifies a new beginning.  It's the beginning letter of the alphabet and it also signifies the beginning of "Grandparent-hood" for us.

Our first grandchild, a granddaughter, Ava arrived in our lives 7-1/2 years ago and our world changed forever!  

 I just realized after I uploaded this picture that I look a bit scared, don't I?  The grandparent thing was a new world for us to navigate and we wouldn't trade it for anything!  

This young lady captured our hearts those first hours and still does today.  She has a sweet personality, is smart, creative,sensitive, compassionate, and a fashionista to boot! She put this outfit together for the Daddy/Daughter dance in February herself.  She might have gotten a bit of Grandma's creative gene but her sense of style is way out of my league!  Love her to pieces! 

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the letter "B".  I already have the letters "E" & "O" planned out. It's the ones in between that I better get to thinking on. :)

So, I've went and done it!  I've signed up for a blog challenge, my first in a very long time.  OK, who am I kidding?  This is my first post in a very long time!

I'm hopeful this will jump start me back in to the blogosphere again.  I've tried, I've really tried to sit down and write a post on occasion.  I place my fingers carefully over the keyboard and pause and then go "eh" and wander away from the desk.

Not any more!  I'm not sure what I'll write about but would guess I'll center around family, fun, my faith, quilts, quips and other random thoughts, so here goes....on to the letter "A"!

A-Z Blog Challenge
You can click here or on my side bar to check out all of the other blogs who are participating.

We're on the road again...

We leave this morning to head back to New Orleans to work on a church we first worked on 6 months after Hurricane Katrina, St Luke's Church in the Upper Ninth Ward and work with their ministry His Hands 2 Go.
We are looking forward to serving our God and reuniting with old dear friends.
Please pray for our team, especially for safe travels the next 2 days as we make our way south.

Thanks in advance for covering us in prayer.  Be sure to check back next week for updates on what we're doing.

Better late than never, right?

I knew I had been neglectful of my blog for a long time but just realized today as I was looking through some old pics that I never posted pictures of the quilts I made for the kids last Christmas.  The lighting isn’t very good but you’ll get the jist. 

They first two are winter type prints but not so over the top that they can’t leave them out all year long.  You have to look hard to see the snowflakes at first glance.   I love, love, love the fabrics in both of these.

This last one obviously isn’t a winter print.  Our oldest is very much into collecting old Minneapolis Moline tractors so it seemed appropriate to make something that resembles the side panel of those tractors.

They were all very simple big block designs patterns which I prefer to look at and to work with.  Unfortunately, these were the last quilting project I’ve completed.  I’ve got tons of ideas percolating and even a couple of projects in different phases but nothing even close to being finished [sigh].  I even have a great craft area now which I’ll show you in a future post so I really have no excuse other than time.  Isn’t that always the way?  or am I alone in that?  :)

Fall is here!

We’re starting to get a few glimpses of Fall here in Northwest Illinois.  It really hasn’t felt like Fall as we’ve had warmer than typical temps and much sun.  Today, it was sunny and cool in the 50’s.  We love riding in the Fall so we bundled up a bit and off we went.  When we left for our ride, the sun was out but 3 hours later, the clouds had rolled in and it got flat cold.  A bowl of hot soup and a cup of hot tea and I’ve still not warmed up! 
A few scenes from today’s ride…

I love seeing the sumac when it turns in the fall – such a pretty red.

Some trees are turning but we are far from most of them yet.

Corn and beans are ready for harvest.  Many farmers are already at it but we didn’t see much corn out of the fields just yet.

We took a spin through a local park. Well, to be honest, we stopped to use their facilities…shhh!  When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

I’ve always liked the Adirondack chairs outside of their lodge.  Today the only thing sitting in them were piles of pine needles.  A bit too cold to lounge outside I guess.

I read this morning that due to the warm spell we’ve had the last couple of weeks, that our leaves won’t be very vibrant this fall.  The Maples that had fallen here look pretty bright red to me.

We’re hoping to see more fall colors when we head to the mountains the end of this week.  I can’t wait.  We both feel long overdue for a relaxed few days away.  Not sure what our service will be like at the cabin we’re staying in but if I’m able I might post a few pictures or I might just throw technology out the window and truly unplug, which would be Much easier said than done for me.  Happy Fall Y’all!

Warning – photo laden post…

Since I’ve last posted we’ve been busy, busy, busy…

We taken a few bike rides, nothing very long but those wonderful, glorious evening de-stressor type rides that make me go “ahhhh….”  Work has been very stressful lately so I treasure these evening rides.
             We outran a nasty storm while on the bike.  We had been getting a few sprinkles so decided to head for home but when we looked back after a few miles, this is what we saw.  Yikes!  Needless to say, we moved a bit faster at that point. 

We played at the park.  Our local small town has a very nice little park.  The grands love this wooden train.

We led another disaster relief team.  This time to Moore, El Reno and Little Axe, Oklahoma to assist in tornado clean-up.  While there we walked wheat fields picking up debris so the farmers could combine the wheat without running things through the combine that could total their machine.
Fellow blogger, Patti from Osage Bluff Quilter blog saw our posts on Facebook and her daughter works for Channel 9 in Oklahoma City so Patti told her about our team.  She sent a news crew out the next morning.  We were somewhat reluctant at first but were pleased with how it turned out.  Thanks Patti!  It was nice to see something positive on the news.
Here’s the link if you’d like to watch the segment.  No Excuses Disaster Relief
Our team also helped with a couple of house demos and general debris cleanup while in the area.
  
While in Oklahoma, I was also able to meet up with another fellow blogger, Saska.  We’ve followed each others blogs for a few years and were finally able to meet in person.  So glad she made the drive into OKC!  
Note: (me on the right) This is what mission trip hair looks like.  :(  Yikes!  No time to do much more than shower and go. :[
 

We’ve eaten out.
Deep fried oreos with a caramel sauce at a little local eatery called This Is It.  Amazing!  I wouldn’t want them too often but for a rare treat, yum-o!  Their burgers and salads are wonderful too!

And lastly, last night, we enjoyed fireworks with the grands and their parents.  No fireworks are complete without playing with sparklers while waiting for them to start.  :)

HAPPY 4th of July my friends!