Dan's Birthday!

Happy 8th birthday to Dan! He has been the master of excited expressions since he was a baby! I love his enthusiasm for life!!

Sam's 10th Birthday!

Sam is 10 years old! Double-digits already...wow time flies! We're having a big combined birthday party for him & Dan tomorrow afternoon at the Belle Creek Roller Rink. Dan will be 8 next week. My boys are growing up!

Becca's Birthday!

Remembering Becca's Birthday! We just had a small family party, since she is volunteering at Operation Christmas Child this afternoon and evening with her sister & friends. I'm thankful for her sweet spirit and servant's heart!

Art Class in Town

My girls enjoyed art class in town today! This week begins the busiest time of year for me. Three of my kids have birthdays this month...one each week leading up to Christmas! And, we are working hard at finishing up our semester units for school, so we can take some time off before we start our new semester in January. Work, work, work, but it will be worth it!

Hobby Farm Life

One of the downfalls of hobby farm life...weeds! Nightshade is easily identifiable in the fall, thanks to its bright red berries. Today was mild & pleasant, so we were able to pull much of it up. We let the little boys play while we worked in the woods. The more we pull up now, the less we'll have to deal with next year!

Thanksgiving Day Feast!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Becca took some photos of our feast, and made our food look even better! ;-) We decided to roast a couple of our homegrown chickens instead of cooking a turkey this year. We're grateful for God's abundant grace and mercy in our lives!!

Mostess Cupcakes

Christy baked up these yummy cupcakes from our THM Cookbook today! Wow, so tender and sweet! This is going to be a great week of cooking & eating...and being thankful!

Harvest Festival Fun

Here's a cute picture of my boys in costume with some of their favorite friends! We all had such a good time at the Harvest Festival!! So many great memories...I'm thankful and my heart is full.

19 Years!

Off we go to celebrate 19 years of marriage! For our anniversary, we got snow tires on the van, did some shopping for the household, then spent some time at our favorite places in Downtown Northfield!

Science Museum of Minnesota

We explored the Science Museum of Minnesota on Thursday, and pretty much had the whole museum to ourselves! It was a lot more fun to play around with the kids without having to wait in line or worry about being in someone's way. Fun times!!

Apple Picking

Christy & Becca went apple picking with their Sunday school class! They picked a "bushel full" of great-tasting apples, and Becca is proving to be quite the photographer! :-D

Solar Heater

Eric installed a solar heater today on one of our outbuildings! Now our kitties will be warm & toasty throughout the winter, without increasing our energy bill...

Autumn Artistry

We recently took our annual journey "up north" to view God's autumn artistry! It was a refreshing time of visiting some of our favorite places. I'm thankful for time to slow down a bit, and reflect on the goodness of God!

Roof for the Coop

It was a beautiful day for re-roofing the chicken coop!

The Bees & The Butterflies

We've left some of our land to grow in a "natural" state with wildflowers, milkweed, goldenrod, etc. to attract and sustain bees & butterflies, but it seems they prefer my daisies over just about anything else!

Encouragement

God showed us some lovely color this evening as we walked the trails in our backyard! It seemed to be a promise to me that our school year will go well, even if our days are busy and sometimes long. I am reminded to not be weary in well-doing (Galatians 6:9).