Visiting

It's going to be very, very hard to leave.

One thing that's really struck me coming here is the fact that Holly has always surrounded herself with God's Word. She has Bible verses stuck everywhere in their house, kitchen cupboards, bathroom mirror, décor etc.  This morning we read Isaiah 55 together.  When we got to vs. 10 -11
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

I told Holly that for me, it was God's promise that all His word, with His promises, His comforts, His tender love were there richly for her.  She treasured His word all along and He will not leave her now!

Hot day

What you do to stay cool

When you don't have a pool!

They Call it Throw Back Thursday

But really they are precious moments and memories

 that we are given as a gift

 to go back over and savor

 and yet also to remember that life is frail and children grow up.

But that God never changes. "For I am the LORD, I do not change" Malachi 3:6a

 



Camping

Spending the days at the farm are special.  There's always a lot of work to do and work shared is very, very pleasant.  Seeing as our kids are quite a bit bigger, I found it easier for our family to spend a few weeks on the farm. 

You know, as long as Gramma's feeding them breakfast and all that!

Every time we headed home, though, we had a van full of blankets, pillows and clothes.

But thankfully the clothes were mostly clean.  Usually it went like this... get dressed in the morning, get filthy all day, get cleaned up and into pj's at night, get clothes into the washer and dryer, repeat!!! Didn't have to spend much time deciding what to wear :)

Broken

So Gramma puts up with a LOT in berry season!! She has kids and adults tromping through her house all day long asking for this and that, cookies and bandaids, containers and bags for collecting fruit, etc. etc.  Gramma's kitchen is also the berry farm chuck wagon and so she works hard putting out breakfast (for our kids) lunch and supper.  Every day.  For lots of people.

Gramma has to put up with a lot.

There was a novel that got brought outside to be enjoyed and then left where it got wet when the sprinkler went on and the reader moved on to other exciting adventures.

There also was a bowl that was on it's way out to one of the forts to be a collection container for who knows what. 

I was minding the stand during one of the slower days and Gramma was gone visiting out of the country.  I had made my way up the driveway and over the lawn to check on some noisy kids when Cam happened to see me coming his way. He just thought it might be wise to mention that he had broken a bowl.  A little while ago.  You know, a small after thought, just in case I thought it might need to get cleaned up.

Are you kidding me already?? How did he not think it was appropriate to come running to get me the minute this thing hit the floor!!  I'll just mention that this is right in front of the back door so any unsuspecting person heading in with bare feet would have put all kinds of slices into their soles!

That's a corel soup bowl, by the way.... you know, just in case you didn't recognize it.

Snuggles and Sqeezes

Sure were glad when we had time to just enjoy this tiny bit of sweetness!!!

Standing

I signed up with a phone for berry season because there are so many reasons to be connected while in the busiest time.  Steve started calling or texting just to say hi and see how things were going.  The first time he phoned he asked me, "are you standing"?  I quickly sat down, unsure of what kind of news was going to follow that question!

But what he meant was, was I tending the road side stand. :) I was there often enough but I never did get completely used to the question or text, "you standing?"

For the first few weeks, "standing" was a completely crazy busy and totally fun place to be.  Once it slowed down, the days started to feel a bit longer!  Cara started coming to sit and play Uno.

One windy day, as I started to deal out cards, she advised me to just put her cards up her "short sleeves" to keep them from flying away :)