Mother Teresa

Today is the anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa, now known as Blessed (and certainly someday "Saint") Teresa of Calcutta.

I believe she is a powerful intercessor for all families, and maybe in particular for homeschooling and homesteading moms and dads (or those who want to be). What could a "little, old nun" know about the challenges of raising children in today's world? Evidently quite a lot! (The following quotes, attributed to Mother Teresa, were collected from the Mother's Wisdom website... all added emphasis is my own.)

"To parents: It is very important that children learn from their fathers and mothers how to love one another--not in the school, not from the teacher, but from you. It is very important that you share with your children the joy of that smile. There will be misunderstandings; every family has its cross, its suffering. Always be the first to forgive with a smile. Be cheerful, be happy."

"Today we see more and more that all the suffering in the world has started from the home. Today we have no time even to look at each other, to talk to each other, to enjoy each other, and still less to be what our children expect from us, what the husband expects from the wife, what the wife expects from the husband. And so more and more we are out of our homes and less and less in touch with each other."

"Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried. Are we there? Let us know the poor in our own families first. We have old people: they are put in institutions [isn't it the case that most American children are also put in institutions?] and they are never visited; with less and less time even to smile at each other, with less and less time to be together. Love begins at home, if we can only make our own homes temples of love."

Dearest Mother Teresa, pray for us all, that our homes may become sanctuaries of grace, that our lives may shine as lights in the darkness, and that we may all love and serve the poor as you did. Amen!

Labor Day

We observed Labor Day and celebrated the end of summer with a lot of work, good food, and fun. We cleaned out the garage this morning, and Chuck and the kids split a bunch of wood this afternoon. We had a "summer feast"- hamburgers, homemade french fries, salad, watermelon, and homemade ice cream that ended up being slush but we ate... er, drank it anyway. It still tasted good!

I absolutely love these days where everyone works together so nicely; even the little boys did their kitchen chores without complaint and helped with stacking the fire wood. The garage is cleaner than it has been in a long time. I think we've learned to avoid ever storing hay in the garage; the stuff gets everywhere especially when you have kids in charge of feeding the sheep! But it really is one of those days I need to hold on to. God is good!

I simply cannot believe it is September already! We will be celebrating Mary Mae's first birthday in a little less than three weeks. Where has the last year gone?

God bless!

Sunset Soup

This is what we had with biscuits for supper. Put in a large pot:
several carrots, about a pound, peeled and chopped into chunks;
one onion, cut into wedges and layers seperated;
some corn kernels (I had some frozen);
two tomatoes, diced;
four crook-neck yellow squash, cut into pieces;
parsley, rosemary, salt, and pepper to taste;
and water to cover.

Boil until veggies are tender. Usually you wouldn't want soup on a hot summer day, but since this is nothing but veggies and water it was light enough. If I would have had enough green beans (darn them thievin' deer) they would make a wonderful addition, although that would spoil the color scheme and then I'd have to come up with a different name for this soup. ;-) Thank you again, Lund family, for sharing your squash with us!

I'm back!

I can't believe this is only my fourth post for the entire month of August. Even harder to believe is that August is almost over! I'll try to catch everyone up on what we've been doing...

On Saturday the 16th, Chuck finished the job in Worthington, MN and was moved over to Madison. He was supposed to have only one tower to inspect, so we knew it would be a short job and that he would most likely be sent home when it was done. On Sunday the 17th at 10:30 in the morning I was on the phone with him when we decided that if I could get the house clean, the bags packed, and the kids loaded, we would go out to be with him. It is extremely rare for him to be working so close to home, afterall! I'm still not sure how we did it, but we were in the van and ready to go by 12:15!

Chuck came home with us on Tuesday the 19th, and spent the rest of last week at home. He's in New York now; he left on Sunday. The plan is for him to be sent home again before the long weekend, but we never do know for sure if plans will change. Actually, the fact that plans change is a pretty safe bet- we just never know what the change will be!

Mary finally cut her first tooth on Saturday, at 11 months and 4 days old! She's the lastest teether we've had so far, including Robert! It's almost impossible to believe our little darling will be a year old in less than a month. Where has the year gone? All the children are doing well, nobody has been sick and almost everyone seems to be growing a lot this summer. Must be all the fresh air and excercise!

I haven't taken any pictures in ages, but Chuck has been updating his Fotochuck website. There was some confusion about viewing and saving his pictures. This is his professional photo site, so most of the pictures you see are available for sale and are copyright protected. Family pictures, however, are now in password protected files. These can be saved freely, so if you want the password please e-mail either Chuck or me.

God bless!

About our Trip

We are back safely from Worthington, so I thought I'd share our adventures.

I got up at 5:00 am on Thursday (after getting to bed around midnight), and we were on the road by 5:45. We made good time to Rhinelander, WI where we stopped for breakfast. Just as I was getting the kids together and ready to hit the road again, a man came in saying "somebody's got a flat tire". Sure enough, looking out the window I could plainly see my van with one of the rear tires completely flat. I had been a bit worried about making the drive because I knew those back tires were pretty bad, but we figured I could make it and replace the tires when we got to Worthington. We figured wrong. Fortunately, there was a tire place less than two blocks away, and they sent somebody out to air up the tire so I could drive the van to their place. When he removed the tire, he said, "This tire was so bald a rock went through it." He showed me where there was a rock about the size of a quarter embedded in my tire. It was really pathetic.

The rest of our day went better, but our nine hour drive took more like 12. I liked Minnesota okay, but as far as I can tell the entire lower half of the state is nothing but corn and soy fields that smell like cow poop. We did see some really beautiful farms, but there just wasn't much else to see. We didn't arrive until about 4:00 Central Time. Worthington is a cute little town in the SW corner of Minnesota. There is a lake downtown with several parks surrounding the lake.

We had a good time at the hotel pool, and also did some driving around and sight-seeing over the weekend. The children and I drove back yesterday, without incident other than a traffic jam in St. Paul. We enjoyed our little vacation, bu it is good to be home. Thank you for your prayers for our safe travels!

A change of plans

Rather than getting back to normal today, we were getting ready to head to Minnesota. Chuck is working in Worthington, which is "only" about nine hours away. We are going to leave first thing in the morning and stay through the weekend, heading back on Monday. Please pray for safe travel for us!

God bless!

What a week!

Chuck's mom and little sister flew in on Thursday and stayed with us until today. We had such a good visit, but I really regret not getting any pictures with my camera!

I plan to be back to posting as soon as I can get things back to normal. Why are you laughing?