Autumn Blaze

I wake up early this morning, stumbling out of my loft to close the window.
Wind advisories are a big deal when you live out here.
It doesn’t merely mean a little breeze, but gale force winds that rip across cornfields and bounce off of house, tear through trees and send vertical rain horizontal until it comes in under the front door.
Thankfully, there was no rain with this wind, just the swishing of amber leaves waving and praising the Creator, who is worthy to be praised.
The sun creeps out and then blazes, full glory, onto the bright colors of fall come in fast. And me, my hair still dripping from the morning shower, I whip out that purple scarf and run to the basement.
That purple scarf that grandparents who know me so well smiled when I picked it up at Penney’s and said, “You want that one?” And I smiled and nodded, stretching my box to include a purple scarf with tassles and sparkles and different hues of purple.
On my way down to the basement, I slide on mom’s clogs, the ones that my heels hang off of now, the ones I usually wear out and Mom comes out, stocking footed and asking where in the world are those clogs? And I smile because she knows it’s me.
I dig around until the camera turns up, and I grab that smiley dog of mine and we go out into the gale.
The wind takes my long, now tangled hair and whips it in circles. I see that the little Autumn Blaze maple is living up to it’s name- all ablaze with the wonders of fall and pointing strait up to the Creator.
The pond is clear now, the wind blowing all the green muck away, blowing away the stink and mire, leaving the surface clean and clear, brilliantly blue.
I snap pictures and tyr to capture the moments of fall blowing in, but the wind, it moves the trees and the water and the leaves so that all I see is a blur of glorious red and blue.
After a while I end up back in that tall house, climbing the first of 31 stairs, and I hear mom call down as the phone chirps, “Let it ring!”
And it echoes from sister to sister, “Let it ring!”
Yes- let the glory of the Lord ring from the mountains and valleys and let it ring in the rustling leaves and on the waters. For good and great is the Lord- he who made it all now calls it all to praise, and it echoes across this farmfield, and I hear.

Owl Cupcakes

Because really, who wouldn’t want to try and make these adorable cupcakes?

So we waited patiently while they cooked and our mouths watered as they cooled on the counter.

Then after lunch, we dove into the Oreos and M&M’s with the happy excitement that comes with making delicious baked goodies that look cute too…

And I think we did very well.

Here is our little flock of owls, all googley eyed and adorable!

Each of us gals got to make three, and here are our favorites~

first, L’s favorite…

googley eyed and sweet… and funny! :) made us all giggle!

then Miss M’s… isn’t this just look like her?? :) Ha! A surprised owl!

and her other one, the shy owl…

And my fav- a cute little one…

Too sweet!

And while we were busy creating our flock of birds, Mr. R was busy with the M&M’s creating one big happy smiley family-

 

Yum!

(and thanks to Anna from Young and Married for the idea!)

 

Have a blessed day on this gloriously cool fall afternoon!

Kaye and family :)

To live out here…

is, when wondering which road to take home, consider which you would be the least likely to hit a deer on.

Driving home tonight from work, the dark night air swirled around the van as it forged its way through the damp fall weather.

No headlights, taillights in front of me, or in back.

Just dark. No street lights out here.

The whir of the engine and the glow of the dashboard the only things breaking this lightless silence. 

It kind of makes me twitchy, all of these ‘wide open spaces’.

I press the radio button and off the walls and into my ears sing praise songs, worshipful melodies.

See the faint glow of red up ahead of me, I release my shoulders a little.

I don’t care for country night driving.

But to live out here is to live in the country, and I think of all the times that I’ll be driving this route, high beams on and radio loud to keep my mind focused and relaxed.

So I take a deep breath and whisper scripture the whole way.

James 1, Romans 8:37-39,

and my all time favorite, 2 Corinthians 12:9- for when I need to remember that his grace is all sufficient.

And I pray like crazy that the reflectors I see in the ditch isn’t a deer.

And it wasn’t.

God is good.

Oh Happiness!

Rejoicing, celebrating and living in the truth that YES!

There is grace enough for us! For you!

“For My grace is sufficient for you…”

for our God, oh how good he is!

Remembering the great grace the Lord gave that one day on Calvary’s cross,

and the great grace he gives, he grants each day to us waiting and hoping for grace.

 

(also for you… a great video by the Skit Guys on grace… and aren’t we all just like Peter?)

(and an Oh Happiness! song that makes me laugh each time I hear it… because there truly is grace enough for all of us!)

Bless the Lord

Two videos-

one about the largest boat rescues operation known to history, the other a song of victory and glory to the one true God who makes all things possible.

Mini Golf- Mamo Camp Day 4 (pt 2)

The wonder and the YES! of watching the golf ball roll right to the hole…

the laughter as we, all 8 of us, try and get around the golf course without holding anyone up…

and the funny names of the holes…

so very Minnesotan, yah! ;)

and just the great time had by all, laughing and putting the balls into streams, bushes, other holes, down ramps, on sidewalks, and all of us all laughing and chasing them everywhere-

just happy.

ten years to the day

I can see the front of the brick school, the flag hanging motionless in front of the doors.

My mom was standing right outside those doors, waiting for me.

I asked, only a first grader, why she was picking me up instead of me riding the bus home.

She shook her head slow, and said, “Planes crashed into some buildings today, and I wanted you to be home with me.”

I nodded, not really understanding, just happy to be with mom.

The TV was on all afternoon and late into the night- my dad came home fast from school.

I remember lots of tears all over the nation, hearing and recognizing the man they called President Bush asking for prayers- many prayers.

It was the day that our nation fell to its knees.

And today we remember-

10 years later.

And I pray that our nation would again seek and find the God that we sought so fervently that day-

and realize just how marvelous and beautiful and patient and saving He is.

That His promise then is still true today-

‘I will never leave you, nor forsake you…’

Oh Peter…

A funny and powerfully true video for your weekend…

enjoy!

Kaye

To Live Out Here…

Is to live outdoors.

Preferably barefoot.

:)

Swimming- Mamo Camp Day 3 (pt. 5) :)

After a day kayaking, racing, and enjoying some DQ, we decided that the final touch would be to paddle and pontoon out behind the island and enjoy a while enjoying the lake.

I had decided not to go swimming and spend some time floating in the kayak…

However, I only lasted about 10 minutes when there were suddenly splash bombs and water balloons flying, and in I went.

The dogs weren’t too happy about this whole idea of not being able to touch, so after a while they landed up on the boat. Maggie-tude didn’t want to come out of the water- she is so funny! She doesn’t like not being able to see all of her kids. So for the first time ever, she climbed up onto the back of the pontoon- on guard and her eye on each of us.

Perfect end to a busy day at the lake…

Down on the Farm

Many thank you’s to Granny and Grandpa for taking us to K Farm!

Here’s our day spent farming in the 1890’s…

There is a beautiful farm near us now that is stuck in the 1890’s.

There are threshers, farmers in straw hats, a garden the size of our entire property, and so much to see and chores to be done.

One of the few places where you pay to work. :)

But what fun! To be a pioneer for a day…

and our first stop was to feed the cows.

Like Daisy, the dairy cow.

Arriving there just as it opens has its perks- like seeing the animals in the barn and having a gracious farmer show us around.

Here are three of our pioneers perched on a fence, wowing at the sheep.

R especially loved these guys because they were soft, small, and unintimidating. They even followed him around!

We collected some fallen and shelled acorns and fed them to the pigs. Phew! They were the stinkiest animal there!

After feeding the pigs, we wandered back up to the house to see what we could assist with. They were close to threshing time, and the treadmill and thresher were out, just waiting to get used. While walking back up, a farmer stopped us and asked, or, really, told, us to go let the sheep out- they hadn’t eaten yet.

M, Cousin I , and R all ran down, glad to be of help.

They propped open the gate, and WOW!

Those sheep can RUN! They took off straight for the woods to munch on leaves and whatnot.

The farm also hosted a LARGE chicken coop full of chickens and two roosters, one of which spent the morning strutting around the front yard.

Up on the porch, a lady sat with a large bowl full of mango melons fresh from their extremely large garden.

What is a mango melon, you may ask? And what on earth do you eat it with?

Well….

Mango melons were grown solely for the purpose of pickling. You slice a V shaped slice out of it and dig the seeds out. (they look like cucumbers on the inside) Then you scoop out the seeds and sew the V shaped part on, making a little lid.

then, after letting them soak a while in salt brine (extremely salty water), you fill the inside of them with tomatoes, garlic, onions, anything tasty with flavor, and you pickle the whole thing.

YUM!

While we were there, they were also picking their onions and beans. Here are just some of the onions they picked…

After helping out on the porch, we wandered through the GORGEOUS house feeling very Jane Austen-ish :).

The root cellar was very interesting, and I couldn’t help but picture all of the pickles, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, and barrels of other things filling it very soon.

After this, we took a quick break for lunch, then came back, and found, to our delight, that the trolley was running!

They needed to wear out the horses so that they would be gentler that night when they had a bunch of little kids coming out, and we were happy to help them :).

After this, we all split up to go help in various places- the kitchen, the garden, the barn.

L and I pulled weeds in the potatoes, M and Cousin I and Cousin K went down to the pump and the barn.

On our way out, the Big Blacks were out to pasture, and M, who would simply LOVE to be a farm vet or a farmer was able to make a friend-

What a perfect day!

Thank you again Granny and Grandpa!

Kaye