May Days

by Steph // Thursday, August 29, 2024 // Comments off

Hi friends!

Wasn’t May years ago now??

This summer has had a way of feeling very unusual for us here – in many good ways though!

Two weddings will do that to you, I guess!

At the beginning of May, the guys had a night out with Grant before the wedding!

They went bowling and then to the Outback Steakhouse to have dinner.

They had a great time!

Since the guys were out, Eliza and I decided to go out too!

We headed to town for some shopping and snacks!

It was WONDERFUL to have some one-on-one time with my girl – she is growing up SO FAST!!

Those drinks in that photo above were not good, just so you know!

Right before Grant and Kamryn’s wedding, we helped my in-laws as they purchased a house – HERE!!

It is currently being built, but I CANNOT WAIT to have them here with us.

Dreams really do come true!!

When the calendar says May, it means things start happening outside!

I bought this deck box when I was shopping with a friend awhile back – only because she has one, told me how great it is, and because it was on sale!

I LOVE IT.

It holds all of our swimming stuff and never gets wet on the inside – which has truly been tested this year with all of the rain we have had!

Blake also deemed our swing unsafe and promptly bought me a new one.

I love that spot on our patio so much!

Addie Mae filled our porch and patio with beautiful pots of flowers!

I need to have her sign a contract that she will come back every spring and do this for me, ha, ha!

May and its warm weather meant it was time to clean our Lil’ Red Barn!

We love our goats and chickens and taking care of them!

We did a lot of clean-up outside too.

Blake rented a pressure washer – I think he used that thing on everything that wasn’t moving – we need to buy one of those things!

It really cleans things up!!

We sadly had to remove a birds nest off of the deck railing right above our backyard patio.

Don’t worry, there were no eggs or babies in it!

Aren’t bird’s nests amazing??

Whenever it wasn’t raining we spent as much time as we could outside!

It is very very important to me that we get outside a lot!

Our riding mover (and our push mower!) were a constant headache.

Lane and Blake would spend more time repairing them than actually mowing each time we needed to mow!

Thankfully we were able to sell that old riding mower quickly, and Blake purchased a new one.

It won’t be long before Lane is not here enough to take care of our yard/land – so that job will be mine!

I used to mow at the farm all the time as it was a wonderful way to get outside in the sunshine and fresh air – so hopefully I will enjoy doing it again here!

Even with the weddings we had a lot of normal days here!

I met a friend for coffee one morning – I would encourage you to do that!

I also had my annual eye doctor appointment which meant wearing sunglasses home even though it was raining.

Getting my eyes dilated is not fun – but necessary since I have had trouble with my eyes.

Lane is still working at the library!

He still loves it!

I am still his chauffeur!

But he is in drivers ed right now – so it won’t be long before he is driving himself to work.

He is finished with the on-line part and now we are doing the driving part.

We have transitioned to homemade bread making full-time now.

I do not eat things like bread, but I have heard this is very good!

I bought a bread box to store our bread in on the counter and this was a good purchase.

We use it everyday!

I always LOVE when I have helpers in the kitchen – and I am grateful they love to help!

Speaking of the kitchen.

It truly is my favorite spot in the world.

I really enjoy using, keeping, and managing this space!!

I also have photos of our living spaces in our sweet home.

I do not remember why I took these photos, but I want them here anyway!

You all.

I forgot I have not shown this to you yet!!

I sent my Bible away to be recovered and IT IS FANTASTIC.

My old Bible cover was taped with shipping tape, falling apart, and also bright teal blue.

It took five weeks to get my Bible back, which was hard, but SO worth it!!

Here are a few of the books we enjoyed from May.

The Mom Heart Moments is actually a daily devotional that I am still enjoying!

Here’s how you know you have the BEST Sundays EVER.

1. Your counter looks like this on Saturday.

2. Your dishwasher looks like this on Monday morning.

3. Your bathroom shelves look redecorated on Sunday evening.

4. This is left on your kitchen island.

SO much I never want to forget!!!

Did you all see the Northern Lights in May????

WE DID!!!

Goodness it is so beautiful and so amazing and such a God hug!!!

These two worked happily, tirelessly, and endlessly on their wedding and new “home” plans for months.

Watching them together is one of the sweetest gifts to me as Addie’s mama – I literally have a front row seat to years of prayers that were answered just like that!

We finished up our school year in early May.

It was my plan all along and we pulled it off!!

Lane had a few days here and there after Grant and Kamryn’s wedding where he worked to finish, but I still feel like we met our goal.

So thankful for these students of mine!

They are joyful, diligent, intelligent, and really fun to teach!

Lane is about done with his orthodontic work!

It has went well!

And just in time to start two more kiddos.

Tate and Eliza go for their scans next week and then they get their Invisalign at the beginning of October.

This leggy girl is now 5’1″ tall!

No, I am not ok with this at all!

She is in women’s sizes now.

NO, I am NOT ok with this at all!!

Wow, has time sped by!

She gets a new swimsuit every year because she grows so much.

I thought this year’s suit was exceptionally cute!!

Speaking of growing people….

this one is six foot.

With a size 13 shoe.

I feed him, so I get all the credit for those amazing stats.

Just kidding!

That is all the Lord’s doing – but we do wonder if he will pass his older brother, who is currently 6’4″.

Time will tell!!

Our pups.

Ruby no longer lives here.

I am not ok with that either!

Are you all seeing that I don’t get much say in these things?

Well – stay tuned to future posts if you wonder what we did about that!

She is a cute and wonderful addition!

To end this incredibly long incredibly overdue post about May, I will add my favorite things!!

You knew it would be sky photos, didn’t you?!

How about a photo of cracking open a new journal too?

There is just something about a new journal, isn’t there?

I still pour my heart out in one every morning!

Look at me catching up on this lil’ ole blog of ours!!

I am enjoying this!

Especially because the day I am writing this post it is one hundred degrees outside!

I have missed doing this blogging thing – because writing these posts has been truly very satisfying and life-giving!!

Stay tuned for more!!

Because I have another wedding to tell you all about!!

Until then…

Our Granddaughter Saige Grace is ONE!!

by Steph // Wednesday, August 28, 2024 // Comments off

I know.

Time is a thief!!

How is it possible that Saige is already one year old??

She is actually 15 months old as I type this post.

A thief, I tell you. That time thing.

David and Kayla had everyone to the farm to celebrate that adorable one year old on her birthday on Memorial Day weekend!!

We had the BEST time!

Because anytime we are with Saige, her crew, and David’s family – we always have the best time!!

In case you were wondering if Kayla knows how to throw a party, YES she does!

It was delicious and beautiful as always!

Saige was hilarious when she was given her cake!

She did not even hesitate one second before completely digging into that cake!

I took these photos quickly!!

She is ADORABLE.

We also celebrated River Salem who was soon to be SEVEN.

Yes, I am undone.

He was born just weeks before we moved off of the farm SEVEN years ago.

Please help me understand time!

River and his Grandma Deb share a birthday!

So of course we sang to both of them – it was so very sweet!

In other news, Kayla’s crew got a new puppy earlier this year.

His name is Jack.

Saige calls him Jack Jack.

He no longer looks like this, because he is a literal elephant!

But he is just the cutest thing and was not happy that he was missing the party!

I am glad I didn’t miss that party like Jack Jack did!

It was a great party!!

Except for the speeding by time thing, I mean!

Saigey Grace, you are a precious GIFT!

Happy, happy birthday sweet baby girl!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Our Garden 2024

by Steph // Tuesday, August 27, 2024 // Comments off

I had big plans by the end of last summer for our gardens this summer, per usual!

I tend to always have lofty plans – just ask my poor hubby, ha, ha.

Blake thought the plans were good and, per usual, made our dreams come true!

Tate and I specifically really enjoy our little garden and outdoor space and we were looking forward to expanding our garden to twice its size!

Here’s what an afternoon of planning looks like for Tate and I – books, paper, pencils and a BIG thumbs up!

I knew that expanding the garden was asking A LOT this year – because, well, two weddings.

But I also knew that our younger children still needed some normal life to live even with two weddings!

My trio (Lane, Tate and Eliza) and I visited our favorite greenhouse earlier than usual this year (on May 9th because the weather was so nice) and bought our garden plants that day!

We also put an order in with Johnny’s seeds for the rest.

It is SO much fun to plan a garden!!

One of the first things we did to our garden space to get it ready was to turn the soil in one of our old garden beds – and we also removed the black plastic that was under the soil.

This turned out to be a very good idea my hubby had, because I can now tell you that that particular garden bed did very well!

Tate and I went ahead and got that old garden bed planted right away after checking the weather forecast!

I cannot remember planting our garden ever as early as May 11th!

It was about that same time we started seeing strawberry blooms in our other old garden bed that was still full of strawberry plants.

Some of the strawberry plants were on their third year of blooms, but most of that garden bed was full of berries blooming for their second year.

We had a WONDERFUL harvest of strawberries this year and even got eleven quarts in the freezer off of that one 16′ x 6′ bed!

The weekend after Grant and Kamryn’s wedding we decided to try to build our two new beds for the garden.

It was a BIG job, but we actually finished it in one day!

A few days later, on Memorial Day, we planted the new garden beds.

Eliza helped with labeling everything so we would remember what we did!!

By the middle of June we were seeing red!

SO MANY BERRIES!!

We ate berries with every meal, we made desserts with berries, and I started freezing berries.

It was such a rewarding thing to pick berries everyday!

We had so much rain in the earlier months of summer this year.

Our garden did so well because of that!

This was our VERY best year for cucumbers!

We made so many jars of refrigerator pickles, ate many bowls of creamy cucumber salad, and had cucumbers for snacks all the time.

I need to make a note to order these same cucumber seeds next year.

We also planted green peppers, jalapeno peppers, poblano peppers, radishes, carrots, zuchini, green beans, marigolds, tomatoes, leeks, onions, basil, chives, kale….

I think that is everything?

Oh – we also planted kohlrabi and cabbage, but our bunny friends enjoyed them and they never came back enough for us to harvest.

We also fought the Japanese beetles this year, but oddly enough, they did not arrive until the beginning of August.

The other years we have had them they were here the beginning of July!

I don’t want to know what Blake spayed on our tree in our front yard, but the beetles were destroying it.

We used neem oil on the garden and it really helped!

We enjoyed so much out of those little garden beds!

I shredded all of the zucchini and froze it in two cups portions.

So far I have 26 bags of it in our freezer!

Take a look at our kohlrabi after the bunnies had it for dinner one night –

Addie got us a box of green peppers from the Mennonite bulk food store she works for.

I LOVE having green peppers in our freezer!!

We just clean them, seed them, quarter them, and bag them up!

It just takes a few seconds running the pieces under warm water to be able to chop them up and use them in your recipes straight from the freezer.

Such a great savings!!!

Tate and I just harvested most of our onions this past week and have them curing right now.

We also cleaned up the garden quite a bit and starting pulling things that were finished.

We also harvested and then pulled out our green beans because that is where the Japanese beetles were hanging out!

Did you notice that kohlrabi in the photo above?

We did get a few very small ones – and promptly ate them with a salt shaker near by!

SO yummy!

Glad we got to have a few bites!!

Well, that was a very satisfying walk down garden memory lane!

Just when you think you have done nothing “well” in your life for months now – I need to show my over thinking mind this post, don’t I?!

Did you guess?

About next year?

Yep!

You better warn my poor hubby, because Tate and I have big plans for starting our own seeds indoors with a little grow room somewhere.

Haven’t figured out where yet – but that’s what Blake is good at – figuring out how to make it all happen!

Lord willing, it will be another wonderful season of growing some food, learning new things, and enjoying each other’s company as we do!

Did you all garden this year?

How did it go??

Fall is on its way whether we like it or not!!

Here’s to many more trips to the garden to harvest before it gets cold!!

A Sweet New Hutch

by Steph // Monday, August 26, 2024 // Comments off

You might remember me telling you all about a hutch that Scottie and Addie helped me buy when we went to a thrift store called The Big Red Shed one Saturday in April.

I only chose it because Scottie said he could fix it up for me!

I knew it was not sturdy enough the way it was.

Here is the way it looked when we brought it home, minus the plastic “glass” that had been in the upper doors.

On Mother’s Day weekend, Scottie basically rebuilt the inside of that hutch!

He put in much better shelving throughout and it made a huge difference.

It is sturdy now!!

I loved the color that the inside (and actually the outside!) of the hutch was painted, so Blake took a drawer to have the inside paint color matched.