Christmas Letter 2012

Well, hopefully for those of you in the US of A, you already received our Christmas card/letter!  For all our friends overseas, we're sure you won't quite get it before Christmas (*ahem* that may or may not be because we still have them... :P), so here's our Christmas end-of-the-year update!

Merry Christmas!

         We have been married almost two years now - we can hardly believe it!  Time flies and we can honestly say we enjoy every minute and are so thankful for life together!  (Our favorite night of the week is date night! J)

Apply your heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge. - Proverbs 23:12 ESV

         This year has been a time of seeking for us.  Understanding how to prioritize and balance ministry, work and family isn’t an easy thing to do.  Marriage requires a lot of work, but the rewards of a great relationship far outweigh the time and effort spent!  Prioritizing a set amount of time each day to be spent in prayer (together as a couple) has been a great new habit.  Reading has been a big part of 2012, and thanks to EntreLeadership, we developed personal mission statements that helped to push us to a more purpose driven life.  Another book that we learned a lot from was Boundaries, about relating with people and how to say yes to the truly important things.  We love to ask questions and listen to the advice of Godly role models we would like to emulate.  Our ‘Christmas wish’ this year, and every year, is that we are doing what God wants us to with our lives, our time and our careers.

     Naomi   became a certified emergency medical First Responder and though our rural area does not get many calls, she appreciates the first aid knowledge gained and sense of responsibility, and loves serving her community.  She also learned how to drive a manual car. J  After an additional summer job as cashier at Walmart, Naomi switched from that and serving pizzas, to investing in children’s lives at Walnut Grove Elementary school!   She is a paraprofessional (teacher’s assistant) in preschool, working with 30 three, four and five year olds every day!

         We love living close to Ben’s family and often are a part of the action and excitement that’s happening over on their hobby farm (including a new baby sister, Alaina Blessing)!  Towards the beginning of the year, Ben had time to work on the house we hope to someday live in and buy, but for now we are still across the road in Purves’ rental.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors!  We became members of Tracy Alliance Church and also teach Sunday school for 1^st-6^th grade.  The past few months Naomi headed up Operation Christmas Child at our church, and the grand finale was taking a group to the Minneapolis processing center where we shipped the boxes off to bless children in Uganda!  We are saving up $$ and planning a big trip to visit Naomi’s family in China, Lord willing sometime in 2013!

     Ben  continues to work for Sahlstrom’s Heating and in September became a Journeyman plumber.  He not only passed the difficult test, he did so with such a high score the proctor personally called him to congratulate him!  Being a Journeyman is one year away from his Master Plumber license. Those of you who knew the big-spender Ben would hardly recognize the wise, frugal saver he is now!  Listening to The Dave Ramsey Show has sparked a growing interest in finance.  We are seeking God for life direction and long-term career plans for Ben and our family in the future.

         One of our biggest highlights this year was learning a lot of practical things about wise money management according to the Bible through Dave Ramsey’s 9-week course, Financial Peace University!  Since the class wasn’t offered in our area, we became class coordinators so we could host it.  The first time we went through it as a small group with several other young couples, and then this fall hosted it at our church with 40+ people from the church and community attending! God has given us a desire to help people in this area of life, and we are passionate about continuing to live as an example and offering hope to others!

May the Joy  and Peace  brought through Christ’s coming fill you with Hope  for the New Year!

Ben & Naomi

Sorry all the pictures are white... it's kind of a blizzard

Well, we are in a full blown honest-to-goodness BLIZZARD! Like the Little House on the Prairie kind - up until now my only picture of what it is even like. It is very white. And blowing.  Even in the more sheltered area of the yard, you can't look into the wind and even so, all of us girls' makeup was smeared all over our faces from the flying wet snow. Out on the road the wind is CRAZY blowing snow everywhere! You have to walk backwards into the wind, and oh how it howls through the pines!  We all looked ridiculous too, but when it's so cold (and windy), you start to not care what you are wrapped up in just so long as every possible inch of skin is covered!

AND, I just got a weather alert over my pager: All the highways are closed, so we are officially SNOWED IN!!!! Strange to think we can't even go 2 miles home if we wanted to.

Church was cancelled earlier so we had home church over with the Sahlstrom family and that's where we're snowed in!  Just hanging out in the cozy indoors!

This picture was when the wind was just starting to pick up, the visibility is worse now!  From Sahlstrom's we can still see the shop, but not the mailbox!

If you want to see more pictures you can go to my FB album here.  I miss you Josiah, Caleb, Anna, Noah, Grace, Isaiah, Lydia and Hope!  It would be so much fun to see your reaction to a blizzard and enjoy it with you!

Rippling Effects

Skipping stones this last weekend while camping made me think about money.  Yup, money!  Even though a stone is small, the wavelets that spread out each time the stone skips have far-reaching effects.

Pastor loaned Ben these two DVDs - they were round and smooth... ok, enough with the skipping stones analogy! - to watch as part of pre-marital counseling a year and a half ago.  Those DVDs, on managing finances by Dave Ramsey, started us on a journey that has really just begun!  Nearly every day since then, Ben has listened to the Dave Ramsey Show podcast for wisdom, entertainment, and motivation.  He even called in the other day with a question!


1. Click on the link:  http://www.daveramsey.com/radio/home/#archives-tab
2. Go to "Archives" and choose Thur June 21, 2012
3. Wait for it to load, then move the slider to 1:41 and it will be Ben's call on live air! :)


What have we found out?  We're incredibly grateful to our parents (both sides) for giving us a great foundation and the basic wise principles for handling money - give, save, spend and don't spend more than you make - but we don't want to stop there!  There's so much more to learn!  Investing, mortgages, mutual funds, saving for retirement, how and when to buy a house, emergency fund, life insurance, etc. etc.  There's a great teacher out there for this kind of stuff - Dave Ramsey!  (as Larry Burkett was for our parents' and grandparents' generation)  He teaches smart financial stewardship from a Christian perspective.  Just what we needed!

So we enrolled in (or rather, became group coordinators for) Financial Peace University (FPU), a 13-week course on dumping debt, making a budget, and learning to 'live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else!' (and GIVE like no one else!)  We're doing it with three other young couples, just married or soon to be married.

Cutting up our credit cards!

You CAN live debt free!
You CAN retire rich!
You CAN change your family tree!
 
Try it!  Here's a FREE quick budget tool!  Check it out!

And now guess what??!  It's not just changing the lives of the four couples in the class; by living it out it is impacting a generation up (all of our parents), slowly but surely changing the behavior of coworkers, and even helping other young couples far away make a budget and get inspired!  Lord willing, come fall we'll host the class again and open it up to more families from our church and community!

By God's grace the ripple will become a tsunami.

The Trip to Sahlstrom Camp

20:10  Departure from the Sahlstrom family farm! Many flip-flops, pillows, swimsuits and much bedding aboard the 15-passenger! Ben is driving, Naomi (riding shotgun), and Charisma, Becca, Amelia, Katrina, Erina and Simeon - we are the crazy ones - leaving so late makes our ETA around 02:30! The rest of the family (and the food) will come tomorrow! Our destination? Sahlstrom (family reunion) Camp at Skunk Lake, WI!



20:35  Picked up a hitchhiker! The dude's name is Herman and in good Sahlstrom fashion we are bringing him along to family camp!

21:05  Herman peed.  The rest of us have to wait till we stop.

23:17  Charisma just declared that Herman is NOT allowed to have a french fry!  Charisma the good nanny; she is babysitting him and taking good care that he does not climb out and bite Ben or me.  And ever the good little mother, "It is time for you to go to SLEEP now, Herman!" as she whaps him down with her flip-flop.

23:55  We finally found a river.  And Herman had to go.  Bye bye, turtle!

00:00  Just finished chatting with my Aussie mate!  Tummy's full with an almost-midnight snack at MickeyD's we have three(?) out so far, 4 to go... and Ben better not fall asleep! ;)

02:05  Arrived at the camp!  Woke everyone and stopped at the outhouse.

02:45  Van's unloaded and all the kids are settled!  Ben took sleepy night pictures and now it's time for him and I to turn in!  Can't wait for tomorrow!!!

[Later:  I think I was sleeping soon after 3am... Ben was a different story!  He did so well staying alert and driving us safely that he was wired and took a while to wind down!  In the end he slept from about 4am to 6:45!  Only 6:54??!!!!  I slept until a good 10:30 or so... and was the second to last person to get up! :)]

Playing with Rocks and Dirt

You know that song, Big House, by Audio Adrenaline?  It has new lyrics now.

Come and go with me / To the Engen's field
Come and go with me / To the Eng-ens field!


It's a big, big field / With lots and lots of rocks 
A big, big wagon / And lots and lots of stalks
A big, big quad / That we can all ride on...


[courtesy of Charisma and Tricia - I guess 9 hours was a long time on the 4-wheeler together!]

Look at that expanse of sky!

So, here's the educational bit about rock picking in the country (yup!  another post about life in the country!):
Every year, in late spring, comes rock picking season.  Basically the only manual part of crop farming (that I know of) remaining in America!  Each year when the farmers till the fields, rocks surface.  Don't ask me where they come from; I just know that no matter how many you hauled out before, the next year more appear!  So farmers hire teams of people to go through the fields, usually with a tractor or 4-wheeler (ATV) pulling a wagon, and pick up the rocks so that they don't damage the expensive equipment during harvest...

The fields we had to do weren't too bad.  That means, there weren't SO many rocks.  We could even ride the 4-wheeler some (one picker on each side and one driving and we would trade off) jumping off every time we saw a rock.  We had to spot, pick up or dig out anything the size of a fist or bigger.  Most are about half the size of a soccer ball with the occasional big one that requires a shovel and we need two people to lift it!  Bailing out while it's still moving reminds me of lifeboat MOB drills where sometimes I would get to be the victim and (with the officer's permission beforehand) I would just randomly ditch the vessel.  It's exhilarating to bail and the forward motion of the quad sort of 'launches' you like jumping off a diving board give you that extra spring.  And then of course when you hit the dirt, it's like after you've bounced on a trampoline and then jump off onto ungiving ground.  I half felt like trying that thing they're always doing in movies, how they jump out of a moving vehicle and roll out of it... but I was too scared (and it probably wouldn't have been smart)!  No worries Mom!  We weren't going all that fast, just 3-10mph!  We could see about 10-15 rows over on each side; so that is how wide a swath we could make.  Up and down, up and down the rows... for 300 acres!



I quickly caught on to the things that can make rock picking DELUXE rock picking!  Gloves definitely help save the skin on your fingers, though keep in mind it will add to your unique 'field tan' with wrist lines!  Sunglasses are nice for the sun and especially helpful in keeping the dirt out of your eyes (it's windy!).  Once again, they will add raccoon eyes to your tan.  Bringing an iPod or similar device to listen to upbeat music adds to the experience; drawback:  it does hamper conversations with coworkers.  Bring LOTS of food!!!  Sunscreen, and long pants and a sweatshirt will get you through any kind of weather, from cool mornings to rainy to the blazing sun!  Water is a necessity and is the only item - besides bringing yourself - on the basic list!  


"How do you like rock picking?"  People ask me, seeming to expect that I would say it's not all it's cracked up to be or something like that.  Actually, I quite enjoyed myself, even though it is a bit monotonous.  You get to work in a team, work outside, it's seasonal (I enjoy monotonous work short-term), and it makes decent money (especially a good way for kids to earn)!  It's not particularly 'skilled' labor, so you have time to think or listen to sermons/podcasts... in fact, I had so many hours to think I wrote this blog post five times over in my head! :)

Annika and her heart-shaped rock! <3

P.S.  One of the affects of rock picking was that I seemed to have developed ROCD - Rock Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - you know, when I see a rock half-buried anywhere I have a sudden urge to dig it up and throw it far away!

P.P.S.  You know how when you've been to the (ocean) beach the whole day and played in the waves and when you lay down at night drifting off to sleep you still feel the waves crashing over you?  After rock picking I laid in bed and as I was falling asleep my eyes seemed to be sailing over fields and fields never ending and I saw rock after rock, oh so many round humps just barely showing on the ground that I needed to get out!  Blah! :P

City Girl turned Country

For all my readers around the world who thought life in China and life on the ship to be so exciting... here's proof that I can make ANYTHING exciting!  You will now be reading about cleaning out the cow barn...  :D

It was deep, 1.5 feet approximately.  I looked at that gooey mess and wondered how it would be possible to not get stuck in it!  

I was attempting to muck out the barn.  (A phrase that Ben didn't even know!  One up for the city girl! :))  I only recently learned to drive the little skid loader and I figured this would be a great project to hopefully get my hands/feet/levers/foot pedals coordination down!

  

No worries!  Ben assured me that if I got stuck, all I had to do was use the bucket/tines to push my front end up and then shove the skid backwards and just like that I would be unstuck!  He explained the general rules and we sent the big Holstein ol' Bessies outside (this was the open doorway I was piling all the you-can-imagine-what-was-on-the-floor-of-the-barn stuff right outside - so unfortunately there wasn't anything except the fear of the skid that was keeping the cows outside).

If you've ever been in a skid loader before you'll know how a steep little hill makes it feel like you're going to tip over.  (And I had to drive up it and through to the other end of the barn where I was dumping everything.)  The thought that came into my mind which was somewhat a consolation was, This deep in manure... it'll be a soft landing!  Well I made it up the first bit and then had to go back and forth dumping bits of hay-and-dry-manure-clumps into my tracks to keep the tires from spinning out since I was having a hard time making forward progress.  Finally I made it almost through the worst of it when I got STUCK - in the middle of the barn.  No worries, right?  I tried every technique I could think of and even Ben's no-fail method was to no avail.  Finally, frustration and determination found me climbing over the top of the skid loader trying to figure out a way to get out without getting my boots too filthy (forget that) and without being attacked by the roosters.

Oh yes, the roosters.  

There is something you must know about the Sahlstrom Family Farm.  There are currently these roosters.  Not just any roosters, these are MEAN cocks with a sickly crow.  Scrawny as, they live to fight like Roman gladiators; the worst ones pecked half-featherless - ugh!  I am not sure how they are still alive actually, because no one likes them, but they are too tough to eat and too entertaining to get rid of!  Being chased by one of them is a nightmare for a little kid - Simeon once clambered up on top of the grill and was banging on the window in a desperate attempt to evade one (as the crazed thing jumped and squawked around his hanging feet).  In my mind making little kids scared = it should not be around.  I even mentioned I should walk out there with an ax and in the event of an attack I would swing it round and round yelling, "Off with his head!"  Johann, the 2-year-old, must have heard this (whoops!) because today at lunch he was chopping imaginary rooster heads as he declared, "I not scared!  I have big sword and I KILL THEM!!!"  The worst part about these roosters is they go about their own business like they didn't even notice you and wait to attack until you have turned your back!  The instant you're not looking, they lunge at you!

Well I made it out past the roosters (whew!) to my phone to call Ben and my wonderful husband eventually got the skid unstuck all the while shaking his head because I would be the one to be able to get it stuck on my first time, in the first 20 minutes no less!  I got some area cleared uneventfully.  

And then the cows.

I drank a glass of milk right before I started so I would remember why I was doing this.  Unfortunately,   even my huge love for milk did not lend me very much patience when those lumbering beasts decided it was time to come back in.  Through the huge pile of manure that I was piling right outside the door.  Into the barn and slipping and sliding around on the slick, now mostly-cleared, cement floor.  I don't know if it was too hot outside or if it was the flies or if they just wanted to be difficult, but I wasn't intimidating enough - hardly.  Just enough so that they ran around in circles on the slippery barn floor like they were possessed and I was pretty sure one of them was going to fall and break a leg.

It wasn't so much that I minded the extra work and time of shutting off the skid loader and getting out to chase down the cows, as much as it was that I did not, for any reason, want to leave my protective metal cage, making myself vulnerable to those horrid fowl.

So there I was, little me, in the middle of the barn, standing with pitch fork in hand as my only defense between two ornery-looking cows (who did NOT want to go outside) about to barrel me over to get to the grain, and the angry roosters threatening me with the one-eyed look and just daring me to try to get past them out my only exit on the other side!  The cows were much bigger, but honestly, I was more scared of the roosters... until the cow started moving around her hind quarters to face me and I remembered that she kicks!  In a split second I had already envisioned myself getting hoofed in the stomach and the wind knocked out of me, laying flat on my back in six inches of manure, unable to move or call for help or in any way fend off the roosters descending like vultures to peck away at my almost dead carcass.  Maybe I poked her a little harder with the pitch fork after that thought and magically, the cows went out and the roosters decided to not forge their attack.

Five hours later, the barn was clean.  I was happy ...to be alive!

New Design!

Welcome to my blog!  This is where I document my life, write and keep family and friends around the world updated!

As you'll notice I have a new, clean, simple design now... with options for how YOU like to view it!  Click near the top left where it says "Classic" for many different layout styles - my personal favorites are "Classic" and "Magazine"!  If you hover with your mouse over on the right, more bars will pop out where you can still read "About Me" section and subscribe to my blog!

Thanks for visiting, come back soon!  Oh, and try something new today!

~Naomi

Amelia's Birthday

BEFORE

The upper right hand corner of the "before" picture (above) is what we sawed down, cleared out and mowed...  

...to make a CAMPFIRE!  Well, that was the incentive.  Naomi has conniving ways of getting child labor to help her clear the jungle.  Um, no, I think that was a bad sentence!  Actually, I was babysitting away from the house for my mother-in-law who was hosting sophisticated dignified ladies such as those attending the homeopathic class.  It just happened to be on Amelia's birthday!  So we went to Ben and Naomi's house.  Because Naomi had some other work that needed to be done... and it's always more fun to work all together, right?!  And a few toddler hands in the mix help get more done, riiiiiiight? :P  

Well we hacked and yanked and grunted and moved fallen tree-logs (with very impressive girl power!), and eventually the job was done!  Then we carried stones and Ben helped dig the pit for our new campfire!  We had many lemonade breaks and made it a "party" by having a treasure hunt all over our property with the kids finding in the end a special gift for Amelia and the makings for s'mores for everyone!  At one point Simeon spied a helicopter not far down the road - it is unusual to have helicopters around here except for medical emergencies airlifted out - so I ran and grabbed my [emergency radio] pager and we loaded up and headed out to investigate!  Soon we saw it was a modern flying sprayer (crop duster) for the fields so we all jumped out and stood in the open prairie space on the gravel roads, surrounded by fields all around and an interesting helicopter above!  It kept coming around and then landing on it's truck to re-fill it's tanks with whatever chemical it was spraying.    EDUCATIONAL MOMENT!!!  Naomi was thinking!  Lol, I don't care if school is done, if kids are with Naomi we are still going to learn, even if it means chasing helicopters!  The cool thing was, we waved to the man in the bubble in the little funny-looking specially-designed helicopter and he buzzed us - lower than the power lines!  It was so exciting and special for Amelia's birthday!  And he did it TWICE!  So, to whoever that was, thank you; you made our day!!!  (Unfortunately my phone was being uncooperative and not working at the time of the helicopter so sorry, no pics of my own.)      

The Work Crew  er... birthday party go-ers!

The girls!  Amelia (turning 12) is in orange.

P.S.

As a random ending to this post, Mom texted us just as we were eating the last of our s'mores and said Pastor was coming to pick up the 15-passenger van (which we were, of course, using)... in HALF AN HOUR!  And it really needed to be cleaned out!  Yikes!  So we loaded up, went back home, got the shop vac and emptied that bus out!  A lot of people must have been missing a lot of things, because in addition to the normal junk of gum wrappers, tissues, and other trash, we found 1 guitar, 13 shoes, 6 winter coats, and a host of matchbox cars, books water bottles and the like!  Welcome to life in a big family! :D

[this day happened on May 16, 2012]

My Wall

Ben helped me screw all the screws (since the drill and I don't really get along) and I measured and cut all the boards - it was a team effort!  I enjoyed this small project that could be tackled in a day and had clear start and completion points!

Now we have a little coat & shoe nook!

Later...

This evening (May 9) Tracy Fire Department came out to Bob & Barb's (where we're living now) to burn the prairie.  SUPER interesting to watch!

 It was a very controlled fire and there was not much wind, but you can see how in Mary and Laura Ingalls day a prairie fire would have been so scary and monstrous with the wind blowing it in an uncontrolled path of destruction!  The firemen made sure to have lots of water on hand though! :)

The Dreaded Question

I encounter it at church.  At work.  Neighbors.  My friends.  EVERYONE!!!


"So, how is your house coming?"


It's not that I don't want people to ask (on the contrary, it shows they care!)... BUT it is hard in the stage where progress is less visible to know what to say!  Only the last 5% is really noticeable headway like painting, kitchen cabinets, floors, etc.  Somehow I always (mistakenly) think that behind these words what they're really saying is, "Is it done yet?"

"NO!  I'TS NOT DONE YET!!!  Don't you know A HOUSE TAKES A LONG TIME TO BUILD!!!  And with only ONE man doing it ALL...!!!"

Ok, I apologize.  Rant over.  That is what I feel like shouting!  But I don't.  Because you people really mean well!  (So don't stop asking!)  :)

And now I finally have a good answer!  (Cue Grandpa voice)  Courtesy of Grandpa Berge I pleasantly and calmly say, with a twinkle in my eye, "Rome wasn't built in a day, you know!"


So, that is how the house is coming!

Here is part of last week's project (for me) - mowing the yard!  The grass was growing like crazy!  It just looks so much better now!  And I realized I absolutely LOVE working outside when it's warm and the sun is shining!  One of the happiest things about living in the country is the outdoors - lots of it!  At this point, I even prefer working outside! :)
 

pinks & blues

Pink Easter Bonnet Daffodils for a girl, Blue Scillas for a boy!

We'll meet you in heaven, little one! <3

A Special Day

Today is a special day!  Today is a birthday - the actual would-have-been birth day - of our first child!  It was my due date.  Funny how I don't remember off the top of my head which day I had the miscarriage, but this day, May 3rd, is forever seared in my memory.

I hope the angels have a party for you, Baby.  Sunshine and colorful balloons and fluffy cotton-candy clouds!  Oh, how I miss to see what your face looks like!  

And oh the irony - cruel, cruel irony.  Instead of having a baby in my arms, I am practicing a flip on the trampoline, still a child myself.  Life is very different than it would have been.

Out of six pregnancies that I knew of - my own mom and my mother-in-law included - 5 out of 6 of the babies died (including vanishing twin syndrome and a stillbirth).  With my first pregnancy experience ending in miscarriage, and being surrounded by all these others, it is hard to believe that we can have a 'normal' healthy pregnancy and baby someday.  So I want to introduce to you, on this special day, the baby who brought hope... the ONE baby who lived!!!

Lilly Claire  born March 4, 2012 :)

She is special to me in a deeper way because she signifies LIFE and HOPE and JOY!  And she gives me COURAGE, that maybe next time the outcome will be different; that someday we can have a baby!  (And we will get to meet little Lilly in June!  Yay!!!  Our friends live in far away WI. :P)

Later pictures will be coming of the bulbs we planted that are blooming this week!

Wasted strawberries, Wasted life?

Why don't I ever learn??!  Strawberries in the fridge do NOT last for a week.  It does not matter if you are waiting for the perfect pancake breakfast to have them with; they do not wait, they mold.  Yes, white fuzzy mold, and sour - horribly sour (rotten)!  But they are a whole $1.98 too special to eat right away!  Well... saving them for a special occasion doesn't make them any sweeter!  *sigh*  Reminds me of my childhood when I would save my Christmas stocking candy canes for entirely too long.  Like, 364 days - until next December long.  Then I would realize that fresh ones really taste better!  Hmmm... what is it with me and saving red food-stuffs??? ;)

God talks about it in the Bible too, with the parable of the talents.  Burying a hole and keeping it was not a good thing to do with it.  It needed to be used, invested and bringing in a greater return!  Or like the rich man who had so much stuff he needed to build bigger barns - just to store more stuff!  He was stingy and wasn't giving any of it away or using it for good purposes himself.  God fixed that.  The rich man died and all his belongings were given to be enjoyed by the poor!
I'm not really sure what lesson I'm supposed to learn from this, because I know that for some things it is good to save (like money for emergency fund, car, college, house, etc.).  Taken to some extent and with a grain of salt, of course, what God has given us here on this earth we need to ENJOY and invest it for the Kingdom because it won't last forever!

I listened to this great sermon today... What talents have I been gifted with that are sitting around and not being used?  I missed having really yummy strawberries!  What's worse yet is that I feel so bad for wasting almost $2 on food gone bad... How can I live to make sure I don't waste my LIFE.  Jesus says that he who tries to save his life will lose it (goes for strawberries and candy canes too) but those who give up their lives and follow Him will not be ashamed of how they have 'spent' their life when Jesus comes back again!  [Matt. 16:24-28, Mk 8:34-38, Luke 9:23-27]

Behold, the lesson of the strawberries... DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE!

Home Alone 2

Dad and Mom are gone to Hawaii to visit sister Annika, so we have 10 days home alone!  Not alone per se, with six kids, two big sisters, a Ben and Naomi, Grandma and Aunt B!  This is just the right conditions for...

...PARTY TIME!!!!

actually NOT.  

The youth thought they were coming over for TrueU (Bible study), but had an April Fool's surprise instead - scrubbing floors!  Haha, well, we didn't make them work TOO hard and Ben was the hardest worker of all! ;)

Reuben and Simeon cleaned the boy's room

First asparagus of the year!

BEFORE

AFTER

Tracy's newest hobo  No, I mean, he is being well cared for, well fed and well clothed... ok, maybe not the last one?  Honest!  He's doing great! :D

and the littlest dinner-bell-ringer!

10 Reasons I love Warm Weather

Top 10 list of why I love warm* weather:

*'Warm' being defined as temperatures at or above 65 degrees F and not exceeding 80 degrees F, with no more than 60% humidity, and a breeze 



1.  Open up the windows and let that lovely breeze in!!!


2.  It is the perfect sleeping weather with the windows open (see reason above)!  Just ask my hubby; I can sleep a LONG time in these good conditions!


3.  It is not freezing when you get out of bed.


4.  The toilet seat is not cold.


5.  Sunshine is a great anti-depressant and helps me be in a great mood!  If it rains, as in more tropical parts of the world, it is warm enough to splash in the puddles and run in the soaking rain!  See?  Warm weather is always happy!  :D


6.  There are almost exactly 12 hours of daylight, which is perfect in my book!


7.  The dishwater stays hot for longer.  (Which reminds me, I should get back to that soon! ;))


8.  With short sleeves and less layers than in winter, you feel so light and free!  And if you still want or have to wear long pants, it is not unbearably uncomfortable.


9.  It is warm enough to wear my favorite footwear - barefoot or flip-flops, the closest you can get to natural!


10.  The outdoors just CALLS in this temperature weather!  The birds are back and are singing (and I'm pretty sure all the other kinds of animals are "twitter-pated" :P)  I could just LIVE outdoors!


...but unfortunately I can't.  Dishes, laundry, laying plywood pre-flooring, and a host of other things all require me to be inside.  And I better get back to it now!  See #7 for what I was doing, before this warm weather made my thoughts run faster and the words flow better and I just HAD to come write!  Such a glorious day begs to be appreciated by those enjoying it!

P.S.  For St. Patrick's Day, I will have you know that our grass along our ditches is the greenest around!

It must be Spring!

Last Sunday we were riding snowmobiles and sleds (our 'one day of winter' as it seemed for this year); today we were riding the 4-wheeler and bikes, jumping on hay bales and flying kites!  We even found the first green grass!   Some family members absolutely went berserk when they spotted a robin at lunch - a robin means spring, I learned.  And SOMEONE shyly admitted they were even wearing their swimsuit under their clothes!  Maybe that's a little optimistic there, Erina!

This was last Sunday afternoon, and pretty much all the winter we got!

...and a parting shot of the cutest couple this winter:

And with that, winter is officially OVER!!!!!!!  Sunshine and warm weather, you are invited every day, so just keep on coming!  On the farm is the best place to be in the springtime! <3

House Project 101

This is what our house currently looks like:

You're probably thinking, Kind of the same as the last picture I saw of it, have they done anything??? And I feel it is my great privilege and duty to tell you YES!!!  ("See, no stairs!")  The frustrating part of  building/remodeling a house is that for the first 95% of it, you can't see much progress!  And in the last 5%, you see 95% of the progress as walls get painted, decorated, and in general, moved in.

Ben is working so diligently and so hard over there every day, for now in the 'invisible stage' of reinforcing, straightening, leveling, exchanging, and bracing so that the floor will be even enough for flooring and the walls will stay standing! :)  And I just want to point out all his work even if you can't SEE it as easily, because he is doing an amazing job and he is only ONE man for this very big project! And for goodness' sakes, we are only 21 and designing and figuring out how you want to build your house seems very intimidating (to me especially) and something that people in their 30's or 40's, with lots of experience living in houses, might start to do about now!  Yikes!

We are pressing on and someday when it's done it will be great!

My Saturday mini-project was visiting other people's kitchens, taking measurements and getting ideas, and picking the wives' brains as to what they love about their kitchen and what they would improve and all the little things in-between!  Many thanks to the families who let me snoop in every one of their kitchen cupboards and drawers - it was fun!  Haha! ;)

This is my beautiful sister-in-law Charisma and her monstrous batch of monster cookies!  They have chocolate chips, m&ms, peanut m&ms, peanut butter... and OATMEAL!  <-- See?  They are healthy! And oh, so good! :)

And another picture of her... (I love this one!)

Oh yes, I am so blessed to have a sister who blesses us very often with her baking (pumpkin pie just the other day...)!  Of which I shall continue to be the very happy beneficiary! :D

Interior Design

The model kitchen that we fell in love with at IKEA:

...it is almost perfect just as it was for in our house (modified slightly to work with the windows):

We are debating between leaving it open under the south window (above) or putting built-in low cabinets/counter there (below).  That is my cute little wooden step-stool directly under the smiley face, if anyone was wondering!  I am vertically challenged. :)

Looking in from the dining room:

And... the floor plans.  Made with the cool, free design software at ikea.com

So, that is what it will look like (as of plans from Feb. 18, 2012)!

Superbowl Ads

So, while watching fat men run fast I did a little math.  It appears people value time very highly.  Three-point-five-million-for-thirty-seconds highly.  Pause.  3.5 million for 30 SECONDS of ad!

Wow.

God gave us 24 hours in a day...  $3.5 million for 30 seconds = $7,000,000 per minute
$7 million x 60 min/hr = $420,000,000
$420 million x 24 hrs in a day... = $10,080,000,000

Just think, you're being given a gift valued by the world at $10,080,000,000 EVERY DAY!  Time is precious - truly a special gift from God.

And in reality?  Priceless.

Millionaire

If I could make money from my ideas, I would be a millionaire.  It would work if I could just find someone who needs them!  Or, as my loving and supportive husband says, if I someday had a good enough idea!

I'm always brainstorming, always the entrepreneur, trying to advance up, invent something, change the world!  Ok, that last one went a little far (little bit TOO optimistic there, Naomi!), so moving on... to my next idea!  

It's not even about the money, though unfortunately most of my ideas require some!  I have a passion for children, for learning, for teaching, for seeing wives and mothers live out their Godly calling.  I just need to wrap it all up in a self-supporting (doesn't necessarily have to make money, just has to support itself) practical lifestyle that I could start NOW!  Patience, as is probably typical (though still not justified), is not a top trait of an entrepreneur.   

In the second-half of the chapter we read from Dave Ramsey's book EntreLeadership, he introduces the word "Mompreneur" (moms who are entrepreneurs, working from home or a variety of other ideas and the like) which is my coolest new word of the day and set me on fire all over again!

Poor Ben, he is so patient with me as I jump from one inspiration to the next!  It is a roller-coaster of an adventure - the ride of a lifetime! (who wouldn't want to come along, anyway?!) - that starts with one idea that leads to the next to the next to the next... "What about the house!!!?????"  he cries, as we go flying off.  (Our long-term taking-a-long-time-project that needs to be completed.)

"Don't worry, it'll still be sitting here when we come back around someday!"  (Envision something like Santa's sleigh flying back to the house and swooping round it.  Also, a play on words that someday I'll come down from the clouds back to my senses and do something practical!) 

Currently I work at Pizza Ranch, which is a great place to start!  I really do like working there, so I'm aiming to work my way up to manager.  I just found out that MN is one of five states left that still hold the minimum wage at $7.25 for waitresses PLUS tips!  We could save a lot more money faster if I worked at a full-service restaurant such as Perkins.  So maybe I could get an evening job there.  After working at the front counter at Pizza Ranch for the lunch hour.  Or the Bistro, a super fancy restaurant in the downtown.  At up to $40 a plate, probably the people frequenting there would tip even better for exceptional service!  It would be top-notch of course, because when I decide to do something, I am going to do it WELL!  Coinciding with whatever food service job I may have, I could take a short course and test to become a first responder serving the small town of Tracy (one of the ideas of this week).  With just a little more training (about 3 months) I could be certified as a basic EMT.  I loved the drills on the ship, having responsibility and being prepared for emergencies, (and have dreamed of being a first responder to worldwide disasters) so this would be right up my alley!  Just today we took the class and did some shooting to get our Permit to Carry...  and now I have learned one more thing!  Ever learning, ever onward.  Which reminds me that I would like to be a teacher.  To home school our kids, and if I studied for and took the Pre-Professionals Skills Test (PPST, now called Praxis I, I think?), I could homeschool other people's kids.  My dream would be to run a one-room schoolhouse!  Upon considering that idea more, it might be better to adjust it slightly, to be a sort of on-call person who could invest in helping mothers teach their own children.  I could be knowledgeable about a lot of curriculums, do lots of research, be a great encouragement, write a blog for these moms and tonight I started writing a book to that effect!  Be prepared, long-time home school moms!  Some survey questions might be coming your way soon!  These latest ideas are after we've narrowed down my vision and goals through writing a life mission statement.  Which helped me say "no" to several job offers I've received lately:  Three times I've been asked/told I should be a car salesperson, offered a $30,000/yr + full benefits full-time job with Schwans as a Route Sales Representative Trainee, and the latest, a Mary Kay professional beauty consultant.  This was after wondering about being a photographer and initially getting a job at PictureMe!  I almost forgot the things I'm working on right now, that would be Medical Transcription courses, learning about and implementing interior design for our house, and teaching Sunday school.  Of course, my life dream to be a wife and a mom haven't changed; I figure I'll just do more things along the way!    

Whew!  Did that tire anyone else out?  And these are just some of my ideas from the last, oh, four months or so.  I come up with an average of about three new ideas for my life per week, and a new revelation this week has proved that when I drink coffee (caffeine) it can jump to as many as 3 per DAY!!!  The Energizer bunny on steroids - an understatement.

"Hang on, Benjamin!  We're in for the ride of our life!!!"  You are the most understanding fun man I could ever spend it with! <3

And from today...

      

Got Purpose?

As part of Dave Ramsey's book, EntreLeadership (which we are reading per one of our New Year's goals 'Read one non-fiction book each month'), Ben and I have been thinking about and have now put down on paper our personal mission statements.  A mission statement says who you are, what's important to you, and what you want to accomplish in life. 

Naomi’s Mission Statement

 My mission is to be a competent and joyful helpmeet to Ben and an adventurous and fun mother to our children.
It is my desire to minister to wives and mothers to encourage them in their high calling, which will require, among other things, modeling a strong marriage myself.My passion is for children, especially orphans, and I want to help people see children as a blessing, standing up for the unborn and the unwanted.I want to use my teaching ability to teach and train our children, and possibly more children, both educationally and to mold their character.  To be a light in their life to see potential for the world-changers they can become.While in the workforce I will take initiative at my job, work with integrity and with unparalleled enthusiasm.  I want to be known for an attitude of cheerfully serving:  bosses I work under, teammates I work with, and customers I work for.  No matter what position I hold, I work as unto the Lord.I will seek out responsibility and live my life as an example to others, knowing that ‘we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.’ James 3:1 ESV
I will use my talent for writing to reflect on what God has done in my life and to uplift the reader, challenging them to not waste their life.
In all I do, the things listed above and anything else I may undertake, I want to live my life to the fullest as an expression of praise to God.

You can read Ben's here.  (Isn't his great?!  I'm so proud of him!)

It's a really great exercise to think through your skills and abilities, personality, values, dreams and passions as well as qualities you admire in and traits you have gained from significant people in your life.  Put it all together and wrap it up in what/who you want to live for, and you have... PURPOSE.

What's yours?


If anyone reading this already has a personal mission statement or decides to write one, I would really enjoy hearing it!  Send a link to it or include it in a comment below!

Fading Memories...

...like the sunset over the sea.  

The other day (Jan. 7) was the first day I missed the ship, like REALLY miss the ship and ship life in it's entirety.  We spent an amazing night at Jacob's (and roommates) apartment in Brookings.  It was just a bunch of us college-age friends, living/eating/talking about God/having fun together, and it felt a little like the community life onboard Logos Hope.  

How much fun it used to be to grab my sleeping bag and walk to the other side of E section to cabin 266 for a "sleepover" in Elise's cabin!  Crazy times with her, Linda, Allie, Maddy and Emily Geffert, their "5th cabinmate" as we called her!  Going off the ship with friends, ministry days, performing in events, work, security watches, sailing, teaching Sunday school and little kid's Storytime, meals in the dining room with 400 people...  You lived with your friends, ate all your meals with friends, worked with friends, ministered with them - it was our home - and we made the people around us be family.  It was an incredible and amazing time, living our life wrapped up in this unique ministry and lifestyle serving God!

Time helps ebb the hard memories and the painful ones like the tide going out to sea, leaving me with balmy sunshine, friends and laughter, and gently rolling waves.

Though at the time, it wasn't all smooth sailing.  From my journal:

August 28, 2010

"Then I went out onto the decks to our spot behind the container with an empty chair beside me and cried. I felt like I couldn't scream or yell loud enough to get the pain out... I think deep inside I miss Ben.  Also so many of my friends are leaving.  And the upcoming changes too... we can't go back.  The time we had together was just a brief breath, and then it was gone."