Johnson Pumpkin Patch

Oh my, what a wonderful day we've had.  I love love love fall and all that it brings.  I loved apple picking and I loved going to a pumpkin patch.  I don't think I've been to one before.  

We got to see newborn piglets.  Just born last night.

Pig races!

Gwen jumped on "the pillow".  She said it hurt her ankles, but it didn't take long for her to find a friend to help her jump higher.

Zeke being the bus driver in a sand filled bus!

A great big field o' pumpkins.  Loved the sight!

Zeke loved the "train".

Oh, and the pumpkin shooter.  This thing has some SERIOUS power.  It shot pumpkins into a large pond.  Look at the very top of the photo and you can see the pumpkin in the air.

Gwen on the "train."

Last year Grandma took them to this pumpkin patch and I had never seen the dragon that eats pumpkins... but literally, Zeke has been talking about this for a solid year.  It makes quite the impression on a little boy's mind!

Caught our driver texting while driving the tractor!

The kids became part of the lollipop guild.

The Kids

What Do I Do With This?

So I've been singing scripture this week thanks to a free sample CD of Seeds Family Worship.  It's been good and it is a great way for me to meditate on scripture because I learn through hearing mostly.  Plus, music is my vehicle... so I especially appreciate it.  I struggle to discipline myself to read the Word, but even then God finds a way for His awesome Goodness to find a small corner of my selfish heart to burrow down in.  This is the verse I've especially been thinking of this week:

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-14

Clothe myself.  I want my life to be like that.  If I'm not wearing patience it would be like going to Aldi without a shirt.  OK?  I want it to be like that.  I want to clothe myself with love... love for others... others that don't have and are lonely and hurting and need support.  Orphans, widows, stay at home moms, children, teens in my neighborhood, neighbors that don't know the Lord... all of those.  How to implement that is the question I have been asking the Lord.  "What do I do with this Lord?" has been my constant prayer in the past months... what do I do with this?  This restlessness to do something bigger, more stretching... more eternal.  Yes, I know motherhood is eternal and it is a daily concern of mine as well as the health of my marriage.

Then today I read this verse:  Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:13-17)


We have a new person living with us.  His name is Mike and he's 20 yrs old.  He is an entrepreneur and will live in a house Ben and I have purchased but haven't closed on.  It's a long story, but this guy is smart and very nice and an entrepreneur.  It seems we always have someone extra living inside our walls.  Please pray for Mike.  I'm not sure where he is with God, and I pray Ben and I have a chance to share our faith with him.    

(Extra)Ordinary Moments

Even using the salad spinner can be fun if you let it!

Fall Beauties

Gwen's Art

Gwen has been bringing art home from preschool.  Here are two examples.  It is so interesting watching how her art gets more complex as she ages.  See how these two drawings look alike?  When I asked her what they were she said the top one is two bees, a spider's web with a spider and rainbows.  The second one is of a helicopter.  I've had such a great day with Gwen today.  She's got a cough so she actually let me hold her today and kiss on her.  

Project Potential

Why do I do this to myself?  I bought this for five dollars the other day.  I just love it.  I'm thinking of spray painting it some funky color and recovering the seat.  I just LOVE IT.

Wedding

Here comes the groom... I mean, the trumpet player.... I mean, the groom that plays the trumpet.

and here comes the lovely bride...

She picked her own bouquet out in our back yard.

Bottling vanilla extract.

She is my helper... and has helped me three years out of her four.

Fall Beauty

Apple Picking

This is my bat branch.  I couldn't get the bats to fly right so that disappointed me, but that's ok.... I taped some of them on my branch.

Our Q-tip skeletons... this one looks like he's jumping over a chair

We went apple picking this past weekend.  I thought I was at Green Gables.  :)

Ducks to be fed...

Hay rides... and me looking so nicely filled out!

apples... they were everywhere!

Got some apples to spare tree?

Videos of the Kids

Things we are doing

Thoughts Swimming in My Head

James 1:27

English Standard Version (ESV)

²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

I heard this verse the other day on the radio.  I've heard it before and then it struck me again.  Pure and undefiled.. don't we all want that in our lives?  

So, the other night I saw flashing lights at a house down the street.  A man died and now his widow lives alone.  I don't know her... but how do I make myself available to her?  Orphans... it doesn't just mean the kids in the orphanages... people that need help.  People that have lost their way.  How do we stay unstained from the world?  Walking in the light as He is in the light?

^{Galations 5:25} Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

Sommarpsalm

I am preparing this song in Swedish.  The translation I thought was so beautiful.

A friendly verdure, richly garbed,
has adorned valley and meadow.
Now the wind's warm breath caresses
the fair herb meadows.
And sunshine and the rustling in the grove
and the murmur of the wave in the willows
proclaim summertime.

The frenzied birds praise
their happiness and their summer peace.
From the thicket of the wood, from the quiet nest
their song sounds forth.
A hymn strikes up with joy and up
from their glad chanting,
from the flowers and fields.

But you, O God, who makes our earth
so beautiful in the summer hours,
grant that I may heed your Word first and foremost
and Your wondrous mercy.
All flesh is grass, and the blossom fades,
and time banishes everything,
only the Lord's Word remains.

Always Room for One More

I saw a book that I've never read on the side table the other day.  It's a children's book and it's called "Always Room for One More".  It caught my attention because I have recently heard a family that adopted say "I just thought... is there room at my table?  Yes, there is room" and I was moved.  I read this book and it has been on my mind ever since.  The theme of this story is that if you live with vulnerability and an open hand seeking to serve others, it will one day most likely be returned to you in a fashion you never imagined.  I love that idea don't you?  Here are the lyrics to the Scottish song that turned into the children's book:

There was a wee house in the heather
'Twas a bit o' a but and a ben
and in it there lived all together
Lachie MacLachlan and his good wife,
and his bairns to the number of ten.
"There's a fire on the hearthstone to warm me, 
and porridge to spare in the pot,"
Said Lachie.  "The weather is stormy,
so me and my wife and our ten bairns,
Will be sharing whatever we've got."

So he hailed every traveler that passed by his door.
Said Lachie MacLachlan, "There's room galore.
Och, come awa' in!  There's room for one more, 
Always room for one more!"

A tinker came first, then a tailor,
and a sailor with line and lead;
A gallowglass and a fishing lass,
With a creel o' fish on her head;
A merry auld wife full o' banter,
Four peat-cutters up from the bog,
Piping Rury the Ranter, and a shepherd laddie
down from the brae,
with his canny wee shepherd dog.

He hailed them all in as he stood at the door.
Said Lachie MacLachlan, "There's room galore.
Och, come awa' in!  There's room for one more, 
Always room for one more!"

Rury's pipes set the rafters a-ringing 
Till the clock danced a reel on the shelf,
And they all fell to dancing and singing, 
And the little dog danced by himself.
Och, the walls they bulged out and bulged in then,
The walls they bulged in and out.
There will never be heard such a din, then, 
As came from the folks
In the wee little house
While they rollicked and frolicked about.

They filled all the house up from door to door,
But Lachie cried out, "There's room galore.
'Twould be a tight fit, but there's room for one more, 
Always room for one more!"

Then the rafters they clappit like thunder,
and folks in the nearby town 
Stood stock-still to listen and wonder,
When the wee little house
With its but and its ben
and its walls and its roof dinged down!
Then the tinker and the tailor,
and the sailor with line and lead;
The gallowglass, and the fishing lass,
With the creel o' fish on her head;
The auld wife full o' banter,
The four peat-cutters up from the bog,
Piping Rury the Ranter,
And the shepherd laddie down from the brae,
With his canny wee shepherd dog,
and Lachie MacLachlan,
His good wife, and his bairns to the number of ten,
They all tumbled out again!

And they gowked at the place where the house stood before.  
"Och, Lachie," they cried, "there was room galore, 
But worry and woe, there's no room no more,
Never no room no more!"

They wailed for a while in the heather, 
As glum as a grumpetie grouse,
They they shouted, "Have done with this blether!
For Lachie MacLachlan, his wife and bairns,
We'll raise up a bonny new house."
The house that they raised from the auld one
Was double as wide and as high.
Should an army come by it could hauld one,
With Lachie MacLachlan, his wife and his bairns,
and whoever else happened by.  

And then the whole lot of them stood at the door,
and merrily shouted, "There's room galore!"
Now there will always be room for one more, 
Always room for one more!"

Better Than A Hallelujah

Love this song:

Zeke Helping