Ash Wednesday

Today is my brother's birthday. Being the good sister I am, I sent him an e-mail. Being an ornery sister, I did not wish him a happy birthday. Instead it went something like this:

I checked my calender this morning and saw it was February 25th. It seems like an important date. If only I could remember was it is.

It's not Christmas or Easter. It's not my anniversary or little guy's birthday. It's not the sinking of the Titanic or V-Day.

What could it be?

Oh yeah! Ash Wednesday.

Happy Lent.

Farm Show

This weekend is the Western Farm Show in Kansas City. I have had the privilege of attending the farm show in the past, but today just Brian is going. The convention is HUGE-- three floors of farm equipment, ag suppliers, insurance agents, flyers, pamphlets, and brochures-- which means it is not an ideal place to take a not-quite-two-year-old.


Next year, however, or maybe the year after, I am certain that the farm show will be one of the little guy's favorite places. Children climb on every model of Case or John Deere tractor, sit in the buckets of loaders, and pretend to drive skid steers. Heavily over-priced food wafes its way through every display; popcorn, pizza slices, hot dogs, Slurpee's.


But no matter how much fun my little boy might think this show is, nothing will top the excitement of my husband.


I'm betting (not that any of you will take my bet) he comes home today with a plastic bag filled to overflowing with information about hundreds of products. The important thing to know about each and every product it that it is something the farm truly and desperately needs. Even if the purchase date is estimated to be three or four years down the road (or more), Brian will stop and talk in depth with the vendor, researching, price shopping, and comparing models.


So, I guess to him it's like a Hobby Lobby...

Just Cute

Life is made up of such random moments, or at least it is when you have a toddler. This one was so cute I just had to share it.

Yesterday the little guy spent the day in the semi truck, hauling grain to town with his daddy. He is such a Daddy's Boy anyway, plus he loves the diesel truck, so little guy had allowed himself very little sleep when he came home about 4:00. I figured it was too late for a nap, seeing as how bedtime is at 8:00. However, at 5:15 the little angel broke a glass and was put in his room for safe keeping while I cleaned up. By the time I finished sweeping the dinning room there was no sound coming from his room. The right thing to do here is debatable, but I decided to fix dinner and wake him up at 6:00 to eat. He was going to be crabby anyhow, might as well get 45 minutes of peace...

So at 6:00 Brian came back from loading the semi and I went in to wake up little guy. Only instead of being on the floor in the middle of his animals like usual, he was sitting in his favorite plastic Rubbermaid tub. It's a big 18 gallon type and his favorite thing to do is put all his stuffed animals inside and go for a ride-- Daddy pulling everyone with a rope zip-tied to the handle. Finding him here wasn't really a big surprise, until I realized he wasn't just sitting. He had actually fallen asleep sitting upright in the tub surrounded by every stuffed animal he owns!

Of course, this may or may not interest you. But I thought it was just too cute.

Looking Good

Duct tape will fix anything. Electric tape is nearly as versatile and looks much better. But today, today I have discovered the greatest tape of all.

Last night Brian attended the February board meeting for DeKalb County Farm Bureau. At the meeting the office secretary requested a new binder for the checkbook. Being farmers, they turned her down flat. Who needs a new binder when the old one works just fine? I mean the three rings still open and shut, who cares that the cover has fallen off.

And, of course, the farmers had a suggestion. Use tile tape.

Tile tape?

Apparently tile tape is black tape, similar in looks to electric tape, but wider and stronger like duct tape. Not only will it fix the binder, it will look good too.

Naturally, "looking good" is a relative term. Especially if your relative is a farmer.

Weekend

What a weekend! Brian, little guy, and I all just got back from our last conference of the season-- Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher. It was great! My Valentine's gift from hubby was an extra day at Tan-Tar-A, so we left early Friday morning (although not as early as we would have liked!) and played at the pool and stuff in the afternoon. Then Friday night at the opening meeting we sat with two other families who were so much fun!

Valentine's Day morning I woke up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Instead of a bottle of hotel shampoo on the counter I found a bouquet of beautiful pink roses! Brian had gotten up after I'd fallen asleep and driven to the store to buy the flowers, a glass vase, and some pretty pink (plastic) diamonds to put in the vase! It all looks so nice together I'm suspicious he had help! It's either a really sweet story about the lengths my husband would go to make Valentine's Day special, or a mark of how long he will procrastinate. I'm going with the first...

Then Brian attended four seminars, mostly about farm economics and commodities futures, while little guy took a much needed nap. In the afternoon we went to two outlet stores and found everything on our list, making me happy that we accomplished something and Brian happy that we did it quickly :). Saturday night we had the opportunity to listen to an amazing speaker. His name is Chad Hymas (pictured at left). At age 27 he was injured in a farm accident and is now a quadriplegic. His story was amazing. You can see video footage at this website and see for yourself.

Sunday we heard Chris Filer sing for our church service. If you haven't read my blog from the December Farm Bureau meeting you can check that out and read about how much I love his music! It was great to hear him again, and even little guy was totally interested in his performance!

The best part of the trip back was that the toddler fell asleep for almost two hours and watch Franklin the Turtle quite happily after that. Brian and I watch Fireproof after he went down for the night-- which is something else I'm going to have to highly recommend.

Hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day too!

A Fallen Hero

Our family attended this event this weekend. I wish the video could show how amazing it was. When we got there, the church was surrounded by people-- veterans, friends, complete strangers-- silently waving flags. By the time the funeral was over and the processional began the entire town was surrounded. I am honored to have been able to support a fallen US soldier.

God Bless America.

No More Bricks!

For Christmas my mom gave me this book, "No More Bricks" by Lori Viets. I guess I should preface that statement by telling you that for several years now I have attempted to make all of our families bread from scratch. I knew bread from the store contained preservatives and whatever else and I figured homemade bread would be much healthier.

I started out with a bread machine from a garage sale. It served me well for a few months, and then my average loaves turned to poor. I think the machine stopped working, but if you've ever used your whole wheat setting, you probably already know its not good for much.

So I borrowed a book from a friend about baking whole wheat bread-- no white flour at all! It had amazing information about how gluten is formed and why you need to keep the yeast at the right temperature and how to pre-warm all your utensils so they'll be the right temperature too. It was great-- except I literally had to allow four hours from start to finish. Which meant some days we went without bread until I had time to make it again. And it called for ingredients I don't use often, like plain (not vanilla) yogurt, which I had to buy in bulk and usually went to waste before I could finish a container.

I did discover, thanks to this book, that there are different types of flour. Hard wheat, soft wheat, red wheat, white wheat. I spent time in the health food store and eventually figured out I like hard white spring wheat (called Prairie Gold) best. It even worked in the new bread machine my in-laws gave me.

But then! Enter the new book. My parents know Lori from church and my mom is very excited about homemade bread ever since she took Lori's class. After reading the book, I understand why. Instead of a awkward bread machine loaf, or spending four hours in complicated bread making methods, I can flip to the "master" bread recipes (already the book opens to that spot) and finish the best tasting whole wheat bread ever in 70-90 minutes. It is amazing!

If you're interested, Lori's website is Knead to Know and you can purchase this book there, as well as lots of other bread making supplies. Its also full of information as well as that master recipe I was telling you about. Even if you just want to make the occasional loaf-- check this out. I've never found a better way to do it.

I'm so excited about my new venture I plan to post some of my experiences here. So stay tuned!

Cash, Credit, or Debit?

Yesterday I did my February shopping. I got up early, made out a huge list for three different grocery stores, packed the toddler in the car, and headed off to the not quite thriving metropolis 45 minutes away.

Then, as I pulled into JoAnn's where I needed fabric to make a pillow for my cousin's wedding, it hit me.

Brian had my debit card.

So I called him to double check. Yep-- he'd gone to the store for me last week, and as per our New Year's Resolution, he'd taken the household card to better keep track of household expenses. No biggie. I had my checkbook and ID, so we could still buy things.

After writing a check for $2.15 (coupons!!!) I torn it from my register. Just to realize it was my last one. At minimum I figured I still had at least three stops to make, none of which were going to happen without money. Did I drive all that way to spend 10 minutes in a craft store and spend less than three dollars?

Then I remember they had opened a branch of our local bank in this town not long ago. But would they let me withdraw cash with no checks? I'm sure all of you would never do anything like this, but on the off chance that it happens to you-- the answer is yes! I had to show ID and fill out a little form, no sweat.

But I spent the rest of the day constantly checking my pockets. I don't think I've ever carried that much cash.

Update

It's officially February-- and Happy Ground hog's Day while I'm at it. But the idea of posting my Resolutions for 2009 was so you all would know if I was cheating : ). So here's my official non-slacker update.

The usual:
I'm working out four days a week faithfully-- go me.
We eat veggies and even fruit more often than we used to. It's a step.
I've organized the little guy's room and the back porch area. Still to go-- our room and *cringe* the hall closet.

The unusual:
I have not read Fit for the Kingdom as I had planned, but I've been doing a good job with No More Bricks, which is teaching me about nutritious bread making. Same idea...
I've made little progress on When All Plans Fail, but we're talking about a budget for our emergency plan.
I did great with January's budget (insert happy dance here) and I've even started charting Brian's farm budget.

Personal:
Well, you can always spend more time studying the Scriptures, but I didn't fall completely on my face...
My family scrapbooks are up to date, but that has more to do with them being finished in December and not really having much to scrap about in January.

Child Training:
Any back-talk noise and the little guy goes straight to his room.
I brush his teeth once and let him do it the other time. I know, I know. But it's just easier.
We did schedule several playdates. Not my fault two got canceled for illness!
And we are reading Bible stories every night. We're as far as Abraham and Lot...

So, obviously some work still to do-- but I'd say I get a B. Plus.

How 'bout you?