Will White Ever Turn to Green Grass on the Prairie?

Winter has fought a long hard battle this year with more snow than anyone could ever desire! If we look hard enough, I am sure there would still be a pile here or there trying to hold spring back with one last fight! This weekend there is still talk of a rain/snow mix for our Prairie Homestead area! But just as God created there are four seasons to count on!  We know and wait patiently (sometimes not so patiently) for spring to arrive! There is no doubt that winter will finally come to an end and we will have crops planted, cows and calves to pasture, and warm sun to warm our faces!

Our lives are made of many seasons and often we want to hurry through into a brighter day. Learning to cherish each day often becomes lost in the monotony of everyday happenings!  As a mom I have walked through the seasons of raising two daughters, who are now young adults following a path that is unwinding before them.  Today I have been pondering in my heart whether I told them enough.  Did I remember to convey to them all the important things to make them excel in this place called life? I taught them to speak, to walk, to run, to ride a bicycle but what about the really important things?

 One of my daughter's posted a thought provoking post on my Facebook today.  I hope I taught them that this life that God has given is not always what we expect.  There are days that seem to last forever without hope of sunshine.  Bitter winds that blow with no relief in sight.  The tears may fall on our cheeks or our hearts may be breaking inside with no one to really comfort the pain. But just as spring does come with sunshine to heal our weary hearts, may there always be that seed of hope and faith to know that we can trust another season to makes its way into our hearts-healing the hurts, the disillusioned heart can trust, the tears wiped away and sweet refreshing breezes in the place of bitter winds. Did I teach them to stand even when they need to stand alone?  To recognize when someone is keeping them from flying?  Did I tell them to keep hope in their hearts even when all they can see is despair? And never let the sparkle leave their eyes?

My other daughter posted a link today on my Facebook of Carrie Underwood  singing "How Great Thou Art".  It touched my heart deeply with the powerful words of truth.  No matter the season in our lives, there is a God that needs to be recognized for his Greatness! The happenings in our lives and hearts pale when we recognize His greatness!  We have such a need to keep our eyes focused on Him and know that He has not taken His eyes off of us.  My children are often my focus in this life and we can be assured that they are the  apple of His eye, too!

A letter from Home.

                                                                       

                                                                  

December 2010 finds us in Herreid, South Dakota with a blanket of snow and trees covered in frost!  It is beautiful to look out at the winter scenes surrounding us!  Very often we see deer crossing through or pheasants pecking at the ground looking for their meals.   We have been living in South Dakota since the spring/summer of 2008.  Time has seemed to fly and go very slowly all at one time. We have been living at the farm since  February/2010.  We can look out our windows and see the pasture’s rolling hills and the cattle in the corrals.  This will be the first winter that Keith doesn’t have to drive from town to check and feed cattle. 

Amber and Bethany have been here several times since we made our South Dakota move.  When we made the decision to move we were asked, “where will home be?”  “Where we are,” was our answer. The childhood memories of growing up in Herreid and Rockford will be in our hearts forever but the love for each other is what made those memories!  We will just have new memories to make out here on the farm.

Amber came for a visit in July for a couple of days.  We went 4wheeling and took lots of sunset pictures! She shot a shotgun for the first time! Amber is in her last year at Rockford College and is ready to start student teaching next semester!  She is excited to be going back to Flynn Middle School student teaching Language Arts in the 8^th grade!  Her goal is to teach junior high age students. We aren’t sure where Amber will be when she is finished with college this next semester but we are pretty sure she has found a perfect fit in teaching.   Amber is also working at Old Chicago part-time.  She is enjoying her friends and fills some of her time with Rylee and Tucker (puppies) at home! She has been decorating for Christmas and we can’t wait to get there! 

Bethany is at Loyola in her third year of college studying premedical biology with a double minor in bioethics and neuroscience. She is taking an EMT course next semester and volunteering at a Children’s Hospital in Chicago in the ICU inpatient services assisting staff with providing care and support to patients and their families. She is enjoying Loyola and Chicago life!  She rides the bus to get around from place to place and seems to fit in with city life! Bethany spent about a month in South Dakota this summer.  She and Seth went with the Baptist Teens for Christ on a missions trip to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.  They worked hard putting up sheetrock in a building used for ministry to the American Indian people and reaching out to the children on the reservation. 

Seth is enjoying country life since it is legal here to start learning to drive at age FOURTEEN!!  (All you mothers are shuddering!)  He is now 15 and is driving to school alone.  Thankfully there are restrictions from the state and his parents!  Seth is doing very well in school.  His class has 10 students.  His grades have been very good and as a homeschooling mom, I am relieved!  He has learned to rake hay and drive a 4440 John Deere to help with haying season.   He has two 3- wheelers  and loves mud! This year he got his first buck which was a 4X4 rack.  He also got a nice doe.  Our freezers are full.  He has just started basketball practice so will be kept busy. The school here allows the kids to go to the gym in the evenings to play basketball; so fun times for Seth! He has probably adjusted the best with this move we have made to South Dakota.  He misses Illinois but has accepted this new life with open arms.

We moved a house to the farm and are enjoying farm life!  Keith’s mom still lives on the farm in her home.  His dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in May/2008 and is living in a home in Mobridge, SD.  There has been some adjustments to make accepting that his dad is not here anymore.  It is hard to watch a perfectly strong man progressively worsen as each day goes by.  Keith’s mom still has a shop in town and visits Larry usually twice a week.  Keith has fallen back into farming and is enjoying the new challenges of planting/harvesting fields and working with cattle again! One challenge is an Australian Shepherd (last year’s Christmas gift) that loves to chase cattle with or without Keith’s help.  Thanksgiving Day red stains appeared on the steps.  Baxter’s jaw and teeth were crooked and his jaw was split. He made an emergency trip to the vet and had his jaw wired and stitched.  We are sure he was kicked by a cow and surely learned his lesson?  But no, he is recuperating and still making trips to see the calves but not the cows if at all possible! 

My dad came with us to live in Herreid; but at the end of last year, he went to live at an assisted living home here in Herreid.  He has steadily lost weight and has days that he needs more care than we can give him.  He is 5 miles from us and we are so thankful he is able to be so close!  We are praying he will physically be able to stay at the Assisted Living for many more days! 

I enjoy being on the farm and being able to look out and see the wildlife and the cattle in the pastures or corrals.  We have had bottle calves at times which is especially enjoyable for me. One of my first bottle calves was sold last month due to his size! “Champ” was soooo tame that I just couldn’t sell him until now!  He weighed 840 lbs at the time of selling him but still would let me scratch his head. I have helped move cattle at times and enjoy it but I’m also a little unsure of how to turn cattle around when they are going in the wrong direction!  I feel pretty small on a 4-wheeler but for the most part they obey. For long cattle moves, I am usually just the traffic “controller”. I also “helped” with butchering chickens this year! We won’t go into details on that one! I’ve come along way, baby!

Keith and I are so blessed and are able to look back and see the hand of God leading when we didn’t know which way to go!  He is faithful and does not forget us no matter the circumstance. At Thanksgiving Keith said, “some are missing this year” around our tables with his Uncle Mervin going to see his Savior in heaven, my dad at the Home in Herreid, and his dad at the Home in Mobridge.  Changes are not easy but God knows our heartaches and is soothing those, too! It is the Season to be thankful and mindful of all that Jesus did for us.  Jesus came as a baby to grow up into the Savior who would die to forgive our sins! There was nothing we had to do to earn forgiveness, just take ownership of our sins and accept what has been done on the cross…forgiveness was freely given….because He loves.  So, Merry Christmas! Celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Savior!

Life back on the Prairie

This blog is about the life of an Illinois girl married to a farm boy from the prairie lands of northern South Dakota! Life has twists and turns that lead us down paths that are planned and sometimes unplanned in our lives! The curves of life could throw us into a tailspin if we did not believe "someone" bigger was in control of the steering wheel that was directing our path. In the spring and summer of 2008 we were in one of those curves of life and it lead us back to South Dakota after living in Rockford, IL for 12 years. My father-in-law was diagnosed with a fast progressing form of Alzheimer disease.

We left our lives in Rockford taking with us my father and our 15 year old son.  We left in Rockford two daughters who were attending colleges in the area. Decisions were made quickly and hearts were torn deeply! I teased that the girls wouldn't leave, so we did!  However, leaving was painful and seemed like a period of life was ripped from us too quickly. I consoled my heart by telling myself they were old enough and could have already left the nest if it were not for the local colleges. The dynamics of our home went from three females and three males to one female and 3 males! Life had changed and I missed my girls!

We lived in town until our house was moved from a farmstead nearby. We are now living on the farm with the exception of my dad who is living in an assisted living facility nearby. This blog will be about our lives and home on the prairie!  Our "house" changed but home is where a family lives and loves.Though adjustments have been many, a home is where mom and dad are and not the house we live in. Precious moments and memories are waiting to be made for this family in a home on the prairie!

To be continued......