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 8th 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!
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