It's beginning to look a lot like a house!!

Wow. One short week and our cement slab is now beginning to look like the home we've been planning and dreaming of all summer. Ahhhh. God has blessed us so much through this process.....even when we didn't know we needed it. The boys have surely learned a lot about framing this week and so the building trades class has been quite a success to this point. Tomorrow begins work on the bonus room upstairs and the roofing. We are so excited. I love just going out there and thanking God for this home He is providing us and enjoying it. I know, I know, we still have a long way to go before we can move in, but wow, I'm impressed with it. I can see it in my mind all finished and it's beautiful. I hope we can make it turn out just right. I'll post pictures tomorrow, but wanted to share the praise with y'all.

Progress, harvest and blessings.

How's that for a weekly summary? The concrete crew showed up last week and got the foundation completed on our house. What a blessing they were to work with. I'd give Silver Construction a great recommendation anytime. They are AWESOME!! The framers are here now and estimate they'll be done in a week to a week and a half. I started this process trying to keep track of every phone call and every in person I had in my calendar. Let's just say that level of organization had to go away or my calendar wouldn't have a single empty spot left by now. Bids from different companies that don't quite match up, reminder calls of where we are and who needs to be where and when, it all just boggles my mind. The good news is we're gonna have a new home.

Harvest and blessings need to go together. While most farmers are thinking of crop harvest this year, we think of harvest as selling show calves. You see, last summer we bred cows with the hope of a good calf crop. This spring those calves were born. We have prayed over them, watched over them and cared for them since conception. Some of them we've become rather attached to, others we won't mind seeing leave. But harvest time has come. We called our former customers and people who wanted to become customers and told them this was the weekend. God opened His floodgates of blessings. Saturday alone, we sold 8 calves. Mike and I were certainly exhausted by the end of the day but we visited with some wonderful people and entered the lives of some young people through the cattle. You see, we'll continue to provide help, support and advice to them all the way through next summer. We really feel customer service is a high priority. We have seen what a difference can be made in the lives of youth when they have an animal to care for. I encourage everyone I know to have something living for their child to be responsible for. It amazes me what a difference it makes in attitudes of kids and it sure does help them realize they really don't need to become parents any too soon. Taking care of another living thing is hard work. I'd rather our guys know that from raising cattle than raising kids at this point of their lives. So, God definately blessed us with some neat families to work with, a harvest of quality calves and just a little jingle in our pockets so that we might find a way to bless others.

I'm tired.

Period. It's been a busy week and a busy day and I'm so ready for bed. And yet, here I am. The construction crew got the lime and rock spread today, Mike and I got two new pens set up for show calves and the boys and their grandpa and uncle put up some rye grass silage. And we're all exhausted. I think I'm nearly as mentally exhausted as I am physically. The boys' school subjects are challenging me this year. All the details for the cattle show at the Royal needed to be finalized this week and then I needed to get a schedule figured out for the judging team to practice for the contest at the Royal. That combined with house details has nearly caused my head to explode. Aren't we supposed to have a down time sometime? Who took that downtime off my calendar???? I can't even seem to find a weekend for the boys to celebrate their birthdays in October. I really need to put some more effort into that this weekend. At least figure out a time to get together with family on an afternoon or something. I'd like to do something special for Chris since it's his 16th birthday, but I'm not sure what. I guess I'd really like to have the Samari up and running for him by then, but I'm not sure if that's realistic or not.....Hmmmm...something else to ponder.

Exhaustion!

I knew I had a lot on the calendar for today, but I had no way of knowing how exhausting it would be. We got school done early today and it was certainly a good thing. Mike and the guys had to put a tire back on the stock trailer (had a nail hole repaired) and get two show calves loaded. Meanwhile, I visited with some friends about entries that are coming due for the American Royal. We got on the road just in time and took the calves to be dehorned surgically. I didn't get to go along last time and it was quite interesting. The assistant was a bit squeamish. LOL. He asked if I was ok with it and I assured him that my children have gotten me over any blood squeamishness I ever had. The boys were right up by the calves heads watching it all. I think they could easily handle it. While they were working on Chris's heifer Jesse and I went to pick up two beeves from the locker. We had 24 bags of meat! We loaded all that in the front of the trailer and put the calves in the middle section. Once we got home we had to sort out 12 of the bags for Mike to deliver to guys at work. In the meantime, my parents showed up with a load of hay that we had loaded on Tuesday. It rained Wednesday and Thursday and Daddy wanted it unloaded today. The boys unloaded it and then finally made it in for lunch........at 3 pm. Chris and I made a Wal Mart run for stuff for tomorrow and next week. And here I sit now.....wiped out.

Melinda

Rain, patience and lessons learned.....

Rain. I honestly do not remember another year when we've had this much rain throughout the entire summer and on into fall as we've had this year. In the last couple of days we've had way more rain than we really need. The grass is green and lush and for that to be so in early September is a blessing. We are usually supplementing the cows with round bales of hay by this time of year. The barns are full of hay and the pastures are full of grass.

Patience. God is surely working on my levels of patience with all the rain. I try not to make everything urgent in my mind but sometimes I lose the battle. This summer has been a battle with patience for me. We've been trying to get this new house going and the rain has kept us from doing any significant work on it. Apparently God did not consult my calendar when sending the rain. LOL. Finally, I am beginning to ask God to allow me to accomplish what He has for me each day and leave tomorrows worries for then.

Lessons learned. How many lessons do I have room for? Lessons of listening carefully for God's direction, of asking for wisdom and not advice or guidance from God, letting go of the small stuff and making sure I realize more and more stuff is small. I've been privelged to be part of two different groups of women over the summer. One is an internet based group and one is a real life in the flesh group. I wanted to be a part of a real life women's group for a few years but it never seemed to work out due to schedules. This summer I was blessed. The guys are old enough to actually enjoy some freedom and be on their own for one evening a week. God is stretching me because I usually am not all that comfortable in groups of women. I guess I really have not developed that set of social skills. I relate so much better to men and boys than I do women and girls. I have a lot of friends with girls, but I really cannot relate to the issues they deal with. And now, the guys are getting to the ages that they really are needing some practical skills in how to deal with females properly. Mike and I are constantly reminding each other of that fact. We are TRYING to teach them that you just don't talk to girls the same way you do your brother. Trash talking amongst males is typical. Trash talking with a female can cause emotional havoc. Trust me....they're learning.
Melinda

The work began and quickly stopped.

The guys got the footer dug and poured on Tuesday. Woo hoo. Tuesday night and today, it's rained....and rained.....and rained. I highly doubt we'll get any more physical work done on the house this week. While I'm a little disappointed, I feel like God has finally taught me not to stress over this little bump in the road. When I was younger, I really had a hard time with minor inconviences. I thought the world was ending if everything didn't go my way. God has had to work on me for a lot of years to get beyond that.

We started school today. I really thought the day went well. I didn't plan a full day's work for the guys, but they sure did get through faster than I had anticipated. Next week we'll get into a fuller schedule and go from there. I have to tell you that I really do enjoy teaching the guys. I learn so much every year with them.

Melinda

I've been challenged.

I have so many friends who have blogs and am challenged to actually keep one up. Mike went back to his regular shift at work so I think I may be able to pull it off now. We shall see.

We went on a family trip this weekend and I'm treasuring it. I have to wonder how many more trips we'll get to have with our guys. Chris will turn 16 in 6 or 7 weeks and I remember how few trips I took with my parents after that magical age. Jesse will turn 14 a week after Chris's birthday. I look at these men and wonder where my boys went. Their voices changed a while back, they've both outgrown me in the last year and they even outworked my Daddy in the hay field today.

So, this family trip.....we went to look at........cattle. Oh, there's a surprise! I think we visited 8 farms in Iowa. We got to see some really nice cattle and got some really good advice from some top notch cattlemen. We spent the afternoon with a family we've become friends with. They have 4 kiddos: a 14 year old girl, a 12 year old boy, a 2 year old girl and a 3 month old boy. We enjoyed visiting with them. We ate so much for lunch that none of us needed any supper on the way home. The dad invited Mike on a trip to the US/Canadian boarder. Unfortunately, Mike had to get back for work today and fortunately, we were able to have the footer poured for our house. I told Mike I'm tempted to go put a chair out on the new porch. He just laughed.

We got home last night to learn that one of our best steers died while we were gone. To say the least we were all a little upset. He wasn't sick when we left on Sunday morning but was dead by Monday morning. The boys had about 2 to 3 weeks of work in on him. The had him broke to tie and were ready to begin washing him this week. So disappointing. But, we are thankful none of the other calves are sick and it looks as if the weather might break soon. The yo-yo of the thermometer is very hard on these calves. And on us.

Today as the guys were finishing pouring our footer, BOTH dogs (the Chihuahua and the Aussie) walked in the concrete. Apparently they need to leave their mark on the house. Funny thing is, the Chihuahua made as big a mark as the Aussie. Of course she had 2 legs sink in while the other was just a paw print.