Janet's 52nd birthday, August 24

 The night before my birthday, we bought two boxes of tomatoes at the Farmers' Market.  With Rowen helping, we made about 4 gallons of tomato juice that evening.

 Just beyond me, the roaster oven pan with tomato juice in it.  I had never used it for making catsup before, but it worked great.  I also ended up with that spaghetti pan full of it too.

 Rowen had never been here when we used the Squeezo-Strainer, so he enjoyed getting to man that!

 This is the yummy cheesecake that Beth had her co-worker make for me.  It was really yummy, with or without strawberries! Joy also made me a different kind of cheesecake and brought it up for Sunday.  I love cheesecake, so I was doubly blessed!

 This is on my actual birthday, after canning 36 pints of catsup!  I processed them all in the oven instead of water bathing.  It took half as long because we could do 15 at a time and didn't add all the steamy moisture to the kitchen.

 Also on my birthday, we were invited to a wiener roast at the Browns' land.  It was a beautiful evening to be outside and enjoy being with our dear friends.

 You can see from this picture what a nice view of the mountains they have from their land.

 There was a partial rainbow to remind us that God keeps His promises, every one of them!

 My sweet friend, Dr. Cara.

 Lincoln, so big now; he was only one year old when we started babysitting him!

 Hope, playing catch with her sister.

 Faith, ready to catch the ball.

 The scene from a distance

 Emily and Hope shooting the BB guns  at some cans set up for targets.

 Reloading

 

 Feeding our faces...

 Faith's 13th birthday was August 18.  Emily drew a picture of her and gave it to her in a zebra frame.  She loves all things zebra.

 There was candy corn in the package too!

 We had s'mores for dessert.

 This candle played the birthday song!

 Those s'mores had the Jumbo size marshmallows in them!

The fire after it got dark

I had a very blessed birthday!  God is good to me!

Randy and Joy moving to Colorado

On August 12, Janet flew to Joplin and then drove back August 13 with Joy and 1-2 little boys in the van, while Randy and 1-2 little boys came in the big truck.  The Lord gave us good travel.  On the 14th, Randy painted the bedrooms and living room of the parsonage in Federal Heights, and on the 15th, the truck was unloaded.  Randy has pictures of some of that.  What we have pictures of is mostly the babysitting that took place that week.  The Browns were with us on Thursday, as well as Quil, Micah, and Jonathan.

                    Jonathan being silly with Grandma.

 

The next day, we only had Jonathan and Micah with us, as Quil helped with unloading the truck.  We also had Honor and Liberty Peterson staying for a few days with us.  Liberty and Jonathan played together nicely.

     Jonathan is learning to pull up to everything, but is not walking yet.

                  Emily accidentally spoiling Jonathan a tiny bit.

                               Emily keeping both babies happy at the same time.

                                 Jonathan was glad to see Grandpa!

                  Jason playing the guitar to relax after the hard unloading day.

Feeding Liberty her bottle

                      Honor made a huge traffic jam on the railroad track!

                                Jeffrey holding Liberty

 

Randy and Joy and boys came back on Sunday to eat dinner with us and Honor.  Liberty must have been in her nap.

                     We played some games with the boys in the afternoon.

                               Beth holding a sleepy Liberty.

                           The boys made some pictures with magnetic foam pieces.

                                  Jonathan crawling toward the camera.

                                  Jonathan getting climbing stairs lessons.

                                 Jason supervising the lessons.

                                  Jason playing Blokus with Quil and Micah

                                         Jonathan confined to the portacrib.

                           Janet and Joy visiting while holding the babies.

                                    Randy and Joy

                                    Couch time

 

Jeffrey and Jonathan

                                            Jason and Jonathan

        Honor eating a snack before his parents came to get Liberty and him.

The Lord helped us with the busy week of moving Randy's family, and babysitting.  Jeffrey and Jason not only helped with the moving projects, but they also packed up and left the next day for God's Bible School in Cincinnati.

Emily is getting braces!

In July, Dr. Richter, (Jeffrey's orthodontist) had a contest for free braces on Facebook.  A good friend of ours nominated Emily.  Lots and lots of people voted for Emily!  Friends, friends of friends, relatives, friends of relatives, lots of people voted for Emily.  She won the contest and now she is looking forward to getting her braces on this Thursday!  We thank God for this huge blessing, and we pray that having her teeth straightened will help cure her almost daily headaches.

These pictures are from the consultation appointment with Dr. Richter. 

 

 

We will have pictures of braces later!  Stay tuned!

Update on Janet's hair

                          Still curly, still growing.  Very thankful!

Making family memories with Jeffrey and Jason

 I am behind on blogging, so this is old news...
On August 4, as we ate our Sunday dinner on the deck, we decided we needed to go to the mountains again before Jeffrey and Jason left for college.

 So we drove up to Lily Lake near Estes Park, and took a hike and then walked around the lake.  The picture below is the view of Longs and Meeker Peaks from the hiking trail.

  Here are our kids on the trail--some of the dearest best young people we know!  :)

    This is a pretty civilized trail, even though we got out of breath a few times.

                                           Jeffrey, on top of the world!

                        Someone was "looking down" on the old parents!

                                        Jason

           One of our favorite resting benches with such a beautiful view behind it!

                                     Rowen and Janet

                               The girls surrounded by their protectors

          Age order:  Jeffrey 22, Beth almost 20, Jason almost 18, Emily 15

 The college boys.  They've been roommates most of their life and now roommates for college.

                       Figuring out the map to get back down to the lake.

 We had a beautiful afternoon together, making memories in the mountains.

For Every Season (Amish Vines and Orchards, Book 3) by Cindy Woodsmall

In July of this year, I reviewed Book 2 in the Amish Vines and Orchards series.  I was pleased to have the opportunity to find out what was happening next with Rhoda, Jacob, and Samuel.  I’m not telling the ending, but only that I was pleased with how things are working out. 

The book starts out with Rhoda living with the Englisch (non-Amish) neighbors of the apple farm in Maine that she and the King brothers have begun restoring.  Neither Jacob nor Samuel is speaking to each other or to her.  Of course, they cannot continue to function that way.  There has to be healing, restoration, and communication between them or the business will fail.  But how can they function when each of the brothers love Rhoda? 

The Englisch couple Rhoda lives with have secrets into which Rhoda receives insight.  But Camilla does not want to talk about her secrets.  After Camilla was injured in a hit and run accident, she was willing to listen.  Samuel helped Rhoda realize that God gave her insights to help others, not to torture herself. 

Jacob’s secret past is slowing being revealed, and he is getting legal help so he can be free of the past.  He wants to marry Rhoda and take her away from Samuel’s influence, but Rhoda’s heart is in the apple orchard.  Should she give up everything she loves for Jacob?

Leah, Samuel and Jacob’s sister, is trying to decide whether to stay Amish or keep dating and going to a church with her non-Amish friend.  She realizes the benefits of both worlds, but does not want to lose the family connections that are so strong and important.  At the end of the book, she still is not sure what to do.

Sometimes I felt impatient with how slowly conflicts were getting resolved.  But I realize that in real life, things take time.  I already knew before I started reading this book that Cindy Woodsmall had decided to write a fourth book in the series.  So I was surprised that I was not left “hanging” at the end of this book, like happened at the end of the second one.  Of course, Rhoda’s relationship is the only one resolved so far, but to me, that is the main concern.  Definitely, a fourth book is needed to complete all the other people’s journeys.

I enjoyed reading this book.  For any Amish fiction fans, this is definitely a series to read. 

I received my free copy of For Every Season from Waterbrook/Multnomah in exchange for my honest review.