blogging again, finally . . .

It's a beautiful fall day, September 25th and I have 40 lbs. of apples waiting to be processed.  I was able to do 60 lbs. yesterday, so exciting to see that many quarts of applesauce & juice.  I did a couple of bushels of tomatoes last week, loved how the salsa turned out, all 19 pints of it.  Wasn't as excited abt. the spaghetti sauce, but got almost 2 cases of that as well.  It feels good to be canning again.  Didn't have much opportunity in Kansas City, as there are not as many resources (orchards & gardens) available to us at good prices & we were not able to have our own garden at our rental place, so I'm loving the self-sustaining atmosphere we have found in Excelsior Springs.  I had so many empty bottles that needed to be filled.  It is very gratifying to see the food storage being built back up again.  So grateful for that opportunity.  We love our new home here in Excelsior and after our busy summer of moving for 3 days, heading to Nauvoo Pageant for 2 weeks & coming home to finish moving & then getting Daniel ready to leave for Chile on his mission, it's nice to settle into our homeschooling routines & getting some canning & more unpacking done.  I love having time with our girls.  It is so gratifying to be with them after a year of working during the evenings and not seeing them much at all, as they were in school during the day.  I feel for those who have to do that longer than I did.  It was hard, but makes me appreciate the gift of being with my kids.  It goes so fast, as sending Daniel off to Chile has shown me.  It was so hard leaving him at the airport all by himself.  He's a big boy, but I just wish there would have been other missionaries there to travel with him.  He made it fine & now is almost done with his instruction time at the CCM (Chilean MTC).  He is so ready to go out & start teaching.  It's fun to see how eager he is to get working.  So excited for him to serve where I once did.  I love that he gets to serve in my same mission.  So proud of the good young man he has become. 
    Well, the apples won't can themselves, so I better get moving.  Love blogging - I just need to take the time to do it more!  Kristyn will be 13 next Friday!  Hard to believe she is officially a teenager now.  I love her so much!  She is such a sweet young woman!  She has been such a blessing in our lives.  How did I get so lucky to have these amazing children!  I have been richly blessed! 
   I just have to put my schpiel in abt. government woes.  So worried about what Obama is doing to our health care system, our educational system, our financial system, everything he touches seems to go down-hill.  Not to mention the Benghazi horrors.  He's not even a citizen of this great country - how did he ever get elected?  The more I hear about him, the more I just put my head in my hands & cringe.  Now we are on the verge of war with Syria, except we have defaulted to whom?  The Russians.  Things couldn't get much worse, until we actually start the war.  If this isn't the last few years before the Savior comes, I can't imagine a better scenario.  Everything is ripe for destruction.  Wickedness & war & abortions & financial crisis & government has it's hands in everything.  If the constitution isn't hanging by a thread, I don't know what you call the state of our country.  I love this land, I love the freedoms it has represented, but things are not good & it's obvious to most people that our country is in trouble.  Never been more thankful to have a prophet on the earth, as General Conference is approaching, I plan to take notes on the things that the Spirit will speak to me.  I'm so very concerned & yet I know that we have to go through what is ahead.  Hope is dim & yet we have been told this is coming for many years.  I hope we are as prepared as we should be.  Food storage, FHE, scripture study, prayers, listening to our church leaders, active in the church, trying to do all the things that we have been asked to do.  Striving to be more like Christ in our everyday lives.  Knowing we are so imperfect, but trusting in the Lord to help us overcome our many weaknesses.  I know we are in the Lord's hands, but when you see the government doing what it is doing, it's hard not to worry about what lies in the future.  So looking forward to General Conference & sitting at the feet of the Savior, so to speak, as His servants relay what the Lord wants us to know.  Grateful for the many blessings of the gospel.  We are so blessed.
    As we had a FHE lesson on Zion's Camp last Monday, I talked with the kids about how blessed they have been to have lived where the early saints once lived.  We have lived only 3 miles from Adam-Ondi-Ahman, have been to the Liberty Jail countless times, have been to the Independence visitors center many times, have been to the Haun's Mill site, have attended the dedication of the 8 witnesses (or was it 3) monument in Liberty, have been to Nauvoo countless times, Daniel took his endowments out there, have felt the amazing spirit of Nauvoo many, many times, have found ancestors who were in Nauvoo & came west with the early saints, we have participated in the anticipation of the Kansas City Temple with great excitement & gratitude, our kids were able to take part in the cultural celebration of this temple with Pres. Monson in attendance, we have visited the Richmond cemetary where a few saints are buried, we have had the opportunity to help create the Far West campsite, our daughter Kristyn was among the first YW to camp there for YW camp (even I got to ride the zipline that day), we have visited the Far West temple site, the Independence temple site and have attended the temple in St. Louis as well.  We just have been so blessed to participate in the Nauvoo Pageant for 2 weeks, while visiting with Matt's parents who served in the Nauvoo Temple mission.  It's amazing all of the opportunities we have been given, just by living in this wonderful area.  We have had so many opportunities to learn more about the early saints.  You feel their spirits here, you think about the sacrifices they made, what they went through, it effects you deeply.  They sacrificed so much for the gospel & we can too.  I'm so grateful for what they have done to show how much the gospel is worth.  It actually has been a huge spiritual blessing to have gone through all the trials we have since we moved to Missouri as we feel a kinship to the early saints in their struggles.  Although, what we went through doesn't even compare to what the early saints endured, it definitely was a refiner's fire for us.  Having no water for a year and a half gives you more of an appreciation for when you do have it and for what it must have been like for the pioneers.  We did try to keep around 120 trees alive during that time of no water & we did pretty good until we made the mistake of adding livestock in the same area where the trees were planted.  They ate our little trees.  We know what it is like to have farm animals, to milk, to chase pigs & horses, to gather eggs, to lose a beloved milk cow after saving her from being stuck in the pond, to love the cute rabbits, to milk goats, to ride them, & to free them from getting their horns stuck in fencing, to watch our dad & husband almost be killed by our bull, to work hard at keeping up with 20 acres, to have horses, to lose chickens to racoons & fox, to have big gardens, all while trying to homeschool 7 children.  We know what it is like to have babies without drugs, to associate with Menonites & Amish as much as they will let us.  What an adventure we had, while it was so hard at times, I'm so grateful for that chance we had to live that way.  I'm also so grateful to be in a home that I love now & have space to try chickens again in the spring & have a garden once more.  I love this home & worry about how we can manage 2 mortgages until our Gallatin farm sells, but I know that Heavenly Father has brought us through more difficult things than this, so I have faith that somehow we will figure out a way to make it through this challenge as well.  If only we could sell the farm . . . I am grateful for all these things.

Nauvoo isn't far

Spent a day at the temple all by myself. It was so quiet, no one talked to me unless I requested it. It was heaven. I loved the peace and serenity of the whole day. Finally ate lunch at 2:00 and was very grateful for all the blessings of the day. Boys were excited to get a couple of new Tennis Shoes books, we look forward to finishing the series one of these years.

How's the Weather?

Well, funny you should ask. It feels like spring. It's been almost 36 degrees now for the past 3 days. We're loving it. Pipes in the house have thawed and hot running water is always a plus. We don't even need our coats anymore, no sirree - the sun is out and the ice is melting. The wind even stopped blowing, so it doesn't feel like 23 below anymore. Life is good!

Hey, your horse is out!

Really, our horse is out? Imagine that! He never gets out, wow! I wonder how that happened? Oh, that horse, yeah - he's a free agent. Well, he might get hit one of these days; well he might, but he's pretty savvy about the traffic around here, rush hour consists of about 7 cars going by at 6:45 a.m., plus a bus, and a pig truck or two flying on by. It happens again at 3:45. Other than that, what traffic? It only takes one you say, yes - that's true. We hope it never happens. After returning dear Chance to the pasture for the third time that morning, we just let him be a free agent, so far no dire consequences. He needs a job!

These bugs are still here?

After eating a scrumptious spaghetti dinner, Alex stands up quickly and starts flailing his arms around his head and calmly announces that he's got a bug on his head. Of course, we looked to see where the bug might be, and it showed it's gruesome head on the side of his face, right between his eye and his ear. He kept feeling it and trying to brush it off, finally successful. We clapped with joy that he was free from this invader. I guess that 27 degrees is a balmy change from the 0 and below temperatures that we've encountered this last month, so the Japanese beetles little orange bodies have warmed enough to start moving again. We were so glad to see them come to life once again, being that we just can't get enough of these annoying little creatures brought to Missouri by a crazy Floridian. These little mockers of the friendly lady bug have no natural predators, they're almost impossible to eradicate, and they stink when brushed off any surface. They swarm when it's warm and huddle in the corners together when it's cold. That's the ideal time to attack - vacuum hose or torch. They both work. The vacuum is my preferred weapon. So, it's January after a month of below freezing temperatures which froze all our pipes but one, and yet these little buggers are still crawling around our place. That's perserverance for ya!