A few thoughts......

We had a wonderful, but busy spring break.

During spring break week I usually like to tackle some kind of project around the house or farm. This year it was time to paint and add a few new touches to our living room. I had gone into town the Saturday before to pick up all the needed supplies and was able to accomplish this task during the first three days of the week. It now looks like a completely different room, warm and cozy, just the way I pictured it. I bought these packages of wall art stickers for the kid’s bedrooms and our living room. Faith, Seth and Anna picked out Disney Princesses, Hannah Montana, and Thomas the Train. There were also many ones to choose from with different quotes or expressions. I found the perfect one for our living room that says, “Bless This House.” But it was even more perfect when I discovered it actually came with the words, “God Bless This House.” For some reason the manufacturer chose to leave the word "God" off of the front of the package. This puzzled me. Was it because they thought they would sell more without it or were they afraid someone would be offended? I think it is just another way of taking God out of America.

Although Thursday was windy I found plenty to do in the garage. Loren came home to find everything that was in the garage is now sitting in front of the garage waiting for him to sort through and place it neatly back inside. Now that we discovered our garage has a floor the children have spent many hours riding their smaller tricycles around and around.

Friday and Saturday were beautiful, so those days were devoted to yard work and I began to place the fence posts for the older calves’ electric fence. My parents came over one afternoon to plant onions, potatoes and raspberry plants with the kid’s help.

Faith even woke up bright and early one morning to help with chores and we baked bread and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Someday I hope she will look back on moments like these with fond memories.

You know the little things are what makes our time together most special. Some days we spend a lot of time in the kitchen; cooking, cleaning, eating together, doing projects at the dining room table, etc. We do not have a television on the main level of our house, but we enjoy listening to the radio. One of our family's favorite memories are the countless noon hours we spent intently listening to Paul Harvey's News and Comments and The Rest of the Story. We sure miss these programs ever since Mr. Harvey passed away. We still listen to the news at noon and discuss what's happening in our community, the country and the world. Our main radio station features classic country music along with some new artists, but we enjoy the old-time country and Bob Becker's Old Tyme radio program featuring lots of polka music on Sunday afternoons. Today during lunch the kids and I were singing along to the song "White Lightning" one of our favorites. It makes me think of grandpa's moonshine still and my brother brewing up his own batch at Loren's and my wedding. (I didn't taste the stuff) Sometimes we dance around the kitchen together and sing. None of us have any real musical talent, but we sure do try!

Years ago Loren and I used to host a Potluck Picnic on the farm with all our friends, family and neighbors. My dad and some of his old band mates would set up in our front yard and play old-time music. People would sit in our front yard, visit and eat, then get up and dance. We stopped the year Loren's dad died and haven't had our get-together since. I miss those days.

Well, enough reminiscing. Time to go make some more memories......