Gardening at Grammie and Papa's

Last year Savannah and I planted sunflowers, pumpkins, and watermelons at my parent's house. The only thing that ever grew was the watermelons. The rabbits and ground squirrels ate the sunflowers as soon as any green come up out of the dirt and the pumpkins flowers never had a chance. The only reason we were able to grow watermelons was because Papa covered the foliage with chicken wire!

This year, we are going to outsmart those little varmints. This year Papa build a planter box. It's about 10 or so feet long, 3 or so feet high and about 3 or so feet wide. Papa drove the tractor while Wayne and I filled the box with dirt.



We added vegetable planter mix (not organic unfortunately) and Savannah helped to til it together with the native soil.



Here is a picture of us planting the sunflowers. We put them at the back of the planter box where they wouldn't shade the rest of the fruits and vegetables.





Next we planted watermelon, zucchini, cantelope, carrots, and pumpkins. It's probably too much for that little area, but we just couldn't make up our minds!





Last year, Grammie bought Savannah her own gardening tools. She had fun using them for their practical purpose!



The height of the box would keep the squirrels and bunnies from eating our garden, but we wanted to make sure that nothing would even think about approaching. A mini-sized scarecrow should do the trick! (Um, notice the adorable dress Savannah chose to dig in the dirt with? She said, "Mommy. You can always wash it.")



We're very optimistic about this years crop. We're just sad that our yard doesn't get enough sun to have the garden at our house. For now, we're grateful for Grammie and Papa helping us out and letting us grow our garden in their yard!

Making Pretzels

Savannah and I love to bake. Last year, Wayne got soft pretzel mix from his friend at work. We had such a good time making them. In fact, I believe I blogged about it. When Savannah brought home her fundraising packet from school, I saw that they had soft preztel mix. I was even more excited to find out that it was organic soft pretzel mix! Here are some pictures of this years batch of pretzels.

Look, ma. Organic!



Pouring the mix into the bowl.



After adding the water, oil, and yeast, mix, mix, mix.



Kneading the dough is fun!



Daddy lending moral support.



Separating the dough into equal sized portions. (Yes, my daughter is a dork... :) The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.)



Rolling the dough to make into the pretzel shape.



Fresh out of the oven. We've got your typical pretzel shape, a butterfly, a heart, and the figure 8 for one of Savannah's favorite shows "John and Kate Plus 8." In fact, she kept calling it her "John and Kate Plus 8" pretzel.



The finished product. I only made two with sea salt on top. The others were made into cinnamon 'n sugar pretzels. They were very yummy.



I was just looking at last year's blog about making pretzels, and I'm surprised that I made them at all this year!  I now remember what a hard time we had.  We didn't have ANY of those problems this year.  Of course, it was much warmer this time than the last time, so that may have contributed to the ease of this batch of pretzels.

I'll miss you, Grandma Vi...

I have to be honest.  When my parent’s first told me that Grandma Vi had past, I found joy.  I was joyful because I knew where she was going.  To be with Jesus.  It was that fact that I pondered upon. I know that we will all miss Grandma Vi, but as Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: For we walk by faith, not by sight: We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.”

I know that God the Father will accept Grandma Vi.  Not because she was part of the quilting club.  Not because she fed the homeless.  Not because she attended a church service every Sunday.  These are not the things that will make her acceptable to God.  Only Jesus can do that.  It was His blood, and His blood only that washed away her sins so that she could be with our Father in heaven.  As Jesus said in the gospel of John “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”   Even the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Grandma Vi believed in Jesus.  She believed that He was the Son of God, that He died on the cross for the remission of sins, and then was raised again on the third day.  She believed that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16.

Isn’t that wonderful!  We are all here to celebrate the life of Grandma Vi.  But, according to the truth of Scripture, she is still alive!  She may be absent from us, but she is present with the Lord!  She has everlasting life!

Although I’m going to reflect on the memories of her life on earth, her life in heaven is only just beginning.  Halleluiah!

There are so many wonderful memories I have of my Grandma, it’s hard to know where to start.  One of my first memories is sitting in her rocking chair with her, sucking my thumb and holding my blanket while she “patted and shooshoo’ed me.”  She’d rock back and forth in her chair gently patting my back as she softly said, “shoo shoo shoo.”

Another fond memory that her and I shared was baking at her house.  Before I was tall enough to reach the counters she’d have a card table out in her tiny little kitchen so that I could help her bake.  She let me do everything from measure to mix as long as I had my hair net on.

When I got a bit older, she taught me how to do more complex things like knit and quilt.  It must have taken a lot of patience to teach a 7 year old to knit.  That was my Grandma.

As a child, I would spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  I remember waking up before Grandma and Grandpa would tell me to go climb in bed with her.  I’d step out of the bed onto the creaky wood floor and tip toe into her bedroom.  I’d slowly open the door and climb into her bed.  Of course she’d wake up immediately.  We’d stay there for a few moments before she got up and made Finnish pancakes.  I was allowed to eat as many as I wanted.

Even as I got older, and I’m sure my brothers will agree, I still enjoyed spending time with Grandma.  Although I got too big to be patted and shooshoo’ed she would still comfort me with hugs and kisses.  I knew that if I ever needed anything I could call Grandma and she wouldn’t even think twice.   Whenever I’d call her on the phone she’d say, “Is this my favorite granddaughter?” or “Aw, Tooter!”

And she never lost her sense of humor.  The last time I saw her I asked her how she was feeling.  Her reply?  “With my fingers.”

There are so many wonderful memories that I have of Grandma Vi, but the one that I am picturing now is her standing on the front porch waving goodbye as we drove away from her house.  This time though, she’s no longer alone.  My Grandpa is on one side and Jesus is on the other.

Trip to Montana

After last years vacation to Hawaii, I think that Wayne realized how nice it is to not only take time off of work, but to actually leave the house and enjoy some time away!  This year we were blessed once again and were able to spend an entire week in Montana.  Well, Savannah and I had two weeks there.  My parents drove the two of use there and we spent a week with just the four of us.  Then Wayne flew in the next week and the entire Fox family flew home a week later.

Our time there was amazing and a total blessing.  The Lord does answer prayers and this time He actually answered one of mine the way that I wanted it to be answered!  I prayed that Wayne would fall in love with Montana and he did.  We would love to move there within the next five years.  We're working towards that and I just keeping praying for God's will to be done.  If He wants us there, that's where we'll be.  All in His timing, of course.  ;)  (The sooner the better, Lord...)

Savannah loves Montana as well, and when we were there she kept saying that she wanted to move there.  That was until she got home and got to play with her best friend (and neighbor) Geneva.  She wants Geneva and Heather to move with us.  LOL!  Hey, God can do it!

Here are a few images from our trip.

Here is the family.  Not the best picture of Wayne, but it's the only one of the three of us!



This is a picture from our trip to Yellowstone.  See the bison?  They are all over the place there.



This picture was taken on our way to Yellowstone.



This is the little town that we stay in.  My parent's actually live there for the summers in the house that my grandma owns. It has no stop lights.  :D



This lake was completely frozen over when I first arrived in Montana.  By the time Wayne got there it looked like this.  A few days later it had completely "defrosted."



Savannah.  'Nuff said.  ;)







And I know I've said it before, but honestly, I'm going to try to post once a week.  Even if it's just with a Hi.

What a wonderful day!

Today was amazing! The first half of our day was spent at Wayne's sister's house. His entire family was there to celebrate mine and our nephew Chris' birthday. It's always fun getting together with his family. They have been such a blessing to us. Unfortunately, for the first few years of our marriage, we didn't have much contact with them. Wayne recently "reconciled" with them and now we are great friends! Praise God.

Then, when we came home, we headed to Heather's house (just Savannah and I) for fellowship and coffee with a wonderful group of Christian women. I'm so blessed to have Heather right next door. And God has really blessed me with the new church they He led me too. I had the awesome opportunity to spend some time with the pastor's wife. She is a hoot! I love her, and can't wait to get to know her better.

Like I said. Today was wonderful. It was definitely a God blessed day!