family bible camp

Friday night we got back from a full week of family time at Bible Camp. It was a great week and so good to be together. We celebrated my parent's and my aunt and uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversaries with relatives from Alaska, Kentucky, Washington, Missouri, Florida and Minnesota.

The topic of the week centered on servant leadership and how to lead your family. I believe Grandma and Grandpa Bredberg would have been very happy to see the family they led all together, swimming, golfing, singing, horse-shoeing, eating, fishing, laughing and playing. Family is the best.

I took the most random assortment of pics from the week. A few poorly lit ones of Ivar and Uncle Mark doing a puzzle together. A few from the Anniversary Party of the room before anyone arrived. Clearly I had other things going on and rarely picked up my camera. So I am so thankful for this gorgeous shot, taken by a fellow camper who is clearly a professional. What a gift to have such a great picture of so many of our family together!

And now we're home and I'm lonesome for this crew. It really is fun to be altogether, watching our kids play together, catching up, remembering and telling funny stories. My heart is so full when I look at this picture. Thank you God for Family.

A few favorite moments:
+The first morning of the adult session, the microphone came to my Aunt Jane, sitting alone in the back row. She said, "My name is Jane and I am actually related to all of those Caucasians sitting up there..." (Aunt Jane is from China)

+My cousin Michael signed up to dance in the talent show with his niece Audrey. He's 30-something and Audrey is 5. When they got up there Audrey froze and Michael danced all around her, leading her, getting her to move, and it was so, so sweet.

+My Uncle Ed who is older than 70 went down the huge slip and slide.

+I golfed in the golf scramble with my Uncle Ed, second cousin Nick and second cousin Greta. We listened to 40's music and it was one of my favorite moments of the week.

+There was an afternoon that I got on the inflatable cupcake and floated around by myself on the water for a very, very happy amount of time. It was so peaceful and I tried to pocket up that moment to help get me through the month of March.

Hay Day...Hooray!

Look at those SMALL SQUARE BALES! People, this is such a huge deal for us. Yesterday Rory was able to use our tractor and our neighbor's baler (our baler still has parts that are at the shop) and after some more generous time with our neighbor, he was able to bale half of our field into small bales. We were thrilled.

Here are the Peanut Butter Boys. They were so proud of their dad! Alden laughed a humming laugh while watching the tractors go back and forth. He LOVES tractors. Usually he has his little John Deere in his hand and holds it up in the air when the tractor goes by. 

Our incredible neighbor cut and raked the field again this round, and as payment got to bale half of the field for his own bales. It was pretty fun having both tractors going at the same time.

And then the fun really started. I got to drive the truck with Elsie next to me (babies were already asleep for the night) while Rory and Ivar lived the dream, lifting our own bales into our truck and hauling them into the barn. And in this moment I kept thinking, "we are making the happiest memory right now." It was such a stunning night, Rory was so relieved that he finally had small bales and Ivar transformed into a hard-working farm boy right in front of my eyes. He proudly flipped bales and said to me, "My body feels strong and tired at the same time." He rode in the back, sitting on the bales (we were very safe, Dad!) and was Rory's equal in enthusiasm that we had made another big step forward towards baling our own field. If we make progress at every cutting, we are moving forward. And we are! It's so much to learn. It's really hard work. But we are all giving it our best effort and growing every day. 

uncle kyle birthday dinner

Today Elsie is six! We have fun plans ahead, but she kicked it off right with a special date with Uncle Kyle last night.

Uncle Kyle takes all of this nieces and nephew's out for dinner for their birthday. It's such a special idea! Elsie chose to have a Culver's picnic and it was fun to hear some of their conversation. At the end of each birthday dinner, Uncle Kyle asks the kids if they have any questions for him and tells them he'll always be happy to give his best answer. Isn't that a cool idea? That open invitation will only get better as the kids get older. Though I think Elsie nailed it this year. He said, "so do you have any questions for me?" He later told me she didn't miss a beat, "Why are so many things made in China?"

double rainbow and draft blog posts

This was from Friday night, I think. Both rainbows were full...we cold see both sides and it was so bright that Ivar said, "I can even see the orange!"

Posting this picture right now is fitting because I have the last two of six cakes in the oven. Elsie is turning six on Thursday and has asked for a rainbow cake. Oh my, click on that link. I have had a lot of fun with rainbow food coloring in my life. Though I will say this is the first time I have made this cake with 1-year-old, 2-year-old and 5-year-old helpers.

So here is something crazy. I recently was looking through my drafts folder in my blog. Do you know how many blog posts I have written but never published? This is crazy. Over 350. I basically could take a year off and post these babies! Ha! Some of them didn't get published for good reason. But some of them were just waiting for a photo and then never got published. Some of them seemed inconsiderate based on what was happening in the world that day (too light hearted if there had been a national tragedy...) Some I lost confidence to post.

But guess what? I want to post them. I print off every year of my blog into a hard cover book, so if I don't publish them, these words will literally never see the light of day. And there are some long lost blog posts that I want to still post. So if you don't mind, I'd like to take the rest of the summer and get some of these old words and old pictures up on my blog. I'll write something on the top telling the date that I wrote it. But other than that, I'll post it as is. Even if there isn't a great picture. Which will drive me nuts, but I can get over that.

So that's about it. I might post a lot of them in a row. You don't have to read them if it's overload. It's basically housekeeping for me and for posterity. :) And you, if you're interested in the topic!

goat baby

Hattie has never had one specific favorite thing. She had a blanket for a while, and has rotated some stuffed animals into the position of honor. And right now the favorite snuggly, bedtime thing is Goat Baby. She loves Goat Baby. She changes Goat Baby's diaper and gives her stroller rides. And she brings Goat Baby out with me in the morning to help me milk.

Hattie was my faithful, daily companion each morning as I milked Darcy until she startled Darcy by surprising us both and using the wash cloth to clean Darcy's utter right at the end of the milking session. Darcy was caught off guard and lifted her foot right into my milk pail (I had stopped using the hobbles). Which was such a bummer. The cats were fine with this upset as they got the milk, but all 2-year-olds were then asked to stay back at the house while Mama is milking.

And here's a farm baby if their ever was one. Crawling on his knees across the gravel road. He went back and forth three times. When he wasn't crossing the lane he was helping me plant flowers, putting wood chips in his mouth, splashing in the bucket of water and happily pulling up anything green. Even if it was a flower I just planted. People sometimes ask how we get it all done and I'd have to say it's because I've got lots of great helpers!

And here's my first round of Goat Milk Soap! Tada! Now it sits in the tray for 4-6 weeks before it is hard enough to use. 

goat milk soap

For weeks I have been checking out books from the library, watching youtube videos and gathering my supplies to turn my goat milk into goat soap. When I first set out I assumed making soap would be very simple. It couldn't actually be that complicated. But it is! Lye is dangerous to work with, proper temperatures need to be met, oils must be in perfect ratios and measured on a weigh scale, there needs to be good ventilation...just so many factors to consider! It actually reminded me a whole lot of a chemistry experiment. And Chemistry always overwhelmed me. `

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (Hattie just stopped by and was delighted to find "My H!")

But on Sunday night I tried my first batch. I was so nervous about it. I watched more youtube videos and realized I was flat out stalling. But it did feel really overwhelming. Just like chemistry. Finally I decided to just start and see what happened. And in the end, I made soap. There's a good lesson right there: just start. And then do it.

After pouring the "pudding" into the molds it has to be wrapped in towels and placed in a box for 24 hours to properly set up. There's all sorts of lingo I'm learning, but I'll just describe it how I understand it. And then last night I got to slice it into bars. It was so exciting! I kept yelling, "I made soap! I made soap!" And now it has to cure for 4-6 weeks before it can be used. I had no idea soap was such a procedure. But I am totally into this now. I may even make another batch this week. I really, really love the process. My first batch was lemon-cream. I may go for peppermint next. And then I can start adding things like color so I can make designs in the soap! And ground oatmeal for exfoliation, or flower petals!

I may end up liking chemistry after all of this...

And one final thought. Do you see that hand blender in the top picture? It was key to the success of this process. I've written about this before, but all throughout my childhood, my Grandma and Grandpa Bredberg gave all of the cousins $25 to spend before Christmas. We had to buy something, wrap it up in gift wrap and then at the family celebration, we would each have our turn to unwrap our own present and show Grandma and Grandpa what we picked out. I only remember two presents that I chose: a real stroller for my dolls that Ivar later used and my Braun Hand Blender. I think I was in 7th grade and of all things on planet earth, I wanted a hand blender. (I am beginning to realize that I have always been very practical.) So it was pretty awesome to STILL BE USING that great gift, twenty-five years later on something as fun and practical as Goat Milk Soap!

Also, look at those darling stained glass flowers my mom made for me! I love them. And don't look at my dirty window...

Monday Night Spaghetti

We are eating from a two week menu rotation and every Monday night is Spaghetti. My Mondays play out the same: I look at the menu on the fridge and think to myself, "Oh Awesome! Spaghetti! So Easy! Great." And then we sit down to eat this crowd favorite and as the meal unfolds I think, "Oh Right! Spaghetti! What a mess! Gross!"

But I just never seem to remember the mess before the meal.

eating from the garden

We planted our blueberry bushes four years ago. And the first two years you have to take all the flowers off of the bush so that the energy goes into the root system and making it healthy and strong. Last year was our first harvest, but we were at family Bible camp that week and missed our first harvest. We have weeded our bushes every year, mulched around them, and piled up pine needles to increase the acidity of the soil. So you can imagine the great joy we are feeling this year picking our blueberries! I have made blueberry jam and we are trying a batch of dehydrated blueberries at the moment. We have some in the freezer too. And most of them are in our bellies from fresh eating all day long. 

Does anyone have any favorite blueberry recipes to share with me? We would love to preserve as many as possible, but haven't done this before!

Also, last Sunday after church I made my first plate of Fried Green Tomatoes. And then I took my annual picture of my Fried Green Tomatoes. :) I treat this moment like a holiday. It brings me so much joy. Here's the recipe, if you're interested...

Celebrating Alden

We celebrated Alden on Friday night with cake, presents and a slip-n-slide. He did that whole fight-the-nap-when-mom-really-wants-me-to-nap-well thing that day. Such a phenomenon to me. He napped a total of an hour that morning, when usually he naps about 4 hours each day. So by 6pm, the birthday boy was starting to fall asleep. We quickly had to get the cake and presents so he would be awake for his own party! You can see his was a little zoned.

But it made for good snuggles all around! It was a super duper hot and muggy day. A heat advisory was even issued. So we spent half the party inside eating and then went outside for the cake and presents.

I love these two pics of Uncle Kyle and the girls finishing Alden's cake. Look at their faces...

My mom got him this soft tree stump full of woodland stuffed animals. The animals come out and you can put them back in the stump. Alden LOVES this thing and Ivar put it in his crib. So now every naptime and bedtime when I put Alden in his crib he sits up and gathers his stuffed friends telling everyone in a falsetto voice, "hiiiiii! hiiiiiii! hiiiiii!" I shut the door and he happily jib jabs with his friends until they all fall asleep.

And here you can see the very first picture of Ivar's new rabbit (bottom left). More on her later. But she is getting excellent care for Ivar. He is very diligent and is taking his rabbit responsibilities most seriously.

 I think my niece Sonna took this picture of Oma Zina, and I think it is so gorgeous of her! She and Lisa literally came from the airport, straight off a flight from Jersey right to the party. And she looks radiant.

 Mostly it was just good family time. I didn't have a theme. I didn't have a single decoration. We just ate and celebrated Alden. I made him a butter cake with cocoa-cream cheese frosting. It was delicious. And I made everyone else cream-cheese strawberry pie. That was important to me...that we have good desserts and that Alden have a little homemade cake.

We ended the night with a slip-n-slide and setting up the new pool Mimi and Papa got Alden. It was so steamy that night...perfect for getting out the garden hose.

So there you have it. Alden is One. What fun!

shopping with elsie

On Tuesday I took Elsie to Burnsville Center. I needed a new swimsuit and we both decided we could use a new summer dress. So we drove together on our mother-daughter date and Elsie talked a mile minute, thrilled that we were going to the mall together.

"Mom, don't you think the corn fields are just so pretty? I wish there weren't any houses at all and it was all just God's creation. What if that was all you could see? Just God's creation and nothing else?" And we talked about beautiful places all over the world where you can't tell that a person had ever been there. She tried to imagine it.

And then we got to the mall and Elsie was ecstatic. "Mom, would you like to live here? I would like to live here. Just think, then you could have your friends over for supper and everyone could eat Subway or Sbarro and then after you could ride the moving staircases together. Wouldn't you love to live in the mall?!!" And I commented that I still liked living back where there were cornfields and God's creation and just a few houses. But she assured me that we could live at both places and just choose each day where we wanted to sleep. After her big slice of Sbarro we went up and down the escalator six times in a row. She was delighted and so was I.

When we were in Old Navy she started to dance to the music. She saw that I was watching her and I said, "it's fine. It's fun to dance to the music." And then I started to dance a little. And then she froze and told me, "Mom, please don't do that." There was no one around (my childhood mall is so empty now...it made me sad!) but I still managed to embarrass my 5 year old.  In the dressing room she told me she would just close her eyes because, "it's kind of gross watching you try on swim suits." Oh my word, I laughed so hard.

We ended up finding the dresses above at H&M for $5 each. So we got two sets of matching dresses for the girls, and I love them so much. Wish they had it in my size. That would be my dream.

I came home and told Rory, "I just enjoyed a trip to the mall for the very first time in my life." I have never been a mall shopper, or a shopper of any kind. But shopping with my happy, chatty, delighted daughter was the best. And I found a swimsuit!

And it's not gross.