Daddy’s Sidekick

Constantly asking questions is exhausting.

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Pony Cart Ride

When your cousin has a pony and a pony cart and shows up in town on a fine Sunday afternoon…

…it’s a win for life in a small town!

If that wasn’t cute enough for you, how about this?

Harvest Has Begun!

We have started harvesting our dry land corn. DRY is the true descriptive word there since most of the fields had barely any rain during June and July, kind of critical months in the life cycle of a corn plant.

At this point my 10 year old has helped Brad more than I have. I still can’t really believe it, but she is becoming a proficient grain cart driver. I’m sticking to the combine. I went to help one morning last week. Brad wanted to drive me around to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything important and to fill me in on the ins and outs of harvesting dry land corn. Our training ride was longer than expected and turned into a photo session.

Let’s take a selfie to get your mind off the fact that your knee just got squished under the armrest of Dad’s seat.
First combine ride
The 3 year old took a turn with the camera.

The best picture I’ve seen of me in a long time

And I took pictures of the 3 year old.

Quality time. I never ended up having to drive the combine myself because, ironically, it started to rain.

On the subject of harvest, check out this gnarly carrot from our garden.   

Taste and See

I was feeling impatient with God’s timing, unsure of if I really wanted him to rule my life, just uneasy in general.

Then I had reminders of His goodness.

I love this time of year.

Psalm 34:8
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Home On The Range

When I reviewed Back In the Saddle, the first book in the Double S Ranch series, I guessed that the following books in the series would be about that main character’s brothers. I was right! I got to read the second book in the series, so I could review it for you thanks to Blogging for Books.

Home on the Range parallels the first book in the series in many ways, although it is very much its own story. Simply put, brothers that grew up on a ranch in Washington work through their past and current issues while falling in love with a woman who is working through her own set of issues. Ruth Logan Herne does a nice job of developing characters, and I enjoyed the way she connected the main characters from Back in the Saddle into this story line.

This is another pleasure read book that I’m sure you would enjoy. It does have some depth in a theme that looks at some hard questions. Elsa, the main female character, is working through “If God was truly present, then how could such [bad] things happen? And if man had so much free will, then why bother with prayer?”

I’m pretty sure if you read this book, you’ll be keeping an eye out for the last book in the series and you’ll consider reading other books by Ruth Logan Herne.

Stubby Acres

If you want to meet some of the friendliest people I know,

if you’re traveling west across Nebraska and need somewhere to stay before you hit Colorado (the options are somewhat slim between the Nebraska border and Denver),

if you’d like to eat one of the best breakfasts you’ll ever eat,

if you’re willing to live a little outside the box,

if you want to see some beautiful Nebraska scenery,

I have a little recommendation for you to seriously consider.

Go to airbnb.com and reserve the bunk house at Stubby Acres. Click on the main picture at the top of the page to see more pictures and make sure you read the awesome reviews. If you have a party of more than two people, just ask them if they’d let you pitch a tent.

Remember that total solar eclipse last month? [It was rather incredible by the way. William liked the glasses.]

Nebraska was packed with people literally from all over the world, and they were looking for places to stay since hotels were completely booked. My friend threw out the idea of renting their bunk house, and that’s how Stubby Acres ended up on Airbnb. I hope you’ll check it out, and I know you won’t regret it.

Good News

Wow! The Good News in Four Words by Dandi Daley Mackall is a book I am excited to have on our bookshelf. It tells the Gospel story in a way that toddlers can start to grasp. My three year old is fascinated with the pictures, and I enjoy reading the words. I know she’ll start to remember some of the lines in the book after reading it a few more times because it has one of my favorite things in children’s books…you guessed it…great rhyme and rhythm. The book is not limited to only four words. The four words are just the main themes.

• Wow! – Creation and a relationship with God
• Uh-Oh! – Sin
• Yes! – Jesus
• Ahh! – Holy Spirit and Heaven
• Wow! – Growing in faith and sharing the Good News

“Be thankful for Jesus. Let love overflow.
Tell others God loves them. The world needs to know!
And sharing this news helps your own faith to grow.”

I really appreciate how the author circles back around to the Wow! at the end of the book. At the end of the book, she also includes includes scripture passages for you to look up that address each of the ideas. Thank you Tyndale House for sending me a copy of this book to review.