Mud, Manure, and Memorabilia

I think that I am quickly becoming accustomed to life in the country. Perhaps I am enjoying it a little too much right now. I am waiting for hard reality to hit, yet all I feel is the growing enchantment and freedom of country life. Everything is more beautiful in the country. The air is fresher, the grass greener, and the scenes more breathtaking. That is my very humble and undecided opinion.

After settling into the house, our thoughts begin to turn to the outdoors and the plans for next years garden. Finally, we decided that it was time to do something about our garden space. Jonathon looked on Craigslist and found someone that was getting rid of horse manure for free. Horse manure is not the best, I know, but you can't beat free and we needed to get our garden covered. So yesterday, Jonathon, Daddy, and I drove out to Battleground and shoveled manure into the back of Daddy's pick-up.

Daddy's truck has been officially initiated into country life now. Daddy's one compromise was to put a lining of plastic all over his truck bed before we shoveled the manure in. I am sure that farmers would laugh at us, but I think it will not be long before even the plastic is gone and Daddy resigns his truck to life on a farm.





The soil is frozen and so it was hard to work. It thawed out a little yesterday, but not enough to hoe the entire garden. I think we will have to cover the garden with compost and then wait until spring to use a rototiller.

After two weeks in the country, Daddy and Mommy realized that mud boots were a necessity. So we took a family trip down to Wilcos and bought boots for everyone. We just got black PVC boots, not pretty, but functional. Ania, however, got beautiful, red ladybug mud boots. She definitely looks like a classy farm girl.

The day that we got the boots, Austin, Annalise, and Ania went outdoors to play. When they came to the door an hour or so later, they were covered in mud. We discovered that they had made a mud puddle outdoors with the hose and spent the last half hour or so in jumping into the mud puddle. When questioned as to their reason for making such a mess, Austin replied with some surprise, "That's what the mud boots are for." You just can't argue with that logic.

Later in the day, they further complicated matters by deciding to give Bear (our dog) a bath in the garage with the hose. The results were less than satisfactory.

Grandpa and Grandma both came up for Christmas and we had a wonderful time with them. Grandpa even got caught up into the farming life (or at least pretended to). ;-)

We decided that in order to really become farmers we had to have a fire in our fireplace every once in a while. So we eased ourselves into the wood buying industry by purchasing a half cord of wood. We wheeled it back to the porch and stacked it neatly outside of our back door. The fireplace is not designed to be a great source of heat, but at least it looks pretty with the flames dancing inside.

As for the children, they couldn't be happier. They are spending more time outside during the winter then they ever did during the summertime at our old home. They are thriving in the fresh air and wide open spaces. This will be a very pleasant place for them to grow up. They are going to have to learn to take responsibility and pull their own weight, as there is going to be a lot that needs to be done as we busy ourselves with gardening and animals, but I think that it will be very good for them.

I am very grateful that God brought us here. It is definitely worth all the months of doubt and uncertainty that preceded our move here. It is easy to know intellectually that God has a plan for our lives which He is working out, but when the unknown stretches before you, it is hard to trust that His plan is perfect. So often we want to jump in and orchestrate things ourselves. Yet, in His mercy, God gently leads us, keeps us from making great errors, and lets us struggle with our own headstrong desires to take the lead before gently bringing us to the place where He wants us to be.

White, feathery flakes have just begun to fall from the sky. It is the first snow of winter here. Can it get any better than this?

Spafford Relocation

Where do I begin? That is the question with which I am wrestling as I sit down to write a post. Occasionally I am at a loss for material to make up a post, but so much has happened in the last few weeks that I am at a loss as to where to begin. I have a folder with 239 pictures and I must pick through them to decide what would be the best ones to put on this post.

Well, I guess the beginning is a very good place to start. So...we first saw the home late on Thursday night, Dec. 3. This was the first time that all of us children, except for Jonathon, got to see the home. Exclamations of wonder and delight comprised most of the noise during the first tour of the house. It surpassed our expectations. We spent the first night in sleeping bags on the Bonus Room floor.

When I woke up in the morning, I walked over to the window sill where I had left my glasses and put them on. This is the scene that lay before me, framed in the window like a picture. All I could do was let out a deep breath and wonder at the fact that this was our home. After nearly two years of uncertainty, God had led us here.

The photos don't do it justice.

These are the scenes from the back of the house. We have two chickens which came along with the house and we hope to add to their number come spring.

And the view from the right side of our home. There is not an ugly view anywhere. Everywhere that you look, you are surrounded by the beauties of God's creation with very little man made creations to mar their splendor.










Well...we enjoyed a morning in our great empty home and then the boxes began to move in and take up their own little spaces, demanding to be emptied. The task seemed nearly overwhelming, but the reward of being settled in our own dear home spurred us on.






We were blessed with many helpers during the moving process. On Friday Pastor Will came over and helped Daddy move two whole storage units (which have held a portion of our belongings for 18 months now) as well as an entire moving truck load of things from our rental home. They got a good head start on the move. Then on Saturday a large group from our church came over and helped us move everything else into our home. What a blessing!

The Entire Work Crew!



For the first week we have enjoyed blue skies and a very icy cold snap. In fact, it was so cold that our little waterfall in the front yard froze over completely.

During the 11 days since we began our move, we have entirely unpacked, sorted, and set up everything from our old home and the two storage units. The only boxes left are book boxes (we are in the process of having library shelves built) and garage boxes. We have made multiple trips to the dump and Goodwill and are completely settled in except for our pictures, which we have yet to hang on the walls. Christmas decorating is completely done and today we did Christmas baking for our neighbors.

This has probably been the busiest 11 days of my entire life. There is a satisfying sense of accomplishment, however, and an overpowering realization of the goodness of the Lord throughout this entire process. All the the glory must go to Him. He has led, strengthened, and sustained us during all these days of uncertainty.

In the midst of this whole process, Daddy and Mommy bought us a dog. This is the first time in my entire life that we have ever owned any pet, except for the three goldfish that I had for a brief time when I was very little before they promptly died.

Anyway on Sunday afternoon, Daddy and Mommy took us to the home of a lady who was selling several puppies and bought us a dog. He is a beautiful little black lab the product of a father who is a golden English lab and his mother a chocolate lab. Go figure! He is the sweetest, most cuddly little puppy I have ever seen; with eyes like a Precious Moments dog. We named him Bear. For now he is Little Bear, although, judging from the size of his paws, he shows great promise of being Big Bear soon.

As you can see, much has happened in the last month. I told Mommy that she and Daddy can never top these Christmas gifts: a new house and a dog. God is very good and has been very faithful.

New E-mail Address

We are all in one place now, but the unpacking and settling in continues. There is so much to do! Leisel suggested that we take some of the boxes and just burn them because evidently some of the boxes we have happily lived without for 18 months and if we burned them we would not even know what the contents were so they would never be missed. Not a bad idea. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you move. It just seems to collect everywhere.

Anyway, I am still going to do a real post complete with pictures and everything, but until then, I am going to be busy unpacking yet more boxes. :-)

Because of our move, all of our e-mail addresses have changed. So I decided that instead of writing an e-mail to everyone I could possibly think of who had my wrong e-mail address, I would just post my e-mail address on my blog and hope that most of the people that need my new address will see it here. So my new e-mail is charae.e@gmail.com.

I will be back...if I don't get buried under a load of boxes first. :-D

Pre-Relocation Ramble

Well, Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas season is upon us. Yet before we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the holidays, we have a major move into a new home, our final destination. I am looking forward with great excitement to the move. I know it will be a lot of work, but I think that we can have a lot of fun in the process.

I went down to Grandpa and Grandma's a few days before the rest of my family came down for Thanksgiving and, while I was gone, Leisel and Lynnae packed up everything that we can possibly spare in the next week. When I got home boxes lined our already narrow hallway. To walk down it you practically have to pin your elbows to your side and shuffle down the narrow walkway (well, not exactly, but you definitely can't walk with arms outstretched either :-). Today, Cosette and I worked on packing up 8-9 more boxes including our quilts. Mommy is washing all of the sheets and we are going to sleep in sleeping bags this week. Today I also made three meals ahead so that we could pack our cooking supplies and we would not have to worry about dinners in the last minute rush.

We sign the papers on Thursday and then we will be owners of a new house. It will feel so nice to finally be home. On Friday we plan on moving all of the boxes out of our two storage units and then on Saturday will be our big move, Lord willing.

I will probably take a break from my blog for about a week to a week and a half. We're going to be busy with packing up, moving, and unpacking again. Besides the internet will probably be down by Thursday and it may take a couple days for Daddy to set a new one up (although, knowing Daddy, that is probably the first thing that he will do). I will try to do a post on our move and new house as soon as possible, though.

The Scent of Christmas

Within three weeks, we will be moving. We hope is to be completely settled in by Christmas time. Our thoughts are already wandering ahead to all of the Christmas baking that we will be doing. Yes, and we should be organizing an exercise schedule to go along with it so that the Christmas season does not follow us on our hips all year long.

Yesterday I made some Cardamom Bread with Cardamom butter. The golden braid made me think of Christmas baking and inspired the post today. I think I'm in the Christmas mode now.

We each had a couple slices after dinner along with Lynnae's Arabic Coffee. If you have never had Arabic coffee before, it is definitely something you must try. It's aroma alone is enough to cause your mouth to water. I have decided to post Lynnae's recipe (with Lynnae's permission).

1 pint water

3 TBLS ground coffee

3 TBS sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat all ingredients in a saucepan until foam starts to form on top. Serve immediately.

The recipe for cardamom bread can also be found at: http://http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Cardamom-Braid

The recipe for the bread is one that my Nana makes. She is one of the best bread makers I know and the one who inspired me to try making homemade bread on my own. Mommy still remembers coming home to the smell of Nana's homemade bread. This recipe is unbeatable (if you like cardamom, which is its dominant flavor).

Christmas time is around the corner once again and with it come the pleasant sights, sounds, and smells that accompany it every year. There is something special about the Christmas season that seems to pervade the air, influencing moods, creating delightful nostalgia. Perhaps it's the timelessness of the season that creates such an aura about Christmas. The same delightful expectation that exists in the traditional movies that we watch every year from A Christmas Carol in the 19th century to It's a Wonderful Life in the 20th century down to our present day in the 21st century. There are some things about the holiday that never change.

Yet there is an element of Christmas cheer that is sad also. It is the transitory nature of the season, the empty holiday joy. Few of those that browse through the stores hung with tinsel and decorated with glass balls, hearing the familiar Christmas carols and picking out gifts for the season, give a thought to the true joy behind the holiday. Christmas comes and with it the holiday whirl of excitement, family fellowship, Christmas trees, and presents, yet it passes leaving those it finds as empty as they were at first. Yet for those of us who know Christ, the Christmas season is a special time set aside to celebrate what give us joy throughout the entire year: the birth of our Saviour.

Pre-Thanksgiving Banquet

This past Sunday some dear friends from our church had us over in the afternoon for a Thanksgiving dinner. You would have to know the Bystroms to even begin to imagine the scale and enormity of the feast they prepared. I believe Lynnae counted at least 10 courses that came out of their kitchen, each one fit for a kingly banquet.

After we had eaten (more than our fill) we let our food settle a little and then gathered around the living room for a time of hymn singing. Favorite hymns were requested and we spent a blessed time in singing hymns of praise to our great God.

Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Bystrom, I know you don't like your picture taken, but you both looked so cute in this picture that I just couldn't resist posting it on my blog.

Chris spent most of the afternoon with one or more of the little ones on his lap. For some reason all three of the younger ones seem to gravitate toward him; I don't know what they are going to do when he goes back to Boston to finish up school. I think he is going to leave a lot of weeping people behind. We are so much enjoying the time we get to spend with our cousin.

Ania is an avid reader and, since she has not quite mastered the art of it herself, she is always eager to find some one who will do it for her. I have a feeling she will be reading Dickens by the time she is 7. :-)

In the evening we went back to church for the evening service and heard a great message on Revelation 10. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day.

Bread Making

I've been on a bread making kick lately (for some reason). Since our rental kitchen has the space of a kitchenette (well, maybe a few feet bigger, but pretty close), I am not sure that bread making is the best hobby to have right now. Especially as I always manage to make an enormous mess.

I made some French bread on Saturday which turned out very nicely. Then I made some Milk Honey White bread yesterday which did not turn out very nicely at all. The fact is, I heated the milk too much and killed the yeast. What I ended up with was a neat, white flat loaf that was very compressed right in the center.

Feeling rather deflated after my disaster (though everyone did eat the bread after all) and being taught that if you fall off of a bike you always get back on, which in this case meant I should try again, I made bread again today. This time I did not overheat the liquid and it rose beautifully.

When I showed Mommy the bread, she said it was too pretty to eat. I'm not sure if pretty is the right word for bread, maybe delectable would fit better. Anyway, I told her that I would take a picture of the bread, then we could feel perfectly guilt free cutting it up and eating it. Hence the blog post on the very thrilling, edge of the seat drama of...bread.

I had Kayleen use her camera skills to take the pictures. She just uses our old point and shoot, but she is learning to take fairly good everyday pictures with it.

The bread is a triple flavor; rye, white, and wheat form the different strands of the braid.

A Delightful Autumn Weekend

This past weekend was beautiful and we decided to pack it full with a couple of field trips. On Saturday, we traveled up to Mount St. Helens. At first we thought that we would only stop at the first station, at the bottom of the mountain, but we had gotten a late start and it was near closing time at the museum so we decided to push on up to the top of the mountain.

The views were beautiful as we wound our way up the mountain road. Fall colors blended with evergreen noble firs and sweeping vistas opened up to our view. Along the way we nearly "ran into" a misty double rainbow arching across the sky. After driving for nearly an hour we reached the Johnston Ridge Observatory.

It was fun to walk around the museum and observe the various elements involved in a volcano. In fact, I had recently studied volcanoes with Kayleen, Cosette, and Annalise in their science class. Certain concepts, such as the seismograph, were rather obscure to them, but getting to actually see the seismograph machine and create an "earthquake" by jumping on a mat and watching the machine measure the degree of movement, brought some of the concepts alive.

To top it all off, we got to watch the very last ranger talk and Mt. St. Helens theater viewing of the year. We were almost the last people off of the mountain until it opens again next May.

Daddy took this picture outside in the freezing, evening, mountain air. At the bottom of the mountain we started out with weather about 60 degrees and, as we drove up the mountain, we watched the thermometer on our car drop about a degree a minute (well, not quite, but it seemed like that). It was probably barely 40 degrees, maybe less, when we all shivered outside for this picture. The last picture of the year on St. Helens.

On Sunday afternoon, Daddy made a spur of the moment decision to make a trip down to Hood River for some apples. Applesauce has been a yearly tradition in our household, but this year, with an imminent move, we knew we could not do our regular canning festival. Yet we did not want to entirely forgo our beautiful autumn trip to Hood River, so we went anyway and bought two boxes of apples and a pumpkin.

With so many siblings, it's rare for any particular one to get sole possession of the stage, but Ania knows when it is her moment to shine and she makes the most of it.

Leisel and Lynnae picked the perfect pumpkin. Our original plan was to cut it open and roast the seeds, however, it is still serving as a decoration on our garage floor.

Ania had a wonderful time with her cousin Chris. She got free transportation all around the farm. She has him wrapped around her little finger only he doesn't know it yet.

Austin is getting some practice sitting on a tractor. After all, he is going to be doing most of the driving when we are on property. :-)

A sweeping view of the gorge.

This is one of Daddy's many Sunday pictures of all of us. Do you realize how many pictures he has to take before he gets one where everyone looks good? (A whole lot!) Needless to say, your smile gets a little pasty by the end.

End of one Adventure; Beginning of Another

After nearly two years of anticipation and uncertainty, we finally seem to have reached the end of this particular journey and are about to begin on a new one. The past two years have consisted of remodeling our home of 16 years, putting it on the market, taking it off, putting it on again, looking for just the right home, thinking we'd found it and realizing we hadn't, discussing everything from starting a family business to moving to New Zealand (only in a half serious sort of way), coming full circle back around to a house which we had seen and loved exactly a year ago. We made an offer on the home, but the acceptance process was lengthy and it was a couple months before we heard anything. Finally, on Thursday all of our wondering, and consideration, and doubting, and hoping came to an end when we learned that our offer had been accepted. Whew! what an interesting couple years this has been. There have been a lot of lessons learned and we have discovered anew the faithfulness and sovereignty of God.

Without further ado...here is a picture of "our" new house.

The grand staircase...I can just see myself sweeping down it in a gorgeous print calico dress over a large hoop skirt with leather lace-up boots just peeking out from beneath. Oh wait! We're going to be farmers, right? Well, I suppose farmers must dress up sometime. The rest of the time I will be in a gingham check prairie dress with a large sunbonnet and thick leather boots. If only...(sigh).

We still have the inspection to go through and then the house closes on the 3rd. Lord willing, we will be moving in on the 5th. The amazing thing about all of this is that Daddy and Mommy went to see the home for the first and only time on December 5th of last year. They fell in love with its secluded location and beautiful, flat acreage, but after a short time gave up on the idea of getting the house. A few months ago, however, the real estate agent called to see if Daddy and Mommy were still interested. We put in a bid and waited with great uncertainty. After a several ups and downs we received word that the house was ours and we could have it by December 3rd (another prayer answered: we would be moved before Christmas). Our move in date is planned for exactly a year to the day since Daddy and Mommy first saw the house.

The most important room in the house. After all, the food goes into it in its natural raw or uncooked state and comes out again in beautiful, tasty dishes.

This adventure is one that we do not want to forget. We need to catalogue it in our family history as an act of God's great faithfulness. "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons." Deut. 4:9

God is good, His timing is perfect, and His ways are inscrutable. To Him be all of the glory.

Shooting Range

Stepping out of the car and onto the gravel parking lot, my ears were immediately bombarded by the cacophony of gunshots. Experiencing a strange mixture of excitement and trepidation, I grabbed one of the rifles and followed my cousin, Chris, and siblings, Jonathon, Leisel, and Lynnae into the gun range.

When I was younger I used to shoot my brother's BB gun and I may have shot a .22 before, but I don't recall. This was my first time, however, for visiting a real shooting range. Expectation ran high and Leisel and Lynnae's excitement bubbled over in great grins and sparkling eyes directed at me. They had both been to the gun range before and were eager to go again.

Chris's .22 was the first gun that I shot. He had just bought a new scope for the gun and it was very helpful in getting an accurate aim at the target. I did most of the shooting with Jonathon's old .22, however. It had a lot of problems and needed to be loaded one bullet at a time, but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to sight the "old fashioned way".

My favorite part about shooting is: opening the chamber to reload and seeing the the thin thread of smoke drift out from the opening. The smell of gun smoke was another very pleasant part of shooting. Jonathon declared that if they made cologne that smelled like gun smoke, he would wear it.

Jonathon made some really good shots, getting some nice groupings around the center of the target.

After we had shot up the rifle targets we moved over to the pistol range and got to shoot Chris's brand new Kimber .45. I had never shot a handgun in my life and, I must admit I was rather nervous. Gripping the rough, maroon handle, processing varying instructions on the best way to hold the gun (from Chris and Jonathon), I took aim and Chris released the safety lock. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the trigger... and hit the bull's eye.

What I wasn't prepared for was the vigorous kickback of the .45. Shaking a little, I finished up the round and then went to sit down. I wasn't quite sure what I thought of pistol shooting. The bullet exit is so close to my hands and I feel less in control with a handgun. After every one had had there turn, Chris offered to let me shoot again. I didn't want to, but I forced myself to do it; I didn't want to back away from something just because it shook me up a little. I shot 5 more shots and hit the bull's eye one more time. I felt a little better after forcing myself to shoot it again, rather like someone who has fallen off of a horse and gotten back on again. Just before Chris put the gun away, he let me take the last 4 shots. I conquered my first fear of it and I think that I am ready to go back and try shooting it again.

Leisel and Lynnae, however, reacted completely differently then I did. They both loved it! and were rearin' to shoot it at every opportunity.

We spent over 4 hours at the gun range and it was really a fun experience. I would love the opportunity to get more practice in shooting. I'd love to get the bull's eye every time. And, admittedly, I wasn't a great shot with the rifle. I could hit the target (some of the time), but 50 yards was just too far for me to get very accurate shots.