Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

We finally saw some sunshine on Saturday! After waiting for a month, the weather was finally good enough for us to head out to civilization for some provisions and  a little fun.

One of our favorite activities while driving is doing a little radio surfing. Saturday was no exception! My husband manned the controls as he drove through the hills, finding a little country music, then some news, then … Jackpot!

He found an oldies station.

And not just any oldies station – but a country oldies station!

A little vintage Willie Nelson, then the Sons of the Pioneers, ahh… now that brings back memories!

I can close my eyes and imagine myself in the back seat of our old station wagon heading to Minnesota on vacation with my parents and siblings. I can almost smell the pine forest and feel the August sun.

But when I opened my eyes – I was back in the Suburban with snow drifts along the road- and the five kids in the back seats were all mine. I took one glance at my husband driving and smiled, content.

The next song to play was the tear-jerker “The Last of the Silver Screen Cowboys” by Roy Rogers, Rex Allen and Rex Allen, Jr.

“Last of the silver screen cowboys,
Last of a fast-dying breed.
Cattle are grazing,
Six guns a blazing,
God knows this is what American still needs.”

Sniffle… sniffle… gulp…

We drive a few more miles before we lose the signal.

My husband picks up a little news at the top of the hour.

In a shocking story we heard that some Girl Scout Cookies are being recalled. They interviewed one woman who said, “I thought they tasted a little different from last year – but I couldn’t tell for sure. ”

She ate the entire box.

The entire suburban burst into laughter.

On to the next station as the miles rolled by…

After last night, I think we could be nominated for parents of the year.

Last night my husband and I took all five kids, drove 2 hours, stood in the cold for 45 minutes until the doors opened and we got herded  inside, then we fought the crowd of over 8,000 people to find seats  – all so our kids could enjoy Winter Jam 2010.

So what is Winter Jam?

It is – according to my kids – THE concert of the year. It’s a massive event with an impressive line-up of performers including Third Day, Newsboys, Tenth Avenue North, Fireflight, Newsong, Sidewalk Prophets, Robert Pierre and Revive.

The cost for this amazing evening was just $10 at the door. It was a great deal.

It is also really loud.

At the risk of sounding old – I would like to point out that when music I enjoy when played on the radio is played live at a concert – the lyrics are lost and all I can hear is the pounding of the bass that is so loud it rattles my teeth.

But the kids loved it – which was actually my favorite part – watching them respond and enjoy everything about the concert.

My other highlights?

Tenth Avenue North – they are a class act all the way – and I even understood what they were singing.

Newsboys – pure joy! It was just plain fun to watch Mike Tait and the rest of the crew perform.

Third Day – pure worship! Singing God of Wonders with 9000 other people was something I will never forget.

Robert Pierre’s commercial for his new CD – loved it! Seriously – we need to buy the CD just because the it was so funny!

So yes, this old lady rather enjoyed the concert – despite the crowds, cold temperatures, and the blizzard we drove home in.

Yes, even in spite of the pounding bass.

Next time I’ll bring ear plugs.

Epiphany – or the Twelfth Day of Christmas – fell on a Wednesday this year – and during yet another snow storm.

I decided that we needed a little fun -  so we made a King’s Cake.

It’s traditional in France to bake a cake and hide a trinket inside (usually a king figure). Whoever found the trinket in their cake would be the king of the party.

Well okay – so I’m not really French – but I took two years of it in high school – and it was cold and stormy and we needed a fun idea.

So – we found a basic chocolate cake recipe (you knew it was going to be chocolate – didn’t you!) and halved it. (We wanted to be sure to find the prizes that evening – not someday in the future when we finally finished off a big cake.)

Then we scrounged around for some prizes. We were kinda short on king trinkets – but I did come up with a key, a quarter, and a thimble.  Then, since we wanted everyone to find a prize, we added 4 whole almonds.

The finder of the key would be the “key” to our evenings activities – they got to choose what we would do.

The finder of the thimble was excused from doing dishes that night.

Whoever found the quarter got to keep it – and anyone with an almond got to choose a treat from the “candy jar”.

We pushed the prizes in the cake batter before we baked it.

When the cake was cooled – we made a half batch of frosting and covered it up!

It sat in the middle of the table during our evening meal and created quite a bit of excitement!

When the meal was over my husband carefully cut the cake and handed out the pieces randomly.

Some of the kids took bites of their cake while others immediately started cutting it up with their forks to find the prize!

When it was over – we had finished off the entire cake and everyone had found a prize – except yours truly – I’m still not sure how that happened!

But it did make one evening a little brighter in the middle of an increasingly long and snowy Iowa winter – and a new tradition was born.

It’s been exactly one year.

It was just 12 months ago that we finally moved into our newly remodeled farmhouse after years of working on it.

And I do mean years.

It was eight years ago that we spotted this house for sale at an auction. My husband wasn’t interested – he was at the auction for the other stuff.

But I was in love.   It was the big beautiful farm house I had pictured in my dreams. Every side was unique. I cried when I walked through.

This was my house.

The house had to moved – so there weren’t many bidders. It was just my husband and a guy who wanted to tear it apart for the pieces.

It was the pine floors in the second story and the pine trim throughout the house that ultimately saved it.  There wasn’t enough oak to make it worth the junk guys time.

So we bought it.

Then we  moved it,  put it on a new foundation, gutted it, reroofed it, replaced the windows, replumbed, rewired, insulated, drywalled, painted and moved in.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?!

It wasn’t.

Each task took longer and cost more than we expected. Nothing was easy.

For years it seemed impossible, the forever project that would never be finished.  It took more patience than I imagined as entire years went by with little progress. But God is faithful, and my husband is amazing.

And as for our friends and family – they were a blessing! There was Mike and Kim who gave up their vacation, drove hundreds of miles and spent a week dry walling, then came back to help with refinishing the floors.

All through the house you can see my dad’s handiwork! My parents put in thousands of hours over the years helping. My father-in-law spent hours on his knees working on the floors and the stairs. My brother roughed in our electrical, and my brother-in-law handcrafted my one -of -a-kind kitchen cabinets.

And it all came together one year ago! My dreams became a reality and my “dream house” became our home.

I feel incredibly blessed.

Proverbs 13:12 “A hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life!”

There are some things that our overgrown pastures and deep ravines are just meant for – things like exploring, berry picking and … paint ball.

Yes, paint ball.

We discovered this fact last weekend when a friend from church hosted his birthday paintball party here.

They brought a lunch, birthday cake and a trunk full of paintballparaphernalia to share with my kids.

After decking out in camouflage -

My kids learned how to load and handle the guns. Then they did a little target practice on the grain bin out back -

Now we have our very own paintball Picasso!

Then they jumped on the 4 wheeler and headed out to the ravines where they had a blast for hours.

They didn’t even realize how cold it was – or how late it was getting.

We almost had to peel the guns out of their hands.

Now you’ll never guess what my kids want for Christmas!