Rain!

You know that feeling of a fantastic rain after a long hot-dry spell?  Well, this is what we did on Friday morning to celebrate the rain that came the night before.

The rain even made it more fun to feed the calves - I don't know why really, it just did!

Noah tried really hard not to smile for me, but eventually I got him to crack a little bit.

 It was also a cool morning - perfect for playing outside.  It's good for the soul to get a good rain; it makes the earth sparkle and brings out the kid in all of us.

Levi @ Uncle Carl's

 Last week, Levi attended his first Uncle Carl's Camp at Kauffman Museum. His teacher was Ms. Kristin and he had a wonderful time!

 Levi didn't tell us too much about what happened each day, but he always wanted to return and the program at the end of camp was a big deal for him.  We had to keep reassuring him that we'd be there.  I think he was most concerned that we were at the program so he could show us around the museum, "Inside AND outside!"

 He showed us all over the inside of the museum, and after a lot of searching we finally found the polar bear and tiger that he'd been telling us about.  Phew!  We were starting to doubt they were at the museum at all.  He also showed us the sod walls in the house on the museum grounds - he told us ALL about them.

It was a great way for Levi to spend 2 1/2 hours each morning last week - he had fun and he learned a lot.

The kittens

We have four kittens and their eyes just opened a few days ago!  It's pretty exciting and another learning curve for our family.

 The boys put gloves on before holding the kittens.

 Ben, on the other hand, seems to have just the right touch.

 Chuckles is the mom and we're working on names for her four babies.  Giggles has come up, and Calico.  Noah wants to name his kitten Calico because it's white and grey like a cow.  That's his logic and I'm not about to argue with him!

Summer evening

Water, boys and space to run:

 And our other boys:

 they're playful too, just without the water.

 We're enjoying having the calves at the farm, we hope they like being here too.

TRUST GOD

Last week was bible school week for our church.  The theme was Sky, but what I know my boys learned was to, "Trust God!"  Both boys had a wonderful time learning about people in the bible who trusted God and ways they can trust God in their everyday lives.

 Above is Levi's class during the program on Sunday.  He wasn't there, though.  Both boys had Hand Foot and Mouth disease last week.  They had sores in their mouths and Levi had it worse than Noah.  Levi didn't really eat anything at all on Saturday, so by Sunday he was simply worn out and had fallen back asleep before it was time to leave for church.  Thankfully on Monday he was on the upside and able to eat some again.
Below is the whole group. Aren't the decorations cool?  There were lights inside the clouds on the stage that made the balloons look even brighter than normal.  I was totally digging the rainbow of balloons, too.

 Noah did an awesome job during the program - actually singing and doing most of the actions.  I can tell he's growing up!

Harvest wrapped up

 The 2012 harvest has officially wrapped up for our farm.  We're thankful that it was a safe harvest for our family.

 The boys learned more this year about the order of harvest and how all the pieces of a harvest fit together.  We had our struggles - the boys and I, that is - with our timing and how many rides they got on each piece of equipment and if they got a can of pop at town, etc.

 But would harvest be for our little boys if those items weren't of utmost concern?  At times we had more vehicles out at a field then people to drive them.  Here you can see the tractor pulling the grain cart, the combine, my aunt's car, my car, and 2 pick ups.  Lindsay's car (Austin's girlfriend) car was also there, just didn't make the photo.  Somehow, and sometimes really late at night, all the equipment came back to the farm.

 The boys watch everything that happens at harvest.  I marvel at how accurately they play "harvest" in the house now.  They "start" each piece of equipment with the precise sound the real engines make.

 They fight with authentic emotion and ownership if the other is "planting" or "harvesting" in the wrong  "field".  Their imaginations are fully engaged and sometimes they manage these arguments on their own....sometimes not.

Noah ended harvest with about a 12 hour day out on the field - he had a blast, but was totally worn out at the end of the day.
Now we're praying for rain!

Hard Harvest

Wheat harvest is hard work.  It's certainly changed a lot over the years and it's not nearly the physical strain that it once was.  So it feels a bit ridiculous to claim it as hard work, but it is.  We are all feeling tired.  Long days packed with activity, the stress of things not going quite right and the push to get all the fields cut is just hard.

It's fun though, too.  The boys have had a wonderful time this year riding along and learning new things about how all the parts of harvest fit together.

I've had quite a few struggles juggling all the truck and grain cart rides the boys want with the amount of time there is in an evening (getting home at 5:30 from work and getting to bed before 9 just doesn't work well with harvest).

Ben's been pretty busy with driving truck and more recently planting double-crop soy beans.  The boys miss having him around but thankfully we can still go out and find him while he works.

Noah took it upon himself to help direct Austin as he unloaded the grain cart,

and then supervised as the grain unloaded.

Many things haven't gone perfectly this wheat harvest, but we pray that our last day or so of harvest and soy bean planting goes well.