Swimming Lessons

Last week was swimming lesson week for the boys. They always look forward to them and this year was no exception. Addi, my cousin's daughter taught them at my aunt and uncle's pool. She's young, a rookie teacher, but she did a great job!

 The boys had a wonderful time with her and I KNEW that Addi is a pro at swimming. She's been on a swim team for years and is basically a fish (does that make her a mermaid?). :-)

 It turns out she's pretty good at teaching too!

 The boys are very easily distracted during lessons but Addi didn't give them a chance to mess around. She kept them moving from one thing to the next, gave them choices when she could and set good goals and boundaries.

 On Friday, the only day I could take the boys myself we forgot to take their swimming goggles with us! It was a near disaster for Levi but thankfully he finally accepted it. Although there was lots and lots of eye rubbing going on.

 Levi and Noah both gained a lot of confidence in the water. Levi is lacking a bit of coordination yet but he knows what to do and can at least hold his own for a little while in deep water.

 Here's Addi giving Levi a choice about what he wants to do - choices are the way to that kids' heart for sure.

 She had him jump off the board and swim to the ladder...

 and he did it! He's good at kicking, and using his arms to do the free style but he can't keep doing all of that and breathe...something for us to keep working on. :-)

 One of the biggest hazards of teaching lessons has to be the splashing, right Addi?!

 It was a great week and thanks to good planning we got all their lessons in even though it rained nearly every day last week!

Sign us up for next year Addi!

Harvest! and Rain?!

Saturday we were rolling. The wheat was ready, the ground dry enough and a full crew of farmers ready to go. 

 Most of my Unruh cousins were hanging out helping with harvest - check out how many people are in/on that tractor. :-)

 The boys were busy all day moving from one piece of equipment to the next. Levi lucked out and got pizza and juice with Bruce & Eileen for lunch while taking a load of wheat to the elevator in Canton. By afternoon though, he had his snacks packed and was ready to ride in the tractor with cousin Kyle.

 I rode along with my dad while he finished up this field. Thankfully, the work on Saturday went smoothly and we were able to get a lot cut.

 Because since then it's rained around two inches bringing all field work to a screeching halt.

The plants are enjoying the rain and it's great not having to water the garden!

Harvest, boys & bales

Harvest is under way! Levi was ready for his combine ride as soon as I got home from work! He packed some crackers and a water bottle in his cooler and was ready to hit the road.

 He gladly hopped on with Grandpa and off they went!

 I looked around a bit and was just about ready to drive off when...

 I saw Noah coming up from behind me!

 He was in full farmer gear complete with John Deere t-shirt, pliers, sunglasses and jeans with holes in them.

 It was fun to stand on the road and chat with Noah while we watched the combine get closer.

 Harvest this year isn't expected too great - a dry spring doesn't lend itself to a bountiful harvest. Yet, there is grain in the fields and the farmers will work tirelessly for the next 10 (or more) days to gather it all in.

 Noah and Levi are used to riding along in the trucks when they bring wheat to the farm to store in our bins. But this year, because of the wheat futures markets, we're planning to haul all the wheat to the elevator.

 On one hand, harvest is all about going as fast as you can to harvest the wheat while the weather holds. But on the other hand, it also allows time to hang out on the road, watch caterpillars crawl on you and check out the flowers growing in the ditches.

 Levi wrapped up his ride and then we headed for home to see what Ben was up to.

 He was busy baling brome just behind the farm.

 Lucky for Levi, he got to go from combine to baler!

 The boys and I joke about how the baler "poops out" bales. You know, boy humor, right?

 Due to recent rains, there are lots of green shoots coming up through the just-swathed brome.

 Oh, if only this photo had smell! Freshly baled brome has such a sweet scent.

The boys have days of harvest activity in front of them. Hopefully, the adults can keep up!

Busy Monday & House Progress

All sorts of things happened at the farm and new house on Monday and I missed all the action because I was at work. So here's a glimpse at what I missed:

Ben dug the trench for our electrical and propane lines (we're getting closer to cooking with fire!):

 We got a well dug - they hit water at about ten feet but continued drilling until about 60 feet, or so I'm told.

 There was quite a bit of very wet sand leftover from the drilling.

 The soffit and fascia work is all done now.

 And we also had a wet cellulose insulation crew worked all day long in the house.

They filled in the space between the 2x6's with ground up newspaper (mixed with other stuff), added water and now after a couple days, it's soft and dry.

 The farmers were busy getting equipment ready for wheat harvest.

 Which also means it's time to be prepared to plant double-crop soybeans.

 And! A guy came to swath our brome hay!

All this activity kept the boys, and their babysitter Aimee, very busy!!

House Progress

All sorts of things are happening at the house - it's just that most of it is hard to see from the outside. 

Kenton and Zach have spent a lot of time putting up soffit and fascia. Then it rained a whole bunch, so they found as much work to do on the inside of the house as they could. 

 Kyle Funk has been super-busy installing lots and lots of wires and switches and boxes and all sorts of electrical things.

 Somehow, he has all those wires organized...

 The plumbers have run all the water lines. The H VAC guys have installed both units...which means we're just about ready for insulation!

 My job is to sweep the house. It's the one thing I can do to make it feel like my space...

 This water/mud hole needs to dry up so Kenton and Zach can finish up the soffit and fascia. Although none of us are complaining about the rain, after the dry spring we had the rain has been incredibly refreshing.

Busy Days

Last week was a wonderful, but busy week for our family. All four of us participated in bible school this year. The boys had a wonderful time learning about Weird Animals and how God loves them no matter how different or "weird" they are. 

 Ben was in charge of collecting the offering each day and I was tasked with taking pictures for the week! In all I probably snapped at least 600 photos and had a lot of fun doing it.

 Sunday morning the kids gave a program during church, then afterwards we had an outdoor lunch with a bunch of activities planned for the kids including some "weird" animals . This pig was quite something!

 I think it's hilarious how Levi, Caiden and Noah are all chomping down on their food in this photo.

 They ate fast so they could get to the inflatables, games, sno-cones, crazy balloons and other weird animals. The weather was perfect and we all had a wonderful time.

 That evening we went to Song on the Lawn, a fundraiser for MCC.

 The boys both helped me serve supper at the event, then they ate and played on Maynard and Carol's farm.

 Ben and I enjoyed listening to music while sitting under the trees - especially because for the most part the boys were on their own.

 The boys do great on their own except there's always some sort of trouble. This time it was their shoes. Noah's tennis shoes were soaked with mud and water and Levi lost one of his flop flops in the creek. Oh well. They had a great time and thankfully it's easy for us to replace a pair of flip flops.