Life in Nebraska ....

I found Keagan in the crib playing Angry Birds on the Tablet.  Zerrick crawled in to see what he was playing.  Keagan has found the crib to be the perfect place to have whatever treasure he's enjoying all for himself. My cowboy.   Our Christmas supper here.  Excited and can't wait to eat so we can open gifts.... My three cheesy boys. Us.  In case you didn't know.... The three oldest Burkey Grandgirls.  I think they're turning into beautiful young ladies.... Games on our Christmas Day at the folks. Grandpa and Great Grandpa First this happened.  Look at that determination on Gwen's face!  Uh oh.... She observes and wonders what is Lydia going to do with MY phone now?  Okay. So you're not doing anything new or cool with it...give it back!  Sad.  She just couldn't pull hard enough!   The parent took care of it.  Poor Lydia in the depths of despair. ...

My Keagan Michael.  That's who!  Today we're making a farm cake and doing laundry and cleaning the house for his very special birthday guests.  Keagan got to go to work with his dad today.  So it's quiet here.  I better get to work......

April wanted to see pictures of my attempt on a Ginger bread house. So here it is. I'm happy I did it. But it doesn't really look awesome or anything. But we had fun. And that was the whole reason for it anyhow. The Back of it. The Front of it...  my windows ran and look like ghosts.   Just some of our Christmas scenery. Our little idols that we put up every year....my kids love to look at our baby Jesus .  My basket of blessings that come in the mail once a year. 

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     We are having a splendid Christmas season.  On Monday I had to wonder if I would ever get caught up and if I would even be able to enjoy this Christmas season.  But yesterday afternoon things finally fell into place and by last evening I started to realize how relaxed I feel about Christmas and I think I will enjoy Christmas this year.  Is it really possible?  Christmas has meant busyness and snotty grumpy sugar babies and messy houses and just too much activity for way too many years.  This year is different.  I don't know why for sure but I'm good with this.    So this week we decided to think Christmas everyday.  What can we give to each other every day?  How can we make life more sweet and peaceful for each other?  So Monday just didn't happen....we had numerous things cluttering up our lives.  But we worked on it.  It being Christmas pictures and cards to be sent out.  That was quite stressfu...

Dear Family and Friends,      Joy to the World because  of Jesus!   Since our boys are young and Christmas is so exciting for them, it’s made me think again about what does Christmas and Jesus really mean to us?     Our year  flew by as usual.  And all the usual things have happened.  But every visitor and every camping trip and  every canning season and every Market season and every roofing season has something to be learned or enjoyed.     We enjoyed a camping trip to Long Pine again this summer.  Zerrick and Keagan found a lovely place to hike.  Keagan caught his first trout.  All around we had a good relaxing time.  It’s just fun to have our own little friends and people all around us and doing things together.  Another little weekend away was to Hutchison KS.  There we visited all the Mennonite places like the  bulk food store and fabric store  and then we took a whole aft...

So our life keeps going along.  I still like to come to my good ole blog, Arla.  I've found that I like blogging.  I still don't like the word blog very well.  It just sounds way to Blahgch or something.  But fb doesn't have the fun I get here.  Here I can put pictures of my kids and document my life and I'm finding it so fun to go back in the old stuff and see my journal of my life.  And I have all the posts I never posted saved too.      So anyhow, on about other things.  We've been enjoying snow!  And God's answered my prayers in that we haven't had any blizzards yet! That's really nice. His first time out in the stuff.  He loves it but doesn't know what to do with it all. I love the pure delight on his face. This is the one who thinks of all the fun things to do.          A bigger prayer God's answered is that He's been giving me light again.  The dark hasn't been so dee...

     at home! Church was cancelled this morning so we're soaking in the sunshine and the snow and the naps. We had a good ole roast for lunch along with other things. Matt gave the boys rides behind the 4 wheeler. And I cleaned up after the food stuff and the water and mud. Now everyone's napping but me, because Mathias already had his nap and is floating around being funny as usual.       I want a good book to read. Someone suggest some "must reads" to me and I'll get them lined up for next time I could actually read.       We're so happy to be home and back to our own little selfish life. In the next couple weeks the only things planned are to just keep up and wrap a few more gifts and keep learning about being thankful and sweet. Should be challenging as usual.       Have a good week and I hope you can all enjoy Christmas joyfully whether you like the busy stuff and celebrate that way, or if you're...

This is a post for my boys and my man so that they know what I want for Christmas.   My list is very long and selfish.  Maybe I'll find something less physical and materialistic to put on the list too...we'll see how this goes. So:   A washer and dryer set that doesn't ruin my clothes.         Two fluffy cream rugs that are washable every other day in the washer for the bathrooms          A big supply of candles in all sizes...votives, teas and pillars         New bath towels.  Deep Blue and Tan.  And wash clothes.         An intial order of Meleluca products from Evelyn.         A new desk set up for the desktop and printer and shelf.         The living room repainted.          A set of 4 hanging lamps for the  living room.          An organizing set up of some sort for the ab...

I don't know what she's setting Kaitlyn straight about. Who took this pic? Jemima looking good in browns. She's a pretty little girl! This is what we get with so much media available. Sad huh? The girls back their were working on the yearly calendar. The 8 year old boys cousins. Zerrick got to have a lot of fun with Johnathon and Jasper and Laife in the snow too. He's my boy. And acts like it too. The kid's table for lunch. Johnny being so kind as to listen to Zerricks tales..... Gilbert really wasn't being mean....someone was just grumpy. Hashing it all out before the big feast. . Nothing like this good ole trampoline to knock one's neck and back out of shape. I wish I had all the pictures I actually took but silly me accidently deleted my sd card and I wasn't able to recover as many as I took. Our trip to Idaho was good for me. Kind of like I've been swimming under water for a long time and it was ...