Summer Catch Up

We just got back from a lovely trip to MN.  We went and enjoyed a lovely reunion on my moms side.  I totally kept forgetting to take the important pictures like the generational ones.  But I had did take a few of the fun moments.  After we got home I got to catch up outside and pick flowers and have a little backyard therapy.  Nothing like home!  

On Tuesday evening we went out to pick up hay.  I told Matt that I think this is probably one of the more silly ways of putting up hay.....me being Wisconsin farm girl.  Back in the day I figured the only way to make hay was to stand in the back of a hay wagon hooked to the back of the baler and take the bales as they came off and stack them directly onto the wagon.  But behold, the Nebraska way.  Here in Nebraska one cuts down the bromegrass growing tall in the pastures and rakes it and then bales it right onto the ground.  And don't forget the antique balers they use!  Quaint little pieces.  But hey!  It all works out  and I found out too that with having three boys, they can really burn off the energy picking up hay and stacking it on wagons!   It's actually a win win!  

This is the owner of a roofing business  who grew up farming and married a sweet little girl from WI (Ahem)  and has four kids who live really really hard.  Somehow he keeps us all in line and juggles it all.   Ya,  he's normal too.  Some times he gets this crazy weary look in his eyes and is very tired.      

She is a pretty good advertisement for McDonalds.  She's keeping the tradition of fish sandwiches.  When I was a kid I thought the only thing to order at McDonalds was a fish sandwich and fries and strawberry shakes.  So anyhow,  she likes them now too!  

After our reunion in MN we got a nice motel close to the Amtrak station.  In the middle of the night I took Mom and Dad over to catch the train.  It was a beautiful old station.  

I loved listening to them talking.  They both seem to understand each other.  One person at the reunion asked me what it's like to take care of my mom every day in child form.  I guess she's a little Ruth.  She's mine.  They both are.  

Funny story.  This song sheet was passed out for church on Sunday morning at the reunion.  It was totally a perfect song for some of the stories my cousins have been going through.  And it is a song written and put together by friends from SMBI days.   Another weird circle.  One thing I heard being echoed over and over this last weekend is that God keeps drawing people from little pockets of different cultures and life stories.  From my childhood, I would have learned to write off the conservative who was so narrow and perfect.  I found out God draws those narrow conservative people and brings them through fire and they come out softened and useful and beautiful and are making their little corner better,  And I found out that my relatives who seem happy and have it together  are being drawn into and through a fire so hot it hurts.  But they are coming through and God keeps making it all work out after all.  For his glory.  He's a pretty good God.  Not one of us want to go through stuff.  But neither do any of us want to go back to who we were before we were touched by Him.  I have a hard time explaining what I really mean here but it's an important piece of encouragement in my own life so I will leave it here written in all it's bad form for my own sake. 

Two beautiful little girls .  Cousins by heart.  Two weeks apart.  

My parents catching up on all 100 and some members of the Skrivseth Tribe.  

It rained beautifully outside our motel window that Sunday evening.

Dodgers scores.  Books to read.  And all those good things to do after spending hours and hours fishing  the last few days. 

We were given a perfect little cabin to share with Mom and Dad while at the reunion.  It  was sonderful to go back to the cabin and have coffee with just Mom and Dad and visiting with the ones who popped in now and then for coffee.  

I loved seeing the little boys find friends and cousins,  

Always good conversation going on here.

Some of my favorite people. 

Mom and her phone! 

Our little pretty courthouse in Seward, NE.  Directly across from the coffee shop.

Monkey got his face in the camera.

Right before we left Rebekah came to Nebraska.  I always almost pity her because the kids here pretty much worship the ground she walks on!  

4th of July airshow.

Lauritzen Gardens.  Its so beautiful there!

Evening at the folks doing hay.  

Evening bike ride.  Summer is gold.

Morning coffee spot.

A walk on the Plum creek trail

Kayak on Oxbow pond .  

Sunrise walk

Weeds along the river. 

The Blue River.....which isn't really blue.  But it does have cat fish.  

So there's a mini catch up.  Summer kind of got all gone before I even got use to it.  School starts in four weeks.  It makes me feel a little panicky.   What about all the things yet I wanted to do?  I think we're getting all the things in.  It's just that I wanted to do them for more than three short months.  I keep telling myself it's not about looking forward with expectations but about taking the moment as it comes to me.   So that's all for now.