This is My Father's World.

Tomorrow is the first official day of spring! Who's excited!?

We've been enjoying "spring during winter", as one friend called it. This past weekend we did some kite-flying on the farm!

Jeremy provided some guidance in keeping the kites from getting tangled.

The Wee Redhead did her best to keep her Winnie the Pooh kite in the air.  Special THANKS to our Irish friend, Mrs. B., who sent us green shirts and necklaces for St. Patrick's Day!

The Little Boy on the Prairie sat on his sister's sweatshirt and enjoyed some sunshine and kite-watching.

In celebration of the glorious weather we've been having and the time our family has spent on our farm soaking it up, I am posting part of the wonderful old hymn, "This is My Father's World".

"This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas- His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world, the birds their carols raise, the morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker's praise.
This is my Father's world: He shines in all that's fair; in the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere..."

This was written by Maltbie D. Babcock in the early 1900's and was taken from "Devotional Hymns", which, according to a note inside the front cover, was purchased by the Ladies Aid of Edmunds, North Dakota in 1953.  It was a gift to me from Jeremy's Grandma Eberhardt and it is a treasure to me.

Listen to the melody on "Cyber Hymnal" here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/i/tismyfw.htm

Have a wonderful week, wherever you are in our Father's world!

Sarah :-)

A wild night with Lutheran ladies then lunch with the Governor.

My life is filled with contradictions. So much so, that some days I feel like I'm living a double-life.

For instance, here is a summary of the last 24 hours of my life.

- I attended baby shower for our Pastor's daughter last night.  Had only my baby boy in tow, because Jeremy had (thankfully) offered to stay home and put the girls to bed so I could have a "night out".  I don't know when toting an 8 month old along to a baby shower with the gals from church became a "night out", but it has, and I was grateful for the opportunity.  We played the typical baby shower games and I got to visit with some of my favorite women in our community.  I had two cups of punch. I know. I'm wild!

- The baby shower just so happened to be at the same apartment building where Jeremy's grandmother lives.  She's a Lutheran too! I skipped out of the shower a little early to visit with her a bit.  What was supposed to be a quick visit turned into two and a half hours.  I'm telling you, these Lutheran ladies are a bad influence :-)

Baby boy hangin' with Grandma E.

- I was so tired by the time I got home, that I didn't pull far enough into the garage and managed to shut the garage door on the back end of the pickup.  I assessed the situation. Thankfully, there was no damage and I toted my little guy and my prize for being one of the baby word scramble winners into the house.

- I awoke this morning 45 minutes late, only to see the alarm clock blinking and to find that the power had gone out last night.  This put our little family into a fumbling, chaotic version of warp speed.  Jeremy raced out the door to meet a friend so they could go to an auction sale in Fargo, 100 miles away, and I got all three kids assembled and loaded into the pickup.

- I turned the key in the pickup ignition and all I heard was "click". Apparently, after my little incident with the garage door, I was so flustered that I left the headlights on ALL NIGHT. I got all the children and their stuff back into the house, only to hear my oldest exclaim "AWESOME! Now we get to play!" Ah, to be a kid again :-)

- So husband, along with our second vehicle, were gone.  All the neighbors were at work.  Car repair/tow service man was on vacation.  This was looking pretty grim.  Eventually, a neighbor farmer and friend came to our rescue and gave the Hi Ho Silver a jump start and were on our way. Again.

- I got the two little kids off to daycare then swung by one of our fields that has a weather station in it that was slightly malfunctioning.  I annoyed my oldest daughter, who had been watching The Muppets on my iPhone, and took the phone back so that I could stand in the middle of the field and call the professor from North Dakota State University that is working with us on this research project and confirmed that a deer had NOT knocked the weather station over and the solar panel is fully functioning and we got the issue figured out. 

NDSU Weather Station. Part of a project with NDSU and the Natural Resources Conservation District and Soil Conservation Service.

Delighted to find this shriveled, decomposing purple top turnip in one of the research plot with cover crops.
It's doing it's job well by decomposing and leaving behind nutrients in the soil!

- I got the big girl off to school at by this time it was ELEVEN O'CLOCK.  I realized the pickup was nearly out of gas so I fueled up, tried my best to scrub the mud off of the headlights and brake lights while it was filling up and then I bolted home to clean up for a luncheon.

- I traded my jeans, hooded sweatshirt and stocking cap, for a nice cardigan and heels, and headed downtown for the annual Ag Week Luncheon the Jamestown Chamber of Commerce puts on.  I turned up the heat in the vehicle as high as I could get it and set the vents to blast in my face and fluffed/dried my hair on the way across town.

- I shook hands with the movers and shakers in our local ag industry, and sat down to have lunch, a few feet away from our Mayor and the Governor of North Dakota.

- After lunch, I discussed development of ag policy, leadership training for young people in agriculture, promoting agriculture through social media and a new multi-million dollar ethanol plant project with the Governor.

- I then headed home to get all the work done that I hadn't gotten done this morning, meanwhile contemplating my "double life".

- When I pulled into the garage I put up a sign in front of my pickup that says "Turn Lights Off!".

- That's my day in a nutshell.  How has yours been? :-)

  Sarah :-)