StillwatersIowa

Gratitude is an overall tendency to recognize the contributions of others to the good things that happen in our lives. Grateful people believe everything they have and everything they are, even life itself, are gifts. Grateful people are thankful for their families, jobs, health, and friends. Grateful people are thankful for the simplest acts of kindness or politeness and recognize when good things happen to them. A sense of gratitude is taught by example and passed on to the next generation. Happy Birthday Dad. "Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, the women were on their way to the tomb and asked each other, who will roll away the stone? But when they looked up the stone had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb they saw a young man dressed in a white robe. He said you are looking for Jesus. He is not here. He has risen. Go and tell your friends. He is going ahead of you into Galilee." Mark 16:2-7 Happy Easter everyone.

Every spring I'm reminded that I make plans but God gives me the abilities, the resources, and the right conditions to accomplish those plans. Proverbs 16:1 says "To man belongs the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply." Friday noon we got rained out from the field so to kind of enjoy the off time our crew went to town for lunch. BJ and Mark's families were available to join us. Saturday morning the PCHS board members set up for The Gathering Of Friends Banquet. It's held at the school as a yearly fund raiser. I have two months left and am looking forward to retiring as a board member. It will sort of be the end of an era for me. I served on the board from 1997-1999 during the dreaming and vision stages of our new school. In early 2000 a number of us started meeting regularly. That led to being blessed to be part of Eagle Partners, an LLC that was a group of men that acquired land until the school was ready for it. In 2002 I served on a search c...

There are times on our journey through life when we wish we could see farther down the road. The funny thing is all those things we worry about such as health, our work, the markets, and the weather most times work themselves out without our help. We were able to plant just a little corn this past week. The calendar and the thermometor are telling us we will be looking forward to using both these planters and these lawn mowers just as soon as things dry up a little. More seeding was done this spring than in a coons age. Last summer was hard on alfalfa fields and waterways. This past Friday we were able to go to Ames where Dr. Greenwald was able to fix Jan's knee. She is looking forward to getting back to her projects. Although I don't mind running errands for her I'm looking forward to having my Proverbs 31 gal back. Here Ethan is helping Grandpa throw straps across a load of seed corn. With a dozen grandkids growing up and another on the way I'm looking forward to ...

In the play "Fiddler On The Roof" the old father was bound and determined to keep his family traditons intact. Some of his efforts had value and were noble. Some were just curious customs and were humorous. Most of us are not real fond of flying out of our comfort zone. Sometimes that's noble and sometimes it's humorous. Our day to day to day activities create habits. Those habits turn into traditions. Some of those tradtions at our house have included breakfast and haircuts, Mondays and grandkids, and Saturday night pizza. We also get used to shopping at the same stores, driving our favorite brand of vehicles, and interacting with our circle of family and friends. All of these things are good. We become comfortable and efficiant at what we do and who we do it with. However what about that neighbor working across the fence? What about those folks down the road we don't know very well? Sometimes in our circle of tradition at getting things done we tend to becom...