Words That Start With P

Good morning. A little different format today. Hopefully more pictures and less talk. Gavin and Sienna were over this week with their Mom, Kristin, to visit their mother and grandma, Linda. Linda is our bookkeeper and our crew would be lost without her. Gavin reminds me of his Grandpa Kevin. Sienna is quite the princess brightening up life wherever she goes.

Pre Normal. We have a number of grand-kids graduating this spring. Gideon as a senior from Pella Christian High. Amelia and John as 8th graders from Osky Christian Grade. It seems they are graduating by themselves with just their parents as observers.

Pre Normal. Mark and his boys Ethan, Elijah, and Anton, were participants in a motorcycle race yesterday without a crowd to watch. Thanks for the picture Mark.

Pre Normal. Several churches have started or are starting soon to meet again. However with lots of rules.

Last week Sunday Glenda and her four daughters were one of several praise teams that sang on-line for Pella II's Mothers Day service. Thanks for the picture. Emily is the second from the right and is married to Kurt.

Passing. A sad story. Our friends Nathan and Joy lost their two year old son on Mothers Day following his short battle with cancer. Nathan is a friend through the Family Leader. I don't have adequate words to express comfort from the hurt. Just know we are thinking about and praying for you guys.

Last April 6, 2019 we celebrated Aunt Lois's 100th birthday. I remember the day because she told me she was proud of me for planting corn early. She and Uncle Maurice farmed near Cedar until 1985.

I was asked to be a pallbearer for Aunt Lois on Friday. Sharing and expressing sympathy from a distance doesn't seem to work very well.

Plans. Some of you will remember our visit about cleaning up across the road. Well, we just sort of continued to make a plan. And Monday a new building started to go up.

People. Rudy, Toby, Floyd, and four other young fellers ranging from ages 19 to 27 from the Albia area are our crew. They are a hardworking productive, polite, bunch of young men who I have enjoyed getting to know.

Planting. Kurt and Alex replanted some frozen off soybeans in Jasper county this past week. We have more acres that we are going to wait and see on.

Frost damage corn has a growing point under ground and continues to try and grow. However as you can see in the picture below the new growth struggles as it tries to come up through the previous dead vegetation.

Provision. Yeah Elizabeth. My niece who lives in Lafayette, Indiana  has been patiently looking for a set of wheels that would serve her well. This past week she found what she was looking for. Thanks for the picture Elizabeth.

We have been having off and on shortages of meat on our grocery shelves relating to packing houses slowing down production.

Pigs. A fun story. Kudos (I got it spelled right this week Kristin) to Julie and Keith who donated some cull (slow growers) fat hogs. And Kudos to Jan's Uncle Dave and his friends who had the hogs butchered and then gave the pork to needy folks in their area.

Pulling. I was being slowed down by a painful toothache this past week. Thanks for the plan Eric. Thanks for pulling it Byrn.

Promise. Yesterday Kasey and Sydnie promised to take care of each other for the rest of their lives in a private ceremony. Congratulations. You kids mean a lot to me. I hope we can celebrate the occasion together soon. Thanks for the picture Kasey.

Politics. I should probably pass on this story. Folks have made a business of trying to destroy our president. There have been events uncovered this week showing previous attempts from previous leaders to destroy him. If this hate continues, if these crimes go unpunished, and if folks continue to use this pandemic to try and destroy our economy,  we as a country will not survive.

Post Normal. We started this visit with prenormal. I made that word up. It means starting to figure out what postnormal might look like. I think it should look like progress. I am not giving up hoping, trying, and praying for a future for our next generations. Postnormal is also going to need to include grace. I know grace doesn't start with P. I need grace to understand and empathize with some of you who are scared. Who are more cautious. Who are making up rules for protection. However you are going to need grace as well to understand folks like me who want to move forward. Who want to be positive. We still live in the best country on earth. To help be productive. Who are persistent about continuing relationships. Who have places to go. Who want some civil pushback on folks trying to change the way we live. Let's pray together for better. What does better look like? Let's remember the little things we can do for each other. Whoops. Too many words. See you next week.