A Good Story

 When Jan builds a quilt the material, the size, the shape, the pattern, the border, and the purpose tells a story. Jan has made a number of quilts this winter and has been using her leftover material. She made this quilt to be used as a bedspread on a bed in the bunkhouse.

Jan's plants also tell a story of very good and proper care. Our south sunroom has three window walls lined with plants that are dark green, shiny, growing, and blooming.

We hung some half inch black pipe that Jim and Mike threaded earlier. It carries hot water to different parts of the machine shed across the road.

Alex has been busy getting our toolbar ready to finish our NH3 application next spring.

BJ, John, Alex, and Kurt have been tiling. Our current snow cover hasn't allowed the frost to go very deep.

Karl, with Kurt, Mike, Layton, and Alex's help have been busy sorting and selling hogs this past week.

Mike enjoys ice fishing and has spent a fair amount of time in his ice shack. One of these days were going to have another fish fry.

The kids have seen a number of coyotes this winter. Karl and his kids shot this one which was hanging around the yard.

I'm probably going to keep my thoughts and opinions of our countries political story to myself for awhile. We have quit watching television close to a year now. I pray for our country however when we as a nation do everything we can to keep God and His values out of our story, it can not have a good ending.

John grew up in the New York Bronx and spent much of his life with his gang friends. How he got out of New York and what his story is in Iowa I'm not sure. However I picked him up again yesterday walking down a gravel road and brought him to HyVee.

Gideon's friends Chris, Nick, and Diana came by yesterday for a farm visit. They live in the Kansas City area and enjoy the wide open spaces in rural Iowa.

Jan found a picture frame at the Pella Thrift store for a print we have called Magdala. We saw the original wall size painting in the basement of an old church in the same town where Mary Magnalene lived in Bible times. The story in Matthew 9 talks about a woman who had a bleeding issue for twelve years. She told herself if she could just touch the hem of Jesus' garment she would be healed. And she was.

Jan is reading Dr. Annette Bosworth's latest book that starts by saying, "God created man because He loves a good story". And since we were created in God's likeness I think most of us like a good story as well. God writes our stories. Yesterday we as a family had winter pictures taken on our pond. Today Karl and Kristin's baby Brynn gets baptized. Her father Karl, her Uncle Kurt, and friends Matt and Deann are singing. Her Uncle Mark, an elder, will present her to the congregation after baptism. Tune in to Oskaloosa 1 CRC if you need a church to watch.

This past week's chapter of our families story centered a lot around evaluating our previous years commitments and looking forward to the coming years possibilities and preparing for them. I am blessed to be able to work with folks I love and have them love me. Also our story would not be complete without bankers, crop input suppliers, equipment dealers, and landlords. Thanks for taking time out of your story to stop and read ours. We appreciate you all.