The Puddles

Today was a normal rainy, cold, December Monday, nothing in particulary special happened and nothing really bad happened.  On my way out from working out at the local YMCA, a saw a little boy coming in with his mom, crying.  The poor little guy couldn't have been more than four years old, and he broke my heart, I just wanted to scoop him up and give him a hug.  Then when I heard why he was so sad, it broke my heart just a little more. 

He was crying because his mom wouldn't let him jump in the puddles outside.  Instead of his mom rolling her eyes at his crying while other people passed by, or yelling at him and telling him to dry it up, she gently knelt down and explained to him that it was too cold out and he could get sick, and she promised him when it warmed up in the spring time, she and him would go out and jump in the puddles.

It gave me a thought.  Sometimes we get tunnel vision and only see the puddle in front of us that we want to jump into head on, ignoring the environment around us.  Sometimes the puddle can be an object, a want, or just something that just looks like fun.  Yet, our environment may not allow for it for some reason or the other, be it finances, our families best interest, or God's own will for us.  We have to slow down sometimes and let God gently remind us that when the sun comes back out, those puddles will still be there to jump into.

What if the puddles have dried up, you ask?

He will provide the rain. :)

Happy Monday!

Life Lately

Please excuse my absence lately from the blog! I've been busy busy busy! A few quick updates

1. I hosted Thanksgiving again this year. Did I mention that earlier? Its kinda a big deal, especially since 18 family members enter our not so big house to enjoy a delicious meal.  Not to mention we had 4 generations present. So much to be thankful for! It went so well, and I figured out to have all the food prepped and on warmers or in the oven so that when everyone arrives, I get to enjoy their company rather than be sweating in the kitchen and fighting with everybody congregating in the kitchen.  (Why is it that everyone gathers in the kitchen? I have realized that is my biggest pet peeve when hostessing!) My wonderful brother-in-law made the turkeys again this year and when I say made, I mean smoked in the smoker his lovely wife got him.  They were delicious!  My sisters who live in Florida made it up again this year and we spent the day eating, visiting, playing cards, skeet shooting, and of course watching sweet little Eli.

Prepping for the meal

 

 

May and Bristol help with clean up!

 

 

Intense card playing!

 

 

2.  Grant and Taylor got married! As many know, I've been excited for this wedding for a long time.  Of course the week of the wedding I come down with a horrible cold/flu and Eli started teething. Thankfully I felt a million times better on the day of the wedding and let me tell you, it was a beautiful wedding and the reception was a blast! I've never seen anyone love someone as much as Grant loves Taylor, so it was such a wonderful thing to see these two finally tie the knot!

 

 

Don't they look wonderful?

 

This little guy was enjoying dancing with all the ladies!

 

 

3. Christmas is upon us! I have been busy shopping for my family, Seth, and most of all, little Eli!  He is going to be one spoiled little boy this Christmas, but he has been so good all year, I think he deserves it :)  We are so blessed to have a warm home and family to celebrate with.

I love our tree! It seems so homey to me! Especially now since the bundle of present below has doubled since this photo was taken!

What I'm going to do...

In sad situations like yesterday, sometimes I just need to sort it all out in my head.  I hate for this blog to be sad because I like that its my happy place for all my crafts, funny stories, and pictures, but sometimes just writing helps me figure out where to place all the thoughts.

Yesterday was one of my friends birthdays, and to celebrate her big day, we went shopping at one of the bigger malls in Indy. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous because I feel like lately there have been so many shootings in malls and movie theatres lately, and I just had one of those "bad feelings" in my gut. Well, the bad feeling was confirmed when I checked my newsfeed on Facebook while we were shopping and saw the horrible news of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in CT.  I felt like my world just stopped and I instantly sent my mother in law a text to see how she and Eli were doing.  Then as I started to read all the stories of what happened, I just felt more and more sick.

My first thought was those poor children, and their parents. I can't even start to think about if something like that happened to Eli. Makes me cry.  Then I thought about the gunman's poor mother because ever since I became a mom, I look at every person in the world and think they were somebody's precious tiny baby that they love unconditionally.  Then come to learn he shot his own mom.

I think in these situations its common to ask "why" or to even question God.  Questioning God is something I learned not to do a long time ago, and instead I chose to trust Him wholly and completely for His grace is sufficient.  However, I do think immediately after asking "why" our society wants to find someone of something to blame. Be it politics, the economy, parenting, gun control, school security...the list goes on and on.

Unfortunately I think its also quite disappointing to see how the news media can take this horrible tragedy and then just turn it into a mess.  I personally don't want to see or hear details of the shooting, and seeing these poor children being interviewed on tv seems irresponsible to me to a degree.  Then I think, gosh all we are hearing about is the shooter and his background and why he did it, so on and so on.

Well, instead of focusing on the evil, I want to seek out the heroes in the situation. Not to ignore that there is obviously a problem with society, but to celebrate that there is GOOD out there.  Maybe by focusing on the good more, it could help some of those troubled souls out there.  Instead of making Ryan Lanza a household name that will be remembered forever, I want to remember the names of some other people:

Vicki Soto: This 27 year old woman hid her students in the classroom closets and when the shooter asked where they were, she lied and told them they were in the gym.  What a hero! Not one of her students fell victim and I'm sure the parents of those 16 kids are thanking God for an angel like her!

Janet Vollmer: This teacher not only protected her classroom of students by locking the door and herding them into a corner, but there, she found enough strength and composure to read the children a story. Thankfully, she and all of her students survived.

These are just two of the uplifting stories I have read.  I'm sure many more will come to surface as the dust of this tragedy settles.  My parents posted a quote on Facebook yesterday that I love:

"When I was a boy and I could see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster', i remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers--so many caring people in this world." --Mister Rogers

I think that all I can do besides pray, is to not only look for the helpers, but to be one. You never know how one tiny gesture that you do could completely change someone's day, week, month, year, or life.

Praying that I can always show my appreciation and love for those around me, and that I can bring my son up in this corrupt and evil world remembering that this life is only temporary, for our everlasting life exists only with God.

Blog Love

I am very new to the blogging world, but wanted to share with my reader's some other blogs that I have been following and suggest reading as well!

For any newlywed or young lady who is interested in anything do to with life & style I highly recommend either of these blogs.  These girls are sisters and I love them both, they remind me of my own sisters.  They are both Michigan girls who have moved to North Carolina and both have very different styles, but are so classy. The Small Things Blog is known for the amazing, I mean AMAZING, and easy hair tutorials:
  The Small Things Blog
  From My Grey Desk

For other farming wives out there, I just stumbled on this blog a few days ago.  She has so many great ideas and great posts! Too bad they have John Deere!
    Fourth Generation Farm Wife

Anyone really into television such as New Girl, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, 30 Rock, SNL, So You Think You Can Dance or any type of musical I strongly suggest my very talented sister, Lisa's, blog. She's hilarious and does awesome recaps to a lot of tv shows.
     The Blonde Blogette


Anyway, those are just a few of the blogs I follow! I usually come across some new ones every now and then so I'll keep sharing them as I go!

Kewanna Pumpkin Dip and Oops Potatoes

I was just going to call this post "Pumpkin dip" and "potato skins", but due to the change of current events, I realized that I needed to include the entire town of Kewanna in the helping of making the dip and also that sometimes when things go unplanned, it works out for the better.

You see, when you live outside of town 30 + minutes like I do, making a meal or special dish isn't always easy.  I find myself often calling the neighbors for a cup of milk, or sending Seth to raid his mom's pantry when I don't have something I need.

Tonight we are having a dinner with some family friends, and I wanted to make pumpkin dip. When I was in college, I got to go to an event with the Purdue Varsity Glee Club (they're amazing, if you are ever in Indiana in December, you have to go catch the Purdue Christmas Show, or any Glee Club show! You won't regret it!) The event was held in the fall, and the people who hosted it always had this delicious pumpkin dip that everyone would gather around until they were literally licking the remains from the bowl. So I decided to make it today to take over, but then realized I didn't have a can of pumpkin in my pantry.

So, I called up a friend to see if she wanted to run into town with me to pick up the ingredients and take her to get any last minute things before her c-section on Wednesday.  2 pedicures, manicures, 100 pound bag of dog food, and Subway sandwich later, we finally got the ingredients but not without Megan having to find half of it for me. There were two almost mental breakdowns in front of the spices when they had "apple pie spice" and "all around spice" but no "pumpkin pie" spice.  Apparently pregnancy gives you amazing eagle eye vision to find these things.

I finally got home and went to go pick up Eli when I realized that last time I went to make a dip (chocolate chip cheesecake dip...its also delicious!) that I couldn't find the beaters for my mixer.  Thankfully, my mother in law let me borrow hers so I was on my way. I got home, unloaded everything, got the baby down for his nap, and was ready to get my Martha Stewart on when I realized: I forgot the cream cheese!  Thankfully, my wonderful husband ran over to our neighbor's house and she had some to spare! Shout out to Lisa for being the best neighbor ever!

Here's the recipe:
 1 8 oz package of cream cheese softened
2 cups of confectioners sugar
1 can of pumpkin
1 tsp of frozen orange juice concentrate
1 Tbsp of ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp of pumpkin pie spice

mix the cream cheese and sugar until soft

Gradually add the pumpkin, spices, and juice concentrate

mix together and let cool in the fridge for 1 hour. serve with apples and graham crackers. enjoy!

As for the "Oops Potatoes", that is a whole different story. Seth loves potatoes and I never make them because I am still trying to lose the lovely 20 lbs of baby weight hanging on my midsection, so those pesky carbs need to go find someone else!  Anyway, I wanted to make potato skins with cream cheese and bacon bits to take over to the party as well.  Well, scooping out the potatoes turned into me breaking them apart and at one point I almost just threw all of my stupid potatoes out in the field.  Since I was taking advantage of having a mixer, I decided to just make mashed potatoes instead.  But as I started beating them, they wouldn't mix. So I added some sour cream.  That helped. Then I added milk. then ranch dressing. Then cheese. Then bacon bits.  Then since I had added so much milk they were cold, so I put them in a casserole, popped them back in the oven at 350, and took them over to the party.  I ended up getting more compliments on those damn potatoes than the pumpkin dip! People kept asking for the recipe. I felt like I earned a new farmer's wife badge to have someone actually ask me for a recipe!

Unfortunately, I don't have any cool pictures to show except for the leftover scrapings in the casserole.

It looks kinda gross in this picture, but I swear its really good! 

Harvest is over!

Harvest is officially over! It actually went relatively quick, but it seemed awfully long! Learning to be a farmer's wife with a baby is a lot different than just being a farmer's wife.  Lots of very long, lonely nights with not much help....however, we had lots of fun nights riding in the combine or the grain cart and getting family time then. Eli got to spend a lot of time with both of his grandpas, as my dad likes to come up and help run the grain cart since Seth and Grant both work full time and aren't available during the day. 

Three generations of White farmer men!

One of the nights I took Eli over to Seth's farm in the next county over, and we got to ride with my dad in the grain cart.  It was a very cold and clear night and we kept seeing a funny haze over the sky.  At first I thought it was dust from somebody combining beans, but then realized it was too wet for anyone to be harvesting anything but corn.  The haze turned green and started to move and we finally realized that we were seeing the Northern Lights! I don't get to see these often, but I see them more than most since we vacation in Minnesota and they are so beautiful! It was like God gave us a good show to help the guys press on to finish up, even if it was at 1 am.

On another weekend, one of the doctors I tech for in surgery brought her family of 3 boys to ride in the combine.  They wanted to full farm experience so everybody got to ride in the combine, grain cart, and take a semi ride to see where the grain is unloaded. They were so much fun to have there, and I think we made a farmer out of her oldest son, Jaxon.  I was a little worried they may not like it at first, because they followed me up from work in Kokomo, and its a little bit of a drive!  When we stopped at our house so I could run in and change I got a text from Dr. Cooper saying that her husband was wondering if I was going to have on overalls and a straw hat when I came back out! I think he ended up thinking it was pretty cool and he got to take a spin on the racing lawnmowers we have!

Zander, the little semi driver!

The Hanson family comes to experience a day on the farm!

All in all harvest went pretty smoothly. As far as yields...well....we just won't go there! Beans turned out pretty good, but the corn was pretty bad.  This was a conversation on my drive home one day while Seth was harvesting corn in his field:

Me: "How's it going?
Seth: "Guess what my yield is"
Me: "200" (bushels per acre, I was trying to be optimistic)
Seth: "Guess again. Here's a clue, it's the same number as what you weigh"
Me: "Well, then, how much is that?"
Seth: "130! Isn't that awful!?"
Me: "I love you. You're the best husband in the world. Sorry the corn sucks." 

And then I went home and made him his favorite dinner.

Next year will be interesting since it will be the first time we will be harvesting the new field that Seth and I purchased! Fingers crossed that next year will be a better year!

Celebrating harvest over by finally making it to evening mass and dinner out with my mom

Father and son heading out to the fields. By this time next year, that little guy will be able to hold Seth's hand and walk beside him!

Pumpkin Patch

All fall I've been wanting to take Eli to go get his first pumpkin, but all the pumpkin patches I could find to go to were over an hour away. Lucky for me, my mom likes to "surf the net" a lot and found one right outside of Winamac called "Two Little Girls Pumpkin Patch".  I got my friend Amanda and her adorable little girl, Hayden, to ride along.  We got a little lost along the way, but once we found out where the heck we were, we had so much fun! We were the only ones there, but we got to meet one of the "little girls" and she informed us that their pumpkin patch is their college fund and gross about $1,500 a year! And she was probably 7 years old! Makes me think that maybe I should start growing some pumpkins here for Eli!

Eli and Hayden's first pumpkin patch experience!

My little pumpkin in the pumkins!

Two Little Girls pumpkin patch outside of Winamac IN

Hayden wasn't picky at all! The first pumpkin she saw, she picked! I have a feeling she will be a very efficient shopper in the future!

However, it looks like she's always gonna need mom to pick up her purchases!

Eli and his pumpkin he picked (drooled all over)

Amanda and Hayden walking through the pumpkins