Changing Seasons

A week ago we went fishing...

...and on Saturday morning we woke up to our first blanket of snow for the winter! I typically dread the coming of snow, but for some reason it was a rather beautifully welcome sight. The snow just kind of covers up all of the dead stuff and makes it bright outside!

Of course, we've got the wood stove going downstairs to keep us warm! We'll see how long Matt's wood pile lasts us this winter before we need to use the furnace...

Winter came just in time for our first Christmas gathering of the season! Schulz Christmas was Saturday evening at the Fellowship Center and most of the family was able to make it. We pulled taffy after supper (the only photos we got were exceptionally blurry so I am not posting them).

I enjoyed the taffy a bit too much....even after it was all thawed out and melty again.

Sunday evening Matt's family took advantage of the visitors with our own family night. Tim and Laurie and Grandma and Grandpa were able to make it, and Uncle Victor and Aunt Peggy showed up later in the evening. It was great to catch up!   

A satisfied Garret following supper...the little guy is getting so grown up! 

The newest member of the Schulz family who is five months old and hasn't shown up on our blog yet...meet Asher! 

GIVE THANKS!

Thanksgiving is this week! My class's Sunday School lesson Sunday was about God sending manna to the Israelites. The people complained that they had no food (after all God had previously done for them), and then when He sent them daily manna for food, they started getting tired of it and began to complain again!

As obvious as it sounds from our perspective that they needed to be more appreciative, aren't we the same way? I would probably get tired of eating the same food for every meal, too! But shouldn't I just be thankful I have food to eat? God provides for us in so many ways, but when something doesn't go the way we want, we think we have the right to grumble.

My thought is that surely each opportunity to complain also provides a greater opportunity to be thankful...

Sunday morning on the way to church, we pulled out onto our road and it still hadn't been plowed. Neither had the other gravel road we took to the highway. It had been 36 hours since we had gotten about 4-5 inches of snow, and neither of the gravel roads on our way to the highway had been cleared! My thought? This should have been done yesterday!

But when I got ready to verbalize the complaint, another revelation came to me: Snow plows (and drivers) are a blessing - a reason to be thankful. And the reasons to be thankful don't stop there.

More reasons to give thanks for the situation:
1. We weren't shut up in our homes due to the snow.
2. This storm wasn't even that bad because our car could pass through without incident.
3. The highways and main roads were clear.
4. It wasn't affecting me anyway because I WASN'T EVEN DRIVING.
5. Matt loves to drive in the snow.
6. We arrived at our destination safely.
7. The snow was so beautiful.
7. The plow came by Monday morning before I needed to drive on the roads myself!

Needless to say, the unplowed roads called for anything BUT a complaint.

Thus brings me to this week's challenge: Turning my complaints into THANKS!

"In EVERY thing give thanks..." I Thes. 5:18

We hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Killing the Fatted Hog

[Attention: I do not believe the following butchering photos should be graphic or offensive, but viewer discretion is advised for those who have trouble with the sight of raw meat...]

Saturday was hog butchering day at Seth and Brenda's! Last winter, we gained some butchering experience from Phil and Kelli's hogs, so we were old pros this time when Seth and Brenda's hogs were ready to meet their destiny. They have a nice little shed that is perfect for the process.

We apparently showed up a little late, because they were just getting ready to start the second hog when we arrived.

The assembly line...I didn't get a good picture of the grinder farther over to the left. 

Getting the meat off to grind up for lots of ground pork and sausage! 

This is where the "fat" of "Killing the Fatted Hog" comes into play. Matt claimed this job for the latter part of the morning and afternoon (melting fat to make lard). They got quite a lot of lard and we even got to bring home a couple jars! Now I need to find a way to use it up...pies and donuts, I am told?  

This is the wrapping station in the kitchen where I did most of my helping. We had ribs, chops, roasts...and between the various spice concoctions of Brenda and Kelli, there ought to be quite a variety of sausage! 

We had a great day and topped it all off with a delicious outdoor lunch on a beautiful Saturday. What a fun time to work together as a family!

Smiles of Autumn

I love autumn! It is such a great time to enjoy the outdoors, breathe the smells of harvest, and give thanks to God for another year of so many blessings! Now is when I tend to find the most peaceful thankfulness (every day is a day to be thankful, but especially now) before the big holiday season comes and sweeps us out of our reverie. Such a good time of year!

We all found several reasons to put smiles on our faces this season. For one, Jesse and Justin turned another year older. Jesse is now in double digits and Justin is a licensed driver!

Since I forgot my camera for Jesse's party, he posed for a picture with Justin's cake the next week. 

Autumn brings along hunting season! Matt didn't have a hunting license last year, but got one this year. He has only been out once, dove hunting for about an hour one Saturday morning. He got one so we wrapped the meat up in bacon and ate it for breakfast.

The Iowa Barn Tours were in September and included Dale Bartelt's Barns in front of Mom and Dad Schulz's house. We got a tour of the historic barns along with the three kids!

Another reason to smile for autumn was our anniversary getaway two weekends ago. We stayed in a cabin in Nauvoo and spent the daylight hours going on a long walk through the park and the town and viewing some of the historic buildings. We ate at Hotel Nauvoo Friday night, and it was a really unique building with a delicious buffet. The restaurant itself was enough excuse to visit Nauvoo! Saturday happened to be the "Boo-tiful" Nauvoo Pumpkin Walk, so we stayed long enough to see about 500 carved pumpkins line the main street in town. Some of them were very intricate!

It was a relaxing time to spend together without the plans and chores of home surrounding us! A great anniversary gift!

On our way home, we stopped at Mom and Dad's for the tail-end of Jonathan's birthday party. He is now an adult. There have been several milestone birthdays for the family in just a month!

We actually walked in on the beginning of their pumpkin-carving. They all turned out pretty neat! 

Lego Man (Jesse), an owl swooping down to pick up a Jack-O-Lantern (Jonathan), a Jack-O-Lantern with a hat in front of a gravestone (Travis), and the Superman logo (Justin) 

Jonathan's special birthday cake request was chocolate cupcakes filled with cookie dough with cookies-and-cream frosting. Mom did a great job and they were delicious! I had two. I am on a diet, but I ate one for the baby and one for Matt who didn't want one. Smiles all around!!

Last Friday we had a Schulz family night at Matt's mom and dad's. It was also Jacob's 25th birthday so he got to open gifts.

A popular uncle with Taren and Kyra 

There is quite an array of dress-up clothes at their place! The kids came upstairs all decked out in a nurse, Santa, and firefighter costume..among others.

On Saturday we woke up with Abby and Olivia at our place! 

Olivia used her camera to get a Christmas picture of the Massner family in our front yard. To avoid spoiling my family's Christmas picture before its debut in your mailboxes, I will only share a couple candids from the morning. 

We tried for a photo of just the two of us, but it wasn't working very well because I got all jittery whenever my belly was showing. Plus Matt was too cold to take off his jacket. 

Jonathan was trying to convince us that he did not look good with his shirt tucked in... 

When the family left, the three of us girls had a paint-a-thon in the basement! We painted the previously-white bedroom and bathroom. Despite my wariness in choosing my own colors, I loved the way they both turned out! Just another thing to make me smile! :)

Blue Bathroom

Purple and Gray Bedroom (with the gallon of gray paint leftover from the baby room)

I finally have a purple wall in my house!! Yay! :)

Thus ended October! Soon the days will be cooling off and winter will arrive...but until then, Happy Autumn! May the smiles never end!

A Week with the Kiddos

Matt's parents took his grandparents down to Texas last week, and we got the privilege of keeping his three younger siblings during the week! Phil and Kelli relieved us over the weekend while we took a little anniversary getaway.

All went well...look how happy they were after two nights at our place! Ok, so maybe I told them to look really excited for the picture...

Ethan came home from his field trip that afternoon with a black eye (from running into something, not inflicted by anyone). It was pretty impressive, but the girls thought it looked like makeup.

Most of our evenings were spent with the basic day-to-day activities of homework, supper, and bedtime. Monday night, Matt helped the kids put together a 3-D puzzle of the Empire State Building.

Mom and Dad came home last night and picked them up. It was kind of interesting to get a feel for taking care of the daily needs of a family. It actually reminded me of the days when my parents would leave and I was doing the same thing for my brothers.

A unique observation from the week was what my house looks like when it is messy. That probably sounds absurd, but I really don't ever get out all of the toys and play with them, nor do I bring home three book bags of papers from school to show Matt. Don't get the impression that these kids are messy, because they really aren't. They just create three more people's worth of disorganization and I haven't ever seen that in our house. So I pretty much realized that I am not really a good housekeeper, but the place just stays organized because there are only two people living here. :)

We are sort of getting back to our life routines around here. I am running out of energy for the deep-cleaning projects these days, but have been working on some other projects that I may or may not share with you later, depending on how everything turns out! :)

I have plenty of other happenings to share from the past couple weeks, but I will give everyone some time to digest the above. :) Hope you've all had a good week!

Two Lovely Years Behind Us

It seems like just a couple months ago I was writing a post about our first anniversary, and here we are (a year later, yes) celebrating number two! We are so thankful and blessed to have one another. I know marriage would not be the blessing it is for us if God was not behind it, and I thank Him every day for bringing us together.

Two dozen roses for two wonderful years! :) I think I am spoiled! 

We received an anniversary card the other day that said, "Adventure Awaits..." Though all of life seems to be one big adventure, they were writing about our hopeful transition to parenthood in a few months. We hope and pray that the challenges and "adventures" of raising a little one will be a blessing to our marriage as well.

This year together has been a special one. Our first year was spent getting to know each other, and the second saw us through new experiences that brought us closer to one another and to the Lord.

3 days...

1 year...

2 years!

I went up to Muscatine yesterday to meet Matt for lunch. We picked up subs from a sub shop next to work that he always raves about, and then had a picnic by the river another block away. The rest of the day about spiraled out of control as I got groceries, barely made it back in time to pick up Matt's three siblings at school (ok, so I was a couple minutes late), and brought them along with me to piano lessons until 6:15. Matt was kind enough to have supper ready when we all got home (some wife I am for an anniversary, huh?), and then after supper and homework it was pretty much time for everyone to head to bed! The kids will be staying here on weekdays until his Mom & Dad get home next Tuesday night. Perhaps the awaiting adventure was closer than they were thinking!

Looking forward to many more blessed years with a wonderful friend and husband! God is so good!

Project Days

September was a month of several projects...and progress continues! A few of the most recent accomplishments include:

1. Applesauce! I got 36 quarts of applesauce made from the apples on one of our trees outside. I didn't think I would be able to do so much with what we had out back, but it ended up making ample!

This was the first batch. I ended up canning the other 24 quarts because I ran out of freezer containers. 

2. Craft time. I needed something to hang on one of our walls in the living room, so we combined Goodwill with Pinterest to come up with this! The Amazing Grace was sitting in a closet downstairs, previously from Hobby Lobby with no place to go. The rest involved a fallen-apart hymn book, some mod podge, a few decorative flowers, and a frame from a second-hand store. And a decent amount of helpful input from Matt! Fortunately, I have him to be the creative eye in this house.

3. Tim and Laurie's house...I went over with Matt's mom and sister a couple weeks ago to help clean up Laurie's house after their renovations. This was the first time I had seen the house since they started working on it, and it is completely different from before...talk about a project! They have been hard at work for several months. Along with some other additions, they poured a basement and moved the house back from the road to sit on top of it.

4. A Room Painted! Yep, the bedroom across the hall from us finally got a new coat of paint, thanks to some help from Josie! The John Deere yellow-and-green room is now a calm gray...and I LOVE it!! Or maybe I just didn't realize how much that yellow and green was bothering me until I saw the room in gray. 

I don't really have much of a before picture, but perhaps this can give an idea. Green on bottom, yellow on top. 

After: So much calmer! Still needs some furniture...and I'm hoping to make some valances soon! 

This room is only the second in the house that has been painted since the last people lived here! Two reasons: 1. The other walls looked fine to me anyway; and 2. I really don't like to paint.

5. Windows are (were) ALL CLEAN. I spent a week deep-cleaning all of the windows and doors in the house (something I have never done before, and may not get around to doing for at least another twenty years). The day after I finished, ladybug season came upon us and now there are bugs all over the windows. I'm sure it will be better once they go away.

Who ever knew there was a beautiful view of a pond out that window?! 

Ok, so I don't mean that I just cleaned the glass in case that was the impression. I do intend to do that before 2035. Or so I say...

Next up on my list is to continue deep-cleaning and organizing the house. This week I am getting started on the kitchen!

6. LEGOS! Matt left me at his parents' house one evening so he and his dad could go work on the thermostats at church. I spent most of the evening playing with Legos and ended up creating this piece of artwork. The office desk was complete with a computer, speakers, books, a trashcan, a pencil cup, a lunch box, a swivel chair, a water bottle, a file cabinet, and of course, a plant and a small fish tank. When there was nothing else to add, I finally called Matt and he came home. 

This photo made it to Mel's Monday Memo, so I figured I should probably share it. 

It is so much fun to keep checking things off my list!! What accomplishment one can achieve with a lot of extra time! :)

Birthday Bonfire

The Massner family came over a couple weeks ago to celebrate Mom's birthday, and we celebrated in the classic autumn way: with a weiner roast! Perhaps it wasn't the "classic" way to pamper your mother for her birthday, but it worked out and we had some good family time around the fire!

 

Matt used the event to get some wood split for the winter by having the boys try out their hand with the maul. Jonathan informed me that they wouldn't be doing my chores because folding laundry doesn't make them feel manly.

Later, I figured I would try out the long-forgotten challenge of bobbing for apples. 

When it started getting a little darker, I deviated from the usual s'mores and we cooked apples over the fire with extra toppings inside.

Happy Birthday, Mom! 

What a wonderful time of year to spend in the great outdoors! I love fall! :)