Graduation Midwestern Style

Celebrating graduation Midwest style

By Lisa Lickel

 

They came from all over the world for the graduation ceremony of Long Distance learners at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan a week ago.

I’d heard names and stories for the past five years, but this was the first time I’d taken the opportunity to see for myself what I let my first son do. Really, when do you stop being a parent?

 

 

So, he’s been married the whole time, gainfully employed, but still…a mother’s heart bleeds watching a child work more than full time, buying a house and all the work that goes with that, being a full-time student as well and being exposed to strange new thoughts and ideas.

 

 

I was grateful he made friends and bonded with a great group of other students.

 And that he had the support of his home church along the way.

 

And had house parents who blessed his socks off with a place to stay when he had to spend two weeks twice a year

and prayer and love. Thank you! Lynn and Dave.

 

The patience will pay off…we Midwesterners understand longsuffering builds character.

 

And then there’s cake.

 

Isaiah 43:1 - But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine."

Growing

By Andrea Boeshaar

I’m a novice gardener, but I’m giving it my best shot and learning along the way. I've made a lot of mistakes, like planting flowers where it’s too shady or where the soil is too rocky and watching them wither and die. I've been disappointed when bulbs and perennials didn't return the following year. But I've learned – and am learning – from those mistakes.

For instance, my son and his girlfriend built me a marvelous box garden for Mother’s Day. They seeded half of it and me as part of my gift. YIPPEE! I've wanted a box garden for a year…remember the “mistakes” I spoke of previously? Yep, well, I planted vegetables in a small space on the southwest side of our garage and they didn't get the sunshine they needed to grow. But now…I have my box garden with sunshine all day! I'm so excited!

Feeling all enthusiastic, I purchased lettuce, tomato, peas, and beans – in plants – and dug them into my new garden. After I was finished and stretched my aching back, my neighbor, a gardening expert, nicely explained that it might be a bit premature for plants due to the late frost we here in Southeastern Wisconsin can still experience. “After Memorial Day” is the rule. However, she told me that seeding now is OK because those plants will be safe from the frosty elements – unless a summer thunderstorm and hail wipes them out. She said it’s always a gamble and she gave me some extra peas and beans (seeds) that she had left over after her planting – just in case I'd jumped the warm weather.  

As I buried the seeds in the soft, warm soil, I gained a greater respect for professional farmers. I thought of my ancestors, farmers in Northern Wisconsin, survived. They counted on their crops to feed their families for a year. But what happened when a terrible storm whipped over the countryside and demolished their corn, their wheat, their vegetables? What did they do when crops failed? They couldn't go to the Farmer’s Market – they WERE the Farmer’s Market. Sometimes they went bankrupt and lost their homes. Unfortunately, it still happens today.

Growing can be a frustrating process – not just growing flowers and vegetables, but personal and spiritual growing too. Every day we gain life experience in something. Think about it. What did you learn today?

Tulips

Showing off the tulips around my house...
From Lisa

A couple of years ago my daughter-in-law took pictures of my flowers and made a wonderful framed collage of them for a Christmas gift. I loved it! I've planted some new ones, experimenting with a few interesting non-traditional types, and thought I'd share.

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Mom!

Last Sunday was Mother's Day. And although there can never be enough praise for Moms, I'm not going to talk about Mom.

I'm from the Cleveland area, and you KNOW Clevelanders are rabidly passionate sports fans. Doesn't matter what sport -- or so it seems at times. We love our teams. And we carry looooooong grudges against people who have betrayed us or insulted us. Players who were traded away are welcomed back with cheers, even when they play for "the enemy." Witness Omar Vizquel and Victor Martinez. And even Travis Hafner -- until he hit that home run for the Yankees, of course ... The ones who chose to leave, or even asked to be traded, or stole a team and went to another town ... they're lucky if all they get is booed when they dare step foot in our town again.

Right now is baseball season -- although they're already building up steam for football and basketball season, talking about trades and drafts and training and hiring new coaches and whatever! There's a lot of orange and brown in this town, even during the off-season.

As for me ... well, as far as I'm concerned, there are NO sports in Cleveland until Spring Training finally comes around. I love the Indians!

And they're doing fantastic this spring. Who wouldn't love them? Everybody loves a winner, right? (Except, of course, for the rude twits who slapped us in the face ... nuh uh, not gonna go there...)

But you know what? Even if the Tribe's record was flipped the other way, and they had more losses than wins, I'd still love them. Still cheer for them. Still clear my schedule to make sure I'm in front of the TV the next time they play. And there are a lot of Tribe fans who are the same way. Win or lose, they're OUR team. We're going to cheer for them. We're going to have hope every time they step up to the plate or run out onto the field.

That's loyalty. That's what it means to be a Cleveland sports fan. Maybe we're cock-eyed optimists (salute to Rogers & Hammerstein and South Pacific) but that's the way we are. There's always hope.

Maybe the rest of the world could learn something from Cleveland sports fans -- the ability to stay loyal no matter how many/often our hopes and dreams are disappointed. The ability to dream and believe and love, in spite of the odds and failures.

And you know what? That loyalty-in-spite-of just makes the high points all the sweeter. It's a win-win.

GO TRIBE!!!

One Tired Farm Wife

They call me Mom. I call me Blessed.

I totally forgot to post on the 4^th. Hold on – gotta go grab Farmer from the field.

OK I’m back. And that is probably why I forgot to post on the 4^th.

The last two days has been ridiculous.

Yesterday I had physical therapy in the morning for my neck – been having headaches. Farmer called me and asked me to pick up large gallon sized zip locked bags. Did that.

 I stopped at the bank on the way home. Was almost home when Farmer called again and asked me to go pick up one of the farm computers. It was being repaired.

After I nabbed it, I dropped it off at the farm office and went in to run the payroll report. Well the printer ran out of paper. No problem. I would add to it and finish the job. Didn’t work. So I called Son #3 our IT guy.

“You can’t let the printer run out of paper. Now you have to shut the computer down and then start it back up. BUT, you can’t shut it down until 12:20 when they are washing the parlor. The BEBs come in and the computer reads their ankle bracelets and stores a lot of info. I had to wait until the BEBs were done being milked.  So, payroll was put on hold and I came home.

I decided to mow down the road at the house where our intern from Michigan State is staying. She’s living and working on our farm until the first part of August.

I stopped at the parlor when I was done and finished the payroll report.

Back at home I started to “do” payroll which is a whole ‘nother story for a whole ‘nother time.

Another phone call from the farm. Can you take these feed samples to UPS? Gotta get there before they close.

I dropped everything and delivered a bag of feed to the UPS store. I didn’t bother to explain what it was.

When I came home it was time to get ready to go to church. Joyce Meyer was having a conference and I had to work at the book store. It was great. I felt normal, until I got three more phone calls to bring this or that and I reminded them for the 789^th time I wasn’t home.

It was a late evening and I had to get up early to deliver our intern to another farm.

As I dragged myself out of bed this morning and was trying to get presentable, Farmer said “Oh, you don’t need to take Casey today. They are going to pick her up.”

I was so close to causing bodily harm it wasn’t funny.

I started working on payroll again. Then I realized I had to mow my lawn and my son – he’s having back issues. I decided I better get it done before my daughter-in-law needed it for the farm. We share the mower. So I did mine and his and finished just in time to go to the chiropractor. It felt good to get things back in place.

I stopped at Sam’s on the way home for a couple of things. $230.00 later I headed home.

Farmer met me at the door. “How nice and helpful” I thought.

“You gotta go to the mill and get yeast and feed. I have to get back out in the field. And, you have to take my good truck.”

“Crap” I thought. First of all I was soooo tired. I just wanted a 10 minute nap. But, nooooo they were waiting for the stuff. Secondly, I hate driving his truck. He treats it better than me and I just know there’s going to be an incident one day and it won’t be pretty.

I picked up and delivered the feed and went back home to finish payroll.

Finally payroll was done. I delivered the checks to the barn and spoke to my daughter-in-law who normally mows the lawn. She had been in the field so I started mowing the lawn at the barn for her. We have about 6 acres all told. She will be gone tomorrow so I will finish it tomorrow. I was heading home from the farm and I called Farmer to see if he needed anything. Yes, food.

Another delivery and now it is 9:00 PM and I am home.  I am sort of waiting for that phone call to pick Farmer up yet tonight.

Hoping to get this done so I can have flowers this year. We shall see.

My kitchen looks like a Sam’s display room, the laundry is crawling out the door, my back porch is a poor example of a flower nursery (with sick plants), the window box by our side door has been demolished and there is brick debris scattered, the pool is open but full of algae, but our weed garden is flourishing.

This is Phil and Kay in our pool. I love Duck Dynasty, hence the names.

Oh, I almost forgot. I am trying to raise 5 duck eggs. Miss Kay came and laid the eggs under the playroom window and then she and Phil took off.

Son #2 brought over his incubator and it has an automatic egg turner – thank goodness or those eggs would have been better on toast. And he then added pressure by bringing over 6 chicken eggs to see if I could make that work too.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I am too tired to be creative and write a clever blog. And, I had pictures to go with this. Plain and simple. I am one tired farm wife.

You can keep up with our everyday happenings at www.afarmwife.com or follow on face book https://www.facebook.com/AFarmWife?ref=tn_tnmn

 

Fish Fry at the Schwabenof

Fish fry Fridays! If you grew up in the Milwaukee area like me, you're probably very familiar with the Friday fish fries around town. One of my favorites is the one at the Schwabenof.

I vaguely remember going there as a kid, and now my family and I make the occasional stop there on a Friday, too. The décor, food, and prices all have that old school charm that I love about living here.

The traditional fish fry is all you can eat for $11.95. Or, you can get all you can eat fried chicken for that price. Or, you can combine the two! 

The value is awesome and the décor is what I like to call cheesily awesome, meaning that it has the sense of humor and charming-ness that folks in Wisconsin have. I love to listen to the thick Midwestern accents there (because, ya know, I couldn't possibly have one of those myself) and check out the families who come to enjoy their Friday night tradition.

Where's your favorite place to grab a fish fry?

A Girl of the Limberlost

When I was a little girl growing up in Kansas, I got to spend a delicious week each summer all by myself at my grandparents' house. This was a treat for me because I was the oldest of 4 children and since my siblings were extremely active and rambunctious, I craved solitude. Plus, I had a loving, doting grandmother, who taught me all sorts of wonderful things about gardening, making pies, and canning peaches. Grandma and Grandpa truly lived off the land and I only wish I'd paid more attention back then.

Another treat for me that week was when we would "go to town." Grandma would put on some lipstick, a little rouge and put on a nice dress. Because she wore a dress, I did too. We would go to Woolworth's for a cherry coke at the lunch counter and then do a little banking and grocery shopping. Our trip always ended with a stop at the year-round "basement sale" at a local church.

That basement sale was a delicious treasure trove for me because tucked in a dark corner was a box of old books. Grandma let me pick as many as I wanted, and one year I picked up a book that would stick with me for the rest of my life.

That book was A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter. This picture is of the same edition I found in that church basement. I still have it today.

I read that book over and over again. I identified with the main character for so many reasons. For one thing, the main character was a young girl who loved playing the violin. I did, too. She also loved nature, playing in the woods, and collecting things such as pretty butterflies and moths, and had a little pet owl long before Harry Potter was even thought of. I didn't have a pet owl, but I did have a little pet dog that I talked to the same as she did her owl.

She was raised by a single parent and had never met her father. I was raised by my father and stepmother and had never met my mother. She had less than an ideal childhood. My own childhood was challenging, and I felt Elnora was truly a kindred spirit. I read that book over and over again, and went on to collect first editions of Gene Stratton Porter. I decided after reading that book that I, too, would one day be a writer.

Gene Stratton Porter

Imagine my delight 14 years ago when  I learned that God had moved me smack dab in the middle of Indiana in Gene Straton Porter country. In fact, our local library has original pictures that she took herself of little vultures hatching. Taking pictures in those days was extremely time consuming and complicated. The equipment was very heavy and she had to trudge through mosquito-infested swamps and wetlands to find unsuspecting wildlife, and then sit for hours to capture a picture at the right moment with a camera that had to stay still with the shutter open for a number of minutes. She was made of tough stuff! She wrote an exhaustive book on moths (moths!) and several about birds. Her first editions are collectors items now.

As a little girl, Gene Stratton Porter lived near me close to Lagro, Indiana. (I live in North Manchester.) The Salamonie forest is nearby, and I like to imagine her playing freely in those woods the way my own children did growing up.

When she married she moved to Geneva. I have been to the home she had built there many times. It's one of my favorite spots to visit on a ride on my motorcycle. Here is a picture of my husband's motorcycle with mine in front of her house right after we got caught in a rainstorm. I also took my kids and students there, and read from A Girl of the Limberlost on the porch in front of the very picture window she wrote in front of. That was some heady stuff for this ardent fan, let me tell you!

GSP loved nature and took countless pictures of birds, moths and other creatures of the Limberlost area. She developed her own film in a bathtub and had her own darkroom. She was a progressive lady for her time, and a staunch environmentalist before being an environmentalist was politically correct. When Standard Oil came in and cut down the trees, it ruined many of the wetlands. Part of her passion for getting pictures was to preserve the wildlife of the area before it was gone forever.  Now in Geneva, restoration of the Limberlost has occurred, and a wonderful wetland area has been restored.  (Click here for more info.)

I will share more about this wonderful woman next month. In the meantime, why not crack open Limberlost or Laddie (my two favorites). I'd love to discuss them with you!

Tell me, what childhood book had a strong, lasting impact on you?

 Karla Akins is author of the best-selling Jacques Cartier (that went #1 on Amazon in its category), O Canada! Her Story and  Sacagawea. Her debut novel The Pastor's Wife Wears Biker Boots  is due out August 2013. When she's not writing she dreams of riding her motorcycle through the Smoky Mountains.