The photo used at the top is old. It was taken 1.5 years ago at Pleasant Land Farm. With both sadness and relief I'm ready to announce that it appears this coming Monday will be our last full day owning that property. Yes, we are about to close and will no longer be the holder of two mortgages. Hence the relief. The sadness, well, just look back at some of the pics. It truly is a 'pleasant land.' And we miss our farm and our goats and the fact that by some climatological anomaly, despite the rest of WI and that city having bird-sized mosquitoes in incalculable swarms, our little piece of Eden had none. Alas, we haven't actually had our feet on the property now for 13 months, but I can still feel the air and smell the creek and hear the frogs. The barn is no longer there, hit by a tornado earlier this year. But that allowed us to drop the price on the property which helped finally to sell it. And, we are happy that we like the family to whom we are selling it. I've even tried to plant the seed to restore the pasture land to native prairie as was our intent.
Our summer here has been full, and I'm sure we'll decide on a suitable photo to replace the one at the top of this blog page. We flew back to the midwest to visit both my and Heidi's families in IL/WI and NE, respectively. It was great to see family and friends. Heidi was able to make it to a dear friend's bridal shower and see many old and wonderful friends. The kids did a great job flying and their growing maturity has inspired us to do more things away from home. You'll be seeing some of those photos over the next couple of days.
All three are growing and learning so much; it's incredible to be a part of this part of their of their lives. I love having more time with this new job to be home with them. They are each so unique, but they all have a wonderful love for knowledge, truth, inquiry and investigation and experimentation. We are trying our best to encourage and nurture this, and trying to navigate participating in their own development without stifling their individual interests and perspectives is liberating (I write with mild trepidation) and fun. One of their favorite movies is "Prince of Egypt," and another is "The Miracle Maker." So J comments one day that he has decided he loves Jesus, but he doesn't like Jesus' dad, because "that's who made the little boy die." The images from the 10th plague include an Egyptian boy carrying water to his home, probably 4–5 years old. The terrifying glowing white mist enters after he does and one hears a crash of broken pottery and a limp arm hangs suggestively from the doorway. I decided Yhwh is big enough to defend himself and just said something like "Yah, Jesus is great."
Our summer here has been full, and I'm sure we'll decide on a suitable photo to replace the one at the top of this blog page. We flew back to the midwest to visit both my and Heidi's families in IL/WI and NE, respectively. It was great to see family and friends. Heidi was able to make it to a dear friend's bridal shower and see many old and wonderful friends. The kids did a great job flying and their growing maturity has inspired us to do more things away from home. You'll be seeing some of those photos over the next couple of days.
All three are growing and learning so much; it's incredible to be a part of this part of their of their lives. I love having more time with this new job to be home with them. They are each so unique, but they all have a wonderful love for knowledge, truth, inquiry and investigation and experimentation. We are trying our best to encourage and nurture this, and trying to navigate participating in their own development without stifling their individual interests and perspectives is liberating (I write with mild trepidation) and fun. One of their favorite movies is "Prince of Egypt," and another is "The Miracle Maker." So J comments one day that he has decided he loves Jesus, but he doesn't like Jesus' dad, because "that's who made the little boy die." The images from the 10th plague include an Egyptian boy carrying water to his home, probably 4–5 years old. The terrifying glowing white mist enters after he does and one hears a crash of broken pottery and a limp arm hangs suggestively from the doorway. I decided Yhwh is big enough to defend himself and just said something like "Yah, Jesus is great."
