Our First Duck Eggs Have Hatched!!

We were surprised this afternoon by 2 of our duck eggs hatching, and the cute tiny babies that they are!! We have raised ducklings before, but this is the first time we have ever had our adult ducks sit on their eggs until they hatched. We have 4 female ducks and 1 male. We are certain though that the mommy sitting with these two little ones isn't their actual mother. Two of the female ducks, Mocha and Brownie, alternate sitting on the nest of eggs. However, though Mocha is sitting on them and with them right now, I would almost guarantee that their real mommy is Brownie as they look just like her.

Handmade Earrings

Ashley works with a lady at the dog grooming business who makes watches out of safety pins and tiny little beads. She can customize them to your favorite color. They are really nice! Well this gave Ashley the idea to try some jewelry on her own. These are the earrings she came up with. Some people are so creative!!!!! :+)

Fairs & Derbys are a Favorite For Us

Every year for 23 years now (minus 1 yr. when one of our babies was sick) I have gone to Westfair. It was a treat for us when I was a teen in high school, and still enjoy it now! It is one favorite thing our family does every year together. We spend anywhere from 2 - 4 days at the fair every July. Westfair is the Pottawattamie County Fair in IA. One of their biggest sponsors happens to be the company that my husband works for. Every year they give us gate tickets and arena tickets to go watch the Figure 8s and the Derby's. We are blessed to be able to do this each year. It wouldn't be summer without it! Though we live on a small farm, our kids loves looking at the 4-H exhibits, the animals there, and all the food vendors who sell everything from slushies, to hotdogs, to Fat Alberts, to funnel cakes.

A Water Pond?

Some friends of ours put together a beautiful water garden/pond area in their yard this summer, which gave Ashley the idea of doing something similar in our yard. So, when Ashley came back from working at the grooming shop with Jean, she brought home some plants and buckets for the task. Ashley, our younger kids, and my niece and nephew, all pitched in to help. We had gotten the wooden geese at a garage sale for $1 each, and then the kids all pitched in and gathered rocks to add to it. Ashley plans to buy some Goldfish to put to the water, and some flowers to plant around the rocks as well.

A "Blessed" Opportunity

I wanted to share about an opportunity I had Sunday night… As I mentioned in my last post, our kids were watching the RAGRAI riders go past our gravel road all afternoon on Sunday (close to 12,000 of them) when one man dumped his bike. The kids all ran over to help him pick up his things, and he just happened to be a Reverend. He gave them his business card and said that if they write to them, he will gladly send them some T-shirts and Bibles for their help. Well that got Mariah (my 11-year-old niece) and Noah (our 9-year-old son) to asking me a lot of questions about God, Jesus, Heaven, what God thinks about being gay or lesbian, etc. Well Noah has always been raised knowing who the Lord is, but to personally give his own heart to the Lord by choice was something I don't believe that he had not done yet. My niece had been taken to church as a tiny baby, but their lives have been anything but for the Lord since then. Well Sunday night, Noah and Mariah both gave their hearts to the Lord! Mariah asked me if I had a kids Bible that she could have, and so I got out a Bible for her, and they both sat and read together (Mariah reading to Noah), about the first 45 pages of it so far. They were so excited and wanted to be left alone to read instead of play with the other kids! That was awesome for me! She asked me if I thought her mom was a Christian. I hadn’t answered yet, but Noah piped up and says, “No, definitely not.” Well she didn’t say anything in reply, and I just said, “I don’t know honey.” Do I personally think so? No. But I cannot see the heart, and can only see from outward appearances, so I left it at that and said that God knows Himself, and it is He who counts. Exciting though, huh?! Maybe my niece will lead her family to the Lord one day?!