Maternity Pics

I got them back and it's official...I love them!!! Our friend was so sweet to offer this as a baby gift to us and we couldn't thank her enough! I'll let the pictures do the talking...

 I mean, maybe it's just me...but helloooooo tall, dark and handsome cowboy! I may be biased :)

While I was taking pictures, Patrick was listening to the Packers game on Sirius XM. (Side note, he didn't even complain ONCE about missing the game to take these pictures! What a guy!) This was his reaction when they scored, and our friend happened to capture it! We were laughing so hard at him! 

I am in LOVE with the job that she did! I wasn't going to do maternity pictures at all, but when she offered I thought what the heck?! I'm SO SO SO glad I did! And now I can't wait to have one of them printed to hang on the wall. 

I hope you all take a break from blogging tomorrow and spend the day stuffing your face with all of the good food that will be inevitable eaten! We'll be spending it with Patrick's family and we'll be taking naps, watching football, and I will continue reading the Divergent series.

I thank God for the wonderful life He has created for me, for my amazing family and friends, and the future plans that He has for us. We are so blessed :)

Life Lately In Pictures

There's been a lot of stuff going on lately, and the best way for me to describe it to you all is through the pictures...so here we go!

We went on a walk while my friend was here. I haven't done a ton of exercising while prego. I tried in the beginning because I was so paranoid about gaining weight. But after almost puking while I walked and getting lightheaded often, I decided I should probably just hang out at home and not risk passing out on the side of a lonely county road. Since I've been feeling much better, we decided to go on a walk while my friend was here. It was a bit difficult at times and I could feel my tummy muscles stretching and that kind of hurt, but we kept trucking on. Before we went, I told her I wore my gun when I went out and she just thought I was kidding at first. Until I strapped up..and of course she had to get a pic. I'm 24 weeks along here in this pic.Oh, and still no weight gain...I'm actually still down 2 pounds from my starting weight. Not sad about that at all!

Patrick has been hauling barley for a friend of ours. This barley goes directly to the Anheuser-Busch plant, and eventually into your refrigerators as beer. You're welcome :)

The hard life of a trucker's wife...hahaha.

 Some people are renting a pasture from us for their horses. They have 3 horses and this new baby colt, who is about 2 weeks old here. He's so playful and cute! His name is Tiger.

Hay...LOTS of hay.

Harvest has officially started, and Patrick's uncle needs a little extra help because his son (our cousin Nathan) has headed off to college for the year already. So we helped him out a bit last weekend.

I have a super mooshy-gooshy blog post coming up tomorrow for a very special day for us :) Stay tuned :)

Is It Fall Yet?

I KNOW I am not alone in thinking this....I'm ready for fall.

I have talked to SO many people that are just over the summer, over the heat (even though its been relatively cool here this year) and are ready for everything that fall brings. 

As a farmer's wife, spring and summer are our busiest times of the year. Things are non-stop all day long. And on top of that, this time of year I have farmer's market stuff to do every night. I know I take that on voluntarily, but it's still a lot of work! Most days I go to work in the morning, run my errands during lunch of after work, then head home. Once I get home it's sometimes like going to my second job. Which it kind of is. 

First things first, I usually try to spend time in my garden and watering my flowers. These past couple weeks I've been baking and picking veggies. Usually at some point in the evening Patrick asks for my help doing something outside or running him here and there to a different field or to a different tractor. Oh, and we usually eat dinner at some point at night too. The point is, I am busting my butt until about 10 p.m. at night. It makes for long days!

Another thing with summer is that although we live in the middle of nowhere, we seem to get a LOT of visitors and company. A month ago we had my friend stay overnight at our house. 2 days later our cousin and his friends stayed at our house while they built a fence for us. Four days after that my family showed up for the week. Last week we had someone from Farm Bureau come stay the night as she was touring the area for information to put together for an article for their newsletter. And Friday this week I have a childhood friend coming to visit for 4 days. Friends, that makes for a lot of cleaning, cooking and bed sheet washing!! Oh, and I managed to fit 3 out-of-town weddings into the past month and a half too.

I am ready for life to SLOOOOOWWWW DOOOOOWWWWNNNN.

THAT is why I'm ready for fall!

Oh, plus all of the other amazing things like sweaters, scarves, boots, cooler weather, lazy evenings  where I have nothing to do, and snuggling up in a blanket with a good book. 

Have I mentioned we haven't even started harvest yet? Which will probably be a month long. Guess I better just suck it up for now and hold on tight cause the madness hasn't even started :)

Farm Pics

First of all, thanks for all of the well-wishes and love yesterday about our big news! All of your kind words mean a lot to both of us :)

One of my favorite things to take pictures of around the farm and land we lease is old buildings. To me, they have such a history to them. A family lived there decades ago, kids did homework there, people slept there, and made it their home. They tell such a story if you just look at them and listen to them.

I went out last weekend and took pictures of a building that I've been wanting to take for awhile now. And a couple other beauties for you guys to enjoy :) And as always, please don't steal my pictures. If you'd like to use them for something, please just ask and I'll be happy to share!

This one is probably my favorite of this house.

Hubby's pickup.

I am a sucker for these flowers :)

Cows are in the deep grass to try and keep away from the bugs. After I took this picture, I looked right to take a picture of the rest of the cows and realized some of them had escaped and were out of the pasture! They were just a couple of calves and they eventually made their way back in to their mommas.

Happy Tuesday friends!

On Being A Farmer's Wife...

Farmer's are some of the hardest working people out there. They have to work 7 days a week, sometimes around the clock, and long days in extreme heat and cold. All just hoping they break even at the end of the year. If you make a profit, even better. 

I could go on and on about the many nuances of their jobs, but that's not what I'm here to talk about today. I want to talk to you about what it's like to be the woman behind the farmer. I'm here to tell you...it isn't easy.

The past 4 years of our marriage that we've lived on the farm, I've had to learn a lot of things. The first summer was sort of a crash course in what was expected of me and my role on the farm, and I still learn things all the time.

There is one word that can sum all of it up: Sacrifice.

One of the first things I learned, is that what you want, does not always come first. Sometimes it doesn't even come second or third. And sometimes you are dead last. And you have to be ok with it. Even if you're not ok with it, you have to act like it.  Your family is going on a camping trip in the middle of the summer? Too bad, there's hay to be put up. Friend's wedding in the Spring? Looks like I'm going solo.

There are a lot of nights I spend alone during the spring and summer, and the only time I see my husband is in the morning, when he comes home to eat, shower and go to sleep, or if I have to run something out to the field to him. I do also work in town however, so I probably would see him more if I didn't work. You learn to cherish every opportunity you have with him. And if he asks you to go sit in the tractor with him? You go. No questions asked.

If I've had a bad day at work or have been doing housework all day, sometimes I think about complaining, or want a foot or back rub. But then I think about how hard my husband works during his 14 hour days, and that I get to sit on my butt in a cool/warm office all day, and think that a back rub is probably exactly what he needs. That and a hot meal. They don't ask for much.

And sometimes he needs your help with something. Do I always want to do it? No. You can ask Patrick, I used to complain all the time if I had to go help him do something and didn't want to. It became a point of contention between us, and since then I've tried to be better about it. He doesn't want to be out there at 9 o clock at night all the time either, so it will get done quicker if I quit complaining and just go help. And a bonus for me, is that I get some of my best pictures when I go out and help him.

 The biggest sacrifice a farmer's wife makes is time. Time is precious between us and I try to take every opportunity I can when I have it. He tries to give me time when he can, but it's just an understanding you have to have that sometimes your attention goes on the back burner for the time being.
 
Is it easy? Hell no. It's a hard job. But being his wife, my job is to support him in what he does, encourage him when he's frustrated, and try and make things as easy as possible for him around the house. 

At the end of the day, is it worth it? Absolutely, definitely, wouldn't change a thing. But was it a difficult transition to make? Without a doubt. Like in any marriage, you have to find a balance and make sacrifices. Ours is just a little different than most. 

(Excuse the chubby faces...this was 40 lbs ago for me and 20 for Patrick!)

 Do you have any questions for this farmer's wife? I'd love to answer them! And if you one of my fellow farm wives, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for doing everything that you do. I know we never hear it enough.

Sunset Pictures of the Fields

The other night we went to our annual Farm Bureau family picnic, and as I was driving home the sun was setting and it gave me some perfect light to go out and take some pictures of our fields. I didn't have my "good" camera with me-which is just a good ol' point and click camera. All I had was my iphone, but I still think I did alright.

Enjoy!

Also, please just enjoy looking at my pictures, don't steal them :) Or just ask my permission to share and I'd love to share them with you. Thanks!

We're off to the big lake tomorrow with friends for the 4th, and I'm off on a shopping trip with my mother in law the rest of the weekend so I won't be back until next week! But I'm sure most of you have fun plans for your long weekends (which hopefully it is for most of you!), so you won't miss me a bit.

Happy America Day!!

Little White Church

As I talked about last week, the little white church on top of the hill by my house turned 100 years old this year. It was actually chartered on July 27, 1913. My father in law is the treasurer for the Church's Cemetery Association, and he had the ORIGINAL ledger that they started bookkeeping in out on the table one day because someone was buying burial plots in the cemetery. I got to looking through the old book, and realize it was turning 100 years old. 

We got a couple people together that was the unofficial planning committee, and spread the word far and wide to all of the families that we could reach that either attended the church, their families attended, or anyone who had relatives buried in the cemetery.

While the church services stopped about 30 years ago due to lack of attendance, the church still holds a special place in people's hearts. During the service, we sang several songs along with the very out-of-tune piano, people shared stories of their memories or the memories of their families, and the last preacher who taught at the church did the prayers. One of the other preachers came back to do the sermon as well.

 People piling out of the church after the service. All in all, I think there were about 60-70 people that attended. Some of them drove over 1,000 miles to come to this, and said they would not have missed it for the world.

 We also held a potluck afterwards for everyone. We served sloppy joes, and had everyone else bring side salads or a dessert. I think we had about 20 different salads or sides to choose from. And yes, we used kiddie pools filled with ice to keep the salads cold! 

You best redneckognize!

 

I'm not quite sure we had enough desserts.... One other thing I will mention that I think is absolutely awesome, is that of these 30-some side dishes and desserts that came, NONE of them were bought from a store or deli. Every single one of them was homemade. I think one person brought a couple bags of chips, but that was it.

And while we were up at the church, I took a picture of the view looking down to our home and yard. I love love love this view.

Come back tomorrow for some GREAT pictures I took last week! They won't disappoint!

Saw It. Pinned It. Did It.

THIS PROJECT!!! I am SO excited about it! 

Ok, first things first. I am linking up with Steph and Katie for the weekly Saw It. Pinned It. Did It. There are always so many things I see on Pinterest that I want to do, and this is a great excuse to show them off!

One of my goals this year was to decorate my home with some of my photography from around the farm. Once I saw this original pin, I knew what I wanted to do:

First, I had to find an old window...which, was actually not that hard to do when you live on a farm that's been around for years and years, with lots of old buildings. I actually found one on accident, while getting something out of the old garage at my in-laws' house. I was looking for something and happened to glance in the very back behind some old wood. I found this old window frame from their house. I have no idea how old it is, but didn't care! It was perfect!

Some of the paint was chipped off, it was dirty and covered in dead bugs and cobwebs, so I cleaned it up a little bit. But not too much, because I think it adds to the charm :)

Next, I printed a bunch of my pictures that I've taken over the past couple of years, and laid them out how I wanted them in the frame. I used a mixture of fields, sunsets and machinery.

 

This step was very important: I took a picture, so I knew what order I wanted them to go in when I flipped the thing over, since I was going to apply the pictures behind the glass.

After I made sure all of the pictures matched up where I wanted them, I started in with the Mod Podge. I want to stress to put a VERY SMALL amount on there, or else the pictures will dry with funny bubbles in the front of them. This happened on several of my pictures. I would also recommend firmly pressing down evenly on the back of the picture from top to bottom-with the grain of the mod podge-so there are no air bubbles and everything is going the same direction. This will ensure you get all of the air bubbles out. (You could probably also just mod podge around the edge of the pictures and in the blank space, but I wanted the weathered effect in front of my pictures, so I put mod podge on the whole thing and then put my pictures down).

Let it dry, and then I sprayed a clear coat of spray paint on the back to seal everything really well.

And this is my final product! (Sorry for the glare behind it-it was a sunny day!)

It looks kind of funny in the pictures, but it looks a lot better in person, I promise! And I think with things like these, I don't want perfection-I want something a little more rustic looking! Overall I'm happy with it, and can't wait to hang it in our master bedroom!