Family Photo Fun

Has it turned cold where you live?  It certainly has here.

With fewer and fewer warm days, we decided to head outdoors to take a family photo that we can send out at Christmas time. 

I will not share the good family photo (because that would defeat the purpose), but I will share one of the others. 

We made a bargain with the kids.  This was all the kids' idea.  We agreed that once we had a nice family photo, we would allow them to take some goofy photos. 

Here's my favorite.  I hope it makes you laugh as much as it made us laugh!

Little & Not so Little Champions

We've gotten our lives back!

Lena's volleyball season ended this past Tuesday.   I have no idea what the final record was for our 7th grade Lady Eagles team, but I know they won a bunch of games and lost a bunch of games.  In the end, they learned a lot of volleyball skills and had a fabulous time playing together.  It was well worth all the time Lena poured into it. 

Way to go Lena!

Ryan's team finished 1st place in his age group!!!!  Way to go Grey Team sponsored by CIE (Central Indiana Ethanol).  Here's Ryan playing ball and holding his trophy.

Way to go, Ryan!!!

And, Todd was not to be left out.  His team managed to beat the tough blue team to take the Runner-Up position in his age group.  Way to go Green Team sponsored by Glessner Farms.

Here are some shots of Todd 'in action'.

Warming up to bat next...

About to make a big hit.

Watching Ryan at bat (taken after his game had finished).

With his medallion for 'runner up'.

They have a custom at this ball field.  If there's a pop fly that goes out of the ball park, you can go get the ball and take it to the concession stand where you turn it in and get a free piece of bubble gum in return.  On this particular night, Todd turned in 4 foul balls to get 4 pieces of free bubble gum.  He was one happy camper!

All-in-all, it was a great run with Fall sports for this crew.  Lena is pumped to play volleyball again next year.  Ryan and Todd cannot wait to play baseball again in the Spring.  I have to say I cannot wait too! 

There are so many good things to look forward to in life, aren't there!

Loving the Harvest

It has been a long, long, long time since I watched a harvest take place.

Mark, Lena, Ryan and Todd have all been city dwellers their entire lives, and so this has been their first real look at this big event.

The funny thing is, I think I'm the only one excited about it!   Maybe it is because I grew up in a small town surrounded by fields.

There is something so very amazing about watching the crops grow, appear to die in the field, get harvested, yield truckloads and truckloads of seed, and then leave behind wide open plowed fields which make the world seem so big again.

My kids are going to tell stories one day.  It will start something like this, "Do you know what my Mom - the goon - did the first year that we lived in Indiana?" 

Yes.  I deserve it.

I have been a goon.

I am the one who parked the van between a soybean field and a corn field in July and forced my kids to get out and take a close look at the two kinds of plants when they were just producing their respective fruits.

(They just had to know where the corn and the beans were growing so they could watch them get bigger and bigger!)

And, I am the one who stopped the van several times to take photos of the fields at all stages of growth.

And I am the one who stopped the van several times to take photos of the harvest in process.

And I am the one who stopped the van to pick up some of the spilled corn and soybeans, just so that everyone could see and touch the corn kernels and soybeans that came out of those fields.

It has been a blast!  (Although, I am not sure anyone else in my family would agree with that statement.)

Here's a photo of the incredible Indiana sky over a soybean field. 

A closer look at those rows of soybeans.

See the millions of bean pods hanging on those plants?  Who would have guessed these sprigs of brown would produce a huge harvest of soybeans?!?

But, they do.  Here is a Ziplock snack bag with some soybeans in it.

Then, there's the corn.  How could anyone look at corn in this state and wonder if the farmers got it wrong.  Surely there isn't anything good that comes from this brown mess!?!

But, here they are harvesting the corn. (I love, love, love the big machines! It is so fun to watch them work.)

Here is one of many trucks we saw on the side of the road 'filled to the gills' with corn.  And, we were under the impression that the drought killed all the corn.  I guess that's not the case.  (Although, we have heard the grade of the corn is not as high because of the drought.)

Those brown stalks grew this.  Corn kernels.  It's truly remarkable to think about how many ways these kernels will be used in our world.

I cannot end this blog without another photo of the incredible Indiana sky.

 
One thing we've learned:  when the fields are plowed, the big black icky spiders exit the fields and travel all over the place.  With only our neighbors across the street and their yard separating us from the nearest field, we've had our fair share of them at our door step.  Ick!   We are definitely living closer to nature now.

The harvest is 99% done now, but I am already excited for the next planting, growing and harvesting seasons.  I seriously doubt that I will ever get tired of it!