Happy New Year!

Hey there my friend's, how was New Years day at your house? I have to say that after all the excitement and travel for Christmas our New Year was kind of quiet! My Son lives with his girlfriend in town and at the last minute our daughter decided to go out to her boyfriend's house for the evening! So except for our two little guys we were pretty much on our own. I know our kids have to grow up but last night was the first New Years Eve that our only daughter had not been with us! It was weird and it made my heart ache a little. Ok maybe a lot! So instead I threw myself into creating a little celebration 🍾 for my little guys. We watched movies and had snacks. Then they went to bed at their usual time. I also went to bed at my usual time. I don't go to sleep right away. I am usually on my phone, blogging or reading until I get sleepy. For me insomnia is a Fibromyalgia thing. I recently discovered the holy grail of Fibromyalgia, turmeric and unless the weather is changing, I have the pain mostly under control! There are still symptoms that rear their ugly heads! Like insomnia, or over doing which makes me feel sick and exhausted! But turmeric has changed my life! So since Gus's family ( daughters boyfriend) was celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve we took Christmas day! My Son Steven came out early to open presents with his boys! Believe me the boys got more than enough Christmas presents this year. Tom and I have talked about boxing some of it up to pull out later. There is so much, they almost don't know what to play with first! They, of course, got presents from us but also from Mom, Dad, DFS, and a group called fostering hope! We get little laminated quotes from this group and it never seems to fail, they

(Tom's brother Tim and his wife Wendy's place! They raise goats and Alpacas. Wendy is an expert at crocheting and she harvests the fur from her Alpacas and uses it for crocheting and knitting. Tim raises goats and corn 🌽 and soybeans on the family farm.)

always come on the exact day at the exact moment that I need to hear those words of encouragement! Truly a God thing! So back to Christmas! The day after Christmas we headed to Iowa and celebrated with my husband's family. It is a seven hour drive and luckily, this year our poultry barns were empty. The cows 🐄 still had to be fed for three days and the goats, dogs and cats! Our Son was unable to go with us this year so he offered to come out and check on things! But this is a farm and as Murphys law should state, when you live on a farm anything can and will go wrong at any time! Tom came into the 🏠 house about noon and announced that the trip was off, there was no way we were going, he had a busted pipe in one of his barns and we would be leaving too late and did we really want to travel that far with a 3 and 5 year old? I told him Sam and I had the van mostly packed. Nope we still weren't going! So after 35 years of being married to this man I had a hunch that maybe we just needed to wait him out. He got himself some lunch and sat down and wound down for a while. Then he started asking us, "Sam why do you even want to go to Iowa?" She said, "to see family, mostly cousins." She doesn't get to see them for a year at a time but also to see her Grampa and Grandma. She is the youngest of that generation! Then Tom asked me why I wanted to go because he knows his Mother and I don't always see eye to eye! I told him because after the Covid year we just had that I was afraid he would regret it if he didn't go and that if something happened to his parents he would never forgive himself for not taking the time. He thought about it for a while and then he decided to go fix his pipe and we would leave when he got back! So we went to Iowa! The boys were actually pretty good considering the long drive. I made activity boxes for them and they slept part of the way! Everywhere we stopped we wore masks and sanitized. We stopped at a little town in the Missouri Valley to eat at Subway and watched the most incredible sunset! It was almost like God put on a show just for us! We got there late like always and just had one day to visit and catch up with each other! The cousins played hide and seek in the dark and our little guys just fit right in! The adults played card games and I learned how to play Canasta! We had a good time! I slept most of the way home, the boys were restless, Sam was tired of them and we were so glad to get home. All the livestock and other animals were fine. The water pipe held, thankfully! Then just yesterday I was in the foyer with my youngest, Jeremiah and he saw a picture of Tom's parents! He said hey that's Great Grandpa and Grandma! He recognized them and he's only three but that's what it was all about. Making memories for the generations to come! We live in an uncertain world and we truly do not know what tomorrow will bring. We have generations behind us who are going to need to find a sturdy place to stand. We have to create that for them! That's what family traditions and memories are all about. They may seem like small things and I know they are different for every family but these are the things that make up the fabric of our lives!

Jeremiah!

FG Farm Girl

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Tim and Wendy's guard geese!

When we were first married this is where we lived! Almost everything is still the same except the old house is gone. I loved that old house! I guess because it was my first as a new bride! Then Tim and Wendy's cat, looks just like my Merlot!