Snapshots of a Kansas Farm: marriage

Showing posts with label marriage. Show all posts

1. Lose weight - I am down 20 pounds since Christmas! I am not sure if it is noticeable, but I feel better! I have lost 8 lbs since starting my goal after Christmas!

2. Get in the best shape of my life - My elliptical and treadmill is still out of commission, but now we are waiting to move it into the basement when it is finished. Hopefully that will be done in the next month! Instead of working out inside, I have been taking more walks and even try jogging some! Unfortunately our exercise equipment is out of commission while the floor in My Purple Palace is waiting to be finished.
3. Eat healthier - I haven't eaten many more vegetables, but there is definitely an improvement in the quality of food I eat! I hope to eat more green beans and carrots this year! (Small steps for the picky eater)

4. Stay in touch with friends better - I think I have done better. I try to message or text friends occasionally to see how they are doing. There is still room for improvement. Now that we are grown up, my friends are scattered all over the state, country, and world. Facebook, texting, etc. help, but how often do we not take the time to actually have a conversation?
5. Keep the house ready for company at all times - The house is pretty clean right now. I might be getting the hang of this housewife thing! I currently have the house as clean as it can be for having one room completely emptied into the living room!

6. Do one load of laundry - This hasn't been happening, but I try to do just one load a day so I am not overwhelmed. (Thanks for the idea, Kelly!)

7. Do the dishes every morning - When I am home in the morning, I usually get the dishes cleaned. It makes the day so much better! It sure makes the kitchen feel better to have everything clean and put away!

8. Take a picture of something with my camera...EVERY DAY - This is probably my worst category. I rarely get my camera out for everyday life when I have my cellphone with me at all times. I want to have a record of everything that happens this year!

9. Learn a new skill each month - I have started making dishcloths, dish scrubbies, and coasters, as well as learned the ripple stitch. To practice sewing I converted to sewing my fabric strips together. Sometime this year I am going to tackle some curtains. :) I am going to learn a new crochet stitch or pattern and maybe pick up sewing!

10. Cook at least one new recipe a month - I don't know if I have tried a new recipe each month, but I have done my best! I am a picky eater so I tend to cook in my comfort zone.

11. Write more - I haven't found a pen pal yet. Anyone want a pen pal? I would like to start writing a letter with a friend, like a pen pal!

12. Finish our house projects - We have the purple room finished! The basement is about half done and the second bathroom is prepped for a new layer of mud. The work is being completed slowly. We have a long list! It is all written down and ready to have projects checked off the list.

13. Have an open house for friends and family when our house is finished - We still have a long way to go. I would love to get it all done this year, but I doubt that will happen. Goal for 2015? I would love to have my family and friends come up to see our house when it is finished! Be ready for an invite!

14. Get more involved in the community - I have gotten more involved through church and my barn quilt block classes. I love meeting new people! Vacation Bible School at our church this summer is being planned by a friend in the church and me. Hopefully it will be a success! We want to get more involved in the community and church this year!

And an obvious goal for life, cherish every day with Redbeard, Scraggly, Andie, and Custer - I have enjoyed every day with the four guys in our house! I am very lucky to call them my family! I must enjoy every day this year!

I finally finished my favorite crochet project to date! A little baby blanket (because it would take too long to make it normal size) in my favorite bright colors! Back in November I found an online sale on yarn. I have been wanting to buy Caron Simply Soft yarn in our wedding colors for awhile, but didn't want to spend the money on it. When the sale was on, I bought all the colors needed for this blanket.

Here it is!

I used Red Heart's Rickrack Rainbow Baby Blanket pattern for a guide and used my own colors. I am very happy with how it turned out! The only downside was the time spent on the project. It took me five months off and on working on it to complete. Now I am ready to work with a quicker stitch. :)

Up close on the pretty colors! :)

I added a purple trim to bring it all together.

Now I am working on another blanket with the remaining yarn. It will be made with the larksfoot stitch. I will share when I get more of it completed!

We got our new anniversary apple trees planted! One is Yellow Delicious and the other is Red Delicious. Our orchard consists of two pear trees and two apple trees now! Thank you mom and dad for our trees!

Redbeard did all of the planting for me. Thanks to him for doing the heavy lifting! I am so excited to see our orchard grow! Our orchard will double in the next month again. We have two Honeycrisp apple trees and two peach trees on their way! I can't wait to start harvesting fruit in a few years!

Planting apple tree one

Apple tree # 2 is in the ground!

Our pear trees are getting ready to grow a lot this spring and summer, or least I hope so! We are so excited to have a little orchard!

One of our pear trees from last year.

What other fruit trees should we add to our orchard?

Last weekend we made it to one year of marriage! It is hard to believe how fast time flies when you are having fun! We spent the weekend celebrating another marriage, my parent's 25th wedding anniversary. Somehow we managed to plan a surprise party and keep them out of the loop until they walked in on Saturday night! We had a blast spending time with my family and their friends. Over sixty people showed up to celebrate. Thank you to everyone who came!

Thanks to my aunt for making a barn quilt block on the cake!

We made them toast like 25 years ago!

The next day (our actual anniversary) we celebrated at Dairy Queen with my parents. Doesn't get much better than a chicken strip basket!

My parents got us two apple trees for our anniversary. They will look great next to our pear trees. The orchard is growing! There is some significance to getting apple trees. Our first dance song was "Hey Pretty Girl" by Kip Moore. In the song he sings, "plant some roots and some apple trees." My mom wanted to be clever and give us some apple trees to plant in our orchard. The trees are planted and a post is soon to come!

We are so happy to be a seasoned married couple of one whole year! We look forward to many years to come with each other!

So far the wood paneling in the basement has been transformed into primed walls. Now we finally get to put color on the wall! We decided to use Sawyer Ace Hardware's new Valspar paint line. They are low odor and no VOCs. There are two choices, Optimus and Aspire. Optimus is more expensive due to a higher quality paint. (I believe it is more pigment molecules?) I figured Aspire would be good enough for our basement, so that is what we decided.

The color we chose was Almond Sugar for the walls. As I have said on my recent post, How to Renovate Your House Without Going Crazy (Housewives of Rural America), the first brush stroke is always a shock. Our first impression of our new wall color was peach...far from what we wanted.

Redbeard painted some of the valleys of the wood paneling

White walls ready to be painted! Excited!

I love the wall color!

Just have to wait a couple hours to add the next coat of paint!

After this half of the room dries, I can work on the other side! There are so many things to think about when painting a room with existing furniture. What do you think so far?

As I mentioned in Working Through the Layers, one product out performed the other three I used. The product was Citristrip! I thought I would share what worked best for us when we were using the product.

The wonderful product!

1. Wash and dry the floor

2. The directions call for a light sanding before applying Citristrip. I didn't do any sanding and it worked great!

3. You are ready to spread Citristrip! I didn't have to apply the product thick for it to work. I used a paint brush to spread the orange goo out on the floor evenly. It is important to work with the correct area size. You have to be able to reach every inch of the treated area.

4. I sprayed the area applied with water right away and 20-30 minutes later.

5. After spraying the area for a second time, use a plastic scraping tool if working with wood surfaces. Since Citristrip works so well, there shouldn't be a need for anything other than plastic.

6. Wash the area off and you are ready to refinish the surface as you would like.

I hope your finished product looks at nice as ours ended up!

I will share the next step in our floor restoring project as soon as we get to it!

Good luck to any brave people attempting restoring wood floors!

It is a new year! Time to put goals on paper to forget or fail at, right? This year is different. (I hope!) I have goals and I intend to keep up with it! Will you join my challenge? Use my goals or edit them to fit you! I plan to give updates along the way.

2013 was a great year, let's make this one even better!

1. Lose weight - I have lost 8 lbs since starting my goal after Christmas!
2. Get in the best shape of my life - Unfortunately our exercise equipment is out of commission while the floor in My Purple Palace is waiting to be finished.
3. Eat healthier - I hope to eat more green beans and carrots this year! (Small steps for the picky eater)
4. Stay in touch with friends better - Now that we are grown up, my friends are scattered all over the state, country, and world. Facebook, texting, etc. help, but how often do we not take the time to actually have a conversation.
5. Keep the house ready for company at all times - I currently have the house as clean as it can be for having one room completely emptied into the living room!

6. Do one load of laundry - (Thanks for the idea, Kelly!)

7. Do the dishes every morning - It sure makes the kitchen feel better to have everything clean and put away!

8. Take a picture of something with my camera...EVERY DAY - I want to have a record of everything that happens this year!

9. Learn a new skill each month - I am going to learn a new crochet stitch or pattern and maybe pick up sewing!

10. Cook at least one new recipe a month - I am a picky eater so I tend to cook in my comfort zone.

11. Write more - I would like to start writing a letter with a friend, like a pen pal!

12. Finish our house projects - We have a long list! It is all written down and ready to have projects checked off the list.

13. Have an open house for friends and family when our house is finished - I would love to have my family and friends come up to see our house when it is finished! Be ready for an invite!

14. Get more involved in the community - We want to get more involved in the community and church this year!

And an obvious goal for life, cherish every day with Redbeard, Scraggly, Andie, and Custer - I am very lucky to call them my family! I must enjoy every day this year!

Join me on my year long journey to be a better me by January 1, 2015!

The room is cleared and the floors are washed! It is time to refinish the wood floors in my Purple Palace! Here is a peek of what the room looks like today. I am anxious to get to work, but cleaning up after Christmas comes first! I will settle for sharing the before pictures!

Floors vacuumed and supplies out and ready!

I am excited for all the scratches and imperfections to be history! Hopefully we know what we are doing!

My mom found grey curtains that work perfectly with the purple walls! Redbeard put them up for me and I love them!

My new curtains are finally up! Woohoo!

Next up I will share the products we are using to make my dream room complete!

For a look at the process, check out My Purple Palace.

I got this idea from a blog I follow, Red Dirt in My Soul. She says distractions come easy to her. She started setting a timer while cleaning for motivation. I thought to myself, "I am easily distr....oh look, my hot pink, orange, and purple shoes, aren't they pretty?" Now what was I saying? It is very easy for me to start one task and end up finishing something else instead. A few days later I wonder how I never got said task completed.

So how do you clean your house in nine minutes? Easy, set a timer for nine minutes and get to work. Each room has a time limit and when you hear the buzzer, it is time to go to the next room. I tend to get inspired under a time limit so it is hard for me to stop at just the nine minutes...even if I get to do it all over again tomorrow. I have added the nine minute "wildcard" time. It is nine minutes for me to go around the house to finish up any tasks I was in the middle of.

My bedroom and office piles from the bathroom

Purse pile!

When I start in a room, I immediately work on the clutter. This is the easiest part to get quick results. I make a pile system. Kitchen here, bedroom there, bathroom over here. By doing this, I don't waste time running from room to room. I can use the wild card time to pick up all the bathroom piles and put them away and so on with each pile. When the clutter is cleaned up, I start deep cleaning...washing countertops, toilet, coffee table, etc and organizing drawers and closets. The first day there isn't much time to deep clean. (If you are like me and have a lot of junk sitting around.) Tomorrow there will be more time to wash countertops and your house will start looking cleaner! I am amazed at the difference I have seen in the house in just a few days. I even do a timer for washing dishes. So far I have finished all dishes in nine minutes with time to spare. It doesn't seem as bad when you know you are only going to do it for nine minutes. I intend to keep this up for a long time! Plus, I have more time to crochet and craft, which lets face it, is all that really matters. ;)

I got everything put away and the counter washed off in nine minutes

The only Christmas decoration we have up...I have high hopes for more...we will see.

So, I can't clean my entire house in nine minutes, but I can clean my house in nine minutes x the number of rooms! Today I cleaned up the bathroom, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and made lunch after I got home at 11am. The food was ready by noon (with the help of the microwave on defrost.)

What housecleaning tips do you have? I am always looking to find a new routine for our crazy lives!

1. I am not super woman - No matter how hard I try I can not do it all. I feel like I should be able to keep the house clean, be active in the community, help out on the farm, and work on my hobbies, but I can't. Something has to give. Sometimes the house isn't as clean as I would like it to be because of everything else going on in my life. It is definitely a balance. I am learning to be okay with balance instead of perfection.

2. I get mad at the long days - I know, I know...I grew up on a farm, I knew what I was getting into, right? No amount of preparation can truly get you ready to marry a farmer. I will admit I had an idea, but an idea and real life are far from the same. It is hard when all the plans in the world won't guarantee a trip to town with your man. It gets easier as time goes by. I find things to keep me busy when the hours get long and thank God for every minute I have with him.

3. I don't mind getting dirty...as long as I have WORK clothes on! - I have never been accused of being a REAL country girl. I love participating in activities like working on the farm, hunting, and fishing, but I really like being girly, also. I suppose I don't let people see the "farm girl" side of me much. Most people see the dress and heels on Sunday morning kind of girl. I am learning to embrace my "farm girl" side. This starts with putting on Redbeard's hunting clothes and walking around the wilderness in oversized head to toe camoflauge. Would I rather be dressed in purple head to toe with jewels and sparkles all over? Yes, but somehow I think the deer would see me.

4. I cry...sometimes a lot - People who really know me, know that I am an extreme crier. Every emotion causes me to cry. I will let tear gush out of my face when someone I love has happy news and will share the pain with someone who is hurting. This is the way I was built. As I have matured, I have learned how to control my tears. Sometimes all the control in the world isn't enough to stop me from crying...and that is okay.

5. Life didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, but I do have the life I needed - I am a control freak. I LOVE to be in control. That is probably why I tend to get over-involved. I dive head first into activities. At one point in college I was taking 18 credit hours, helping teach a class, serving as president of three organizations, and trying to be a good girlfriend all at the same time. Redbeard told me I was crazy and I thought it was normal. This led to me taking a break from the craziness after college. I only planned a wedding with my mom, helped my dad on the farm, and prepared to marry my best friend for four months after graduation. When we got married, I decided it was finally time for life to be the way I wanted it to be. I would be this trophy wife, dressed up every day with full makeup catering to my husband's every need. That didn't happen. I take care of him, but I also take care of me. I never thought I would be sitting in north central Kansas as a stay at home farmer's wife, but I am sure thankful for the life I didn't know I wanted.

The farmer and his rural housewife. Obviously he has to cover up his beautiful red beard. :)

Redbeard has been dreaming of owning his own dog for almost a year now. He settled for our sweet little kittens for this long (which surprised me a lot), so I decided it was time to add a little puppy to the family.

He researched for months to find the right dog breed for us. RB knew that it would have to be a calm, loving dog for me and a good hunter for him. We settled on a German Wirehaired Pointer. We went to visit the closest breeder last Sunday and fell in love with one of the puppies. His given name was Cyrus. He was cute, cuddly, and calm. We both thought he was the one. We decided to think about it to make sure he would be the one and Saturday afternoon we picked him up!

Custer's first picture

Earlier today on their first solo outing

You will notice I said his name was Cyrus but this blog post is called Custer. That is because I am forgetful. I couldn't remember his name and kept calling him Custer instead. We both liked Custer better, so that is what his name became.

So far Custer has been a very good boy. He doesn't make a mess in the bathroom over night and he waits to go to the bathroom until we come get him. Today he rode along with RB and I when we were fixing fence. Custer rode along quietly and even took a nap.

Custer napping

He even knows how to retrieve his toy already!

Custer bringing back his toy less than 24 hours after we picked him up

We are excited to have our new puppy, Custer!

I have quite a few friends getting married and some have asked me what items I recommend putting on a registry. In the future I am going to start reviewing some of our wedding gifts. We received a lot of great gifts for our wedding. This will give me an excuse to use some of our favorite gifts and share them with everyone! This is the first of "Wyrill Wedding Wins!" Warning: These will be my own views on products and there will be a lot of purple. Let the purple begin!

Jake has been begging me for days to make him some chili. I am not a fan of soup. Like I usually say, "I like to chew my meal, not drink it." Call me weird, but for the most part I only tolerate soup if a crazy amount of cheese is involved. In order to keep my status as Jake's best wife, I made chili to warm him up after his afternoon deer hunt. I decided again today to stay inside versus braving the cold.

Instead of using my usual pan to make chili, I decided to try out my purple 2.75 quart dutch oven. Since it is smaller than the other pot, I figured this would keep me from making too much chili. I made the decision to use the dutch oven from start to finish. I have never used one before so it was a good learning experience.

First I browned the hamburger. The instructions said to coat the bottom of the pan with oil and warm for about two minutes. I was concerned about the amount of liquid in the hamburger at first, so I added a little bit of water. The meat browned up nicely after warming up.

After the meat was browned, I added a can of tomatoes and chili beans. I also added Kroger recipe starters chopped onion, chili powder, and corn. Anyone who really knows Redbeard knows that the way to his heart is with cube steak (made it for lunch), corn, and potatoes. So corn in the chili and baked potatoes on the side.

Here is the final product! Redbeard came by and approved of my surprise. He is excited to have a bowl of chili when he gets back from hunting.

As for the dutch oven, I am impressed! When I make a meal that has ground beef in it I will use this again. I am sure there are people that are going to say, "She has never used a dutch oven?" Yeah, I grew up on grilled cheese, cheeseburgers, and steak. What can I say? I am an extremely picky eater. Now I can say I have used a dutch oven!

As I write this post we are hiding in a row of bales. (Shhhh...don't tell the deer!) We are hoping to get our first good shot together. Redbeard has had a few opportunities to shoot at a deer, but I haven't yet. Of course I need to be a lot closer to the deer than Redbeard.

As you can tell Redbeard was being a little bit grumpy at the time of this picture. For now we stand between the bales and wait. This is a good break for us from my barn quilt block priming and RB's electric fence installation.

After the hunt analysis: Now that we are back inside and reflecting on our hunt, I will tell the stories of the November 14, 2013 bow hunt. It was an exciting experience for me! I had a shot at two does twice. I drew back to shoot one of them the first time and at the same time a truck drove by and they ran away. I was lucky enough to hide behind the bales again and the same deer came right back to the area and I had another shot at her. Unfortunately I shot too low and only gathered a few hairs on the arrow. Better luck next time I guess!

Time flies when you are having fun! It has been seven months of marriage happiness for Redbeard and I! Today's post is in honor of Redbeard, my loving husband. The reasons I love Redbeard.

1. He may appear to be grumpy a lot, but he really isn't. Jake cheers me up when I am sad and makes me laugh when I am mad. He is there for me when I need it. This fall we started bowhunting deer. He has said multiple times that I will get the first shot. How sweet is that? I just hope I can make him proud!

After long days in the combine, he still finds a way to have fun! We had just seen three bucks...BUCK FEVER!!!!

2. He is a smarty pants! Redbeard was always my first choice for help during college. I figured if he didn't know the answer I shouldn't feel bad for not knowing. Of course he almost always has the answer to my questions.

K-State had just scored a touchdown. The excitement is justified.

3. He is down to earth. Redbeard keeps me grounded. When I am unreasonable he tells me. I can be hard to get along with and he just deals with me. I seem to be in a better mood as soon as he walks in the door.

Our awesome aprons. Thanks Tony and Christy!!!

This November I am very thankful for the man I have for life.

Snapshot #5 - Grain for Gold Snapshot #7 - Wheat Growing on the Farm

It is November already! Where has time gone? It seems like I just started this blog, it has already been two months! What better way to celebrate our two month blogiversary, than with a new blog series? I will be posting a new photo (or two, maybe more) each day with a story to go along with the picture. My plan is to have most pictures be taken the day they are posted. I have no plans for the future, just that you will see a snapshot of our lives everyday! Today's picture is an introduction to our lives for any new readers!

First disclaimer: My husband is Jake, but I call him Redbeard. It is obvious when you see him. He has the most ~~beautiful~~ MANLY, bright red beard. (Don't tell him I called his beard beautiful!) Redbeard and I met at K-State in the department of agronomy. We were engaged April 21, 2012.

He proposed when I was wearing my "I kissed a farmer and I liked it" shirt.

Disclaimer #2: Redbeard also goes by the name of Grumpy from time to time.

We were married April 6, 2013 and he actually smiled! One day that he wasn't actually grumpy!

Look at that beard and smile!

On September 1, 2013, I started a blog about our lives. I wanted to give friends, family, and followers a chance to see what was going on in our life since we moved three hours from where I grew up. We moved to his family's farm and Jake farms full-time. I help out when I am needed and have many hobbies; crocheting, home improvement, bowhunting, and barn quilt blocks. I also started some farm photography, hence the name of our blog. These are a couple of my favorites!

This was taken on a Sunday morning. What a beautiful sight to see before church.

Sometimes running around the field like a chicken with its head cut off turns into the perfect picture. The men didn't think I was quite as weird when they saw the finished product!

And our pride and joys, Andie Catz and Ricky Scraggs. They are our entertainment throughout the day. They are ornery and get into everything, but at least they eat all the flies in the house.

Andie (left) and Scraggly (right) love each other! They are full brothers and the sweetest cats I have ever owned.

I encourage anyone who hasn't been to our blog to look around and enjoy! For a complete list of my 30 Snapshots of a Kansas Farm posts, check out 30 Snapshots of a Kansas Farm.

What pictures would you like to see over the 30 days?

Snapshot #2 - The Best Doggie Ever

It is official! I have joined the bowhunting world! My obsession with bowhunting started when I was very young. My dad and aunt have been bowhunters for a long time. When I was little I would admire the deer that my dad shot with his bow. I always wanted my own bow and dreamed of shooting my first bow killed deer.

Redbeard got a bow about nine months ago and that made me want one even more! I never thought it would be possible for me to have an adult bow because I am so weak. I figured I would have to be able to pull at least 45 pounds before I could get a bow. A couple weeks ago, Redbeard started investigating my options. Well...he found one! I am now the proud owner of a Mission by Mathews Craze bow! It can be adjusted from a 15 to 70 pound draw weight. My starting draw weight is 35.5 pounds. I was shocked that I could pull back that much weight. My draw weight goal is 45 pounds. Maybe one day I will get that strong!

My first bow!

Shooting my new bow!

A week and a half ago Redbeard and I went to Cabelas and found the ground blind that we will be using to hunt deer and turkey. We are excited to get out in the elements and hunt!

We decided to see how the blind looked, so we set it up in the living room.

Scraggly decided to get in on the action!

The blind is ready for a hunt!

Can you see me?

I was really excited to check out the blind!

Hopefully I will be able to have a little bit of success this fall and winter!

As I made the transition from farmer's daughter to farmer's wife, I realized how many lessons I had learned from my dad and Redbeard. It wasn't always easy being a farmer's daughter. I knew it wouldn't be easy, even with my experience, to add farmer's wife to my titles. Becoming a farmer's wife will change you. Jenny Dewey Rohrich wrote about the experience in one of her latest blogpost, 10 Ways Marrying a Farmer Will Change Your Life. If you haven't already seen her story, you should check it out!

The farmers and their women

Here are the life lessons I have learned from the farmers around me.

1. Patience - As a child I was the opposite of patient. I have learned that patience is an important part of life and especially farming. The crops are never ready when you need them to be or they are ready too soon and everything else has to wait. Unless of course it rains or the combine breaks and the only part that can fix it is 500 miles away. The farmer is a very patient person. He/she has to wait to cut the best soybeans they have ever seen until they are dry enough. Or sometimes it goes the other way, the crop is so bad that they just want to get it over with. It does no good to give in to the excitement or disappointment, the farmer must prepare for the harvest whether it is one day or two weeks away. The farmer doesn't know when the crop will be ready. It all depends on the weather.

2. Be thankful for the weather - It doesn't matter what you have planned for the day, it seems like the weather ruins it. When I was in college, I hated when it would rain on my way to class. At the same time I would be rejoicing if it were raining in Alta Vista. It became so dry that I started to wish for rain, even when walking to class. Of course when it did start raining and it kept the farmers out of the field, we wanted it to be dry again. My dad tries not to complain about wet weather (no matter how much he wants to get back in the field) because as soon as it stops, rain will be back on our minds.

3. When someone is short with you, it doesn't necessarily mean they are upset, they are probably just busy - I have always been the sensitive kind of woman. The one you see on tv shows that cries at the drop of the hat. I am saying, EXTREMELY emotional. So when I would call my dad and he cut me off right away, I took it personally. I thought it was an attack on me. I didn't realize the actual reason until I started helping my dad on the farm. When someone would call me in the middle of something, I couldn't think straight enough to talk. I would cut them off and move on without thinking I had hurt someone's feelings. I reflected on those moments and it hit me. I am NOT the problem, it was just a bad time. Since then I have learned to have brief conversations with my dad and Redbeard. If they are busy, the conversation is short and they can call me back at another time when they are less busy.

4. Enjoy every second of life - Life is too short to worry about little things. (I am reminding myself of this every single day.) Farmers have something go wrong almost every day. Whether it is a broken part or an untimely rain, something goes wrong. But you don't see every farmer in America holding their head low. Why is that? They enjoy what they do and cherish every moment.

Take this day for instance, the day I graduated from college. My parents were no doubt thinking, "how is our child this old" and "oh my, next thing in her life will be marriage." What I see, is my parents enjoying the day and thinking, "YES!!!! No more college tuition for us! Oh yeah, and good job graduating kid." They were enjoying every second, even if it was a little scary for them to see me grow up.

And our wedding day when my parents were thinking, "we don't have to pay her insurance anymore!" It was a wonderful day, but I know deep down they were in shock at how fast this day had come. They still enjoyed the day, even though it was scary.

And Redbeard, who thought this was the last time he would have to smile for a picture. Boy do I have him fooled. :) He enjoyed every second, (even if he won't admit it) and the day was great!

5. Don't let plans get in the way of your life - The life of a farmer is crazy and the family doesn't escape from the busy schedule. I have always been a planner. I had all these plans for my life and somehow my life managed to be exactly how I didn't plan. When I was 14, I wanted to be an accountant and get away from the farm. In high school, I fell in love with agronomy and decided wheat breeding is what I wanted to do with my life. At the same time I fell in love with being the official swather operator. I was going to attend Kansas State University, major in agronomy, and go on to get my Master's and PhD. I had a wheat breeding internship and found out I was allergic to wheat. Instead of becoming a wheat breeder, I started dating a fellow agronomy student. He was everything I wished I could do with my life, but I didn't know it yet. It was never an option to go home and farm with my dad. The man I fell in love with asked me to be his very own housewife! I would get to cook and clean (okay, this wasn't the perk) and be involved on the farm! At that moment I finally let go of my obsession with planning and decided I should go with the flow.

As a woman, I have plans for the day, week, and my life. As a farmer's wife and daughter, I realize that some of those plans will not work out the way I wanted. I might have to take that trip to town tomorrow instead, so that I can drive the men from field to field and save them time. I am okay with that...now. Without becoming the wife of a farmer, I wouldn't have learned that lesson. I have learned to let go of the control I had over my life and let God guide me where I am supposed to go. Or at least try to! It only took 22 years!

6. Hard work pays off, even if it doesn't seem like it - Farmers put their blood, sweat, and tears into what they do. It is more than a job, it is a lifelong choice. They work hard every day, from sunup to sundown, even when it seems like they aren't getting anything done. I don't know how many times I hear my farmers (dad and Redbeard), talk about what they tried to fix during the day and it still wasn't fixed. These days seem like a waste. When the breakdown is finally fixed and they are harvesting the crop, they realize it wasn't a waste of time. They are able to take a safe, reliable, and abundant food supply off the land and feed people. I believe that is what makes farming worth all the ups and downs.

7. Never be satisfied enough that you stop trying to improve - Farmers are innovative and look for a way to increase yields while decreasing the impact on the ground. They feel that there is always room for improvement. My parents pushed me to be the best that I could be. I believe that came from my dad's constant desire to improve his farming operation. Goals are important for a farm. In order to continue to improve, it is good to have an idea of what you want to accomplish.

Our very first picture together! (As a couple)

The day we got engaged. Ironically, I was wearing my "I kissed a farmer and I liked it" shirt for the first time!

As you can see, I have learned many life lessons from the farmers in my life. I can't imagine where I would be today without them in my life. My parents and husband have shaped me into the woman I am today. I am so thankful for their love and support, and especially those life lessons from a farmer.

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