Days With the Duerksens

What do you do when it's too wet to harvest wheat and baseball games keep getting cancelled?  According to Chelan and Caiden: 1.  Watch YouTube video about "How to Make Rope" 2.  Rig up a contraption to twist twine into rope 3.  Make a rope! I can't even begin to fathom how their brains work - mine is definitely not wired the same way.  I couldn't possibly imagine watching a video and then actually carrying it out - all in one evening! They were quite pleased with their first attempt.  The second and third tries have been even better!  I have a feeling there may be many more father/son challenges these two take on! There are some gears mounted on that board, powered by a drill.  In this picture, they were twisting it manually.  

One of Cambry's birthday presents was a trip to "Color Me Mine" in Wichita.  Have you heard about this?  You can go into the store, pick out any piece of pottery you want, and then glaze it. They will fire it for you, and then it can be picked up a week later.  So fun!! We told Cambry she could take a friend along with her.  After a week of thinking, she chose her cousin!  I was so excited about this because this means that Cambry thinks of Addi as a friend and Addi actually really wanted to go (even though she's 5 years older). We had a great time.  The girls each painted a puppy and I painted a mug - which I am totally loving!  Addi gave great advice for colors and such - she's so artsy!  I would have taken pictures of the process, but my camera died when we got there (literally died - for good.)  So, I took a picture of the final product last Sunday at church when we were all together again! While Addi's puppy looks quite lifelike,...

Wheat harvest is underway, and while it will be a meager one, it's still an exciting time of year on the farm!  The wheat has been through everything this year: super, super cold conditions during winter and spring + a very dry March and April + extremely hot conditions in early May = not very good wheat.  But wheat has a way of surprising us - it's very hardy!  Maybe some of our yields will surprise us, too.  In the meantime, happy harvesting! (Thanks to my sister-in-law for these pictures.  My camera finally bit the dust). Ready for our first rides!

My kids are really lucky!

For a few months out of the year, my friend Amy and I dive right into preparing for Vacation Bible School - just one week out of the summer.  While stressful at times (a.k.a. trouble finding volunteers), it always feels worth it when we see the energy, enthusiasm, and excitement of the kids during the week! On Sunday, we wrapped up another year of VBS!  This year's theme?  "Weird Animals!"  A strange theme, but a fun one to work with.  While the kids learned about a few strange, real animals that God created, they also learned that Jesus loves all of us, no matter how "weird" or different we are.  Sunday morning (Children's Day) we enjoyed the kids' program and afterwards, they all had so much fun with a "weird animal" petting zoo, balloon animal creations, a bounce house, and even a water balloon fight! I am always so thankful for the many volunteers it takes to put on something like this.  There are people in our church who go above and...