Party Tree

 We missed the last three of D#2's birthdays as she was in Grabill for 3 and 1/2 years.  She decided to throw herself a Hobbit coming of age party (33 years old).  We hosted it under the party tree one fine evening in May.  Matt got the keg of root beer and brought fireworks.  Everyone pitched in to make and bring food, and we ended up with a real feast.  Baked Ham, Lamb chops, meat pie, and roast chicken graced the table.  Friends and family arrived, with many guests dressing the part, including some old and young. The weather cooperated and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. 

  

After everyone left, we got a text to be watching for the Northern Lights.  Sure enough, we could see faint purple streaks in the night sky.  The camera exposure captured it better than the eye.

We watched the next night also, but we didn't see them again.

Our whole family spent a Sunday in Burlington to celebrate birthdays and Seth Eberhardt's open house. We enjoyed the day in Burlington church.  After church even the kids enjoyed the models and toy tractors at the open house.  In the evening we had our meal and gift opening for the birthday kids.  Our youngest grandchild turned one.

 

After many weeks of rain delays, we finally had a dry week and were able to finish planting corn.  Immediately after finishing corn, I was out replanting the drowned out spots in the soybean fields.  I think that from the time I started planting soybeans until we were able to get back in the field to finish last week, we had 8 inches of rain.  The corn that I planted last Monday was already out of the ground as we drove to church on Sunday.

Sunday afternoon, we attended my aunt Shirley's funeral in Goodfield.  My Uncle Roy's first wife (Arlene) passed away after 25 years of marriage. Arlene wanted Roy to remarry (they still had a child to raise) and gave him a couple names she approved of.  God directed him to choose one of them; Shirley.  She stepped into a difficult situation, becoming a second wife, a mother, and a grandmother at the some time.  She faithfully fulfilled her duties and was a blessing to the family and the rest of us.  It was good to be at the Dells cemetery again, and we would have liked to spend more time walking around to visit the graves of so many relatives and people we know.  Funerals and cemeteries have a way of putting life back into its proper perspective.

And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;                          Mark 6:21