Dog Days..

Hi!

I'm tired!

In many ways shapes and forms...

Josey should be tired too, due to her lack of sleep for the past two nights, and her unwillingness to take a good nap the past few days.

I know my husband is so tired and weary. Gone ALL day some days, just trying to finish up harvest.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining... I'm just in a weird spot right now, and have to try really hard sometimes to "look UP", look at the positive, and keep going :)

Wanted to share what keeps me going in these "dog days of parenting and farming". One of my favorite verses! Always a good one to turn to.

Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 


We'll just keep on trucking! And, after seeing old pictures like this one... I wonder how I can even utter a word!

I am VERY thankful for modern farm equipment! What a blessing!

Beginning of Harvest

Harvest Photos

Casey taking a break one morning with Josey. She's learning to have a good eye for the best tractors! 

Casey cleaning off the combine with the blower. That job is especially fun on a windy day.

One of the tractors, John Deere is the way to go around here! That yellow pipe you see is loading the corn way up into the grain bin. Where corn is dried to the correct moisture then trucked into town. 

Casey seeing if Josey wants to climb up the grain bin for him. She wasn't so sure...

(I couldn't upload these next photo's any bigger)

One day we went on a little family ride in the combine. It was Josey's first time! She watched quietly with really wide eyes at what was going on. Josey seemed to like it in the end!

Josey hanging out by the old Mack farm truck.

Little scrunched nose face!

Sitting with Grandpa Ray! You can't tell he likes Josey at all, huh? :) Grandpa Ray just loves her! She's pretty much got him wrapped around her little finger.

Everything has been going decently well with harvest so far. (Yay!) Casey's still going back and forth to college in between everything. Josey and I have been holding down the fort at home, with occasional trips back and forth to the working men. Josey is getting about 3 more teeth at the same time, which is great fun (NOT). Poor baby! I've also had some awesome girlfriends visit this past week. It was great to catch up and have some girl time. Fall is our favorite time of year! I can't wait for all the gorgeous colors, baking pumpkin bread, making soup, and bundling up!

Kohrs Superhero Sandwich

In a recent conversation with my older sister we were tossing sandwich ideas back and forth.

I wanted to find ideas for meals Casey can eat while driving the combine.

(This is a combine ;)

After she read to me a recipe idea, we both stopped and said "Mmmm! Doesn't THAT sound good?" (we started licking our lips and giggling at each other) We read about a three layered french bread sandwich, each layer slathered in butter, then tossed in the oven.

Doesn't that sound good???

Both of us did decide that the recipe needed major modifications. There wasn't even cheese on the original recipe! I decided to make this for dinner last night. My sister's family sadly missed out, but were sent pictures to drool over.

So, this is what we came up with.... A Kohrs Superhero Sandwich!

What you need:
French bread
Butter
Lunch Meat
Cheese Slices
Caramelized Onions
Italian Dressing (or similar)
Oven Temp: 400 degrees

First, chop up your onion and place it in a pan over med-low heat with 2-3 tabs of butter. Then, cut about 4-6 inches off of your french bread, to make the size of your sandwich. Then, take your bread that you want to use for the sandwich and cut it into three slices horizontally.

Spread butter on the bottom slice and add meat and cheese. Take the middle slice and spread with (ALOT of) butter, and drizzle with Italian dressing. Place onto the bottom layer of the sandwich.

I decided to do one sandwich with Italian dressing and one with Spicy Ranch. Both were tasty! Now, place meat and cheese on top of your dressing. Take onions off of the stove and scoop them right onto the top of your cheese.

Now put the top of the sandwich on and spread with butter.

Wrap in foil and place in preheated oven on top rack for 15 minutes. I was nervous for how the sandwich would turn out. I thought that when I opened the foil I was going to have a huge mess inside. But surprisingly I didn't!

Here's a close picture of all the layers. Mmm Mmm delicious!

Casey's reaction wasn't bad either! I was told that the sandwiches were amazing the first bite. After the second bite, I got a DOUBLE thumbs up, and Casey said the sandwiches were a home-run!

The salad you see is from a previous post, you can find the recipe here.

I love having recipes like this that are so quick to make and taste so good!

Family Thoughts and Family Fun

The past week has flown by! We have been busy, and will start to get more and more busy in the weeks to come.

Harvest is on it's way! We might start next week. I don't think I will see Casey for awhile. He's going to school full time and will be spending every extra second he has in the fields. I feel like we are holding our breath. There is a lot of excitement, expectation, and unanswered questions hanging in the air. We've been watching the grain markets and weather all through the past season, the roller-coaster of prices up and down, the weather from dry, to wet, or windy. It's a weird feeling to have SO much put into the fields, and all the outcome is mostly out of our control. We just have to be patient. It really is not in our hands, it's in God's. Thank goodness for that! Because I (we) would be a nervous wreck. Farming has certainly stretched our faith in many ways. This time of year is interesting for us! I know Casey and his Grandpa are just itching to get in the fields!

We spent Labor Day weekend in St. Louis, with Casey's Dad and his wife. It was nice to get away and have a break before the craziness of harvest starts. We went biking while we were there. The men went on the technical mountain trails, while us girls went on the paved route. Josey was happy to ride in her little bike trailer. She is so cute and tiny in there! We put her boppy pillow behind her to make it more comfortable with all the straps. She talked to herself and looked out her little windows the whole time. I must add, that all this happy baby bike-trailerness was a slow weight that creeped up on me! And, I was happy to accept Tina's offer to switch bikes halfway through. I felt very out of shape. Ha! There was also a white haired, mustached, elderly gentleman that passed us a few times, which added to me feeling more out of shape. We really enjoy biking, and have to find some local trails we can go on. It's a really fun family activity!

As summer fades into fall. We are looking forward to cooled of weather, a change of pace, harvest, the gorgeous colors of the trees, baking, and of course hunting season!

I am going to try to make it a point to capture as much as I can on camera!