Farmers Appreciation Day Parade

The city of Dodgeville, where I was born and raised, is a small farming community.  For as long as I can remember every year they have a parade to show the farmers how much we appreciate all that they do.  This year is the first time where I've been able to bring the girls back to Dodgeville so they could experience the parade with me.  They had so much fun.

We met up with my friend Sally, her husband Ryan and their little girls. 

Color guard.

My sweeties watching the parade.

I love this picture.  Did you know that I used to be on the volunteer fire department?

A big 'ol John Deere tractor.

After the parade we went up to the local park for other farm related activities, tractor pull etc.  Here are the girls playing in a "corn" box.  Such a neat idea.

Moo!!

Please remember to keep the farmers in your prayers.  Here in Wisconsin we are having an extreme drought.  Some farmers have lost a third of their crops already.

Our fourth annual 4th of July party.

I am by nature an introvert, I recharge by being in a quiet spot by myself.  On the other hand I love to host parties and bring people into our home.  My husband likes to come home from work to a quiet house, so we don't get to host parties all to often.  But every year we host a 4th of July party and invite everyone we know.

I love the energy that gets produced when we are getting things in order for the party.  So here is a picture tour of the festivities.

I am really trying to get the girls involved in the house making part of our home.  Here they are decorating sunshine cupcakes for the party.

I made the girls these festive hair ties.

Teaching Mackenzie how to cook.

 I made these cake pops with the wonderful pan my mom gave me for Christmas.

My oldest brother, his wife and their two kids live in Nevada and were in Wisconsin on vacation during the week of the party.  I am so glad they were able to make it.  Here are some family pictures.

All the "Pflieger" grandkids.

My siblings with their spouses and kids.

 Back row: Big sister Angie, big brother Robert, oldest brother Roger.

Front row: Myself, little brother Roy and the baby of the family, Nanette.

 My best friend from Dubuque, IA, Elisha, surprised me by showing up for the party.

Say cheese!  With Pati and Julia.

 Fun with sparklers!!

Thanks for visiting today!!  Have a blessed Sunday!

Here is what we have been up to lately.

Sorry for it being so long between posts sometimes.  Life gets busy and by the end of the day I just try to sit and relax a bit.  So sit down, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the pictures.

We are certainly keeping busy with trips to the library almost weekly and time spent at the splash pad, pool, beach and park.  We are also making sure to get in some good playdates.  The girls love hanging out with their friends and I really love the fellow shipping I get with my mommy friends.

Katrina getting in some girly time with Mackenzie.

Mackenzie at the library.

Enjoying the cool library on a 100+ degree day.

I also took the girls bowling for the first time this summer.  We met up with the Klauer’s and had a blast.

Lexi and Adam waiting for the balls to come back.

Most of the group.

A really great memory for me is when I was able to take Kennedy and Mackenzie to the Madison Mallards game.  It was a very hot afternoon but we had an amazing time.  We enjoyed some good food, cotton candy and fun baseball.

Mackenzie started baseball as well.  It's not formal or anything, just giving the kids a taste of what the game is about.  She enjoys it sometimes.

All ready for her first game.

She was really good at the catcher position.

We also celebrated my little brother-in-law's high school graduation.  We are very proud of him for getting through this during a rough few years.

Christian, the new graduate.

Scott and his brothers.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  There are more coming.  We also went to a parade, had a Fourth of July Party and took a much needed trip up North.  But those get their own posts as they are quite long.

I want to be more of a Mary and less of a Martha

Well the title of this post says it all.  Lately, I’ve noticed that I’m busy doing things all the time.  I’m either taking care of the house, which is a good thing, cooking meals, another good thing.  I’ve been spending more quality time with the girls, another important thing. I’m currently working on some crafty things for an upcoming craft show to help my friend Greta raise money for a mission trip for her and her son.  I’m also working on some crochet hats to sell to help raise money for the Feed My Starving Children organization.

See…I’m busy doing, doing, doing.  I’m currently Martha

What I’m not so good at is just being.  Just being at the feet of Jesus and spending time with Him. I’ll be honest I can’t remember the last time I deliberately sat down and wrote in my prayer journal.  Even though I say prayers all day long in my head, and sometimes out loud.  I have no system for studying my Bible so I’ve been feeling like I’m not getting anything out of it.  I did find a post about a “system”one lady uses and I’m going to see if I like it.  I also printed off some prayer cards with 31days of praying for my husband.

One thing that makes me sad about not being more like Mary is that I’m not teaching my girls to be like Mary.  I know they are little still but they are learning by watching me.  And if they don’t see me opening my Bible and sitting at the feet of Jesus they won’t do it either.

I also need to work on getting the Word of God into their hearts.  I want to start with Psalm 23 and read it to them every night before bed.

The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.  He lets me rest in green meadows; he lead me beside peaceful streams.  He renews my strength.  He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.  Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.  You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil.

My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Not only will this get the Word into their hearts.  It will root its place in mine.  I need to make this my top priority right now.   I need to get out of bed early enough to be able to start my day with Jesus.

I did start "coloring" in my Bible today during nap time.  I really felt like I got more out of it.  Being able to illustrate what God was telling me.  I'm excited to go at it again tomorrow.

Things I'm learning

My mission this year is to become a better mom.  One of the ways I am doing this is by reading up on the subject of motherhood....How to take care of myself...How to take care of the kids....How to relate to them better....well, you get the idea.

Right now I am reading The 5 love languages of children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell.

This is a really good book.  The 5 ways that children view and receive love are -physical touch - gifts- words of affirmation - acts of service - and quality time.  Our girls are still young and the authors say that one isn't able to figure out the your child's primary love language until they are around 5 or 6.  One of the best ways to find out is to simply ask them.  

With this all being said I've been keeping these 5 things in mind this summer.  Today we went to the local pool.  The girls loved it.  The undivided attention from mom was just the thing they were looking for.  I wasn't concerned about how I looked in my "old lady" swimsuit.  I was just enjoying the joy in my children's eyes as we swam around in the water.

All in all, the girls don't care if the house is clean and sparkling, they just want their mom.  I do want them growing up responsible though.  So before heading off to the pool we all worked together to clean each of their rooms so I could vacuum them before lunchtime. 

I would love to show you pictures of the girls playing in the pool.  But there are no pictures to show as I was in the water with them.  Tomorrow we are heading to the beach and instead of sitting in the shade reading a book I'm going to be in the sand building a castle with them.  I'm really excited.

Morning coffee

Good morning everyone.  Last night I decided I was going to get up early, before the girls.  Well, the alarm went off and I hit snooze a few times.  But I actually managed to roll myself out of bed.

I turned the coffee pot on and threw a load of clothes in the washer.  Then I opened the laptop and started on some things that I never seem to get to.  It was so quiet in the house, the only sound was coming from the basement as the washer was filling up.

Now Mackenzie is home from the Other House and the girls are waking up.  I think if Scott doesn't have to run to work right away I might go to the gym.  Seems like it's been forever since I've been there and really need to get back to exercising.

Well, we are off to start our day.  

Enjoy your Monday!

Our Summer to do list

Summer is in full swing here and with that comes the busy days.  With Mackenzie being out of school I am trying to make sure we have fun activities to do to keep the girls from getting on each others nerves.  There are a lot of fun things on our to do list this year.  Most of these activities are free or nearly free.

Here is what we have so far:

• Our fourth annual 4th of July party
• Middleton Splash Pad
• Activities at the Verona Public Library
• We are also doing to Summer Reading program at the library
• Free kids bowling at Ten Pin Alley - I'm super excited about this one
• Mackenzie has t-ball practice every Monday and Wednesday night so the 2 youngest will get some good park time in during practice.
• Goodman pool - done on 6/26/2012
• Mackenzie's t-ball games start the second week of July
• $2 movie Tuesdays - I'm thinking we are going to see Tin Tin and the Lorax
• We are planning on getting up to the Chippewa Flowage at least twice this summer
• Fly kites
• Playdates, playdates, playdates. 
• Color with sidewalk chalk  

Kristen gave me some more great ideas that I'm going to add to the list.

• go to the zoo - we have gone to the local zoo, but want to go to the "big" zoo in Milwaukee too
  go camping(in your backyard too)
  fishing -Scott has taken Kennedy fishing once already
  go to the beach or take a hike at Gov Dodge 
• play in the sprinkler -this is an almost daily thing here as I try to bring our grass back to life
• make smores
• have a picnic in your backyard or at the park
• go to the farmers market -we did this on Saturday
• petting zoo -we went to one on Father's Day
• concert on the square or concert in the park
• pick strawberries - we accomplished this at the beginning of June
• go to a drive in movie
• have sno-cones or ice cream
• have a movie party
• catch fireflies
• family pictures -planning on taking care of this in the fall when all the leaves change colors
• read outside
• make up stories/plays
• build a "blanket fort"(that's what my girls call it lol) inside or outside
• go for a boat ride
• paint
• crafts/projects
• Sing silly songs

It may seem like a lot just looking at the list.  But we like to have options and will always have at least one no travel day where we don't even get in the truck.

Do you have any other fun summer ideas we could add to the list?