Knolltop Farm Wife

I met him when his father, Mike, became the pastor at our church. He was the same age as our oldest son and just as mischievous. When they were together on the farm, I never knew whether to be thankful they were outside and occupied or worried that they might burn the barn down. Let’s just say there were some broken barn windows because some young boys were having a rock throwing contest. Our families were close and I loved serving under his father’s leadership. His mom, Debbie and I spent countless hours in prayer over ministry and our families.  And when his father was called to shepherd a flock in Kentucky it was one of the most difficult losses I’ve endured outside of my family. Over the next few years they came back and pastored our church and then left yet again for Tennessee to serve a church and be closer to their family. Only this time Branden didn’t go with them. He stayed in Michigan, finished college, married and settled down. Today, he still attends the church w...

Our family gathered in Decorah, Iowa to witness the marriage of Emily Bicknese and my nephew, Tom Stene. We all stayed at the same hotel, we all ate together and had a great time running around after the great grandkids (my great nieces and nephews). When I wasn't busy making sure toddlers weren't crying, I tried to get a lot of photos. Not everyone is included in these photos....but again....I was running around after toddlers trying to keep them occupied.....so cut me some slack. (wink)

Today I don’t have a voice.  At least I don’t feel like I have one.  I’m not talking about a lack of vocal cords; my children can assure you that my vocal cords are working…just fine.  But as I sit here in front of a blank screen trying to come up with words that make sense and will be impactful to a reader out there, I have told myself at least thirteen times,” You have nothing to say today.” I know the reason:  I’m over my head in graduation preparation and I don’t want to take the time to think about anything else.  I don’t want to slow my roll. I’m headed into the downhill slide and the progress that I’m making is accelerating this journey and I can see the finish line.  I don’t want to check Facebook, I don’t want to cook dinner, I don’t want to contemplate one more thought about why I should take a stand about the obvious value of a human life over that of a zoo animal. My laundry room is waiting to be painted and there is a sapling growing i...

It's not Christmas without...... Fill in the blank. Traditions are part of what builds a family and Christmas is full of them.  When you open your gifts, the dinner you create, right down to which ornament goes on what side of the tree. It's all a part of holiday traditions.  On the Knolltop, I have managed to carry on a tradition that began in my childhood, on my home farm.  Each Christmas was filled with holiday baking.  My mom and sister would begin baking and end with pretty packages filled with home made goodies to give away to friends and relatives. Among those baked goods were Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls originating from the local church cookbook published in the late 70's. My sister made those one year and we haven't missed a year since.  While the recipe originated to us in 1976, the tattered recipe card is from the late 80s when wrote a copy for myself when I moved out on my own. For 39 years Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls h...

Good Afternoon from the Knolltop! I'm just sitting here in my office, in a very quiet house writing a few things and getting ready for my youngest son's varsity basketball home opener against Jonesville.  It should be a good game but this will be give us an idea of how the team will do this year. It's Jake's senior year, so I'm hoping they do well.  On the other end of the spectrum, my son Luke has been coaching 7th grade boys basketball and they are presently undefeated.  That's the first time the 7th grade has done this since Luke was in the 7th grade.  So kudos to these boys for their hard work, determination and desire to want to win. I'm kind of excited this week. I've been invited to be a part of a dairy bloggers community blog.  We were asked to blog about a Christmas recipe with dairy products in it. I just finished that blog and can't wait to see what the other bloggers decided to write about!  This will give everyone a nice collection of ...

It’s an October morning and harvest continues to roll on throughout the country.   I’ve seen reports of happy farmers finishing beans and moving on to corn. I’ve seen reports of neighboring farmers harvesting 450 acres of corn for their cancer-stricken neighboring farmer and last night lying in bed, I received a text from my son who was still in the field harvesting beans well after dark. It’s that time of year when passion and tenacity are at their highest and work ethics are driving men and women to stay in the field until the job is done.   Combines hardly get a chance to cool down, grain trucks comb the roads and full fields begin to take on their flat, brown wardrobe of winter. It’s time to fill up the bins, to convert feed to food and feed the world.   Farmers will trade in their sit down dinners at noon with family for solo sandwiches on the tailgate. They will swap time spent in the bleachers for time in the tractor cab. They will stay up late, rise up e...

Enjoying a morning of freedom from having to go anywhere or pack to go anywhere, I sat down to hammer out some more work for a project that was taking longer than I ever thought it would. Email notifications started going off on my phone, this isn't unusual but when I looked to see who they were from, my heart began to race and that old familiar friend began to creep into my mind. Fear. Fear likes me. He likes to control me because I've been easy to control. When he enters,  I bow down and serve him whatever he wants.  Condemning thoughts or destructive self talk, whatever fear wants, I hand control over to him.  He can have my self confidence, my thought life, my intelligence, my responses, my future, he gets it all, I give it all up to him. But today was different. Today I went to war with fear. Instead of trying to brush past fear and pretend he wasn't the elephant in the room, I stood up to him. Today, I took my Bible, flipped it open and began to re...