Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

Thanksgiving 2010 was spend with lots of cooking and then we were off to Tom's sister's home. We had a wonderful meal with lots of fun and laughter. We celebrated Sherry's birthday which is on Friday. Our daughter-in-law is high on our list of things we are thankful for. She is a wonderful wife and mother and lots of fun too. She is a dedicated Black Friday shopper and set out at 4:30 AM this morning. I can't wait to hear about all the bargains she will come home with later this afternoon. After the dishes were washed and the leftover food put away, we started on gingerbread houses. Everyone got into the fun. Anna made a traditional house but Jay's creation is a football field with gummy football players. No family gathering in our family is complete without some kind of physical activities. There is no explanation needed for the following picture. But I just can say that the older people still have it! I have so much to be thankful for. My family, my home ...

Good morning dear readers. I know I haven't written in ages so I'll try to catch you up on what has been filling our days. There have been lots of projects here at the farm. There was a huge tree behind one of our out buildings-the milk house-that was in danger of coming down because it was dying. We had a tree service take the tree down. It was a huge job that took them a long time. Now we have lots of wood to cut up. We hope to donate much of it to a nearby needy family. We have also installed new windows in the kitchen and bathroom. Next week the rest of the windows in the house are being replaced. Hopefully just in time before the snow arrives on Thanksgiving. We also had the plumbing updated and replaced the bathroom fixtures. Our neighbor, Travis Grummet, has done several projects for us including a new foundation for the garage. We then put a new garage door on. We had sidewalks laid at the back of the house, from the family room to the driveway and around the ...

Today is a cool fall day and when the sun is shining everything looks beautiful. Tom and I like to take a ride around the fields often. With the outside rows of corn picked, we have a road to follow and most times our rides are rewarded with lots of deer sightings. Today there were none. Bow season opened in Michigan on Friday so maybe the deer have been scared off. This is the back view of our new home. We have about 20 acres in corn by Butch Nordhof, a local farmer and long-time friend of ours. His crop looks great this year. He will be picking it as soon as he gets his soybeans harvested in the area. There are woods surrounding our fields. We frightened up a large flock of ducks this afternoon who were enjoying the water from all our rain. The woods are 'lovely, dark and deep.' The beauty of fall seems to be growing every day here on the farm. We're keeping busy every day with work both out in the schools and at the farms. The shot below is our kitchen drywalli...

Tom and I had a very fun day right before I had to go back to work at the schools. We started by visiting Rowsters Coffee. It was started by Stephen Curtis, the owner of our favorite spot for many years in Caledonia-Essential Bean. Stephen has opened a new coffee spot in Easttown Grand Rapids. We enjoyed our visit and Stephen whipped up great drinks for us. We then went into Grand Rapids for lunch at San Chez. I know there wasn't much time between morning coffee and lunch but we did walk around down town GR for a while too. The memory of that day will linger with me long into the cold weather. Since that time we have been working hard. I'm working in three school districts-Hopkins, Caledonia and Byron Center. I've had to set a more predictable schedule so I know where to go. Monday/Wednesday/Friday I'm in Hopkins. I split both Tuesday and Thursday between Caledonia and Byron Center. It depends on which teachers I will work with. Makes the week go by very qui...

We are at the cabin now and enjoying it even though it is very wet and cold. The National Weather Service is even giving a wind chill of 41 this morning. We're going to be outside all morning watching the Bells show their horses at the fair. I will be digging a winter coat of out the closet soon. We traveled up to the Soo on Thursday evening. Our plan was to avoid the heavy traffic of the weekend and it worked well. As we were coming close to Gaylord on Alba Road, we spotted this beautiful rainbow. I wonder if the farmer who works this big farm noticed found the pot of gold that must have been in his field. This is a u-pick strawberry farm that always looks so well-maintained to me. So I guess this field is a pot of gold for the owner. The weather has been really interesting since we got here. We arrived in a very heavy rainstorm on Thursday night. The rain continued off and on all during the night. Our yard is too wet to mow which it real...

We are back in Alto right now. I've been working a few days at my schools. Right now I'm working at four different middle schools. Hopkins, Byron Center and two in Caledonia. As I did last year, I'm working with teachers investigating ways to increase their students' achievement in reading and writing. But until school gets going in full swing, I'm doing lots of fun things. When we were up at the cabin two weeks ago, we attended the Boys and Girls Club Ping Pong Tournament with Mom and Dad. It was a fund raiser for their reading lab which my sister Susie runs through the EUP Learning Center. Here's Susie in the first round. She won her first round and had to face her husband Roger in the second round. I felt sorry for Roger because Susie is extremely competitive. It was a hard fought battle with the 2 of them. Roger won the first game and Susie won the second. The playoff game went to 24 -22 before Roger beat her. She didn't take it well. But it...

Since returning to the cabin our days have been fun. Some have been busy and some are simply relaxing. Thursday we took my mother and dad out to celebrate my dad's 82nd birthday. They are always a fun time. Yesterday was our time to work in the yard between the rain storms. One benefit of working in the yard of the cabin is that you have a great view while working. Here I took a short break to watch the Paul R. Tregurtha, a 1,000 footer, pass down the river. You can also see how well my flowers are doing in spite of the little care I give them. Last night we went to the Bay Mills Boys and Girls Club to attend the Ping Pong Tournament. We didn't play but sponsored some friends in this fundraising event. My sister's EUP Learning Center has put a reading lab there and this event was to raise funds for that. Susie & Roger both won their first round and ended up playing each other. That was fun because Susie is highly competitive and she hated eventually losing to ...