..."2nd Annual Peterson Prairie Camp-out..."

The fellers and I have been on a prairie sojourn. We drove the 16+ hours to Grandma's little house on the prairie; pit stopping in Kansas City for the fellowship of a couple 'dear young' friends & mentors.

Spring has sprung on the prairie.  Last spring break, the fellers packed their pup-tent & sleep cells. They wanted to camp out in Grandma & Grandpa's wind break... they felt deprived from their lack of camping in Indiana.  Last years camp-out brought a morning waking up to a frosty tent... 23 degrees, and a second night in nature we endured 50 mile-an-hour winds, blowing the canopy off.


This spring has been unseasonably warm in the Midwest, when packing we had to trade shorts & tank tops for the usual jeans & sweatshirts. The night before our departure, the fellers loaded their camping gear into the land yacht.


The morning after our arrival at the grands, the fellers got everything set up.  They rested in their sacks (that's comparative to a snake in a pillowcase), set up and swung in Grandpa's portable hammock.  They were ready for their evening in the great outdoors.


That afternoon my mother, sister and I hosted a baby shower for my brother's wife, anticipating the arrival of our little McBaby this summer.  The fellers got hauled to the cattle pasture to work on putting up fence.  They returned in the late afternoon, sun & wind burnt.... tuckered out. After feasting on Grandpa's BBQ and left over baby shower cake, they were rejuvenated & wanted to camp.

The camp ground they had so carefully made had been blown over by the high Kansas winds.  We un-steaked the tent, drug it to the north end of the house hoping it would act as a wind break and prepared to camp.  The shortest feller was so pooped out he drifted off to dreams as soon as his head hit the sod.  The tall one is the worrier.  He worried about the wind.... hearing a coyote (which was actually a squeaky nearby oil well), thought he heard footsteps ( the farm guard dog just keeping tabs on us).


To calm him and slow the gears of his brain I engaged him in chatter.  We talked about life and dreams... until finally he said, "Ok mom, I've had enough talking." And he drifted off to dreamland as well.


I took a Lunesta to try to catch some shut eye.  The Western Kansas wind picked up.... it flapped the tent all night.  It is no wonder all of my bedtime dreams & childhood memories are extremely windy!


The fellers slept through sunrise, the morning greetings of the meadowlarks... not arousing until 7:30 a.m.


The tent looked like a refugee camp.  Everybody was cockeyed in their sacks, caddy-corner on the airmatress' we shared.


The next afternoon I asked the taller feller if they were going to campout that evening.  "Na, I think I need a good nights rest tonight,"he retorted.


The last few weeks have been some of the toughest for our family... on the fellers, the hubs & me.  I am on the road to recovery, seeking the Lords healing for the wounds.  Our prairie campout reminds me that if we rest fully in the Lord, we will see the joy in the morning.

Psalm 30:5

New International Version (NIV)

⁵ For his anger lasts only a moment,
   but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
   but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Life is about enjoying the small stuff.... about finding the joy in the journey & appreciating the little things, because one day when I look back they will be the BIG things.

..."spring has sprung..."

To rouse the fellers I sing... "Good morning, good morning, good morning today." As I open their room-darkening-blinds.

Some mornings are ugly at our house, so I try my hardest to sprinkle them with kindness to boost the moral.

This morning, March 20, the short feller declared, "Today's the first day of Spring... due to it being a Leap Year & the speed at which the earth rotates on it's axis as it revolves around the sun... Spring starts one day early this year."  ... our little Einstein.

So we're going to have a Celebrate Spring Day this afternoon.  When asked what kind of after school snack they would like, the short feller replied pie... cherry & pumpkin (a boy after his father's heart). The tall feller requested, cookie dough ice cream (a boy after his Grandpa's heart).

Everyone at our casa has the glow spring brings.  The birds have returned to the woods, chirping up a storm as I let the mutts out at
5:30 a.m.  The Mutts are sunbathing on the deck as I type, tuckered out from their morning wrestling match.  The cats are lounging around, rubbing their pheromones on everything.... I even found a todd while weeding a flowerbed last evening.

How are you saying good bye to winter and celebrating Spring?  Are you cleaning out closets, donating your cast offs to the needy?  ... getting outdoors to walk or exercise? ... washing the windows inside and out?  ... pulling the "weeds" out of the garden of your life?


Spring is a time of renewal.  A time of birth... rebirth.

After I walked the dogs and came in the house to brew some coffee, I felt something crawling on my hair... a lady bug had hitched a ride.

Take some time to listen to how the Lord wants you to celebrate spring .... He has invited you to hitch a ride for eternal life...
... bloom into what He has in store for you.

..."what happens @...stays @..."

What happens at Grandma's ... stays at Grandmas. Or in the fellers case this week, what happens with grandma visiting ... stays between them.

The hubs and I are out of state on business... learning how to better feed America. Catching up with business associates who have long ago become friends.

Notice how the mutt's have trampled my lawn!

The morning after the grands arrival, (delayed flight, & we rolled in at 2:00a.m.) the fellers set the woods on fire.  An innocent mishap... the hubs lets them use his plumbers propane torch to make little camp fires at their fort.  They had started a fire in our metal fire pit, were adding large cardboard boxes for kindling (from the weeks Costco, hunting & gathering). There was a slight breeze... a chunk of ignited cardboard became airborne & landed in the dead-leaf-encrusted-woods-floor....

I thought it was comical; taking a picture for facebook.... then it started to spread.  Grandma advised I grab a bucket... the hubs came running out in shorts & knee high rubber waders.  We unrolled the winterized garden hoses and extinguished the flames.

Before our departure the short feller inquired, "Are we still grounded from fire?"

Yes .... and all testosterone related contraband.... pocket knives... BB-guns...
Honda 50 motorcycle... go-cart ... AND of course fire.

Grandma has been loving her grad-fellers through food.  Fried chicken & mashed taters the first night... monster cookies today...

When we first moved to Indiana, 14 hours & 4 states away from Grandma, my mother sent me a newspaper clipping of a Family Circus cartoon.

I've kept it on my fridge over the pat 8 years.  It's caption reads, "Grandma's coming for a sleepover!"

It stinks being so far from family.  The fellers only get to see their grands a handful of times a year, but absence DOES make the heart grow fonder.

My boys get to have their grandparents on their own turf & to visit the grandparents each summer for a week or so at their home.... with out the hubs and I around to boss everyone.

If we lived in the same state, the sleepovers would be shorter... not the treat they are to us.

We stay in touch via FaceTime chat most Sundays (a tradition my folks adopted 19 years ago when I left for college, to check in once a week to make sure I was still breathing.)

We return home tomorrow.... it'll be cute to hear the stories unfold over the days following.  The hubs hopes the house is still standing... I hope that the fellers & more importantly Grandma ... are still breathing.


Proverbs 10:1
New International Version (NIV)

Proverbs of Solomon

 ¹ The proverbs of Solomon:

   A wise son brings joy to his father,
   but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.

..."I love rock & roll..."

..."I love rock & roll..."

Our eldest feller turned ten recently. We don't subscribe to the "too
much to muchness" our culture has placed on birthday parties. We have
dinner as a family, the fare being what the birthday boy requested, and Dairy Queen cookie dough ice cream cake.

We also have a tradition of allowing the fellers to invite a few friends to join us for a guys night out (mom as a tag-a-long). They get to pick the place to dine & an activity to partake in.... Movie at the theatre, bowling, bounce house.

When the short feller had his guys night out a few month back, a blizzard hit. Making the masculine crew home bound. We Treager grilled pizzas, rented "Dolphin Tale" on appleTV .... & they had the best
night ever!

To celebrate a decade of our oldest's life, we splurged....

We rented the local roller rink and invited the whole class, plus a
few families we enjoy the company of, to skate .... AND Grandma & Grandpa made
the trip from the prairie to attend.

I had fallen going down the stairs a week before and bruised my
tailbone.... I didn't think being pulled to the ground on skates
sounded like a good idea.

The hubs, three mom friends, two kid sitter friends and another dad,
plus 38 kiddos laced up and hit the rink. They skated their hearts
out, falling a bit to start out, but smiling and laughing the whole
afternoon.

The kids requested their favorite tunes..... "YMCA"... 
"We Will RockYou"... "Ring of Fire"..... & my personal favorite 

 "I Love Rock & Roll."


On a recent trip to school one morning, my youngest was singing along to my favorite play list..."Put another dime in the juice box, baby." He belted.

Hearing an old '80's tune brought me back to my youth. When I was a 1st grader, the age of my youngest, my friends and I would swing on the swing set, and belt out Joan Jett's lyrics.  We didn't care how we sounded, how we looked, or who was listening. We were just enjoying ourselves.

Watching my son and his classmates, hearing songs from my youth, reminded me:
... the joy is in the journey!

At some point in our adolescence we forget that. We loose the joy and let what others say hurt us.... to let negativity permeate our self esteem.

Yesterday, for two hours, all the classmates were joyful.... they were
equals... falling down, laughing, smiling... 

Enjoying the joy of the journey.

I've declared skating to be good for the soul (as long as your body
can hold up). Not one person was frowning, grouching, 'putting down' or belittling
with roller skates on their feet.....

2 Chronicles 30:23 ......"they celebrated joyfully."


P.S. (post script, after original release)-We devoured the most delish birthday treat... mom mom used to make these & I enlisted a baking friend... their are actually red velvet cupcakes!


P.S.S.-In loo of gifts we asked the kids to bring shampoo & laundry soap to donate to Open Arms Women's Homeless Shelter that our church opens up Wednesday night for them to sleep over.  Look at God's goodness in this loot for the ladies!!!!!

..."caterpillar..."

The fellers are both outdoors men. The tallest feller more so than the short one, but he lets his big brother drag him outdoors.

I am a science teacher at heart, finding an experiment in all things.

I recently saw an idea on pinterest to take the top of a pineapple, plant it in a pot, and grow a fresh pineapple.

My oldest son loves to help me chop fruit, watermelons in summer, pineapples... I think it is using a serated knife that makes this task, I dread, fun to him.

He helped core & chop the pineapple.  We retrieved a terra cotta pot from the woods, I had winterized, last fall by tipping upside down, and planted the pineapple top in it.  I had a little patio garden last summer, mixed greens, chives, green onions, and herbs.  Interestingly, the mini-green onions that had been in the pot are still growing next to the pineapple.

The shortest feller found a caterpillar on an unseasonably warm winter day.  It was crawling on the brick wall on the stairwell to our basement door.  My son gently scooped it up and placed him in the pineapple/mini-onion pot.

My youngest son named the caterpillar "Lil' Guy." It has lived in the pot in our basement for over a month.  Every day he checks on it, making sure "lil' guy' is still with us.

One morning, we couldn't find him.  A few moments later my son exclaimed, "He's over here." The caterpillar had crawled 15 feet over towards the night light illuminating the stairwell. My son scooped him up, put him back in the pot... where Lil' Guy has remained.  A habitat in a pot, in our basement.  He crawls from pineapple sprout over and amongst the onion fronds.  He seeks higher ground when we water the pot, atop the bristly pinapple leaves.

We're nearly 3 weeks into the season of Lent, 13 of the 40 days.

Lent reflects the 40 days Jesus the Messiah, spent in the desert.  He was tempted by Satan, but used the time of solitude to submit & obey His Father.

Lent takes place the 40 days leading up to Easter, the resurection of Jesus.

Lil' Guy has me thinking... how long can/will he survive in our basement without fresh air and only 3 daylight windows.  How long can a caterpillar live with out the sun?...

How long can we live without the Son?

Lil' Guy reminds me of my walk as a believer.  I get cozy in my habitat, comfortable in my surroundings.  Then I start to crave time with the Lord... just like Lil' Guy crawled to the night light, craving it's light.

We like the caterpillar may recluse, we may wonder, but eventually we seek out the Son.

Are you spending these 40 days:
Giving something up?  Reflect on Jesus' sacrafice for you...
Doing something beneficial?  Focus on how it can strengthen you for His glory.,,

I wonder when Lil' Guy will spin a crysalis?  To begin the journey of changing for the better.
How long then before he emerges as a new creation... metamorphosized into what God intended for him to be all along.

Are you like a caterpillar, inching along on your journey?
...waiting for the Lord to scoop you up?
...longing for a new beginning?

Li' Guy reminds me that we are made new ... if we just choose to believe.

..."labor of..."

A decade ago....
After 2 weeks of bed rest
(due to gaining 13 pounds in 12 days of water retention)...
Being induced 11 days early to ward off pre eclampsia...
After 23 hours in labor...

A gorgeous brown eyed child of God was born into this world. He tipped the scale at 9lb. 8.5oz. His height rivaled that of Grandma's at 23inches tall.

Our dear sweet boy had aspirated fluid... had a low APGAR score... his lungs were suctioned.

Due to this, and the scratchiness it left in his throat, our gigantic newborn wouldn't eat.

What a long night it was, exhausted from labor... wracked with worry about his blood sugar dropping.
During the middle of the night, he was placed int the NIC Unit.  He looked to big compared to the other little 'peanuts' occupying warming beds.  A feeding tube was inserted to give his large frame the sugar & nutrients it needed.  24 hours later, we was fine... not breast feeding, but fine.  I had a little cry, my hubs called our pastor's wife, a former OB nurse, in dispaIr.  She advised, "It's normal for her to cry, and the baby will eat when he's hungry."  I kept thinking, Mary the mother of Jesus did this... how hard can it be?

Being the problem solver I am, once home I became a milk cow.  I would pump milk for each feeding & feed my son with a bottle.  I continued this labor of love for 6 months.  FYI, ice cubes are about 1 ounce. I froze milk in ice cube trays. I would then plop the amount of cubes he needed for a bottle in to thaw.

A decade has now slipped by.  I praise the Lord for ten health years.

When the Lord made me a mother, I embarked upon the toughest job I've ever faced.  I recently asked our pastor's mother (our pastor is wrapping up 4 weeks teaching in Ethiopia) if the worry of being a mom ever dissolves.  She replied, "No not really, it just becomes different. You learn to pray a lot, and trust in God."

OK pray... check
Trust in God... check, sort of ...

You see I trust... then I reel it back.

When I am trusting in God, I am able to love & enjoy my son more fully.

The Lord blessed me with His amazing creation.

He has...
a big kind heart...
gorgeous big brown "M&M" eyes..
gigantic gappy grin...
the ability to never know a stranger...
my genetic vitiligo...
huge loud feet (let me know when he's comin').
a beautiful singing voice...

Psalm 133:13-14
13..."you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
   your works are wonderful"...

He can...
tell amazing stories (future writer?)
make anyone laugh...
talk the legs off a snake...
build awesome cool forts...
shoot a BB gun or bow & hit a bulls eye...
love & shepherd his younger brother...
memorize Bible passages amazingly...
make a piano 'sing'...
sketch fantastic drawings...
share endless scientific, historical, geographical facts (human encyclopedia)...

^{Psalm 139: 1-5 (bits & pieces) NLT
1} O LORD, you have examined my heart
      and know everything about me.
 ² ...You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
 ³ ... You know everything I do.
 ⁴ You know what I am going to say
      even before I say it, LORD.
 ⁵ You go before me and follow me.
      You place your hand of blessing on my head. 

The Lord saw it fit to create and give my son to me.  In this "labor of LOVE" I need to remember (especially in the teen years)...

²³ Psalm 139: 23
23Search me, O God, and know my heart! (NLT)
test me and know my anxious thoughts. (NIV)

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.