Celebration of Life and Family

For many Fall is a busy time of year, with harvesting, back to school activities, weaning calves, and just preparing for our next season. Time seems to get away from us with so many activities to keep us busy, but I cherish every moment we get to be together as a family.

This years Fall was no exception to enjoying family time. We started August off with a Birthday celebration. My husband Joe celebrated his 50th Birthday, along with our daughter’s 18th and our niece turning 16, on the same day. These three have only been able to celebrate their day together a few times, but this year was special. Our celebration began with a large gathering of friends and family, trying our best to surprise Joe with a big 50th party. It was so fun to see the surprise and joy on his face when he saw all the friend and family members that made it to celebrate with us.

Well now back to business, the party is over. We put in a little fence, moved cows in our grazing rotation, and pulled bulls from the cows. The kids are always all in on helping, especially with the cattle. This year we decided to change it up a little. We have chickens and some of them were getting a little old, so it was time to butcher. This was the first for some and it has been awhile for others. The chickens were butchered and cleaned all that was left was to cook them up and freeze the meat for soups and casseroles. We decided to spend the rest of the day making our family sausage. We really enjoy the sausage for breakfast. Everyone was great help, and it was yet another great day with family.

September brings on yet another Birthday celebration for our family. Our daughter Ashly celebrated her 16th Birthday, with my brother Shan celebrating his Birthday 2 days later. They have been celebrating their birthdays together for many years. It was great that Shan could make it again this year. Volleyball, Homecoming, and Football games made it a little more difficult to get a day set aside to celebrate, but we made the time. We decided to throw in a little work with the Birthday celebrating, so we decided to wean our first bunch of calves. It was great to have all the kids home to help, weather it was working the cattle or making lunch they all did their part.

October brings yet another upcoming birthday, Weston will turn 11 on Thursday. We have a very busy week ahead of us with Football on Monday, Volleyball on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and church on Wednesday. We will try to squeeze in a special lunch (birthday boys’ choice) and his favorite dessert. Weston played his last grade school Football game of the season on Monday; they had a great year. We also plan to schedule in some more family fun with an opening weekend pheasant hunt. We still have many projects to keep us busy and many more fun family activities to look forward to. I thank God every day for all my wonderful friends and my amazing family.

-Jodi-