Saturday

It's hard to believe that it's the middle of August.   Everyone is saying, "summer is almost over".  Wow, did that go fast.  We had a magnificent summer up here in the North Country.  Lovely hot weather with little rain, so everyone enjoyed their pools and the lakes around here.  But the farmers were praying for rain.

My garden is magnicient this year.  Today Elizabeth Melville and I harvested the Purple Viking potatoes, and she dug up the residual garlic while I pulled up the onions.  Then we tackled the tomatoes.  The orange cherry tomatoes are so sweet, I've already made two pots of pasta sauce with them.  The Black Prince, Morgage Lifters, Green Zebras,Gold Medals, Paul Robesons, Amish paste, and others are prolific.  Elizabeth was wondering how I was going to collect the ones that are coming off the 7 foot branches though.  I've never had to take a ladder into the garden to get the tomatoes before, but this year the tomatoes are all reaching to great heights.  It must be the chicken manure!

While Elizabeth and I were picking eggplant, squash, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes, Rob was busy building a door in the stall so that the babies could have more room to run around.  I was just going to staple up some chicken wire to the wall and somehow attach it to the other side so that I could get in and out but Rob would not allow such a sloppy affair.  So we got a lovely door on hinges and a legitimate latch.  The babies have a large area to run around in and the older chicken can view them at close range.

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And tomorrow it's time to spend with the Lord and our church family.

Take Your Mother To Work Day

It was take your mother to work day yesterday, at least in the Nordberg family.

I got to go to work with Jon at the Belmont yesterday and it was soooo much fun.  Although I didn't get up at 4:30am to go with him, I did join him at 9:00 at the Vet Village.  I got to see the clinic, the drugs, the equipment, the digital Xray and I did bring Otis, who got to sleep an extra 4 hours that morning.  He was happy!

It was so much fun to see Jon at work.  Examining horses, passing tubes to hydrate horses, scoping horses for breathing issues, giving lameness checks, giving injections, and interacting with all the various people who are in charge of all these very important horses!

The horses are trained, either breezed, walked or galloped and then there are folks who give them a bath and get them back in the stalls.  They are immaculate!  The Belmont employs so many people at all different levels.   There are trainers, owners, barn managers, riders, jockeys, grooms, walkers and all the older men who are directing traffic so vehicles so not run into the horses.  And pay attention!!!  One must never slam the car/truck door.  It may spook the horses.

 There are sixty barns filled with horses that are in various stages of training, many of the horses were at Saratoga for August and will be back in September.

Jon kept getting calls has he was going to the various barns responding to the concerns of the trainers and barn managers.

We got to go to the back side and watch some horses that were being exercised.

The park is beautiful and huge!  Right in the middle of Long Island it take up over 450 acres of space.  It has lovely trees, flowers, barns, medical clinics, dorms for some of the 1000 employees, stores, a huge grand stand, magnificent boxes and a lovely track.  The had some of these plaques denoting the big winner different years.  This one dates back to 1935

It was a beautiful day yesterday on Long Island.  And I was priviledged to see so many beautiful horses hear about how they are taken care of and trained.  After most of Jon's rounds were done he was able to get away for a bit and go to lunch.  We drove through gorgeous neighborhoods on Long Island and had lunch at a wonder Asian restaurant. 

And then I had to take off to return to the North Country.

What a great day!

Moms

Today would have been my mom's 89th birthday.

She was a great mom,  devoted wife, loyal friend, yummy cook and outstanding housekeeper.  And she loved doing all those things.

She didn't have to be taught that being a mom was the best thing in the world and that her job was significant and more important than anything else in the world.  And that God valued what she did in the home.  She raised three girls, who knew right from wrong, had a strong work ethic (might be the Scandinavian influence kicking in), valued family and all became born again Christians.

As I look around in church these days I'm so impressed with the wonderful young families we have.  We've been here for a while so all the kids that I have had in children's church are grown, married, have families and even some of their children are now getting married themselves.  Many of them became involved with the Women's Ministry.  And now they are out, married, and having families of their own.

Our church has been a bastion of promoting the family.  That's one of the reasons we decided to plant ourselves at CFC.  That was the most important thing to us too.

And I see that all the teaching, mentoring, praying, modeling the church body has done,  has really paid off.

I see  young mom's grabbing hold of new moms and helping them with questions, issues, concerns.  Encouraging them to keep on keeping on.  They plan showers for each other.  Share books, recipes, and decorating ideas with each other.  They have a Mom's Cadre where they get together and get to talk about mom issues.  And then the young couples get together once a month and receive more encouragement from others about raising Godly families together.  They help each other with home projects, and work together on church projects.  And they promote families together.  And I see the dad's gently and quietly helping with the discipline of behavior in the young, producing some wonderful toddlers and young ones.

I guess I'm boasting.  But I'm proud of them.  I think it's a bit unusual.  I sometime wish families could be imported for a bit and be a part of our fellowship.  We're not perfect, no.  Far from perfect.  But I think we have something special here.

My mom would be proud too.