We got..

We got 2 nice sized baby watermelons, 2 yellow peppers, sunflowers about to pop, compost stinking up the air and the best of them all: da da da.... MOLES. so how do you get rid of those little ground suckers? ANYONE have any ideas? We have tried a variety of methods: cat litter, chewing gum, poison, grub killer and my favorite (not) stomping on the tunnels. Blackberry doesn't seem to be bothered by them and we have never seen them. Someone told me this story. She said that a godly woman came home from church one day, sat out on her lawn on her lawn chair and every time she saw a mole she whacked one with the shovel. Blessed are the peacemakers???

BE BOLD!

Hola!

We spend 1 1/2 days at the Western District Conference this weekend. It was a good time and I am pumped! Be BOLD! Be a witness. There were several people who shared about their witness in the world, all very touching and certainly made me think. I connected with 2 of my dad's cousins. Rusty from Harper and Guy from Topeka. It was great to see some family in Kansas. :) Dan and I enjoyed the singing during the 2 worship services. WE actually clapped. I loved it! The speakers were very good as well and had a lot of thought provoking words.

I really enjoyed the English and Spanish speakers. It was fun to hear another language other than English. It made me aware that we are pretty closed off here in the Mennonite church and not many connections to other ethnic groups. God really challenged me to be bold and get beyond my comfort zone and do more than just live for him. He told me that I need to be an instrument for change in the church. That is a challenge, but one that I intend to embrace with his grace.

Be BOLD!

Dumpster Diving Lives On!

Last weekend, Hesston had a city wide yard sale. This saturday is Hesston clean-up day, so everyone can get rid of all the junk they didn't sell last week. People start to put stuff out by the edge of their driveway by mid-day. Doug said that the police dept. was getting calls from people who had things "looted" that were not to be looted, so we were very careful not to take things off of people's porches. Didn't want any non-family visits from the police.

We relieved folks of 2 nice metal stools, plastic storage drawers, wire stuff for guttering, galvanized pails; one was a large wash tub--pretty cool I thought. We hit the retirement village and got some wooden drawers, craft containers with sequins and such in it. I think I found 3 beads that I can use in my jewelry making, the rest I will have the kids play with when they come to visit. Dan bought an old very large printer, he wants to make a C and C router machine out of it. I got 2 wooden doors for some craft idea I had when I saw them, not sure what is was now... hmm. We got 2 pretty decent statium seats probably from the 70's, but will make the rears less achy when watching games. Dan picked up a garage door opener with the intent of electrifiying his bike.. should be interesting, as he rides by he can open the garage door. Should come in handy. Anybody got a solar panel? Dan is looking for cheap alternative transportation. I guess we could say "want fries with that"? We haven't yet gone the route of the cooking oil powered car. I suppose it is only time.

We have Western District Conference tonite, so I suppose, we shall go Dumpster Digging (the much safer route) by the light of the moon. Save the planet!

chipmunks, trucks, crazy weather

I just uploaded this funny video. Lynda and I were experimenting with some educational videos for her FACS class. I about fell off my chair when I first pushed the "doublespeed" button. Its worth the wait, though it may be a long one!

The price of fuel has made its mark on the mid-west. Everyone is trying to off-load their gas guzzler. On the way to Cheney Lake we saw at least 10 of the beasts for sale at a corner drives.

Summer is here! Yuck! Thermonuclear radiation anyone? If only we could bottle it. Thursday was a very hot day at the factory, I drank 72 ounces of water in an 8 hour period. Friday morning the thunder was crackling and booming and several down pours raised the level of the nearby creek (Emma). I've seen it climb the neighbor's backyard 15-20ft past the normal creek bank. Oh, it was so much cooler today than yesterday!

If You Plant It, It Will Grow!

Our watermelons are the size of golf balls! wow they are growing fast, the basil continues to surprise me, I cut some off the other day to make pesto and yesterday it looked like I hadn't cut anything off! Yeah! I see my baby peppers, marigolds are blooming like crazy, cantelope flowers everywhere, dill is popping up. My sunflowers are getting ready to bloom.

When my folks were here, Betty helped me put down newspapers and a plastic tarp over a section of the garden to kill the grass. I took it up on Wednesday and the grass is definitely dead. So today after the rain stopped, I went out and raked and hoed and planted some flower seeds. Hopefully the hot Kansas sun will not bake the little guys.

I sprayed weed killer last week and the grass is yellow now, so hopefully I can get rid of some more grass that way. I am excited that this garden will be even better next summer. :) Thank God for the rain, I was planning on watering early this morning. Yeah God!

In Search for Lancaster Co. Pa Food

The other day, we stopped to get gas at Quik Stop and I noticed in their window they were advertising Turkey Hill Iced Tea. I was so excited! Yes, it has arrived! I was so pumped because I thought that now the tea was here, the Ice cream would not be far behind. I was wrong. What is wrong with this picture??? Where is my "Southern Lemon Pie" Turkey Hill Ice Cream? ieeee. :(

The quest for good cream filled donuts continues as well. I had some from the grocery store the other day. YUCK. what was I thinking?? The frosting was awful. I guess this means I will have to stuff myself silly when I get back to Lancaster. :(

Camera Man Dan

Yesterday, Dan decided that he would put his $4.00 camera tripod that we bought at a yard sale, to good use. So we named the segment "cooking with Lynda" for school purposes. I demonstrated how to make chocolate chip cookie bars. It was rather successful, except I kept messing up. I forgot the egg, so we had to refilm that, I made a huge mess with the fake sugar (my low carb), I kept leaving the camera viewing area (small details I tell ya), and I used my fingers to dislodge the batter in the mixer beaters. We watched the whole thing in fast mode and it was hilarious. Especially when Dan would talk. Talk about people needing to get a life! The things we Schroeders do for fun, I tell you! I will try to put some clips online. Dan told me today that I can try to film myself cooking, what a blast that will be! :)

A Teacher's Favorite Months

This summer I am working at home. Ok, well not actually for money, but you know working at things at home. Thought I would clarify for my non-teacher friends. :) I planted a garden, thanks to the plowing ability of a friend. Now I am mostly watching things grow. I will have to mow the area again, since the grass seems to grow at a high rate of speed. Weeding pretty much went to the dogs after my parents left from their visit. And it appears that my carpel tunnel is showing its ugly face again in my right hand. So needless to say, not much has been done in the garden. :(

We happily found one tiny baby watermelon yesterday!! There is hope. The cantelope flowers are blooming which means baby cantelopes are a comin'. Baby yellow peppers are a bloomin', marigolds (amid the grass)are popping out, basil is growing like crazy, we made fresh pesto last nite for supper, my attempt at peas have produced about 30 pea pods. I am hopeful that more will grow. It is so exciting!