Isaiah 1:18

Come now let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
~Isaiah 1:18~

Bontrager Family

Last week our family was privileged to host the Bontrager Family Singers in our home and at our church.
They sang for our morning services, then provided the evening worship-We had a soup supper for a few out-of-town families who were coming for the concert. It was a special time of fellowship before the full crowd attending the concert. And what a concert! It was a little over an hour long, filled with songs, a skit, and scripture memory. After, we had a yummy cookie reception provided by some ladies in the church.
On Monday, our families (Beckman/Bontrager) enjoyed a true Swedish breakfast prepared by a very hospitable friend of ours. We were going to go for a little "field trip" but due to chilly weather, we had to postpone it. So we stoked up the fireplace, curled our fingers around a hot drink, brought out the games, and talked to our heart's content-well, almost. I'm sure we could have discussed many more topics, if we would have had the time!

The soup supper families-




Red Light, Green Light!


All glory to the Lord!





Susanna and Elizabeth performing a duet of "Away in the Manger"





All the boys!


The girls!


Allison, Caroline, Elizabeth, and Chelsy


Caroline and Allison playing violins together


Pit! (one for one, two for two!)


Stratego!


Lovely Elizabeth!


Allison and Elizabeth making "Enchildas" for dinner!


The boys at our Swedish breakfast!

The New Year

Just look at that date above the title-2010 is here! Rang in with lots of cold weather and snow!! I think this week was the coldest of the winter! Sub-Zero Temperatures, we've had the fireplace going strong!!
Our family had a great holiday season-Christmas turned out to be better that we expected!
And this New Year's we were all in bed by 4:00 A.M. (Dad was glad-We did better than last year!
I've included some snapshots of our family Christmas! Enjoy!
Here's to more blogging in 2010!

Our parents and grandparents got us an amazing telescope!



My gift to Eric was cleverly disguised under
(okay, get ready!) wrapping paper, a brown paper sack,
box, under a bag of rocks (a decoy!) more wrapping paper,
a plastic sack, and finally inside an envelope, his present-guitar picks!
(They looked puny in the little bag-It needed some excitement!)



Susanna in her new kitty outfit!


Mom got a roaster pan!


Watch Out! Dad got a reciprocating saw (whatever that is!)


Caroline and I playing a Christmas duet!


Our stupendous Christmas dessert!
A Taste of Home exclusive!
"Layered Turtle Cheesecake"
Indescribable goodness! (Is your mouth watering?)

Christmas!

With Christmas just a few days away, I thought I should share some December pictures/events with you-I know the blog has been neglected for over a month, but we have excuses!
Shall I name them all??? Smile!

We had a nice Thanksgiving, celebrating with our grandparents-We made our usual 2 gallons of "Peppernuts" on Thankgving.
We've almost eaten through our gallon! Mmmm.....

Precision is the key!


Susanna helped with the rolling, and taste-testing!


Memaw and Susanna


The cutters-Papa, Miles, and Eric


Caroline and Memaw


Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake-Our Thanksgiving dessert!


In our school history class, we've just learned about Jewish Holidays. So with 3 other families, we had a special Sedar (say-dar) Meal similar to a Passover Celebration.
It was a wonderful time of new foods and fellowship, liturgy and Bible reading.



Horseradish Root


Matzah Ball Soup!


The "Haggadah" (order) booklet which we followed




We've had lots of snow already, and by the
looks of it today, more is coming!
But, we stay warm as we stay by the fire!
Miles made a fire in this round log!









Christmas Preparations!

Putting up the tree!


The Lights outside looked gorgeous with the snow!




Christmas Cookies!






Getting our special Christmas snow-men out on the ledge, they are all so cute!

A Blessed Merry CHRISTmas you and your family from The Beckman Family!!!

Conglomeration

When coming up with a name for this blog post, I was thinking about what I was posting about.......A conglomeration of various pictures accumulated over the past month or so.
Hey-conglomeration is a good word! I wonder if there are any synonyms that I could use
to describe the post-
Here are a few I liked off of thesaurus.com-Agglomeration (a close cousin to conglomeration)
collection, combination, combo, "everything but the kitchen sink" (my favorite!!!!) hodge-podge, mass and mish-mash. Aren't those fun! (Try and use one of those words today!)

Elizabeth: "Mom, why do we have so much stuff(good descriptive word!) in the front seat of the car-It is always so full, nobody can sit up there-We must have everything except the kitchen sink up there!!! (I say this ALL the time!)

So, to our hodge-podge, mish-mash of pictures. These are a combination I've taken from a variety of activites.

To start out with, a collection of our Hyllningsfest weekend.
We've been planning this occasion for a year, and what a wonderful time we had.
Our dear friends, the Ulmer and Kroeker Families came up to spend the weekend starting out by surprising Mr. Kroeker for his birthday. Dad also had his Men's choir concert that night!

It was amazing! Although the weather was the best, we had fun watching some Swedish festivities downtown, going to the parade, having a hymn sing, playing the chimes, going to church in the "bus", walking, football, food, staying up late (or early-5:00 am!), everything was a total blast!
Thanks so much for coming Ulmers and Kroekers! Can't wait to have ya'll again!

SURPRISE!


Smoky Valley Men's Choir
(Dad is on the left towards the bottom)


The whole group at the parade-All 32 of us!


The Mom's!


It was SUPER cold out!


The four older boys-Those grass stains are from some
serious games of football!


Miles, Eric, Micah, Kyle, Moses, and Kaleb


Lots of play time!


Lots of yummy food!


Hymn Sing



"Oh, the wonder of it all, The wonder of it all, Just to think that God loves me"-How true this is! God's steadfast love for us is shown all the time-Throughout the whole weekend, the love of the Lord was our common bond.Everything else was secondary-Food, Fun, Friends, Family, etc.


Swedish Susanna!


The Beckman children in Swedish Costumes


Bountiful Sweet Potato Harvest!







We had some lovely fall days!
But, I think winter is coming as we've got the fireplace going,
and we even had snow yesterday!


We celebrated Memaw's Birthday with an Italian Dinner-Mmmm!


The cake-Italian Creme!



In October, I had the opportunity to spend some time with
the Anson family-Scott (Mr. Anson) was gone for a week, and I was
able to help Lydia (Mrs. Anson) out with the 4 boys!
They are all lots of fun with LOTS of energy!
I was weary when I got home, but I had a great time!

It was beautiful outside, so we went to the park!


Marcus



Rolling down the hill!


Paul loves to climb!





Phillip


Having a snack!


Phillip, Marcus, Baby William, Paul and Me.



Caroline made it to State Piano Auditions, so Dad, Caroline and I went up to
KU in Lawerence where she participated in that.


Dad and Caroline


Caroline


Outside Allen Field House, there is a statue of Forrest "Phog" Allen (thus, Allen Field House)
Dad posed the same way as the statue and looked hilariously suave!!!



Susanna loves to read her little Bible while we are doing our Bible reading-Mom's glasses had broken awhile ago, but Susanna likes to play with them-She was so cute sitting there!!










The Kroeker children came for the weekend, when Mr. and Mrs. Kroeker
were in Kansas City. As always, a super fun time, but never enough time to do everything!

Moving some firewood












The girls dressed-up! But the boys played "Risk" (the WHOLE weekend!)





Caroline also had her Symphony Concert last Sunday-They did a great job!





Behind Caroline are two of our friends-They all car-pool together every Saturday morning.


Well, are you about to collapse, drop, faint, give out, or wilt from all this?
I hope not! Hopefully you are feeling astonished, asounded, out of this world, peachy,
extravagant, fabulous, fantastic, phenomenal, terrific, etc.

Really and truly, I hope you enjoyed all the pictures, and are encouraged today!


Remember to: "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!" ~Psalm 100:1-2

The next little Mozart

"Alright, Lamby and Beary, you sit here, and listen while I play"



"Isn't this nice!"


"This is Middle C, and you put your hands like this"


"Oooh, I can sing too!"

Chicken Butchering

This past Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. in the stillness of the north second street neighborhood, the loud protesting of chickens could be heard in the dim lit morning.Around 8:00 a.m., after our 71 chickens were loaded up, we drove out to our friends house, where we were butchering.

After unloading our stuff, we jumped into the action and started helping. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty chilly-around 35 degrees- so we had to take some "warm-up breaks" throughout the morning.
We worked our chickens, then started our friends-After a lunch break, we finished up, then spent a few hours cleaning up. I think we did around 225 chickens altogether.
It was a great experience and I'm glad to say we've done it! Thus our chicken escapades are ended for this fall-(Until next spring, that is!!!




We can fit 7 chickens in one crate.


Tying them down with cords-we don't want to
lose them on the way out!


Miles liked loading them up!


Once we were at our friends farm,
we got right to work-Dad gathered the
chickens and put them in the killing cones.



After their throats have been slit, blood has been pumped out,
and their heads removed, they are placed in
the "scalder" a big barrel filled with regulated hot water.
The scalding helps in the feather removal.

-In the foreground you can see the plucker-
-Behind the plucker are the chicken cones-

The plucker is an amazing invention
I was EXTREMELY grateful that we didn't have to pluck the chickens by hand!

Papa and Memaw got to come and help!
Memaw helped with the inside job of packaging and weighing.
Papa was the one who sorted the "innards"
All the yummy gizards, livers, hearts-Are you cringing yet?

The butchering table-There were always around 7-8
people doing the "evisceration" process.

After the are all finished on the table,
they chill in cold water, until they are ready to be packaged.

What is it? Answer!

The answer of what the picture from Friday, IS (drumroll)
A cobweb on the grass covered with water droplets! Are you surprised?!!!
I went out to check the chickens one morning and saw this beautiful creation on the grass-Of course, I had to take a picture of it!

What is it?

Can you guess what this is a picture of? Answer comes Monday @ 3:00 p.m.!

 

October Update

The Beckman family is still here, just in case you were wondering.......
We have been occupied with school, fall projects, Susanna's birthday, preparations for friends to visit and our daily life routine(which is pretty hectic!)
I've been collecting some pictures though-and according to out recent poll, ya'll want more pictures. (62% to be precise!) But, since our renovation, our comments have been slacking-Is everyone still there?? I hope this post gives you something to comment about! -Check out our new poll!-

The colors of autumn!

 

In September, Dad, Eric, Miles, Papa, and I went dove hunting-
Dad, Eric and I had taken the Hunters Ed Course over the summer,
so we got to put into practice all we learned!

 

Hmmm-Isn't that full moon bee-ouy-ti-ful!!!

 

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with some dear Christian friends of ours one sunny September Sunday afternoon-At the park where we went to talk, there were 10 adorable Labrador puppies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In school, we have been learning about Ancient Egypt.
Miles made a couple different Lego pyramids/ziggurats-
Did you know that over 2 million 2-ton stone blocks were
used in the pyramids?

 

We helped some friends out with the Lindsborg paper route while
they were on vacation-Eric got a little overwhelmed!

 

Susanna enjoyed her 3rd birthday themed "Butterflies"

 

 

Happy Birthday, Susanna!

Today Susanna Joy turns 3 years old!!! Can you believe it??!!

I remember 3 years ago when we had gone to Salina for our usual grocery trip, and Mom also had a Dr. appointment. The Dr. told her to do some walking-So we went out to where our grandparents live and walked....She went back to the Dr. and was admitted to the hospital. Well, the rest of us where happy because we were going to get to spend the night at "Memaw and Papa's House!!!" About 9:00 or so, my grandma and I (Elizabeth) were in the kitchen talking, since everyone else was in bed. About 9:20 p.m. the phone rang. It was Dad saying the baby was born-So we got everyone out of bed and loaded into my great grandma's car. If we would have been pulled over that night we would have been about 3 people over the limit.....But we weren't!
Anyhow, we got to the hospital and got to meet our new baby SISTER! Sweet Susanna.

I can't explain what an amazing joy she has been to our family. A friend of ours just told me a few weeks ago, how different our lives would be without Susanna.
And it is rightly so!

Adorable!

 

She is pretty funny!

 

Round 2

On Friday, September 4th at 4:30 a.m. our second round of chicks arrived!!!
Mom had called the Post Office to alert them the they would be getting them, and they said they would call us when they got to town. At 6:30 we still hadn't heard from the PO, so Mom decided to call. We are friends with the post mistress, and she had decided wait to call us, and let us sleep instead. So around 7:00 we went to pick them up! Out of the original 78 chickens, only 2 have died! I'll be posting some more pictures soon as they get bigger!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Eric! You are 14 years old today!!!
You are growing closer to the Lord every day! Keep that up always~

(gotta have a picture with a chicken!!!)

Have you noticed?

There are a few new changes at The Beckman Family Blog-Random Reflections-
Check out our new poll, calender, favorite blog-roll, new background!
What do you think??? Please comment-It's been quiet around here!

Coming Soon.......

Be looking for an updated, refreshed blog site from the Beckman family-coming soon........

Happy Birthday, Caroline!

Today is Caroline's 12th Birthday! Special Birthday Wishes to you, Caroline!

Happy Birthday, Miles!

Today Miles is turning 9 years old! Happy Birthday, Buddy!

 

WWII Airplane Showing

Last Friday, our family had the privilege to go and view 3 WWII Airplanes at the Salina Airport. Because it cost $12.00 per person to go inside the airplanes, we opted to just look on the outside.
It was such a wonderful experience to see them close up, and it demonstrated to us the importance of a war pilot's job and experience!

Miles and our cousin Zach

Miles attempting to "hold" the airplane!

Our family





B-24 collage (click to enlarge)


B-17 collage (click to enlarge)

Summer Projects---

We have been so busy with our summer schedule,
it has been hard to do any blogging.
I've been collecting pictures, though!
Enjoy looking through what we've occupied our days with for the past few weeks!

About a month ago, we painted our porch-The paint has been peeling for awhile, and was getting pretty bad. After 3 days of hard work, we finally finished!
Before


After


Elizabeth painting-I'm standing on the rail!


The guys and Susanna


The boys used some black plastic and water to make a slipper-slide!
What a great way to cool off!








Behind our house, there is a low spot where water collects when it rains.
Eric got a plastic raft from a friend-And with our pet duck, Fluffy-the 3 children went "rafting" in the 15 inch water!! It was quite a sight!





We've started to get some our garden produce! This morning Mom, Miles and I went out and dug 3 rows of potatoes. We've also got 40-50 bulbs of garlic, a bucketful of onions, and some beets. Our lettuce, Swiss chard, and Kale have already died out, but we got a lot from them!





Wheat Harvest is almost over in our part of Kansas! Miles and Eric got a chance to go out and ride in the combines though!




That's all for now!!! Have a safe and FUN 4th of July!

Adventures in Character 2009

Last weekend, Eric and I had the opportunity to serve at the Homeschool Conference in Wichita. We helped with the children's area-Adventures in Character. This was our first time to ever help in this way, so we didn't know what to expect.
Overall, I think we both were blessed by all that happened over the weekend!

There were 350 children that attended this year, breaking last year's 330 record!
The Lord blessed everyone's effort by showing us how many children HE provided for us this year!!! As well as many teachers, helpers, and staff to lead the children.
Many prayers for the weekend were answered! THANK YOU LORD for all you give us!

My team number was 17, and I took quite a few pictures-So I put a collage together!
Enjoy! (You can click on the image to enlarge it)