These days whenever I’m at the dairy for any reason, I make up an excuse to enter my sister’s house. The second the door opens, both heads of the little resident explorers whip around. 2 sets of big blue eyes watch my face expectantly. And as soon as I acknowledge my little nephews, 1 little dimple pops out on 2 sets of chubby cheeks and 2 mostly toothless grins respond.

The twins are at such a delightful stage. They are interactive and quite friendly. They’ve figured out how to army crawl and can zone in on a cup of coffee or a cell phone at lightning speed.

Uriah usually leads the inchworm expedition and nothing is safe anymore. Somehow chubby hands find their way thru the bars that are carefully guarding the few plants that survived Jul’s plant purge.

Or the duos favorite new game, inching along throw taunting looks over their shoulders, daring me to try to catch them and give them the tickling they deserve. The belly laughs that follow is the best medicine.

There’s so much I can’t wait to see them learn. In my minds eye I can see our first kickball game, or bike ride. I can’t wait til they read me a story, or to watch them perform at a school play. I hope I’m invited to piano recitals and that I get a detailed account when they win at Bible trivia. I want to be introduced to pet frogs, baby calves, friends, and girlfriends. And I intend to hang on for dear life when they buy a new car and give Aunt Ken a ride.

They have everything ahead of them to learn. And yet, they are teaching me.

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I noticed I had a missed call and a voicemail. The message was not was I was expecting.

“KENDRA!” Shouted a high pitch little voice “this is Wyatt! I hear you’re going to be chopping corn at Pa’s tomorrow and I want to come ride. I’ll be there at 2:00. Ok see ya then, umm bye.”

Two o’clock was actually more like 9 am. My buddy beat me to the field and was riding with his uncle before I arrived on scene. I took over cutting and he took over the buddy seat and the fun began.

“This is a big field” he said, “but Pa has another one just as big. I wonder what would happen if you had a chopper head big enough to cut this whole field at once. Where does the corn go after it goes into the chopper? Why do the back wheels turn on this, but the front wheels turn on the tractor? Do you think you’ll get married? I probably will, but I don’t know. I know how to spell my name W-Y-A-T-T.”

Conversation flowed easily with my 5 yr old friend. I told him about the deer that had ran in front of my tractor the night before and how I’d almost hit them. “And then they could’ve gone to Heaven” he said. “No that’s not right” he added “we know deer don’t go to Heaven.” He was quiet after this and I wondered what was going through his little mind. This summer, one of his best buds- a cousin went home to Heaven suddenly.

“I shot a dove with my slingshot” he changed the subject.

“Did it die?”

Laughter erupted from beside me “EVERYONE asks me that! Of course it died.”

And so the conversation continued.

Sweet little man. Five years of learning under his belt, yet still so far to go.

But instead he’s teaching me.

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These boys are teaching me similar lessons, in their innocent way: Life lessons that can easily be forgotten in the middle of living. They know nothing of health issues, or financial strain, or unanswered prayer requests. Instead their days are full of complete trust and confidence that everything will be ok.

Their lives are filled with joy. (Except when someone walks past Isaiah without picking him up-heartbreak hotel) And that joy spills over affects everybody around.

Their lives are filled with peace. They are oblivious to the mask power struggle that’s inhaling our world. Or all the political drama. Or the race war. Again their days are filled with confidence- someone bigger will take care of things. It will be ok.

Matt 18: 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Blessings,

Kendra

Bonus pics:

I had a first on a trip to PA recently- the door got left open and I heard something scramble in. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered Billy the Kid rooting through packages under a seat 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cousin Laura got married last weekend. Such a beautiful celebration! God bless you, Laura and Chad

With harvest super hectic right now, I’m not seeing much out of my Ben friend. I did manage to catch supper in the field and a spectator sunset recently tho.

And apparently it’s traditional for me to have a dress in the closet that matches my sisters maternity gear 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

And just for fun- here’s the pic from last year 😉

And lastly- one chopping pic- because what’s harvest season without a few good pics?

It all started quite innocently as Mother and I hurried home from an early morning chicken checking.

“Just look at the steam rising off the pond. Do I have 1 minute to take a pic? Sure I have 1 minute.” I answered my own question and turned into the cabin’s lane.

The cabin has been busy of late. On a whim I decided to post it on Airbnb. (You’ll find our listing here. ) We are delighted with each booking, guest, and positive feedback. “Pondside Paradise” as we call it, even decided to open its own Instagram page, so I’m on the lookout for pics to promote what we have going on.

Mother sat patiently in the vehicle while I flew about, capturing what I was after, and we sailed back out the lane. 3 minutes instead of 1. But still worth it.

We were chopping at the dairy, so I waited until our day was rolling until I had a minute to post my pic on Instagram. Instead of carrying a Bible concordance with me, I’ve been know to google “scripture about mornings” and get the appropriate passage to fit my thoughts. Today was no exception:

What a beautiful reminder. Because I was still attempting to maintain my position in the crew, I hurriedly posted the 2 Timothy verse along with the reference and our steam laden pond and was on my way.

And just for fun. I threw a video of the same deal on my WhatsApp Status too. Along with the reference only. 2 Tim 2:17.

And there it was all day.

We had a tremendous day, and before we knew it, we were pulling the sheet across the trench and preparing to drag our weary selves home.

Suddenly my phone started going crazy. But because I was helping my dad on some cutter maintenance, it was a little before I could see what was up. My sisters and I have a group chat and it was going nuts.

Julia was sweetly trying to figure out how 2 Tim 2:17 applied to anything. And Deb kept sending videos where she was laughing uncontrollably,(they admitted later) but then she got worried that it would hurt my feelings, so she’d delete her message and start again.

I hastily attempted to rectify the situation by explaining what had happened-too many irons in the fire. So I posted an addendum to my WhatsApp post hoping to salvage the deal. 2 Tim 1:7 is what I was looking for.

Imagine my sisters mirth when I looked up 2 Tim 1:7 only to discover that it’s a reminder of God giving us love, power, and a sound mind, and not a spirit of fear. Sigh.

All day I thought I was quoting a verse about Gods mercy being new every morning. What Faithfulness! And instead I’m quoting the wrong reference on one post and stating “their talk spread like gangrene” on another.

Maybe I’d better hold off on posting for awhile. Or when I do- I’d better learn to double check the verse and reference I’m sharing.

Or maybe there’s some gangrene talk that needed to be dealt with, and God used my feeble blunder to call that to attention.

I’m sure I don’t know, but there is one thing I’m confident of:

I need that new mercy every morning. “Great is Thy Faithfulness”

Kendra

Bonus Pic: