Middle Of The Week

What is it??? Since we started remodeling the house I have had people tell me they will be their the middle of the week. If I'm lucky they will show up on Fri. but sometimes it ends up being Mon. What sense does that make? I had a fellow tell me he would be here to talk to me about my cows and the ration on Monday. He still hasn't come. Oh, by the way, the Monday he was talking about was two weeks ago. What sense does that make? Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that the middle of the week is Friday.

VOP

Tonight we were off singing at the Halifax Southern Baptist Association Pastor Christmas Banquet. First they fed us and then we sang. The meal consisted of steak and potatoes. The singing consisted of Christmas songs with a few other themes thrown in. An enjoyable time was had by all.

Christmas Tree

In most conservative Mennonite circles Christmas trees are shunned. I am wondering why this is. Is this opinion biblical? I am of the belief this idea is based solely on the appearance of affluence. In other words, people who take the time to decorate a tree are spending to much time on the monetary or materialistic side of Christmas. Basically, someone who has a tree is missing the true meaning of Christmas. If this is your opinion I must respectfully disagree with you. I have this dream of taking my family deep into the woods and finding the perfect tree. We would then fell this tree and carry it back to the house. (In some parts of the world this would be done in a foot of snow. However, this is highly unlikely in our part of this world.) We would then put up this tree and spend the evening decorating our tree. I found this article concerning the Christmas Tree.

By William V. Rauscher

The Christmas tree comes to us from Germany. Martin Luther is credited with being inspired by the starry heavens one night, and expressing his feelings to his family by bringing a fir tree into his home, and attaching lighted candles to its branches. Fir meant fire, and fire is an ancient symbol for spirit. The tree also pointed toward the heavens.

Evergreens were thought to represent the ever-burning fire of life. The color green signified the life force through the year. Eventually decorative balls represented the planets, while the star that radiates from the top reminds us of Bethlehem. The entire tree and decorations teach us that the universe is witness to the Incarnation.

Red at Christmas reminds us of the fire of the Spirit. Green affirms nature, and the ongoing life. And in the Incarnation, Spirit unites with nature.

In fact, the Christmas tree symbolizes to us a further appreciation of Jesus' birth. It is a means of retelling a miracle in a colorful and beautiful way so that we can further understand and appreciate Jesus' entering our world.

Actually, the tree is a reinterpretation of pagan rites, along with the use of other greens and decorations to commemorate in ancient times a celebration of the feast of Saturnalia - the birth of the Sun in the sky at the Winter Solstice. Along with the giving of gifts, the feast was later Christianized with the selection of December 25th to announce the birth of the Son of God to the world.

The tree also tells the story of a cosmic event - a mystery. In personal celebrations of Christmas the tree begins its use in the 16th century, and is later brought to America by German immigrants.

The heavens and earth rejoice in the coming of the Lord of Life. Our decision must be either for our Christmas tree to represent the celebration of the birth of Christ, or simply an acknowledgment of the pagan festival of the Winter Solstice.

What does the beauty of the Christmas tree say to you?

In my opinon, not having a Christmas tree will not keep you from missing the true meaning of Christmas. Neither will having one cause you to have a pagan Christmas...

Day Off

After several weeks of hard labor I have the privilege of a day off. Sonny had hernia surgery on Nov. 13 and was laid up for several weeks. This past week he started working again, however, he was still in considerable pain and needed to gradually work himself back into shape. Anyway, he feels well enough to be in charge of things this weekend. So today I am going to use my school sale golf passes. I need to see how many trees I can hit. Two of my cousins are going along, Lowell and Eldon Yoder. We are planning on having a very good but chilly time. After this exuberating activity I believe we will be going to town to purchase a few more housy items.

Merry Christmas

This is for those of you who are not on our mailing list.

Merry Christmas

I have slowly come to the realization that this merry letter should be written. I will try to give you some of the more interesting facts from the past twelve months. Like most years this one began in January but since the writer is unable to recall what actually happened in January… He will indeed need to jog his memory for any facts that may interest the reader. It appears that this letter may be rather short. Hmmm let me see….
Ah yes, lets begin with work. My long time employee, Lyndon Yoder, decided to pursue a different occupation. This caused me great pain and stress in two areas. One, he was a great employee and two; I had to find a replacement. This turned into quite an ordeal. After several months of searching I found the best replacement possible. Lyndon’s father, Ernest Yoder, better known as Sonny, agreed to come and work for me. However, he was unable to start working until July 1st. Lyndon’s last day was February the 28th. I found myself working alone until June when school ended and my brother Jon was able to relieve me of some chore duties. In July Sonny started and I have found him to be extremely helpful. He has worked on a farm all of his life and knows more about it then I do.
Let’s see… Oh yes, I almost forgot. Okay that’s a lie, I didn’t forget. I am still singing with Voice Of Praise. In July we recorded another album. 2007 is VOP’s 20th anniversary and we thought it would be fitting to do a Reunion album. We are also planning to go on a Reunion tour in July.
Oh my, I almost forgot this, seriously. We have been remodeling the home place. This project began in May and we are getting so close to finished I can taste it. We are hoping to move between Christmas and New Years day. This project has brought me very close to an emotional melt down. Well, that is an exaggeration but it has been a lot of work. I am really good at demolition but rebuilding is not one of my strong points. So I did the demolition and several fellows from church have done the rebuilding.
I think that might be all… No wait… I think I forgot my family. No, I didn’t forget them I just wanted you to think I did.
Sierra: Wow, she turned six this year. I find this hard to believe. She started school this year, home school. She is very sharp and picks things up easily when she wants to. She doesn’t enjoy math but does find science and social studies very fascinating. She has found birds very interesting creatures.
Aleya: My energetic three year old. She is an amazing imitator and does everything her older sister does. She is definitely a girl and loves to play with dolls but she is also an animal lover and gives our cat, Cup Cake a very rough time occasionally. The other day she was trying to hit the calves with a stick and yet couldn’t understand why they would not let her pet them.
Jayden: Jayden turned one in May and is our cuddle bug. Jayden is also an animal lover and enjoyed the dog, Blackie, until Blackie got to close to our van wheels.
Jackson: Jack is quite a bit like Aleya when it comes to the energy department. Jack loves to race around and appears to be going close to 100 mph at times. Jack turned one in June and his most recent hobby is singing. He will sit and sing and I must say he is very good for 1.5 years old.
Rachel: I find it very difficult to cram all of her amazing accomplishments into one small paragraph but alas, this I must do. She is my wife, which takes quite a bit of time and energy, then we must add school teacher, home maker, mother, Dr./nurse, taxi driver, diaper changer, and a host of other things. I fall in love with her more every year.
Well, I have run out of room and must bid you adios. I trust that you will find peace in the One who came to break our oppression.
Shalom

Kitchen Floor

The children are playing on the new kitchen floor.

 

Master Bath

Here is a glimpse of the master bath floor. Not that you can tell much from this but we like it....

 

Flooring

The vinyl flooring folks are suppose to be here in the morning to start laying the flooring. The painting is done except for trimming out four basement windows. We are weary but feel very good about our accomplishments this week.

On a different note. My dear one and only sister, Juanita, came this morning to watch the children so my wife could work at the house. She then made our supper and mixed up some christmas cookies.
Thanks so much...
From the Zehrs nearest the bridge....

Master Bedroom & Bath

I don't know if you can see the colors or not. The light color is Globe Thistle and the dark is a purple color. I can't remember what it is exactly...

 

VOP Christmas Banquet

Tonight is our second annual Christmas banquet. We are paying two families to take care of the meal. This means we are able to relax and enjoy our time together. Aside from steak I am not sure what is on the menu. Last year it was seven course meal so I assume this one will be the same.

Christmas Concert

This afternoon VOP had their first Christmas Concert. They announced it as a Christmas Concert. I always feel uncomfortable with this term and I am wondering why. Are concerts generally viewed differently than a program? If so, why? Should I feel uncomfortable with this terminology? If so, why?

HMMM???

We are hoping/planning on reusing this toilet. I needed to get it out of the way of the guys doing the dry wall. The fireplace was the most obvious place to put it. I have tried to come up with a good caption but so far it has escaped me...

Paint

One of my aunts took my post Iffen Ya Want literally and came to help us paint this morning. I want to publicly thank her, Kathleen Gilbert, for her help. Also, my wife's parents came to help us out as well. We should easily finish the upstairs tomorrow. Well, it will be a big day but we should get it finished.

Library

How many of you go to the library and how many books do you check out when you go? This may vary depending how big your family is. In times past we used bags to carry our books back and forth. These bags didn't hold up very long and we have begun to use a box. Some folks have been seen leaving the Library with an apple crate full of books.

Iffen Ya Want

Iffen ya want sumpin two do in the next several days youn's can come on down to de home place an give us a han. Hit peers like we dis gonna haf a gran ole time. Sum of us will be rollin an others will be brushin. We wuld luve to see ya stop in an give us a han, iffen ya want. aPeers to be bout fiddy galluns or so thet need to spread all roun da house. Ya can take yor pick as to what ya wanna be a doin. Whether ya be brushin or rollin dis stuff roun. As for me, I ten to slop it roun kinda like I'm feedin dem der hogs I use to have back yeers ago. Well, dat's bout all I's got to say dis time. Before I sign off a here let me remine ya dat dey is gonna be some paint a flyn da nex couple a days or so down on de ole home place. You can stop in an help us aiffen ya want...

Loving It...

Sierra was rubbing Rachel's back tonight with this back rubber thingy... After Sierra was done, Jayden decided it was HIS turn. He laid here on the couch and waited until Aleya came and rubbed his back. He laid there and smiled the whole time, when she quit he would wiggle his back begging for more.

 

House Update

The dry wall fellows are coming to do the final sanding today which means we should be able to paint tommorow if we want to. I must say this crew of mexicans did an incredible job. I was assuming we would be scraping dry wall compound off the floor but these fine people did it for us. They spilled, or splatted, very little on the floor when they were texturing the ceiling. When I thanked them for cleaning up they acted surprised. I told them in my little expierence they were the first crew of any kind that cleaned up after themselves to this extent. The guys that hung the dry wall carried all the extra pieces outside and then swept the floor. Is this unusual? I was assuming I would need to clean up after them.

Da Boys

What fine young men...

 

Attic

When I realized remodeling the house I grew up in was going to be a reality I decided I wanted to sheet the attic. My decision is based on the fact that it is a complete waste of space if it is not used. Also, you can never have to much storage space. However, when a certain lady discovered I was spending the money to sheet the attic she was somewhat skeptical. I believe her exact words were something like this Honey, we are not going to put anything in the attic!!! But if you think we should sheet it then you go ahead I don't mind... If I am not mistaken her mother was in agreement with her and everytime the sheeted attic was being discussed they seemed to find it highly amusing. What I find highly amusing is how many items I have hauled into this sheeted attic in the last couple days. My wife told me at lunch today, while I was snickering at her pickup load of things for the attic, that she had the ability to Admit when she is wrong. I am wondering how many of you have an attic you can tread in heavily. In other words is your attic floor sheeted or do you tip toe around on the rafters hoping you don't slip.

Jackson

Jackson enjoys wearing this hat...