4th of July!

  While things were a little different this year for the 4th, I still had a wonderful time celebrating Independence Day with family.

I made frosted-lemonade, which I'd heard about many times but never taken the time to make before. It was every bit as good as everyone said!

Recently, I got this new .22, and Mom customized the stock for me with her cricket machine. I love the dot scope!

Matching necklaces!

I hadn't been fishing in years, so getting out on the water again was amazing!! I did get a sunburn, but it was TOTALLY worth it! We had great weather, great fishing, and great fellowship!

Happy Independence Day!

Sister Time

Sunday afternoons, my sisters and I usually spend a bit of sister-time. Now, it's just Miriam and me, but we still take time Sunday afternoons and do stuff together. Sometimes, we just talk, other times, we watch a movie, or drink coffee, or any number of other things, but we usually spend the afternoon together.
   Now, I don't know where you're at in life, but if you have sisters at home, take time with them. Now, two of my sisters are married, and it's just Miriam and me, and I cherish the memories with my sisters. I'll never regret the Sundays I've spent with them. (Or any other day;)) Time spent with family is well spent time.

The Wedding . . .

So, these pictures are a little out of order, but here's my take on the wedding of my sister Hosanna, to Nate.

We had to take just one funny one.:)

This picture is actually from the rehearsal, and I have NO idea what I was talking about!

Saturday night, after the wedding, a bunch of us got together with some of Nate's family at the corn maze for s'mores and a campfire sing time.

So . . . two days before the wedding, I tripped on the stairs while carrying a metal thermos, and kind of split my eyebrow in half. After everything that had happened that week, it was kinda the breaking point and I laughed. I wasn't sure how we could hide it on Hosanna's wedding pictures. . . 

But we had some hospital tape strips, so Dad and Grandma taped me back together.

They did a pretty good job and the final job wouldn't be too noticeable on pictures.

This is the thermos I bashed my head on. The cool thing? We'd been praying that it would heal fast, and when I took of the tape strips Saturday morning, it was WAY more healed then it should have been. With a little bit of makeup, I don't think it showed on any of the pictures! PTL!!

And myself with all the sisters and sisters-in-law.

The whole wedding party.

I gave a speech at the reception, and then grabbed these guys and we sang a song for Nate.

I don't tend to follow my notes the greatest, but I enjoyed sharing things about Hosanna that most people don't know.

And I LOVE this picture of Hosanna peeking around the wall.

So yes, we survived the wedding, and it went REALLY well!!!

Pictures - The New Year - And Some Old Thoughts

Hello! I hope you're all recovering from all the holiday excitement! Here's a bunch of pictures from the last few weeks, and a few notes.

Of course, we got to go out and do some more ice hockey. Having grown up on skates, I've always loved our long winters with plenty of ice!

We visited some of my grandparents on Christmas day, and Grandpa pulled out his collection of woodworking things. He's been doing woodwork all my memory, and I always enjoy seeing his latest creations. This church is really cool, because from one side, it's a church, but if you turn it the other direction, it's a cross, as pictured below.

And we had our Christmas with all the nieces, nephews, and married siblings. One of my adorable nephews wanted to try on my hat so I caught a quick selfie with him.

And it's not a family Christmas without a good game of Balderdash! It's definitely one of our family favorites.

And I got in a walk through the snowy woods... Okay, so I didn't actually go out on my own free will . . . I was chaperoning my sister and her special friend. :) 

And the AWESOME Krahn family get together! I think there was over 60 of us that made it this year. It's always a lot of fun to catch up with cousins that I haven't seen in a while.

And our yearly Christmas Eve photos by the Christmas Tree.

I was in the choir again this year at the Christmas program. I know you can't see it in this picture, but at the front of the church is the manger, and on the wall, right behind it, is a large wooden cross. Every year, it makes me think about why Jesus came. I mean how amazing is it, that God, the Creator of the universe was born in a stable so that He could die on a cross for us? It's always sobering to me to think about it, and yet so exciting too! We serve an AWESOME God!!!

And with the New Year, people ask me about my resolutions. Well, I don't really have many to speak of, just goals, plans, dreams, hopes, etc.  However, this time of year, I find myself reflecting on my last year. I suppose it's my writer instinct that makes me want to assign a 'theme' to every chapter of my life . . . :)

A few years ago, I had a year where God taught me a lot about being thankful. Then I had a year where God taught me a lot about just giving everything to Him. The year of 2018 taught me a lot, but I feel like the main theme, was that it's not my life, and it's not about me.

You've all heard people say this, or maybe said it yourself . . . "It's my life!" Or maybe while discussing things with your parents or other authorities . . . "It's not their life to live." But the truth is, it's NOT our life to live. It's God's life. We are HIS workman. And our lives are for HIS glory, not our own.

Over the last year, multiple things have happened, where I had my own plans, and they didn't go as I wanted. Things happened that I didn't choose. And there were days when I got upset. Days when I wanted to live MY life. But then, God reminded me that it's not about me, it's about HIM. It's not my life I'm living, it's His. And when I stopped looking at my life as my own, things changed. The Bible says that we are not our own, and it's true. If you belong to Christ, then I encourage you, in this new year, to stop looking at life as if it belonged to you. Stop making decisions based off of how YOU want to live your life, and instead, make decisions knowing that you're making a decision that will affect HIS body. Your goals, your paths, your dreams, should be replaced with His goals, His paths, and His dreams for your life. Often, they will be the same. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He gives us desires, and our will becomes one with His. Other times, following His path may seem impossible, like you're throwing away everything you wanted from life, and that's okay. We're to die to self daily, and if we have to die to self in order for Christ to shine through, then let's die to self. And let Christ shine through in 2019!

My Miracle Dad

When I think about Father's Day, I feel like taking Ebeneezer Scrooge's change of heart, and applying it to Father's Day. "I shall strive to live with the spirit of Father's Day in my heart year round."

I've shared my mom's story, and how she is a miracle mom, but just as much as my mom is a miracle mom, my dad, is a miracle dad.

Everyone has dreams and plans, but sometimes, God's plans don't match up with ours, and then we have to choose whether to live our dreams, or God's. When my Dad was in high-school, he knew where his life was going.

He was going to go into professional hockey. As a sophomore, he had scouts looking at him, and he knew that God had gifted him in a big way. Then, one day, his dad approached him, and told him that his sisters would be attending a Christian school the following year. Grandpa gave Dad the choice. He could stay in the public school, and become a professional hockey player, or he could attend the Christian school, and give up his dreams.

Sometimes, we have to take a leap of faith, and trust God to work it out for His glory. Dad chose to give up his dreams. He could have been a famous hockey celebrity, but he chose to follow God's leading. When we trust God, He never lets us down. Dad went on to Bible college, and has used everything God has given him to glorify God. Even his mistakes, he's used to teach us, and to help us learn to lean on God more.

God took his dreams, and replaced them with new dreams and ministry opportunities. God has used him to share the gospel with countless people. Whether it was in his prison ministry, his work related ministries, or his family ministry to us kids, he has always been an example to me of how a Christian should be.

He always had time to teach us kids about God's goodness in his life, and how we can share Christ with others.

Thank you, Dad, for being willing to let God have his way in your life. Thank you for using the talents you have to glorify God. Thank you for the sacrifices you've made for us. Thank you for showing us Christ in your life. I love you, and I will always respect the way you glorify God in your life.

TRF Re-cap

  This last weekend, I was in Thief River Falls, MN at the Home, Sport, and Family show. It went pretty well, and I'm VERY thankful for all the friends and family who stopped by!

As you can see from the picture, my book table was right by a car dealership booth. In all, there was around 150 different companies represented, so it was to date, the biggest show I'd ever attended with my own vendor. A HUGE THANK YOU to the AMAZING friends who helped me set up and run my booth! I wanted to get a picture of us together, but I forgot. After setting up, we had a great time shopping in TRF, and visiting some stores I'd never been in.

So, my next vendor booth is coming up May 11-12 in Sioux Falls, SD, at the SECHE Homeschool convention. If you're planning on attending, make sure you sign up before April 27th, because after that, the registration fee goes up.

   A note on the SD Homeschool Convention - Israel Wayne and Patrick Nurre will be the key note speakers.

On another note, we had a great winter of skating and ice hockey, and although I didn't get to go as much as I would have liked, I'm still very thankful for all the people who lined up days to get a group together.

I found a few pictures from our family get-away in March that I thought I'd share as well. This is at the home of a missionary that we had the opportunity to fellowship with. Mom actually traveled with this missionary to France for a summer when she was younger, so she enjoyed catching up again. It was REALLY neat hearing his stories. If you ever get a chance to listen to older people sharing the things God has done in their lives, make sure you take advantage of that! It's amazing how encouraging it can be to listen to them share of God's goodness in their lives.

On our trip, we also did a fair amount of shopping and when we girls were done shopping, but Mom and Dad weren't, we did what we always do! Try out the cool chairs and couches! :) 

And on another note yet, I'm in grave remorse over the fact that I FORGOT my cousin/brother's birthday! :( :( :( :(  So, here is my "Happy Birthday!" to Josh, WAY late. :( Sorry, Bro! Thanks for being so understanding! :) :) :)

Spontaneous Campfire

I'm not the most spontaneous person in the world, but the other day, when I looked out the window and saw that Dad had lit the pile of branches we'd been stacking on the camp fire pit over the winter, I told Miriam, "We should go roast marshmallows!"

          For those of you who know me, you know that I'm always suggesting random things, but I don't usually think we're actually going to do them. Well, this time, I guess everyone else liked my idea.

So, when I roast marshmallows, (you'll probably all hate me for this,) I DELIBERATELY burn them. That's right. I catch them on fire, and burn them all around, until they have the "delicate taste of charcoal," (As Marty would say.) Then, I pull off the outer burnt layer and eat it, before repeating the process to the next layer. Contrary to popular belief, this is NOT because I CAN'T roast a marshmallow perfectly toasty brown, because I can. I just like them this way. And, by eating it in layers like this, it lasts way longer! :) 

How do you like your marshmallows?