The Stone House
Hayward, Wisconsin
Dear
Family and Friends,
Greetings to you from the land of
snow and cold. Here it is December
already again. I have my journal open as I write. It has been a busy year, some
of it good and some of it too hard to write about. My verse for today in my
journal was this:
Do not fear, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and
declared it? You are My witnesses.
Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’” Isaiah 44:8
A year ago Francis got engaged to
her Josh Cross. So over Christmastime we
planned wedding things. Her private Pinterest
board that she had been collecting on for years was a big help to us. Thankfully, she wanted burlap and flowers and
candles, and not expensive ways and means to have a beautiful wedding. The
wedding was planned for June.
Gabes and Josh spent ten days
with us over the holidays. We had very cold weather so that only two of those
days were we able to take the children outside for snow play. The days of lots
of activity in one little old house make for wonderful memories. I bask in the
managing of a home full of grandchildren and their parents. My journal entry 12/30/14 -21*F
It’s very cold and I’m afraid people are going to have cabin fever soon. Nobody
got cabin fever at all. Not to say that nobody got spankings and naps; for they
did. But that’s how babies grow up best. We enjoy our grandchildren immensely.
We received a dog from friends
who were moving out of town during this time as well. Ruger thinks he is a
sensitive animal and should live in the house. He is an actual tender foot so
he does live indoors. I have scandalized many of my friends and family for
allowing it. We also own a vacuum sweeper and use it regularly. So it’s all good.
In January Elv and I spent a
weekend with Steve and Nell while she had hip surgery. It turned into a bit of a get-away for us,
too. We stayed at a little place called Willowood Inn near Sauk City. Her surgery went well. She was in the
hospital for only 30 hours. We know where to go next time I need hip surgery.
Recovery and mobility were so much better for her than we remembered from my
experience.
Propane went up in price in
January. We tried our home children’s patience by heating all our water on the
wood stove for a few weeks. Not good. But they lived and Elv and I got a kick
out of free hot water. We found the
generation gap theory to be well-founded after all.
In February the cold persisted. 2/10/14 Monday Evening -10* and dropping. Very cold. We have our living
room chairs pulled up in a tight circle around the stove. It’s very nice and
cozy. Directly behind our chairs the chill encroaches.
I relearned knitting and started
right in on mittens. Sometimes I suspect we are getting old and “dotty”. Elv
snoozing by the stove, me knitting mittens.
Josh’s parents visited us during
a truck (train wheels) run in March. We enjoyed Dean and Colleen Cross’s visit
very much. Francis will have a good family in Nebraska.
3/20/14 Thursday. An awesome winter morning. The moon hung in a blue-gray
sky this AM over snow laden trees. Very cold and crisp. I rode with Elv in his
big red pick-up to work. We didn’t talk. He had been out till the wee hours and
headed back to work by seven. Driving off the highway into the woods, we found
Lance in his machine moving logs. Big monster insect with bright lights, huge
black, track feet, and a long grasping boom taking large bites of 8 foot logs
from his bunks up in the air over to the ranked piles higher than our pickup.
The trail has become a channel through the walls of wood. Such is winter logging.
I was helping to move a vehicle for Elv.
In April, Dru and Lisl came home for a six
month furlough. They moved into Lance’s house with him as home base. 4/12/14 We spent the day at Lisl’s/Lance’s
yesterday. I enjoyed our two grandchildren immensely. Jube came along for my job interview. He’s
four, speaks clearly and willingly. He is a happy child. Havilah is the same
kind of dolly her mother was. We are all loving on her and she laughs and
plays.
Which brings me to May and my new job, working
for Northwood Outdoor. “I was praying for the kind of help I need.” said
Ruthie. I was shopping in Marketplace
one day when Abbey called me to say that she had heard they had a position
open. I think Abbey was looking for work for herself for the summer, but when I
called Ruthie I told her I wanted to help Elv and would like the job. I started
the end of May and have been with them ever since. I work with friends doing the things I love
to do (home décor related), in a positive atmosphere. God knew we needed the
extra income and that I would need the encouragement of Ruthie, Rosie and Sheri
over the summer.
Lisl and Jube planted the garden here at the
StoneHouse this summer. She wanted Jube to know about seeds and growing things
and harvest. It was successful at that level. He saw seeds planted, plants grow
and even a few things to harvest. The deer ate the tops off the green beans so
that I only got two or so pickings for our freezer. After we pulled the green
beans they opted for the kohlrabi tops and ate those clean instead. Some of you
would have said it was a complete fizzle, but we did get a few flowers and
peppers and one picking of strawberries.
Our June wedding came off splendidly beautiful
thanks to God and to all those of you who helped to make it possible. Francis and Josh had a lovely day for a
wedding. Pictures before the ceremony in the rain came out absolutely
gorgeous. They had a Lake Superior honeymoon and have
settled in the little town of Milford, Nebraska where they are living
happily ever after.
July and August were harder months for us
church wise but for Dru and Lisl’s presence and encouragement and support and
“translating” during this time. I’m sure that God had His hand in their being here
for our church.
In August our whole family went camping. Clark had reserved Leisure Lake camp back in December
for us. It turned out to be the perfect spot. I wish I could gather everyone
around the campfire for you and describe the scene properly. Gwen (4), brown
and frowsy-haired sitting in an oversized camp chair swinging her bare feet;
happily eating a toasted marshmallow off a stick. Benny (3) and Jube (almost 5)
discussing things they know nothing about in their little boy voices…once it
was marriage and girlfriends while jumping up and down off the log bench. It
was funny and I tried to capture it on a video but I failed to get the settings
on my camera right from laughing so much. I do have a picture of sitting on the
shore with the grands helping them to fish. We caught only tiny, little fishes,
of course, but we had a ball. Then there were the evening/late night visits
around the campfire discussing “marriage and girlfriends” that perhaps we too
know nothing about, but we’re learning at least. Precious times.
10/2/14 We’ve been married for 32 years. How is that for amazing! I like
having been married 32 years. Commitment and blessing.
Elv and I spent our anniversary day at Uncle
Arnie’s funeral. This was an enriching day even though a loss for family. My highlights of that day are: visiting with
Trenda who always gets what I’m trying to say and doesn’t mind crying and
laughing both over those things. And with Ladina who has visited Switzerland and knew just the
pieces of lore I need to hear for my slow going writing project. And, hugging
Kate, Curt and Evelyn’s little blessing baby from Liberia, Africa. They’re home right
now due to the Ebola outbreak there.
Abbey and I drove Amy and Brad out to Nebraska in October to help
with harvest for a couple of weeks. When we took off for home on Monday morning
Josh offered to show us the “back roads” route home. I leapt at that idea and
so we drove north through Nebraska, into South Dakota, and over east across Minnesota through St Cloud. We saw harvest beauty
all up the line. We stopped and climbed up the butte overlooking The Great
Missouri River flats. Much better than freeways full of lumbering semis and
hurrying city folk. I love boonies, even flat boonies.
Elv spent a weekend with his mom and brothers
one of the first weekends in November. He was hardly home when Brad and I left
to be safely in Duluth that evening before
our first snow storm of the season hit. Brad and I tended the store Monday and
Tuesday throughout the storm. Yes, people do shop during a snow storm. There
were 60 accidents reported that Monday morning within the city limits of Duluth.
Thanksgiving found us at the cabin and with
Lattins for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a smaller crowd for the dinner than
usual; but all the same goodness in food and fellowship, as usual. I’d like to
draw you another picture. Susan and I spent Saturday afternoon together in her
living room with each our projects: hers, making wreaths to sell and me
knitting mittens. Spread before her on a large sheet are piles of pine boughs:
spruce, cedar, white pine, red pine, and others. She has a roll of wire and one
ring of heavy wire in her hands. Bunch by bunches of those different boughs get
wired onto her circle of wire all around until there are up to 250 boughs. It
is a fragrant, fully crowded, lovely wreath.
We moved the chimney to a new place in the
cabin while we were there. Last spring
the snow load on the tin roof let go all at once during the spring melt and
sheared the chimney off at the roof line. So we took that as our opportunity to
rearrange and move it to the peak so as to avoid the snow load issues. It’s an improvement all around. You can sort of heat the place with two
heaters, but after the cook stove was hooked up again we could heat water, heat
the cabin, cook dinner, and dry out wet clothing. A cook stove is the soul of a
cabin.
Now for the children: Brad is enrolled with Penn
Foster for his high school. He is a dedicated student and does well. He is our
chore boy and my work companion when I keep store in Duluth right now. School work
is portable and so are his hand work projects. He made a chain mail belt lately
and is thinking about learning to braid rope. If you visit him in his cabin he
will show you his wood and metal creations of spears. I don’t have a clue what
he wants with them but they could kill an elephant easily. They look
impressive.
Amy works for Miller’s Market, our new bulk
food store in Hayward. She loves her job of deli work, or stocking
shelves, and even working at the till.
She enjoys the customers and her co-workers. She also teaches Sunday
School sometimes and helps with the kids club work. “I have a good life,“ She
says.
Lance is 25 and makes a good bachelor. I still
pray for a wife for him, but he really is a good house keeper and even cooks
some. His house is a favorite landing spot for our family of evenings on the
weekend or to while an hour away while we’re on errands in town sometimes. Amy
likes to take her lunch break there if she can. It’s a quiet spot for him. It
really is “home” in a lot of ways to him. He shares it graciously.
Our married children are all in the busy-ness
of young, growing families. Clark’s would like to move
closer to “the loop”. Gabe’s are still working on their “new” house and
enjoying it. And Dru’s just moved into a lovely new home in their beloved city
of Chiang Mai, Thailand since returning there.
Amazing news is that we have three grandchildren on the way to join the number
of eight that we already have. They will tell you all about their lives in
their letters to you, I’m sure. J
If you actually got all the way to here in your
reading, I’m delighted and amazed.
. We are
grateful to God for His abundant mercy and blessing.
The Grabers
