Top 10 reasons I haven't blogged in almost a month:

1.Max. He is mobile and very fast now. Happy as can be and has so much fun exploring his world.2. Sam. The kid who does not have a mute button or slow-motion. 3. Madeleine. The child with one million questions. Per day.
4. 2 weeks on my parents farm in Minnesota.
So I really am a nut flying to MN with 3 kids by myself. Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! Check it out:
When Brentt came later in the trip, he could not help but throw a few bales around. Actually, it was probably over 150 bales on a super humid day. He loved it. Crazy!Even Sam helped out. Isn't he adorable?!?
Max with Uncle John. I swear, my brother is a kid magnet. The kids just love to jump on him and wrestle and he lets them. They just love him!5. A 9-hour road trip to my sister's in Iowa with my mom and 3 kidsLet's just say.... Iowa isn't the most exciting state to drive through. The kids were a little"challenging" on the long drive so I think we may have taken a few years off my mom's life. :)
6. Desperately trying to find time to exercise and scrapbook/craft. (I don't have pics of my latest craft projects and scrap pages but check back soon. They are great!) Why would I need to exercise? Here's the biggest answer:
Those are deep-fried cheese curds. YUM!!! My absolute favorite Minnesota treat. Then there is the awesome home-grown, corn-fed, all natural steaks on the farm. Did I mention we also made home-made ice cream? My arteries are clogged!

7. Swim lessons. The kids are just loving the pool this Summer and they have improved so much this year.

8. Living room re-model. It seems that we just can't seem to leave "well-enough" alone. We always have some new project to make the house better or customize something for someone. Storage is always an issue too (I would simply LOVE a basement!). Right now we are adding a wall, changing the kids' playroom, and

9. Meeting up with old friends. When I was back in MN, I was lucky enough to get together with one of my great high school friends (who married my prom date, oddly enough. 2 visits in one. yay!). She has such a lovely family and her kids are all about the same age as our kids. The kids had a great time playing and getting to know each other and Mandy and I seemed to just pick up where we left off. I love those types of genuine people!

Another friend we got to see over the 4th of July was my dear friend Cydne and 2 of her kids. We met when her son Colby and Madeleine were babies and they now live in Spain. I just treasure our time together and all of us, again, picked up where we left off. Another genuine friendship that I hope will stand the test of distance and time. 10. Laziness. Yep, even I take the time to be lazy every now and then. As a matter of fact, I think I hear my hammock calling. :)

So, yes, I am full of excuses for not staying up on the blog. 10 mighty good excuses if you ask me! But now we are back and ready for this week. We are looking forward to Vacation Bible School, swim lessons, finishing house projects, and making some salsa from our garden's tomatoes. Isn't Summer wonderful???

Cheers,
Christy

The Family Farm layout

Here are my new layouts for the design team I'm on at Yellowbird Scrapbook Store. We were assigned to do a "heritage" layout using this K & Company family scrapbooking kit. Its not my normal style AT ALL but I thought I'd give it a try. I had a bunch of old pictures from my dad's side of the family. Most of the pictures I had were about farming so I took this as an opportunity to tell the story of how the family farm has changed over the years. You can read the journaling below.

Here's the first page of the layout "THEN":
Here's the second page "NOW"




I love how the journaling worked out. I had a lot to say and a lot more pictures so I created a mini-album with a gate fold on the layout.




Here's what the journaling says on the inside:

The Girard family has been farming as far back as I know. My great-grandfather, Narcisse Girard, originally bought the farm that I call “home” in 1929. Prior to this farm, they rented land and farmed east of Marshall and around Ghent, Minnesota.

In 1929, when my great-grandfather bought this land west of Marshall, Minnesota, he had 240 acres of land, a dozen horses, a dozen kids, and a lot of courage. Farming was, and still is, hard and risky work. If you don’t do your work or you have a bad year, your family doesn’t eat. Families were much larger then than they are now. The average size of a farm before the 1950’s was about 160 acres. If you had a large family (more labor) like ours was, the average size of that farm was 240 acres. Crops that were grown during that time were mostly oats, corn, and wheat. Many of those crops were grown to feed livestock. See the photo on the left (top) showing them thrashing grain with a team of horses.

The Great Depression brought hard times to the farm in the 1930’s. As a matter of fact Narcisse Girard almost sold the farm in 1935 because he didn’t want to pay the taxes on it. His brothers convinced him to try one more year and that next year made all the difference in the future of the family.

Times changed, Narcisse and Sarah Girard’s children grew, and my grandpa, Clement Girard, inherited the farm. His brother, Louis Girard, built the barn pictured here in 1949. The biggest change to farming in the last century was the advancement in machinery. On our farm, tractors were first used in the late 1930’s. (Look at this newspaper clipping, on the back page, of my grandpa (Clem) going on a trip to buy an Allis-Chalmers tractor. It was a big deal! And my Dad still uses that tractor today.) By the early 1950’s the last team of workhorses were retired. With less livestock to feed and better machinery, soybeans became a popular crop in the late 1950’s.

The advancements in agricultural technology have grown exponentially since the 1950’s. Now, my Dad, Donald Girard, owns the farm and it is about 1000 acres. The crops now are mostly half soybeans and half corn. Some corn goes to feed cattle but the majority of it is for sale. On today’s farm there are several tractors and attachments and no horses. And sadly, there are also no kids at “home” learning how to farm from my Dad. So, what will happen to our family’s farm in the future? It’s anybody’s guess. Two things are for certain: First, my Dad is going to farm as long as he is physically able to and secondly, everyone who has been a part of this family is proud of their farming history and it will not be simply forgotten.

Make it a great day today!
Christy