the Story of 24 hours

First - a picture of progress. Almost time to put that wind turbine up!

Now, a story about "24 hours". Monday evening was a doesy complete with getting the car (that we're borrowing from my parents) stuck in a snow drift on the driveway. Gearing up and hiking home only to find the place was 30-some degrees inside. Tim then had to spend over an hour getting the tractor started, clearing the driveway, and pulling the car out. (Time he would have rather spent working on that wind turbine project!) Since it was so cold inside, I figured there was no point of sitting around waiting for Tim to do it all, so CW and I pulled the ice fishing sled down to the garage and hauled up some firewood for the night. Since it takes awhile for the stove to radiate heat, I put Conrad in bed early with the promise of LOTS of stories. We snuggled up and read and read and read. One of his favorite books currently is "The Secret of St Nicholas". I bought it in early December to help bring a little more meaning to the season for him. One of his favorite parts in the book is when the boy Nicholas is learning about Christmas from his parents and decides 1) God likes surprises and 2)some good deeds should be done in secret

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Fast forward to Tuesday morning. It started well enough, and then at 7:30am I got a call from Tim that the car we are borrowing needed a new alternator. Really? What is it about cars this month!?!? Trying really, REALLY hard to be optimistic I tried to see the good. Tim knows enough about cars that he recognized the warning signs as opposed to being halfway between the prairie and Rochester in sub-zero temps when the car could have died on us. Admittedly, it was still a downer for me though - would this mean another night lost from working on the wind turbine? And another day away from Tim having time to look and maybe fix our car?

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So here is where the story changes. Tim was able to take a half day, NAPA had the part in stock, and the car was fixed by mid-afternoon.

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Then he checked our mail while at his dad's house. We had received a gift and a note from an anonymous sender. We have had quite a rough month and getting a note like we did was so encouraging. Knowing there is someone out there thinking of us in this way gives us strength and a bit more confidence that although things are really, really hard right now, we'll pull through. And I can't help but reflect on that childrens book.

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It's amazing that in a short 24 hours so much can happen.

project day

We were thrilled by the calm, sunny day over the weekend, Tim made some excellent progress with the wind turbine! My parents stopped out after Conrad's nap and not only helped Tim with a few key steps of installation, but also got Conrad and I to bundle up and get out on the prairie for the first time since this snow season started.


Tim is adjusting the guide wires

a little adjustment here, a little there

putting the blades together

And while Tim worked on parts he didn't need help with, we got to play!

Christmas Eve Day

Last week we packed up again and moved into Rochester for the second time this month. We stayed with my parents Wednesday night through Christmas Day. I always miss being home, but in many ways it was a blessing to be in town for those few days. Thursday morning Tim had to work so CW and I just got to hang out - no firewood to haul, no early commute to make, even brushing teeth is easier with a sink and running water.

My niece and nephew spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa's as well since their parents both had to work. Conrad was thrilled to see them show up that morning (I had been hesitant to tell Conrad to expect them because with the weather forecast we couldn't be sure anyone would be making it into Rochester that morning). Show up they did and we had a good time.
Here's Jordyn and Conrad in their baking gear...

And here's Alex reading stories to Conrad. I wonder how many times Conrad convinced him to read Polar Express?

And here's a quick picture of us after church.

And this picture was taken not before Christmas, not even on Christmas, but the day after. And he's not taking DOWN the tree, he's putting it UP! Hey - I figure we can enjoy it for 12 days, right? The tree thing had been put off for lack off space, we were waiting to get some of the wind turbine components off the floor and onto the wall before adding more stuff to the room.

The projects we had hoped to have finished by Halloween were delayed first by CW and I getting so sick that month. Then thankfully we were blessed by pretty decent weather in November, so some progress was made before the other setbacks started. I think things are starting to look up though.

**The convertible is running again, and I think Tim got it dug out of the snow last night.

**His computer is back in mostly working order (computer viruses are evil!) and that computer was necessary for scanning the jetta to determine what all was going wrong that the car wouldn't start after patching the fuel injector.

**We ordered (and now received!) a replacement set of specialty tools for adjusting the timing belt that the computer mentioned above is showing isn't adjusted correctly (I wonder when/where we will find the original set of tools??)

**the "entryway" is patched up well enough to get us through the winter. The storm two weeks ago caught us not quite ready and we ended up with snow drifts inside. This last storm though it was ready.

**the tractor started after this storm and we were able to "move home" right away, as opposed to the storm two weeks ago...

**the wind turbine is getting SO CLOSE!

And here's Conrad enjoying one of his Christmas gifts.