We’ve had a variety of interesting family projects over the last couple weeks.

Walter has been learning about engines. Here he’s trying out his homemade steam engine.

He welded the top back on a baked beans can, then took some pieces of break line from a 4-wheeler project and welded one on the top for the steam to come out and one on the side to use as a fill hole for the water. In the picture, he’s put a butane torch in a trench in the sandbox and set the can above it to heat the water to steaming. If you look close, you can see the steam coming out where his hand is!

He amazes me.

He’s also holding a wheel that was supposed to sit on top of the steam and spin…but it turns out things held together with hot glue don’t do well with steam firing away at it. 😉

Felicity started last fall buying an retired school bus to turn into a “Skoolie”. It’s been a slow process getting the dream from paper into reality, but she’s still chugging along with the help of Dad and Oliver (who she pays for his work in doughnuts. 😉 )

The little chicks who arrived 3 weeks ago now, have been growing like weeds!

We purchased an “old” livestock trailer from an auction as a house for them before they came. After the trailer came home, we realized that it was in better condition that our current one 😉 but it stayed the chick house for now. It might get promoted after chick season is over.

A neighbor found out that folks around our place can fix lawn mowers, so he brought his over for a tune-up. This picture cracks me up. I think they are both busy in some way, even though it looks like Arthur might be taking a break. 😉

What’s in the farm kitchen this week

Along with the granola I mentioned last week, these muffins are an easy breakfast thing we usually have on hand.

The recipe uses zucchini, which is generally pretty plentiful at this time of the year! But I’ve used banana or applesauce too. Works at all times of the year!

Bible inspiration this week

If your house is anything like ours, I’m guessing you have a room that stuff sort of gets just tossed into. 

While they are somewhat organized, our basement and garage are kind of like that for us. The basement is the mud room and invariably boots are left on the floor. 

I recent added some motion sensor connections to the light bulbs down there…so as you come down the steps, the lights flip on automatically.  It sure is nice to come down with a tote of laundry and not fall on your face over a rogue piece of footwear before you fumble around for the switch!  Folks also regularly forget to turn off the lights and these help with that problem too.

This week I was reading 1 John and a couple verses stood out to me and made me think of those handy motion sensor lights.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1 John 1:5-7

In an existence without Jesus, there’s a lot of darkness.

Lots of unanswered questions.  What’s right or what’s wrong, for one thing. When a person doesn’t have the Bible as a guide for life, then right vs wrong is pretty subjective….whatever Facebook tells you that day…ick.  Or how about do you know where you’ll be after life on earth ends?  That’s a bleak question if a person doesn’t have positive answer.

But believers have a motion sensor lightbulb on life with Jesus as our guide!  Here we are walking along and *bling* Jesus is there guiding us through more than just boots on the floor.  Or even *bling* there’s a weed-eater across the garage doorway to avoid while holding a box of groceries to put into the fridge!

He guides us in daily life, and even more importantly, he forgives all our sin and is ready to take us into heaven with him someday, as verse 7 reminds us.

Those of you Christian believers know this well…you are nodding your head, thinking of your own experiences with Jesus guiding you through the boots and weed-eaters of life. And the knowledge of the comfort of heaven is like a loving hug.

But if you’re not a believer yet, it’s not too late.  You need only believe in Jesus to be your guide in life and Savior from sin. It’s not hard. Jesus is there, ready to give you that gift of salvation.

Encouraging you this week to walk confidently in the bright lights of Jesus’s grace and love.