Thankful heart!

I don't think words can adequately express our thankfulness to God for our three sons, their lovely wives and our 12 healthy grandchildren.  We do not deserve all the blessings that have been so freely bestowed to us!  Along with our thankfulness for our  family is the amazing fact that God has sent His Son to redeem us!  

Repeat performance

It is fun to see the various ways our children or our grandchildren resemble their parents; sometimes it is in personality, sometimes it is in physical characteristics.  In the case our of youngest son - HIS youngest son is, to me, a repeat performance.  What do you think?

Culinary Failure

 I suppose all good cooks experience major failures along the way, or how else would they become good cooks?  So, that being said... I think I may be on my way to becoming a good cook because I tried.... and failed... at this Norwegian meal!

 

 Now you may be wondering what in the world this was in the first place?  This would be called, in layman's terms, "potato dumplings" - though my Norwegian spouse and his family called it "kumpa" - other names are also "klubb" or "komla"... and on this particular day I thought I would totally surprise my dear hubby with this "delicacy" that I have, so far, avoided ever making.  How hard could this be, I determined?  Afterall, I think I'm a pretty decent cook.... so I was smiling as I peeled potatoes (that is the one kitchen cooking chore that I really dislike - it ranks right up there with cleaning walls or crocheting)... but I peeled and shredded and squeezed out the excess moisture (I told you I was a good cook - this is an important part for this meal) and added flour, some oatmeal and carefully shaped them into balls with the required piece of salt pork safely tucked into the center of the kumpa.  I had brought the large kettles of water to a soft boil and then, so proud of myself, I took a picture before gently placing them into the water...

 And then into the water they went!  (There is a little ham in the water to add, possibly, a little flavor...)  Again, I had to photograph to document I had DONE this!  Oh, how happy and surprised Mr. Wonderful will be, I happily thought to myself.  

 

Pride goeth before a fall.

 

Within minutes these beautiful spheres.... disintegrated into the water!!!

HORRORS!  I didn't know they would or could do that!!!

NO, I was so befuddled that I forgot to take a picture of the water/shredded potatoes mixture!

Now what do I do??  I quickly shared my dilmena with my facebook friends (after telling them I was so "wonderful" making kumpa...) and someone gamely suggested potato pancakes...

 

So, remembering that hubby also loved potato pancakes ... and thinking that onions usually improve everything... I drained the potato stuff into a colander and again ... squeezed out the moisture... then chopped up an onion and added it to the mixture along with more flour and an egg and fried them in butter to make some not-so-bad potato pancakes!

 

 

But there was a small bit of redemption.... in the smaller of the kettles of water remained ONE whole "kumpa" and part of a second one...

 

I think you have to grow up with these things to really appreciate their taste...

 

I should have taken a picture of the kitchen afterwards.  I used SO many kettles, large bowls, colanders, food processor for shredding, etc.,  It was a mess. 

All for 1 1/2 kumpas.

And because I love my man. 

Two little brothers

 This past weekend we were in "the cities" - first for a lovely wedding of the daughter of close friends, and then to enjoy the home of our eldest son and daughter-in-law ... and THESE two little fellas!

 

 We had a hard time getting this busy little boy to sit still for a  picture...

 

 The older brother, however, cooperated happily.

 

And the really fun part of this weekend was seeing our youngest grandchild (10 months) decide that walking was something he could do - he went from taking just those 2 or 3 steps to getting himself to a standing position and walking across the room.  Yup! That's walking!!

Some cookie fun at the Candis Cookie Company

I love fall and everything about it.  Getting back into a routine, the cooler temperatures, the fall colors and changing decorations with those rich colors; fires in our fireplaces, soup in the crock pot and bread baking.  All wonderful gifts of fall!  And I have done a little fall cookie baking and decorating that I thought you might like to see!  I was asked to bake and decorate some pumpkin cookies for a ladies group that I am in (PEO) and I can hardly wait for them to see them.  (Right now they are decorated and in the freezer waiting...) 

 Here is Mr. Pumpkin.  I love the little green vine on him, don't you?

 

 Since I was on a roll and had most of my decorating and baking supplies out, I thought perhaps I could bake some cookies in anticipation of the 200th win (if it happened) for a good friend who is a local football coach.  I baked these cookies and sent them off to the game with my friend, the Coach's wife, in the hopes that perhaps that game might be the BIG win... but if not, I knew they would freeze well until the next game... or whichever game gave Coach the big 200th career win.

 

 It was a good thing I baked them when I did because the hard-fought win came that night against an undefeated team on an away field !!  Yeah Coach!  Not many achieve career coaching wins of 200 games. Way to go!

 

I couldn't put my supplies away until I gave these cookies a whirl - and these I did NOT give away, but served myself to our Sunday evening Bible study group.   They all ohhhed and ahhhed appropriately.  Thank you.

 



 They look harder then they are...

 

This decorating technique is a bit different then the pumpkin and football cookies as all the icing colors are applied to the cookie at the same time and then one drags a toothpick through the wet icing to make the design.  It was tons of fun and no matter what one did, the cookie seemed to look great. 

Now I can't wait to start on those Christmas cookies....

Fall pumpkin picking

Hello to all my blog readers (2? 3? ).  I have not been so great at keeping my blog current lately but I hope to get better.  I love posting pictures (facebook seems to have taken over some of that) and I like to look back at the wonderful days of our lives.  I can't believe I have been blogging for as long as I have. 

We just enjoyed a wonderful fall weekend.  I love the fall weather and the colors.  I am a fall and winter lover, summer the least, actually and spring is okay.  Growing up in New Jersey was fabulous in the fall - it was a long and beautiful season.  Here in the upper midwest, fall often happens in the blink of an eye.  So we were so happy to have a beautiful fall weekend - just perfect for some grandchildren time and my camera. 

Just a few miles from our home is a local farm that had a great pumpkin field for us - all on the "honor" system - what fun for the grandchildren and grandpuppy to have the field practically all to ourselves.  Each grandchild picked their own pumpkin -oh, it was hard to narrow the choice to just ONE.  They would think "oh, here's the one I want!" ... until they looked around and changed their mind "no, this one is better!" ...

Of course, "the bigger, the better" was the thought for the big boys... Here is Timothy with his chosen pumpkin.

 

 Luke liked to show off his strength!

 

Hannah choose one she could carry.  Smart girl.

 

 Josiah had the hardest time deciding.

 

Mattea just enjoyed the field - and she had a cute little teeny pumpkin that she was happy to carry around. 

 

Our handsome son Adam and his lovely wife Andrea with their children. The children weren't so happy about the sun in their eyes for the picture. I remember that when I was a child too - why did the photographer always make us face the sun??? 

It was not only a great day for humans but for also our grand-dog, Peaches!  She loved running all over too!

 

Cove Point on Lake Superior

 We just returned from a 5 day, 4 night vacation at one of our favorite spots - Lake Superior.

 We enjoyed the beautiful views of Split Rock Lighthouse.

 Our home away from home was a wonderful cottage at Cove Point.

 THIS was our view from our deck.  Morning coffee never was better!

 And inside or outside, the lake was the focal point.

 Our eldest son and two of our grandsons joined us while we hiked and enjoyed the fresh air and fabulous vistas.

 This little fella has the happiest personality! Of course, riding on top of his daddy's shoulders was tons of fun!

 This busy 4 year old just loved the fun of hiking on these big rocks.

In the distance you can see Split Rock lighthouse.  It was a lovely little vacation. Can't wait until next time!!

MInnesota+sunshine+family=wonderful

 We had a wonderful and busy weekend in beautiful Minnesota and North Dakota!  We started the weekend on Friday evening in Fargo with an adorable grandson having an adorable birthday party - the theme was "chickens" and the food, the pinata, the cake pops - and even a giant yellow chicken - all added to the fun of the party!  Happy 5th birthday to Josiah!

 Then on Saturday we gathered at a local park in our town to enjoy spending time with two of our grown nephews and their families, who were both visiting from out of town.  The second cousins had fun getting to know each other and play together.  We celebrated the 7th birthday of a sweet great- niece (visiting from Canada).  The weather was perfect, the Berge men played rook, the food delicious, the company lots of fun...

Blessed with another day of sunshine and lovely temperatures, we enjoyed a morning of worship in church and then an afternoon of relaxation on one of our favorite lakes.  We put our pontoon in the water and off we all went to enjoy the day!  Yes, it was a perfect Minnesota weekend!



Little Girls

Grandma had two little girls over to play yesterday.  Two little grand-daughters to keep busy.  We played with toys, played with playdough, played in the sandbox, played on the swings, played in the hammock... oh yes, we played the day away. 

A good time was had by all. 

Adam's Amazing Playset

Our handy and creative son Adam built an amazing playset in his backyard for his growing family.

I think he created it as he built it....

 Swings, slide, exercise bars, little playhouses, a catwalk, a climbing wall, a cargo net..

 There are a few sets of  exercise bars. This high set, as you can see, and there is a lower set out of sight underneath the catwalk.

And then there is this Adam-designed pole system for extra challenge and strength building.

A cargo net and sundry challenges all for fun!  Fresh air, exercise and childhood dreams!



Big girl

This past week one of our darling grandchildren celebrated a birthday.  She turned TWO!

She was all fancy for her party but thought the addition of grandma's sandals might make her outfit complete.  I thought this was a cute picture. 

Sweet tower of delight

This past week I helped host a bridal shower for a lovely young woman in our church.  We decided it would be great fun to serve delicious and fancy looking cupcakes.  Along with that I talked my willing husband to build us a tower on which we could display our cupcakes.  It was a big success!  Doesn't this look like fun?  It was.. and there were four kinds of cupcakes (yes, all homemade - chocolate, mocha, raspberry/vanilla and lemon).  YUM. 

Oh, for sweet....

Today I decided to bake a sweet treat called a "nanaimo bar" - made famous by a housewife that lived close to Nanaimo, British Columbia.  Most Canadian's are well-aware of this delicious layered bar but not many American's known its name - just that it is delicious.  I have never made them before and so I gave it a whirl.  I must admit, it is very sweet, but anything with chocolate is always a good thing.  So, here's to all my Canadian family!  Sweets for a sweet family.

Starting young

This little grandson was very interested in his Daddy's coffee.  

The Look

 The look of concentration...

 The look of defeat...

 The look of celebration...

 The look of joy....

The look of silly...

The look of impishness...

The look of determination....

 The look of carefree...

 The look of athleticism.....

The look of courage.....

 The look of confidence.......

The look of cuteness.....