PAID OFF FARM CELEBRATION

THE HIRZ FAMILY CELEBRATES PAYING OFF THE HIS & HIRZ FARM
( not pictured: Don, Brent and his wife Carolyn, Amber and Ashley, Kyle and his wife Amanda, Kayla and Brian)

This is my life. This is my joy. This is what keeps me putting one foot in front of the other. My family! We had a wonderful celebration of the last payment on the farm.

Ned and I moved here in early 1966...very young with 3 tiny children. We lived in a garage for 8 years and had 3 more children while living there.
We raked up tumbleweeds, picked up pieces of wire, it took years to get the farm where it is today. Lots of blood, sweat and tears went into this place...a place where my children loved growing up and grow up they did learning how to work and be responsible. We became a very close family.
All I ever wanted to be was a wife and a mother. My family is my life. I thank God for them.

I thank God that we could raise our children here where they learned to pick rocks year after year, swathing hay, feeding cattle and calves, fixing fences, equipment, etc. Now they are grown with three of our sons living on the farm with their families in beautiful homes where they are raising their children to enjoy the great feelings of accomplishment and also working with God and the beautiful world He has given us. Everyone takes part in the farm in one way or another.

It will feel good to leave them a land full of love and may it go from one generation to another giving joy to all who dwell or work this place that God provided for us.

WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN MUCH

This following story was sent to me by my son Scott.  I wanted to share it with you. Also he sent some thoughts about kindness, about being compassionate and how life really is a gift:

There was

a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I would marry you.'

One day,
someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked
her, 'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her
boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine..'

This is
how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a Gift

Today
before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can't speak.

Before
you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before
you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone who's crying out for a companion.

Today
before you complain about life - Think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before
whining about the distance you drive Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when
you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.

And when
depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on your face and think: you're alive and still around.

HOW GOD WORKS

I want to share with you a saying that my daughter-in-law Kelly (married to my son Mark) posted on Facebook.  I thought it quite profound, comforting and full of wisdom.  May this saying grant you the peace of mind and of heart that it has me.

                     God answers in three ways:

                      He says yes and gives you what you want.
                        He says no and gives you something better
                           Or He says wait and gives you the best.

And I say..."Let go and let God do His work"

REMEMBERING............

I love it when a thought comes to your mind.  After I finished with my shower I started blow-drying my hair and all of a sudden I remembered BLIMPS!!!  Five years old..WWII...Medford Oregon...the blimps were around quite often as we had an Army base called Camp White.  I loved seeing them and would always get so excited.  I had to laugh because I did not know what triggered the thought of "blimps" when I was blow-drying my hair.  Then all sorts of "things" popped into my mind that we don't often see any more.

I would like to share with you the following:

1. Tokens and stamps given by the government during WWII  so you could buy sugar, bacon, butter, etc.  Those items were rationed and every family had a ration book.
2. Watching the Army soldiers march by our place and doing a "cadence" as they marched...plus they would wave at us.
3.  Watching my grandmother kill chickens and how they would run with their heads off...ugh!
4.  Running a magnet through the gravelled road trying to find something worthwhile.
5.  Black telephones with finger dials
6.  Party lines for each house...meaning we had to share the phone line with other homes.
7.  Only a radio to listen to and heard FDR (Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt) talk about the war.
8.  Laying on the floor listening to the programs on the radio: Inter Sanctum, Queen for a Day, Fibber McGee and Molly, Amos and Andy
9.  Oleo made its way to our home...white oleo in a plastic bag with a red button inside. Had to break the button without breaking the bag and then knead the bag until all the oleo was colored yellow. 
10.  Rumble seat cars.  This was a coupe and on the outside, where trunks normally are, was a handle that when turned would be pulled back and there was a seat for two people.  No protection...just wide open and airy.  No seat belts in those days.

Those are just a few of my memories that I don't see or hear of any more.  Maybe the chicken one still happens at people's places but I sure don't want to see it again.

Now it is your turn to share with me and others your memories of things that MAY not exist any more.  You can draw on the memories of your parents or grandparents if you would like. 

Remember the 8 track tapes of not too long ago...they are gone.
Reel to reel recorders are gone.

Put on your thinking caps and share your memories.

MY HEART IS FILLED WITH..............

A couple of months ago I gave myself a challenge.  I wanted to start memorizing a scripture or two now and then.  Now when I was younger...memorizing was a breeze.  I can remember the long...very long poems that were full of verse after verse...had to be memorized in a high school subject I was taking.  I loved it.   But somewhere along the line, the gray matter quit working and was not the same brain when I was 16.

In other words..the challenge of memorizing after all these many decades is truly a challenge.  Let me put it this way...I am still not very secure that I have completely remembered the verse that I chose from the New Testament.

I am going to, of course, put it in this posting on my blog as it is a verse that truly brought me more understanding and clarity of what is being said.  I think at times we read words, but don't put the words together and ponder and think.

Luke 6:45

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

Profound isn't it!!  Now since becoming familiar with that scripture, I am wondering what am I filling my heart with.  I should have started this memorizing bit a long time ago....as now just from one scripture verse I am thinking if I have developed a good treasure of the heart or have I developed an evil treasure of my heart.  When I open my mouth.....the truth will come out for all to know.

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!   If  ONE scripture can do this to a person...learning, changing, thinking, evaluating, etc., ...just think what ALL the scriptures could do for a person. 

I think I close off this thought and get some sleep...I have more reading to do tomorrow.   Hugs.

IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS!!

I just love "thoughts"...they stimulate my thoughts...my actions...they clear my head...motivate me and certainly get me to thinking.

Here are two thoughts that I found in the last hour:

God has not called us to see through each other, but to see each other through

and the other is:

Live in such a way that those who know you but don't know God will come to know God because they know you.

Don't those two thoughts just hit you to the soul of your being?  They certainly made me instantly reflect on who I am, what I am and what I am doing to help others through this life and also are my actions showing how I love God and am his obedient child so others can get to know Him as I do?

I would just love it if you would share some of your profound "thoughts" that have meant so much to you.  I am going to put them in a special journal and label it:  Thoughts to Live By....from those I have learned from."

Hope to hear from you soon.  Thank you in advance. 

Love, Deanna (Mimi to my grandchildren)

GRATEFUL

Here I sit in the wee hours of Friday morning...wanting to go to bed...but first I just want to say a few words about those who made it possible for me to be, do, think, feel, say what I want.

Thank you to our "fathers" who knew this land was a great land, with diverse people who came from England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Poland, etc. to settle in this beautiful country of ours where it became known as the "melting pot" of the world.

Thank you for the Constitution of the United States.
Thank you for the Bill of Rights
Thank you for fighting for us to have all the freedoms we have of speech, religion, etc.
Thank you for those who gave their lives so we have what we have had for the last 235 years.
Thank you for your bravery, your courage, your blood.

I personally want to thank my Revolutionary ancestors Gabriel Hutchings, Daniel Bennett, Joshua Smith who all survived that war.  My War of 1812 ancestor Clark Bennett.  My Civil War ancestors who did not all come home but were taken prisoner at the infamous Andersonville Prison where two died, others were maimed or loss of limbs.  Grateful for my close family members who fought in World War II...my father, his brother and two other uncles; my cousin Nick in the Korean War; my cousin Steven in the Vietnam war. 

Seems like every generation has had to go to war to defend the right of freedom.  Right now I have a grandson (a marine) almost 19 years old who will be deployed to Afghanistan in September and my son-in-law Don is a Lt. Col. in the Army and is deployed in Germany, with already having been deployed twice in the last two years to Afghanistan.

I know you will join me in paying tribute to your ancestors, your current family members and neighbors who are sacrificing their time and at times their bodies or their lives for you and I to be able to sleep well at night, to be able to go to church, to shop, to get an education, to travel...to live.

Hang your flags.  Don't have one...buy one.  Display it proudly.  Look up your genealogy and find your ancestor who fought for our Independence.  They are our heroes!!  Have fun.