HOME SWEET HOME

We are back home again at SE 16 1 23 W of 2nd, the official location of the Johnson farm. It's great to have a wonderful vacation and also great to come back home and appreciate how wonderful home is as well. We are blessed to live in a quiet, peaceful place after seeing the hustle and bustle of life that many people live with every day, never knowing what "quiet" is like.

We are so thankful for four safe, on time flights which brought us to Regina shortly after 9:30 pm on Tuesday. We were blessed to be given seats by an emergency exit on the nine hour flight from London to Edmonton. There is ample leg room there to stretch out and relax. I enjoyed watching two movies, one of them being Blindside, an excellent one. Air Canada took great care of us with a hot meal, ice cream, and a hot sandwich during the flight. Water and other drinks were offered many times. Howard enjoyed visiting with the flight attendants and was on a first name basis with Brian and Rhonda. He was even invited to visit the cockpit after our flight!

Laurel was there to meet us in Regina and soon we were enjoying milk and freshly baked peanut butter cookies at the Diekrager farm. I can't say that I had a good sleep after 24 hours of travel time and the 8 hour time difference, but it was fun to wake up and hear Ashley's footsteps on the floor above our downstairs bedroom. We had breakfast with Dawson and Eric before they left on the school bus. We missed those grandchildren when we were away for four weeks and look forward to seeing Abbey, Carter, Lindsay and Jamie this weekend.

We had haircut appointments in Weyburn with Candice, then met Clare for lunch at Joey's Only. After picking up prescriptions and groceries we headed home. There was a lot of mail waiting for us at Torquay Post Office! The fields looked pretty bare as we drove south of town with little runoff to be seen in the fields or at Long Creek. The 1/2 inch of rain this week was most welcome.

It's always good to come home and see things much as we left them. The cats were waiting to welcome us. They had been well taken care of by Carl Bjornson, Clare's hired help this spring. He had also watered my plants. I was amazed to count eight large white blossoms on the orchid plant that Todd and Kristy gave us for the farm's 100th anniversary in 2007. It has bloomed several times since but never this many blooms. It had three blossoms on it when we left.

A bigger surprise was the yummy cake waiting for us on the kitchen table with the words "Welcome Home Howard and Elaine" in green icing. Now who was the thoughtful person that left this for us? It was coffee time so we enjoyed a piece of this special cake with creamy filling. Now, to find out who to thank for this!

I started unpacking and going through the mail. I am still at it this morning after a better night's sleep. It was also great to have a bath after four weeks of showers!

Our Weyburn Conference ELW convention is this Saturday in Yellow Grass. Since I am the secretary/treasurer I better check with the rest of the executive to see if there are last minute jobs for me to do. I always bring Elaine's Flatbread to these gatherings so I'll bake a batch of that today. I brought some Norwegian brown cheese to serve with it this time.

Today Todd is 33. Howard and Grandpa Horace were in the field on our east land when Todd let me know he was soon to make his appearance. I couldn't reach Howard on the CB so gathered up the three kids, my suitcase and a change of clothes for Howard and headed "over east" to pick him up. We met a couple miles from home, he hopped in with us and we dropped the three kids off at our friends, Phyllis and Bob Hurrens, on the way to St. Joseph's Hospital in Estevan. Howard had time to get a bite to eat and change his clothes before Todd Erick Johnson arrived to bless our lives. Someone once asked me if he was "planned". I guess this question came about because he was five years younger than his brother Kirk. My answer was "All our children were planned by God". We pray that Todd and Kristy will be blessed with a baby too, according to God's plan and His timing.

This reminds me of a picture we have of Todd when he was about ten months old. I had put a pin on his overall that read "Kyss meg. Jeg er NORSK." ( Kiss me. I am Norwegian) Little did we know that he would be living in "the homeland" someday. But God knows the plans He has for us and I feel that the words on the pin were a foretaste of the life in Norway that lay ahead for Todd.

We just found out who left the cake for us! Carl called so I asked him if he know anything about that lovely cake on our table and he admitted that he had left it there. So thoughtful of him.

Now, I better get busy with unpacking the last suitcase and getting it all put away. We are thankful that we weren't leaving Noway today as flights from Oslo have been cancelled due to volcanic ash from the volcano in Iceland making hazardous flying conditions. Even Crown Prince Haakon was grounded in London!

When we arrived back in Kristiansund after our drive from Oslo, our four safe flights and the five nights on the cruise ship, we sang the Doxology with Todd and Kristy. It expresses our feelings today too -Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen