Spring Brunch with Celebrate 365

Mother's Day is in two weeks and what better way to celebrate Mom than by making her a nice, homecooked brunch.  So to help you do just that, I have partnered with my Celebrate 365 co-hosts (Carlee from Cooking with Carlee, Jan of The Tip Garden and Nicole of Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom) to host a Spring Brunch Blog Party!

Spring on the Farm: Farm Kid Edition

*This post has been sponsored by Theisen's.  

All views and opinions shared are my own.*

Spring has finally arrived this year, a little delayed, but nonetheless it is here and our whole family is excited and ready.  I'm not sure who is more excited, My Farmer so he can start planting corn and soybeans, or the kids so they can do all of their favorite spring time things:

Get Bottle Lambs

For the last few years we have gotten our kids some bottle lambs or bottle goats to take care of as their own spring and summer projects on the farm.  While we do raise pigs on our farm, the pig barns are a mile away, so the kids aren't able to help with the pigs always.  Having the bottle lambs or goats here on our acreage allows the kids to take care of them daily, be active caregivers, and gives them responsibility.  If you follow me on Instagram you saw that we got this year's bottle lambs, Connor and Chance last week!  

Miss A with Connor and Mr. K with Chance

Explore a Century of Iowa Farming at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library

Last weekend my family and I traveled to West Branch, Iowa to check out the opening of the "Tall Grass to Knee High" exhibit at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.  This new special exhibit shares the stories of Iowa farmers through the last 100 years and the changes and innovations seen throughout the Iowa country-side.

The exhibit is broken down into scores (twenty years) and each score highlights farm life, people, livestock, crops, conservation, machinery and buildings of that time.  Over the last two years a team of four to five Hoover staff members have been researching, interviewing and building the exhibit.  They got a lot of historical information from both the Iowa Women's Archives in Iowa City and the Grout Museum in Waterloo.  

I appreciated seeing the voice of women in farming throughout the exhibit.  Journals from Clara Steen Skott and Alma Erickson Swanson, copies of Evelyn Birkby's "Up a Country Lane" newspaper column and copies of my "Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids" blog posts are seen through the scores to share about the people and farm life of our times.  It is an honor to be included the exhibit and to be apart of the large artifacts collection displayed in the exhibit.  (You can find my posts and pictures in both the 1990-2010 and 2010-today scores.)

My kids loved the children's area in the center of the exhibit.  The space included farm toys, games, farm books and a life sized milking cow.  The location and set up of the kids zone makes it very friendly for parents to look around the perimeter at the artifacts and displays, while the kids are close by keeping entertained with the children's activities.

Other popular spots in the exhibit that we weren't able to check out as much as we would have liked were the video boards and digital displays, along with the Farmer's Markets section which includes recipes from the Hoover Family, Iowa Girl Eats, Becky's Mindful Kitchen and my blog!  You can grab a copy of my Apple Bacon Jam, Farmers Market Quiche, Easy Pecan Sticky Buns, and Harvest Brats with Apple Slaw recipes in that section.  Luckily for us, through October 28, 2018, the end of the special exhibit, Iowa Farm Bureau members get to visit the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum for free!  Based off our experience, I would recommend planning two to three hours to be able to visit not only the Tall Grass to Knee High exhibit, but the rest of museum that shares about Hoover's life, as well as his birthplace cottage, grave-site and outdoor exhibits.

It can be so hard to get a good family photo 😉

Our family enjoyed the opportunity to go to the opening of the "Tall Grass to Knee High" exhibit and meet other people that were interviewed for the exhibit.  It was also special to sit just a few seats down from a couple members of Herbert Hoover's family that were in attendance for the opening.  The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum is worth a day trip for all Iowa families and if you're traveling across Iowa on I-80 the site is just north of the interstate.

Have you ever been to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library?  Have you been to any other Presidential libraries?  What do you enjoy checking out at a museum?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Comments for a Cause - Latimer Little Free Library

April is here and it is time to start a new month's worth of Comments for a Cause.  But before we move on to April's cause, let's go over the stats for The Do More Agriculture Foundation.  I believe mental health in agriculture is such an important issue that I added all of my comments from February and March to go towards their efforts.  During that time I had a total of 155 comments which resulted in a donation of $77.50 to Do More Ag.  Thank you all so much for your comments and support for spreading awareness and resources for mental health.

Now for April, I'm excited to helping a local project that is near and dear to my heart, the Latimer Little Free Library.  I am donating $0.50 for every comment made on my blog in April to help the CAL Kindergarten Class's Book Drive for the Latimer Little Free Library.

In 2014 I campaigned to the Latimer City Council to use an open lot in downtown to put up a Little Free Library.  The Council unanimously voted to let me use the lot and I have been the steward of Little Free Library #11710 for close to four years now.  Thanks to the Latimer City Council and several community members, books have been available to citizen of all ages 365 days a year.  And now, thanks to my local school district's CAL Kindergarten Class, we'll be adding more books!

The CAL Kindergarten has been learning about taking action to help address local, regional and global problems in their Social Studies unit and as a class, they decided to do a Book Drive to get more books for the Latimer Little Free Library.  I was touched to get contacted by their teacher, Mrs. Koenen, and to hear about their excitement for the campaign.  The Kindergarten class made posters to spread awareness about their Book Drive, and they even made this commercial to share with the students at CAL Community School.

They are also planning on having a Lemonade Stand to raise money for the Latimer Little Free Library and after their campaign is over, they're going to help me give the Little Free Library a new coat of paint.  The Kindergartners enthusiasm is contagious and I wanted to help them out, so I'm donating $0.50 for every comment made on my blog all month long towards their Book Drive!

What is your favorite book?  Do you have a Little Free Library in your neighborhood?  Remember to Comment for a Cause all month long to support the CAL Kindergartners taking action in their local community!  I look forward to keeping you posted on their efforts!