McFadden Life

08/18/2026

Captivatingly Written - Our culture needs more church and less Hollywood.

Smit Jenkins hadn't rung the old church bell in nearly twenty years.

But on Sunday evening, just as the sun began setting behind the trees, folks for three miles around heard it.

Once.

Twice.

Then a third time.

By the time Smit came hurrying up the gravel road, three cars were already sitting in the churchyard.

"What happened?" somebody called.

Smit didn't answer.

He was staring at the church.

The doors were locked.
The windows were dark.

And nobody had seen anyone nearby.

Old Mrs. Bennett finally smiled.

"Well," she said, looking toward that fiery sky, "maybe somebody figured we'd gone too long without hearing it."

Nobody ever found out who rang the bell.

But the following Sunday, there wasn't an empty pew in that little country church.

08/14/2026

Never heard of this… Have You??

The goldenrod just started a six week countdown 🌾

There is an old farm rule that has been passed down for generations, and it holds up better than you might expect. When goldenrod first blooms, first frost is roughly six weeks out. According to the Farmers' Almanac, this old folk rule is surprisingly accurate across much of the United States, and there is real biology behind why it works as well as it does.

Goldenrod is not blooming on a whim or reacting to a warm stretch of weather. It is what botanists call a photoperiodic plant, meaning it flowers in response to shortening day length rather than temperature. As nights grow longer heading into fall, goldenrod picks up on that shift and triggers its bloom cycle right on schedule. Frost arrival is also tied to the same underlying seasonal clock, cooling nights and a lower sun angle, which is exactly why two things that seem unrelated on the surface, a wildflower blooming and the first hard frost, end up following a fairly consistent timeline relative to each other.

This is different from a lot of garden folklore, because it is not really predicting the future so much as reading a calendar the plant already has built into it. Temperature can shift bloom timing slightly year to year, with a hot summer nudging goldenrod to open a touch earlier and a cool one delaying it, but the six week gap between first bloom and first frost tends to hold up reasonably well as a rule of thumb rather than an exact science.

There is a bonus to this old rule too. Goldenrod is not just a seasonal clock, it is one of the most valuable late season nectar sources in the entire garden. It fuels monarch butterflies fueling up for migration and gives bumblebee queens the reserves they need to survive winter, all while quietly counting down toward the season's first frost.

Goldenrod is native and hardy across nearly the entire country, from USDA zone 2 through zone 8 depending on the species, so this is a countdown almost any gardener nationwide can watch play out in their own yard. If you spotted that first gold bloom this week, it might be time to start thinking about your last tender plants and when to bring them in.

08/04/2026

So True!!

08/03/2026

Homeschool moms… 📚

One subject I wish every high school student learned before adulthood is personal finance.

Christian Light has a new course available! www.christianlight.org/personalfinance

Have you found a financial curriculum your teens actually enjoyed? ⬇️ Post Below

07/29/2026

Many of my friends in their 40’s are experiencing this. A very well written explanation ⬇️

Researchers have used the term “sandwich caregiver” to describe adults who are raising dependent children while also caring for aging parents or other older relatives.

The pressure can be immense.

A parent may be helping a teenager prepare for college while helping an aging mother make decisions about housing. One phone call concerns a child’s school behavior. The next concerns a father’s medical appointment. Money, attention, time, and emotional energy are pulled in opposite directions.

Research discussed in the podcast found that adults who entered these caregiving roles experienced significant declines in mental health, particularly when they devoted more than twenty hours a week to caregiving. Some also experienced declining physical health.

That should concern us.

We should not romanticize exhaustion or pretend that burnout is holiness. Bodies matter. Sleep matters. Nutrition, counseling, medical support, friendship, and rest matter.

But a decline in comfort does not automatically mean a person has stepped outside God’s will.
The parent who cares for a sick child may feel anxious. The adult daughter who tends to an aging father may grieve. The couple raising twins may become tired enough to consider coffee a spiritual gift.

These struggles deserve attention, but they do not always indicate failure.

07/27/2026

🐻 Bear hugs from the North Woods.
Happy Monday! 🌲

07/21/2026

Finally, Minnesota Grown Corn is Here