A Relaxing Week with a Beautiful Lady

I had such a relaxing week this past week. Portia and Paris went on vacation to San Francisco and the Redwood Forrest with their dad.

 It was the perfect time for my mother to come up and stay with me for a week. I love spending time with my mother and we never seem to run out of things to talk about.  We talked about the bible and God's Word, we talked a lot about the details of my brother and fathers passing. We talked about the girls and homeschooling, about all of our family dynamics. We talked about her future plans and her BIG house or at least her house that seems so big as she adjusts to her new life without my dad.

 We went to Wal- Mart and she helped me to figure out finishing the afghan that I have been working on. We went to church and it was fun to hear her perspective on what my pastor was preaching on. We sat and watch tv each night as I worked on my afghan and she rolled scans of yarn into balls. We talked about politics and things that are going on in our government and it was wonderful to just sit and have good conversation with a like minded soul.......you know, they say, "the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree".  We have so much in common, oh we are very different in how our brains process things but we are very much alike in our values and world views.

This is my beautiful mother, Fran. I love her so much! She is truly the matriarch of our family and has been a tremendous stabilizing force in my life. 

We have always called her the energizer bunny, it is so hard for her to just sit, she has to have a plan and loves to have something to do so while she was here I took advantage of her expert organizational skills and we cleaned out all of the school curriculum and art supplies, sorted out some old books that I no longer wanted and reorganized both the school cabinet and the built in bookshelf.  This took us an entire day!

Then we spent half of another day cleaning and organizing the garage pantry/food storage. Dealing with all the empty canning jars can be quite a challenge but we put our heads together and managed to get everything into the cabinets. The girls other grandparents gave us several boxes of their old canning jars that they were no longer going to use so I had to make room for those too. 

 I discovered that with everything that was going on last fall with my brother and my dad that I really did not get as much canning or reordering of bulk supplies done as I had wanted to.  God is so good though, our freezers are full and we have plenty. We still have some squash and pumpkins left from last years garden in cold storage. I cook the pumpkins and feed them to my dogs, they love it!

Then we spent the last of our time together getting her ipad and iphone set up in a way that made sense to her. We even learned how to change your apple id and downloaded a few new apps. We had fun learning together.  I do soooo love my mother!!!

Using Laying Hens for Meat - Hobby Farms

Using Laying Hens for Meat - Hobby Farms

I have a few older hens that have stopped laying and I need to learn to process them and to keep adding new hens each year.
My husband keeps mentioning about the "Hens that don't lay anymore". This is a task that I have avoided up until now.
I wonder if he will help me? LOL We have a few too many roosters too. I guess I need to do the same to them.....having so many roosters is really hard on the hens.( I have learned this.) We did get a bunch of new hens last spring (along with some unordered roosters) and this spring I am thinking I might let one of the broody hens sit on some eggs to see if we can get some new hens added this year. An earlier post I did shows how to tell if the eggs are hens or roosters.

Ok Susan, be brave! Your the one who wants to do this homesteading/farm life, raise your own, grow your own kinda lifestyle now.......It's better for you, remember!....It doesn't have any hormones or antibiotics or artificial fertilizers or weed killers or pesticides.....Your family really does not care either way, they would just as soon you go to the grocery store and buy the food we eat like I always have. grrrrrr


I am really struggling here getting my family on board with this whole homesteading thing.......We have plenty of land for growing our own food. We do live in a cold climate and that is a hindrance but it is still doable, I grow a huge garden (we expanded it last year). I can or freeze things like tomatoes, green beans, peas, corn, carrots,chili peppers, applesauce, pears, peaches, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, all for winter use. I have worked diligently on our food storage and have really done a good job putting up all our staples for cooking and baking.....I have bought up things when they went on sale and bought the large plastic buckets for storing things like wheat, sugar, flour brown sugar, powdered sugar, rice, brown rice, beans ect. I bought two cases of raw honey from a local bee keeper and I ordered a couple of gallons of fresh maple syrup from a maple farm back east.

 My husband had these storage cabinets put in a couple of years ago....I had to hold my ground for them but once he had them put in he could see the need and was pleased with them.

I also grow several herbs in the garden and dry them for cooking. Last year I did oregano and thyme, sage, and rosemary. I have really enjoyed using all of it in my cooking this winter. I have given some of it as gifts in gift baskets that I put together at Christmas time. My husband does like what I have done and is glad that I really don't have to go to the store for much other than fresh produce, milk, toilet paper, personal care products, laundry and cleaning supplies. I have joined a food co-op in our area called Bountiful Baskets and most of our fresh produce comes from there for $15 a week.

We have a really nice new chicken house (future post) that my husband had built for me last fall. We are getting around 18 eggs a day and some neighbors buy eggs from me, that does help with the cost of feed especially in the winter months when the chickens don't roam.

I could buy a milk cow and was going to but my husband is not on board with it. He thinks it will be too much work and responsibility and he has let me know that "HE" will not be milking it!..........I need to just be happy with what I have accomplished and with what we are able to do for ourselves. My personality is a gung hoe one though and I like to do everything 110%....... I would do the cow...make my own cheese and butter.....(I do make my own buttermilk and grind my own wheat) raise my own pig and beef (as long as I don't have to slaughter it) but what frustrates me is I sometimes think my family would be just as happy if we lived on pizza and fast food, sodas, candy............I am very thankful that we are able to have our beef and pork raised by some friends that raise them the way we would ourselves.

I know we live a live style that some only dream of and others wouldn't dream of! LOL The girls love having the horses and all the farm animals though and so do I.

Lord please help me to feel contentment in my life, give me wisdom to do the things you would have me to do, things that will improve our health and lifestyle yet help me to let go of the things that are not practical for us at this time in our lives.....I know that my ministry is here at my home taking care of my family and raising my two granddaughters. Please let your light shine through me Lord that my whole family will know that you are God and that they will all learn to love and serve you.

Funny how I can pray myself right out of being frustrated! :o)

Blessings!
~Susan~

Staying Under Authority

My Morning Devotions


Trusting God:

The early church was told to trust God and honor the Emperor (Matt. 17:25-27, Mark 12:14-17 Rom. 13 : 1-7).   God's grace empowers us to honor the unhonorable because of their positions, not their personality or worthiness.  If we take authority lightly, our prayers will be hindered.  Prayer will unlock a heart that is walled up.  We reach for God on the other side of a closed heart and draw from Him until He changes the heart. We get out of His way and rest in His ability to deal redemptively with our authorities.

Only weakness will break strongholds.

He asks us to lead from weakness not strength. The best we can do will never be enough. God loves us too much to let us succeed in our own strength. His name is I AM my name is I am not. Without Him, I can do nothing.



Listening:

God is doing a new thing, He has a new direction for us and a deeper level for us with Him, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see Him in His word and respond to Him.

Seducing voices will suggest we take the easy road or take matters into or own hands by our own power, or to follow the dramatic or sensational.


We must give no ground to comfort, deception or denial of reality.  We must listen for God's voice alone.


Prayer:

God, as we place ourselves under your authority and the authority of our leaders, bosses, husbands, pastors...etc. give us ears to hear your voice and not the voice of the enemy that only brings confusion and discontentment to our hearts and minds.  Give us eyes to see your hand working in our lives and in the lives of those who are in authority over us.

Truth:

When we operate in our own flesh and despise the authority of God, we are presumptuous and willful.  When we go out in presumption we are easy prey for our enemies who are lying in wait for us.  Truth is one of the pieces of the Christians armor.  The only strength that God can validate with His presence is knowing our great need of Him.  As we know the truth, we see that what we considered strengths are dangerous weaknesses, because we are deceived about their true nature and our true condition.  Truth is a person who says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light".   (Matt 11:28-30)

Christ my Leader, Christ my Peace, Christ has brought my souls release; Christ my Righteousness Divine, Christ for me for He is mine.

Blessings!


what I did over the weekend

Vanilla Extract

After reading several other blogs about how they made their own vanilla extract I decided to try my hand at it. This just sounded too yummy and easy. I had no idea you could make your own extracts so easily. I ordered my vanilla beans from http://mountainroseherbs.com/. The only other ingredient was ****VODKA*** gasp! who knew? not me. Not really being one to frequent the liquor store, I sent my oldest son :o) He was more than happy to run the errand.

Mountain Rose Herbs also sells little old fashioned bottles with cork tops for bottling your extract once it is finished. This will make great gifts for Christmas baskets. The girls and I are planning to do Christmas baskets this year and we will fill them with homemade extracts, dried herbs from the garden, we have Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, Oregano, Basil and Mint (Mountain Rose Herbs also has cute little bottles with corks for dried herbs). We will also put in some home canned or preserved items from this years harvest. Will put in homemade ranch dressing mix (no MSG) along with the recipe on a cute recipe card. Toss in a loaf of homemade bread of some kind and wrap with plastic, tie on a cute bow and ta da....who wouldn't love a gift basket like that? The possibilities are just about endless and I still have plenty of time to think about what we could put in the baskets.

Here is my first attempt at making vanilla extract:

25 organic vanilla beans (split up one side)

1/2 gallon vodka

Place beans in a 1/2 gallon glass jar with a tight fitting lid.

Put away in a cool dark place to steep for several months (6-8). Get it out and shake it up about once a month.

Mine will be done by the Holidays!

Yesterday we went to Salt Lake City (about an hours drive) to go to church with my mom and dad. We love going to their church, pastor Eric is funny and down to earth but very strong in God's word. The worship team is wonderful, very much like Gateway worship........love it!!! After church we go over to their house to visit and have lunch and we usually bring something to share.

I had asked my mother on the phone the other day to go to the thrift store if she got a chance and look for me some more canning jars. With my plans to expand the garden this year I will be putting up a lot more of our food and could use some more jars..........well to my surprise when we walked into the house this is what she had found at the thrift store for me, for $8.00!!!!!!! Needless to say I was very excited! Thanks mom! I am so blessed to still have my mother in my life.

I was thrilled that the Ball Blue Book for canning was still in the box in fact, other than some water damage to the book the whol set is like new. I'm sure the book will come in handy, it has a lot of great information and how to's on canning and preserving food, it tells how to use the water bath canner for high acid foods like tomatoes and fruits (I also have a steam canner) and how to can in a pressure cooker (on my list of items to purchase this year) for low acid foods like green beans and even how to use a food dehydrator (also on my list). It also has tons of great recipies.