Thank you Lord for all our dirty laundry. When I wash them, I am reminded that you have been good enough to have provided me with a washing machine. There are many people in the world who still have to do laundry in the closest stream using rocks. Thanks you also for dirty, greasy work clothes. It means that you have provided me with a hard working husband who provides well for our family. I also thank you for food splattered aprons, which reminds me you have provided us with healthy food for our family to eat. I’m especially thankful for the muddy and dirty play clothes, it shows me that I have two healthy and hearty boys who are growing up to be real men some day. I thank you for everything Father, the good and the bad, the fun and the not-so-fun…because I know that you hand is in all things and everything works for Your glory! Amen!
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. ~1Thessalonians 5:18
This was sent to me by email and thought it was too good not to post!
Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can’t make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.
Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.
Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.
Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity.. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love. Matt 5:44, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; “
6 center cut pork chop
2 eggs scrambled
1 stick butter, melted (raw or organic)
For the Crusting:
8 oz. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. onion powder
2 tbsp. parsley flakes
2 tbsp. dried chopped onion
1/2 tbsp. each sea salt & pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a ziplock bag, combine all the ingredients for the crusting. Combine well. In a bowl, scramble 2 egg. Melt the butter and put into the bottom of a baking dish. Dip each pork chop into the egg and then put in the ziplock bag with the crusting mix. Shake well to cover each pork chop. Place pork chops in the baking dish. Coat each pork chop the same way. Put baking dish in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes. I cooked for 4o minutes and it was too long, but mine weren’t really thick, so watch and adjust your cooking time
Dehydrating leftovers is a great way to preserve them. It makes them easily portable and requires no refrigeration, which makes them great for camping, hunting, etc. We’ve started dehydrating nearly all of our leftovers and then vacuum sealing them into bags. My husband often takes them to work this way, as well as on fishing, hunting & camping trips. It’s much cheaper than purchasing dehydrated “camping” food from the outdoors store. He recently made a huge batch of refried beans. First, he ground the beans in my grain grinder and then cooked them in water until they were the consistency of what refried beans should be. He then spread the beans out on the dehydrator trays and let dry. The then put them in vacuum bags and he keeps them in his camp bag. He also did the same with ground beef. He cooked it and then dried it in the dehydrator. Now he’s all set when he goes camping/fishing for a quick and easy meal. There’s pretty much nothing that can’t be dehydrated!
Marty and Colt made a lot of headway on our milking barn this weekend. They built the entire framework from scratch our of plywood and have covered 2 sides and the roof with red tin. Marty got the front door put in as well, although the sides with the front & back doors haven’t been sided yet. Here’s a picture of it, before the front door was put on…my camera batteries died before I could get a picture of it with the door. I’m so proud of my hunny and son!
Thursday was Colt’s 16th birthday and I got a picture of the 2 of us together. I hadn’t realized he’d gotten this much taller than me!
Then last weekend Marty was clipping his hair and this is how he came out of the bathroom….
With a mohawk with a superman curl in the front!! Thankfully, he was just playing around and he went back in the bathroom and trimmed the rest of it off, as well as trimmed his beard. I can never let than man be alone with clippers again…hehehe!
“Happy Birthday” means much more
Than have a happy day.
Within these words lie lots of things
I never get to say.
It means I love you first of all,
Then thanks for all you do.
It means you mean a lot to me,
And that I’m proud of you.
Happy Birthday Colt!! I love you so much and I really am proud of the young man you’ve become.
(Now for the embarrassing pictures…lol!)
Colt age 6 weeks (May 1993)
Colt at 7 months (November 1993)
Colt about 18 months old (1994)
Colt Age 4 (1997) after fishing with Daddy & Grandpa
Colt age 5 (April 1998), this was after his 5th birthday party.
Education in modern parlance, means nothing more than instruction, or the communication of knowledge to the mind; and a good education means, the opportunity of acquiring all kinds of learning, science, and what are called achievements.
But properly speaking, education in the true and higher import of the term, means: “the implanting of right dispositions, the cultivation of the heart, the guidance of the temper, the formation of character.”
The most important part of education is that which relates to the communication of godly principles, and the formation of moral habits.
You educate your children by: your example, your conversations, your likings and dislikings, your home life, your daily behavior, these, these will educate them!
You began educating your children the moment they were capable of forming an idea. This unconscious education is of more constant and powerful effedct, and of far more consequence than that which is direct and apparent. This education goes on at every instant of time. It goes on like time–you can neigher stop it nor turn its course.
Your children may read many books, but the first book they read, and that which they continue to read, and by far the most influential–is that of their parents’ example and daily deportment.
This weekend we were busy as usual! We had planned on working in the garden, but all the rain we had last week made the ground much too wet to till, so that didn’t get done. But, we did add some new family members to our little homestead, and getting ready for them kept us busy. As I mentioned in Friday’s post, we purchased a dozen chicks. We purchased them from Tractor Supply and we won’t be doing that again. They made us register to purchase them, our name, address and driver’s license number. This was really strange, so we won’t be purchasing chicks from them again. Has anyone else noticed this?
Saturday, we went to pick up our three new milk goats (well actually 1 milker and 2 female kids). We were able to buy them from Patty from Morning Ramble. It was a lot of fun to finally meet her, I wish we could have visited longer, but we needed to get home and finish up some things for the goats. I was so excited to meet her and hope that we can get together again sometime, as we really live pretty close! After that, we came home and got the goats settled in their new home. They are named Cinnamon (momma), Charity (brown one) and Hope (black one). After that we watched a movie and then went to bed. Colt wasn’t feeling really well Saturday, but seemed much better on Sunday.
Sunday morning, we didn’t make it to church because I let Colt sleep in. Then we all got up and started working on a milking stand for the goats. Marty and the boys got it all finished a little after noon. Then we ate lunch and hit the grocery store for groceries. After we came home, Marty and the boys went to work on the goat’s house. Marty sure does enjoy working with the boys and they really love it also. The goat house and milking stand didn’t cost us anything to build. The wood used was all scraps that Marty brought home from work, the metal for the roof was given to us years ago by my BIL…you see a lot of red metal being used around here…lol. We finished up the goat house around 6:00 and then had to run to town again to take back a movie. We came home and ate dinner. After dinner we watched “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler”, which was a good movie! After that, we went to bed.
You know me, I have pictures and a couple of videos to share 🙂 Only sad thing, I forgot to take a picture of Patty & I together. I had the camera in my pocket and just totally forgot to do it! What can I say…lol! Well, on to the pictures!
Cinnamon & Riley at Patty’s house
Cinnamon, Hope & Charity
Me and Cinnamon
Me milking Cinnamon. This is MUCH easier to do with the milking stand and a bucket.
Using a pickle jar as a milking bucket was not the best idea I’ve ever had…lol!
Me climbing over the fence…my kids thought this was too funny!
Marty & Riley working on the milking stand
Me talking to Riley about helping Dad.
Colt sanding on the milking stand
Riley sanding on the milking stand
Colt working on the milking stand
Marty working on the milking stand
Riley being goofy and looking awful cute doing it!
Riley sanding on the milking stand
Our new goats!!
Charity taking it easy, watching us build their new house.
Colt & Riley climbing over the fence.
Cinnamon in her new milking stand
Marty helping Riley milk Cinnamon
Marty building the goat’s new house.
Riley helping Dad by holding a board while Marty put a screw in.
Hope & Charity taking it easy.
Colt using the circular saw to trim the roof line of the goat’s house.
Our “Puppy”, Rook. I can’t believe how big he’s gotten! You can see a picture taken of him and Riley 6 months ago by clicking here.
If you’ve read my blog(s) for any length of time, you know that I don’t often touch political topics. It’s not that I don’t have opinions, but I honestly feel that they are a private matter, between myself, my family and God. I have made it clear, that I did not vote for President Obama. While I do not like his agenda, I still feel it is my place as a Christian American to pray for him to make the right decisions. I do not support him, but he is our President, like it or not, so it is our responsibility to lift him up in our prayers. That being said, in the recent week, I’ve seen several news articles which concern me and REALLY make me wonder where our country is going. We are on the edge of a cliff as a country and I’m worried that if we don’t turn quickly that we will fall off that cliff and I really don’t like what I see below. Here are the items in which I’m concerned with:
Read the original Homeland Security Assessment here.
This really bothers me, because the government is setting up average Christians, such as my family and myself as potential terrorists. Just because I’m a Christian, pro-life, pro-gun and am against sin does not make me a terrorist! I am simply a mom trying to raise my children to be morally upright adults. Since when did calling what the Bible describes as “sin” as wrong become legalism, politically incorrect and possibly a hate crime? Could it be that sinners want to justify their sin? Read you Bibles! Love the sinner, but hate the sin.
II Timothy 4:3-4 says “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
So, now because we use our constitutional right to protest what our government is doing, we are now terrorists. Our government is suppose to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Yet many of the people’s voices are not being heard. States rights are being trampled. Is there any wonder our nation is in unrest? Our government is doing many questionable things which really concern me. All I can do is pray that the insanity stops. I know that the Lord has His hand in it all. He is supreme and all things work for His glory. We need to trust in the Lord while we are on this roller coaster. Whatever happens is in God’s plan…not even President Obama and the Liberals can stop it.
This video is also very disturbing, if half of what this pastor say is true then these officials need to be prosecuted (not that I have any reason to doubt him). Granted if this had been me, I would have answered their questions and gotten out of the car, as I have nothing to hide. But I can see his point and his treatment was atrocious! I don’t know this family personally, but have read their blog from time to time.
And this one gave me a real start first thing this morning….after reading the first paragraph, my heart started beating again.
How Barack Obama resurrected The Dead
okay, enough talk of politics! Let’s just keep our nation in our prayers and keep a watchful eye.
Essential Traditions/Real Food Real Frugal 
