Count Your Blessings Monday!!

Here is an opportunity for all of us to give thanks unto the Lord for a blessing in our lives. If you would like to take part great. If not that is OK too. If you would like to share your blessing, just leave it in the comments. If you want to use the picture above and list a blessing on your own site, then leave a URL to your site in the comments. There is no pressure here. I just know that I am incredibly blessed and I would like to share that and give thanks to Him who all blessing come from. This is a way that we can encourage one another. I know that I am often encouraged when someone shares a blessing with me. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!!

I am thankful today that God is in control. Five years ago, I was in the hospital with bacterial meningitis. God pulled me through with little to no side effects. Because I had the meningitis, my Mom came the week I went home. She came almost every day to see me and take care of me. She left to go home on September 2nd. It was the last time I saw her alive. She died in October of that year (my parents lived in Florida). I am so grateful for that time with her. She was so tender with me and she brushed out the tangles in my hair from the hospital. She had just gotten home from a trip to Switzerland with her sisters. I got to see her pictures and hear all about her trip. Let those you love, know that you love them. You are not promised a tomorrow.

A Spiritual Thermometer

I am really enjoying this Bible study we are doing. It constantly challenges me. I shared this in another place, but it so spoke out loud to me, that I wanted to share it here as well.

Here is the excerpt I want to share with you.

One essential aspect of humility is living in the constant awareness of the importance of other people. As a believer becomes involved in the lives of others, he becomes less consumed with himself. Conversely, the prideful person is preoccupied with self. His thinking almost always revolves around his own opinions, desires, and needs. Socially, he really is only concerned with himself and his own family. There is very little room left for anybody else because he is so huge in his own mind. Rather than serve others, he seeks to be served.

On the other hand, the humble believer matures out of that selfish thinking and becomes interested in other people. As self-consciousness decreases, he becomes increasingly aware of "the interests of other." Their lives take up a greater part of his consciousness, and he becomes smaller in his own mind. Humility is living with a great concern about the well-being of others and allowing their interests, needs, struggles, dreams and fears to play a big part in one's own life.

That contains such truth in a nut shell. Where is my focus? Do I concern myself with others and their problems, or am I self focused? It can be a spiritual thermometer we can use to see where we are and where we need to be.

Any thoughts on this?

Puppy Portraits

I was outside the other evening letting the puppy play. Of course I took my camera with me. She is so funny.

On this one I called her and she was running to me. I caught it with her ears on the upswing. :)

She was sitting right in front of me getting ready to jump up and get the camera.

Then she saw Michael and some of the Wonderful Neighbor children and took off. I had to catch her and hold her because Michael was on the tractor. So, I was holding her with my left arm and just pointing and aiming the camera with my right hand. I did not even know if she was in the frame or not.

This one looks like she is getting irritated and saying... "Get that thing out of my face!!" :)

Fine, then I will close my eyes.

Do we HAVE to do this?

I was just being silly, but I love the way they turned out.

Cheese Glorious Cheese

I have been making cheese about twice a week. Sometimes it averages out to 3 times for 2 weeks. It has come in handy. We have not bought cheese in quite some time. I have priced what my cheese would cost us if we had to buy it. It is from a grass fed Jersey cow and is raw milk cheese. Let's just say we are blessed. I have given some of it away as gifts. We have taken it with us to pot blessing meals as well. Here is a picture of my "cheese cave". The white bucket at the top is a heavy brine that I brine some of the cheese in. The other is yogurt and eggs. :)

I have 2 rounds sitting on my counter. They have sat until they have a nice rind on them. I am now applying the first coat of wax to them. This is Monterey Jack. It sort of looks like the leaning tower of Pisa. :)

This is a round of Colby.

I make Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack, Feta, Mozzarella, and Ricotta. I just found a recipe for something that is supposed to be like Provolone. I am anxious to try it.

I went to visit my Dad on Sunday. My brother and his family were there. I had taken my Dad a half of a round of cheese. My 12 year old nephew asked me if I had made that cheese. I told him yes. Then he must have asked me about 4 times if I would teach him how to make cheese. I told him I would love to. So tomorrow, he and his sister are coming to make cheese with me. :) I will take pictures.

Puppy Love

I thought I would do a puppy post. :) She takes up a lot of my day. Without having children around every day, she still needs some play time. She is as ornery as she is cute. We are working hard at training her.

One evening the Wonderful Neighbors came over. They all were playing with Skye and running her ragged (she slept good). Here is the older WN girl holding Skye. Their eyes are almost the same color. :)

She has several favorite spots. One of them is under my rocker. I don't like that, because I am afraid I will rock on her. I let her go though, because before too long, she will be too big to get under there.

She loves to torment Star and we have to really watch and not let her go on and on. She also loves to lay down close to her.

Here she is under my feet at the desk. This is another favorite spot.

This is a new spot and looks so uncomfortable. We have to have a heavy duty cord for our treadmill. There is a big coil of it laying beside the treadmill. She curls up in it like a nest and goes to sleep.

When she does her ears this way, she reminds me of Tramp in Lady & the Tramp.

She is growing fast. She was under 3 lbs. when we got her. The last time we weighed her, she was 10 lbs. I love holding her when she is all sleepy and cuddly. That won't last for long, so I am enjoying it while she is still small enough to hold.

Count Your Blessings Monday!!

Here is an opportunity for all of us to give thanks unto the Lord for a blessing in our lives. If you would like to take part great. If not that is OK too. If you would like to share your blessing, just leave it in the comments. If you want to use the picture above and list a blessing on your own site, then leave a URL to your site in the comments. There is no pressure here. I just know that I am incredibly blessed and I would like to share that and give thanks to Him who all blessing come from. This is a way that we can encourage one another. I know that I am often encouraged when someone shares a blessing with me. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!!

This week I am so thankful for the bountiful harvest we have. I think I have shared on here before about the trees out in the chicken yard. About 5 years ago, we noticed trees that got beautiful pink blossoms in the Spring. They looked like peach trees. The blossoms were pretty sparse that year. Each year, the trees have bloomed a bit better. Last year we saw lots of little peaches on the trees. We did not plant these trees and wonder if they were just from the last people throwing their old pits out with scraps to their chickens. Anyway, last year there were lots of peaches, but after they got about golf ball size, they just seemed to be gone. There are lots of weeds under the trees and the chickens hang out there on hot days. Well, this year Michael brought in a big beautiful peach. He had picked it back there. We were thrilled. There were beautiful peaches that had not been sprayed with any poison whatsoever. We went out and picked some and the Wonderful Neighbor girl came over and picked some for us. She also found an apple tree back there with loads of apples. :) So, this weekend, we did up our peaches and they are in the freezer. We also got some peaches off the tree out by our other fruit trees.

We also picked our grapes and made up some grape juice. It is so good. We are going to try steam juicing some of the apples to make some apple juice. I hope to make apple sauce out of the apples on the trees out front.

Michael picked his corn. It tastes so sweet and wonderful. We had it 2 different nights and have more to eat. We were also able to share some with others.

There are lots of tomatoes in the house and more to be picked. I will probably just can them as whole tomatoes and make the sauces as I need them.

I am very grateful for what the Lord has allowed us to have. We sure eat good and would not be able to do that without His hand of providence.

What are YOU thankful for?

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Count Your Blessings Monday!!

Here is an opportunity for all of us to give thanks unto the Lord for a blessing in our lives. If you would like to take part great. If not that is OK too. If you would like to share your blessing, just leave it in the comments. If you want to use the picture above and list a blessing on your own site, then leave a URL to your site in the comments. There is no pressure here. I just know that I am incredibly blessed and I would like to share that and give thanks to Him who all blessing come from. This is a way that we can encourage one another. I know that I am often encouraged when someone shares a blessing with me. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!!

I am not even sure where to begin with this blessing. We have friends who are friends with Jim the Broom man. I have posted about Jim before and gave a link to his website, Gingerbread Brooms. I have always been fascinated by broom makers and have wanted to own one of their brooms. I have seen a broom maker making brooms several times in different places around the country. There is a lot of work that goes into making a broom. Then it will last you a lifetime if you take good care of it. Back to my story.... I found out that Jim reads my blog. Hello Jim!!! :) I finally got the chance to meet him in person at a viewing for a funeral. We talked about his brooms and I told him that I wanted to purchase one of his brooms. I asked about the different kinds that he made. Then after I got his website, I would look at the different types of brooms. I was trying to decide which one to get. I had narrowed it down to 3. I wrote and asked him the prices on those 3. I heard through our mutual friend that he would not take money from me. So, I sent him a round of my cheddar cheese. :)

I was fellowshipping after church yesterday and our mutual friend brought out my brooms to me. Yes, I said broomS!!! I was not even sure what to say. I was flabbergasted to say the least. I don't think I could have been more blown away or pleased if they had handed me $1000 dollars. These are a treasure and each one made by Jim.

Each broom is a work of art. I believe that all the handles are made out of Sassafras. Each handle is unique in its own way. This handle had a vine or something that wrapped around it and left its markings. He carved a flower into the handle as well.

He used different colors on the bands. If you click on this and make it larger, you can see how the larger part of the broom corn is still attached and spreads out into the individual straws.

I am not sure if he peeled some bark on this one, or that is just the coloring of this piece of wood. It is a wonderful effect either way.

This broom can be used to get down cobwebs up in the corners of your rooms.

I love the naturally crooked handle on this one.

This is true broom straw.

I love the coloring on this handle as well.

This piece of wood had a larger vine winding around it. I love the markings and groove it left.

These next 2 pictures I took off of his web site. This is Jim the Broom Man. Jim, you gave me a precious gift that I will treasure and use. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you keep on making your brooms!!!!

Lessons In Nature

I forgot how much work a puppy can be. She is worth it, but you have to be on your toes to do house training. It seems at the worst possible moments she has to go. So out the door you go with her. It has gotten me outside more and that is a good thing.

I have been doing lots of thinking lately. Thinking about what makes certain people tick, thinking about where I see us 5 years from now, etc. I love nature. I think God truly speaks to us often through nature if we take the time to listen. I was taking the puppy out earlier this week and I was in one of those thinking moods. I took her across the driveway and I saw this sunflower. It is all by itself, just standing in the pasture. It must have been planted by the birds.

It made me think about how often we can feel like we are all alone. I often feel out of place in "my world." Many of the people around me have large families and talk is often centered around the multiple children and the dynamics that causes. We wanted a large family, but that is not what God had for us.

I have also been told by many people that my spiritual gift is exhortation. I see things too often as black or white. Gray is a scary place for me. There are many people that do not like that about me. It can be a lonely place sometimes.

Anyway, my thoughts on the sunflower started out like the thoughts above. How too many times, I feel all alone in this or that. I was ready to make it a symbol of who I am. Then I got that gentle reminder from a loving Heavenly Father. "I allowed that sunflower to be planted there. I caused it to grow and flourish. It is not whining or feeling all alone. It is praising Me with all that it has!!" God allowed me to be right where I am. God allowed us to have a smaller family. He has caused us to grow and flourish where we are. I need to stand here and praise Him with all that I am. Why do I lose sight of that? I think it is because my focus is on my dreams and desires. I need to make Him my focus. Just like that sunflower face, follows the sun. I need to set my face to follow THE SON!!!

Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

I need to worry about the first part of that verse. If I do that, then God will shape my desires to His will and they will be fulfilled.


The peaches are looking good. This tree has lots of issues with yucky stuff. There are a few good peaches on it though.

I actually tasted a few grapes that day as well. Some of the appear to be ripe and ready. This is really early for that.

I finally figure out that the 2 trees with apples are the Jonathan and the Golden Delicious. I hope to get enough to make apple sauce this year.

The puppy is growing. She gives Star a run for her money, but it has also given Star a new heart to play.

She loves to attack my Echinacea as they bob in the wind.

Star has been the best dog. We hope and pray that Skye will be every bit as good.

She is so tiny that she hardly makes any sounds as she moves around our house. I have almost stepped on her several times. So, the Wonderful Neighbors had a jingle bell they let us have. I put it on her collar. Her new nickname is Stinker Bell. :)

She is really getting quite a personality. I am really enjoying her.

Who could resist that face?