Friday, February 28, 2014

Another Snow day, second in a week and I can't remember my older kids having even one in all their school years....

So this morning I have 15 inches of snow on the deck rails (you know the snow that didn't fall off), snow still coming down and a house full of kids that think you should go outside roll a round in the snow, track it into Nannie's living room, warm up your hands and start the whole process over, and over and over again.  It is all fluffy and wind is predicted so that it can become a blizzard.  Funny (you know ironic) that this is the second snow day we have had this week and during the 16 total years my older kids spent in this same school there was not even one that I can remember.  Odd how times change, maybe it was something like the 10 mile (both ways) up hill walk  to school my folks, and yours, all talk about.  Maybe it is just a cycle like everything else and we really aren't in danger of the mysterious global warming that all to many people are afraid of... who knows really but God.

The kids are mid cycle and are in the house watching old Tom and Jerry cartoons, you know the ones that still had cigarettes in them.  Poppie made them wipe all of the puddles up and says they can't go out for at least an hour, or maybe until they drive him crazy and he sends them out.  The baby, Bubbles, is playing driving the car, Yogie rigged her up a box and a set of suspenders as a seat belt for her and her babies.  You know times have changed when the kids are shocked by the cigarettes and the baby can't even pretend to drive a car without a seat belt for her and a car seat for her dolly.  I guess things don't always stay the same......




I have got all the tomatoes I got from the store yesterday into jars and have 7 jars to process and no the eighth jar is not going to be processed but eaten because even I am not crazy enough to spend 90 processing minutes plus cool down time to process one jar.  The 4th Annual Spring Fling has been delayed to next week, called on account of snow.  That means my olive oil soap will be ready and maybe, just maybe Mokie will have her goat milk and honey lotions ready to take.  It also means that the Spring Fling and BBFC day will come at the same time so there will be some planning to get that all figured out.

I spent part of the morning reading a new book, The Jesus you didn't Know by Philip Yancey, it is just as wonderful as the rest of his books, that I have read.  I read a shortened version of his book on praying last week, wonderful.  It makes you rethink why you should pray and have greater appreciation for praying. I hope you have a good day, hope that there isn't any snow or rain, especially for those of you in CAli, that you can't call a blessing.  Nothing worse than being over blessed with no place to put it. I pray for your health, your life, your soul and most of all for your salvation, to one and all, and yes, most especially for you dear stalkers, just think some day you could become one of the Lords and rethink your life pursuits too.  Serious I pray for one, and all, and I mean that in a way you cannot fathom, because the Lords wants us all to care for our fellow man, yes, our neighbors.... tomorrow. 

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Peanut butter cookies, little stickers, tomatoes, and the games adults, that never grow up. play.....

Booboo is home yet again, she still has the cough but it is much better and she is not resting like she did the rest of the week.  She is always the more likely of the Ladies to get sick.  She does have something going on with her eyes.  I can't find her eye medicine but Visene  seems to be of help.  I spent most of the morning making little stickers to go on my jars of non-petroleum jelly and my lotion bars in a jar.  I was working on this when Mokie called and the store has a case of tomatoes they couldn't really sell and I can get them for a screaming deal so now I am making tomato sauce.  I never never turn down any kind of food I can put into my lazy jars.  I am glad I have some carrots, peppers, spinach and who knows what to put in it, maybe some pumpkin.  Poppie allows me to put anything I want it tomato sauce as long as I don't give him a play by play of it so to speak.  While I am in the kitchen any way I made up some peanut butter cookies for the kids out of the cake mixes Yogie made up for the freezer....

I found out today that I, or maybe this time more my family because I refused to play any more awhile back, has decided to play their games again.  Sadly this person is a stalker of my blog, I have several and I wonder why they don't actually get lives of their own and get over me and mine.  The one this time has been trying to take from our family one of our treasures, and it is not always the same one but general the stalker has just tried to steal the next one down the line.  The stalker watches and reads my blog religiously, because the stalker is pathetic and has delusions that will never come true, so need to get on with their life.  I actually prayer regularly for this stalker, and my other ones for that matter, so I will continue to do so.  I have taken great comfort in learning that they too our blessings from the Lord, all trials and people who try you are used to work for the good when God is in it.  I think that God has given me many blessings due to my stalkers so I continue to pray that they will someday see God and go to him for salvation.  I have learned God wants me to be patient and has given me stalkers to help me do that.  So this week we are dealing again with the stupidity of one of my kids and the cruel machinations of the family stalker. I know that God has a blessing in this one as well but time alone will give us the answer and what God wants for us from it.

I pray you are blessed this day by God.  I pray that if you have a trial it is being used by God to bless your life.  I pray for your salvation and for some of you a life of your own surely mine has gotten to boring to harass at this point. If not I pray that my live can bless yours in someway I don't know about.  I pray for one and all on this glorious day..... tomorrow. 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Castile or Olive oil soap my first...... Choices come and go, but eventually you reach the final one.....

Yesterday I opened the page for my Soap Making Classes on Facebook, I am hoping to get the word out to people who would really be interested and like to take the classes.  I meant a nice lady at the Library who I didn't know who seemed really interested.   Those are the people I am hoping to reach, most of my friends, that are interested in learning, will probably already know about it.  Some will take it and those who don't will probably just pop in out of the blue and asked me to show them how, which I will enjoy doing because I love sharing anything I do, make or might learn to make.  I don't think God put us on earth to be selfish, he put us here to be a blessing to others and sharing in\s a blessing to the sharee and the sharer.  I included that I was offering to make castile (which is a fancy name for olive oil soap), goat milk soap or alternative liquid soap.  I have made both goat milk and alternative liquid but I had not actually made just olive oil soap.  I decided to make up a batch yesterday.  It turned out very nice so far.  The biggest secret to soap is one is pretty much like making an other and so many people want you to think it is a big mystery.  I think that is one of the aims of my class will be to help the attendees become comfortable with the whole process, from lye to bar.  I actually gave a class a couple years ago and the one person that had been to an other class was surprised I wasn't teaching them to fear the lye and all of the thinks it involved.  Her reaction to my class makes me want to give people the love of soap making with out the fear and myths that surround it.  I hope I can accomplish that.  Maybe teaching yourself has it's advantages, not preconceived fears..... hmmm!

I have one still sick at home, this is also the only day this week with no littles.  I have them two more days and then I will only have them as Nannie, so looking forward to that.  I will be going to the 4th Annual Spring Fling on Saturday.  I have lots of new soap, soaps in a sweater on a rope and around 12 rugs to take.  The girls are going to bake up some pies to donate to the Friends of the Library bake sale.  I don't think you can ever teach community responsibility to young.

This morning I am blessed to live in a village when it comes to taking care of the children in our family.  I have come to a place in my life where taking on extra responsibility for my grandchildren has become limited.  The limitations are some due to age, some due to relationships that are not compatible with doing what your heart might want to and in the end I have my two littles and their childhoods have to come first, so I was unable to assist in the current situation.  I am happy, and blessed, that one of my sisters was able to come forward and due what I could not for two of my grands.  I love them and I love her and the Lord be praised that she could do what Poppie and I can not.  I pray for a good out come because I think that this is the last chance, on top of a mountain of chances given the grands Mom.  I pray the chance is taken and success may rain down but if not, the chances were many and all thrown away it would seem.  I lament and pray for the outcome all around.

I pray today that you live if a village of love.  A village given to you by the Lord Jesus for your good on this earth.  May your friendships and family be the blessing that God intended them to be and may you have accepted the village you were given by God like the salvation he so wants to give you.  It is never to late to accept a gift and salvation is the most import one you will ever be given..... tomorrow. 

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Kids..... They are only really kids when they are little.... you know that don't you??

Two day my two littles are still sick, good thing yesterday was a snow day or they would have missed two days of school.  As some of you know we read the Bible most morning, and I say most morning because on sick days the girls seem to miss so I won't say every day, and we are not fast enough to actually read the whole Bible in a year so we as a family fall short.  We do keep the Lord in our lives as much as we can, or try to, and again we fall short.  I have just read a book on prayer that was very interesting.  It talked about how prayer was for a lot of reasons but the most important was that it was time spent getting to know God.   Did  you ever think of it that way?  Most relationships that are meaningful and loving require talking to one another so why would our relationship with God be any different?  We hear God's words when we read them and sometime in our hearts in answers to prayers. We speak to God in our prayers so reading the Bible and praying are two of the most important acts any Christian can do.  So, think about it next time you don't want to read your Bible or Pray to the Lord, how else are you going to communicate with him??

I think that we all do the best we can with our children.  I don't think anyone comes to parenthood with the thought that I will do this for show and I don't really want my child.  I think all parents have the best intent in the beginning and for the most part parents try all along to do the best they can for their children.  It makes you wonder why so many kids go astray?  It is sometimes a failure of the parent, intentionally or accidentally, but not always and for the most part not usually.  The reality is that if it is the  parents fault then we have it all upside down.  A parent is responsible for raising their child to the best of their ability and there it really ends.  Did you ever really know a parent that said  "I think I will raise my child up to be a criminal?  a dope addict?  an alcoholic?"  No, no one really does that they love their child.  Did you ever hear a child say "I want to be a criminal, an addict or a homeless person when I grow up?"  No, you haven't.  So where does the problem come in?  I think it is when the child that has been trained  up, or taught good things decides one day that they are in charge of their own destinies and God, mom and dad don't know s**t.   This generation, well the last few generations, starting with the baby boomer, we, have all decided that our way is the best way and we should do it "my way" as the young people are want to do.  I am not saying all because a lot of the Mywayers soon learn that without God, Mom and Dad they are a boat with out a rudder unless they put into action all of what they learned from them.  But what of the countless ones that don't put their training into action?  What of the ones that didn't get any training in the first place?  Though if you think about it it might be older than the last few generations even David's son Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, strayed away from his training, in the end from his Lord and his fathers beliefs and made altars to fake gods.  So maybe in the end we are all responsible for our own actions and mom and dad aren't really to blame.  Maybe, just maybe, we have to be the ones in our lives to stand up and say I did it, I am responsible, good or bad.  Maybe I can't count on my mom or my dad's sweat, money or faith to live my life.  Maybe I have to work for what I want, make my own way and give my life to the Lord because I made the decision to do so because I am no longer a kid but an adult.  God has no grandchildren you know?  He only has children.  You can not get by on this earth, or in eternity, expecting Momma or Daddy to do it or get it for you...... tomorrow.  

Monday, February 24, 2014

Little Girls and Little pigs..... away to spend a winters afternoon.

We have two little piglets, well they aren't little they each weight about 180 pounds, that are running free range in our yard. They greet everyone that comes into our yard and needless to say they can be a bit intimidating to some.  Mokie squeals much like they do when they come to close to her.  The kids are at pig face level so they have gotten to know them face to face lets say.  The pigs look in the window and the dogs all yap and bark at them.  The two little girls put there little faces on the glass and the pig put their noses up to the other side of the glass face to face.  The little girl's laughter peals through the house.  The pigs at well and truly enjoying the freedom of being out and about.  They think that Poppie should come out with slop every time he leaves the house and are always intently interested it what ever he is doing when he comes out.  The goats and the pigs follow him around the snow filled yard like he was the piped piper.  I think the snow all over the yard is the only thing keep the pigs from getting into a lot more trouble than just following Littles and Poppies around.

I finished making all the strawberries from Bountiful baskets into jelly,  I got 24 pints of full sugar jelly for Poppie, 8 1/2 pints of low sugar and 3 1/2 pints of no sugar jelly.  They have all set up nice and are all actually very good if you don't eat them sugarery before the next lower amount of sugar jelly.  The girls have been working on peeling and slicing apples up into pie fillings for next summer's Farmers Market.  They have finished up one whole case and I am thinking they will eat most of the second case so things are on track.  I also picked up a case of oranges so we have fruit for all the littles to eat.

I helped Mokie order lotion base this morning.  She is excited about making goat milk lotions for the Farmer's Market and maybe the Flea Market.  It will be nice that they all have something they are passionate about to sell.  I do love my soaps.  I am making Castile soap so I can teach either goat milk soap, castile or coffee soap at the basic class.  I know the some will not want to make goat milk soap as they will not necessarily have access to goats milk, I can offer to sell it to them or they could get canned but other than that they need an option and I am thinking good castile or olive oil soap is the next best thing.  I am digressing to my passion and that could take awhile so off and down.

I am counting down the days this week to the last daycare day.  Friday, only 3 more daycare days and then I can be only Nannie.  I am so happy about that.  I know that some of you that don't get to see your grands regularly think I am being heartless, but I am well and truly tired of having them daily and all day.  They are not special to me that way but just plain work,  I want them to be special again, and I want them to feel special just to be with me and not because mommie has to go to work.  I have a special announcement, we are going to have our 10th grand this fall, so excited and looking forward to seeing the kids enjoy their new sibling.......

Well off to make pies and chicken noodle soup.  I pray that you are warm if the snow is at your home.  I pray you are in a safe loving place, the snow is still coming down, we have gotten a foot plus.....  I pray that the Lord is in your life and that you know his love.  I pray that you pray, it is one of the most wondrous things in life, and with it and the Bible we converse with God.  I pray that you have given your life to the Lord and accepted his free gift of salvation.  Nothing is more important than the Grace of God in your life.  Love of any one should come second to the love of God, Jesus is the only one ever that gave his life for your salvation... He is the one way to eternal life...believe.... tomorrow.  

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Canning the last of the sloppy joes, and it was Bountiful Basket Food Co-op day.....yay!! Wondrous Baskets!!

I have the last of my jars in the pressure canner canning away.  I ended up with 9 quarts of sloppy joes and 10 quarts of sloppy joes mix, we also had sloppy joes for dinner.  The girls and I were up early this morning and off to BBFC.  It was a wonderful basket, we had wonderful volunteers and a great day all around.  I used a scarf to wrap my mouth so the cold air would not get into my lungs, it seemed to have helped a lot, I can't wait to get over and done with this cold.  I don't feel to bad this afternoon so maybe I didn't worsen it going out in the cold.

My oils came yesterday.  They are so exciting but I have never had a 7 gallon bucket before, it weighs nearly 56 pounds.  Poppie cared it, and should not have, it made him sick the rest of the night.  I am going to have to use the little dolly to move it in the future.  I just have to wait for the scales now, find some gloves and maybe have to order more molds but we will see.  I am really looking forward to doing this class the first one was an impromptu one that my mother had me give to her friends.  This one I get to plan and have fun with.  The WIT is saving blenders for me so hopefully with those, mine and any the attendees bring, we will have enough.  I am thinking I will have to have coffee, tea and maybe lemonade maybe a snack too....

I have been working on rugs, and made the cutest Soap in a Sweater on a rope, using up all my left over wools and I even made up a couple that are cotton, the cotton sweater won't shrink down with the soap but it will be a natural cloth for scrubbing.  It is a good way to use up some of the older soaps I have in the closet they are really hard and aged good so they will really last in the sweaters.  New soap would just plain not last the same way.

I am going to make a couple last batches of soaps before the Spring Fling today.  Poppie has two piglets out in the yard, there pens are full of mud so he felt sorry for them and let me free range.  It is funny last night they would take turns peaking in the front door.  The dogs would bark and the piglets would just look at them.  They are both around 180 lbs each.  We are going to fatten them up and then harvest them later this spring.  Poppie has lost his heart for breeding.  I think he lost it when we had to harvest Swiss Miss Chops, or Momma, to Poppie.  He has finally said he just wants to raise a couple piglets a year.  Son is taking Chocolate to replace Brute that he lost a couple weeks ago.  Chocolate is not big like Brute was, as Poppie purposely stunted him so he would not get to be a giant boar.  He is a friendly guy and should like living at Son's.  Son asked how he was going to get him to his house and Poppie said he will follow you if you have grain or a slop bucket. So Chocolate will be leaving us soon.

The steam is calling me to put the weight on the pressure canner, have a great day.  May the Lord bless you and yours.  May you know how very much the Lord loves you and know that, yes, he loves you just because he made you so he could love you.... Accept his love, his grace and his salvation for you... tomorrow.

Friday, February 21, 2014

So no one ever accused me of being and underdoer......

I got the great idea of canning sloppy joe sauce from Lady Hero and Lady this week.  I was wrapping 60 pounds of hamburger into 2 pound pack for the freezer, when Lady Hero suggested I can some in my lazy jars.  Never being one to over look away to fill a lazy jar I thought what a great idea, and I have all that ground beef I bought a couple of weeks ago from Walmart that is 27/73 when Costco was out of the 88/12 I get.  So yesterday I thawed it all out.  I had mentioned I might make it into Sloppy Joes and Lady said she had made some Great sloppy joes(insert her name) last summer and they really enjoyed it.  Well I got on the phone to buy some tomatoes because they are on sale well they were sold out but Character said she could order me some for today, so I ended up ordering a case and some peppers to go in it.  Poppie picked them up this morning, I grated most of the carrots I had left from my 25 pounds, chopped onions, and the peppers.  I have 17 tomatoes left and not a drop of room left in my 16 quart canner, and I haven't even started browning meat.  Okay so I am making Sloppy Joe Mix and Sloppy Joes with Meat.  I am like one of those people who make stone soup and can't resist making and making until the pot I start with is full up.  I must learn how to remember to start with a smaller pot... comes from being the oldest of 12, raised with 8 and two parents, you don't ever quite get over cooking for 10 at once.  Pour Poppie had to eat left overs for a week when we first got married and there was just two of us, but I digress.  So I am going to be making sloppy joe stuff all day and probably most of tomorrow.  I am still sick but atleast it is just busy work, and with the Nyquil and the cough drops I have to have  others taste it as my taster does not work.

I got the dates for my class settled, March 29 and April 26th, dumbying me can't count from 19 to 26 with out stopping at 24 and thinking I made it seven days.... My molds came yesterday and my oils are here fun that everything is coming together.

May the day be a pleasing to you, may the love of God fill your soul and my your heart be called to the Lord this day... tomorrow. 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Today Poppie and I are both sick, making rugs, Soap with Sweaters on a Rope........

You can always tell when Poppie is really sick, he gets the fire going so hot man nor beast can be at peace in the frontroom, it is one of those days.  I woke up with a head cold, Poppie has well and truly shared, I don't think he likes to be sick without me.  I finished up a green rug this morning, I got hangers for them yesterday at the Zoo and couldn't wait to try and see how they look on the hanger, they look very nice. Going to make up more Soap in Sweaters but this time they will be on a rope.  Belle likes them and thinks I would do well selling them.  Got the dates secured, I think, for the soap classes, will know later for sure. I think it has worked out to March 29 and April 24.





I went with Mokie to the Zoo yesterday. I picked up flooring at Costco to go with the flooring I got last week now we have enough to do the bedroom.  I picked up silicone molds, I looked at the old Walmart no luck, got two expensive ones at Joann's Fabric, have a coupon for 50% off if I am there next week which I won't be.  I got more at Walmart.  Some Christmas ones for 25 cents each but the checker charge me 2 dollars at the counter, my lovely Mokie went to the service desk and got me the difference back, I had never done it and she was johnny on the spot.  I also got some Easter ones.  I got essential oils on sale in several stores.  Picked up a couple of props for my soap display, IE breakfast in bed trays, Booboo severed me breakfast in bed, so sweet because I am sick.  I got 60lbs of hamburger that I now have to repackage.  Beef I am told is going up again, and that should get us ahead for awhile.  We don't eat much beef except hamburger and a good steak once in awhile.  I like the 88/12.  I got stuff to make more granola the 2 gallons I made is well and truly gone.  Saw Niecy, her hubs, and her three littles at Goodwill, okay, it is true we are Goodwillers and proud of it.  I got two new books, both Philip Yancey's, yay.  It was a nice day all in all.  On the way in I saw Lady going to work, we were on the freeway and she in the subdivision, I took out my phone and typed waving.  Confused my dear friend latter when she read it,  I told her my bit of fun.

I pray that you know that God loves you, always has and always will, he calls us each to make a choice to accept his gift, I hope he has called you and you have been gifted your salvation.  I hope to see you in heaven and for those I don't know I can't wait to meet you there... tomorrow. 

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Tearing sheets, grating soap and watching the Ladies design........ Poppie is watching a movie.

Yesterday was a busy day, Poppie and I went to Yogie's last 5th grade basket ball game, which they lost.  I made some Sandalwood Vanilla Kefir Goat Soap, in preparation for the 4th Annual Spring Fling that the Library puts on.  I will be selling rugs and soap.  I am hoping to be more stream line this year.  I re-named my Etsy shop and am making plans to get both my Etsy shop and Ebay store back on line.  I finished my day off yesterday by going to a baby shower for Lady's daughter.  It was a very nice gathering, I knew all the seasoned ladies but not most of the younger ladies and their little lovelies, there was probably 10 littles there.  It was wonderful to see all the love that the invited quest gave to the new momma to be.  She will be a momma in a little over a month.  Her little will be Lady's 5th grandchild, two girls and three boys.  Belle will be a new grandma again 10ish days later so a wonderful hope-filled 2014 is shaping up to be.

Church was nice today, Preacher was sick so he didn't come to the first part but did come for the sermon.  Pianist and Violinist lead us in song and we had breakfastfest.  Fun was had by all.  We came home had a nice dinner and watched a movie or two.  I am now tearing sheets up for the next run of rugs, talking to you all, the Ladies are creating their own design necklaces, which involve water for color??  Poppie is watching movies and catching up from a long week and being sick.  It is nice when there can be those days when you can just be.  We wanted to go to the Zoo tomorrow as the Ladies don't have school but I will have littles, I can't say enough how glad I will be to be able to not have them daily and they can just come to see me because they love me.  Only 11 more days, yes, I am counting them down.  I will be glad to be able to carve, sew or soap with out having to worry if I will have to drop something to do something for them.  I am coming along on my soap making class have had a lot of interest.  I hope I made them cost affordable, in the end I just made it the same cost as what the soap would be if you were to buy the soap you will get from one class, if they take both classes they will get a it at a discount.  I still have to confirm the dates but hope all goes as well the rest of the way as it has thus far.  I really am getting excited about doing it.  I love to share and talk soap so I will have a captive audience so to speak.

Well back to tearing I must go and then on to grating soap to rebatch a lot of the leftovers from last year.  May the Lord be in your hear, embrace your soul and may you know that heaven is going to be your home.... tomorrow. 

Friday, February 14, 2014

Today I made Rose and Rose Calendula Soaps, ordered scales, must find goggle, gloves, and made steps to secure sight and dates.

This morning first off I ordered 7 digital scales, I think that will give me enough of them so that there would not be any waiting to use the scales for even a big class.  I talked with the Extensions office and they are going to sponsor the building for us so that is wonderful of them and such a nice thing for them to do.  I have decided that I need at least a basic and an advanced and maybe eventually a liquid soap class but we will start with a basic and advanced this spring.  I am aiming at the last of March and then the second one in April.  I have decided that I am going to donate a spot in my class for the Spring Fling as my donation to the Spring Fling and some soap with the gift card spot. I put up a status on Facebook to see how much interest I have in the class.

I dropped by the Library and talked with Lady for awhile.  I also got to see, the Helpline Lady, she was excited about the flowers she had been given and the ones she had given out to brighten peoples days.  It was a nice visit with each.  I came home and made Rose Goat Kefir Soap and a second batch that was Rose Goat Kefir Calendula, both seem to be nice and light color, no seizing or anything weird so another good to go scent for a basic class.  I am really having fun thinking up what to do and planning this class.  It is the second one I gave the first was as special gift to my mom for her and her friends I think it went well, not sure anyone in that class will ever make soap but say la fee.  I am hoping this one is better in that someone will learn to make and love the craft of making soap.  I can't wait to share my passion, and making soap can and is a passion.  If you don't have it it can be a chore or in ways something to fear, but if you love it it is wondrous, oh the soaps you can make almost as many as the thinks you can think.  Well off to try and do something special for Poppie for Valentines day.  I hope you have a good one.

May the Lord bless you and may you know his love in your life, there is no love quite like it and none so wondrous.... tomorrow.  

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Molds of all kind, water Kefir, Olive oil, Coconut oil, Tallow, Almond oil and Avocado, oh, and apricot.....

I spent most of the day yesterday doing soapy things.  I began the day though by melting down the coco butter lotion bars in a jar that I made into smaller containers and giving them some smell.  One was rose smell and the other three I made into lavender, I misspoke and said I made lilac on Facebook.  I will get some lilac and make some of it because it seemed to be something others would like.  I made up some soaps all goat kefir based. One coffee, one diatomaceous earth as a foliant with cranberry mandarin scent, one with no scent and iced to try and keep it white, not sure if it is going to set because I am not sure it traced right and I know it didn't sponify but I read that someone used that technique for white goat soap so we will see if all else fails it can be rebatch.  The great rebatch will save any soap.

I got to order 15 soap molds,  I was excited to find a site that offered free shipping on orders of 99 dollar or more.  Molds are normally 7.95 apiece, same on this site but instead of paying 3.99 for shipping apiece (and yes other site give some discount but usually not free) I got to by more molds, so instead of a mold being 12ish I got them for 8ish and got a third more.  So, now I have 15 molds to choose from.  I think that in my class I will offer the ability for the attendee to keep the mold or not to keep the mold.  I also got to order the oils, I ordered olive oil, coconut oil, tallow(it is hard to find tallow that you don't have to render and it makes the hardest of all the soaps)  I can get vegetable oil locally for those who would want to have no animal fats, or vegan soap.  I also ordered almond oil, avocado (it will be my first time using it) and I ordered some apricot oil for Flower Child.  I can't wait for the oils to come, in the end it will be the most inexpensive oils I have gotten to get as I was able to buy them in 50lbs or 5 gallons, well not the almond or the avocado but the basic oils.  I also ordered some new water kefir since I was doing so much online ordering. I am going to be ordering labels for my rugs as well, not sure what I will have put on them, my email address, name and maybe my Etsy site but I am thinking of changing the name of my Etsy site for my new relaunch of it.  I had shut it down this fall.  I am really looking forward to not watching the grands daily after the 28th.  I have not really gotten to do what I needed to do to maintain my Etsy or Ebay sites, and I am looking forward to renewed dedication to them.  I have not really carved in two years except for the gun shock I did last Christmas.  I am also looking forward to finishing my tiling, hardwooding my bedroom and a good spring cleaning of my house.  I can't wait to move the studio and make a family room where it once was.  Okay so I have lots and lots of plans for my immediate future.  Yay.

I am off to cut soaps, check on the progress of others, and get ready to work later.  Oh, and the grands will soon be here.  I pray for your day, your salvation and your joy in the Lord.... tomorrow. 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The last wire,yay!! A four and a half year journey soon ends, molds, hardwood and fun......

The dentist trip was a success all the way around.  Cubbie was good, let them see her teeth take exrays and was a lady all the way through, she earned the bribe her mom had offered her.  Bubbles screamed like a two year old, that she is, and was not all that cooperative.  Booboo was told she has beautiful teeth, to use a mouth guard when she starts sports and that her brushing was with in the top 98%, yay.  Yogie had done enough better on her brushing, she fights me on it, to get her last wire for her braces.  She will be out of braces in a month to 3 months depending upon how fast the last adjustments take, it has been a long 4 and a half years for her in her braces.  She does have beautiful teeth almost as pretty as Booboo natural ones, funny (you know ironic) how one sister has such natural crooked ones and such a small mouth while the other sister has beautiful straight ones.... God does things in such a wondrous manner.  NO, cavities and all was a great at the dentist.

I found 14 cases of hardwood flooring for my bed room at Home Resources, now to find a few more cases that I can match to it to floor my bedroom, I think the Costco flooring might compliment it enough to work but we will see, I might have to go to Carpet Garage, Lowe's or Home Depot to find some but at least I got a killer deal on the 14 case I got.  I picked up some olive oil, coconut oil and some super cool silicone molds to make soap, and got some new fragrances as well.  I am going to make a big order for the year to Soapers Choice for some olive oil, coconut oil, lard or tallow not sure yet which, and some almond olive, maybe so avocado or mango but not sure.  I am working on getting all the items for the soap class or classes I want to have in March or April.  I still think to do it right I have to have a beginners and advanced class, maybe even a hot process or liquid class but we will see how the first one or two go.  The girls got pants, shoes and stuff to make bracelets.  The Littles got new shoes and some clothes too.  Mokie bought milk shakes for the kids and pizza to take home so no one had to make dinner.  I got a packers lot of steaks so cutting and wrapping meat this morning.  Poppie got gloves and "hostess" goodies, he so missed his secret sinful habit...lol. I got some cool sheets for rugs, and a table cloth that might get to stay a tablecloth but would surely make a nice rug....

Off to start the day, coffee to finish, blog done, the day begins for real....... I pray the Lord is the first priority in your life and if he isn't you would consider correcting that and making him the most important part of your life.  Today is the first day of the rest of your life, and today could be the best day of you life, if today is the day of your salvation... tomorrow. 

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Girls on the loose today..... Well if you call a trip to the dentist being on the loose.

Today my Ladies, Mokie and her girls will all be on our way to the dentist.  The Boy was to go but he is sick and will have to stay home with Poppie.  I have a bucket to paint before I go at 11:30.  Never had a special order to paint a bucket before but it should be fun.  It will be a berry picking bucket.  I hope in the long run the paint actually stays on the bucket.  It is a plastic bucket, Poppie has primed it and I hope that helps the paint stay, but I am thinking that bushes are scratchy so the future of the paint on the bucket is still to be determined.  It will have words and huckleberries on it.  We didn't primer the inside for fear of contamination, so it is very blue on the inside.

We have to take all five girls to the dentist for 6 month check ups.  We are going to do some shopping for some groceries, probably some mineral blocks for the goats, and maybe some nice colored sheets at the Goodwill for the rugs.  I just finished the pretties rug I think I have ever made and I so want to keep it for me, and may just, but worry that with the traffic in my house that it will get unduly dirty.  Poppie has promised a dog pen this year for the little dogs.  I can't wait, and hope he follows through, I just sometimes need some peace from them and Poppie has slowly come around to my request, he still thinks his dog, or dogs, will be in there more than he can handle.  We will have to have some moderation in the time I can put them there, I think.  Well it's a beginning any way.

Son lost his boar yesterday and is pretty disheartened by it.  He had decided to harvest him a week or so ago because he had uncharacteristically bit Son, now he wonders if he had been sick and Son missed it.  We did each lose a goat over the cold weather, it is sometimes very sad to lose them but we learned at the beginning of Goatsmanship that the reality is that goats die and sometime we know not why, they can be such a funny little creature.  So with the two goats and Brute maybe we have had our three and will be safe from loss for the time being.

Well I do have to go paint, get ready to went and so I bid you adieu.  I pray for your salvation and that your day is good and that God is in it.....tomorrow.  

Monday, February 10, 2014

Is it a different time, a different sense of morality or is it just that it wasn't such a big sin as we think of it now?

I have been a Christian the better part of my life, or maybe all of my life it you count that as a child is what Jesus told us we need to become like, so like most Christians I believe that children to the age of accountability get a pass of Grace so to speak.  Since that is not the point I am contemplating this morning I am not got to expound upon it, and since I am writing and you aren't we are going to agree that babies and small children automatically get to go to heaven, but I digress.  I had been reading "What is so amazing about Grace?" by Philip Yancey.  He admits in the book that most main stream Christians were, are or will be up in arms at some of his thoughts and conclusions.  I admit that as I read them they were new thoughts to me as a Christian and in some way refreshing, some ways enlightening and some way I thought "Oh, my has he opened a can of worms in some ones, or some Preachers life...."  I did enjoy the book as much as the first one I read, "Where is God when we hurt?"  Love it.

I have now had a week to think on his words and many thoughts have come to my mind about his thoughts.  I found that the evolving of the most horrible sins in the eyes of Christians in the last 100 years of great interest.  I made me think of why God told the Israelis in the old testament not to become part of the nations they conquered.  It amazed me that some of the things the Christian leaders fought against then (a short 100 years ago) are some of the things good Christians embrace and tout today.  They thought mortgages, pensions and credit were some of the most horrible sins, much like we Christians attack abortion and homosexuality today.  What they thought of as the sinfullest  sins a hundred years later are well and truly embraced by the majority of Christians and no one I know thinks of them as sins, imagine that?  Racial rights, bi-racial marriages came next but most Christians I know do not think of either as a sin now, and next has come many more issues that have fallen along the way as more and more acceptable in the mainstream thoughts of Christians, abortion and homosexuality is the new hot button but more and more is being accepted.  I do think that we as Christians settle on a sin or sins of the moment that we pick out and say are the worst of the sins.  We are wrong in that we get on our high horses and pick sins that make us feel better about ourselves.  We don't do this or that, so they surely must be much worse sins than the ones we commit.  We don't murder, we don't rape, we don't do this or that so surely those who do are so much worse than we.  God does not see it that way, God sees a "white lie" as a sin as dark as a mast murders sins, yes, really he does.  You know those children that are under God's grace, because they know not that they sin, sins upon coming out at their birth.  He has been angry, did you ever see a birth that the baby was all smiles as they hit the doctor, midwives or dad hands.  I haven't and the anger they are expressing in surely not righteous anger is it?  It is sin and all have sinned.  Sin in and of itself is why we experience death, without it we would never die.  Do you suppose that the eternity with Jesus we are hoping to be part of is life as it was in the Garden of Eden?  I don't know, God tell us relatively little about our life after death, I don't suppose he wants us to know that much about it.  I do believe that as I read the Bible that what God finds as important he tells us about and tells us how he wants us to go about it.

Think about our focus in the current world.  We as Christians have a lot to say about abortion and homosexuality but Jesus himself had very little to say about either.  Abortion you say, why would he have spoken about it at all it didn't exist.  Well in many ways it did.  There were drugs and herbs then to accomplish it much like now but there was another form of abortion we do not think about. Abortion then in many was was accomplished at birth.  If a child was not wanted the child was simple taken out and left along the roads side, the garbage or in other ways cast out for the dogs, weather or wild beasts to take care of.  I hate the thought of any baby being aborted but must admit, that even I think that is worse that a child of full term be cast out to die a horrible death.  But really have you ever read one word in the Bible about it?  I do know that from reading about the times of the Bible I know that adoption back then was different than we think of it.  In the Roman empire, and the Bible was in the empire of the Romans in the new testament, that if you adopted a child it had more rights than your biological children.  Do you really think there were people gathering up these babies so that people could adopt them? or that there were people standing in line to take them into their homes?  I would think that it was not a big concern to anyone that these babies died.  I would say then in many ways many more babies survive proportionately than did then.  We are saving many to adopted, so many more survive than did in Bible times if you think of the aborted ones as the only ones that don't survive.  As to homosexuals, child slaves were used by many of the men back then as sex slaves, as they are now, but then there is now open homosexuals that are no longer have to use children but having mutual relationships.  I don't condone the sin but  it is really none of my business any more than when my neighbor lies or the old lady down the street gossips, their sin is between them and God.  I have enough to worry about with my own sins.

I think that we have missed the point that Jesus wanted us to remember the most, we are to love our neighbor as they are, help them if we can and let them be judged by God as all our sins will be. We are to live the life we have and love our neighbor and try to be like Jesus.  Funny (again ironic) that in all the cases in the Bible where Jesus interacts with any one  it is always someone that was considered unclean in the old testament.  The woman at the well (prostitute) the centurion (gentile) the eunuch that Philip baptized had no testicles so was unclean, the tax collector was unclean and the list goes on.  In the old testament unclean people were always sinners and in the new testament those are the people Jesus sought out, makes you think doesn't it.  Jesus must surely include people who have had abortions or who are homosexual as people he is looking to save today.  And we who have mortgages, have pensions, credit cards, gossip, lie, cheat, prostitute, murder and even those of us who can't quite seem to love our neighbors, Jesus came for us all as not one of us of our own accord are worthy to lick his feet.  We never are no matter what we do in our lives, no matter how many times we go to church in a week or how many prayers a day we say we all fall short of God and sin continuously. We of our own can not do any works that would earn us a minute in eternity and be able to live with Jesus.  God's Grace is the only thing that can save us and we forget that, we get so caught up in how good we are being and forget we are not better than any other person that sins.  Contemplate that the next time you think I am so much better than the person who did this sin or that, you know the sin that some one you know does that makes them lesser than you, and remember God  sees your sin the same as theirs.  God can only see us through the shed blood of Jesus as sinless.  Are you sinless today in God's sight?  You can be if you only accept his free gift of Grace through Jesus Christ, do it today.  Nothing you have ever done is unforgivable to God except your unbelief.... tomorrow. 

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Church was great, Potluck, Bubbles and Cubbie went, Poet got stranded......

Today was a nice day at Church. Cubbie and Bubbles went with us, Cubbie was a lady and the Preacher gave her an extra treat because she was so good.  Bubbles is two, she whined a little, talked a little and was all around distracting on many levels, less so once I got the 11 year old to quit fighting with her.  I was amazed at the little girl and finally got her to stop.  I should hope that by that age Bubbles will not act the way she did today or the way the other little girl was with her. We had a nice potluck and wondrous Church family sharing was had by all, after I was taking carrots to Pianist so I swung by the Church and there was Poet, her van had a dead battery from the kids playing in it.  I didn't have jumpers but a neighbor was coming across the street to help her.  I promised her I would stop to see that she was gone when I came back by.  

I contemplate the lessons of today as I came home.... It was funny (you know ironic) that the Sunday school lesson was about how God sees us as a royal priesthood and in the sermon in regular Church was about learning how God giveth Grace to the humble. When Preacher asked how we were suppose to live our lives I said "I would think that were are to learn to be humble in our robes."  He kind of paused for a second as if to wonder what I was talking about and them said "Yes, we are to live in the situation we are in.  And that would be with a royal robe and with humbleness"..... interesting thought to think on this week. We are the royalty that God's Grace makes us, if we are royalty we are surely wearing royal purple robes in Gods sight and we are to be humble doing it.  How do we balance the two both equal ways we are to conduct ourselves in this life?  One found in 1 Peter 2:9-10

1 Peter 2:9-10

King James Version (KJV)
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

The Second in James 4:6

James 4:6

King James Version (KJV)
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.


It made me think that we are called to be as God wants us to be, in the robes of one of the royal priesthood, but we are also to be humble.  We are his royal priesthood but we are not to be proud but humble..... that is something to think on isn't it?  God sees us as his royal priests but he wants us to be humble in our lives. I can think that only Jesus could truly obtain that in this life and that we can but try.  Think about how proud most of us would be if we really thought of ourselves as royal priest....  It may be just as well that we see our selves as just human beings, or we would be to prideful to bare.  It is hard enough to be humble with our human flesh leading us to and fro.  I do like to think that God would see me as one of his royal priest but am also glad I can not truly see it as the lusts of the flesh would sure destroy me if I could..... It is a concept I must think and think on to put it into a perspective I might come to accept, but think that like eternity with Jesus it may be beyond my thinking and comprehension....  I am an adopted child of God, a chosen generation, part of a holy nation, who obtained mercy through God's Grace, how glorious is that??? We all can be that, what a gift God's Grace is to all that asked for it........ tomorrow. 

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Mixer Kefir dinner rolls, Kefir from September wonderful, not so much 6 week old sour cream from the store and they say it's good (safe?) for us??

I decided to make Mixer Kefir Dinner rolls for potluck tomorrow, along with a heirloom tomato zucchini leek quiche and a blackberry crisp.  The rolls are easy.  They are made in a mixer after all.

1 cup of flour
1 cup of warm water ( lukewarm from the tap, but be careful too hot will kill your yeast)
4 TBS of yeast

Put in the mixer and mix thoroughly and let set a few minutes to make a nice sponge. Once it is nice and bubbly add the following.

4 eggs
1 cup of yogurt or Kefir,
1 tsp salt, I used sea salt
4 TB of sugar or honey
1/2 of water.

Mix together.  Add:

6 1/2 cups of flour, once it is mixed all together add 8 TBs of melted butter (not hot or it will kill the yeast) mix a couple minutes scrape down and then mix again for a couple minutes.  It will be sticky do not add more flour.  Place in a butter bowl and let raise in a warm room for 11/2 hours.  Cut into approximately 20 balls form into buns and let raise 30-40 minutes.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Buter, gravy or jelly.... eat 'em up!



I was looking in my frig for Kefir from the Kefir I am currently keep that I got the grains for from Lady Hero.  I was out had used it all up making Avocado Blackberry Smoothies for the Ladies.  Yum, but I digress.  I decided to use some of the 1/2 gallon of goat kefir that I had in my frig from September, it is good to have on hand if you have a sick goat.  It was as good as the day I put it in there.  Funny though right beside the jar of Kefir was a sour cream container that I had bought at the store for Christmas Eve.  I check it and was appalled it was moldy and growing nasty stuff in it.  Okay so why is is that the store stuff is nasty and mold in a little over a month and the Kefir I had since September is wonderful.  Goes to show you that the real natural good stuff is always the way to go if you want to put good stuff in your body.  I won't be buying nasty sour cream again any time soon.  I hate that in the winter I have to resort to boughten milk.  I know all the nasty stuff they put in it but I hope that like white sugar is to water kefir, boughten milk is to milk Kefir.  Well one can hope anyway.  The good news is that the goats will be milking again soon, I could now but I like the babies to get all they need and it is colder than sin out there now, I am a whoosey and Yogie has enough to do with school on right now.  But soon and very soon we will be back on the good natural goats milk, until then I hope the kefir cuts the bad out of the store stuff.  I have a friend with a cow but she lives to far away for me to get any milk.  I do hate that Montana is the most restrictive state when it comes to raw milk.  Raw milk is king when will they ever realize that.  Climbing down and off for now...

I pray for your Salvation and that if you don't know the joy of the Lord's love that soon and very soon you will be called in  your heart to him.... What a glorious day that will be for you.  I know that no day in my life was more precious than the day the Lord called me and I became his through Jesus Christ my Lord... tomorrow. 

Friday, February 7, 2014

1001, I missed a 1000 so here's to second chances..... it is much warmer on -4 today.

It's warmed up to a balmy, -4 today, I misspoke yesterday,  true it was -12 and got down to -16 in the morning, but that was after it was -24 over night....... Isn't it funny how warm -4 can really be??

I had noticed a couple weeks back that I would be writing my 1000 blog page and then yesterday I completely missed it say la fee.... So here is to 1001.  I think I have really grown in the last three years of talking to you and in the end that is basically what I do and some of you have listened, thank you.  I must admit, that though I do not know the real cost of therapy I have a friend that assures me that it is costly, so thank you for the savings of the money I did not have and would, obviously, not have spent on therapy.  I have accomplished many of my beginning ideals of what my blog might be, I have noted for time going forward (you know nothing on the internet ever really goes away) the meanderings of my mind, sometime crazy, thoughtful, anger or just in plain  sorrow. My grands and my kids may some day look to them and maybe know a little more of who I was on the inside, good or bad.

I have grown in my love of God, my understanding of him and still fail to be what he wants me to be daily, and I have done it all in front of an audience of any one who wanted to look, you have hopefully kept me realistic and honest with myself. I have new concepts that I did not just short of three years ago, and hopefully I am a better person today, but who really can tell about tomorrow.  I have studied a lot and learned a lot about God that I did not know and know that I still know nothing really about God, well not more than any one can really know about a God that is so magnificent that we can't really comprehend him on any human level.  I have learned a lot about Grace and know that no one really lives up to it or can have it the way God does and all that we can really do is to try to do better each day and still fail.  I know that sin is sin and I am not one jot better than a murder, a rapist or a child molester, I am a liar, a coveter, gossiper,  and any number or other sinful things that has made me detestable in God's eyes, funny how we each think we are better than those people we consider sinful.... God see us all, with out Jesus's salvation, as something he can't even look at.   I know that some of what we, as Christian, hold dear to us is of no real consequence to God at all and we spend our lives striving toward a useless goal.  We miss that all God wants us to do is love our neighbors of this earth, friend or foe. We rebel at the thought of loving "those kind of people" when every example the Lord Jesus ever gave us was his loving of "those very people".  We really need to actually learn what Grace of God is and get down on our knees and pray God will lead us to his Grace and that we are blessed to be allowed the Grace that we can not seem to quite allow ourselves to truly give to others, while we are worrying about the inconsequential. I thank you one and all for listening, commenting and coming back to see what I will go next, here's to many more years, God willing, and if my mind doesn't run out of thoughts to think.... Bless you one and all, and I pray that you seek God's Grace in your life... tomorrow. 

Thursday, February 6, 2014

16 below here, Poppie froze his beard and mustache taking the kids to school....... Hibernating here for sure.

Today we woke up to -12 degrees and now we are down to -16.  The sun is shining and it looks like a lovely day outside but it is being deceptive, it is to cold for man or beast out there.  Well, except for my Mishka, the Great Pyrenees, she thinks it is just as lovely outside as the sun belies that it is.  Poppie took the Ladies to school and had a frozen mustache and beard when he got home, the heater is frozen and the car almost did not start to begin with.  We are huddled in our warm house praying that there is no real reason to venture out into the weather.  Bubbles gets her stitches out later but Mokie will be taking her to do that.  I am going to happily Nalebind my Antler Knot minty green rug.  I might make some cookies as the heat of the oven will give us much needed additional heat.  I hope and pray all that have to go out into the cold are warm and keep themselves safe.

I am supposed to get some wool in the mail today, it is woven so I will be trying Nalebinding on it as well, once I get it all cut up.  I have a braided rug to finish.  It has a center medallion so is different than the all the other braided ones.  I am happily making rugs as my this years craft, for the first time in two years I will really get to be creative.  I won't be watching the kiddo's after the 28th, I can just be Nannie and that will be a blessing.  I have decided for sure to do two soap classes, I will be doing a basic class and then an advanced.  I figure I have to teach the basics before I can teach the advanced things, and at the advanced I will teach some soaps that may seize and how to fix that and I think that that would be to much for a beginner, it might scare them away from soaping altogether so I think two classes are in order. I have to go down to the extension office to talk with them, they might sponsor the class, that would be cool.  It is to cold to go there today though hopefully tomorrow. I am looking forward to teaching a class, I have made out a order to send for the oils and fats for the soap.  So I am looking forward to the spring with zeal I have lacked for a little while.

I pray that the day is not as cold where you are and if it is, keep bundled up.  I pray for the Lord's love in you life.  May the Grace of God  encompass you and you may know the Lord Jesus in your heart.  Nothing is more important in you life than Jesus, NO, nothing is.... tomorrow. 

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

People doing there people thing in Zootown...... God's love.

Yesterday Mokie, Bubbles and I went to town.  We shopped and shopped.  We bought groceries, some clothes, some new under things all around ( sometimes I just can't fathom the cost of underthings, I usually buy a whole new wardrobe for all once a year, yesterday was the day) Poppie got new shoes, he is hard on them, he still slightly drags the one leg and wears that shoe out faster than the other.  I got him a nice pair I thought might last and a pair of tennies just so if he didn't like the one pair he would have a pair of cheap ones the wear out.  He liked them both, yay. I got a great set of minty teal green twin sheets at Goodwill, at 50% off for my rugs.  I can't wait to make it into rugs... but I digress.

 The wind was blowing and it was well below zero in the Zoo.  My elf ear, I have one of each, a nice flat one and an elf one, poor Yogie has two elf ones, got so cold in the 5 minutes I was out in the wind it almost got frost bite, it was still red and hot hours and hours later.  I digress.  We had a great time just the three of us.  We did have to back track once because Costco was out of the hamburger I usually buy, they will have it tomorrow, but I will not be in Zootown tomorrow so had to get it somewhere else.  Mokie went in to get our hamburger, Bubbles and I waited in the car, we weren't going out if we didn't have to. We waited in the car, Bubbles fell asleep and I watched people.  I do so like to do that.

I often wonder about the lives of the passerby's as they go about there business.  I have said before that I am a people watcher.  I have been all of my life whether it was watching my siblings, the cardboard people to see if I could catch a look at their backside or just people as I later discovered all the cardboard people are.  I find people fascinating.  I have always loved the poem Two Pictures, http://edhelper.com/poetry/Two_Pictures_by_unknown.htm  It has always been the epitome of lives wear and tear on a human soul to me.  I think I sort of look at people with that poem somewhere in the back of my mind.  I watched people yesterday and as they passed by going to and from about there lives it came to me that maybe I was seeing them all wrong.  I think that I have always looked at people and thought what brought them to this.  As surely as the sun rises they were a beautiful cherub at the beginning of their life as we all are, but what brought them to their present state.  What is their present state?  Why do I care and surely it is non of my business. I still look, and sometimes you see a gleam of such kindness in a older woman gently holding to the hand of a small child taking precarious steps.  A man dragging a new puppy on a leash, quickly loosing his patience enough to stop and pick the puppy up.  Once is a while you see a couple with mouths moving 90 miles an hour and then abruptly the woman turns and strides away, to where?  Oh, the possibilities of just watching people, a glimpse into a private world.  Do others watch me?  What do they see or not see when they do?  As I sat and watched, the cold blowing by me it came to me.  I am thinking of these people all wrong, do I look at and judge them?  Do I ponder and get it wrong?  Is it really possible to know anything about anyone but myself?  I looked out again and knew that first and foremost that the person in front of me was someone God loves.  I should see people as just that, first and nothing more, for the most part.  I know that God loves them because he tells me so in the Bible.  He loves his enemies so he loves everyone that has ever crossed my path in this life.  Yes, he loves the homeless, the criminal, the goodly, the kind, the murderer, the rapist, the gays, the prostitutes, the liberals, the rest and the cherub that sleeps so soundly in it's mothers arms and unlike me, a sinful person saved only by the Grace of God, he loves all equally and doesn't play favorites.  Only we people think in terms of "am I better than that person walking by?"  God doesn't see any as better, he sees some as saved through the blood of Jesus, but that doesn't make us better only his and his for eternity.  God loves all of mankind and wants none to perish.  Can you imagine love that big? and that boundless, no and alas non of us can we only cling to faith that that is so....  So today as I go out, which I might not because it is cold, but next time I do I have to remember that God loves all and I am not better or worse than the man, woman or child walking down the street toward me, we are all a loved being in Gods eyes.  And because we are I should make it my joy in life to spread that love to all that may not know that God loves them.  He wants all to come to his Grace and receive their salvation, so he can love them forever in eternity. The praise be to God.... tomorrow.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Snow for all, even enough for ice cream, and now we need to hunker down for below zero...... Oh, can't it just be snow!

Poppie began yesterday with a half hour shower and that is never a good sign.  Now that he has been off of his drugs (legal ones) for just short of a year his patterns have become pretty readable. If the day begins with such a long stint in the shower he is in enough pain that laying in bed was no longer possible.  The rest of the day he was pretty grumpy, it sort of always means that bad weather is coming and coming soon.  We have been blessed with about 8 inches of snow these last few days. Poppie got me condensed milk Wednesday but I have not had time to actually use it and make it into snow ice cream.

Yesterday was a nice day at Church, except for Poppie's restlessness he couldn't find a comfortable place on his chair, not that the chairs at Church are comfortable for anyone but he sometimes finds them especially painful.  We came home and I made fried chicken, fried potatoes because Poppie wanted them more than mashed, he doesn't like the skins in his mashed potatoes and I am stubborn about leaving them there.  He says they taste like dirt but are much better fried, I can't imagine that dirt would be better fried, and there is no dirt on the potatoes when I mash them but any way he got the fried potatoes and the girls and I had carrots, no he didn't eat any of those either.  I made a peach and raisin cobbler to try and cheer him up.  I decided that snow ice cream would make the cobbler much better.

The girls went out on the deck and collected all the snow off the rails, this morning there is 3 inches of new snow on it.  They brought in a large bowl of snow.  I mixed two eggs, yes mine are free range and home grown no raw store bought eggs here, vanilla my own that I made from vanilla beans and vodka, some strawberry jelly again my own, one can condensed milk (I know I should have made it myself to be better but I didn't) and snow to the consistence we like, we like cream thick ice cream so they had to go get more snow.... The Ladies enjoyed a big bowl and then later had a lady like serving on their cobbler, okay, since they both have a body fat of 15% I let them indulge sometimes. As I said more snow this morning and it will continue the rest of the day but tomorrow comes the cold it is to get down to -15 in the next few day, I love the snow, especially when it isn't on the road but I hate, yes, I hate the cold, the biggest reason I don't like winter.  I am done whining now....

I hope and pray for your day to be filled with the joy and love of the Lord Jesus.  May the joy of his love envelop you in your daily life and for the rest of your life... tomorrow.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

I have always wanted a Hoosier hutch...... I still don't have one but I am happy, happy, happy.

I remember as a little girl living in a large old farm house just after my grandparents were killed in a car wreck.  We had lived in their house but it was too hard for my mom to stay there so after giving in a try for a number of months we moved to a 50 acre farm.  It had a large farm house on it that we lived in until my dad made a basement that we moved into.  They sold part of the farm and the farm house my mom's cousins cousin.  We were told as small children she was a 5th cousin for what reason I don't know, I just call her Auntie now, but I digress.  We lived in that farmhouse when my great grandmother came to visit,  she was out of sorts for the most part while she visited, she had lost her daughter and son in law, may grandparents, as they were traveling to her husbands, may great grandfathers funeral.  I only had occasion to see her a few times in my life and none of them do I recall as being pleasant.  She would come to see us by bus after the funeral from Arkansas until she was about 87 years old.  She got an eye disease and went mostly blind so after that she could no longer come, she lived to 94.  My siblings tell of a summer that she came and was pleasant but I wasn't there, but again I have digressed.  I loved the Hoosier cupboards that were in that old farm house.  My mom let them go with the house but I so dearly loved them that I have coveted one all of my life time.  I have never as an adult been able to afford a nice one.  I did once have an really small one that was made close to the end of the great Hoosier era but it was not the same.

I got the idea that Poppie could make me one last spring, much to Poppie dismay.  Poppie, God love him is a master of a lot of things but as a wood worker he usually cuts corners and the end result is not always of great quality but he tries.  He really drug his feet on my hutch for the longest time.  I finally came across the bottom of one at the local Methodist Church rummage sale.  I was ecstatic and Poppie was a little more excited with the prospect of the bottom being finished.  It was in rough shape so we started to take it apart to repair it before we were to make the top of the hutch.  Low and behold it was not a hutch bottom, some one from shear necessity had taken a Hoosier desk and made it into a hutch bottom.  We rescued the desk and left it in tack, and it now resides in my pantry as a sewing table, along side of a matching small Hoosier cabinet but alas not Hoosier hutch bottom.  We were back to square one.  I finally talked Poppie into restructuring a a pine baking cart into a bottom.  It really did turn out alright in the end. That done Poppie went on strike for about 6 months before I talked him into making the hutch top.  I had collected over the years a sugar bin, a flour bin, an accompanying bread box.  I had a spice wrack from the forties and a spinner one that is new but could be repurposed as the accompaniments.  He finally made it and this is how it turned out.  I is beautiful, I must say, if I do say so myself.  He did take special care with it and it turned out to be the nicest piece of furniture he ever made me, it was worth the wait.  I still don't have a Hoosier but I do have the one and only Poppie made next best thing to it.  God bless you and your day.....tomorrow.