She Shall Be Called Woman

Enjoying Ill Health

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 04:11:00 +0000

Guest post by Dianna Overholt

I’ve just spent half a day in bed with a don’t-move headache. A no-lights, stomach-churning, over-the-eyes migraine.

And I haven’t had such a heart-warming time in months.

My husband served crackers and tea on the nightstand before leaving for work. “My head makes my stomach hurt,” I groaned, nibbling the saltines. “But I have to eat before taking the migraine pills! Please tell the children that I need to sleep for several hours.”

With my youngest at age four, resting should be simple, nothing like past experiences of nursing a baby while throwing up.

Through the dark and quiet walls come the rattle of cereal bowls and the clink of ice cubes. Grateful for my capable twelve-year-old, Angela, I find a position that creates the least pressure on my head.

Screeech! Bang! The bedroom door lurches open, then shut. I wince.

Angela approaches the bed with two drinking glasses: one of ice water, one of mango drink. “I’m sorry you’re sick, Mom,” she sympathizes. “Should I make coffee?”

Screeech! Bang! Nine-year-old Lindsay arrives with a plate of delicacies: a brownie, four frozen blueberries, three frozen raspberries, and a tic tac.

“Thank you, girls,” I smile weakly. They are wearing matching blue-flowered aprons. “Just leave them on the stand. I’m sorry, but I can’t eat right now.”

They hover, anxious to serve. “Can we get you anything else? Do you want the fan on?”

“That would be nice,” I reply, closing my eyes. “I really just need to sleep.”

Ten quiet minutes elapse. My stomach is riding a stormy sea.

Screeech! Bang! We really need to oil the door. Bare feet bound in, and two pairs of shining eyes beam over my bed. My little boys.

“Mommy, I made a card for you!” Four-year-old Rodney bounces up. “Here, open it, Angela helped me make it.” He jumps up and down, up and down.

Ooh, my head. “Rodney, please get off the bed.”

The ancient card, picked from a garage-sale bundle, proclaims “With Sympathy”. With one eye open, I read the inside death-in-the-family sentiments framed with alphabet stickers. Suddenly Rodney yanks back the card. “This green sticker isn’t straight!” he cries. He peels it, and the card tears. “Now I need to make you another one,” he pouts, crumpling it.

Richard’s is on lined notebook paper. In six-year-old wisdom he carefully penned, “Deer Mom, Plez get better soon. You are the best mom in the hole wurld. Can I have a cookie?”

Screeech! Bang! We really, really need to oil the door. More get-well cards delivered. Lacy, flowered, purple ones with “Get well wishes especially for you!” (Those garage-sale cards were a wise investment.)

“Dear Mom,” wrote Angela. “I hope you feel lots better quickly. You are a very nice mom and person to be around. I love you!”

“To the most wonderful mother,” Lindsay’s begins. “I hope you feel better soon! Is there anything I can get you? I will be glad to get it if there is! You are the best mom I could ever wish to have. Thank you for being a great mom.” The corner exclaims, “You are the best mom in the world. You are a great mom.”

I love redundancy.

But I am experiencing an over-abundancy of noise and movement and little bodies. I try nicely thanking them for their cards while firmly stressing that no one should come into the room for one hour. They cheerfully troop out.

I curl around a pillow, recalling my latest episode of caring for my two youngest energists…

Christmas Eve, 10:20 p.m. One last check on the boys as they drifted off to sleep. Then I heard it. A groaning cry. “My tummy hurts!” Quickly guiding Richard into the bathroom, I ran for a bucket.

In disbelief, I heard Rodney crying out. Just in time, I stuck the bucket under him. Within a minute, they’d both vomited. The stomach flu, no doubt.

My husband’s face registered complete disbelief. I couldn’t help laughing. “If I’m going to stay up with one, I may as well stay up with two!”

What a night: two boys and two buckets. Every 15-20 minutes I leaped up and grabbed one or both buckets. A well-synchronized pair, they always vomited within a minute or two of each other. Once I had a bucket held out in each hand.

Poor little boys with faces white and tummies twisted. I lovingly patted their backs. I wiped faces, and offered sips of Sprite. My own stomach never once churned. With a book and a Bible beside me, I read, slept, jumped up, prayed, snoozed, jumped up, and repeated.

My husband and two oldest children, squeamish and wide-awake, retreated to the farthest end of the house where they tried drowning out the acoustics.

Occasionally my husband emerged to peak in. “I wish I could help,” he’d say, “But my own stomach is hurting.” His face would twist into a something-smells-awful look and he’d breathe, “You’re beautiful. You are so beautiful!” before quickly retreating.

Activity finally ceased at 2:00 a.m.

In the kitchen, dishes rattled and banged. The door remained closed. I felt myself drifting away.

Then right outside my door:

“PSALM 88.”

It’s Lindsay. With loud and great expression she reads the entire psalm. “O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:… for my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am as a man that hath no strength:… Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me;… thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.”

My eye was not only mourning by reason of affliction, it was weeping from laughter, and the love-warmth of children.

(Later I discovered that Angela, knowing her sister greatly dislikes dishwashing, suggested that she’d wash while Lindsay read a Psalm. Lindsay had picked the Psalm at random.)

Eventually I slept, eventually the pills worked, and I awoke with pain abated and a warm realization.

The realization was that in the “normal” sicknesses of family life we’ve formed some one-of-a-kind memories that cannot be created any other way. Difficult memories, tiring ones. But memories of support and care. Memories of being there for each other when we most need a loving touch.

So I stand with a bucket outstretched in each hand and I say that almost I enjoy ill health.

Almost.

~ Guest post by Dianna Overholt who is a Mennonite mother of five and author of Guiding the House, which is a delightful Home Organizer. See our last giveaway for details.

And here is the EXCITING announcement! If you missed out on the giveaway, you can now get your very own copy HERE for only $9.95! Don't miss it!

Reviews:

"I absolutely love this planner. It is keeping me more organized and love the different sections included in the planner..not just calendars but places to keep food inventory, bible verses to memorize, projects, and more. I will definitely purchase again. I'd recommend it to any SAHM / SAHW / or anyone wanting to keep track of sections it offers other than just the calendar portion."

"I am new to planning my days, but am already helped by using this. Everything I need to remember is kept in one place. The layout is great and the quotes are inspiring and helpful. Thank you Dianna for designing a wonderful planner!"

Also you can find more details at Dianna's site Guiding the House!

Cross Stitch Bookmark Birdhouse Chart

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 12:38:00 +0000

PDF File

This is my project today. If I have figured out the PDF link correctly, you can access it too!

Cross stitching is something I used to do a lot of, and thankfully kept all of my patterns and thread because now our daughter really enjoys it and it is something that we enjoy doing together in front of the warm fire.

I love creating these memories with her and the in depth conversations we have while we stitch away...

PRICELESS

Find this pattern and many others on my Needlework ~ Cross Stitch and Embroidery board.

Christmas Baking Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 23:57:00 +0000

These are some of the cutest and easiest goodies to make for Christmas. We simply dip pretzels into some almond bark and the children and grandchildren LOVE to decorate them in any way they choose. Honestly, these are much easier to do and clean up than sugar cookies. Usually when we get half way done with sugar cookies, I am left to finish decorating and clean up and by then, I'm exhausted!

Here are some other GREAT ideas for you that I will be doing this year....

White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge

Mint Chocolate Bark

And for my beloved Father who hails from northern Minnesooota ...

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Bars

Blackberry Pie Bars

Eggnog Cookies

White Chocolate Covered Peppermint Oreos

Chocolate Pretzel Buckeyes

Snowman Hats

Source

Ok, so maybe I won't be doing ALL of these. But aren't they the cutest things to choose from? You can find many others on my All Things Christmas and Sweet Treats boards on Pinterest. You can also find all sorts of great other ideas for gifts too! There are MANY cute, homemade ideas at A Simple Christmas.

Here are some other creative ideas ...

Reindeer Cookie Mix

Source

Kisses bag for friends and neighbors!

And doesn't this sound like fun???

Christmas Scavenger Hunt

I hope this gives you some last minute inspiration!!

From our family to yours, may you have a very blessed Christmas!!

Homemaker's Organizer Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:11:00 +0000

This giveaway is now closed.

Congratulations to Anne Kimball at Life on the Funny Farm,

chosen from Random.org, for winning this incredible Homemaker's Organizer!

Thank you for all of your entries! I had the most enjoyable time visiting everyone's websites!

Be sure to click on the link below to purchase your own copy!

I am SO excited to introduce this extremely helpful Organizer for your Home to you! It is written by one of my dear friends, Dianna Overholt who lives right here in the Ozarks with us. Imagine my surprise when I happened to run into her at the local store only to have her show me her newest book! To be honest, I have never seen a better, more thorough organizer ever in my life. She has thought of everything and more to include in this. I just know you are going to LOVE it! (I have to warn you, that my camera is not cooperating and I'm currently in the market for a new one, so please forgive the poor quality of the pictures. They do not do this organizer justice.)

Now the REALLY fun part, I will be giving one of these away! You have many different ways to enter (see below) and the winner will be chosen at noon (CST) next Monday the 17th, 2012. Also below, I will include where you can go ahead and order yourself one or two or three! Talk about great Christmas gifts, you can simply call and order as many as you'd like today!

To begin with, it has a beautifully printed cover and clearly labeled tabs for you to find your spot which makes it very easy to use. One of my favorite details is that she has shared her heart on homemaking issues throughout the organizer and added beautiful scriptures for encouragement too.

The very first section is your calendar that is given to you by weeks and a full month view.

After your calendar pages Dianna has included some extra pages for things that need to be remembered in 2014 according to month, and an extra special section to help schedule your days, AND some pullout note sections to carry a quick list with you for reminders.

The next section is for all things regarding Home Foods. For example, keeping track of your family's favorite meals and menu plans.

One of the things I have trouble remembering, is what is in our deep freezer. Dianna has solved this problem for me with her Freezer Food pages that allow me to take an inventory of what is in there by writing down the date of the inventory, the name of the item and a way to keep track of how many are used. This is great for all of your frozen produce, meat and everything you put in there. There are similar pages to keep track of all your canned foods too. This has been a life saver for me to keep track of everything we canned this season.

Also under the Home Foods tab, you will find a Gardening section complete with a Gardening Layout, a Planting Journal, and a Harvest/Preservation Record which allows you to keep track of what you have harvested, how many pints, quarts etc., the date harvested, special notes, and totals! This allows you to record details to refer to year after year to enable you to improve each year or simply to remember how well your garden did!

The next tab is for Cleaning. This has a wonderful section of cleaning charts for deep cleaning a little at a time with Dianna's wonderful advice on how to use them with her easy method.

Dianna has also included several Hospitality Checklist sheets for your quick to do lists when company is coming. What a helpful thing to have when you think of all those little things you are trying to remember to do before your company is ringing your door bell!

Next is the Clothing section. I can't say enough good things about this section and you will see for yourself why. It begins with a chart to keep track of sizes for everyone in your family.

Then you will have a page dedicated to Infant and Toddler Clothing.

Next are different sections for both Girls and Boys Clothing Sizes and lists of types of clothing.

There are even more pages to record Adult Clothing items, a page for listing Clothing Needs, another page for your Sewing Project ideas and places to list what the project needs! So much in one Organizer!

The next section is for Inspiration, what a blessed section this is! Here you can keep track of your scripture reading, scripture memorization, books you're reading, prayer lists, gift ideas, the cute remark your toddler just made, and especially what you appreciate about your husband!

And just when you begin to think there can't be anything else included in this Organizer, Dianna adds an Odds and Ends section. There are pages to keep track of your Storage bins and boxes and......

There is also a page for Important Family Information to keep track of everyone in your family's Social Security #, their Allergies and Medications, and even their Blood Type.

This next page is a great help for me, it allows you to keep track of your Bank Accounts, Insurance Plans, and Credit Cards. I can never remember our Insurance information!

There is a Travel section too, that includes lists for your Travel Planning and Trip Packing Lists and the final section is for Contact Information. A place for you to write down names, numbers and addresses the way we used to before cell phones. I really appreciate having this list for Christmas cards and to remember those that we don't communicate with that often, but are glad to be able to connect with them when we can!

Ready? Here's the fun part!

Here’s how to enter to win:

Mandatory Entry:

Leave a comment regarding this giveaway....it's that easy!
(Please be sure to leave your email address with your comment. If I have no way to contact the winner, another person will be chosen.)

Bonus Entries: (worth 1 entry each – leave a comment per entry):

Pin the top picture of the Homemaker's Organizer cover on Pinterest commenting about the giveaway in the description and Follow me on Pinterest using the button in the sidebar
Become one of our Followers and leave a comment to tell me
Facebook this giveaway and Like us on Facebook
Tweet this giveaway
Blog this giveaway (This one is worth 2 entries!)
Give a facebook shout out for the She Shall Be Called Woman page

Giveaway ends Monday, December 17th at 12:00 pm CST.

Winner will be announced on the blog shortly thereafter.

And just in case you don't win or especially if you don't want to wait to see if you win the giveaway OR want to give a few of these Organizers to bless a favorite Homemaker you know, here's how you can order yours today!

Call Dianna at: (417) 719-8013 (Monday - Friday 9:00 - 3:00 CST)

Email: ozarkfamilybooks@gmail.com

Or write to her at:

Ozark Family Books

2592 Hazelwood Road

Seymour, Missouri 65746

Even BETTER yet!! I just spoke with Dianna and she informed me that this wonderful Organizer is on Amazon so you can order it and have it shipped today! Simply click on the picture and it will lead you straight to the Organizer's page on Amazon.

She also shared with me one more online location you can purchase it from, it's a site I have never visited before but am extremely happy to find! It is a site called Cottage Craft Works and it is full of different cottage crafts including Amish crafts. Here is a link to the Organizer located there, but after you get your copy of the Organizer, be sure to check out all the other fun stuff too!

Guiding the House at Cottage Craft Works

You can find me linked up at: Homestead Revival, The Modest Mom, The Chicken Chick, Growing Home, Far Above Rubies, Titus 2sdays, Raising Homemakers, Frugally Sustainable, Women Living Well, Raising Mighty Arrows, Deep Roots at Home, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Farm Friend Friday, Farmgirl Friday, Rainy Day Mum, ABC and 123, Happy Whimsical Hearts, Courtship Connection

Dinner Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 22:27:00 +0000

Source

Our family really enjoys Meatloaf, especially since we started having our own grass fed beef waiting patiently to be used in our freezer. My recipe is my Mother's own famous recipe with lots of good spices, sauces and a bit of oatmeal, and bran in it. It is delicious, but takes quite a bit of time to prepare.

Today, on Pinterest of course, I came across this easy sounding Meatloaf recipe that I decided to try. You can find it and many other delicious recipes on my Yummy Recipes board.

The recipe calls for:

1 pound of ground meat (beef or turkey)

1 egg

1 box of Stovetop Stuffing

1 cup water

Mix it all together and bake in a bread loaf pan at 350 for 45 minutes.

That amount might feed a smaller family, but we like having Meatloaf sandwiches from the leftovers so I doubled the recipe using:

2 pounds of grass fed, hormone and antibiotic free, Highland Beef

2 free range, home grown chicken egg

(probably from a Barred Rock hen, the one that likes to eat all of my Kale)

2 boxes of incredibly processed Stove Top Chicken made with Whole Wheat

2 cups of raw milk

I used the whole wheat to make myself feel better about using processed boxes of stuffing with so much other excellent home grown and raised ingredients.

When it's just about done baking, I'll smother it with our homemade Amish Tomato Ketchup from our homegrown tomatoes......YUM!!

To finish the table, we'll have some canned peaches, spiced applesauce and hopefully a small salad from the lettuce still growing in the greenhouse!

I promise, if the recipe isn't any good, I'll be sure to add on to this post to let you know, but since we love stuffing, I'm pretty sure we will enjoy it.

~ Much later.....this recipe is delicious. Our daughter said it was the best Meatloaf she had ever tasted! I will tell you that you can clearly taste the stuffing in this meatloaf, so if you do not care for stuffing, I wouldn't advise making it. If you love stuffing the way we do, you have GOT to try this!!

Deciding to be Cheerful

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:50:00 +0000

Are you naturally cheerful?

Does being cheerful come hard for you?

How do you keep a cheerful heart?

Generally, I am cheerful. All the time? No. Sometimes I don't want to be cheerful. That doesn't mean that I want to be gloomy on purpose, sometimes I need cheering up. It is a rare occasion, but it happens.

What I find, when I'm not cheerful, is that my home is not cheerful. My family gets moody and the mole hill turns into a mountain. Does it need to? No.

When I recognize that I am being a half full glass type of person, I have to make the decision in my mind to stop being such a puddle glum (as my Mom would say).

The benefit of age, is that I've learned from experience that if we implement what scripture says in our lives, it truly works.

For me it took age, for others who learn at a young age, they are blessed.

We cannot live by our emotions. We must resolve in our mind to do what is right and to choose joy, choose happiness, choose to love our husbands, choose peace, choose wisdom, choose to walk the narrow path, embrace being set apart, choose to teach these truths to our children and choose to love God with all of our heart, with all our soul, with all our MIND and with all our strength.

Today I choose to be cheery. Today I choose to be joyful that our little calf that struggled through the night is taking her bottles eagerly. Today I choose peace even though my home is not as clean as I'd like it to be since we've been calf sitting for over a week. Today I choose to love God with all my heart knowing he will not allow us to go hungry even though the tomatoes need to be canned and there isn't enough time in the day for me to do everything that needs to be done.

I truly understand that God is teaching me through this, giving me the strength I need for today so I choose to be cheerful that He loves me enough to walk through today with me, holding my hand, guiding my heart and filling my heart with peace for whatever today holds.

Learning As We Go....

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:10:00 +0000

It has been quite awhile since I've posted and for that I apologize. At times life gets so busy, I can barely remember what my name is. Some of you may know that I have another blog called Ozark Mountain Family Homestead, and others of you may not. My initial purpose for this was to keep the homesteading topics for those truly interested in them separate from the topics that Christian women are concerned with. I was concerned that some women would shy away from the homesteading aspects. That concern is valid, however, it is who I am and it is what my journey is about which is what this blog is supposed to give you a picture of. So in the future, I intend to post about all aspects of our life right here and I hope you will be encouraged by it.

This past month has revolved around calving, hatching eggs, fiddle festivals and through all of this, how to glorify God in our every day thoughts and actions.

We have struggled with the animals, we have struggled with relationships and we have struggled with the extreme heat. In between all of that, the garden has continued to produce, we have continued to can as much food as possible and school time has started.

Today we are currently waiting on the vet to come and put our precious calf on an IV due to dehydration.

Part of my journey as a help meet currently consists of keeping up with all of this while my dear husband travels. It is where God has us right now and we are being taught how tight our heart strings are wrapped around home and each other.

Last night we had one guinea keet hatch. One. The guinea egg story is a long one, which I won't go into on this post, but it is safe to say we were expecting more than one to hatch. Even so, we celebrated this one little keet hatching, watching patiently and sometimes not so patiently, only to discover that it's feet were curled up into little fists. After a few hours, I googled this topic and learned how to make little shoes for it so it's bones would harden correctly. So far so good!

I'm hoping to get some beef broth cooked up and canned today, but that will depend on how things go with the calf today.

Everything is still soaking wet from the remnants of hurricane Isaac over the weekend. Thankfully, our extreme drought conditions received over 5 inches of a slow and steady rain. It was brought to my attention how many of our local churches and members have been praying for rain and God answered the prayer by sending Isaac. All of the models showed it's path going completely east of us, but at the last moments, it came directly where we needed it to receive the rain.

May you be blessed today and may you be a blessing to others!

Fun Recipe Site

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:30:00 +0000

It seems like forever that I have always referred to Allrecipes.com when I'm searching online for a recipe. It is a great site and I would highly recommend it, however, I have discovered a new site that I'm really excited about. It is Simply Recipes! Many of you may know this site well and I may be really behind and have some catching up to do, but that's ok! I'm excited about sharing it with others who haven't heard about it yet.

So I stumbled across this recipe for Tomato Pie. It looked really yummy. I followed the link to it's source. Bingo! I couldn't believe how user friendly it is. It is extremely easy to save the recipes I want into a recipe box, same as Allrecipes, but the added bonus is that I can create a grocery list of items that I need from the recipe too. Not only that, but it invites you to email an invitation to others so they can view your grocery list. !!!!! No more writing down my grocery list and losing it, or leaving it at home. And the added bonus is that my husband can simply log on to it as he's walking through the store, picking up what we need before coming home.

AND!

You also can create your own meal planner with the recipes and upload your own recipes!

So lets review:

Delicious Recipes

Personal Recipe Box

Grocery List

Meal Planner

It also provides you with coupons and lets you mark your favorite local market. There are also different capabilities that I won't use, but could be helpful to others like using a smartphone to scan the labels of what's in your pantry so that you can keep track of what you have and when you need more. That is way too technical for me though. A sharable online grocery list with my husband is about as high tech as I get at the moment.

And just in case you are wondering if I am being financially compensated in any way for this post, let me assure you that I am not. I felt this site it truly a help regarding functionality in both the kitchen and shopping. I hope you are blessed by it!

Modesty Covenant

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 02:18:00 +0000

Even though my closets have been sorted through for a few years now, as I go through totes that have been packed away for many years, I find clothing items that shock me. It's not that I don't remember the way I used to dress, it's seeing it now in my current reality that saddens me. I don't dare "donate" them to anyone because I can't stand the thought of contributing that type of clothing to mislead someone else.

So ... what do I do with these things? I throw them in the burn pile. I really enjoy getting rid of those things when I come across them. Surely there aren't too many more lurking away in some hidden corner of a tote. One of these days, all of the old reminders will be history!

The idea of modesty and femininity appears different to many individuals. God leads us through this journey. It is clearly a sanctification process that takes time. Some women may one day get up to simply throw out everything they think they should get rid of. For me, it took time. I couldn't afford to go buy new skirts, new shirts etc. I didn't even know what I felt comfortable in yet. My wardrobe has seen many changes and now it includes a variety of different things from prairie dresses and western denim skirts to cute jumpers and fashionable dresses. Our wardrobe often reflects our moods and who we are. Even though mine has changed to a more modest wardrobe, it still fits who I am and I feel more like I'm dressing to suit me and where God has led me rather than trying to fit in with what the magazines say is the fashion or what every other woman on the street that I run into is wearing.

It isn't a change of dressing because one wants to simply appear more holy. It isn't a change due to wanting to look more like the soft spoken home schooling mother at the co-op. It isn't a change due to reading someone's blog post about being biblically modest unless God speaks to your heart at that moment. It is a heart change. Where God leads you in your modesty journey will more than likely be very different than mine or it may not be, however, it will be your journey. It takes courage to go against the grain from those around you, including your family.

But if you listen, God will call you. God has called you to be set apart.

Mothers and Daughters

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:11:00 +0000

"My dear girl, the day you see I'm getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I'm going through.

If when we talk, I repeat the same thing a thousand times, don't interrupt to say, "You said the same thing a minute ago" ... just listen, please.

Try to remember the times when you were little and I would read the same story night after night until you would fall asleep.

When I don't want to take a bath, don't be mad and don't embarrass me. Remember when I had to run after you making excuses and trying to get you to take a shower when you were just a girl?

When you see how slow I am when it comes to new technology, give me the time to learn and don't look at me that way ... remember honey, I patiently taught you how to do many things like eating appropriately, getting dressed, combing your hair and dealing with life's issues every day?

The day you see I'm getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I'm going through.

If I occasionally lose track of what we're talking about, give me the time to remember, and if I can't, don't be nervous, impatient or arrogant.

Just know in your heart that the most important thing for me is to be with you.

And when my old, tired legs don't let me move as quickly as before, give me your hand the same way that I offered mine to you when you first walked.

When those days come, don't feel sad ... just be with me, and understand me while I get to the end of my life with love.

I'll cherish and thank you for the gift of time and joy we shared.

With a big smile and the huge love I've always had for you, I just want to say ...

I love you, my darling daughter.

How I Love My Husband

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:31:00 +0000

On a scale from 1 to 10, how perfect do you think your husband is?

Mine? I can't rate my husband on a scale because he's more than perfect.

How is he more than perfect?

Well, what qualities in a man do you think it would take to make the perfect man?

I can list several, but God has a better and more complete list than I do and God has given my husband to me, therefore, he is more perfect than I can humanly conceive.

One of the greatest things that makes him SO perfect for me is that he isn't perfect, which goes hand in hand with the fact that I am FAR from perfect, so..... that makes him perfect for me!

Yes, he has humanly faults, BUT, I can name my faults in a greater number than I can his. Does that keep me from getting frustrated at times? Sadly, no. Should I complain about my husband's faults?

No.

Never.

No matter what you hear from other women about their husbands ....

To speak bad about your husband to anyone, ever, is to tear down your own home. Not to mention the scripture that speaks of whoever cast the first stone.... I have no room whatsoever to even be frustrated with my husband.

He loves me with his whole heart and I never believed that to be humanly possible.

Me, with all my faults.

Does he point them out to me?

No.

Never.

He loves me, encourages me, listens to me, prays for me and that makes him perfect.

THEREFORE:

I strive every day to remember this verse and to be this woman:

One thing that took me years to understand and truly grasp in our temporary society is this:

My marriage is THE MOST important thing to me in my life.

And here are a few of the ways I treasure it:

Source for 25 Prayers

Source

And never forget ...

Do you want your daughter/s to be a good wife? I do.

Do you want your son/s to know what a good wife looks like so that they can find one? I do.

So what do I have to do?

Be one.

How?

By God's grace and lots of prayer.

This is the one detail that has gotten me to where I am today and why I will be even better tomorrow...

To see other great quotes and encouragement see my Scripture, Created to be His Help Meet, Keeper of the Home, and A Peek Into My Faith boards on Pinterest.

If you have great Scripture, Quotes or tips that are special to you, please share them and/or a link to them in a comment!

Before You Meet Prince Charming

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:03:00 +0000

Some lessons are easy to learn, some lessons however, always seem to be just out of reach. Those lessons that seem just out of reach usually pertain to life's lessons that we try to instill in our children according to scripture, but what our children continually see in today's society and sadly enough, our churches, continue to tear down the lesson we are trying so hard to bring home to our children.

After working diligently to guide, nurture and protect our children through a daily onslaught of information that guarantees to destroy our children, isn't it a God given relief to find something that helps you to concrete certain information in your child's heart to where they "own" it?

'Before You Meet Prince Charming' is my new found tool to "seal the deal" in our daughter's heart.

Now before I go on raving about this book, you must know that I do not get one cent from promoting it. My reason for sharing it with you is for the purpose of sharing with you something I have found that I am extremely excited about.

To me, this isn't a "oh by the way, this is a pretty good book you might want to check out" conversation. This is a "HEY, you should really check this book out!" jumping up and down, type of statement.

I know you can find it in many places online and I have provided a link to one of my favorite, great resources providers, but that is only to make it easy for you. I am not one of their affiliates.

Our homeschool conference was last week and I picked up a copy of this book at the conference.

We pre-read everything our daughter touches and I couldn't help but read through this in two nights in order to put it in her hands and heart as soon as I could.

She can't put it down either. I am witnessing so many 'aha' moments from her while she reads this that I can't hardly sit still.

Here is a description from the link to the book:

It’s never too early to prepare for God’s best in the area of marriage. While many books now address courtship, these might not apply or be age appropriate for a preteen or young woman. She simply needs a big sister to guide her on how to treasure the vulnerable yet valuable years before she meets her prince charming.

Sarah Mally is that big sister. She begins each chapter with an interest-catching allegory of a princess who is tempted to forsake her father’s guidance for the world’s second best. In a simple yet winsome way, she encourages young ladies to guard and cultivate their hearts.

Filled with testimonies and sometimes-humorous illustrations, this book challenges a young woman to be pure, patient, and purposeful—not only for her future husband but also for Christ, her true Prince Charming.

By Sarah Mally

There are several things in this book that we have taught our daughter so this book simply affirms those things, but other topics are touched on in straight forward ways that I had never even began to think of to teach. The truths of reality and the consequences are written in a very real, but appropriate way for young girls. Now mind you, I'm not sure that I would hand this over to a girl that was 10 years or younger unless she is already asking questions about boyfriends and girlfriends.

Sadly enough, our daughter was exposed to all that craziness beginning in the 4th grade .... at our church of all places. We guided her through those years as best we could, but beware, it comes earlier than you think and we have learned that it works better for our family to already have principals set in place before the exposure than to try to clean up the aftermath.

My own personal example of that is that I'm adopted. My parents talked to me about being adopted and how adoption works before I even knew what the word adopted meant. When I did learn what the word meant, it was no big deal to me because I had been lovingly prepared for it. They had instilled in me the knowledge that adoption is a loving gift from God and that my biological Mother had loved me enough to provide the best home for she that she could find and that I did not grow under my adopted Mother's heart, but in it.

So, if you have daughters, nieces, grand-daughters or simply if you have any influence on a young girl, I would strongly encourage you to get this book.

For myself, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and felt a bit saddened that I had not had such knowledge shared with me during my younger years. It is written in a way that I know I could've grabbed on to it and used it to make better choices. The good news is that I now have this great resource to share with our daughter and any other girls that God brings into my path!

Oh, another short, but true story is a little book called 'Stay in the Castle'. Be sure and find that one too!

Walking Through the Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:44:00 +0000

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Have you ever walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death?

If you have, this passage most assuredly has a deep meaning for you.

To begin with, currently I am not walking that path. No, my path today was one of many errands which included a fiddle lesson, picking up vegetable seeds to exchange with a new friend in Russia, dropping books off at the library, stopping at the local farm store to see what kind of seed potatoes they have (I'm looking for the purple kind and can't find them anywhere), and grabbing some groceries among about a dozen other things to do.

I'm usually pretty focused when it comes to running just one or two errands, but when I try to squeeze everything into one day, well my mind doesn't want to cooperate. I'm easily sidetracked, I lose focus, and I get frazzled. I had a list, which I followed very well. My problem is time. In trying to take my time and focus, I lose track of time and run late and then have to rush to get everything done.

So here I am, frazzled, rushing around wondering how in the world I'm going to get everything done and then I ran into an old friend. You know when you are so extremely busy that you don't even want to stop and say hello to someone? That was the point I was at and I extremely dislike being that type of person.

This time I had to stop. I had to offer her my sympathies from the surprising news I had just heard earlier today. Even after hearing the news, I never thought I would run into her anytime soon and here she was.

Now I have to say that this gentle, kind woman was someone I didn't know until our daughters were involved in an activity together. We spent a year bringing them back and forth to practice and all over the countryside to different events. Our families began to get to know one another. After a year of that experience, we decided not to continue the activity and I hadn't seen this dear lady since ... until today.

I came around the corner of an isle while shopping for groceries and there she was. She wasn't walking very well and she had a cane in her cart.

I have to back track a bit here to a few months ago when the news came of a man and his father that were killed by a train in one of our local small towns. The news was tragic. They worked together and crossed that crossing all the time, but somehow didn't see the train. This small town was miles from the town I was in today, so I never put two and two together. I saw the names in the newspaper, but it didn't register.

The man was my friend's husband and because another friend pointed it out to me this morning, I finally put two and two together. My daughter and I were stunned. Her little friend's Daddy was gone. My friend's husband was gone, and here she suddenly was in front of me, limping with a cane.

I offered her my condolences and we talked about her loss. This was a different woman than the woman I used to know. Today she was quiet, she was kind and she was gracious. Now don't get me wrong, she was a great gal before, but she was a career woman, busy, always on the go.... run run run. That was not who she was today.

I kindly asked her about her cane and she began to tell me that her journey started last summer when she was in an accident on her way to work. A boy crossed into her lane and hit her head on. Her left arm and both legs were broken.

Since that time, her step father has passed away, and more recently she has experienced the loss of her husband, the father of her children and her father in law.

She is still walking through her valley of the shadow of death, but she is gracious, she is kind and she is hopeful.

The business of my day fell away as I looked into her eyes and knew that I could in no way comprehend what she had been through and was still facing in raising her children without their father.

My heart cries for her.

I pray she is fully leaning on God's grace.

She showed no bitterness.

She showed no anger.

She showed no self pity.

I have been through my own valley of the shadow of death and I know what kind of strength it takes to get out of bed each day, but to go through what this dear lady is experiencing and still be able to walk in the grace of God with hope, takes more than I can understand.

Thankfully, I don't need to understand. I don't need to have all of the right words to say to her.

But I can pray for her ....

I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me ...

what a comfort, and today I was given the opportunity to comfort her.

Thank you Lord.

Who Are You?

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Who am I?

The underlying question in everyone's life.

You can get thousands of answers to this question from others in the world, especially from the ones who write all of the self help books telling us to build our self-esteem, manage our time better, set boundaries .... but those answers can be like a vapor in the wind just like our lives.

Other people will say to spend our time building relationships instead of running our homes like a military. It seems that depending on what we are reading or who we are listening to, we are never quite the complete person we are always trying to be.

After working so hard to fit into one particular mold, we find out that now we have to fit into a different mold. Just like buying the latest fashions. As soon as we can afford that fashionable outfit, it is no longer in style. I won't even get into using technology as an example .... the example would be out of date before I get this posted.

When I look at myself, and the "hats" I wear, I see an endless list.

Wife

Mother

Daughter

Daughter In Law

Niece

Cousin

Aunt

Grandma

Friend

Sister in Christ

Homesteader

Head Teacher

Head Cook

Head Housekeeper

Scullery Maid

Chauffer

Head Gardener

Accountant

Secretary

Cow Hand

Landscape Specialist

Tailor

and my favorite....

President of No One Knows What I Do Unless I don't Do it, Inc.

however ...

Who Am I?

The answer to this isn't about what hats we wear, how treasured we are by our family and friends, or who we tell ourselves we are.

There is only one plain and simple truth.

We are a soul in search of our Creator.

A soul with eternal value.

A child of our Heavenly Father

An heir to His Kingdom.

If you have not only discovered, but taken ownership of this simple truth, you have obtained great wisdom. We have to accept this birthright though and not throw it away.

Can you imagine the Queen of England saying "no thanks, I'll make my own way"?!

I see so many people doing just that and then turning to worldly answers when they lose their way.

How freeing is knowing who you are?

I'll tell you.

No matter how sweet or hurtful life is, the person I look at in the mirror is a child of God.

No matter how tiring the daily details of who we need to be at the moment get, the answer of who I am gives me grace and strength, leadership and love.

At those moments when I feel disconnected with who I am and I need reminded, I seek God.

Like a child that gets lost in a busy store, I search for my Father's outstretched hand and am comforted and strengthened to be what He has created me to be ....

a blessing to others.

Modest Swimwear Hard to Find ??

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:36:00 +0000

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This is the best modest swimwear I have ever found!

I don't know about you, but I have spent years trying to find something appropriate to wear swimming other than shorts and a shirt. Every time we go down to our local swimming spot at the river, I wear a pair of shorts that I have specifically for the river and an old t-shirt.
Are they comfortable? No.Do I feel attractive? No.Do I feel like I'm dressed appropriately? No.I never wear shorts, so that in itself makes me uncomfortable.
If you knew me about 20 years ago, you'd find me at the lake in a bright yellow bikini which was my favorite one. The whole point of being out in the sun was to get some great color wasn't it? The more skin that was exposed to the sun meant no tan lines. How stupid was that?
Fast forward 20 years.
Do I want that much sun? No
I now see the damage that I allowed the sun to do for several years and do everything I can to make sure no further damage takes place.
That takes me to this AWESOME swim suit that I just got and am extremely excited about!
Here is the top I got ....

A big plus to to this top is that it's 100% chlorine resistant. Can you believe that? No more faded colors! I love that. Of course there isn't any chlorine in the lake or the river, but we travel occasionally and I will enjoy this suit in the pools too.

Notice the sleeves? They have some with long sleeves and some that are sleeveless also. Great stuff to choose from.

The other thing I like about it is that it is very flattering to the figure. My figure is not what it used to be in the days of the yellow bikini, that's for sure. Even if it were, I'd never wear such a thing now. What I can tell you is that this swim top is the MOST comfortable piece of fabric I have ever known. Truly incredible.

The other wonderful thing about this top, is that it comes with a sports bra for added support and coverage. This isn't one of those flimsy sports bras you find at Wal-Mart or your local sports store. This one is made with everything thing we worry about, in mind. Did I put that right? You know how we worry about coverage and support and comfort? It covers that. No more worries! I won't include a picture of them here, you can find them by clicking on the top picture.

Here is what the description of this top says on HydroChic's site:

A cross trainers top for every activity in or out of the water. This top is made to keep up with any active lifestyle. This rash guard offers sun protection for the outdoors, 100% chlorine resistant fabric for the pool, and dries quickly to keep you comfortable. Included sports bra gives you added support for any activity.

My most favorite piece of this swim suit is the skirt. Well, it's called a skirt, but it has leggings under it too, look!

Isn't that neat? The look of a skirt, with leggings. And talk about comfortable!

Here is their description which says it completely for you:

Swim Skirt includes attached pants. The light weight quick drying material is sun protective. Wear it in or out of the water for any activity, its made to get wet but quick to dry. Great body coverage and sun protection all in a cute skirt. Mix and match with many of our tops to make your own outfit.

Great body coverage and sun protection!

Ding ding ding, that tells me all I need to know, plus it is incredibly comfortable on top of all the other great qualities.

Water, here I come! You see, even though we spend a lot of time playing in the river, I never get to enjoy it fully because of feeling uncomfortable and inappropriate. Wet clothes are extremely uncomfortable and they do not dry fast at all.

Not enjoying swimming has been such a huge change for me since I practically grew up in the water. We lived in a coastal town of southern Brazil and spent every Sunday morning on the beach. (There wasn't any church on Sunday mornings there at the time, church was always in the evening after it cooled down.) Back in the states, in high school, I swam on the swim team for years and after school I spent time every week at the lake.

Water has always been a big part of my life, but how I conduct myself around it now has really changed. Learning to practice discretion and still be able to enjoy swimming has been difficult for me, never knowing quite what to do in order to be dressed appropriately, be comfortable, and to protect my skin from the sun.

Now, I no longer have to worry about all that! What a relief!!

Once I was able to decide which items I wanted, they were shipped to me immediately. And to my delight, I received an extremely pretty package, look!

How cute is that? I love getting pretty packages!

Now in full disclosure, I have to tell you that we have chosen to affiliate with HydroChic. We have done this simply because we believe 100% in their product. Our decision to affiliate with anyone is always taken seriously, we refuse to promote or recommend anything that we do not believe 100% in. We would never want to lead anyone astray.

The bottom line with HydroChic is that they offer an excellent product that I feel needs to be shared with all of you that might be having a hard time finding proper swim wear like I was.

When I discover something that truly works for me, I get excited and HAVE to share it with everyone!

Now ask me.....

Are they comfortable? YESDo I feel attractive? YESDo I feel like I'm dressed appropriately? YES
Problem Solved

The Glorious Advantages of Raw Milk

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:01:00 +0000

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One of the healthy new changes we have made in our home is the use of Raw Milk. Glorious Raw Milk!! Untouched by the human hand, in it's purest form as God intended it to be.

There are so many arguments out there about the benefits and dangers of drinking raw milk, but we are surrounded by hundreds of healthy (Amish) families, and many other families that drink it and have drank it all of their lives. We see daily proof that it is safe and healthy.

Many of may not know, but I have osteoarthritis and have had it since my late 20's. In looking for ways to combat it, I researched many articles. The one topic that I began to see over and over was that pasteurized milk was hard on people with arthritis, any kind of arthritis. The studies show that it actually caused joint issues and inflammation issues. I began to look around to find others that could verify this and didn't have to look any farther than my own neighbors. To find raw milk from a farmer close to you, go to Where Can I Find Real Milk?

We even researched where pasteurization came from and why. To give you a small idea, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia. It reflects the same information we found in much of our other research.

Pasteurization of milk was suggested by Franz von Soxhlet in 1886.^[4] It is the main reason for milk's extended shelf life. High Temperature Short Time (HTST) pasteurized milk typically has a refrigerated shelf life of two to three weeks, whereas ultra-pasteurized milk can last much longer, sometimes two to three months. When ultra-heat treatment (UHT) is combined with sterile handling and container technology (such as aseptic packaging), it can even be stored unrefrigerated for 6–9 months

To see the whole article go HERE.

Our decision was based on the fact that we have stopped eating processed food that has had chemicals and preservatives added to it for longer shelf life. Why would drink something that has endured a process to lengthen its shelf life? We don't need milk that can last up to two weeks. Milk doesn't last that long in our home.

Also, we have been realizing how much the big corporate industries have swayed us in regards to what we eat and drink. The milk industry stands much to lose if everyone stops buying milk from the stores and begins to milk their own cows or goats. We feel the same way about the beef industry too. For that matter, the whole health industry stands to lose billions of the almighty dollar if people began to be healthier too, but I won't open that can of worms....yet.

Here is another article from Dr. Mercola about processed milk being the problem:

Processing Is the Problem

The path that transforms healthy milk products into allergens and carcinogens begins with modern feeding methods that substitute high-protein, soy-based feeds for fresh green grass and breeding methods to produce cows with abnormally large pituitary glands so that they produce three times more milk than the old fashioned scrub cow. These cows need antibiotics to keep them well.

Their milk is then pasteurized so that all valuable enzymes are destroyed (lactase for the assimilation of lactose; galactase for the assimilation of galactose; phosphatase for the assimilation of calcium).

Literally dozens of other precious enzymes are destroyed in the pasteurization process. Without them, milk is very difficult to digest. The human pancreas is not always able to produce these enzymes; over-stress of the pancreas can lead to diabetes and other diseases.

The butterfat of commercial milk is homogenized, subjecting it to rancidity. Even worse, butterfat may be removed altogether. Skim milk is sold as a health food, but the truth is that butter-fat is in milk for a reason.

Without it the body cannot absorb and utilize the vitamins and minerals in the water fraction of the milk. Along with valuable trace minerals and short chain fatty acids, butterfat is America's best source of preformed vitamin A.

Synthetic vitamin D, known to be toxic to the liver, is added to replace the natural vitamin D complex in butterfat. Butterfat also contains re-arranged acids which have strong anti-carcinogenic properties.

Non-fat dried milk is added to 1% and 2% milk. Unlike the cholesterol in fresh milk, which plays a variety of health promoting roles, the cholesterol in non-fat dried milk is oxidized and it is this rancid cholesterol that promotes heart disease.

Like all spray dried products, non-fat dried milk has a high nitrite content. Non-fat dried milk and sweetened condensed milk are the principle dairy products in third world countries; use of ultra high temperature pasteurized milk is widespread in Europe.

To see the whole article go HERE.

Here is another terrific source for information at RealMilk.com and what the Scientific Literature really says HERE.

I share all of this with you, not to convince you that you should drink raw milk, but to explain the power behind our decision to drink raw milk. If you do decide to drink raw milk, you have to be absolutely sure that it comes from a very clean source or raise your own animals for milking purposes.

Besides the health benefits from drinking raw milk, there are many things you can make yourself from raw milk. In the picture above did you see the cream at the top? No more having to buy ranch dressings, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, whipping cream, heavy cream, cheese of any kind including cream cheese, butter or yogurt!

It is amazing how self-sufficient you can be when you have raw milk to work with. When you make all of these things your self, you don't have to worry about the chemicals and preservatives of all of these things. What a relief!

Here are some recipes and tutorials to give you an idea of how easy and fun this can be! These are the sources I use to make my own, so instead of re-inventing the wheel, I thought I would share the originals with you and give them all of the credit they so deserve.

Here is a real easy one, Ricotta Cheese for all of your lasagna and stuffed pastas.

Tutorial Source

Another easy one, Cream Cheese

Tutorial Source

Here is a terrific Yogurt recipe!

Tutorial Source

Yummy Ranch Dressing

Tutorial Source

Beautiful Homemade Mozzarella Cheese!

Tutorial Source

And the one constant around our home in it's purest form...

Tutorial Source

This butter tutorial tells how to make it by shaking your cream in a jar. We still do it that way from time to time, but it's much easier to do by using your Kitchen Maid mixer. Be sure to stand watch though or you will end up with whey all over the kitchen. Believe me, I speak from experience! Once it forms, it will plop around in the bowl causing the whey to splash everywhere.

One of my favorite things to do is to make all sorts of flavored butter like Cinnamon Honey Butter, Orange Honey Butter, Strawberry Honey Butter, Blackberry Honey Butter, Vanilla Honey Butter, Apricot Honey Butter, Garlic Butter and Herb Butter. You can find all of these on my Butter Board.

If you have favorite recipes of your own, please share them with me! I love to find new and exciting things to do with our raw milk!

Find me linked up at: Homestead Revival, Nourishing Treasures, Growing Home, Far Above Rubies, Skip to my Lou, Penniless Parenting, Titus 2sdays, Raising Homemakers, Frugally Sustainable, Women Living Well, Raising Mighty Arrows, Deep Roots at Home, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Farm Friend Friday, Life as Mom, Farmgirl Friday

Garden Bag and Heirloom Seed Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:44:00 +0000

Be sure and head over to the Ozark Mountain Family Homestead to enter the giveaway for this wonderfully delightful Garden Bag and nine packages of Heirloom Seed!

Juicing for Better Health

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:59:00 +0000

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What is your favorite breakfast? I don't think I have a favorite, but in the past, if it contained eggs and cheese or biscuits and gravy, it was considered my favorite breakfast. We also used to live on cereal. You know the kind, the one with the box that says it contains whole grain and fruit. Most of the time it was even labeled organic.

As a keeper of the home, I feel a strong sense of duty to be healthy and to feed my family in the most healthy manner that I know, so we are changing the way we eat (drink) breakfast and we have never felt better.

Let me explain. In our search for healthy food and learning the technical art of reading labels, we kept coming back to the fact that God gave us everything we need through plants. Now don't go thinking we are vegetarians, my husband would dry up and blow away if he didn't have his red meat, but we are learning how much healthier we can be if we eat more raw foods. There is something extremely satisfying about living simpler with every aspect of our life including what we eat.

So, we invested in a juicer. At first we were thrilled with it and we were extremely surprised at how delicious fresh juice is compared to anything you can buy at the store. We soon got really spoiled with that small fact, but didn't fully understand how we could pack a real punch of nutrients into our day. After the first few months, the newness wore off and our juicer sat all alone on the counter, gathering dust.

Then, a family at our church began telling us about a documentary called 'Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead', it sounded pretty interesting. We enjoy learning about healthy foods and have watched several interesting documentaries so we took their advice and watched it. It really changed how we looked at food in so many ways. One of the things we have discovered is the value of micro-nutrients and the affects they have on how healthy we feel. It is amazing how many fruits and vegetables go into one glass of power packed nutrients! If you've watched the movie, than you are familiar with the 'Mean Green' that I also juice for lunch most of the time. I'll do a separate post on that one.

All of this to explain a bit of how we went from biscuits and gravy to a simple glass of juice for breakfast!

We try to use as much organic fruit as possible, but I have to admit that it is not always possible depending on where I get it from. The little grocery stores out where we live aren't big about carrying it. We have to run into the nearest city to stock up on it.

For the three of us, I usually use about three apples, four oranges and four carrots. Its fun to put them through the juicer and watch the beautiful colors of the juice as it comes out.

And there is the finished juice.

Here is where I add my own extra nutrients to it because I like to have a little of the Greek Yogurt in our diets and we truly believe in the health benefits of bee pollen.

I'll put about two Table spoons (not measuring tablespoons, use a big spoon) of Greek Yogurt in the bottom of the blender, sprinkle about a teaspoon of bee pollen in and add a ripe banana for extra sweetness.

Pour in half of the juice for a blender full then repeat with the yogurt, bee pollen and banana for the second half of the juice. It is very filling and extremely healthy, not to mention that the only label I had to read was the one on the yogurt container! My next learning project will be how to make my own yogurt, so if you have any recipes for that, please leave me a comment!

Oh! AND if you have any juice or smoothie recipes that your family loves, please share them by leaving a comment!

You can find me linked up at: Homestead Revival, Nourishing Treasures, Growing Home, Far Above Rubies, Skip to my Lou, Penniless Parenting, Titus 2sdays, Raising Homemakers, Frugally Sustainable, Women Living Well, Raising Mighty Arrows, Deep Roots at Home, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Farm Friend Friday, Life as Mom, Farmgirl Friday

What is your Apron Style?

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:12:00 +0000

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Aprons are a blessed thing. Just putting one on can transform your mind set as a keeper of the home.

In my experience, depending on which collar we put on our dog, he will know what is expected of him. If we put on his training collar, he knows its time to learn. The same goes for our horse. When she has her show bridle put on, she knows it and she carries her head higher and there is a new spring in her step.

The same seems to go for me when I put my apron on. My mindset changes and I feel the sky is the limit as far as what I can clean, organize, cook, plant, etc.

It also takes me back to my grandmother's era, where woman took great satisfaction in being the keeper of the home. There was no question as to who they were or where they belonged. They did not fear losing their job. They did not have to pay for professional clothes, hair, make-up, fancy nails, gas to work, and extra car insurance.... all the while wondering why, if they were so "successful" did they not feel satisfied? Oh and the never ending question of where do I stop to get dinner for the family?

The cyclone of all that that entails, used to swirl in my mind daily. BUT not ever again! For I am the Keeper of the Home and I take great satisfaction in knowing that it is where I belong and in the fact that it is what is best for my family. The eternal effects of this one lone decision are astronomical.

So.....all of that to say, I love aprons. They are one of my many tools of success in my position and they can be so much fun and they also tap into my creative side.

Have you ever made an apron? I haven't, but lately I have been finding all kinds of apron patterns and ideas that look SO fun to make and personalize that I had to share them with you and hopefully spark an idea for you to try.

I really like the gingham shown in the top picture and the style of the apron, but so far I haven't been able to find a pattern for it. If you do, please send it to me!

Here is a picture of a beautiful and extremely handy apron to have. Be sure to follow the source link and it will lead you to the wonderful site of On Just A Couple Acres for her well detailed Tutorial. This is a terrific apron to have for the garden!

Source

This next one comes from my dear "bloggy" friend from The Unliberated Woman. On her site you will find great instructions on how to re-make your favorite apron. For example, we have a beautiful, vintage apron that belonged to my dear Grandmother. She lived well into her mid-90's and has been gone from us for several years now. I would like another apron, made just like the one she passed down to me and now I know how to do just that by following this Tutorial.

Source

Whatever your style may be, here are several designs, patterns, links and tutorials. Create to your heart's desire! If you have any links, tutorials or pictures you would like me to share on a future post, please contact me.

Source

This one has a darling idea for adding a dishtowel to the waist band.

Source

This one is made from a vintage dish towel.

Source

Source of 50 Apron Patterns

Source for girls and women

This one is made from a vintage pillowcase.

Source

I hope these have blessed you and inspired you!

If you would like to simply purchase an apron, but not sure where to look, here are some favorite links of mine:

These links have more than just aprons to choose from, there are some beautiful dresses, skirts, tops and nightgowns too. Anyone looking for Historical or Re-enactor resources or very plain dress resources, please visit the Quaker Jane link above.

Feel free to look at ALL of my Apron pictures, patterns and tutorials on my Pinterest Apron board.

Please note that I have tried my best to link back to every original site in order to give credit where credit is due. If any of these are yours and you would like them removed, please contact me.

Homemade Biscuits and an Amish Cookbook Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:02:00 +0000

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I'm very excited to finally find a biscuit recipe that works for me! Biscuits have never been my strong point, so I never make them from scratch, but have you read the label on any brand of biscuits from the store? Ick! I had made the decision to either learn how to make them or we wouldn't have them at all.

Well since we love biscuits, not having them wasn't an option, so......I scouted all over Pinterest to find a recipe that worked for me and here it is:

Southern Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 Tablespoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

8 Tablespoons butter, chopped

3/4 cup of milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix up your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Cut the butter into your flour mixture until it begins to look like cornmeal.

Make a well in your flour mixture and slowly add small portions of the milk. Use your fingers to knead the milk into the flour mixture. Continue to add small portions of milk until it is mixed in.

Roll out your dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to desired thickness.

Cut out with small biscuit cutter or glass rim.

Butter the bottom of your pan (I use my cast iron skillet) and then put biscuits in the pan.

Bake for about 12 minutes or so, until they are golden brown.

You can find the source of this recipe HERE and a great Sausage and Bacon Gravy recipe HERE.

~~PLUS....~~

This giveaway is now closed.

Don't miss the Amish Cookbook Giveaway

at our

Ozark Mountain Family Homestead blog!

Click on this LINK for details and all of the ways you can win it!

You can find this post linked up at: Homestead Revival, Nourishing Treasures, Growing Home, Far Above Rubies, Skip to my Lou, Penniless Parenting, Titus 2sdays, Raising Homemakers, Frugally Sustainable, Women Living Well, Raising Mighty Arrows, Deep Roots at Home, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Farm Friend Friday, Life as Mom, Farmgirl Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:13:00 +0000

Source

TO MAKE A HOME

To make a home I need a heart

That knows the power of love's fine art.

A heart that dares defy all wrong

And opens wide it's door to song.

To make a home I need a smile

And inward faith for every trial;

I need a hope, I need a dream

That in all darkness casts it's gleam.

To make a home I need to pray,

I need the Bible to show the way,

I need a church, a hallowed place

Where I may seek for peace and grace.

To make a home I need a soul

That faces toward the highest goal,

Surrendered as life's way I plod

to make a home I must have God!

~Selected~

Organizing Our Minds, Hearts and Homes

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:20:00 +0000

Have you ever truly noticed the exact order of the center of a sunflower?

Notice how there are two mesmerizing patterns of two opposite spirals? Each floret is generally oriented toward the next by approximately the "golden" angle of 137.5 degrees, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other. On a very large sunflower there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other.

Pretty thought provoking? Each time I discover facts like these, it affirms to me that our God is a God of order.

The entire universe has a specific order, so why don't I? This is my current conviction. I do not suffer from feeling like I have no purpose. I have a pretty good grasp on God's plan for my life during this season. Many things continue to change, but the foundation of who I am as a help meet, a mother, a daughter, a friend and a mentor remain the same. What's weighing on me is "How can I do it better"?

The first thing that raises its ugly head at me is the fact that I never feel organized. I like to blame it on the fact that I'm Irish. I love all things natural, easy flowing and peaceful. There is a disconnect somewhere though....if there is no order, there is no easy flow.

Not only that, but my God is a God of order.

I need to have order. As the keeper of the home, our home needs to have order. So.......I am taking the leap into an area I have never gone before and I'm pretty excited about it.

I have been finding so many easy and wonderful ways to become organized and one of them is to create a Home Management Binder.

Source

Be sure to click on the Source links for each picture to go straight to these wonderful resources!

At the source of the Home Management Binder, you will find how well she has spelled out the beginning process of creating your own Home Management Binder plus she has several links of her own for you to find great printables for your binder. Some are free and some aren't depending on how you would like to design it.

There are great Weekly Planners for all sorts of things including cleaning, fitness, goals, chores, menus, finances, to do, medical....the list is endless.

Source

There are Daily Schedules...

Source

Monthly Calendars

Source

Here is a very colorful Household Cleaning Schedule that will be for our daughter to keep her on track. It is interesting to find that when I discover what works for her, it usually works for me too.

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There are many more on my Printables Board.

Above all else, I have saved the best for last! If you have not discovered Darlene's blog Time-Warp Wife, and her blessed ministry of empowering wives to joyfully serve, you have missed a real treat! She has much to share with you regarding Housekeeping. Below is her latest free printable of her Daily Housekeeping Schedule.

Source

I pray these resources will be a blessing to you and a great inspiration as they have been to me. It will require commitment, however, we have experienced the rewards of simplifying greatly, this is our next step and I challenge you to join me!

You can find me linked up at: Homestead Revival, Growing Home, Far Above Rubies, Skip to my Lou, Penniless Parenting, Titus 2sdays, Raising Homemakers, Frugally Sustainable, Women Living Well, Raising Mighty Arrows, Deep Roots at Home, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Farm Friend Friday, Life as Mom, Farmgirl Friday

Christmas Baking List

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:11:00 +0000

Christmas Cutout Cookies

Aren't these beautiful? Occasionally, I wish mine looked like these. Everyone always says that practice makes perfect and I've been making these for over 30+ years and have never had them come out this pretty! Oh well, maybe if I was a perfectionist it would really matter to me. The most beautiful cookies I know of are the ones my children and grandchildren make. Those are the ones that have broken edges, too much icing and tons of sprinkles on them, but they portray love and laughter and family!

Last year I stocked up on some beautiful Christmas tins at our local Dollar Store for only 1/4 of the regular price in order to give homemade goodies away for Christmas this year. Never mind the fact that I then had to store them for a while year, the one detail that evaded my perfect plan, but here we are.....ready for baking and giving and I am thrilled to have all those tins stored away!

Beyond the fun cutout cookies, I thought I'd share with you, some of what I plan on baking for this joyous Christmas season and hopefully give you some new easy ideas to go with your traditional family recipes.

These next two are extremely easy to make and the first to disappear off the plate!

Chocolate Saltine Toffee

Christmas Chocolate Bark

There are several variations of bark you can make. Last year I made bark with cherry and vanilla chips and another one with mint chocolate chips. Both were delicious and you can find those recipes at my friend Pam's Best Yummy Recipe's blog.

Here are some other yummy recipes including one with cream cheese. Our oldest son is not a sweet eater, but I can sure tempt him if it has cream cheese in it!

The Best Ever Cream Cheese Cookies

Butterscotch Haystacks

Truffled Bird Nest Cookies

I can't wait to make these since I have an overload of homemade Raspberry jam that I canned earlier this year.

Raspberry Almond Shortbread Cookies

These will be a lot of fun to make with the children and grandchildren this year!

Melted Snowman Cookies

Here are some other fun goodies to make with the little ones since they are very easy and quick to do, plus they are delicious!! The Ritz can be filled with peanut butter or other yummy things and have fun decorating the tops with anything you can imagine!

Candy Coated Ritz n Peanut Butter Crackers

White Chocolate Covered Oreos

Here is another cute one to do with the little ones that I just found....they look like fun!

Nutter Butter Santas

Merry baking everyone! I'm off to the store for ingredients! Our grandsons are staying over tonight and I can't wait to create this memory with them!

You can find me linked up at: Homestead Revival, Nourishing Treasures, Growing Home, Far Above Rubies, Raising Arrows, Skip to my Lou, Penniless Parenting, Titus 2sdays, Raising Homemakers, Frugally Sustainable, Women Living Well, Raising Mighty Arrows, Deep Roots at Home, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Farm Friend Friday, Life as Mom, Farmgirl Friday, We Are THAT Family, The Shabby Nest

Sewing Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:53:00 +0000

The idea of sewing brings to mind images of such beautiful, dainty and resourceful women sitting in their parlors wisely using quiet hours of the day to clothe their families. My reality of sewing is something more like a tornado has swept through my sewing room with patterns and fabric stretched all over the table, while the rest of the area is dotted with measuring tape, spools and bobbins of thread, and any other immediate sewing tool I might need.

Our sewing season has not yet begun yet though. We try to wait until after Christmas unless we are crafting a gift or two. I do not like Christmas to play second fiddle to anything else and since Christmas can turn into such a stressful time, I try to keep our home as quiet and focused on Christ's birth as possible.......so the sewing waits.

However, in the wee hours of the morning I get antsy for ideas, patterns, tutorials and all that fun stuff. It's a bit (or exactly) like January when the seed catalogs come and seed lists are made and garden diagrams are drawn.

This year I have found some great ideas on Pinterest that I'm excited about, especially the easy tutorials!

You can click on each picture and then click on the blog it may refer to for directions. Some of the photos are simply idea pictures.

This first one will lead you to a bunch of cute ideas!

These cute Pin Cushions would make cute gifts to a sewing beginner or anyone!

Here's a good tutorial that teaches you how to make your own patterns...

This Autumn Calico Patchwork skirt is actually for sale on Etsy.com. Even though it is more time consuming, I love the idea and you can really have fun with making one for each season. The pattern idea is an easy one too, it can be made for any length, any fabric, any size. I know my taste isn't exactly that fashionable, but this is the kind of skirt that can be made to anyone's taste depending on the fabric.

Here's a great way to get some use out of those old sweaters!

Or....what if you like one of the skirts you have and want another one? This one teaches you how to use your favorite skirt as a pattern!

Do you have a favorite shirt that is just a bit too tight? Don't throw it out.....give it a little ease!

Here is a bit more of my taste, but done the easy way...a peasant shirt made from a man's shirt! Adjust the collar elastic more or less depending on how you like your neckline.

One of my favorite skirts is a gored skirt. Here is a great lesson on how to make one!

I hope these simple ideas have inspired you! I know I'm set with ideas for quite some time! Let me know what your sewing plans are, I love to know what everyone else is making!

Beware: Scripture Being Violated

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:17:00 +0000

This month our daughter turned 12 and she received a beautiful new Bible from her grandparents with her name inscribed in gold with a beautiful cross on the front of it. Her grandparents lovingly went to our local Christian bookstore to pick out a special Bible for her that she would love and that would guide her through this period in her life.

For her new age of 12, she is very mature for her age with a reading capacity of a college student. Her grandparents looked over several Bibles, consulted the store staff, and settled on a Bible from Zondervan called True Images.

It is a beautiful teen Study Bible with many inserts in it from teenage girls that are placed in certain areas of the scripture to help others understand how to use these scriptures in their lives. Good idea, right? My parents thought so and looked at several of them thinking that it was a good thing.

The Bible was then given to our daughter who immediately loved it and began to go through all of her new gift. On the way home from her grandparents, she began reading some of the inserts to me. Some of them seemed very beneficial, others dealt with topics that sadly enough, public school children deal with daily. That raised an eyebrow with me for our home though. Homeschool protects young tweens and teens from ideas or pressures of drinking, drugs and losing their virginity. All of which are constant topics on the inserts. We had to discuss several things before we even got home. Some of which I thought were good discussion topics. Others, simply taught her how grateful our family is for the ability to homeschool, which is also an important thing to learn.

The next day, our daughter brings me her new Bible. She was very shocked and wouldn't even read to me what she was looking at, she simply handed me her new Bible. Right after Psalm 135 there was an insert about the eating disorder Bulimia. The topic wasn't the problem, the swear word printed in it was. It took me a minute to get my mind around the fact that a "Christian" publisher had printed a swear word in a Bible. After discussing it, we put the Bible away until my husband came home.

Once my husband and I were able to discuss it, I contacted our local Christian bookstore where it had been purchased. The clerk that answered the phone listened and then put me on hold. I had been careful to speak softly and gently while expressing our disappointment. When she came back on the line, she asked for the page number and verified the information. She then asked if it was the topic we had an issue with and I emphasized what we didn't like. I also asked if the bookstore stood behind that type of language published in Scripture. Her attitude at that point became impatient and she put me on hold for the manager.

Now, when I say there was a swear word, I am not speaking of language used in Scripture that is misused out on the street. I am speaking of a word that is not in Scripture, but is used out on the street and sadly enough, I have even heard it used in some churches by some staff at times. I realize that many, especially young people, do not consider it to really be a swear word anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that it is and it should not be printed within the covers of Scripture.

Moving on....the manager was very friendly, and understood our concern, although she stated she also understood what the publisher was trying to do by "reaching" teens. My opinion is that if we have to become heathen to reach heathens, then we will face the same fate because Scripture clearly states that were are to be set apart.

Anyway.....the next day we went to the Christian bookstore to exchange our daughters new Bible even though her grandparents had written a dedication in it to her and she had written in it also. The store said that they would send it back to the publisher explaining the disapproval.

We then had the task of finding her another Bible. Most of them were published by Zondervan, the same publisher, and that was what we had a problem with. I have since heard from a credible source, but not verified myself, that while Zondervan is a "Christian" publisher, it is owned by an Australian atheist. This credible source is someone who's husband works with the Fire Bible and is currently editing it, so they are pretty much in the know about these issues, plus they are dear friends of ours and that is why I trust this source.

After looking through many Bibles, we settled on a Bible for younger girls. It still had some inserts in it, but none that were written by teenagers and none that dealt with drinking, drugs and losing their virginity. It was for ages 8 + and had a beautiful purple cover with flowers and the Scriptures were in purple letters.

I still have a problem with it though because it is from the same publisher. Zondervan is a big publisher and at that particular bookstore, there wasn't really any other Bible publishers to choose from. This will be the last book we ever get from Zondervan though. As long as they are printing filthy language in the Word of God, they will not be receiving any profits from us.

I broke the news to my dear parents last night about the exchange and the reason behind it. They were shocked to hear the news and greatly disappointed that we are no longer able to trust a long known "Christian" publisher or local bookstore to produce and carry 100% honorable items.

I am posting about this issue to warn you about it. The bookstore was not aware of this prior to us bringing their attention to it. The sad thing is, it is still on their shelves. Your bookstore may see things differently and remove them so your girls aren't exposed to the Scriptures being defiled. The picture above is of the Bible we returned, with a link to a description of it so you can be sure your daughter does not have this same Bible.

My main question to the bookstore staff was that if we don't allow this language in our home, why would we give our daughter a Bible with it printed in it? We also emphasized our disappointment that they would sell such an item and that they should research what they place in people's hands, especially the hands of children. Scripture is clear about leading children astray and the consequences of that.