The Lord Knew...

For years now I've longed for the day I could surprise my husband and daughter with admission to the Christian Heritage Father and Daughter retreats. I've thought about how I could raise the money to send the two of them off to this event, which is usually out of state...but alas the events came and went with me no closer to what I thought would be ideal for them!

The Lord always knows what we need and this is what he did for me...he took our precarious situation and turned it into exactly what I have always wanted...a father and daughter retreat!

You see they are at a friends place working, gardening, plowing and building, side by side and they are bonding in ways I can't even imagine. They both sound happy and joyful and are having the time of their life...together at their own private father/daughter retreat.

Now this isn't what "I" had in mind but it is exactly what was "needed"...what can I learn from this - that I need to continue to present my plans/ideas/thoughts to the Lord and see how he will work them out - realizing it may not be what I had envisioned but it is exactly what I need!

So here is my daughter...wearing camouflage(which I don't really like and wish it was pink...but she needed it to keep from burning and so once again it wasn't what I had in mind but was exactly what was needed) and dirty(see the smudge on her button nose) from all the gardening in the hot sun...and happy, happy, happily learning what it means to be a help "meet" for her daddy so that someday she will be a blessed help "meet" for her beloved husband!

Your Thoughts Please

Hello All! I have a wild idea running around...but would like some input from all of you!

Here is my idea: For the benefit of "copy work" and spelling and vocabulary and ONLY as a supplement and not the replacement of actually spelling and vocabulary work I was going to require the children to copy one-two words from the dictionary every day of school.

Now we are about to jump into our summer schedule so this would be a nice "keeping fresh" exercise.

I do want to know what your opinion is. I will gather the opinions and then ponder and pray about this as I truly want the best for my children.

Hugs to all,
Keeper

Another Abe wanna-be? Regimentals?

Just look at that! I do not like this newest facial hair of my husband...he keeps teasing me about now being able to get his regimentals - very funny! This will only be funny to those of you who have watched the AE Pride and Prejudice..not the newest hollyweird re-make!

P.S. After much pleading it's now back to short shaven!

A thought that I've been dwelling on this week...I read a very interesting scripture that I didn't know as in the Bible...Hebrews 13:4...Marriage is honorable among all... This has been on my mind heavily this week. I've also decided to re-read a powerful book "Created to Be His Help Meet" by the Pearls at NGJ ministries.

Honor...Love...Cherish...these are all words I feel I need to re-visit and do better towards my husband.

How is your marriage? Ours is beautiful, but only because we both are seeking to do the Lord's will.

That's all for now...

Hugs

Curds and Whey...

This will give you a great mental picture of "Little Miss Muffet Sat on Her Tuffet Eating Her Curds and Whey..."

What a learning experience we have been on. This will be cottage cheese - which is superior to anything you can buy at the store and very easy (but time consuming) to make!

In the prairie days they would just leave raw milk in a warm place for several days. As you can see we wrapped our pot...nice pink towel huh! Because of the bacteria present in the unpasteurized milk...remember not all bacteria are bad and if there is any harmful bacteria in the raw milk there is also bacteria that counters it so it is safer than anything you can get at the store...(The Untold Milk Story is an informative book and well worth the read.)

The bacteria will turn into soft, white curd. Then I sliced it in 1/4 inch strips to make squares and set on stove and slowly rose the temp stirring gently till it reached 100. Now I left the curds for several hours at 100 and then let them settle for 5 minutes. The next thing I did was to ladle them into a cheesecloth lined colander and drained them for about 45 min. Then I added salt and...wonderful, flavorful cottage cheese!

You can use store bought milk - but why? The process is a lot more involved and uses some chemicals and a culture...If you want to try it you could order the book Home Cheese Making.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey...

So this is a glimpse of what a land flowing with milk and honey might be.

Because it is spring we are receiving, every day, at least 4-6 gallons of milk. We are making lots of keifer, yogurts, cheese, butter as when spring grass is gone milk production will go down as well.

We also harvested our honey this past week and got 7 gallons from three hives! It tastes wonderful - I've never had anything quite like fresh honey.

Thanks for stopping by - until next post God Bless.

A Big Day...Daddy-O's Birthday!

This great guy turned 43 today...We had ham from our recent slaughter of our pig and milk and our first farmhouse cheddar from our milk - it was interesting!

We didn't have cake as he requested sugar cookies.