The Land is Calling

Evolution of Dance

Oh my! This guy is GOOD!!!

Here is  his website. What a fun video to watch!!

December

  Someone asked me if everyone here has a perfect family.  I want to say that, no, I don't think so, but we all try to make the best of it.  In my own family, Thanksgiving brings trials of how to get a blended family to each of the family's gatherings, distance, and budget concerns for travelling. My mom died 4 years ago and while I love my father's new wife, home isn't home anymore...it looks different and is different, as it should be for the new bride of 75!

   We have to choose as adults to be who it is we're looking for in our hearts.  I want my children to know that it was more important to me for them to have all of us, than to make a big deal of not having my children home on this or that specific day. To willingly welcome their natural father in our lives and at our table at times, even if he's hostile alot of the time.  This year I was reminded of why I do that as he introduced us to his new friend, and my children were not concerned how I would feel or how I would react to them liking her. I want them to, she is in their dad's life.

     My Thanksgiving was difficult to be honest, we did alot of traveling and managed to all regather during the lunch hour at my father's who is 75 in Arkansas.  The table was beautiful and Miss Virginia did try so hard to do nice things for us I appreciate her efforts. However, my father is a hard man, a retired doctor, and I am the disappointment of his children.....and he doesn't hold back on voicing that.  It is his way, and I love him anyway.  My world is not financially successful so I will never measure on his scale. One of my SIL is often offended at me, usually for things I am unaware of until someone else tells me...but she too has her own struggles and God didn't call me to make her life hard, but to love her. We all go through many things no one else ever knows of.....so to treat others kindly is my preferred path.

    It is always the easy route to take offense and to blame others for our unhappiness.  However, God asks us to love the unlovely, forgive others as we hope to be forgiven....and my faults are many I am sure of that...so its only my job to love those who make the path more difficult, not judge nor respond in kind to their brissley ways. I try very hard to focus on the things I have to be thankful for and not the unpleasant things in life.

   We're not all from cookie cutter perfect families here at homesteadblogger, but I believe we're in a place where many do truly try to operate in love for others and their families....as God calls us to do.

Be blessed

Sweetie

A busy week ahead....

The week ahead is filled with activities....but fun activities!!!

We are home today...doing our school work and enjoying the bit of snow that has fallen. Tomorrow is my town day...I'm meeting two different ladies to sell them some of our "stuff". I will be so happy to have this stuff sold!!! Then it's off to Wal Mart to return something I bought on Friday, and do a bit of Christmas shopping. Then it's time for my Mom's night out!! It's our Christmas party...we'll celebrate with a good meal, great friends and a round of Dirty Santa!

Wednesday, we're "watching" a friend's BIL. He's mentally at the age of about 5, but is over 50 years old. They are going to the public school to teach an abstinence program (so proud of them!!). When they come to pick him up, we're headed for our milk run. I'm really looking forward to getting milk this week. The gal and her husband we buy milk from moved into a new rental home, and out of her parents' home this past weekend. We have a gift for her and can't wait to give it to her!

Thursday...at this moment, looks like we'll be home as usual that day. :)

Friday is our homeschool group's Christmas craft party. I actually have chosen my craft already! Yeah, me!

Saturday, we're headed to town to see Handel's Messiah at a local church. We've never seen this and are really looking forward to it!

Sunday, is a Christmas parade in town. We watched our little town's parade yesterday....can you tell we LOVE parades?!

Vision Forum sale!!!

Go check out the deals at Vision Forum's sale!!!

I could sure spend some major money there!!

'Under God' pastor dead at 97

ALEXANDRIA, Pa. - The Rev. George M. Docherty, credited with helping to push Congress to insert the phrase "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance, has died at 97.

Docherty died on Thanksgiving at his home in central Pennsylvania, according to his wife, Sue Docherty.

She said her husband of 36 years had been in failing health for about three years.

"George said he was going to live to be a hundred and he was determined," she said in a telephone interview Saturday. "It's amazing that he was with us this long."

Docherty, then pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, just blocks from the White House, gave a sermon in 1952 saying the pledge should acknowledge God.

He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was unfamiliar with the pledge until he heard it recited by his 7-year-old son, Garth.

"I didn't know that the Pledge of Allegiance was, and he recited it, 'one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,'" he recalled in an interview with The Associated Press in 2004. "I came from Scotland, where we said 'God save our gracious queen,' 'God save our gracious king.' Here was the Pledge of Allegiance, and God wasn't in it at all."

There was little effect from that initial sermon, but he delivered it again on Feb. 7, 1954, after learning that President Dwight Eisenhower would be at the church.

The next day, Rep. Charles G. Oakman, R-Mich., introduced a bill to add the phrase "under God" to the pledge, and a companion bill was introduced in the Senate. Eisenhower signed the law on Flag Day that year.

Todays Quote......Thomas Watson

What’s Been Coking in my Kitchen?

 

 

While I was cooking up my soups Leanne and Sierra made a triple batch of apple cinnamon muffins. I bought a 20lb box of organic Fuji apples on my last Azure order and have been working to use them up. We have eaten a lot of apples, made 3 apple pies and now 3 dozen muffins. The box is almost gone now..  

 

I don’t have a recipe for her coffee creations printed down yet.. maybe someday! 

That is all the cooking for today!!  Hope you all have had a pleasant and blessed Sunday on your homesteads!

It's Snowing!

I woke to snow falling from the sky this morning--not something we see very often in my neck of the woods--I am not a snow person and would like to live further south where there is no snow--But since I don't I will have to deal with what we get here--The snow is pretty, but I do not like the cold temps--for those with muscle/Joint issues its really hard on them and I fall into that category--if it wasn't for illness I might enjoy it more--Not sure how much accumulation if any we will get--most likely none since the ground temps are so warm and Thursday it was almost 70 degrees here--LOL--now snow--and highs this week reaching almost 60--we have such roller coaster weather--I did snap a few pictures of the snow will post them later--of course to those of you up north they will seem trivial--LOL--But for us southern folks any snow is something to photograph!!

~Kris

Gettin' Closer

Well, its official--we will be moved from here by April 1st! I am so excited even though there is soooooo much to do to prepare for the move to our 18 acre farm!! Hubby and I are working on a plan for a home, since the land does not have one on it--we have some things in the works--we were really hoping that this place(my dads home) would sell and I could take the money he was going to pay me commission and either buy something used or use it for a down payment on something--but it doesn't look like its gonna sell--so we feel its time to just come up with plan number 2-- We are still trying to sell the place, but we are not gonna 'bank on it' anymore--I am just so excited about the moving on all that land with all that potential--LOL--yes, it needs work, but with time we will get it done!

~Kris

Stuff to die for?

As I watched my evening news and heard of the tragic death of a wal-mart employee it made me sick! A human being trampled to death by shoppers! Is stuff really that important--that other people could kill someone for it?? I don't get it--Have we as a society have lost so much of our roots and grounding in the word that we have all but lost sight of the holiday season?? I guess so!--I totally get that Christmas is not even when Christ was born--but aside from all of that it is a day that some of us have set aside to observe Jesus' birth--again I will reiterate I am a simple person, with a simple life, on a simple little farm, with simple little critters, that simply love the Lord--STUFF is not my cup of tea--for pete's sake a man was killed for material possessions--Wonder if the plasma t.v. or the ipod was worth his life??? People actually got angry when they were told the store had to close due to an employee death!!--WOW! -- Sad thing is--the family of that man will not have him this year--but the people that killed him will have their families and their stuff!!-- I guess I am more simple minded than even I care to admit, because I truly just do not get all the hub-bub with shopping and great deals-- Its just possessions--when we leave this ol' world to make the trip to heaven it can not come with us, so what is it gonna matter?-- Many purchase expensive gifts for their children on credit cards and are still paying on it well beyond next Christmas-- We pay hard, cold cash-- We have taught our children that if you don't have cash, you don't buy it--if its that important to you--save your cash for it-- Black Friday sales are really kinda silly--they mark down 'stuff' to get shoppers in to purchase it--people buy it and in 6 months no one remembers they have it--LOL--This year someone lost their life for worldly possessions--This is not taking into account the people shot to death at Toys-R-Us--We have got to get our priorites in order--time is short--stay home--hug your children and tell them you love them--that my friends will mean more later down the road than any package under the tree!!! And the best part--It's Free and no crowds to kill ya!

~Kris