Wanna Be a Steader!

You want WHAT?

Don't we all associate the holidays with certain foods? I think most of us do. For our family it just won't be the same without tamales on Christmas and menudo on New Years Day.  Now down on the Mexican border where we used to live, getting the ingredients to cook these were no problem. But this is our first Christmas in Ohio, and Ohio is another story.

I called all the grocery stores within a 40 mile radius. Their answers to my inquiries were somewhere between confusion to disgust....

"tripe? What is tripe?' "Oh you have GOT to be kidding"... well, not really.

But the harder I looked the more determined I became, and after a 3 hour round trip drive the girls and I came home with 6 pounds of honeycomb tripe and a LOT of masa (among other things). The Ochoa Farm in AZ is shipping us our favorite chile powder and so soon we will be able to have the tastes and smells in our Amish farm house that the holidays should have.

As a fantastic bonus we found a huge thrift store on our adventure and came home with all kinds of fun things, and I got a big winter coat from Russia.

THE END

Thursday on the Homestead

 

We still do not have our tree up. We always get live trees and if we get them too early they dry out to fast so we will wait until maybe next Saturday to get it. Because the cold hit us I have yet to get my Christmas decorations out either. I hope to get to that either today or tomorrow. We need this house looking a lot more festive!  About the only thing we are doing regularly is playing Christmas music! I must say my favorite CD for this Christmas is Casting Crowns new Christmas CD. I keep switching between that and a couple of Kenny G holiday CD’s and Kenny Chesney’s Christmas CD (with my all time favorite song.. All I Want For Christmas is a Real Good Tan..  LOL) and others.. I am amazed at how many Christmas CD’s I have collected over the years. Hopefully by the weekend our home will not only sound like the Christmas season but look like it too!    

The countdown continues for my son.. less than 2 weeks now until he leaves Iraq. These last few weeks have really been tough for him.. you would think things would lighten up as they prepare to leave.. but he says, nope.. they are working the guys 16 hours a day except on Sunday, they only work 12..  I know he is exhausted both mentally and physically. I am so looking forward to him coming home and getting some relax time with us… and he is too! 

The 12 Day Of Christmas Song Fun

How many birds are there in the 12 days of Christmas song? (listing them only once)

Extra credit if you can tell me the total bird count for the whole song...

My apologies...

My apologies to you my friends for my strange disposition lately... I am feeling much better now and I have a few things settled in my heart and I am so happy about that.
Today looks to be a fantastic day, I am finally feeling better, yeah! Shannon is home today, it is raining, it is Thursday... woo hoo! :) Great day ahead! :)
Tomorrow I plan on showing how to make the paper stars. That will be fun!  Have a great day my friends and I look forward to our meeting again soon. :)
My Cup Runneth Over...

Full Blown Apology is In Order

Coyotes, Deer and A Play

Wow! It's a COLD morning here in NC. The frost on the ground looks like snow. I sure wish it was snow. I envy all of your blogs that post all those pretty snow pictures. We just don't get snow around my neck of the woods very often. In fact, the last good snow we got was in 89'.

The snow we got in 89' was the most snow I have ever seen around here. We were living at the beach at the time and received 12 inches of snow. It was enough to build a snowman (about 2ft. high) on the beach. It was such a sight to see. The snow even stayed around for more than a day. If I recall right, it was on the ground for at least 2-3 days. That's very unusual for our neck of the woods.

Anyway, one of our chickens has disappeared. We fear she was eaten by a predator. There has been no sign of her for almost a week now. She was an old bird and had to be kept away from the others (the heathens that is.) They would peck her constantly and pluck every feather she had right out of her. She ended up being a "loner" so to speak just to keep her alive.

Another interesting thing happened a few weeks ago that I couldn't believe. We were on our way to evening service at church. While looking on the side of the road, I noticed what looked to be a coyote. Hubby saw it too. I didn't even know we had coyotes in our area. Then I get an e-mail from a church friend today. He was out deer hunting and ended up shooting 2 coyotes. Like I stated before, I had no idea our area had coyotes.

There have also been a lot of deer hanging around the area lately. ago. I heard the dogs going crazy one night recently and got up to see what the fuss was about. Dd (15) said she heard someone running around the house. The "someone" turned out to be a lot of deer. There were tracks all over the yard the next day. If Hubby  were a hunter, he would not have had far to go to get some venison.

Well, today's blog was just a hodge podge of daily happenings around the homestead lately. We are curently getting ready to go on a field trip with some other homeschoolers. We are going to see a play.

Need to get going! Have a bessed day in The Lord!

Amanda <><
II Corinthians 5:7

Deliverance or determination?

" We often pray to be delivered from afflictions and even trust God that we will be.  But we do not pray for Him to make us what we should be while in the midst of the afflictions. Nor do we pray that we would be able to live within them, for however long they may last, in the complete awareness that we are held and sheltered by the Lord and can therefore continue within them without suffering any harm.

The Savior endured an especially difficult test in the wilderness while in the presense of Satan for forty days and nights. His human nature weakened by the need for food and rest. The three Hebrew young men were kept for a time in the flames of  "the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual" ( Dan 3:19).  In spite of being forced to endure the tyrant's last method of torture, they remained calm and composed as they waited for their time of deliverance to come. And after surviving an entire night sitting among the lions, "when Daniel was lifted from the dent, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God."  ( Daniel 6:23).

They were able to endure the presense of their enemies because they dwelt in the presense of their God. "

~ L.B.Cowman ~

my IRL BFF is here at HSB!!!!!

it finally happened.........

Daily Devotion 337

December 3

Attentiveness

That ye be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets.

2 Peter 3:2

When Henry Nelson of Wilmington, Delaware, arrived home one evening, he discovered that his apartment complex was being fumigated with hydrogen-cyanide. He  removed the sign, tore down the barricade, and went in. Neighbors tried to warn him and called the authorities. But by the time help arrived, it was too late. Henry Nelson was dead.

Mount St. Helens in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state was dormant for several hundred years. However, a few years ago, authorities discovered that there was activity and reason to believe there might be a serious eruption. People were evacuated from the area. But Harry Truman, who had grown up on those beautiful slopes, refused to leave. When the eruption was over, Harry and his home were buried under tons of volcanic ash.

Both men disregarded both written and verbal warnings, and it cost them their lives. If they had learned to be attentive, they would not have died.

When we ignore the instructions of the written Word, we show the highest disregard for God. “My son, hear the instructions of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck” (Proverbs 1:8, 9).

Melvin L. Yoder, Gambier, OH

Give ear, and live!

Bible Reading: 2 Peter 3:1–14

One Year Bible Reading Plan:

1 John 1

Ezekiel 47, 48

Used by Permission of Vision Publishers

PO Box 190, Harrisonburg, VA  22803

Phone:  877-488-0901

E-Mail:  [cs@vision-publishers.com]