Comforting Words

What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow.
~Martin Luther

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Isaiah 40:29

Do the Next Thing
At an old English parsonage down by the sea,
There came in the twilight a message to me.
Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven
That, as it seems to me, teaching from heaven.
And all through the hours the quiet words ring,
Like a low inspiration, do the next thing.

Many a questioning, many a fear,
Many a doubt hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment, let down from heaven,
Time, opportunity, and guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrows, child of the King,
Trust them with Jesus, do the next thing.

Do it immediately, do it with prayer;
Do it reliantly, casting all care.
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand,
Who placed it before thee with earnest command,
Stayed on Omnipotence, safe 'neath His wing,
Leave all results, do the next thing.

Looking to Jesus, ever serener,
Working or suffering be thy demeanor;
In His dear presence, the rest of His calm,
The light of His countenance, be thy psalm,
Strong in His faithfulness, praise and sing.
Then, as He beckons, do the next thing.
~Author Unknown

I Mustn't Quit!

While flipping through one of my daughter's story books, Treasury of Christian Classics for Children, I ran across this poem, one that I really needed to read today!

You Mustn't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest! if you must--but never quit.

Life is strange, with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won if he'd stuck it out,
Stick to your task, though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with one more blow.

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt--
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that YOU MUSTN'T QUIT.

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Anonymous, (commenter #21) who has won the drawing for the book The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady. I will e-mail you and you can then send me the information I will need to get this sent out to you.

This giveaway has been a lot of fun! Last I looked there were 600 and some different contests going on! Lots of prized being given away this weekend!

Pancake Mix

At Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Tammy tells about assebling her mom's corn bread recipe into mixes to keep on hand for busy times. I've done this with my pancake recipe (also handed down to me from my mother). This is our favorite basic buttermilk pancake. It makes enough to feed our family of 6, but we have young children and I can tell it won't be long before I'll need to double this recipe.

Mix the dry ingredients together:
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt

(If you are wanting to make up dry mixes to have on hand just put the above ingredients in small bags and seal.)

Mix and add to the above:
2 eggs
2 c. buttermilk (I add 1 Tbsp. of vinegar to milk)
1/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. oil (I like canola)

Beat with electric mixer until well mixed. Fry as you would any other pancake. This recipe can also be used for waffles.

We eat these with peanut butter and maple syrup. Anyone else enjoy peanut butter on their pancakes?

Bloggy Giveaway

There are hundreds of great giveaways going on around the blog world this week! Just click the button to the left to see all of the great prizes being offered!

I thought why not? I might as well join in the fun! I'm going to give away a fabulous book! The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden. This is the First Owl Book Edition from 1982 and is in gentle used condition.

To enter just leave a comment (make sure there is a way for me to reach you in case you are the winner!). We will randomly pick a winner on Friday afternoon.

This drawing is open to anyone in the US or Canada!
Thanks for joining in the fun!

Trying Again

I tried once already to win a copy of Passionate Housewives Desperate for God.
I'm giving it another try by giving out the link once again. And you can enter to win, also! Just go to Ladies Against Feminism for the details.

A Book Recommendation

The illustrations in this book are just lovely! A great book to use in nature or art study. Amazon has the book A Seed is Sleepy or you could check your library like we did. Thanks to Abiding for the tip. I always pay attention when she offers children's book suggestions!

Free Lightbulb

I'm slowly switching to energy saving bulbs. Here's a chance to try one at no cost to you!
Lightning Direct is offering to send you a free bulb.

Thanks to Want Not for all the great deals she lets us know about!

Be Content in the Kitchen

Be Content with what you have !~~~That's my Kitchen Tip for Tuesday!

I've mentioned Tammy's Recipes before. Her site is filled with many down home, no nonsense recipes. On Tuesday, she offers kitchen tips and her readers can do the same.

Now, back to being content in the kitchen.....
This morning I was wanting to make Green Lemonade, a raw juice drink I've enjoyed several times. But I didn't have all of the exact ingredients and not enough of some others. Instead of wishing that I had what I needed, I decided to use what I had. I'm glad I did!

Here's what I used:
1 lime
1/2 heart of romaine
1 Gala apple
a few leaves of Swiss Chard (from the garden)

It turned out just fine and I'll just say that it tasted very NUTRIENT DENSE! :)

Simple Bean Dip

Layer the following in a casserole dish.
refried beans
guacamole with the juice of one lime added
cheese of choice
sour cream
Over the top of this sprinkle:
chopped tomatoes
sliced green onions
black olives
Add a dusting of cheese over the top of all the above.

Serve with tortilla chips as a side dish or as a light meal.

We recently enjoyed this as a picnic lunch along with apple wedges.

Simple Yeast Rolls

About six years ago, our 4-H group made these simple yeast rolls as a project for the children. They are that easy! My kids love them, especially when they are smothered with butter and honey!

You will need:
5 cups flour
4 1/2 tsp. yeast
2 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1 stick butter (I have substituted oil when in a pinch)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl. (I use the crock to my crock pot.) Mix butter, milk, oil, and water in small bowl and heat to 115*-120*. Add butter mixture to dry ingredients, stir and keep adding flour until it pulls away from edges of bowl easily. Cover with towel and let sit at least one hour but not over 5 hours. Dump out on floured surface and roll to desired thickness. Cut with 2 inch cutter (or glass). Put on non-stick baking sheet or glass pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 350*. This recipe will yield 40 smalls rolls.

These look much more like biscuits than rolls. But they are easy and taste yummy. It's very nice to be able to leave the dough covered in the crock, and then be able to bake them right before you are ready to serve them. I especially enjoy doing this on a Sunday morning. Sometimes I even mix my ingredients Saturday evening (wet and dry separately) and then combine before church. As soon as I get home from church, I can roll them out and while they are baking finish up the rest or our lunch.

Passionate Housewives Desperate for God

I have no idea if I agree with this book or would even enjoy reading it. But I'm always willing to give a book a try! :) Anyhow, here's a chance to get a free copy. Why not enter and give it a try?! Biblical Womanhood is giving away 10 copies as soon as they are released.

Free Stories

YouNeedaStory is a project put on by Robert Green. Every once in awhile I will play some of these while my children are playing with Legos, K-nex, drawing, etc.

You can sign up to receive these free stories weekly. I save them on my computer for a "rainy day".

Music Lesson Application to My Life

My son is working on learning to play the song Fur Elise by Beethoven. At lessons this week his piano teacher said something that caught my attention. They were working on part two to the song which is made up of quite a few sixteenth notes in the base cleft. She told Nathan that she wanted him to practice this until he had it down so well that he didn't need to even think about it. She said it really wasn't the part that we would be wanting to notice and for us to not notice it he needed to be able to play it very well.....so well, that no one will notice it. Make sense? Then she played it for Nathan and he frowned and said, "I don't really remember that part of the song at all." She smiled and played it hands together and then he realized what she was talking about.

I got to thinking about this later in the week. I want to be like that base line in the song. It's needed to make everything beautiful! Fur Elise wouldn't be the same at all without it! The fullness, depth, and variety just wouldn't be there. It would be an inferior work...not what the "Master" was wanting at all. I want to be able to live life in such a way that I'm not noticed. If I'm being noticed it's probably because I'm not doing something as well as I should be. I haven't "practiced" enough.

We all have our part in life....I'm still working on getting my notes down!

Milly and Tilly

If your library has this book, make sure you check it out! ~Milly and Tilly, The Story of a Town Mouse and a Country Mouse by Kate Summers and illustrated by Maggie Kneen

One of the benefits of having children is it gives you a very valid excuse to read lots of pictures books! I think I enjoy them more everyday! This one is a real treat. We've always enjoyed this story but this particular book has splendid illustrations. It speaks to me as a homemaker. The order and simplicity of the country mouse's day is refreshing! It inspires me to keep plugging away toward my dream of a "simple life".

So Big

First Day of Karate

Kiersten has waited for this day for a long time! Private karate lessons began this week! Watch out everyone! :)

A Good Door

Don't you just love this door. I pronounce it, "Good" ~ not that my opinion matters a whole lot but I took a picture for two reasons. 1. I just like it, plain and simple. 2. If we ever build a house, I wanted Tim to have a picture of one of my favorite doors. You never know!

This is the front door to the house that Rose Wilder built for her parents, Laura and Almanzo. The house is quite charming. And in 1928, she built it for $11,000, a hefty little sum in that day and in that part of Missouri!

I like this house but there is something extra special about the house that Laura and Almanzo built with their own hands. It only took them 17 years. See....maybe in 17 years we'll have our house, too! :)

Bread

We love homemade bread of any kind! My kid's love to bake and cook. This week the boys both made their own loaf of bread. Nathan's is 100% whole wheat and Micah's is 1/3 whole wheat with the other flour being unbleached white flour.

Can't the simple things of life be some of the best?! Actually, I think it usually works out that way!

Don't you just love this! I do!!!

Councilman pitches plan for goats to be pets in Seattle {King5}

SEATTLE - City Councilman Richard Conlin wants to give Seattleites the right to keep miniature goats as pets -- a proposal he bills as one small step for sustainability.

Conlin extols the virtues of pygmy goats, which can act as Earth-friendly lawnmowers and weed eaters, provide milk and cheese, and naturally fertilize yards.

read more

First making urban chickens lawful, now goats? That's a city on the right path. YEAH!

(Thanks to Path to Freedom for all of their wonderful news tidbits!)