'Tis The Season

The end of fall/early winter means fresh venison, lots of carrot and potato dishes, pumpkin spice lattes, goulash, cozy blankets and a good book and putting your feet up after a long summer. Our summer harvest has paid off again in more ways than one. This year, for Thanksgiving I am thankful for many things, one of which being my friends and family who have taught me many 'tricks of the trade' in homemaking, gardening, canning/preserving, and cooking. This fall I have found myself totally enjoying these things and the satisfaction that comes from them. I love that my husband enjoys the land as much (if not more!) than I do. It's so rewarding to do these things together as a team and then to sit down to a meal that is almost completely home grown/harvested. It makes me want to do crazy things like make my own butter next so it will be completely home grown! :) I don't know that that will ever happen but it would be cool! So thank you to those who have shared their tips/recipes/ideas with me because they are like little gems that will last a lifetime. And for getting me hooked on Pinterest! :) And if you're not already doing some of these things but maybe you'd like to, don't be afraid to just start somewhere. Bake a pie with store bought filling & crust, create a mini garden, try a new twist on an old favorite, learn how to fish (even ice fishing maybe!?)...that's all I did and every day I learn new things!

On another note....I'm afraid to tell you that I've been in somewhat of a stall as far as my book list goes. I don't know if I've been distracted or what but I haven't picked up a new book in WAY too long. So my goal is to pick up another book during Thanksgiving week and I shall report on how that goes in another post! :)

Until then...

God Bless, Sleep well
-CW

Change

Fall has come how refreshing it is. The leaves changing colors and the breeze having that slight hint of winter in it. Life seems to change like that too. Always moving on to something new something different taking the same shape as it always has and yet having a difference about it. We are constantly changing and having to give up something in order to have the new come. Sometimes the giving up of the old is hard but the new is about to step in and we never know what it might bring. Either joy or pain. Just like the seasons. Winter can bring blistering cold and winds that never seem to give relief and then just as we are ready to say goodbye to winter we have summer's heat blasting us day after day so much so that we are drowsy from humidity and drenched with sweat. But in winter we have the heat of a fire or the warmth of a cup of coffee with friends, a blanket and a book on a snowed in day, and slippers....ahh slippers. Then in summer we have the warm wind that refreshes us on the hottest of days, the green and the vibrant colors of the flowers to remind us what color is truly meant to look like, and the taste of fresh picked cherry tomatoes right off the vine still warm from the sun. Life is full of uncertainty but we can be certain that God knows what he's doing and that we can be "joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12 His plans are good if we will only stop to look for them, be thankful in all things, and trust that even pain is repurposed by God to produce good.  

Random sketches

Getting back at the sewing thing is not as easy as I might have thought. During summer, sewing seems to be the last thing you think about doing simply because it's warm out and who want to spend an afternoon cooped up in a tiny room sewing? Well, it's still summer but my quilt project is calling my name. So I must try. It's really a pretty quilt with a flying geese pattern made out of mismatched pieces of fabric. I started the project back when my sister first announced she was pregnant for their 2nd baby, thinking, 'if it's a girl, this will be a cute little gift.' Well, my niece has been here for a month already and her quilt isn't ready....what a bad aunt I am. I got distracted and lazy and the project got pushed to the side. Since I bought my sewing machine back in January I am ashamed to say I have not used it very much. But I really do want to learn this skill. So if I want to learn how to sew well, I'm going to have to actually use my machine and not be afraid to make mistakes. After all, quilts with mistakes in them add character. Even the Amish quilters always put at least 1 mistake in their quilts. :)

On another note, our gardening has already paid off this year. So far we've harvested 18 pints of pickled banana peppers, 3 pints of pickled jalapeno peppers (For JW, I'm too much of a sissy for that!) lots of lettuce, sweet peas and green beans, and soon we'll have an abundant harvest of tomatoes to can. Yeah! With some added plants to my landscaping outside and finally planting grass seed where we took some trees out 3 years ago our small yard is looking cozy and homey. I so appreciate my husband's diligence in the yard work, and gardening is becoming something that I thoroughly enjoy helping him with every summer!

Here's what we're reading now:

• JW just finished "The Land Between" by Jeff Manion (Pastor of Ada Bible Church) and is going to start the book "Radical" by David Platt
• I'm reading "Adopted For Life" by Russell Moore. This book discusses the biblical view of adoption not only in the traditional sense of the phrase of adopting children who all deserve loving homes but it also discusses adoption from the view point of our adoption as sons and daughters of God and Christ's adoption by Joseph and how we as the church should respond to adoption and cultivate a culture of adoption not out of 'charity' but out of a response to see where our Father God is working and join him in that work. I'm not finished yet, actually I'm only on chapter 4 but it's transformational in the way we view adoption and our own adoption into the family of God. I will give a complete review once I'm done.
• On my list to read is "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. My stance on books that are made into movies is to see the movie first because if I read the book first then I will be so critical of the movie and what they get 'wrong' that I won't be able to enjoy the movie. So I always see the movie first and then read the book so I will like both. (I usually still like the book better but I can at least enjoy the movie without tearing it apart while I watch it.) :)

That's all for now, on to my sewing....

God bless, sleep well,

-CW