I don't  wear makeup. I stopped wearing it a few years ago. Why? I stopped wearing makeup because of my daughter. You see, I have the most beautiful 8 year old daughter in the world. She has knee-length, dark blonde hair. Petal soft, pink skin which turns a wonderful golden brown after being in the sun (thanks to her Portugese ancestry). The biggest, bluest eyes, surrounded by the darkest, thickest lashes you've ever seen. She's beautiful just as she is.

But this is America. In a few years, if we don't we do something to make it different, she will be like every other teenage girl you see. All of her beauty will be hidden under 5 pounds of  makeup. Foundation. Blush. Mascara. Powder blue eye shadow . Blush. Lipstick.  And she will spend the rest of her life feeling like she can't go out the door without all that junk hiding her true beauty.

Now I've never been a big makeup person. Fully made-up for me was mascara, lipgloss and a little powder. But I would put it on before we went anywhere. In the car on the way to church I would always put on lipgloss. My baby girl would want to be like me and she would ask for some too. So I would let her "powder her nose". It was cute.

But then I started thinking about it. I didn't want her to cover her beauty with chemical junk. So I stopped covering my beauty (I use the term loosely). And we talked about why. I explained that God had made us the way he wanted us to look. And if you think about it, changing our looks or trying to "improve" upon them, in a way, is saying we can do better than God. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying wearing makeup is a sin or that I am better than anybody by NOT wearing it. I am simply saying, I want my daughter to grow up secure in how beautiful she is, WITHOUT hiding her beauty under makeup. I want her to grow up with her big blue eyes standing out on their own right. Her petal soft skin serving as it's own foundation. Her beautiful pink lips unhidden by the "in" color of the season.

Now the day may come, when she marries, that her husband may like her to wear makeup. It's out of my hands at that point. But I can give her the confidence to not to need to hide under makeup. I can give her the confidence to put her best face forward. The face that God gave her.

Blessings.

Thank You Jesus For Everything!

By selflessness you fulfill yourself. By generously giving you gather riches.

Resentment costs you much and gives you nothing. Forgiveness costs you nothing and sets you free.

Fighting against something gives it added strength and influence. Whatever you accept, you're able to control.

When there's no one telling you what to do is when you truly learn. When your thoughts are still, you gain great insight.

By being flexible you can remain firm. By knowing your limitations you're able to transcend them.

Though some of life is bad, all of life is good. Be at peace in this moment, and you will always be.

-- Ralph Marston

Father give us ALL that peace which comes from you that is beyond our understanding. Take all the fears and doubts away for they don't accomplish any thing good. I bless and Thank You for hearing this prayer as all created in your image come to know you in a unique way.        In Jesus' Holy Name!!

I am on the road to health,healing and right standing with my Heavenly Father, rilda

Mustang Grapes are in season!  We picked for 30 minutes yesterday and had enough grapes to make 20 quart jars of grape juice (super easy recipe!).  And, I've got a huge bowl of juice ready for jelly-making tomorrow.  In fact, I could probably make 3 batches of jelly tomorrow.  This is the beginning of the mustang grape season so we should have plenty of time to get enough for more grape juice (to drink).  I'd like to have a total of 40 (or more) jars of grape juice. 

Mustang grapes cannot be eaten raw or the juice either.  They are so acidic that they burn your hands when picking or preparing.  So, when I make the grape juice for drinking, I simply add 1 cup of grapes,½-cup of sugar and boiling water to quart jars (that have already been cleaned, sterilized and hot).  I can them in a water bath canner for about 15-20 minutes.  Everything processes at once so there's no need for any pre-mixing or cooking.  You need to let them set up for about 2-4 weeks before you start using them so that the grapes and sugar have time to blend together.  I also use this recipe for cranberries later in the year.  Last December our local grocery store had bags of fresh cranberries on sale for $.99.  I bought about 10 bags and made lots of cranberry juice.  I can make 3 quarts of cranberry juice out of 1 bag.  Also, if you mix 1 quart of grape juice and 1 quart of cranberry juice, it makes the best crangrape juice.

And, when I get the grapes ready for making jelly, I simply throw them in the pot, cover with water, turn the burner onto medium high and when they start to pop, I stir and mash them up.  Then, I strain them into a large bowl for several hours.  Once it's drained, the bowl goes into the fridge until I'm ready to start canning (usually the next day).  Or, you can freeze the juice until you're ready to make jelly.  I follow the recipe for making jelly that's included in the pectin box.

I'm hoping to also make a batch or two of Mustang Grape wine.  These will probably become Christmas gifts for my family.  If anyone wants the super-easy wine recipe, let me know and I'll post it.

We've also been busy cleaning out our shed.  It's been packed for many months - too packed.  Hubby couldn't even get in there to get his tools or store his tools properly.  So, today we cleaned it out and threw out half the stuff.  I plan on posting most of it on freecycle.  We have some really great stuff, but we just don't use it.  It's been in storage for 5 years!!!!  I am definitely sure we won't be using those things.  It's nice to know that we've pared down on a lot of what we use.  Having an extremely small kitchen, I quickly realize what I need or don't need and what I don't need or takes up space goes ... it's as simple as that.  We are down to one box of toys in the shed.  I'd say about 1/5 of the shed are bills/receipts and homeschooling material.

QUESTION:  We live in Texas.  What do we need to keep for homeschooling records?  I know that in high school we'll need to keep better records of what the kids have done for college, etc.  But, what about elementary school?  Middle school?  How are other Texas families keeping up with their children's school work?  Each child gets a box for the year (like a storage box).  If we keep this up, we'll have 24 boxes in the shed just for school work!!!  Any ideas?  What can we purge?  We should we keep?

We felt the full force of winter this weekend. On Friday night Robin took Hugh and Meredith into town. Hugh had his tennis coaching and Meredith was going to play with her friend Suzy. Hugh's tennis lesson goes for an hour and it finishes at 4.30pm when it's starting to get dark here in wintertime. I think it's an odd time to have a lesson for little boys, but I don't have much say in that.

Ever since we moved out to the country Hugh has not had a problem with his asthma. When we lived in the city he used to get it very bad, especially last year when we were renting an older-type house and Christchurch city is not known for its clean air in winter. We are situated in a valley and sometimes in winter there is no wind or sea breezes and the smoke from fires just hangs over the city for days. Hugh got really bad with his asthma on Saturday and we think it is from having to go into town on Friday evening. Robin said the smoke was almost tangible and he could see it hanging over the city as he drove in. It's a good reminder for us not to take Hugh into tennis when the weather is like this. The poor boy has been bad over the weekend. I called the doctor's office and the nurse told me to give him 2 puffs with one minute spaces in between, three times. She said that is all they'd do if I took him in to the emergency rooms. It does work really well.

On Saturday it snowed most of the day, but it didn't settle on the ground, but it was very nice to sit by the fire with the children and the dogs and watch videos and knit. I ate something for dinner (I think it was the sausage) that didn't agree with me, and I've had a bit of a tummy ache all weekend. Nothing too bad, but I always worry about the baby.

We had some good friends call in yesterday afternoon with sugar buns and coffee and a chat. It was a bit warmer yesterday, but this weekend has been very wintery and bitter, bitter cold outside. I love winter though and I love storms. The children were a little bit scared on Friday night when the wind was howling around the house (think Wuthering Heights). I remember being scared of the wind when I was little too and lying in bed and trying not to think of the big glass window that might shatter all over me (I have always had a very active imagination), so I was sympathetic and told them how I love the wind and the sound it makes. It didn't take them long to fall off to sleep.

It is raining again this morning as I lie in bed hoping the morning sickness is going to improve so I can get up for a shower. I've pulled back the curtains and am watching the rain fall in my orchard and the clouds sweeping across the sky. It's lovely.

 

Hope you all are having a great holiday weekend on your homesteads! 

Let's see...My past week or so has been filled with picking & preserving the bounty from our garden.  My mom came for a visit over the weekend & this morning we all met at a restaurant for breakfast to wish them a safe trip.

I'll probably not see them again for a couple of months.  It's a bit strange not seeing her anytime I want.  We still talk on the phone alot, so it doesn't seem like we loose touch, so that is good.  While she was here I showed her some of the things we'll be using for school in August. 

We've checked out a couple of properties, but none that just really seem right for us.  I'll never give up hope though!

I've gotten lots of food put up:

whole kernel corn, tomatoes & ro-tel are what we've done most of lately.  It's alot of work & time but with food prices these days it will really pay off.  The food prices are actually getting me worried lately.   Some things have jumped so much it's ridiculous.

I have been looking into buying a grain mill.  I've wanted to do this for some time but did not know where to purchase the wheat berries.  Well, I've found that the health food store is now carring them.  You buy it by the pound.  --To those of you who buy this already, what is a normal price?

I've gotten my old clothes on & I'm about to get started in the canning game for the day!  Rotel is on the menu!

Hope you have a great Sunday!

Blessings!

   This past couple weeks has been so very busy that I'm often surprised that I have time for anything else:P In fact, I woke up this morning with my arms aching something awful. As usual, I never think about the day before (or even several days before) to figure out why. Well, today I know why without even thinking about it...24 chickens! :P

   I have other news on our baby count in the barn but this post isn't about that. This post is about being a chicken plucker:)

   Our dear friends CaraDD and her family were having a mass butchering day yesterday. We had planned on helping beforehand but it didn't look like they would need us. Then things changed a little and her sweet husband phoned and said they could use some extra hands and we excitedly agreed:)

   This wasnt my first time of butchering but it was the first time I'd be involved in HOW the butchering was done. Actually I didn't end up doing ANY of the butchering but I did get to see how it was done and I'm thinking it's a cleaner way of doing it that we've always done it and we'll be doing it with out own (which will be another post entirely:P)

   The whole thing went in an assembly line sort of way. Mrs. D would calm the chicken. As soon as chicken was calm and still she would turn it head down into what they call a killing cone. This cone was made by a friend of theirs to Mr. D's specs. Anyway, then Mr. D would cut the artery on both sides of the neck. Very little thrashing, which means less mess, no broken bones, no bruised meat and very little trauma. It went so smoothly.

   As soon as chicken bleeds out, Mrs. D would then take it out of the cone and hang it on the fence to finish up (hardly any blood at this point) and returns to the pen to grab another chicken to calm. She was our chicken whisperer:)

   Once the chickens had hung long enough (about 10 minutes or so), Mrs. D would measure the temperature of the scalding water and when it was at around 140*F she would dip the chicken in it making sure to douse it completely for approximately 45 seconds. Once the chicken was good and wet she would then lay it on the plucking table where me, Miss Sarah, and another couple (friends of theirs) were waiting. Mrs. D switched around on her jobs as we didn't want to get too backed up on chickens so she would become a plucker too:)

   Once the chickens are scalded the feathers come out really easily. The pin feathers, on the other hand, can be a problem. We noticed that some of them had yellow skin and some had white. Some had more pin feathers than others. And SOME had areas that had no feathers at all...EVER! No follicles for the feathers to grow from. I had never seen that but it made it a little quicker when we came across those:)

   Once the chicken was plucked as clean as it could be, Mrs. D would rinse them real well and place them in a tub of ice water to keep them fresh until the gutter could do his work.

   The gutter happened to be their landlord (these were HIS chickens, we'll be going back to do theirs and ours in the next couple weeks). Anyway, he would gut and clean the chicken and package it with a foodsaver type machine. Industrial rather than the little kitchen table type I have:) And then throw that into the freezer or icebox and on to the next.

   It was quite the production and efficient. It went smoothly and everyone had a hand in it. The smaller children would catch up the chickens and hand them to mom, mom calmed and loaded, dad cut and waited, mom hung and dipped, hands plucked and mom rinsed, landlord cleaned and packaged and so it went. Many hands made light work:)

   Now today...my arms feel like I was weightlifting:P At least I can still itch my nose8^D Miss Mary-Ann hurt her arm and was in a splint so she was the offical photographer which I"ll post after we get them off the camera and onto the computer:)

   Today? We are waiting for two more does to kid and our barn will be filled and our season over:)

   Praying each of you has a safe and blessed Sabbath!

God be with thee!

Sister Lori