Welcome Dearest Friends to Little Glorieta

A "Newer" Car

Carrie???????????????

Carrie was going to start a new blog or move or something does anybody know what happen or does she have a link? I know at one point it was going to be invite only then she changed it..Just wondering I like to read her blog..

Thanks Sister Brenda

Horse riding...

I am feeling a little less tired. Actually, I think the AF just whips my tail every month. This never used to happen, but welcome to the 40+ years..

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the girls during their riding lessons. The pictures are over on the blogspot blog.

http://thefruitofherhands-motplus2.blogspot.com/

Hope you enjoy!

Jennie

Little bitty updates...

This week has been our first week back at homeschooling.  So far, so good!  

Other than banana & jalapeno peppers, our garden is over.  To be honest, I've enjoyed all the veggies, but I'm tired.

We've enjoyed our weeks weather too.  Alot of rain & it has cooled things down quite a bit for this time of year. 

We had to get our air conditioner repaired on Tuesday.  $125...not too bad, but not too good!

I don't need to do my normal Friday shopping.  I went to Sams & Super 1 last week & stocked up so we're good until about another week, maybe more. So tomorrow I plan on baking some bread & trying to relax some.  I am afraid I'm trying to come down with something.  So I'm loading up on zinc, vitamin C & hot herbal tea with honey.  Hopefully that & a day of staying home will get me right again!

Well, that's about it for news around the little bitty homestead. 

Take care!

Strawberry Jammin Time (in pictures)

I was blessed with 2 flats of organic strawberry's this week and so I have been making strawberry jam. I had enough to make 3 batches or 27 half-pints. I wanted to share with you how easy it is to do and impress on you the utmost importance on safety while canning. If you get into the habit of ALWAYS canning the recommended way then you will never have any worry. Recommended means up to date -not grandma's old canning book.

First you grab a kid.... any old kid will do. If their not willing to work withhold food half a day and ask again. A kid will make the difference in things going faster. (Unless you grab a teen...)

In my case this is the kid I grabbed today.

First you take some strawberries and wash them...

Then you grab that kid and have them hull them....See how happy the kid is now?

And then you mash them (a potato masher works fine here)

I sprinkle on a little fruit fresh to keep' em nice. (man is that stuff great or what?!)

Get your lids and jars sterilizing...

Cook up your jam according to your recipe and fill up your jars...(notice the teen is now happy to work for food too)

Then you start on a new batch...

And when it is all done, grab a glass of diet coke, sit down for a few minutes while contemplating whether or not to pop one of those sweet baby's open. Then go ahead and cut a chunk off that fresh bread you have and slather it on, and enjoy every bite. See how yummy it looks?

Oh... sorry... Gee I guess I didn't get a picture of that -I was too busy stuffing it in my mouth. Then stand back and ADMIRE all those beautiful jars of jam that will taste so good all winter long. Mmm Mmm.

From My Inbox: Malachi 3:3

This is awesome!  Hope you enjoy it!

Malachi  3:3 says:

'He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.'

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.

He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says:

'He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.'

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?'

He smiled at her and answered, 'Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it.'

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire , remember  that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Blessings,

Carol

****Baking Day****

This afternoon has been busy especially, Andrew was home this morning so we popped into town. I decided to make some bread after lunch, this was a new recipe that I had not tried before and I have to say this is the best bread I have ever made.  I have made Hoagies, & Parker House Rolls which have been fine but this is the first time that my bread has turned out perfectly - this is all thanks to Crystal's basic bread recipe. I adapted it a little and used 4 cups of strong wholemeal bread flour plus 5 cups of plain (all purpose) flour.  The bread was crusty on the outside and soft inside - just delicious.

I then made five small mixed fruit crumbles for the freezer.  The fruit I used were apples, pears, red currants & raspberries. I also made an apple & cinammon cake,  then finally I made 2 pints of yoghurt.

Thursdays I have decided is now my baking day and I am looking forward to trying out more new recipies.

At the weekend I made a pineapple upside down cake with jelly (jello) which you pour over the cake when it has cooled.  I made some holes all over the cake whilst still in the dish, made the jelly and let this cool slightly before slowly pouring over the cake until the cake absorbs the jelly.  I made 3/4 pint of jelly.  The cake went into the fridge for a few hours before I turned it out of the dish - with the jelly added the cake is deliciously moist and very moorish.

Here is a photo - I cut into it so you could get some idea of what it looks like inside.

Just before I started baking I decided to wear an apron that I hadn't worn for awhile and this was one that I purchased from Lilies Of The Field and I love these aprons.  When I went downstairs, Andrew just started laughing quietly as he wondered what on earth I was wearing.  I don't think he has seen aprons like this anyways, after awhile he kind of calmed down. I think he prefers me in my normal apron but I do love these ones and will be wearing these more often especially as I have a couple.

Well, I need to go and have an early night where I will hopefully sleep well. I slept better last night which was good.  I need to be alert for 7am tomorrow morning which is when I start my job working from home. My hours tomorrow are 7am - mid-day.  I am a littler nervous and praying that everything goes well.

Have a blessed evening

Common Sense 101

My husband works at a library and found this book: Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton.  I don't know much about Chesterton, but he had some very witty and insightful things to say in this book, of which my husband read me some excerpts. One chapter was entitled Uneducating the Educated and seemed to me to be right on concerning education and homeschooling. I'll share a few quotes briefly here and maybe more another day.

G. K. Chesterton: "The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their common sense. Just now there is a tendency to forget that the school is only a preparation for the home, and not eh home a mere jumping off place for the school."

"It is the great paradox of the modern world that at the very time when the world decided that people should NOT be coerced about their form of religion, it also decided that they SHOULD be coerced about their form of education."

"I think our coercive popular education has been uncommonly near a complete failure." (This was written almost 100 years ago... January 31, 1914!)

"The human house is a paradox for it is larger inside than out." [When we step out of the home, when we pass from the private life to the public life, we are passing from a greater work to a smaller one, from a harder work to an easier one. And that is why most modern people wish to pass from the great domestic task to the smaller and easier commercial one... They would rather teach a course in trigonometry to a hundred children than struggle with the whole human character of one child]

Any of us homeschooling mamas know the truth of these statements!

Where are you going?

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village.

An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.

“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, and sing a few songs…I have a full life.”

The American interrupted,

“I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”

“And after that?” asked the Mexican.

“With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City , Los Angeles , or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.”

“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.

“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.

“And after that?”

“Afterwards? Well my Friend, That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?” said the Mexican.

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late play with your children catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like and enjoying your friends.”

And the moral is:

Know where you’re going in life…You may already be there.

Poker