A Bit of Sillyness..........

I Love my crockpot! True confession, how silly is that?!?

A few years ago I found it at a WalMart in another town....I think it looks vintage!! And that is what I Love about it!! Doesn't it remind you of a vintage dishtowel or tablecloth? FUN!
Just a quick tip today before we head over the mountain for the weekend......
Have you ever done this to your roast? Very good. My dear sweet mother taught me this trick and I know several people who do it, you make a hole in the roast with a sharpe knife and put a sliver of garlic in the hole, in a few places spaced out on the roast......yum!

Oh, and by the way, I did not mean to sound like I was complaining yesterday, although I guess I partly was......sorry, I am grateful for being able to purchase a bounty of produce this year!! I am adjusting to that way of thinking. My last year on the other side of the mountain before we moved here, we had the biggest most bountiful garden of our life!! God blessed it and we were able to share and share and can and can. So, the first year I was here and had to spend money for green beans, I actually cried.......yep, real tears, but, like I said, we are figuring it out and someday that will happen here. In the meantime I am feeling very blessed to be able to buy the food I want to preserve for my winter pantry.

Missing my Bounty................

Oh, how I long to walk out to my garden and pick and pick and bring enough of something in to do some canning.......

Nasturtiums are just getting nice and big.....those will be fun later if I do my "Garden Tea" this summer. And look, that is Chamomile jumping up all over in this box. I planted one plant of that two years ago, the plant died, but every year volunteer Chamomile comes up all over the place..... :) So hey, I do see a "Garden Tea" coming together here.....Nasturtium Sandwiches, Chamomile Tea.......yum! I have mint as well......

I am still figuring things out here when it comes to gardening in the desert.....we can have a frost as early as September, which doesn't leave much time for my little plants to get growing!! I just gave them a little boost of "manure tea".....to fertilize them, that seemed to help some,

should do that again.

I am almost embarrassed to show you, but this is the size of my plants. This is the biggest yellow zuchinni I have!!

Cherry tomatoes are looking

good, they are small enough that we can

enjoy some of these.

But this, .....this is a tomatoe flower........that is as far as my big
tomatoes have come.... :(

Then I was very happy today to finally find some snow peas....these are ready to eat!! That will be

great in a salad!!

Our house is 4 Sale, so I got a late start anyway, because I really didnt think I would be here long enough to have a garden. Next year, if I am here, I will bring in compost for the soil and get things started much earlier either inside or in a greenhouse. That really does help, a friend out here started her tomatoes in a greenhouse (that is where I got my plants) and she has hers by a wall and they are 6 feet tall!! So, I know it can be done!

So, all that to say, I have been working on my produce order today. If I want to can anything,
I will just have to order it. Sad... :(
But I am excited
to get to do some canning.

My order:

40 pounds of pickling cucumbers
60 pounds of green beans
100 pounds of tomatoes

I have some friends doing a little bit, just to learn how....looking forward to next week and our canning spree!! I will be sure and share that with you........

Take Action!!

"Learn to be wise, and develop good judgement and common sense! I cannot overemphasize this point. Cling to wisdom -

she will protect you.........Determination to be wise is the first step toward becoming wise! And with your wisdom, develop common

sense and good judgement."

Proverbs 4:5-7

I love how these verses are jam packed with action verbs!! We do not just sit and wait for God to give us wisdom or common sense, it requires some action on our part.........

Learn - gain knowledge or skill, find out, come to know.

Cling - stick or holdfast. (A vine clings to its support).

Determination - make up one's mind very firmly, fix or settle beforehand, fixed purpose.

Develop - bring into being, make or become better, bigger, more useful.

Now let's go ahead and apply this to being a Titus 2 woman.....to our husbands, our children, our homes...........

Have a Blessed Day ladies!!

Refreshment on the Desert...........

Nothing more refreshing in the middle of hot summer days than a cooling, wet thunderstorm....
bringing with it the cooling rain,

fresh cool breezes,

refreshing all that it touches......
More soap in the shop later today!!

At the end of the day..............

My Free Trader Joe's "Customer Appreciation" roses are still looking Beautiful!!
Mmmmm.......Canned Pear Cobbler for potluck tonight.... :)

Wedding Gift...........

Remember the blessing of the wonderful fabric I found in my stash the other day? Here is what I came up with. I love how the Lord can work in our minds to help us be creative and use what He has provided and to make very good use of "what I have in my hand".......

I did purchase a small red bowl that works well with all the other red in her kitchen.

With the brown fabric and the small red plaid I made potholders. I sewed two pieces of fabric with a piece of old towel in between, running across the rectangle a few times to create quilting.

Then I used the same back fabric for

the binding around the edge.

With the large red plaid and coordinating floral piece I made an apron. I used the floral for pockets, strings and the lining.

You could actually wear this on either side, this side just does not have pockets.
I had planned on making a bit more, but ran out of time. So, there you have it....a wedding gift made from my stash!!
How fun is that!!

Flower Gardens, Altars and Job Requirements.......

So, blogger does not seem to want to do pictures today... :( So, thought I would share some thoughts.....

A quote from an article years ago, "The Road to a Debt-Free, (Keeper at Home), Simple Life is Rarely Straight" (Parenthesis my added thought).... :)

"God uses all those (any) inconveniences to plant tender seeds of endurance when we are not even looking. And before you know it, tiny sprouts of perseverance and contentment begin to crop up where resistance and impatience used to thrive. You hardly notice it in the beginning, but one day there it is -- the sweet flower of long-suffering blooming right there in your very irritation. God has us here in the flower garden of patience, long-suffering and perseverance."

Just a couple more great quotes:

"Have you surrendered your life to the Lord or have you abandoned your heart on the altar? The Titus 2 woman must abandon her heart. Others may surrender, you may not stop with surrender, you only begin there." B. Boyce

"God did not author words such as 'I can't!' or 'I quit!'...to be used in context with a job requirement. You can and you will!" B. Boyce
(The "job requirement" here being anything

we must do at home).

Wow, deeply ponder some of these thoughts today....wow!!

Fun Finds.......

Every once in awhile I like to check the Free ads on Craigslist......look what I found there!! Can you believe it?!?!? I couldn't! It needs some work, but things do move, so it would actually be usable with a new belt, then it needs help in other ways... ;) But, I like rustic, actually matches my old beat up Hoosier very well. :) And it was FREE!! Just had to go get it.