"The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Titus 2:3-5

About Me

Oregon, United States
I am a happy, Christian, wife and post-homeschooling mother. I have spent the last several years homeschooling and now I am "adjusting" to a new season of life as "empty nester". In 2010 we moved to be Host/Caretakers at a Bible Camp. We look at our ministry here as preparing the way for the gospel to be shared as well as encouraging believers in their daily walk. I am a farmgirl at heart and love the country, I love gardening and food preserving. I also, love tea parties!! I also have a Titus 2 heart and want to share with anyone willing to listen and learn. I love having friends over and teaching them how to make bread or put up pickles. And as we work, I love to encourage them to love their husbands and their children and to be Keepers at Home and all that implies and I love that you let me do that here!! Hope you enjoy visiting my farm and walking through a journey in life with me.......I hope at some point in time I can encourage you in your walk and in your home..........

Friday, November 7, 2008

Proverbs......

Why, WHY, do I know so many "Christians" like this....
Proverbs 6:12-14
A worthless, wicked man:
1. constant liar (gossip, slander, etc.)
2. rebellious (towards God's ways)
3. stirring up discontent (among us!)
Proverbs 6:16-19
7 things God HATES!!!:
1. Hautiness...........try being HUMBLE in our views, opinions
2. Lying......tell the TRUTH, stop making things up
3. Murdering.......in any FORM!! Replace this with LOVE.
4. Plotting evil........plot how to be HOLY instead
5. Eagerness to do wrong......be EAGER to do what is RIGHT
6. A false witness......again, TRUTH
7. Sowing discord/strife among brothers.......try PEACE for a change, maybe agree to disagree!!
We must strive to please God and be more like him, and in doing so, we will gain these positive attributes, rather than being the
kind of person God hates.....

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Moving on......

Here are some more pictures of the Anne of Green Gables Tea........
another peek at our store.....
Look at these young ladies all dressed up!!
Look at those "puffed sleeves"!! She made that dress just for this tea...... More decos.......


Encouragement Today.......

"For the Lord is our judge,
the Lord is our lawgiver,
the Lord is our King;
He WILL save us!"
Isaiah 33:22
"Therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumberance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the JOY set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you
will not grow weary and lose heart."
Hebrews 12:1-3
Jesus looked at His suffering in His future not as suffereing but as the JOY that would follow after the suffereing. Keep our eyes upon Jesus!!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Day......

Praying today.....
Praying for the elections.....
Praying and being oh so THANKFUL
that GOD is
AWESOME
ALL POWERFUL
ALWAYS, ALWAYS IN CONTROL
AND ESPECIALLY
that God is
STILL ON THE THRONE!!
We as Christians can REST in KNOWING without a doubt no matter what happens after today....
GOD KNOWS EXACTLY
WHAT HE IS DOING!!
PRAISE GOD FROM
WHOM ALL
BLESSINGS FLOW!!

Ohhhh Sweet Fallness........

I just cannot stop decorating.......
Miss Harvest Bunny with her
little quilted pumpkin....
Little pumpkins, sunflowers and leaves everywhere......
Happy to have chrysanthemums leftover from tea....
Favorite Apple plates.....

Mmmmm......the colors.......
Even a Fall Salad.......
I tried the Rice Salad in the October/November issue of Mary Jane's Farm....it is amazing!! I just added some spinach. Served with a Pumpkin
Roll and Dilly Beans.
For Pumpkin Rolls I replaced the mashed potatoes in my
Potatoe Roll recipe...it worked!

Plums!!!

Awhile back, one of the girls in our Titus 2 group
brought lots of plums from her tree!!
Have you ever used a steam juicer?? I LOVE mine!! All you do is rinse the fruit and put it into the top basket there, it steams and juice comes out the little hose, right into the jar. It is sooo hot, you can
just put a lid on and it will seal.
Beautiful Plum Juice!!
Beautiful Plum Jelly from the Plum Juice!!
However, I do have a confession to make....I could not find a recipe for Plum Jelly anywhere. After making plum jam that came out realllly thick, I decided plums have alot of natural pectin, so should not need pectin for jelly. So, I decided we would follow directions for Grape Jelly. Similar shape and color, riggghhhhtt??? This was for our Titus 2 meeting. I, the older woman, was showing them how to make jelly. Directions said to boil until it reached the stage where the juice is clinging to the spoon and drips off twice....2 drips. We stirred and boiled and stirred and boiled. Finally, we decided to take a break from that, have our lunch and come back to it. After lunch, it had hardened soooo hard, I almost broke the wooden spoon trying to remove it from the pan!! It was quite amazing and we laughed very much!!!
So, later I followed the pectin directions, using pectin, still for Grape Jelly. You only boil that for 2 minutes. :) It made the above jelly, which is very thick, but it is jelly!! So, we had a fun class that day....
learning how NOT to make Plum Jelly!!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Autumn Anne Tea..........

As you entered...............
A "plain brown" teapot and "chrysanthEmums"..........

The tables........pumpkin spice votives in glass teacups, fall colored leaves tied around a napkin with raffia for place cards........Centerpieces were fall colored cocktail napkins and on some tables plaid napkins with a tall pumpkin spice candle sprinkled with leaves, cinnamon sticks and dried sunflowers.....

Mmmmm, we served "plum pudding" for our last course.

Lot's of pumpkins, sunflowers, leaves, doilies......all to ad an old fashioned harvest feeling.

Our little store....breads and pies, pincushions and bunnies......

pillows and gloves, jams and jellies, homemade soap......

Then the tea was done....ladies went home......and it was time for a Harvest Party with friends!!

We just left the decorations, moved things around a little and enjoyed!

Later some special music and then some good ol' dancing!!


Just having fun......

some favorite faces....one of us couldn't hold still!! :)


My most favorite face....my very own sweetie!!

I will have more tea pics later.....from friends....some shots of the girls serving hopefully!! I cannot believe I missed them!! One was dressed as Anne and they all were dressed for the time.....also, one of the girls did readings and one played songs from the soundtrack...all and all it was a lovely time!!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Class today...........

The girls in my Home-Making class
finished their pillowcases......aren't
they ADORABLE!!!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Two Days Later......

Soap gets uncovered, and then.....
Cut into bars and ready to cure! On the board is Lavender Vanilla, top of basket is Cinnamon
Clove and lower basket is Oatmeal Cinnamon.....mmmmmmm!!
They will be for sale at my tea and later in my Etsy shop.

Tea Preparations.......

A perfect day of tea preparations.......
Watching Anne of Green Gables while stirring soap....... :)
Inspiration for an Anne Tea!!

Soapmaking.....

Gathering supplies......



Yummy scents.......Favorite recipe.......


I Love this recipe!! It is a chart that tells you proportions to what you have. If I happen to have 1 cup of lye, it tells me I need 8 C of fat and 1C of liquids!! I Love it!

Autumn in the High Desert........

Beautiful picture.................
But definately a soup day!!
I am thankful to have a warm cozy home to look out from at the snow....


Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The Shed!!

Well, I cannot believe I am showing you this! But here goes.....I have a cute little shed that is supposed to be my craft "studio".....when we thought we were going to move to England, we went through all our belongings like crazy, willing to part with things we couldnt take but could replace...we thought we were going to be gone for a year long mission trip. Well, we did not go and some of those things I really need....Anyway, it all got piled high in my shed for a garage sale....
Today my daughters helped me unload it all out onto the grass to go
through for a sale this weekend.......

Sorting to see what we can really part with and what would be expensive to replace and that we can use.......so, my daughter from Seattle is down and helped.....what do you think?? Keep the hat???? :)
What a sweetie she is!
Now I am really pushing it....this is the inside AFTER we emptied everything out to the lawn!!! But, you can see the potential, right?!?!? Look at that nice desk for sewing and crafting, and all these shelves to be put in order!!

No, I do not watch TV in my craft room. My daughter likes to watch or at least listen to movies like Emma or Pride and Prejudice when she is sewing costumes from those time periods... :)


Ok, the fun thing will be to show you the
before and after......
Coming Soon! :)

More Canning........


Done with all my peaches and done with a few plums that were brought over! Have 10 quarts of peaches, 2 quarts of peach juice and some pints of peach butter! Then there are 5 quarts of plum juice and several pints, etc. of peach-plum jam! Some of the juice will be saved for the Holidays to mix with maybe apple juice and something sparkling!! Some will be made into beautiful jelly, later when I have more time, but hopefully in time for Tea!!

So....I did another experiment!! When you use a steam juicer to make juice, you are left with alot of pulp in the basket. I usually throw that away thinking it wouldnt have much flavor after just taking all the juice out of it, I always really hated throwing it out!! Well, I made some peach-plum jam this time and it is good!
I also did some of the jam with wax.....did you know as wax cools if you whip it, you get a "cloud" of wax for the topping....These will get bows tied around them to sell at my Anne Tea that is coming soon!!

Ok, so this has nothing to do with canning......Look at this huge Herb Bread!! All you have to do to make it is ad a good bunch of herbs, I use my Italian Seasoning, here I made two rounds instead of loaves....they were Yummy!!