Pickles, pickles and MORE pickles!!

I have to admit that I've been distracted from my usual Bible study by this large garden we have. My latest venture has been pickles...lots of pickles. I've had to start keeping a diary of the recipes. I'm now on batch four. I made two quick batches ready within 24 hours and two longer batches.

The first batch is traditional dill pickles like grandma made. You can see the spices and herbs with the pickles. They are longer curing (3 to 4 weeks) and canned for year storage. We tried them after a few days and they were SUPER salty. After a week in the fridge they were much better, but probably better suited for a bloody Mary drink instead of just eating. I think they will mellow nicely and be ready in that 3-4 week time frame for eating!!

The second batch I call "cheater pickles". It's just the spice package you can buy in the store. They are more like the pickles in the store and are ready in about 24 hours. I also canned them for shelf storage. Everyone agreed they were YUMMY and the kids were eating them up!

The third batch was also a "quick" batch. It is by far the most beautiful. Achar Segar (Indonesian Quick Pickles) are quick, crisp and delicious! They are ready after only 3 hours in the refrigerator and last up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. This batch was beautiful with different colored carrots from our garden. My sister-in-law, originally from Indonesia, helped me make them. She said they were delicious. So delicious that she took them home. I cannot get the picture off my camera, so I'll post a picture later.


The fourth batch is a longer processed batch fermenting in a 2 gallon crock. These should be ready in about 2-3 weeks sitting in brine at room temperature. I'm excited about this batch because the fermentation will produce some really good for you bacteria! (And my pantry smells like wonderful pickles for weeks!!)

We have really been blessed with this wonderful garden and God has given me the gift to use up what we've grown. It's great to see the kids begging for homemade pickles and eating things right off the vine! So I'm going to work as hard as I can to preserve what we have and I'll be giving some away for Christmas gifts and donate some to my friend that helps some homeless people, too!!

Seeking Perfection....No More Perfect Moms

I first heard about Jill Savage at last fall's Hearts at Home conference.  I highly recommend any and all moms go to this conference if you are able. There's something for everyone! At the conference, we were given an excerpt from here new book "No More Perfect Moms". I finally bought her book and it's been wonderful so far.

I started reading it because I've been spending a lot of time criticizing my parenting skills and nearly everything else....house cleaning, food, activities, you name it! I agree with Jill Savage when she says the media has "air brushed" our world to make us think everyone and everything should be perfect all the time. So many social networks have made it easy to only show the "perfect" side of our lives.

I'm going to lay it out there...It's been a rough week. I don't do well with lack of sleep. This constant rain and weeds has triggered my asthma so I haven't been sleeping well. Add to that nightly thunderstorms, children that won't sleep and a sick child...mommy is about to go crazy from lack of good decent sleep. So you may see me post on facebook about quilting and other things, but take into account that I have quite a few steam burns from my iron and need pricks from quilting. My reaction time is down from being so tired...quilting injuries! But I still need a creative outlet.

So, if you've been thinking you don't measure up to that "perfect" woman in your neighborhood, "perfect" mother at church, "perfect" children in the grocery store...think again and read Jill Savage's latest book.

http://www.hearts-at-home.org/index.php/nmpm-home

Seeking Perfection...just Let.It.Go.

I had a blog post ready for Friday, but I worried that it didn't have the same "pop" as the last one. Instead of posting it, I kept it to myself. I really struggle with control and pride. What will people think of me? What will they think of this post? Sometimes it's really hard to put my thoughts out there for the world to read, but other days it's so easy.What am I to do?

http://www.karenehman.com/let-it-go-5-day-pause-before-you-pounce-challenge/

Recently I had a friend suggest we form a small group to do this 5 day Challenge. After this challenge we decided to form a group of four of us to work on Karen Ehman's new book and study Let.It.Go.. We are a small group of mothers with school age children. It's great because we can be more flexible in our meeting schedule.

So in the end, I decided to post about Karen Ehman's new book. It's a good read or small group study. I have only read the first chapter, but I'm already on board to "just let it go"!

Hoarding Talents

I must admit my church attendance has been failing the last few weeks, but the last sermon I heard was about "hoarding". Pastor talked about how keeping your gifts (spiritual gifts) to yourself is a form of hoarding. This thought never occurred to me. Usually, I LOVE to bake and make things for other people. This winter and spring has really taken a toll on our health...flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, intestinal virus...you name it. I actually stopped cooking for my own family so I could just rest (and breathe!).

Praise the Lord! After weeks of resting I'm feeling much better and the kids are destroying the house again. This week God really pressed on me to help someone that I barely know. Turns out she really does need help. Both she and her husband lost their jobs and it's been hard just to put food on the table. After a day of feeling I must help this family, I found out that another friend has already started. God has put it on quite a few hearts to help this family. That was a really big "ah ha!" moment for me.

Romans says "We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." Romans 12:6-8

God has given each of us gifts to help each other. If we ignore the nagging in our hearts and minds, then we are "hoarding" what God has given to us. We are not allowing Christ to live through us. I'm not saying you have knock down people's door to see who needs some baked goods, but if you know your spiritual gift, use it to the best of your abilities. You might be a good listener, musician, baker, babysitter, worker, cleaner, gardener or whatever your talent. Open your heart and mind to when and how God provides for you to use your talent.

A little reminder...and this took me MONTHS to finally realize. Sometimes God does call us to rest and heal. He had to make that very plain to me and it took weeks for my body to recover and my strength to return. However, now  I feel that my time for rest has passed and I'm back into the "season" of baking for my family and others.

Rhubarb Blueberry Pecan Bread and Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Recipes https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=4890
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Orange-Rhubarb-Bread

Quilting a broken life

This weekend I was blessed to have a "free" weekend. I'm sad that I wasn't able to get together with a friend as planned, but it turned out good. I poured most of my time and energy into quilting. It was odd not to have children or dogs on me.

I listened to hours of praise music as I cut, ironed and sewed my quilt. As I was cutting, I remembered a friend's comment this week to another friend about "being broken right now". We all go through times when we feel broken. Suddenly, quilting struck me as very odd. I take yards of beautiful fabric to cut into small pieces and then sew back together.  I often feel like I should cut my quilt blocks even smaller to get a more intricate design. It occurred to me that my life is like that. Sometimes I feel like God really breaks me down into tiny pieces to be put back together again. This gets really frustrating because I feel like this "block" is perfect, but then it gets "cut up" again. In the end, you don't know how things will turn out until everything is put back together.

It's hard when you don't know what God has planned for you. One of my favorite verses came up on my phone today from Jeremiah.
 "For I know the plans I have for you", says the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give yo hope and a future Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity".  Jeremiah 29:11-14

So that was my great "revelation" while spending hours by myself listening to praise music and sewing. Next time you see a quilt, look at how intricate it is with all the cut pieces carefully sewn back together and then the actual art of the quilting stitch bringing out something else in the fabric.

Muddling through the Muck

I have been encouraged to start up my blog again. I wrote this post before Christmas and I didn't post it for some reason. All of this is still true, so I'm going to put it out there.
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I feel like I'm trudging through sticky, murky muck. Just being is difficult. I don't know if it's the after effects of lack of sleep (from when my daughter was sick) or poor nutrition (too many pies!!!) over Thanksgiving. My body and mind feel like they are rebelling.

Yes...this passage pretty much sums it up. 

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out."  

Rom. 7:15-18 NIV

image from http://laboringinthelord.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/My-Flesh-Rules.jpg

My usual "prescription" of knitting or crocheting with Bible study just isn't cutting it. I seem to sink deeper and deeper. I feel burdened by my repetitive sins and thoughts of them are veering me away from life and toward dwelling in muck. According to "the world", I haven't done anything horrible...just my "usual sins" of procrastination and arguing with God about what I should do, anxiety about what is to come and spending too much money on junk (specifically junk food!!) Though I feel like I'm sinking in the muck, I'm not hopeless. I'm finding little nuggets that get me through.

Later in Romans we are told how we can be saved from these thoughts.

"What retched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."
Rom 7:24-25 NIV

So we need to just give it ALL over to God because Jesus has already saved us. Phew...felling better already.

Ooohhhh....the Temptation!

It's finally here...Cyber Monday! I'm really feeling the burning desire to sit at home and spend money. I'm beginning to think that Cyber Monday for spendaholics like me is similar to alcohol to alcoholics. I'm nearly twitching in my chair as I write this...I have a million other things I should be doing, but I'm thinking about all the "deals" that I'm missing out on. 

Yesterday at church, pastor talked about how we all have a few "troubled spots" in our lives that we keep coming back to. It could be out of control spending, anger issues, or other temptations. If we have temptations that we find ourselves coming back to time and time again, we should equip ourselves with the armor God has given us to fight such thoughts. Memorize scriptures. He suggested to start by having 7 scriptures that relate to our temptations or reoccurring sins. Amen. I really need to equip myself with verses regarding self-control.