A testimony

I was raised in a Christian home where a belief in Yahweh (we then called Him God), prayer, and spiritual growth were all held high, we attended church most Sundays. We were not caught up in any one denomination. I remember attending the Baptist church, charismatic churches, etc. In my teens we felt called out of the church to a home gathering where we had prayer, fellowship, and singing. After 8 or so years our home fellowship broke up. We didn’t really feel like we were supposed to go back to church even though we desired fellowship so we ended up waiting for direction.

During this time we began discussing the Sabbath and a few other spiritual topics. I don’t think I had a clue what we believed, if you can imagine a cloudy haze with Yahweh, the ten commandments tucked in there, with some personal convictions such as not having a tree at Christmas, or dressing modestly most of the time, not getting drunk, and so on and so forth. Of course it was always the safe thing to say that I believed anything the Bible taught. We had a pretty good life, nothing too tragic up to that point, and nothing that challenged us to think too deeply about our beliefs. Our discussions about the Sabbath led us to try keeping it. What I remember was going out to pull weeds on the Sabbath with the justification that “I like pulling weeds, so it must be OK”, this attitude showed through all of us as we pretty much continued with our normal living on Sabbath especially if we really wanted to do whatever it was that seemed to get in the way.

Our family’s journey into the truth of the scriptures probably began way back when I was too young to remember. I sometimes wonder how Yahweh can put up with such slow learners as we have been. I can say that our learning was greatly accelerated in 2006 when someone asked our family for approval for something that we weren’t sure was right but that is very prolific in today’s church and all over the world. We were somewhat hesitant to give approval and began to study the scriptures. Everything we read pointed us away from approving the action. We didn’t readily accept the truth we had discovered in our studies because it was not what we had been taught by the church yet there it was in the Bibles. It’s not easy to go against the flow but our only other option was to lie to ourselves, our friends, and our family, as well as disobey Yahweh. The Bible continued to be our teacher and we gathered from our studies that we could not give our approval. We admonished the person who asked for the approval to reconsider their action and take the path of truth.

At this time we came to a turning point in our spiritual walk. I feel that when you obey something difficult from the Bible that it makes obeying many other things seem so much easier. Your priorities change and there becomes a commitment to the truth. Suddenly everything that Yahweh had to say seemed so much more important. We began seeking His word in search of truth. It seemed that we instinctively knew that we were missing out on some big things.

The following year we began keeping Sabbath with more commitment and abstaining from unclean “food”. We were introduced to the idea of calling Yahweh and Yahshua by their actual names rather than using the title God or the Grecian name Jesus. We also stopped celebrating Christmas and Easter and began to study and think about whether or not we should keep Yahweh’s feasts. We really didn’t know what the feasts were or how you keep them. I remember the first time we attempted to acknowledge the Feast of Trumpets; mom was out of town and I fixed some food for dad and I which we enjoyed and then returned to our work as usual without a clue. Some of our first Passovers ended up in a big disagreement of how one should keep the feast. Through much study and guidance of believers who have gone before us we have learned a great deal in a short amount of time. Though there is probably no perfect assembly, we have found comfort and fellowship with Yahweh’s Restoration Ministry with whom we were re-baptized this year at Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).


In no way have we found that keeping the Sabbath, Feasts, and clean food laws lessen our spiritual walk rather it has been enhanced! Not only that but it is a most wonderful gift that we have seen blessings abound since we had begun keeping them. Our lives have not been "perfect" since seeking the truth, tragedy has struck a few times over. Life has been more ordered as we strive to be prepared for Yahweh’s days of rest and worship, our family is living in a unity that we had not before experienced, and our spiritual walk is continually growing as we seek truth and guidance from the whole of Yahweh’s word.

Trust

I’d like to apologize in advance for the extreme length of this blog post. I tried my best to say it in as few words as possible…L.O.L.

I would like to share my Sukkot 2011 planning experience and how Yahweh has been teaching me to trust Him. It’s easy to say “yes, I trust Yahweh” when life goes according to your own plans. What about when He withholds your desires from you or puts off answering your prayers till the very last minute?

When our family plans a trip or feast we generally began planning many months in advance. Often if a plan is presented at the last minute we scrap the entire idea as we probably don’t have the funds or time set aside, sometimes we need a house sitter or animal sitter, so all that to say we don’t feel prepared unless we really are prepared.

We had been planning to keep Sukkot 2011 in Indiana with YRM assemblies after keeping it there in 2010 and having a good time. We spent the months of October, November, and December basking in the good memories of the past feast and realizing that we really wanted to return there for 2011. In January we called to make reservations on the lodging we rented the previous feast and were surprised to hear that it was not available with such advanced noticed. The fact that someone beat us to the reservation by one day would later play a big part in our willingness to doubt Yahweh’s plans for us this feast.

We weren’t worried that we didn’t have “set in stone” plans just yet. We still had months to research and find other lodging. Instead we planned as well as we could and searched for other lodging that would be suitable. Last year when we planned our Sukkot trip we learned about a month ahead of time that everything we needed was in place for us to attend the feast so we figured something similar would happen.

We had a few worries about other details: Sukkot was falling later in Autumn this year meaning that we would have to drive over mountain passes that could be prone to winter conditions. Also, gas prices had increased causing our feast budget to be several hundred dollars short. Then there were fears that plagued us: what if a national disaster happened while we are 2000 miles from home base, stranding us. We talked about our fears and worries all year long.

By August we began to wonder if our hopes of driving to Indiana were realistic. We believed that if Yahweh wanted us somewhere else then He would let us know with enough time to prepare. At this point, in our minds, that meant a month ahead. We began asking Yahweh if He wanted us to go somewhere else.

It had been a LONG time since we had the much desired ‘in person’ fellowship with like-minded believers. We were willing to consider a change if it was going to be for the best and if it meant building relationships with nearby believers. In August we made a special trip to a nearby NW state to visit a family we had only spoken to by phone and email. We had been meaning to meet them last year but it just kept getting put off till here a year later we were finally going to meet them. We spent most of a Sabbath with them and really enjoyed our time with them. I began formulating an idea that perhaps they would be a good family with whom to keep the feast, it seemed as though we had some good things in common. We also had a few other feast sites in mind as possibilities but that we didn’t know a lot about. Weeks passed and we didn’t have any plans. Mom and I made a pros and cons list and it seemed that staying close to home had all the pros this year. After a family meeting we were all very excited about staying near home and networking with others in the Northwest. We had called the aforementioned family to see if they would like to gather with us if they didn’t have plans already. They would get back to us later, so the waiting and trusting continued.

Meanwhile we were still searching the internet daily for evidence of suitable lodging in Indiana and also looking for ways to make the trip less of a financial strain in case that is what Yahweh was still asking us to do. As time got closer I began feeling the pull to go to Indiana. It didn’t really make much sense, after all I still had that pros and cons list which proved that staying in the NW was better. I began to feel really uneasy as the time closed in to less than two weeks from our leaving date and we didn’t have an answer from anywhere. I just felt so helpless. One evening I asked my mom to help me make a new list, not “pros vs. cons’ rather “the wonderful blessings of being able to keep the feast at all”. For all I knew we’d be keeping the feast at the park a block away. I knew that no matter what happened I had to praise Yahweh where He sends me and if it ends up being somewhere I don’t want to go, that doesn’t matter as much as being obedient to Him.

I prayed every day and sometimes several times per day that Yahweh would direct us and help us to listen to His guidance. I also sent prayer requests to friends asking them to pray for Yahweh to open and close doors. I really began feeling that Indiana was where we should go and I knew that Yahweh had to be the one to do it because the facts looked really discouraging. A week from our departure date we still had no answers of any kind. I wondered if Yahweh even cared what we chose, maybe He didn’t…, perhaps we should just pick somewhere and just go…He didn’t seem to answer us either way.

There was a lot of prep work to be done before we could go anywhere so I was working very hard trying to clean out the gardens, build winter food storage, pick and preserve veggies, pack for the trip, prepare the animals and their food and someone to feed them while we would be gone. We just weren’t prepared to go anywhere let alone across the country.

Thinking about Sukkot was wearing me out, I didn’t even want to think about it anymore, I just wanted somebody to tell me when a decision had been made. Finally, five days left, a Tuesday: we received an email from our friends saying they would not be available to keep the feast with us this year but would like to fellowship sometime after Sukkot. You cannot imagine the joy I felt from reading that email! It was joy because I knew that even though it was a NO, it was an answer of some kind! I had a spring in my step for the rest of the day and the following day as well. I kept praying.

Dad mentioned that we should come to a decision on Thursday about where we would go. On Wednesday while getting some outside work done dad made it sound as if we had at least 3 options before us including Indiana. By the time Thursday got here he sounded much more skeptical about Indiana and I understood exactly why. Everything we did, all the effort and inquiries toward going to Indiana were fruitless. After discussing it at length we were all 99% convinced that Yahweh did not want us to go to Indiana and that we should stop asking and consider the other options. Thursday night we took a vote and there seemed to be one choice ahead of us. It wasn’t a bad choice but for some reason we could not make a decision at that time. I told dad that I didn’t want to go to bed until we had made a choice and he said “you are going to be up all night then”. I gave in and went to bed. Next morning, Friday: I wandered into Dad’s office after a few chores just to see what he was doing. After a few minutes he announced to me that in the night he received an email confirming that we could have an RV delivered to our feast location in Indiana and all for a very reasonable price. He seemed to be waiting for a response….I didn’t know what I was supposed to say. Hadn’t we already decided that Yahweh said NO? I didn’t even know what to feel or say so instead I asked, “so, now what are we going to do?” He seemed hesitant to give an answer. I went back to my work which was still a list a mile long that had to be complete before we could leave on Sunday. I felt hopeful that Yahweh was just testing our trust, maybe it wasn’t so much that He was saying “no” as He was saying “wait”. Dad came out and found me in the garden to tell me that we would go to Indiana but we’d have to pack a lot of camping supplies for the RV. It wasn’t the ideal situation, traveling 4500 miles in a mini van with bedrolls, pots and pans, silverware, towels, and who knows what else we would need. But hey, how could we complain, we were going to Sukkot in Indiana! We postponed our leaving date from Sunday to Monday to give just a bit more prep time. Sunday’s activities were filled with everything from making food, to packing the van, to burying root crops in a cold storage pit. By 8:00 PM we were ready to hit the road. Once again Dad came and found me in the garden(yes, I was gardening by moonlight) and said we had to unpack the car. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, I figured he was joking as he likes to do. It turned out he had received and email in the last hour from a man who could rent us a fully furnished house for even less than we were going to pay for the RV. So, we did have to unpack most of the car, removing all the camping gear, kitchen supplies, and bedding. We were all kind of stunned by the provision that Yahweh had sent at the last minute. I never would have dreamed that anything like this could happen. Not only were we going to Indiana but Yahweh gave us a house!

Yahweh’s fingerprints were all over our feast plans and all over our feast! From the tears cried, the friends made, the sermons preached, it seemed to be custom fitted to our family. We had been worried about the finances, yet, thanks to Yahweh, we stayed within our budget, within $50. I really feel that Yahweh wanted me to trust Him, believing that He had a plan and had my best interest in mind from the start even though He waited until the very last minute to show me the plan. This lesson is not to be forgotten. Yahweh wants each of us to trust in more areas of our lives. This includes persisting in prayer. The last minute is what really stands out to me in the lesson Yahweh is trying to teach. If he gave us the answer back in January we would not have had to trust Him. So even though he used the feast to introduce a new level of trust to my weak human self, I see how He desires me to trust in much deeper areas of my life. I’m so thankful that He cares more about my life than even I do. Praise be to Yahweh!

Mud Pit!

The children had a blast yesterday when their cousins visited from out of town. They chose a classic homemade form of farm entertainment.

MUD!

Hannah the Amazon girl

Muddy girl trio

Muddy boy duo

Rachael trying not to get too muddy

Gianna the mud baby...

Vegetable creatures

The children made vegetable creatures for the fair.

Then again, maybe the children themselves are the vegetable creatures.

Today

Sometimes driving with dad I see my life flash before my eyes as he whizzes through traffic on the freeway just squeezing between semis and other vehicles at 75 miles per hour. Tonight I was nearly sure he was trying to run the semi in front of us off the road! We made a quick trip across the mountains to Renton this afternoon to pick up a riding lawn mower to replace the one we just killed last week, I was along in case he needed a hand with loading. My payment was a chocolate milkshake at the end of the day. Yes, I know the tires are flat...we had to let the air out so it would fit into the back of our mini-van.

This past week we had quite a load of entries at our local fair. It took about 10 hours on entry day to gather all of my entries and fill out the forms...thankfully it only took one and a half hours to remove the items from display. Not counting anyone else in our family I entered about 75 items, mostly vegetables from my garden. Rivers and I both won the vegetable combination exhibit for our age groups! They kinda look sad after a week on display...

Though veggies are normally where I have the most fun, my favorite entries this year were my sewing projects. I didn't win all blue ribbons but it was nice to get the feedback from the judges on the forms.

Take a walk with me

Every day the first thing I see when I come out my door is sweet little Mimi laying on the back porch.

...the bird bath rock garden that dad built

some echinacea...
and my first greenhouse habanero

From the back yard it's not far to the goats and the orchard...as we walk along the east side of the orchard you can see how dry our property gets in the summer when we don't water,

that dead tree on the hill used to be a play fort for the children. When I turn around I see the green grass of the orchard and the cool shade.

North side of the property we have a lovely shaded walk way.

Some things you just have to give up on...the photo of the 2 wild overgrown trees used to be the entrance to the rose garden.

Bonato tomahto is CLOSED....The ducks come waddling especially if it's breakfast time.

Now on to the food section of the garden. Purple snapbeans and parsley.

Interspersed with the veggies are snapdragons, cosmos, marigolds, nasturtiums, and many other flowers and herbs. I thought with our cool summer this year I wouldn't get much but I see that I've got some lovely melons on their way.

We've already picked a lot of cabbage, green beans, green onions, leeks, cucumbers, zucchini, acorn squash, tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, kale, lettuce...did I miss anything? Praise be to Yahweh for His abundant provision!

Gardening season has been coming in very slowly this year. With our last frost coming two weeks late, many people had damaged plants including me...I've been dragging my feet but somehow I managed to fill quite a bit of the garden with the help of my mom and my hard working employee Rosie. Here are a few new shots I took this morning in the garden.

This one is my indoor garden, it gets quite a bit warmer in the grow tunnel so I'm hoping to boost growth of my melons, tomatoes, and peppers.

Here we have 39 cabbage...more to be added soon. Next year I'll remember that cabbage plants aren't as popular as I hoped.

Yum Strawberries!

And last but not least, here is a shot of my plant sale after we arranged it in a new area. There is still some work to be done sooo... I may post up a new plant sale photo later if I can make any improvements.

Happy Spring and happy gardening!

What's up!

Wow! I haven't been on here for a long while. The spring rush hit me in April and I've been buried ever since. I've wanted to come write for so long now but when I think about it...there's just never any time. So now I've found a few minutes to write. Dad and Mom are out of town for the day and here I sit eating Dad's ice cream with my strawberries doused with chocolate for breakfast. :) I should be outside working but I'm sure the work will still be there when the bowl of ice cream is gone.

Alright, what I've been doing all spring is gardening, gardening, gardening. I filled my greenhouse with thousands of seedlings to repot and sell at a plant sale. I named the plant sale Bonato Tomahto, you can visit my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002323334012 I use FB to post all my plant photos, so if you want to see photos, go there.

Mmm, this ice cream is too good!(good thing I've been walking 3 times a week)

I'm still keeping up on the violin like I should. I knew that staying motivated would be difficult over the spring and summer so I made the commitment to stay in lessons and I practice each morning before I head out to care for the garden. I am getting better but I still sound pretty beginnerish...too busy so far to post another video though. I'm working on a few Pleyel duets and trying hard to master 3rd position, vibrato is coming slowly but it is coming, yay!

Well the ice cream is gone so I guess so am I.

Thanks for reading, hope you are all doin great!

Shabbat Shalom!

Shabbat Shalom my dear friends! I spent a good portion of this week sewing garments for myself so I'm uploading a photo to share with y'all of me enjoying one of my new modest garments this lovely Shabbat evening.

Mom also got a new dress, so we both got dressed up. :)

Yep, we're goofing off, I love attacking mom with an almost too cozy hug from time to time... It may look like she's trying to choke me but she actually pushing me away before the slobbery kisses start, heh.

The fun has begun

Mom has been having the patience test of her life as I filled her kitchen, dining, and laundry rooms with dirt and pots and seeds. I've been having a blast doing it, well, most of the time anyway. Here you can see my babies are already sprouting. These are the laundry room plants.

More photos to come soon as the project expands. :)

These are zinnias. I have also started some of my peppers, chrysanthemums, petunias, lupine, eggplant, shasta daisies, and who knows what else...I forget.

Purity

Purity has been on my mind lately as many friends around me have had questions or concerns arising in their own lives or in the lives of ones dear to their hearts. I have see many wonderful examples through the years, of couples striving to keep their relationships pure and right before Yahweh at all times. I'm thankful for each example and greatly encouraged. Today's world does not value purity in the way Yahweh desires for his beloved to value purity.

There are two books I would like to recommend to any single person who values purity, singles who aren't happy with the worlds way, or who are simply curious, or for parents who desire their child to remain pure through thick and thin.

His Perfect Faithfulness, The Story Of Our Courtship by Eric and Leslie Ludy

The Magic Touch, A Jewish Approach To Relationships by Gila Manolson

Though these books are geared toward singles, I would definitely recommend them to all. Both are easy reading.

When I first read "His Perfect Faithfulness" I was only 14 years old. My mom had brought the book home and dad still likes to recall that the first time she handed him the book, he threw across the room and said "why do I need to read a book on courtship? I'm already married!" He must have had a change of heart because he read it and shortly after we had a pile of copies to hand out to other families we met. A while has passed since then and the book has been collecting dust on my shelf till a few weeks ago. I picked it up and was uplifted once again by this couple's story of how Yahweh directed their steps in purity. Now it's loaned out, my only copy, so coming this week, I plan to put in an order so I'll have copies on hand once again.

As for "The Magic Touch", I think it's a good read for anyone but especially for you singles who may be a little skeptical about pursuing purity in relationships with the opposite sex. Are you wondering if you are missing out on something special by not partaking in the worlds version of building relationships? I would hope that "The Magic Touch" will help you to see that it is the world that is missing out on Yahweh's plan for building good relationships through purity.

Circumcision Of the Heart

This wasn't the greatest on my part but YRM did a good job on editing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve8rYi51eEM

Surprise Salad Recipe!

I have the best recipe for a tossed garden salad. When I'm not thinking about playing the violin, or stressing out over a busy schedule, I'm drooling over thoughts of fixing this lovely recipe! Prepare yourselves for a most unusual list of ingredients. :D

Ingredients:

A big pile of autumn leaves

A large bag or 5 of shredded paper

A 2 string bale of straw

An old bale of moldy hay

Chopped vegetable remnants from the kitchen

A huge truck load of steamy hot cow manure

Tools:

Wheel barrow

Pitchfork

Two strong arms

Instructions:

Once you have all the above mentioned tools and ingredients, choose a large outdoor area for mixing.

(1).

It's very important not to layer any one ingredient too thickly. I begin by covering an area of about 4X4 with 4 to 6 inches of steamy hot cow manure which I got from the dairy down the road. It's nicely pressed so that the liquid is mostly out of it and it's crumbly rather than slimy.

(2).

Then I fluff a layer of paper shreds over the manure, you don't want the paper too dense because it will become matted.

(3).

Next sprinkle a couple of inches of autumn leaves, straw, and hay. Once again, it should be sprinkled and fluffed so not to become matted. Between the paper, straw, hay, and leaves, you should now have about 6 inches of material on top of the manure. Lastly add your chopped kitchen vegetables.

You are not finished yet. Repeat steps 1,2, and 3 until the pile is at least 3 feet high! This will help the pile to build heat and decompose quickly.

(4).

Let rest for 48 hours. Both you and the pile will need to rest.

(5).

After 48 hours of rest, toss the pile thoroughly. The pile should be very hot and steamy after resting. I prefer to completely flip the pile by rebuilding it in the spot right next to the pile. Use your pitch fork.

Repeat numbers 4 and 5, seven times. At the end of 2 weeks your pile should be beautifully decomposed into a rich pile of dirt!

Next, if you are planning on using your dirt for potted plants, you should cover your dirt pile or bag it to keep weed seeds from blowing in and contaminating the dirt. If you plan to use it in your garden then spread it where most needed.

Be sure to view my other post to see pictures!

Pile Tossing!

Just look at that steam rise, hold your breath if you want to survive!

Here I'm diggin into pile no. 4 for the first time.

Some things just make certain people happier.

Smile!

Beginning toss of piles 1 and 2, you can just barely see the steam rising.

Amy the cat wanted to be in the final pile photo shoot.

This is pile 1 and 2 combined into one pile.

Next time I will be able to toss the whole pile over the wooden divider.

Happy Composting!