Something new

These days I have been preparing for Sukkot. Our family will be traveling to Indiana to meet with some brethren there. I'm so excited about the trip and being the goosy girl that I am I just had to have some new clothes for the trip! One thing you learn really fast when you dress in modest dresses all the time(not to mention, natural fibers) is that there is no where convenient to shop especially in a town like Moses Lake. So I decided to order a few unsewn jumpers and a dress online. After my order arrived and I examined the lovely cut-outs, I started thinking about the insides of all my other homemade garments which begin to fray after being washed once. I knew the only answer was to buy a serger so I headed to town the next day and bought a Bernina 1150.The store had to order it and while I waited for it's arrival I learned how to operate the same machine at the store. The funny part of it is that I had ordered the garments unsewn to save money but then here I am buying a new serger! Dad did reassure me that since I've been sewing since I was 10 years old that it would be a good investment so I went ahead. After my new little treasure arrived I set to serging my garments. It's so unbelievable!!! Every edge that I've sewn...and I was just smiling the whole time knowing that the insides of my clothes would look as nice as the outsides even after being washed. I've officially renamed my serger "the happiness machine" lol! Mom says I'm totally spoiled but I don't care...just look at the inside of my dress!

Cats Love Cantaloupe

Mom and I have been doing some major diet makeover in our kitchen lately. It's been on the to do list for quite some time but getting around to doing the to do list isn't always as easy as it sounds. A while back I bought the book Whole Foods And Healing Recipes by Ron Lagerquist. It gathered dust for about 5 months before I felt so bad about keeping it hidden away in the bedroom that I brought it out to re-read. By some miracle I was able to persuade mom to read it too and next thing I knew we were buying carrots, corn, and cantaloupe!

Now speaking of cantaloupe, we've been buying "herds of cantaloupe"(as Lagerquist says) each week for a dollar a piece at the roadside stand. Now mom is not convinced yet that we should juice the whole cantaloupe rind and all but did you know that is the most nutritious way to eat a cantaloupe? According to Lagerquist's research, cantaloupe(rind and all) are high in vitamin A and C, myoinositol, and a large amount of digestive enzymes. They are also good for weight loss and in fighting off certain types of cancer!

Learning some of these fascinating facts on cantaloupe has been enough to keep me interested in eating it for breakfast...but the rinds? A few year back(honestly it was like 13 years back) we realized that our cat Mimi LOVES cantaloupe! We found it funny so we tried feeding her all sorts of fruits and veggies. She didn't really catch on to the vegan concept. We did have another cat that liked peaches and pineapple, and our cat Amy tasted Dr. Pepper once...um that's another story though. So, back to the rinds. Last year I had too many cantaloupe in the garden and they were starting to rot so I took little old Mimi out there and showed her where to harvest and she just dug those fanged teeth right into the rind and began eating. So the cat knows what's good for her and she's not going to let the taste of a tough cantaloupe rind get in the way of her raw food consumption! So take a lesson from my cat and eat your rinds.

Well so far each morning I'm still throwing the rinds out the back door hoping to hit the compost bucket and occasionally I'll throw one toward the cat. And if one of these mornings you catch me gnawing on cantaloupe rind...don't raise your eyebrows at me, I'm just trying to follow Mimi's good example.

A long day in the life of me.

I didn't feel like doing anything today, not sure what's up with that. When lack of motivation strikes what is one to do? I woke at the reasonable time of 6:30 and hopped right out of bed. I made straight for the kitchen and juiced 9 carrots, a huge beet greens and all, 3 stalks of celery, 5 small cucumbers, half of a yellow pepper, and an apple. With a breakfast like that I should have felt ready for the long day of hard work that lay ahead(and for those of you who are wondering if I drank all that juice by myself, no I did not, I shared with dad and mom). Next I headed for the barn but somehow I ended up sitting in dad's office(which, by the way is in the opposite direction) when I should have been milking the goats. I did eventually make it out to the barn a half hour late. After coming back in and cleaning the kitchen the "blahs" hit. I was determined to go outside and get something done but since I was feeling uninspired I asked dad to assign me a job! He gave me a few things to do and it's a good thing they were quick and easy because half way into the first job I was BORED and it was hot. I followed with a few chores of my own choosing and gave them 100% of my half hearted effort. By 1 in the afternoon I was fed up so I showered and set up my sewing station to do some mending. I mended one skirt in about 10 minutes then got sidetracked by the fabric supply in the sewing room which proved to be somewhat productive since I was able to sort out a few things that needed to go away. I never found the dream piece of fabric to make a new dress from but I did manage to cover every surface in the living room with pieces of clothing and cloth.

Somehow in the middle of that I started thinking about FOOD! Homemade bread and nutty crackers, yum! Last time I had thought to make bread I could not find my favorite recipe but I was pretty certain I knew where to find the cracker recipe. So I abandoned the sewing machine, the clothing scattered all over the place, and the boxes in the sewing room for the recipe shelf in the kitchen. To my delight I found both the bread and cracker recipe together! I set to digging out the grains, nuts, and seeds that make the yummiest bread and crackers.

Now as it's getting to be evening, the crackers are finished and the bread is rising. I still feel like a slug but at least sometime in the next hour I'll be a slug full of the yummiest bread ever. Then with the way I feel, perhaps I should take a nap...maybe I should have taken a nap this morning at 11 when the thought first crossed my mind...on the other hand would I have found my favorite bread recipe if I had taken a nap?...come to think of it, I can't take a nap(exasperated sigh), I have a big mess to clean up!

Looking back

Sometimes looking back can be such an eye opener. Here I sit rather absorbed in my life right now and it is so easy to forget where I came from and how I got to where I am. Sometimes it's good not to think about the past too much, I mean, you don't want to dwell on past mistakes since it's done and cannot be changed. I've been running into more and more people lately who are Torah observant as I seek fellowship and friends. Sometimes in my search I meet people who are suffering, struggling, or wrestling with their circumstances, people who want to know where Yahweh is in their trouble, and why isn't He helping them or answering their prayers? I try my best to give these people encouraging words or scriptures and relating to them in the best way I know how. One day recently I was thinking on a certain person I've been writing to and wondering how they ever got to be in such a dark place, nothing I can say makes this person feel better, all they can see is how terrible their circumstances are right now. I'm not even sure if I can relate to them because it is so far from where I am now. Something prompted me to browse my old journal and I discovered that about 6 years ago I was in a similar dark place! I was shocked at how some of my own writings looked so much like some of the correspondence I had received from my friend. As I read further I was amazed how over time Yahweh worked through me as I sought Him above worldly pursuits that tempted me and the peace He gave me to live my life as He was directing not as I wished. It seems so long ago now that I even had these feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and no sense of direction. Yahweh was faithful! My life is not what I asked Him to make it in the sense of worldly desires and hopes but He has filled it with meaning and has helped me to live each day with a good attitude, contentment, and a servants heart. I'm so thankful for what Yahweh has done in my life. I would pray for everyone to find this same peace He has bestowed on my life...I truly believe that Yahweh can do this for anyone who seeks Him, no matter what the circumstance. Seek Him until you find!

Goat care ect.

Spring time can be such an inspiring time of year with blossoms on the fruit trees, the greenhouse full to the brim with plants, a soft breeze with the wind chimes singing, and the warm sun shining through the clouds after a sprinkling rain. Some where in the midst of all that inspiration though fits goats and all the fun that goes with them...like electric fence repair, one goat who escapes about 5 times a day regardless of the condition of the fence, giving shots(ugh), trimming feet(which includes getting kicked over and over and over), oh yes and don't forget getting ready for birthing. I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of me purchasing my first goats. Originally I thought it would be nice to get some goats to eat the pastures down because we had too much mowing to do, then I though that if I was going so far as to buy goats then I should get them bred that way they would be productive in more than one way. Don't be fooled though, nothing is ever as simple as it may seem...pregnant goats need supplements, alfalfa, grain, salt licks, shots, shelter, feet trimmed....oh and don't forget, they think they are people and so they aren't happy enough with their own company, they want me to stay in the barn and visit them.
Well this week we had to give shots, since the idea doesn't make my stomach feel too well mom offered to come and help. It still didn't go very well, goats just don't have much skin on their necks and we couldn't get one of the goats to stand still at all! In frustration we didn't finish that day. The next day I read that giving the shot behind the front elbow was a much easier place so I set out with determination to get those shots done. We have a milking stanchion so I went ahead and locked the goats one by one in the stanchion and administered the shots with ease. I was so happy!!! It didn't even make me feel sick. With the right tools and some good advice a job can be made so much simpler and make a beginner like me feel like a pro.

Passover Preparation

Here we are and passover is just before us! We had hoped to drive to MO to keep passover with the YRM assembly but as it has neared a long trip seemed more unlikely. With a house being prepared for sale, my brother's kids coming for a week long visit, and many other smaller interruptions. We use passover as a good reason to do some spring cleaning each year as we clean out the crumbs, leaven, and fermented foods. This year somehow most of the cleaning got put off to the last week so while we were spending the week with the children we tried to fit in our spring cleaning as well. Then if things are difficult enough already I got hit with a throat virus Thursday that knocked me off me feet for the day(I had fever,chills, faintness,weakness,headache,achy muscles, not to mention a swollen sore throat), happily for everyone I was able to work the next day but nearing the end of Sabbath I couldn't even speak above a whisper sooo I'm still rather speechless today but the house is quiet and peaceful since the children have gone back home to Oregon. Now in the next 24 hours we have to see if we can finish the spring cleaning and then it's on to eating delicious homemade unleavened bread for the next week, Yum!
Thank Yahweh for sending us Yashua as a passover lamb! HalleluYah!

To garden or not to garden?

Is that the question of late or not?! I'm sure that there are places all over where gardening is the last thing on people's minds but here in Moses Lake we have had sunny day after sunny day. The greenhouse doesn't even think of getting below freezing anymore even on cold nights. Sadly for the cats that used to live in there(I booted them out to the barn) I have filled most of the shelves with trays of seedlings. I started feeling a little anxious after starting over 500 tomatoes, 200 peppers, and several hundreds of flowers and greens. And no, I couldn't stop there when I ran out of starter pots I ordered enough to fill every crack and cranny of that greenhouse with starts...the only problem now is that when all those starts outgrow their cell pots I will have to transplant them into 4 inch pots so somehow between now and transplanting time I need to come up with a way to expand my greenhouse capacity by four times! Next week I plan to put up a mini grow tunnel made of 3 or 4 PVC pipes bent into half circles and covered with plastic. I don't know how many plant will fit into that but it will surely relieve the greenhouse of some of the expansion difficulties. Thankfully last year uncle Tony gave me nearly 5000 4 inch pots so I don't think I'll run out of those. Perhaps you could call me a planting addict. :D

So what do I do when I become overwhelmed by my own life that when it becomes so full that I don't think I can take anymore? Usually I end the day with a great big deep breath and I tell myself, "just one moment at a time, Yahweh will give me the grace to deal with this moment and each moment just one at a time." 2 Corinthians 12:9
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Yahshua may rest upon me." So what Yahweh gives me is all I need. If it feels like too much, it's likely that I'm wrong because surely Yahweh is not! I'm not supposed to be worrying over tomorrow anyway. Matthew 6:34 says "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." Sometimes just knowing that I shouldn't be worrying isn't enough to bring my racing mind at night calm down enough for sleep. This is truly where prayer and sometime focusing on a specific verse is helpful. One lesson I've learned from being a bit of a worrier is that no matter how busy, overwhelming, or painful life gets, the sun still rises in the morning and life still goes on. Yahweh gives me the strength to move through whatever it is that lies in my path each day.