Stubborn Self Will

I saw this posted on Mommy Life and thought it was WONDERFUL!!! Reprinted with permission from KS Milkmaid, the author of the post and picture. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. I think I'll post it on my frig to remind me of MY stubbornness.

Farming brings you close to creation. I pause when doing chores and listen to the creation speak about the wonders of God. Often I observe the animals and note profound lessons about my own humanity in the context of God’s majesty. For example, look at this picture of Marco.

We just separated him from his mother. We were trying to move him to a different paddock on the farm. Marco just wouldn’t cooperate. We decided we would have better luck with a halter. However, he had never been on a halter before. Marco did not want to budge. We desperately tried to lead him to the lush green pasture. As a farmer, I knew it was time for him to rely more on solid food, to grow and develop. But, Marco wanted his mother’s milk. He locked down with all the stubborn self will a Jersey steer can muster.

When I looked at this picture of Marco, I thought of my own stubborn self will. Christ often attempts to lead me to green pastures. He is encouraging me to grow and mature, but I lock down and won’t budge. I think the status quo is better. I don’t want change and I don’t want to be refined either. I lock down just like this stubborn Jersey steer. I can’t remain on milk forever. I need solid food.

Hebrews 5:13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Udderly His,

The Kansas Milkmaid

Give Away Winners

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

Hanging Dish Towel..... Our 7 qtpies

Finger Pin Cushion.... Katy of Katy's Flowers

Crocheted Dish Cloth.... Janne's Jabberwocky

Crocheted Name....Jennifer at Chronicles of a Night Owl

CONGRATULATIONS!
What fun this has been.
:o)

Contest Update

Since we will be out of town tomorrow,
I have decided to announce the winner at about 5 AM tomorrow.
So cut off for comments/entries will be 9PM TODAY.

I will ship prizes Monday, except for the crocheted name (item #1),
I will need a couple of weeks to get that made.

Give Away Item #4

This is the last GIVE AWAY item for the week.

It is a finger pincushion.

Free delivery to the USA only. Winner will be announced Friday morning.

Please leave a comment on each item you are interested in.

Give Away Item #3

Today's Dog Days of Summer GIVE AWAY item is a crocheted dishcloth!

Drawing will be Friday evening.

Free shipping the USA only please.

You must comment on each item you would like your name entered for!

Come back tomorrow to see the finial GIVE AWAY for the week.

Give Away Item #2

As part of the Dog Days of Summer,
hosted by Rocks in My Dryer, here is Today's GIVE AWAY:

a hanging dishtowel.

Just leave me a comment, with name and e-mail address.
Drawing will be Friday evening.

Free shipping only to the USA.


DON'T FORGET
to come back each day this week for a
different item being GIVEN AWAY!

You MUST comment on EACH item you want your name put in on.

Give Away Item #1

Rocks in My Dryer

is hosting a Bloggy Give Away. As of right now there are over 200 items being given away by other bloggers. There is no catch, no hidden cost (not even shipping), jump over to her site and sign up for the drawings. But first sign up for mine! Be sure to come back here to see what else I'll be giving away this week!!! :o)

I am going to announce a different GIVE AWAY item Monday-Thursday. The actual drawing for these items will be held Friday evening. We will be traveling so I cannot tell you the exact time but it will be Friday.

All you have to do is comment on each item you would like to have your name entered for. Be sure to leave your name and email address so I can contact you.

Monday's GIVE AWAY item is a Crocheted Doily Name. If you do win, I ask that you limit it to no more than 10 letters. It can be first or last name, be made in white or beige and be in script or manuscript letters.

If this is something you wouldn't need, think about using it as a Christmas gift!

FREE SHIPPING IN THE USA ONLY...please.

Pistachio/Strawberry Cake

We've had two outings this week and I made this cake both times. Once for our Quilter's Guild meeting and then the next day I taught a SWEET group of girls a quilting lesson. This cake went over really well both times, so I'll share. Now it does look alittle Christmasy, but we had no pretty daisies left, and the only yellow flowers we have are marigolds and who wants a 'stinky' flower on their cake?!

Use a white or yellow cake mix, bake according to directions in a 9x13 pan.

After baking, dump it within 5 minutes and
then using a cookie sheet and flip it again so that the rounded top is face up.
After letting it cool, trim the 'hump' off with a long serrated knife, so that the cake is flat.
If you have time, let it air dry an hour or so, would be best over night.

Cut the cake into thirds.

For the icing mix large 1 carton of whipping cream until it is almost finished (soft peaks).
Then add one package of pistachio instant pudding mix.
Whip only a minute or so until it is mixed throughly. Do NOT over whip.

Using a pastry bag pipe out the icing around the edges of the cake,
you could also just use your spatula and put it on if you did not have a pastry bag.

I used a strawberry/rhubarb jam that Olivia made last week.
Regular jam would be fine, or use just the icing if you don't want the jam.
On the first cake I made the jam really soaked into the cake,
so on the second one I did a thin layer of the icing
before adding the jam and that seemed to help.
I also let the cake air dry (with a light towel on it) over night before cutting and icing.

Place the middle layer on.
You will want to press in down a little to help it get settled.

Repeat what we did on the first layer.

Add the top layer and ice the cake with a thick layer on top and then the sides.

You can use a large star tip to decorate with your left over icing (I did not do it on this cake). Add some fresh mint leaves and/or fresh flowers.
Fresh strawberries would be very pretty too!

ENJOY!

Note: On this cake I did not use as much whipping cream and I thought the icing was a little too heavy. So on the second cake (not pictured) I use the whole carton of whipping cream and it was lighter, which I liked better.

Loving Prodigals

Barbara of MommyLife.net posted my email to her on her website. She shared some encouraging words in response I thought I'd share. You can go HERE to read it.

Before I go any further I want to say that I live a VERY good life, God has given me more than I could ever hope for. I know that He alone is God and that none of our trials come as a surprise to Him, in fact He is the One that orders my footsteps. I am ashamed when I question His providence in my life.

All that being said, I don't know if there is a pain deeper than the pain of a grown child going wayward. (by the way, I have suffered the pain of a child dying) When a parent spends the majority of their blood, sweat and tears with a child and then when given the chance that child turns away from Truth, the pain is almost unbearable. It is a constant struggle not to let this pain consume your every thought of every day. But as the hours turn into days, and days into weeks, God slowly brings YOU into repentance. Repentance of the sin of 'idolizing' the creation, rather than the Creator. It is Christ alone that our joy must depend on. If we have to have comfortable, ideal situations to walk in peace and joy then we have no idea what suffering for Christ is all about.

Parenting adults is HARD! When I say parenting I do not mean controlling, I mean loving, nurturing, guiding etc... As our son is making bad choices (that is putting it mildly), he has completely broken our hearts. I've had days that I have felt like I would never see day light again, but I am. I am not my son's Holy Spirit, neither is his Dad, we are only his parents. He is now under direct care of OUR Heavenly Father, who does NOT fail. I know in time that God will make Joshua's faith real and strong. I don't understand why we have to travel down this road, and I don't have to understand, I simply have to trust the Lord.

God gave us a job of loving and training our children, and we have (and still are) poured every ounce of our being into this God given task. I have to constantly remind myself that the story is not completely written yet, there are always dark times before before the glorious resurrection of God's power in our lives.

I struggle with showing love when I am hurt or angry. I live under a family curse of running from problems and writing people off when wronged with the slightest offense and I am determined to break that curse with God grace.

This morning I read:

If someone forces you to go one mile,
go with him two miles.
Mathew 5:41

I feel like Joshua is forcing me go two miles with him. This should be the time of our lives when we should be enjoying the fruit of our labor of his raising. It should be an exciting time as he begins his young adult life and establishing himself...but I guess not. So as he is FORCING me to go down this road that I DO NOT want to travel, I will go with him....loving him, praying and fasting for him, yet keeping my eyes on the only One that can save!

Lord, use me according to your will, not mine, where ONLY YOU can receive the glory!

My Favorite Scene

OK, so I drive my family a little nuts always taking pictures...of EVERYTHING! But one day they will be glad they have thousands and thousands of pictures to look back on. The other night I snook up behind Jeff and took this picture. This is my absolute favorite scene to see in my home, my husband feasting on God's word. You can give me a one room shack and it would be OK as long as I have a husband that loves the Lord!

Yesterday, Olivia and I were out for our walk and we walked past a house of a friend of ours that recently died. Olivia commented on how sad it was that he was always working on that house, making it so nice, and now it just sits there empty and neglected. I reminded her what is even more sad is that he spent all of his time working on that house, but he did not build his spiritual house. This earthly house will one day be ashes, it is our spiritual house that is everlasting.

And how guilty I am of doing the same thing, getting distracted doing THINGS, and not spending enough time at the feet of the Lord.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Mathew 6:19-21

The Waiting Game

We all have situations that we want to fix but we cannot. The only thing we can do is pray and wait, trusting the One that has created us, that He will be faithful to keep His promise.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,
but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:8-9

Our Church

I love our church .
We are a fairly young church. Our church building is less than 2 years old,
but it has a colonial design that is simple and beautiful!
When you walk in this building you know you are at church,
it has a very reverent atmosphere.
I just LOVE church windows, as you can see below.
I love going to church, I love to worship, I love communion,
I love to be fed with the Word,
and I love fellowship with the Saints.


Jeremiah 7:2
" Stand in the gate of the LORD'S house and proclaim there this word and say,
'Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah,
who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!'"

Psalm 66:4
" All the earth will worship You,And will sing praises to You;
They will sing praises to Your name." Selah.





Psalm 95:6
Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

John 4:23
"But an hour is coming, and now is,
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth;
for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.


Psalm 2:11
Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling.

Revelation 13:8
All who dwell on the earth will worship him,
everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation
of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

Sisters!

Last Tuesday after our time at the quiting guild,
we stopped to snap a few (well more than a few) pictures at the park.

I hope they will be best friends all of their life!

Silly girls!

Anyone that knows Emma, THIS expression is the REAL her...
caution, she is probably cooking something up!

Remembering The Fourth

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet,
as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take;
but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Patrick Henry March 23, 1775

Let us remember WHY we are able to freely celebrate
our privilege as a sovereign nation.
More so, let us exercise our rights and our DUTY.

Freedom is not free.

Ladies Finishing School

Thanks to Tammy, I found this online Ladies Finishing School.
It is a 12 week course.

The beginning of it can be found here:
A Merry Rose

The first week's lessons are here:
Charming the Birds From the Tress

Topics will be:

* How to live elegantly on a budget
* Embroidery or some other type of lovely handwork
* Sewing an apron or a nightgown
* Etiquette, modern and traditional: including cell phone and email etiquette
* Teaching children about manners
* French culture and elementary French language
* How to prepare a simple and relatively inexpensive French meal
* Interior Decorating
* Flower Arranging, Centerpieces for tables,
* The art of Gift Giving, How to make birthdays and other occasions special
* The Lady's appointment book/calendar/household management book
* Art Appreciation
* Music Appreciation
* Personal presentation: poise, grooming, posture, skincare, etc.
* What to wear on what occasion
* How to be an interesting conversationalist; how to help guests enjoy talking to each other, etc.
* How to set a table for a casual lunch, a casual dinner, a more formal dinner, a tea, a buffet supper, etc.
* How to choose clothing and how to maintain clothing and shoes; the lady's closet, the lady's boudoir
* Encouraging our husbands in their work, being a life mate

Psalm 34:8
O taste and see that the LORD is good:
blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

Last year when our berries were just forming we had an awful hail storm, it wiped out almost all the blueberries and the storm did destroy all of strawberries. This year we are in a drought, which has slowed alot of the vegetable growth in our garden. But Saturday we were able to get almost a gallon of blueberries off our bushes (2 of them). They were SO GOOD! I made a cobbler, and Jeff wants me to make some waffles. We pretty much nibbled the rest of them away.

We are finally getting a few veggies in. A drought really makes you realize how much of God's goodness we take for granted. I feel for the farmers in our area.