Tag: cheer

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Good ol' days, Health, Homemaking, Inspiring, Who's the mom here?, Womanhood

You CAN Can!

Posted on by Katharine
Rotel, carrots, pumpkin, tomatoes, beets, tomato soup, pickles, and green beans
Rotel, carrots, pumpkin, tomatoes, beets, tomato soup, pickles, green beans, and more pickles.

I remember canning.

Mama had jars, lids, rings, spoons and pans all over her huge kitchen. She let me hand her the “rings” (screw bands) which I wore like bracelets up and down my then skinny arms. The temperature in there had to be at least 100 degrees, but I do not remember that. I remember her praise when I managed to stay focused on my job and hand her the ring on time. I felt so grown up.

I also remember disappointments, especially the cherry jelly that turned out like taffy. MY we loved that. I remember our neighbor, Eula, tanned and in flip-flops, who made her own catsup. And dear old Mrs. Secrest, who always gave me hand-pumped cold drinks from the well inside her dark, quiet house.

For some reason I’ve kept those memories fondly. I’ve tried to resurrect them in my own adult life. I do canning. I make jelly and catsup. We have a well. I want this for my children’s heritage. I wonder why.

It’s not just that the food is better. It’s not only that it is more healthful. And it is not simply that I grew up with it.

It is the soil–the harvest–the glorious, breath-taking heat–the oceans of perspiration replenished by oceans of teas and juices. It’s working together, sharing . . .

Oh! I know what it is! It is the fellowship with those who have gone before and those who are to come, stepping into my place in a long, long line of real people living a real life, marching to the rhythm of summer.

So all my children and I would march down to the garden to harvest God’s blessing for each day.

I hope you will join us. Then together we will all put back something for those special winter days when only that which is straight from the garden will do.

Tomorrow: Six Tricks to Get You out of the Canning Kitchen Faster!

Posted in Health

She’s Back!

Posted on by Katharine

Well, I promised a report from the eye doctor, and here it is.

I do not have glaucoma and I do not have macular degeneration. Whew!

What I do have, though, is somewhat serious: fluid on the eye.

Now if you are scratching your head and thinking ALL eyes have fluid, you are echoing my first comments to the good Dr.

Patiently, the explanation came: The interior of the eye is supposed to contain fluid, yes, but the tissue comprising the perimeter of the eyeball comes in several layers and my excess fluid is between those layers where it does not belong.

This fluid build-up warps the “screen” on the backside of the eyeball and in that way, causes my vision distortion. He says this condition points to high blood pressure, which mine was not great, but satisfactory while I was there in the office. So we are puzzled, but will find the cause.

At least it is something that is fixable. He says once we determine and eliminate the cause, I might find improvement, or else he can treat it at that time. Yea!

So, all you who have prayed, please keep up the good work as I try hard to be in better health, whatever that means, to keep my vision.

To the rest of you, I say, thanks for putting up with my couple of personal posts.

And to all, I say, “sorry” for taking off so many days for all the running around I had to do regarding this condition. Really good eye doctors are rare and booked to the ceiling at all times. My 9:00 a.m. appointment took until 2:00 p.m. to complete, simply because of the sheer multitude of patients there that day.

And the doctor, for some reason, said, “It’s not going to get better in the future.”

 

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Home School, Homemaking, Inspiring, Sayings, Wisdom, Womanhood

ABC’s OF HOMESCHOOL

Posted on by Katharine

Hello, Friends!

This week I must devote entirely to several speaking chores. So I thought you would enjoy viewing the introductions to my presentations. Here they are in their approximate final draft. Enjoy!

RNLI at Boat Race 2012
RNLI at Boat Race 2012 (Photo credit: Annie Mole)

Raising children is like a boat race:

  • You never feel ready
  • You always feel watched
  • It’s hard to change your mind
  • Disasters can happen

Too often, a bad beginning can cause a disastrous ending.

What can we do to ensure we are even in the right boat?

Since we are SO FAR from the shore, what are some boat safety rules?

 A. We can examine our attitudes. Many begin this race badly, with a bad attitude when they board the good ship homeschool.

Sometimes people begin home schooling because of a bad teacher experience. Often these parents are angry and the thrust of their actions is intended as a javelin thrust into some teacher or educational system.

They just want to rock the boat . . . .

We all need to get used to the fact that the State Institutions are failing everywhere. It is not personal. It just is a cosmic failure, such as comes every time we build a cosmic house of cards.

Those who begin for this reason, alone, often stop just as dramatically as they began, when they, for some reason, decide putting their child in a State Institution is not really such a bad idea, after all.

Some parents begin because the child is failing. Whether he is unable to learn, or simply untaught where he is, the parent decides to take the plunge because of embarrassment or natural protective instincts toward the child. This reason also fails the parent quickly, because soon as the child homeschools, he does better.

Amazing!

The parents allow this progress to lull them into a false sense of security. They opt for State Institutionalization for their beloved child, after all, thinking the problems were a false alarm.

They change boats in the middle of the race, and slow the progress of both methods.

The third reason is more stable. These people do not become quitters as easily.

They are the ones who begin because they see the rightness, the necessity of it. They see God’s commands to teach our own children. They see the State Institutions growing constantly more hostile to morality.

They see ketchup as a vegetable and “two mommies” as a norm, or even a goal.

These frightening observations rivet them and they realize homeschooling as a part of being a family,
homeschooling as a part of the decision to have children,
homeschooling even as a part of the decision to marry.

It’s just the natural, normal result, for them, of being alive and desiring to succeed.

And they do.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Blessings of Habit, Homemaking, Inspiring, Sayings, Wisdom, Womanhood

LET’S DON’T BE TURKEYS!

Posted on by Katharine

Hello, Friends!

This week I must devote entirely to several speaking chores. So I thought you would enjoy viewing the introductions to my presentations. Here they are in their approximate final draft. Enjoy!

Disorganization vs. Order

Don't be such a turkey!We lingered over lunch, one day, with dear old friends, while they shared stories of life on their farm. They had owned a crazy bull, and some weird goats, and we enjoyed some great laughs at their antics. The story of the turkey, though, weakened us with laughter to the point of tears.

They say turkeys are stupid. Their turkey was a full-grown tom, and accustomed to life on the farm. It was so accustomed (and so stupid) that they had been able for two whole YEARS to keep it fully contained using only half a fence.

I do NOT mean just the bottom half, but just two adjoining fence panels, just the corner they made.

This poor, stupid creature did not know that it could escape by going past the fence. It had learned that the fence (at one time) was perpetual, like a circle with corners, and that was the only reality it could grasp: the fence never ends, is impossible to escape.

It had worn an L-shaped path in the pasture, walking back and forth from one end of the fence, around the inside corner, to the other end, and back.

Before we laugh too hard, though, we need to look at ourselves a bit.

Many of us resolve to make major changes in our organizational skills. Why do we do that? What is so important about it that it has become such a rut for us that it is a lucrative business?

One thing that motivates each of us, whether we believe it or not, whether we care to admit it or not, is that God has placed the desire inside each of us. Even those who do not know Him have this God-given love for the inviting beauty that comes from being organized.

We know it is true. But it takes so much mental energy to keep everything going, to remember everything, to think every thought necessary for progress . . . Rational thought breaks down. We gripe. And increasing voice volume does NOT increase productivity. We become unpleasant to live with. We retrace steps, going back and forth.

Like that turkey.

When we organize, though, daily chores run smoothly. Adding extra challenges is only slightly challenging. Our thoughts are only of adding a new emphasis or a special touch; of how best to bless someone; of what God wants from us. Instead of scowls of anxiety, we wear smiles of excitement.

Stress taxes our health. It causes illness, accidents, and waste. When we learn to flow more naturally within our daily activities, we add to our health, safety, and even our savings account. We become better stewards of the gifts God has given us.

Let’s go there!

Posted in Good ol' days, Inspiring, Wisdom

Saturday Saying: Round

Posted on by Katharine

Simple Gifts

‘Tis a gift to be simple, ‘tis a gift to be free.
‘Tis a gift to come round where you ought to be.
And when you find yourself in a place just right
‘Twill be in the land of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed.
To turn and turn will be our delight,
Until turning, turning, we come round right.

Posted in Good ol' days, Inspiring, Scripture, Wisdom

Sunday Scriptures – Lines

Posted on by Katharine

In honor of the 400th anniversary of the translation of the Bible into English, commissioned by King James of England in 1611, and originally published by Robert Barker, printer to the King, I will use this version for the rest of this year in these posts. Hope we can enjoy the quaint differences we find here and appreciate all that went into it.

The lines are fallen vnto mee in pleasant places; yea, I haue a goodly heritage.  –Psalms 16:6

The heauens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handy works.
Day vnto day vterreth speach, and night vnto night sheweth knowledge.
There is no speach or language, where their voyce is not heard.
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world: In them hath he set a tabernacle for the Sunne.
Which is as a bridegrome coming out of his chamber, and reioyceth as a strong man to runne a race.
His going forth is from the end of the heauen, and his circuite vnto the ends of it: and there is nothing hidde from the heat thereof.  –Psalm 19:1-6

Whome shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to vnderstand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milke, and drawen from the breasts.
For precept must be vpon precept, precept vpon precept, line vpon line, line vpon line, here a litle, and there a litle.
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speake to this people.
To whom he said, This is the rest wherwith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing, yet they would not heare.  –Isaiah 28:9-12

Posted in Homemaking, Inspiring, Wisdom

My Favorite Woman

Posted on by Katharine

Today, as I folded old newspapers for the bottom layer of mulch around our front porch, I remembered the news. I hesitated to fold up the miners’ widows and children and place them down there with the earthworms. From an armload of the past year, I folded up wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in diverse places. I folded up a presumed leader or two who are all but jumping up and down with whining to rule the world. I put them all, all, all where they would molder and kept on about my business as if nothing were happening, only slightly disturbed, only somewhat concerned. I’ll probably mail more money somewhere, to help.

Yesterday I bought and planted. Tomorrow I hope to sell a few things. Tonight we’re having leftovers from a couple days of entertaining. I jokingly told my husband, “It’s either eat leftovers or else buy another fridge, take your pick.”

My calendar blackens fast. I face deadlines. The socks will not fold themselves.

Annie Herring called this state “earthbound”. That’s what I am—thinking about the dryer buzzer, or worse, the mulch, instead of the pain around me.

Just in this country, how many women lost their husbands to unfair mining practices lately? How many to unfair auto accidents, unfair divorce, unfair medical mistakes, unfair imprisonment? How many women lost children to similar causes, and more, such as school attacks and Ritalin-induced suicide last week, or murder? The toll is breathtaking. They would not all fit into the sanctuary of my church. Each one needs to know the power of God to get them through this. Few do. This, at last, breaks my heart. How will they cope? How will they survive without our wonderful Lord?

The world’s ways will not cut it. Although the world now acknowledges the need for forgiveness, it refuses to acknowledge the gift and the Giver of forgiveness. Only those who know the Lord’s way will truly thrive. Healing is right at hand, but few will take the cure. Most prefer the slow, scarring way with pockets of infection remaining below the surface.

I need to know forgiveness. I need to become closely familiar with her. She is such a true friend and has the balm for my every sore spot. I want to heal, to have only faint scars, not deep pockets of infection. I want to walk straight and with only a slight limp. I never want any wound to disable me permanently. Forgiveness can give me this.

Forgiveness is an often mis-defined, mysterious lady, so seldom sought out, yet totally reachable. There is no reason for the mystery, except our stubborn disinclination to hear her hidden song.

 Oh, the glory of shedding misconceptions about forgiveness and taking up her gift!