Ever have a day when your plans vanish? I’m there. It is good, though.
Today, I assist my carpenter. UP there.
You see, in our world, snow hardly ever falls, but last winter, we frolicked in lots of it. And our guttering suffered from lots of it. It sagged. It bulged. It pulled loose.
Then we learned the rest of the story.
Rot.
In our world, rain usually falls in buckets. Torrents. Sometimes, rain so furiously dumps on us in sheets and waterfalls, that we have seen it splash against a neighbor’s roof with enough force to make a wave that actually rains UP a few yards before surrendering to gravity again.
We need the guttering.
So, today, in firm belief that someday rain will actually fall on us again, we are removing the guttering, removing the siding, mending the rotted places, and re-attaching everything.
It’s a little like other problems: Have to deal with the cause of it to really stop it.
I look out my window and see dead trees, grass that’s brown and crunchy like Wheaties, cat dish always needing water . . . with all the heat we’ve had, isn’t it hilarious to read these old posts! Enjoy!
DAY OFF #2
Repairmen of streets, wires, and buildings will get our roads safe and everyone back in their places eventually.
In the meantime, we play in the snow.
The day begins with Dad shoveling snow and bleary-eyed offspring wandering into the kitchen to ask, “What is that noise?” We so seldom have the pleasure.
Now our snowman stands watch. Our cars are decorated with snow objects. Lots of hot cocoa has slipped away. I enjoyed the crazy antics of our two home-bound adult kids, playing in the snow as if they were grade-schoolers. How thankful I am for the snow! Realizing they can still find joy in each other’s company is bliss to this mom.
ALSO (here comes the fun part) THEY CAN PUT ON AND REMOVE THEIR OWN WRAPS!
THEY CAN HEAT THEIR OWN WATER AND STIR UP THEIR OWN HOT COCOA!
THEY CAN HANG ALL THEIR WET THINGS TO DRY!
THEY REMEMBER TO SHUT THE DOOR!
THEY THINK ABOUT NOT TRACKING THE HOUSE WITH SNOW AND MUD!
I get all the same fun as when they were younger, with none of the work.
Another amazing thing: No one grumbles today that the Internet is “down-ish”. We all have decided to do traditional snow-day fun and forget about the rest of the world. I love it. Board games, non-electric musical instruments, laundry hanging on wooden racks by the wood stove, homemade food, and wild birds have risen to the top of our most-selected interests list and everyone is content.
And I wonder: How is it in other homes? I hope you and yours enjoy a great day, today. I pray God grant you peace and contentment.
They recommend we repost something from January. I think I’ll do that for this week. Since the temperature jumps far above 100 degrees almost every day, for us, I have chuckled, reading past entries about snow days, and hope you enjoy them, too. And remember: the special effects folks at WordPress were sprinkling snow all over the place on our blogs, as we read them. 🙂
SNOW AND ICE AND SLUSH, OH MY!
Whew! What a treat this blast of winter has been!
We returned last night from visiting our Texas granddaughter for her birthday, to find our world quite cold and bleak. Now our fires are rebuilt, house is re-warmed, chick water is thawed, and icy crud on the car is knocked off. We literally had to plow our way through winter precipitation along a three-hour drive.
That took four hours.
I was surprised and blessed at how excited our passengers were. Our twenty-something offspring, home on winter break, were like little children as they recalled rare snow days from their past and giggled in excitement over the frightening but beautiful scenes around us.
We all learned much about snow tires, black ice, legalities, and travel safety in snow-slush-ice. My husband, born in Iowa and raised in northern Missouri, practiced every safety tip he knew, as he drove us home. Since we were experiencing his expertise first hand, he used it for an old-time, teachable moment, in hopes the rest of us could somehow be safer one day, should we have to drive in such conditions.
We probably won’t drive anywhere today, though. When universities and government buildings close, it’s time to stay home.
Instead, we will build a snowman. The snow will be perfect and it is deep, from our southern viewpoint: six inches. We will make snow angels and have at least one good snowball fight, although, YES, we’re all adults. We’ll have a huge breakfast with meat, and I’ll cook chili for lunch. Of course, we need more hot cocoa mix, so I’ll stir that up, too.
To continue the tricky list from yesterday’s post:
7. To rinse the spines off cucumbers without cutting your hands, use a washcloth, which protects you and is faster and gets them cleaner.
8. In an emergency, apples, bell peppers, and tomatoes may be frozen whole and raw (untreated). They must be perfectly spotless, unwashed, and in an airtight bag or container. They must be used within six months and they should be used for cooking only. Thaw tomatoes one at a time under running water for a few seconds. Skin should slip off easily, then core and pop it into your chili or whatever. For apples, thaw slightly at room temperature, peel or not, slice off of the core for pies, sauce, etc. Open, clean and chop bell peppers, frozen, or stuff and bake.
9. If you have plums galore, try freezing them whole and unwashed. Teach your children to love “plum-sicles” (and to wash them before they eat them.)
10. If you end up with more fruit juice than you have sugar or time, boil it, cool it, and freeze it in clean milk jugs, ¾ full. The jugs should have securely fitting lids. I made jelly with juice that had been frozen for a couple years and it was absolutely as wonderful as fresh. Allow about 24 hours for a gallon jug to thaw at room temperature.
11. To tell if apples and pears are ripe, cut one open. If the seeds are white, it is too early. If they are black, the fruit is ready.
12. The eensy fruits off your flowering crab apple tree make wonderful apple jelly and incredible, rosy, tart applesauce. I love it to serve with meat instead of cranberry sauce.
Enjoy this, the first published article I ever wrote, over sixteen years ago, for An Encouraging Word magazine, published out of Oklahoma. I got $20 for it, back then!
It is taken from Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 7, and John 12.
A Pretty Box
Once there was a woman who loved Jesus so much, that she did something so radical, that she incurred such unreasonable wrath from those around her, that the Lord Jesus was pleased to publicly defend her.
What she did was not illegal. She had not stolen anything, nor lied, nor killed anyone in the process of her actions. So why was she censored?
I believe it was because what she did was something that should only be done to God. It was an act of unadulterated adoration, totally unfitting to be performed for a mere human, however good that person might be.
This is what she did: She took something of hers that was worth around $50,000.00 and destroyed it at this man’s feet, all the while crying and kissing him. (He was not her husband.) She did this in public. In fact, it was before a large gathering of his friends and acquaintances.
“But He was God,” you say.
“He IS God,” you add.
True; how easy for us to have such excellent hindsight! But this woman had the gift of faith, Scripture tells us, to know Jesus as Messiah (before that telling moment of resurrection) and the crowd around her did not. Her actions were proper,but her critics simply were unable to agree.
In fact, her critics were embarrassed to the point of making up some fumbling arguments about the poor people in some poor place somewhere. Dollar amounts were rumored around. People were generally appalled.
Do you wonder how this relates to us?
I propose that most home educating parents are doing the same thing. Those of us who realize our children are the most precious things we have, are investing their entire lives at the feet of Jesus.
It is not illegal, but it has caused quite an embarrassed public stir. We hear all the traditional fumbling arguments about cost, socializing, college, etc. They say our children have been wasted and they cannot understand why. We have incurred wrath; we have critics who would love to censor us.
But you are right. He IS God.
By faith, somehow, we are able to know that our actions are proper. The telling moment of high ACT scores is upon us.
Rejoice with great joy! He is pleased to defend us!
Zabaglione is an Italian dessert that is supposed to be just this side of cooked eggs. I like being sure about such things, so my recipe for it will vary from what the very best cookbooks say. That is okay with me. Cooking just a few seconds longer gives me peace of mind. Let this yummy recipe change your way of thinking about breakfast!
2 eggs
1/4 c. cream
1 serving stevia powder
1/2 t. cinnamon
dash nutmeg
few drops vanilla
1. t. butter
large handful frozen blueberries
Place blueberries in a cereal or soup bowl to be ready.
Bowl of Berries
Place rest of ingredients except butter into mixing bowl and whip.
Ready to Whip
Melt butter in small saucepan and pour in egg mix. Cook on medium while constantly stirring with whip, until mixture thickens. Quickly pour over berries in bowl. Serve with beverage of your choice. Enjoy!
1. Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.
2. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you . . . yours is the earth and everything that’s in it. –Ruyard Kipling
3. I can’t do everything in the world. –Kimberly
4. Things like picking up crosses and denying ourselves seldom find a place on our agendas. –David Faust
5. For excellence, ask an expert . . . for wisdom, ask a sage . . . for honesty, ask a child.
Home's Cool! 