Cross Stitch Bookmark Birdhouse Chart

PDF File

This is my project today.  If I have figured out the PDF link correctly, you can access it too!

Cross stitching is something I used to do a lot of, and thankfully kept all of my patterns and thread because now our daughter really enjoys it and it is something that we enjoy doing together in front of the warm fire.  

I love creating these memories with her and the in depth conversations we have while we stitch away...

PRICELESS

Find this pattern and many others on my Needlework ~ Cross Stitch and Embroidery board.

Christmas Baking Ideas

These are some of the cutest and easiest goodies to make for Christmas.  We simply dip pretzels into some almond bark and the children and grandchildren LOVE to decorate them in any way they choose.  Honestly, these are much easier to do and clean up than sugar cookies.  Usually when we get half way done with sugar cookies, I am left to finish decorating and clean up and by then, I'm exhausted!

Here are some other GREAT ideas for you that I will be doing this year....

White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge

Homemaker's Organizer Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed.  

Congratulations to Anne Kimball at Life on the Funny Farm, 

chosen from Random.org, for winning this incredible Homemaker's Organizer!

Thank you for all of your entries!  I had the most enjoyable time visiting everyone's websites!  

Be sure to click on the link below to purchase your own copy!

Dinner Tonight

Source

Our family really enjoys Meatloaf, especially since we started having our own grass fed beef waiting patiently to be used in our freezer.  My recipe is my Mother's own famous recipe with lots of good spices, sauces and a bit of oatmeal, and bran in it.  It is delicious, but takes quite a bit of time to prepare.  

Today, on Pinterest of course, I came across this easy sounding Meatloaf recipe that I decided to try.  You can find it and many other delicious recipes on my Yummy Recipes board.

The recipe calls for:

1 pound of ground meat (beef or turkey)

1 egg

1 box of Stovetop Stuffing

1 cup water

Mix it all together and bake in a bread loaf pan at 350 for 45 minutes.

That amount might feed a smaller family, but we like having Meatloaf sandwiches from the leftovers so I doubled the recipe using:

2 pounds of grass fed, hormone and antibiotic free, Highland Beef

2 free range, home grown chicken egg 

(probably from a Barred Rock hen, the one that likes to eat all of my Kale)

2 boxes of incredibly processed Stove Top Chicken made with Whole Wheat

2 cups of raw milk

I used the whole wheat to make myself feel better about using processed boxes of stuffing with so much other excellent home grown and raised ingredients.

When it's just about done baking, I'll smother it with our homemade Amish Tomato Ketchup from our homegrown tomatoes......YUM!!

To finish the table, we'll have some canned peaches, spiced applesauce and hopefully a small salad from the lettuce still growing in the greenhouse!

I promise, if the recipe isn't any good, I'll be sure to add on to this post to let you know, but since we love stuffing, I'm pretty sure we will enjoy it.

~ Much later.....this recipe is delicious.  Our daughter said it was the best Meatloaf she had ever tasted!  I will tell you that you can clearly taste the stuffing in this meatloaf, so if you do not care for stuffing, I wouldn't advise making it.  If you love stuffing the way we do, you have GOT to try this!!

Deciding to be Cheerful

Are you naturally cheerful?  

Does being cheerful come hard for you?  

How do you keep a cheerful heart?

Generally, I am cheerful.  All the time?  No.  Sometimes I don't want to be cheerful.  That doesn't mean that I want to be gloomy on purpose, sometimes I need cheering up.  It is a rare occasion, but it happens.  

What I find, when I'm not cheerful, is that my home is not cheerful.  My family gets moody and the mole hill turns into a mountain.  Does it need to?  No.

When I recognize that I am being a half full glass type of person, I have to make the decision in my mind to stop being such a puddle glum (as my Mom would say).  

The benefit of age, is that I've learned from experience that if we implement what scripture says in our lives, it truly works.

For me it took age, for others who learn at a young age, they are blessed. 

We cannot live by our emotions.  We must resolve in our mind to do what is right and to choose joy, choose happiness, choose to love our husbands, choose peace, choose wisdom, choose to walk the narrow path, embrace being set apart, choose to teach these truths to our children and choose to love God with all of our heart, with all our soul, with all our MIND and with all our strength.  

Today I choose to be cheery.  Today I choose to be joyful that our little calf that struggled through the night is taking her bottles eagerly.  Today I choose peace even though my home is not as clean as I'd like it to be since we've been calf sitting for over a week.  Today I choose to love God with all my heart knowing he will not allow us to go hungry even though the tomatoes need to be canned and there isn't enough time in the day for me to do everything that needs to be done.  

I truly understand that God is teaching me through this, giving me the strength I need for today so I choose to be cheerful that He loves me enough to walk through today with me, holding my hand, guiding my heart and filling my heart with peace for whatever today holds.

Learning As We Go....

It has been quite awhile since I've posted and for that I apologize.  At times life gets so busy, I can barely remember what my name is.  Some of you may know that I have another blog called Ozark Mountain Family Homestead, and others of you may not.  My initial purpose for this was to keep the homesteading topics for those truly interested in them separate from the topics that Christian women are concerned with.  I was concerned that some women would shy away from the homesteading aspects.  That concern is valid, however, it is who I am and it is what my journey is about which is what this blog is supposed to give you a picture of.  So in the future, I intend to post about all aspects of our life right here and I hope you will be encouraged by it.

This past month has revolved around calving, hatching eggs, fiddle festivals and through all of this, how to glorify God in our every day thoughts and actions.  

Fun Recipe Site

It seems like forever that I have always referred to Allrecipes.com when I'm searching online for a recipe.  It is a great site and I would highly recommend it, however, I have discovered a new site that I'm really excited about.  It is Simply Recipes!  Many of you may know this site well and I may be really behind and have some catching up to do, but that's ok!  I'm excited about sharing it with others who haven't heard about it yet.

So I stumbled across this recipe for Tomato Pie.  It looked really yummy. I followed the link to it's source.  Bingo!  I couldn't believe how user friendly it is.  It is extremely easy to save the recipes I want into a recipe box, same as Allrecipes, but the added bonus is that I can create a grocery list of items that I need from the recipe too.  Not only that, but it invites you to email an invitation to others so they can view your grocery list.  !!!!!   No more writing down my grocery list and losing it, or leaving it at home.  And the added bonus is that my husband can simply log on to it as he's walking through the store, picking up what we need before coming home.  

AND!

You also can create your own meal planner with the recipes and upload your own recipes!  

So lets review:

Delicious Recipes

Personal Recipe Box

Grocery List

Meal Planner

It also provides you with coupons and lets you mark your favorite local market.  There are also different capabilities that I won't use, but could be helpful to others like using a smartphone to scan the labels of what's in your pantry so that you can keep track of what you have and when you need more.  That is way too technical for me though.  A sharable online grocery list with my husband is about as high tech as I get at the moment.  

And just in case you are wondering if I am being financially compensated in any way for this post, let me assure you that I am not.  I felt this site it truly a help regarding functionality in both the kitchen and shopping.  I hope you are blessed by it!