The Needle in a Haystack

Busy Week Behind Us...

NC's Primary Election was last Tuesday ( the 8th) and both Chris and I worked the polls.

This was a heated primary with a constitutional Amedment on the books for same sex marriage.  I worked 13 and a half hours at my precinct but poor Chris was counting ballots etc for 16  almost 17 at his. We had started the day at 4:00 and were exhausted by the time we fellinto bed that night BUT we are very proud to live in a society that still allows us to vote.

  A great quote from Dave Black today on his blog today. With all the bickering going back and forth about the amendment it really summoned up how I felt about the whole thing

You can idolize man-made institutions with the hope that they will solve the societal ills of our day if you like, but I prefer to stand by the Bible and the life-changing power of the cross."

  So after the long day on Tuesday and spring cleaning, afghan crocheting ,family dinner night  and gardening, it was a real treat to have lunch at our friends for lucnh today. The food was delicious . Joe made  the most awesome brownies that sent us all into a chocolate coma

Joe's Brownies

chocolate chip cookie dough for crust in a 9X11 pan

next layer oreo double stuff cookies

next layer brownie misx made according to pkg

top with chocolate chips and bake in the oven 10 minutes longer then on the brownie pkg...

That's what I'm talkin about!

 

We were all very excited... great stuff... BUT

better then the brownies....

Rose and Joe raise Pugs and they have them in various ages... I add the seet priviledge  of feeding one of the babies with a bottle

Oh yes I was in love and it took evewrything I had not to tuck him in my pocket and take him home... except the cats might think it was a mouse.... but such a sweet little babe!

  Time to rest up but I want to leave you with something that was on my heart when I woke up this morning.

The answer to any question you might have, any thought that might be, any emotion you might feel................JESUS

  Have a fine day ..all day long...!

 

April 30th, 2012

 This morning both Chris and I spent the morning at the BOE for training. This election both of us will be working seperate polls and this year I was sworn in as a judge.  I am so honored to do this.  I think everyone should do what they can in their communities  to serve.  My Grams worked the polls many many years and I am glad to be able to carry on the tradition.

   Then we decided a little trip into VA was a good idea ( only a few miles) so we shopped a bit in South Boston at their Goodwill store. They have such a nice store and we picked up  a few things for only a couple of dollars.  Then we splurged a bit and had lunch.

   Even though we were in a fried greasy fast food coma on the ride home we had worked to do so we trellised a few peas, fed the chickens, pulled a few weeds , plucked some lettuce for dinner and I set to work on my big project dujour.... getting the 50lbs of wheat flour into mylar.

 While I do most of my dry goods in jars or 2 litter soda bottles, flour I prefer to do in mylar.  Our consumption of flour goes up and down but it is soooo much cheaper to buy in bulk.

 We use 1 gallon mylar bags and a 300cc oxygen absorber.. probaly over kill but air is wheat flours worst enemy ( next to meal bugs)  and during the summer we just don't use the flour like in the winter so we need to keep it fresh.

Here is an excellent video about storing in mylar...

 

 

I use a regular iron to seal ours. We haven't had a bit of problems with this method

 

 

 

Genesis 41:49

Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.

 

Have a fine day...all day long!

Date Night.... Iron Lady

With Chris traveling for 18 hours on Tuesday we knew we would be celebrating our Sabbath on Wednesday. One of the things we like to do is pick a movie to watch together.  This week it was Iron Lady with Meryl Streep .  It had been recommended to us by Dave and Sandi when they came to visit and since we both love biographical things we were anxious to watch it.

  Let me say that Meryl Streep was phenomenal.  Her acting was brilliant!

If the story had been written about a woman suffering dementia and the progression and struggles... it would have been interesting, but maybe not date night interesting... the fact it was to be a  series of falshbacks from Margaret Thatchers life and her dementia I felt was a bit degrading to her. It made me feel uncomfortable veiwing such a personal look at some one so powerful and strong.  I thought how we would feel as Americans if a film had done that to Reagan?  

   We tried these for our movie snack... soooo good.. and fun to do!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When will our death be avenged....

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Revelation 6:9,10

 News is Youcef Nadarkhani has been executed for refusing to denounce Christianity,, thank you Brother for being a witness to us...

 

 

Feb 10th, 2012

 I'm a bit irritated today.... OK I am A LOT irritated... last night our car, and two others were hit while parked by a driver who smashed the cars then fled the scene on foot....  Our car is drivable with the hood , grill and a rear quarter panel needing replace... our friends car was busted into tiny pieces.... ( his was pushed into ours)... all this while we were in our Ham Radio class .. and out of 18 folks no one heard a thing until a passerby stopped to say it looked like a wreck.  This just happens to be an up close and personal example of the lack of morals and responsibility of our society. 

   As bad as that was , I couldn't let the day go by without wishing my sweet sister in law Lydia a happy birthday.

 bonus pic of my niece Sophia)

..and a picture of Cadence in her Valentines dress I made her in my sewing class. I thought it would be perfect for passing out treats at her preschool party

Do not fret because of evildoers
         Or be envious of the wicked; Proverbs 24:19

Sigh~ and have a fine day...all day long!

Occupy..... & NPR

Today Chris and I had business to do in Chapel Hill.  When we were walking up to the post office we noticed a tent city

  at first I thought since we were at UNCCH that they were camping out for tickets to a ball game until I read the sign.

 Now, among several groups OCCUPY has gotten a bad rap... but what I saw was a group of young adults learning, wanting things to change, casting aside all the college type stuff to look into current day politics and take a stand.... Good for them!

    We were rushed for time, but I wish I had spent a bit of time talking to them.... guiding them through  the steps of how we all landed here in the first place... what they can do ....they are trying to make their own change.... they are doing SOMETHING .. and for that I am very proud of this group today... Good Job!

  As parents, I think its very important to educate our children in current events and financial  stewardship and also to encourage them to stand up for what they believe in a good and peaceable way.

  Speaking of stewardship, that includes taking care in a responsible way All the goodness God has given us.  Ken and Deborah Ferruccio were on NPR today talking about their work on responsible land fill regulations. Both Chris and Christopher had Ken as a professor at VGCC and Deborah and I go way back as fellow homeschool moms and more recently at the gym.  We were pleased at how many times Deborah boldly shared that God has given us the responsiblity to tend to the earth, and HIS hand at all they have accomplished.  It was a nice show.

    Please remember to pray for those in Turkey. 

The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

  Psalm 115:16

 Now, if some one you love gives you a gift... you usually take care  of it!  Something to think about...

  Have a fine day....all day long

Happy Birthday USAF

 I grew up right outside Wright Patterson AFB.. Wonderful place ( and if you have never toured the museum you MUST)

... It was a great place to go with my Dad and Uncles as they were all AF men.  My cousin Don joined and carried on the family tradition of serving our country in the Air Force.

  when Josh was in Iraq he said there was no better sound hten the AF bombers coming to get him out of a pinch!

 So... Happy 64th Birthday  United States Air Force!

Remembering 9/11

   Where were you on 9/11 has sort of replaced " Where were you when Kennedy was shot". Life changing, griping...

   Like so many others I do remember my friend Kathi and I glued to the TV set with our youngest children with us... watching, commenting, hugging the children and watching some more..

   It was that attack that drove Joshua to  volunteer at the age of 15 for two weeks with Baptist men.  And it was a more determined to serve int he NAtional Guard and as a police officer , Josh that  came home with a police jacket given to him by one of NYPD finest.. encouraging him to follow his dream.

   So at the age of 18 he shuffled off to boot camp...and it was with that same determination of righteous justice that he deployed in 2007/2008..

   ...and it was that one event... and the few hours it took the towers to fall that put my son in the truck  that hit the IED that took his best friend and left him wounded.... and there were several more such horrors resulting from that one event... not just one friend lost and the permant scars of war... but several friends lost, and several friends carrying those scars..

  ...and mama's who grieve the innocence of their children, and weep silent tears for the inside heart wounds that their children carry............. and the mama's whose children didn't make it home....

.all from that one event.......... that we will never forget.......

 but for one day.... there are some of us..... for just one day...... wish we could forget...

To wake up and have one whole day where the towers haven't fallen, where brothers in arms have not been lost, where mama's don't grieve.... where all is right with the world........

 Please, for just one day...

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Mark 13:7

..we can only press in and press on....

 

A Week of Disasters.. and some loveliness

 I suppose you all are up to your eyeballs around the blog world about east coast earthquakes and hurricanes.  Yes, it WAS a long week. We spent a few hours without power and a bit more cleaning up tree debris . To top off all the weather busyness I had a horrible summer cold. I am sure the erratic change in air pressure played a part.  I spent two days laying around with it and another couple days not feeling 100%.   I am not a huge fan of cold tablets etc so I found warm moist steam, hot tea and good old Vicks Vapor rub did the trick.... oh and popsicles... plenty of popsicles...

  We ended up going to the shoppe the day of the hurricane... there were lots of folks from the coast in town staying at local motels.  While it is hard pressed to sell someone a laptop when they have evacuated and have no power, it was wonderful meeting new folks and letting them know how much we were happy to pray for them. 

   ONe out of town couple packed hte important stuff, not knowing what it would take to get back to their costal home... I had to snap a picture

We were thankful that when we came home to lack of electricity we had been prepared.  Feeding the animals and going through our bedtime routines went on as usual. C

 Christopher and Daniel both learned something new  about inverters and how much power/ gas it takes to play the Playstation and TV along with a laptop. Truly I think that is a skill they both can take with them when they have families of their own... maybe not the playstation part, but using the inverter part...

  One morning this week I was enjoying a cup of tea out back and I noticed some plants before where we took out the old burdock patch

This invasive little weed is the Asiatic dayflower.  Brought over from China most folks try to kill it.  However, I did a bit of exploring since I figure the Chinese had to bring it over for some reason but sure enough it has medicinal uses.  The Chinese use it for sore throats and as an anti inflamatory and in parts of Japan and China the flower pigments are used as dyes..I am not sure if our herb medicine cabinet will include these plants or not, but its good to know the plants are there if we ever need them..

 

Tomorrow is Irene debris clean up  and general setting the house to rights after this past week.

 

I leave you with a beautiful verse someone reminded me of today

May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." May God, this day, cover you with His feathers.    Ruth 2:12

...........and have a fine day...all day long....

Experiencing Something New

Yep, like most of you East Coasters I experienced my first earthquake. We thought the washing machine was really off balance until we realized we weren't washing anything and the house kept shaking..  We walked outside and put our hands on the ground and could still feel it shake. hats off to all my CA friends. I know you get use to it but as a first timer it was a strange occurance.

 

  So I wrote back in July that the youngest was in search of a new car.  Well, he found one in his price range. Proably ( no probably about it), this was not his first choice... but there will be time enough for hood scoops and spoilers when he graduates college until the.. I present to you what is dubbed "The Granny Car"

 I like it which probably takes a few points off of it...

.. and we opened up a new area for the chickens. The idea is for them to scratch a fertilize through the fall and winter giving us a nice expanded garden spot for next summer

 And struggling.. Struggling ...are a few tomatoes trying to make an appearance

Most of the tomatoes this past week were ruined when the deer cleared the garden fence and took a bite out of several tomatoes... wasteful creatures...

 

... With the earthquake excitement over we are making sure things are in order if Irence comes ashore our way.  Water jugs are filled , we will head out tomorrow for some more canned goods that we are lacking, making sure the car is filled up, the chain saw is working and the propane for the grill and cooker are filled. The important papers will go in a ziploc bag and be stored with our 72 hour emergency kit which contains water, snacks, first aid kit, ponchos and extra clothes and toilitries packed in a rubber maid container. Hopefully as before we will not need it.  Of course the time you actually do is the time when you don't have it.  Also you east coasters in the potential path, remember to pull cash out fo the ATMs  debit cards won't work with out electricity or phone service . Today during the earthquake phone lines were so over loaded credit cards and debits weren't working.

 

He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.  Habakkuk 3:6

Stay safe...and have a fine day...all day long!