What's a Girl to do with Runaway Trucks and Dogs that Smell to High Heaven?

       I know that I am no superman, and as awesomely strong as Matt is now that he's finally put some bulk on his previously tiny frame, it takes some amazing beef to stop a 1952 Chevy pick-up truck from rolling down hill into the back of a shed. We were in the process of cleaning out our large shed in order to fit Matt's 1940's Ford tractor inside along with the truck, the mowers and other odds and ends of Matt's.

       Since the 52' (as we lovingly call it) has sat all summer, the gas went bad and we'll have to flush the lines to get it running, however we just wanted to move it back about 10'. "No problem", I said, "Matt, just jump in, put her in neutral and I'll give her a shove." (Silence) That was the sound of absolutely NOTHING happening when I gave her a "shove". "Okay Matt, you push and I'll work the brake." (Silence) Even Matt's brute strength was no match for getting the truck out of the little ruts the tires had sunk in the gravel. "Okay, we'll both push, and if she gets moving, I'll jump in and put on the brake," I decided. Matt looked at me sideways but apparently didn't think it was that bad of an idea because that was exactly what we proceeded to do.

     

  What we hadn't counted on was the time it takes for a truck of that weight to roll back 10', nor the time it takes to run and open a sticky old push button handle and pump the brake. While Matt did his best to grab unto the bumper, his feet simply skid in the gravel with his hind end practically hitting the ground, he was no match against the green beast. I was pretty fast getting to the door but barely got it open in time to hop in and gave that brake the hardest jab I could,
 

(hoping I was pushing the right pedal since I'd only driven the thing once).

     We skidded to a stop just inches away from the 12 ft high shelves we had just organized in the back of the shed.  Had the truck made it any further, three hours of work would have been in vain, not to mention the wreck. Just as she came to a sudden stop, Leah walks around the corner to bring us some light to finish our project. Matt and I, hearts still pounding and sweat dripping from our faces just looked at Leah nonchalantly,

                  "We're fine, everything is OK, no big deal." Well aware she had just come upon a serious scene and not believing our feigned calmness, she eyed us suspiciously until we told her how we came "this close" to bringing the entire shed crashing down. Moral of the story, when a third hand would be helpful, and said third hand is available, go and get the third hand.


        Now occasionally, when you ask someone for help, they will flat out tell you it's something you need to do yourself. This happened to me this afternoon when I walked inside with a crisis and wanted my "big" sister to swoop in and take care of a situation.

         God knows how much I love Nuala the German Shepherd. (That's her to the right with the shades) We have been taking care of her several days a week since she was a puppy and she LOVES to come over to our house. It doesn't matter which direction I come from, when we are about 2 minutes away, she starts getting excited. Today, we were coming up Klondyke and as I approached the stop sign right next to our house I noticed out of the corner of my eye Nuala squirming in the back seat, then she yelped. Apparently, she had managed to roll the window down with her paw, stick her head out of the window and then roll it back up.

 

   In the summer when I have the windows down a bit I "lock" the buttons to the back windows to prevent this from happening, but in all of my days I've never had a dog actually roll it down, only to roll it back up. Now you know and I know that the motor of a window is not strong enough to do any kind of damage to a big Shepherd, but, the scaredy-cat girl Nuala thought it was going to chop her head off- apparently. She screamed when I immediately rolled the window down for her to get her head out.

       

    And instantly I smelled an aroma that can only be likened to rotting flesh. Now here is where I must warn the faint of heart: if you don't know what an anal gland is and you are "light of stomach" than skip to the next section here, you have been forewarned. By the time I pulled into the driveway (which took all of 20 seconds) I no longer could breathe and had to hold my breath just getting her out of the car. Matt has told me in the past of his run-ins with dogs "blowing" their glands. And not that I would ever call Matt a liar, I doubted the severity (and likelihood) of this happening. Allow me to confirm- yes a dog can blow it's anal gland, and yes, it is the foulest smelling aroma God ever created. If you are still confused allow me to explain just what the anal gland is and how it is supposed to work. When a dog makes a bowel movement (we call it making a doody here in pet sitting land) a hard bowel movement will cause the glands to empty some and in essence allow Fido to leave his mark behind for other animals to identify that he's been there.

        When the stool is loose, this doesn't work and the glands can become clogged and need to be emptied by a vet. This is most readily identified by a dog "scooting" after he goes to the bathroom. But occasionally, as with today, in instances of high stress the scent sack or anal gland can "blow".
                                                                             I was not fully prepared for the actual
blowing part. After getting Nuala out of the car, I looked at the back seat and it was everywhere, like it had been sprayed! I was in shock actually and proceeded in the house with this "precious" dog who also stunk to high heaven. Leah was at the top of the stairs and I told her what happened. "What should I do!?" (hoping she would say, 'don't worry, I'll take care of it') "Go out to the car, take the Demolish spray and just clean it up," she said after laughing at me. "But, wait, well, I ... okay." So I accomplished the task, to the best of my ability while not breathing."




           By the time I had to take Uncle Jac to physical therapy, the smell had been cut down to a 1/4 of what it was, but was now mixed with the orange scent of the Demolish spray... however I couldn't keep the windows down to air it out because of the rain, hopefully the stench will dissipate in a few days... please God let it be so.    

         However, rain makes for free time to work in the basement, so it can be a blessing. I feel that the basement remodel will go on forever; I have so many ideas and so little time. Thank God for Matt who is constantly spending much of his spare time pulling electrical wire, installing lights and hanging drywall. I have made it a mission of mine as of late to put on my electrician's belt and get some work done. Yesterday was such a day and my goal to was run wire, install lights and a switch in the basement bathroom.

This is not OUR basement, but rather what I hope it will look like...

As I was working, getting back into that familiar flow of drilling through studs, striping wire and getting wood chips in my hair I realized how nice it was to have an extra set of hands right there anticipating every next move, being one step ahead. In no time flat we flipped the brand new light switch and tada,  God said, "let there be light!" I pointed out to Matt that no matter how many times I work on an electrical project the thrill that comes when you try it out and find that

you have succeeded in your task never goes away. No matter if it's a lowly outlet, a ceiling fan, or light. Oddly, as nervous as it used to make me, I now find electrical work to be kind of relaxing and enjoyable. That's not to say that I wouldn't rather spend my time quilting or doing more "woman's" work, but I try to take each task at hand and find the rewards in it.

           Just the other day we were talking about gifts. Each person has them and when you have a family, more often than not, the tasks that one person finds difficult, or tiresome, another would actually like to do it. This happened a couple of days ago when we tried to devote a half day to outside work because it was going to be one of the last warm days.

                 The projected chores were cutting down corn stalks and cleaning out the little shed so it could be moved away from the house in preparation of laying a small retaining wall and gravel pad in the back. I went outside fully prepared to help with the corn stalks (not my favorite chore by far). My mom was working on the corn with Leah and Matt was cleaning out the shed.

                                                                         To my surprise, my mom

asked me to go at the shed instead of the corn- I can't tell you my insane joy and relief! I laughingly told this to Matt who heartily agreed that he too was glad to be assigned shed duty. Could my mom and Leah have done the shed? Sure, but they actually preferred working on the corn so it worked out perfectly!

One of the things I find when I tell some people of my desire to work my own farm one day is that they like the idea of it, but some of the jobs they foresee as monotonous or distasteful. To that I would say, "many hands make for light work." That is why God says he sets the solitary in families, God loves big families which is why He's always trying to grow His!

                   (Psalms 68:5&6 amp. "A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows is God in His holy habitation. God places the solitary in families and gives the desolate a home in which to

dwell; He leads the prisoners out to prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a parched land." )

                 I know that people look at my family's living situation of my mom, uncle, sister and friend Matt living under one roof as odd. But I look at my "single" friends who live alone and think how lonely it must be. When I come home there is always someone to ask me how my day was; there are many hands to get house work done, finances are combined, projects get completed when no one is looking and there is joy everywhere I turn. When I have a mechanical or repair question, Uncle Jac is the man to go to. He's WAY better then Google or YouTube; there is hardly anything that he can't fix. Twice a week, my clothes miraculously get washed and folded and put at the bottom of the steps. The garden is tended, the dishes are washed, the floor gets swept, and the dogs get fed.

            It doesn't matter who does all of these things, the point is that while yes, many people make for more messes, they also make for much work. Thus none of us are ever get bogged down. If I can't lift something by myself, I just stop, walk into another room and ask for a hand. All of the "work" aside though, the thing I find the most rewarding is the endless amount of happy faces who are genuinely interested and care about every little thing that is important to me. If something happens during my day that is exciting I get to tell that story sometimes as much as four different times and get to feel the thrill of another person laughing, or sympathizing with me each time I tell it!

       Each night before retiring to bed I say goodnight to everyone and sincerely feel that they will be happy to see me again tomorrow. I can't tell you what kind of a feeling that is. I am truly blessed indeed. To those of you who choose to live alone, I would say, you don't know what you are missing, and for those of you who wish you weren't alone, I would say, hang on to that scripture, Psalm 68:6 "God sets the solitary (lonely) in families."

As always, Jesus is that beautiful light that expells ALL darkness

Until next time, thanks for hanging out with me...
  Love to yall,
~ Michelle

Skunks, Snakes and Sugar in the tank...

As Jasper raced up the stairs the other night after a last potty before bed, Matt followed behind with a big sigh and an intense "shew, that was close!" I thought maybe he had tripped on the steps but when he came into the kitchen I saw the look on his face and I asked what was wrong. "Jasper just chased a skunk and ran into a cloud of spray!" Sure enough I smelled my beautiful girl and she stink, stank, stunk!

 It wasn't as bad as if she had been sprayed directly, but the stench filled the entire back yard so that we had to close the windows because it was beginning to fill up our house. Matt is not one to cause alarm, so when he saw the skunk running away, he just called Jasper, gathered the rest of the four legged crew and came back inside. There was no shouting for help, or yelling at Jasper. In fact, if it hadn't been for the stench and the look on Matt's face, it might have been several minutes before we heard the whole story... as for Leah, she tends to have a flare for the dramatic...

The last time I heard Leah scream was when the pear landed in her eye... that is, until two nights ago when the loudest, most blood curdling cry came from her voice and it said one word, "MATT!"

It was actually guttural in sound, and to be honest the first thing that came to my mind was that an arm had fallen off, a dog had died, the end of the world was upon us- I had no clue. Matt and I dropped the bricks that we were unloading out of his truck and ran to see if we could somehow soften the blow of whatever this life altering event was. Then I heard, "it's a snake, a snake!" Now around here we have a very different cry for "snake". When Leah or my mom come upon them, it's a high pitch, girly type of sound that instantly alerts the hero to grab a shovel and come as soon as possible, just not at the speed of light as Leah's scream seemed to require. Fortunately there was a shovel close by but Matt only managed to mam the poor thing before it squirmed it's way into a massive pile of rubble from the old retaining wall we recently tore down. Not seeing where the snake went, and not willing to give up the hunt to save the damsel in distress from the creature that represents Satan's first triumph over woman (and man for that matter), Matt moved the entire pile for fifteen minutes chunk by chunk until the serpent was uncovered. I delivered the first blow chopping the devil icon in half, only to watch it's front slither away before Matt landed the death blow removing his head from the rest of his body.



     To Matt's disappointment, Leah was not there to see our heroism as she had taken the dogs back upstairs, but my mom watched from inside of the basement and if there is anyone Matt wants to look like the hero in front of, it's mom. Luckily, there are few better ways to look like a hero in her eyes than ending the life of one of those slippery creatures. I would just as soon let them live and take care the the bugs and varmints around here, like whatever it is that keeps getting into our wheat we have stored in the back of Uncle Jac's '52 Chevy pick-up in the shed.

 

We saw a bunny hop in there the other day, so Matt is in the process of building a no kill trap (although I can't promise what he's going to do with them after he catches them...). Our schedule has been so busy we haven't had the time to finish shucking the rest of our wheat. It's dry, but I don't know how much we will have left after the bunnies have had their way with them! It's the little things that weigh on my mind as I close my eyes before falling asleep. "We really need to build a mechanism to help us shuck the wheat; I need to go to Lowe's tomorrow to pick-up concrete; what kind of wood should we use to build those forms?; is it going to rain because my Jeep is out and the top is off; did I send an invoice to that client, we start their visits tomorrow!; we HAVE to can the tomatoes we picked tomorrow or they will start to rot; I really want to start writing a novel; I wish so-and-so knew how much God has a simple plan for their life and if they could just see it, all of their problems would be wrapped in His hands; God, please soften the heart of so-and-so, that they might see that beautiful plan you have for them..." and boom, I'm out like a light.

     My mom reminded me the other day of the time she got up to drive to work (as secretary of a mechanic shop) only to find that our Ford Festiva wouldn't go above 25 mph.

She called into work and while this particular shop usually only worked on expensive foreign cars, they told her to bring it in if it could make it. Since she only had a 12 min commute at the time, she chanced it. Upon inspection, they discovered that someone had put sugar in her tank. I have no idea who would do something like this, but we think it was just some punk kids, since friends/neighbors of ours actually had their car window broken too. How much like our lives this story seems to be though. I like to think of our minds like that gas tank.
 The world dumps all of this sugar in us and at first we think it's sweet. but little do we realize that it's slowing us down. They say that we only use 10% to 20% of our brain power. I don't think that's actually a quantifiable fact, but I do believe the idea of it has merit. Think about that; if we could tap into the other 80% to 90 % or even half- just imagine the things that we could accomplish. Sadly, when we are abused, lied to or cheated by bad people we lose even more of that relatively small amount of brainpower that we had. In the case of the Festiva, they flushed the lines, put in a new gas tank and away we went. How amazing would it be if that could happen with us! Go into the shop, flush our minds, and away we go! With Jesus, it is that easy. 1st Commandment: Think, I "Love God".   He renews our minds everyday!

There really are no dull moments around here and I guess we like to keep it that way.

As always, remember, Jesus is that beautiful Light that expels all darkness.

Until next time, thanks for the visit!

Love Yall,

~ Michelle

OH My GUT GOODNESS!! A Beginner's Guide to Lacto Fermentation

Whew! Where to begin!! Right now I feel like a TV salesman, except I'm not selling anything. I just want to share with ya'll how much fun I've been having making tons of gut goodness in our cowboy inspired kitchen. Let me start by saying I had no idea what lacto fermentation was until I picked up a book at the library called Nourishing Traditions. To be honest, it showed up on the hold shelf under my name but I have no clue how it got there..Insert: twilight do do do do...Maybe it was the Lord, maybe I just stumbled on it and forgot, either way, I was HOOKED! I began to read about how for pretty much all of time, peoples all over the world have been very creative in the kitchen with good tasting, healthy foods and drinks that actually fight off disease and heal! Not only that but by fermenting foods with different starters such as whey and salt, some foods can be kept for long storage such as Captain James Cook who took 60 barrels of sauerkraut on his second voyage around the world. They lasted 27 months and not one crew member got scurvy! (Healthly Benefits of Fermented Foods) 

Right to left: Fermenting cauliflower, carrots,peach kvass,  jalapenos, ginger soda, and making whey from yogurt

Now, Michelle and I, and Matt included all seem to have intestinal issues. Michelle's started a few years back due to stress, Matt thought he was lactose intolerant growing up and he too has gut problems do to stress. And let's be honest, whether you're going too much or not enough, or have enough hot air coming out the backside to send a balloon to the upper atmosphere, no one likes to have things out of balance.

Enter, REAL FOOD!!! Wow, what a thought- to allow the foods we eat to NOURISH us and keep us in balance! With all the processed foods found in stores and restaurants, it's no wonder the Probiotic industry is expected to reach close to $50 BILLION dollars by 2018! Wowza!! It would seem that all this processed food, in order to be more convenient and have a super long shelf life, is not treating our digestive systems all that well! 60- 70 million people in the US suffer from some digestive disorder.

Great News!! You can transform your kitchen in just a few simple steps, into a complete, nourishing, digestive haven that tastes great, is easy to prepare, and will give you time to do other things then spend too much time on the porcelain throne!

I started out with pickles and boy were they ever good!  Here's a GREAT fermented Pickle Recipe!

Lacto Fermented Mixed Vegetables   and Sauerkraut

Pickles and cabbage are by far the easiest to start out with as all they require is a bit of filtered water and salt- you can add some spices like garlic, dill, and peppercorns to the pickles that will make them taste like Clauseen's and make your gut sing praises to your Maker!

TIPS TO REMEMBER:

1. Make sure your veggies (or fruit) are completely submerged until the brine. You want to keep the oxygen out so the lacto fermentation can begin to eat away bad bacteria

2. Use glass or ceramic cookware, not plastic as it leeches chemicals. I'll use plastic items a time or two to keep my veggies submerged. 

3. Have fun, be creative, and don't be afraid! Following a few simple instructions like the brine ratios (salt and water) will keep things healthy and safe!!!

4. Use filtered water as water with chlorine in it can stop up the fermentation process

On with the show!!

So here are some pictures and recipes of what my family has been trying out lately!!!

Garden Peaches being boiled to help get skins off

Pureeing peaches to make fermented recipes: (click links!)  peach sauce/apple sauce or Fruit Leather

Here's our home grown ginger! Ginger is used to make a soda water which I'm soo excited about!!
Fruit Soda Recipe!!! Yum!

So, here is my very own recipe
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pudding
2 cups of the cream cheese leftover from making whey
1 can Pureed Pumpkin
1 large package vanilla Pudding
2 cups milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbl Cinnamon, 1 tsp ea: ginger, all spice, ground cloves 
Optional: Maple Syrup drizzled on top!!!! 

1.Combine cream cheese and pumpkin with spices
2.Combine milk, pudding, and condensed milk
3.fold together
Enjoy a healthy alternative you don't have to feel guilty about!

 Now, what makes this recipe so special is it combines the leftover cream cheese you will be making as a result of straining out the whey from full fat yogurt. Because this is made from yogurt, guess what? You've got probiotic, GOOD GUT cream cheese!!! 


I also took some other recipes and adapted them to what fruits we had. I made fermented Pear Butter out of a Lacto Fermented Apple Butter Recipe
Salt helps to keep bad bacteria away and it has a slight salty tinge to it. I've been adding it to apple cider and mixing it with a little extra ginger and cinnamon... and it's FANTASTIC! It's also great knowing it's so good for us!

I don't have a picture but the Lacto Fermented Salsa Is a Hit!!! Everybody likes it, even Matt, who helped make it. We added some pears to ours and ground cherries. It's one of those recipes you can do by volume just making sure you add the recommended whey, salt, and lemons or limes!! I have to say, this one was FUN FUN FUN and QUICK to make! I then mixed the salsa with my good probiotic cream cheese along with some roasted jalapenos from the garden for a queso like dish- being careful not to heat the cheese just kinda melt it a bit- don't wanna kill the good gut buggies!!!

HOW TO MAKE WHEY FROM YOGURT
Take full fat plain yogurt and put it in a cheese clothe or strainer. I found I needed a thinner cheese clothe or to have dampened it first as on my first attempt I got cream cheese alright but my towel soaked up all the whey!!! 

Then, I found if I just put it in a strainer but itself, no clothe, wa-la!! whey out, cream cheese left in strainer. I think I'm going to invest in some high quality stainless steel ones for larger production!

So, here's another recipe. Fruit Kvass

Michelle and Matt got a good big glass of this Peach version this evening. They've been working hard outside and I thought I'd take them something that was good for them, cold, and tasty! I like the idea of the Kvass as it is easy to make and has a nice fizz to it. You can add some extra sugar like I did or leave as is. Here I'm pouring the whey over the peaches. You can see the "cream cheese" left behind. And, yes, it tastes just like cream cheese from the store, only it's better for your gut!

Oh man!! This one is my FAVORITE- and another tweeked recipe. 

Leah's Lacto Fermented Pumpkin Dip! 

This one is based on this Lacto Fermented Ketchup Recipe

It's actually the same ingredients as this recipe- apple cider vinegar, sea salt, maple syrup, and whey, but instead of tomato paste- we added pureed pumpkin! Man oh man! Tastes great as is, can't wait to eat it and know I'm putting good little probiotics in my tummy for good digestion and healthy...well...you know!

There is SO MUCH healthy goodness going on in the kitchen right now and the fam is having a blast testing it all out. I look forward to sharing more with ya'll on new recipes, tweaked ones, successes and misses! Please leave a comment or suggestion. I'm a canning veteran but new to lacto fermentation but getting the hang of it pretty quick. Thanks for reading ya'll! 

Just a quick run through, in case you missed the recipes reading through, here they are again!:

Lacto Fermented Ketchup Recipe

 Fruit Kvass

Lacto Fermented Apple Butter Recipe

Lacto Fermented Salsa Is a Hit!!! 

Fruit Soda Recipe!!! Yum!

 peach sauce/apple sauce or Fruit Leather

Here's a GREAT fermented Pickle Recipe!

HAVE FUN!

The "Pearable"

Peeling pears... if it weren't for the fact that this gravity driven bomb, disguised as a fruit had landed in my sister's eye during our "shake down" of the tree, I might be more inclined to enjoy my skin shedding profession of the week... but then again maybe not. For the first season since planting our many fruit trees, the precious pear decided to bless us with an over abundance of it's glorious beauties, some reaching the size of softballs, (like the one that gave Leah a swollen eye). The single most important thing you need to know about pears is they take time to soften and sweeten- however they do this after they have been picked. We let ours set for about a week and sat down with our bushels in the living room, many bowls of lemon water, compost buckets and peeled. It may sound rather "apeeling" (yeah I couldn't help myself there) but it's a tedious job especially if you didn't get out there in early spring to spray the tree with borax (as our Indian friend, Brother John informed us during our visit to WV a couple of weeks ago). You see, a store bought pear is a beautiful thing, it's smooth and virtually blemish free. These pears have been protected from the hazards of the "bite" of  pestilence... i.e. bug. Come next spring, we'll be out there with the borax to spray our trees, but this year we are dealing with what we have, thankful to have a bountiful harvest of anything.

An interesting fact about pears is that if one is bit by a bug, it usually doesn't rot in that spot like you might think, but rather, forms a hard almost callous in that spot and continues growing. This callous can sometimes go as deep as the core and you have to remove it before they are canned. This makes for a lot of bumps in the road while peeling and slows the process drastically. But on we trod, all hands on deck, with Matt, mom, and Leah all joining in on the fun. Once they are peeled, they also have to be cored, then canned. We're doing several different things with them including spiced pears and fermented pear salsa. The latter got Matt a little excited, I heard him say, "you mean I can eat chips and salsa and get the 'good for my gut' food in me?" Yes Matt, you can have your cake and eat it to. We have all noticed a vast improvement in our health and digestive systems since starting to ferment some of our garden foods, only... Matt isn't a huge pickle fan (which are the easiest to ferment) and the last batch of fermenting we prepared was peppers. Poor Matt also has a difficult time with spicy things but is trying for the sake of his gut and being thankful for the things that come from the garden. Thus the several evenings of pears commenced.

 Allow me a moment if I take the time to point out the symbolism I found in the pear process... I like to think of myself as one of these pears- going along in life, trying to grow, to become a big, beautiful, soft, sweet pear. Only, I'm not protected, some how the gardener either didn't know how or failed in his job to protect me from those bugs. Like the world does, they bit me. But the tree I was connected to (my mom, sister and the Lord) was strong, so I still grew, but I had to callous over those bites and move on, keep growing. Once I was ready to be harvested, the Lord, having fired the gardener that was supposed to protect me against these dangers before they came, stepped in as the Master gardener and pulled me from the tree where I rested (this happened to me out in Oklahoma where I lived for 4 years). Not only did I rest while there, I was ripening, the sugars where building; I was sweetening, softening. Then came time for the peeling, this was hard work and sometimes painful because God had to go in and take out all of those calloused spots where I had healed over the pain in order to remove them. All the while I was placed in the sweet lemon water to keep from going bad before I was ready for the next steps in life, to transform and move on to something far greater. You see, God can take that pear with all of those holes, still dice it up and make a beautiful jar of spiced pears out of it!

Before concluding, I'd like to point out something I said earlier- this coming the spring, I'm going to do my best to see to it that those bugs never take a bite out of my baby pears. Dear friends- that is how our Heavenly Father is. So many times we look at our lives and we say, "if that bad thing hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't have learned that lesson, or become this or that." etc.. But no! Yes, God can make something beautiful out of anything, he's the Master Carpenter! But His perfect will is that those "bites", those bad things, never happen in the first place. He is a good, loving Father; He only wants the best for His children and we must see to it that we do the same for our own children, to protect them from the "bites" of the world, so that they may grow up to be healthy, beautiful whole... just as God intended them to be.

Until next time, remember, Jesus is that beautiful Light that expels all darkness...

Love for you all,

~Michelle

The Tale of the Broken Budget and It's Cautionary Lesson

The Broken Budget... He Needs a Doctor

So, Michelle and I share our finances. Financially, we are very much  a married couple. We make budget decisions together and decide whether we can afford the latest remodel or need to put it off for awhile. Michelle is an amazing book keeper. If we need to scale back on fun or food, we make those  cuts. When the car needs to be fixed and we just can’t afford it, we will look on YouTube to see if the fix is in anyway possible for two yellow headed semi-city girls to give it a whirl. Sometimes the credit card is the only option, but it is ALWAYS ALWAYS a last resort. Our mom taught us that you go without, eat rice and beans, rather than carry a balance on a credit card. “Owe no man anything but to love him.”

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law- Romans 13:8

Here is a fictional account of a married couple as seen through the eyes of the current government debt ceiling debate.

Wife: “Honey, our debt is just spinning out of control. I know we’ve been talking about it for years, but our spending has been exceeding our income by an average of $998 a month for the past five years. (American Federal Income Verses Expenditures Out of Control)  We keep putting all of our extra spending on credit cards and that home equity line is maxed out. We now owe more on our house than what we have in it, and oh, we are 2 months behind in our mortgage payments. Now, I say we start by cutting out eating out at nice restaurants and start eating rice, beans, and potatoes for awhile. I figure we can save close to $500 a month by doing this. What do you think?”(average couple food expenditures )

Husband: “NO WAY! I don’t cook and you don’t cook so how would we do this? Plus, I work hard and I deserve to dine out whenever and wherever I want to. We’ll have to do something else.”

Wife: “Okay, you’re right, I hate cooking and eating out is so much more relaxing. Okay, so how about we downsize our home. Even if we take a hit and sell, we could move to a smaller home and cut our mortgage payment to a ¼ of what it is now! That would solve all of our problems!” 

Husband: “Honey, I love our home. It’s so nice and cozy. This is such a great neighborhood, and plus, we deserve to live in a big house. We work our 40 hrs a week! Plus, you said we owe more on it than what it’s worth, so we should probably continue living here. It would be so hard to move anyway.”

Wife: “Okay, yes, I do love this house, and we deserve to have a nice home. So, do you have any ideas to cut back our spending?”

Husband: “How about we sell our cars and get cheaper used ones?” (average american car payment Dave Ramsey style)

Wife: “Honey, are you KIDDING ME? I just got that new beamer, I LOVE IT!! I don’t care what we have to do, I’m not selling that car. We could sell your car and get an older one.”

Husband: “No way! I just got that new F250 I’ve wanted for years. Okay, car payments aside, there has got to be something else, how about clothes? We could stop shopping for new clothes and wear what we have or go to Goodwill. I hear it’s all the rage!”

Wife: “What? What??? You may be able to get away with the same suit and tie day after day but people will notice if my wardrobe doesn’t change with the seasons. No way, I need to keep my wardrobe polished and up to date. Plus, I save money by using those 25% off Macy’s coupons. Oh how I love Macy’s!”  women's professional suit prices

Wife: “Honey, I hate to bring this up now but I've got some other really bad news I've got to tell you. We have to stop sleeping together.”

Husband: “What? We were talking about a budget and now we can’t sleep together? This financial stuff is really knocking you off your rocker.”

Wife: “No, I’m serious, I just found out my new job that is run by a practicing Catholic doesn't cover free birth control. I don’t think birth control is in our budget, so we have to stop sleeping together because there is one thing we absolutely CANNOT afford, and that is to have a child right now! How awful would it be if I got pregnant? We’d be ruined! We can’t take our chances with this.”

At this point, a look of utter shock came over the husband’s face. Fear, terror, gripped him and he fell on his knees crying tears, screaming “Oh God, why have you done this to us? We've tried so hard to keep our money in your hands and now you have forsaken us by plaguing my wife with an employer who does not have birth control as part of his insurance plan! I own my own business and cannot afford to buy insurance right out. I rely on my wife and her job to make sure I can get my Viagra and her birth control. Oh Lord, what are we to do?”

Suddenly, the TV flickered, the lights went off and back on in the house. The couple heard a voice coming from the living room. Curious, they crept through the doorway from the kitchen to find that their 60 in HD TV had come on all by itself and low and behold the current president of the United States was giving a press conference. “It must be a sign,” the husband and wife both thought to themselves. They sat down together on the new leather couch, mesmerized at the soothingly deep and methodical cadence coming from the speakers.

 “Mark my words. I don’t care what the religious preference is of your employer. Making birth control free on ALL American’s insurance plans is part if my new program to save this country.”

Then, as if the president were speaking just to them, they locked eyes with this presence of a man as he proceeded to say “There are some things that are sacred in life. One of them is a person’s access to birth control. I have made it so NO one will ever have to pay a dime again to have access to these life killing… I mean saving… I mean…well, woman’s pills. You can keep spending money on clothes and eating out. Hey, keep the economy rolling. I’ll make sure you can keep those good times rolling in the sack, whether your married or not, and never again have to worry about coming up with the $10  it’s takes for a woman to have sex whenever she wants and not have to worry about a child getting in the way of your fun!”

With that, the couple’s tears turned into tears of joy.

 They had prayed and god had showed up on TV. He was a half black half white man who spoke directly to them. He promised to take care of their biggest fear in life beyond losing their home or selling a car- that of having a child. They sat down and prayed to this man, their new savior and promised to do all in their power to support  him.

They felt a cold shiver go down their backs as they saw a dark shadow sprint across the room.

“That’s weird…” they both thought but were so at peace and calm they just sat back and ignored it.

Meanwhile, outside the home a group of demonic spirits has a meet up “Did you get them to do it?” says one shady looking character to the other.

“Yup,” says another “Easy as pie. That whole ‘thou shalt have no other god before me,’ slips people’s minds so easy when money is involved…Yeah, I got them to worship a man, a president. Hey, I got them to think he was their SAVIOR….the big man downstairs will be so proud, I just got two more souls to spend eternity with us in the flames. If we’re going down, we’re taking as many of God’s children with us as possible!!!”

Just then a huge explosion went off and the couple and their beautiful home, nice new cars, fancy clothes, and fridge stocked with food, went up in flames.

“Did you cut the gas line on your way out?” said one demon to the other “Oh yeah…once they turned their backs on God and started worshiping the pres… that hedge of protection came off like a charm…”

Wife: “Honey… did the power just go off?  It’s pitch black in here. Wow, I thought I paid the electric bill, where’s air…”  It’s getting awful hot in here.

Husband: “Uhh… I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…” as the noise of screams, terror, weeping, and gnashing of teeth could be heard getting louder and louder…flames and unbearable heat causes their mouth to dry out, unquenchable thirst over takes them.

Wife: “ What about our bills? Who will pay them? We owe so many people so much…”

Husband: “Don’t worry the insurance will cover everything!”

Wife: “Hell? We deserve Heaven.”         

Husband: “We forgot to pay the ransom!” “Jesus sacrificed his life, to free us from Satan’s claim to our souls. We rejected God’s love and became consumers in the world. Jesus told us to reject the world and separate ourselves from them and follow him.”  We have gotten what we deserve.  God is fair and just.

^{Matthew 7 21} Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.

²² Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

²³ And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].

Exodus 20 ³ You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.

⁴ You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

⁵ You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God

Government Mandates Employers to Provide No Co-Pay Birth Control

NO vision or Dental Under ObamaCare

The beauty in writing and wood...

I remember a time when I had hours in my day to sit down and write; short stories, poems, journals, songs, sermons, teachings. You name it, nothing fulfilled me more than the creative outlet of either typed or hand written words. I love the authenticity of looking back years down the road, running my fingers over the slight indentations of a page and almost being transported back in time to the very moment I penned them. At the same time, I love the swiftness in which my thoughts can travel from my brain, to my fingers, the keyboard and onto a screen in front of me. I love the "click, click, click" that I feel and hear with every letter typed. While I still journal occasionally at night before I go to sleep or in the morning before I start my day- I find my eyelids so heavy from exhaustion that creativity has been replaced by a swift jotting down of a few thoughts, days events or things the Lord has spoken to me. 

Recently a thought occurred to me, what if I simply made time to write. I know there are many people out there that are following us on Facebook, You Tube and Isaiah 58 Ministries' blog that would love a more down to earth, intimate look into what makes us tick. So what if I made the time to give them that? Yeah, a few people might enjoy it (and I hope you do!) but more than that, I am bursting at the seems to share all of the exciting things that God is doing in my family and in me. I may shun technology, but I am very excited about this opportunity to share my life with you, dear readers; be you friend, family or stranger... 

Welcome to the life of The Carpenter's Daughters. 

Our friends/neighbors down the street had a tree come down this year; not just any tree, a black walnut. While they have a large back yard where this massive mess can hide, they still want it removed and we promised to help take care of it months ago... then summer hit and our schedule skyrocketed, placing the tree removal on the back burner. Matt confided in me some time ago that the real reason he wasn't as motivated to take care of it was because he just couldn't abide the idea of such beautiful, valuable wood meeting it's end in our wood burning stove. Since then he's been trying to figure out a way to create his own saw mill. You see, Matt grew up listening to This Old House and New Yankee Workshop reruns on his walk-man every night before sleep- this is not a joke. The kid had a passion for wood; he still does in fact. He took wood shop in high school and built some pretty amazing things, but his family discouraged this creative outlet in Matt so he shoved it to the side. When most of us were excited about getting toy catalogs in the mail, Matt hungrily flipped through ones selling saw mills. Of course he never bought one, but it's been a desire since he was a child- fast forward twenty+ years and we're going to try to make that dream a reality. 

A lot of people see the projects that we take on- a 3,000 mile bike trip, massive garden, home remodeling, starting up a business and they ask us, "so what is your next big thing?" I always reply, "as the Lord leads" but today I can say we have a few things rolling around as solid desires we'd like to see to fruition soon- starting with what we can do now. We want to start milling our own wood, not only to save money on projects, but so that Matt can fulfill the calling that God has laid on his heart to be a carpenter. What an odd path to veer on... and yet it fits. I don't know if it will work out and be successful but I do know it's a beautiful thing. 

My mom came to me the other day with an exciting revelation about how all of your problems go away when you think about Jesus. Not just for a moment or a few hours, but all day, everyday. And why not? He's right there with you, speaking to you, leading you... It's hard to be self centered and consumed by the world's burdens when you are thinking about Jesus. Meditating on him during your everyday activities, not just when you are sad, upset, or praying before a meal. So I did- and what vision came to me but Jesus the carpenter. Not Jesus on the cross- that image is sealed upon my heart, but rather Jesus, the everyday man. What he was doing with his time, while he was being prepared for the greatest ministry of all time. So I was hungry for research. I know my Bible, so I know there isn't much in there during this time in his life other than the fact that he was a carpenter. Matthew 13:55 tells us "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?" and Mark 6:3 says almost the same thing, note though how instead of being called the son of a carpenter, it says rather "Isn't this the carpenter? ..." Some people say that at this point Joseph, his earthly father, had probably passed away and that Jesus was essentially the man of the house, thus taking the title for himself. I am no scholar and will not presume to decide that debate, but either way, he makes a striking study. This man, who knew he was the Son of God, being humble enough to take such a lowly position. There is also some debate as to what kind of carpentry work Jesus was doing. The original Greek word for carpenter was "tekton" which means craftsman, builder, carpenter, mason. Thus, he could have been a builder of any kind. However, the most common held belief is that he was a local carpenter that would have made tools like plows, furniture, homes etc... He also could have been a combination of mason and carpenter. I find both beautiful. The image that conjures in my mind of our Lord and Savior spending hours working with his hands, with only his thoughts and communication with His Heavenly Father to keep Him company takes my breath away. He truly is the Son of the real Carpenter, the real Craftsman, the One who created us all. And just as he took on this earthly body, to become like us, God sent him to become the son of another craftsman, that he might feel what it is like for an earthly man to create something. This is an imitation of his Father in Heaven who created and crafted all that we see and are.

I am not a parent, but I can see the tenderness of a son wanting to do the same things that his father does. That is why God created us the way He did, so that we might imitate Him- that we might fill the earth and subdue it. Genesis 1:28  "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Take the earth in our hands and create! As husband and wife come together and create! That is how we imitate our Father in Heaven. For some reason I always felt that when I grew up I wanted to marry a carpenter; how strange, who specifies what they want a future spouse to do? I now know why, whether I end up with one or not isn't the point, the point is that without knowing it, I was being a classic daughter, wanting to marry someone just like her dad. Not my earthly father- but my Heavenly Father, how special.

Herein lies the title of this new blogging experience from me to you. I hope you will continue to join me on my journey- my family's journey. I promise it will be fun and exciting! There is never a dull moment around here- just yesterday Matt tore down a retaining wall that had been half crumbled for 50+ years so that we can rebuild it. Today, he and I drove to the Fairfield Menards and bought two skids of retaining wall block- only, when the fork lift placed the first skid of 216 blocks on Matt's flatbed Dodge Ram, the shocks sank about six inches. The fellas there suggested we come back, to pickup the second skid... saying in a slight country accent "I've got me an F250, of course it ain't a Dodge, but it barely hauls a skid of concrete..." The day before, I was digging up the flower bed behind our house to move all the plants so that we might create a place to dry the wood that we mill, I thought to myself, I need to start a blog about all this stuff, it's so exciting! I really want to give you a glimpse into what it's like on our side of the fence, day to day, real feel kind of a deal. So kick back, grab some tea and join us... There is much, much more to come! 

Until next time, think about Jesus, he is that beautiful light that expels all darkness.

Love for you all,

~ Michelle