Preserving

Wondering if anyone else has tried canning sweet onions?  Would appreciate comments.  I know they can be frozen.. I want to can them with the pressure canner.

Soapbox time

You probably don't need to take off your mittens to count the number of times since being elected that Barack Obama has shunned the golf course in favor of a Sunday church service. But yesterday, Easter Sunday, was one such day. The church that the President chose to visit on the holiest of Christian holidays, however, is lead by a minister with a tendency to play the race card and demonize conservatives.-The Blaze

Now let me add MY 2 cents to this statement.  You may think this is a good thing- that the POTUS is attending a worship service, but this is NOT a worship service if they are not focused on Jesus and His resurrection.  A church that preaches politics is nothing more than a glorified country club meeting. 

My very favorite season of the year- SPRING !!  What a glorious day it is today~ thank you Lord for the beautiful weather.  I've repotted a couple of hyacinths and am doing some laundry.  I'm so sleepy I can scarcely stay awake at all.  :)  It's a good day to take a nap.

Pantry

I listened to a man today discussing the coming monetary crash in the US- it's just a matter of time he said.  It's that our currency is going to be eliminated- it's already nearly worthless.
The man made a lot of sense really.. and one of the things he suggested was to have enough food and supplies for at least 6 months.. so I hope we will not need our pantry supplies- we don't have much.
Wendell and I have talked about this on various occasions.  What would it be like to wake up tomorrow morning and have no "conveniences" of this century?  Oh, wow.. it's staggering to think about living back when our parents were children.  No running water, no electricity, no car- horse and buggy, growing your food, finding milk wherever you could.
I asked what he'd miss most~ TV- I should have known.  I chose running water and toilet tissue.  I don't cherish using newspaper or an old Sears catalog :)
All of our seed for our little garden this year are heirloom- I'm going to can as much as we can grow other than what we eat fresh.
Sure wish we had a solar generator- they are a bit expensive for us yet.

Canning

I have been such a busy bee today.  Yesterday I bought strawberries at Sam's Club and this morning I added 8 more jars of sugar free freezer jam.  Oh.. it's soooooo delicious!
I also bought 2 more London Broil roasts and our total is now 17 jars of beef to the pantry.
So our list is on the right hand side of this column-> but I'll still write in our totals here.
10 jars ham
5 jars kielbassi
7 jars sweet Italian sausage
19 jars chicken

I am so glad we bought that canner when the kids were small.  I love canning and wish I had more meats to continue.  I may add some cake if things get too quiet here.  :)
I have a recipe for canned butter, but it's tricky and requires a lot of stirring and watching.. and you have to buy oodles of butter to do it..so maybe not today.  I did get extra butter buds and added that to the pantry.
I'm looking for a new/used pantry cupboard for our bathroom~  I'd like it to have large shelves and doors that can be closed. 

And from JJ's boss George, a new logo for BHS

It's a Thomas Kinkaid set!!!

Thanks to John and Amanda.. a new trivet, coffee cup, and
cookies for the kids :)

I added some miracle grow, and the stargazer lily took off

Thanks to Paul, Amy,
Joyce, Paul3, Daniel, David, and Annabelle

Thomas in the grass..

Bridal wreath, pussy willow, and forsythia- to be planted later

Another excellent resource of reading material-

The Reformed Theoblogy site- a must see/read site

The result of a weak membership is a demand for weak worship. Our congregations have not learned to go beyond the pabulum of shallow praise choruses so prevalent in our worship services today. The self-centered nature of these choruses is manifest. The one doing the praising is more central than the one praised in such choruses as "I Bless You," "I Just Want to Praise You," "I Only Want to Love You" and so on. This is not God-exalting worship! It is man exalting! Woe to those who are more impressed with our "love for God" than God’s love for us!

One newspaper advertisement for a church in Tampa, Florida boasts of its "casual worship." What an oxymoron this is! How can worship – acknowledging the "worth-ship" of Jesus Christ, the Holy One, God of very God, light of very light – be casual? This type of worship approach is defended as an attempt to be all things to all people. What it really represents is an attempt to co-opt the world’s values. For churches that have lost their biblical moorings, adapting worship practices to the world is not an irrational response to a worldly church membership. The problem, of course, is that it is an acutely unbiblical response.

Stargazer lilies. Not sure the one on the left is gonna grow.. :(

My peppers and tomatoes

Annabelle and Daniel

Paul and David..

Daniel and Annabelle like to play Pictionary Jr..

Another fun thing we do is play with PlayDoh

Paul 3 worked on Lego projects.. he's soooooo good at that!

One of Annabelle's favorite things to do is dress up. I have a tub of fun outfits for her.. miss princess here.

The 4 younger kids came for a sleepover a couple weeks ago.. David and I played Skip-bo. He generally wins at either this or Uno..

II Corinthians 5

1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,
3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
7 For we live by faith, not by sight.
8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Hungry for spaghetti today.. maybe for lunch- that way the blood sugar should settle down by morning and since we would be using the low carb spaghetti, it won't be too bad.
Raining today.. I may not make it to the hospital with all the deluge.  Jane is doing well post hip surgery.. perhaps I'll just give her a call if it's still pouring after supper tonite.  No point in visiting before that- she has so much going on with rehab during the day.

"We are to make God's sovereign rule, and a right relationship with Him, the highest priority in life. Worry is inconsistent with this priority; it doubts the sovereignty or goodness of God and distracts from the true goals in life. God will meet all the needs of those who risk all for Him." - Reformation Study Bible notes on Matthew 6:33

Fruits of the Spirit

It's gonna be a busy week.  Not much time to just sit at the computer and play..  :)
This morning after breakfast I decided to read my Prof Horner study- I was going along just fine when I hit Genesis and the story of Joseph in Egypt.  You know, that is such a great story (piece of history).. I couldn't stop.  I put in the remainder of my 10 chapters on Genesis- I think it was 3-4.. didn't matter.. I loved reading how God puts things together to make the future.

Have been doing some reading on the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.. or how do I know if the Spirit of God lives in my heart?
Galatians 5:22-23 tells us about the characteristics of believers who are "filled with the Spirit"..

 Love
Peace
Joy
Longsuffering
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self Control

The Holy Spirit causes these qualities to be evident in His own elect.  Sometimes they are sort of hidden in Christians who aren't actively pursuing Christ.. backsliders?  The Holy Spirit is the teacher and also the one who 'nudges' a person in the direction of Jesus. 
Galatians shows us examples of what we would expect the Christian to develop over time as they walk their walk with Christ.
Christians are not perfect, but they are forgiven and saved by the grace of Jesus. 
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

I've been a busy little bee.  I love to can.  So I'm canning the only thing that is really available to me at this time of year- meats.  Today we have 10 jars of ham, 1 sweet Italian sausage, and 5 pts of kielbassi.  Yummy!   I did chicken and beef the last time I used the canner.. I should think about doing that again.

It's a rainy day today.  The water delivery caught me off my guard.. but I got the jugs out in record time and the delivery man put the new bottles in the closet for me.  He's a nice guy.

As I said, it's raining today.. and about 45*.. chilly.  The daffodils are blooming, the forsythia too.. and my little hyacinths are sooooooo fragrant!!!  Wish I could make that into a perfume!
Rainy weather makes me so sleepy.  I'd like to take a nap, but it looks like hubby beat me to the bed.  Hrmph. 

Prayers of the Saints

The prayers which the Lord accepts are not the chantings of functionaries, the litanies of priests, or the devout tones of a mechanical service; they must be the prayers of saints: in the life, the character, the soul, the sweetness lies — the acceptance comes not unless they be the prayers of saints.



And who are the saints? They are men whom the Lord has made holy by the power of his Spirit, whose nature he has purified, whom he has washed in the precious blood of Jesus, and so sanctified unto himself, whom he has filled with his Spirit, and so set apart to his worship. These persons loving him, praising him, bowing before him with solemn awe, lifting their whole Souls up in adoring love — these are they who can offer sweet incense; their thoughts, their desires, their longings, their confessions, their pleadings, their praises — these are sweet to God: this is music to him, this is perfume to his heart, delightful to his infinite mind, pleasant to his sacred spirit, for God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, and after no other fashion is a spiritual God to be worshipped.


From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Golden Vials Full of Odors," delivered May 19, 1872.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Cyrus I. Scofield enlisted on May 20, 1861 in the Confederate Army and served with the 7th Regiment of the Tennessee infantry. Twelve years later Scofield committed perjury when he took an oath to become the United States District Attorney for Kansas and stated that he had never voluntarily born arms against the United States.



Scofield did not last very long as a District Attorney, and by 1877, he was making a living on scams and writing bogus checks. He was taken to court several times and even served jail time.


Prior to his time as a district attorney, Cyrus had married a Roman Catholic woman by the name of Leontine. They had two girls, Abigail and Helene. About the time he resigned as a district attorney, Cyrus abandoned his family, leaving his wife to support herself and their two girls. Eventually the marriage was dissolved in divorce. Fundamental Christians are very hardnosed on divorce, and if a minister’s marriage ends in divorce, the minister will be forced to resign and barred from being in the ministry. Scofield’s supporters ignored this matter and kept it a secret for a long time in order to make Cyrus Scofield a licensed minister of the Gospel. While Cyrus was still legally married to Leontine, he began to date a young woman in his congregation by the name of Hettie Van Wark. They were married on March 11, 1884.


The Bible version that bears his name is a tainted version produced by two British clergymen, Westcott and Hort. These men are hailed as Bible scholars, but what is not brought out is the fact that both men were devoted Satanists and very active in occult rituals during their lifetime. The Devil must laugh his head off every time he thinks back on this coup. Think about it, the Fundamental Christians in the United States preach out of a Bible that Satan’s disciple’s doctored up and perverted. Here is a quote from page two of the Introduction to the 1945 Scofield Bible edition: The discovery of the Sinaitic MS, and the labours in the field of textual criticism of such scholars as ...Westcott and Hort, have cleared the Greek Textus Receptus of minor inaccuracies...


One of his backers was a well-known Jewish lawyer from New York, Samuel Untermeyer (1858-1941). He was a criminal attorney, but he was more well known for his political connections, bribery, and for being a fanatical Zionist. In 1901, Scofield was offered a membership in the Lotus Club of New York, a prestigious club in the literary circles of the United States catering to non-Christians. This was not a club in which one applied for membership, rather, you had to be invited and have a sponsor. Why would a wealthy German Jew like Untermeyer living in America sponsor Scofield and spend money on a man who was working on a new Bible translation and preaching Jesus Christ?


Jewish leaders had long ago recognized the bonanza for them if they could force the teaching of an imminent rapture on the Christians and move them to abandon their moral hold on society. John Darby had been financially supported earlier, and since Scofield was the successor to Darby, they could influence him to work hard and make this teaching central in all Christian churches. Removal of Christians from politics and public schools would leave the door open for liberal Jewish writers and political leaders to move in and remove the Bible and prayer from public schools and political institution. Remember, the ACLU is a Jewish organization, having only a few Gentiles in it for window dressing.


The Zionists were already working on capturing the land of Palestine and establishing the State of Israel. They knew in advance that unless they had the backing of the Christian churches in the West it would not happen. Therefore, Untermeyer made sure that Scofield presented a teaching in which Jesus was coming back shortly but also that the Jews were to have their land restored to them. This was the birth of Christian Zionism, which today is dominating the Christian churches in Western Europe and North America.


By 1948, Christians in the West fell like ripe plums for the propaganda that God was opening the door for a Jewish state. The hype in the Fundamental churches, even Pentecostal churches, went into overdrive and a number of prominent ministries began pushing hard for Israel. Oral Roberts, Rex Humbard, Jack van Impe, Kathryn Kuhlman, Hal Lindsey, Jim Bakker (PTL), Pat Robertson (the 700 Club), Jerry Falwell (Moral Majority), John Hagee, Paul and Jane Crouch (TBN), Ulf Ekman from Sweden, and many more became fanatical supporters of the State of Israel. In 2006, the hype has gone into overdrive with a new theology being pushed that Jewish people do not need to come through Jesus, God has a special salvation plan outside of Christ for them. Christians are support them financially and send as many of them as possible to Israel but do not preach Jesus Christ crucified to them.


The Incredible Scofield and His Book is a must read for all Christians who are hungry for the truth and not afraid to face their false doctrine. If the young people of today are going to have a future on this earth, they need to be set free from all lies, and know that Jesus commissioned us to go out into the whole world making disciples and teaching them all things Jesus taught his apostles. Look at these words Jesus spoke:


“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” ~John 17:14-21

Having one of 'those days' today.  No sleep last night, and feeling nauseated all day today.  I'd blame some of this on the Glucerna I drank late last evening, but also illness contributes to high blood sugar- I was 169 this morning.
I managed to take back the dolly I bought a couple of days ago.  I struggled to get it in the car after the purchase, then when I got it home, I tried to move some groceries with it, and noted it wouldn't move across the hard wood floor.. ugh!  Both wheels were flat.  I asked Paul to bring his compressor to inflate the tires, but when he looked at it, he said it was missing bearings.  Ugh! again.  So today I loaded up the dolly and got the receipt ready and headed out to the store where I bought it.  The stock boy unloaded it from the car and went to find another dolly to exchange.  They had none of the one I bought- 600# limit.. but for $5 more, I could have the 800# limit.  He checked the tires for me and they were inflated.. and then he loaded it in the car for me.  AMEN.  I had to go to Butler for one of my scripts, and as I drove down the road, I noticed the light for the back door was on.  Good grief!  So I pulled off and closed the back door securely.  I could just see me driving down the road and the back door opening and the dolly rolling back down McBride Hill all by itself!!  Acckk!
I made it to Sam's Club and got the strawberries I needed to make jam.. but before I got through the store, nausea hit and I felt so flakey, I decided to get out of there as quickly as I could and go home.
Happy to have a working dolly, I pulled it out and loaded a case of water on it along with a case of Glucerna.. and promptly dumped them both on the walkway- upside down of course. 
Like I said, it's been one of those days..
..

Spurgeon

"We hold -- we are not afraid to say that we believe -- that Christ came into this world with the intention of saving "a multitude which no man can number;" and we believe that as the result of this, every person for whom He died must, beyond the shadow of a doubt, be cleansed from sin, and stand, washed in blood, before the Father's throne. We do not believe that Christ made any effectual atonement for those who are for ever damned; we dare not think that the blood of Christ was ever shed with the intention of saving those whom God foreknew never could be saved, and some of whom were even in Hell when Christ, according to some men's account, died to save them." - C. H. Spurgeon, from the sermon, Particular Redemption, Delivered February 28, 1858, at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens

"Beware of manufacturing a god of your own: A god who is ...all mercy but not just, A god who is all love but not holy, A god who has a heaven for everyone but a hell for none... Such a god is an idol of your own.. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible." - J.C. Ryle

We missed our outing to the museum and train display today.. I feel badly that we did, but maybe it's better to have the problems I had today now.. rather than tomorrow when I  desire to be at worship. 

Catch up day.. April fool!!!

Seriously.. it is catch up day.  I have too many projects going here and I'm being buried by one in particular.  I need to put groceries away from yesterday's shopping trip.
That involves cleaning out a cupboard to receive the goods.. but first:    breakfast!  Wendell is patiently waiting.
Have a wonderful day all..!!