IFF - Thankful list for today.

• a school holiday. It was -43C [wind chill] this morning when we got up.
• lots of good books from the library, including a whole bunch by Richard Paul Evans, Gervais Phinn (sorry, I find them a little boring), a book about sewing bags (including patterns) and Miracles by Karen Kingsbury (52 devotional short stories. Probably one of her best books.) a bunch of books by Alexander McCall Smith (recommended by Sally Barkman), My Amish Childhood (recommended by Mich Klassen) and more!! Guess what. I was at a book party the other week. :)
• clean jeans drying on the railing upstairs
• heaters going full blast
• Colby and Zach working in the shop all day
• a triple batch of unbaked cookies (Aunt Maryanne's recipe)
• clean sheets (I'm a wash-em-once-a-week girl)
• six loaves of fresh brown multi-grain bread cooling on the cupboard
• a new French bread pan
• sausage n veggie soup for supper
• playing Search & Find with Wyatt
• our grey and white friendly cat (Tattoo)
• youth hockey game for the boys tonight
• talking with Arnie for a very long time today
• cutting out a new dress for myself with some beautiful fabric I got from Pat for Christmas
• a really yummy chilled coffee (THM)
• good discussions on my sibling chat
• reading Farmer Boy to Wyatt
• imagination - I'm not proud of this but I have to see the good in it. I saw the laundry basket, upside-down in the entrance today, taking a walk. A very strange sight. Very soon I caught on that Tattoo was trapped underneath. And then, horrors, he was tied in with Wyatt's Sunday belt. Like I said, surely imagination will be of benefit someday.
• my dishwasher, one of my closest friends

WW 25 questions

1. What is one of your favorite quotes? Any home can be a castle if the King and Queen are in love.

2. What chore do you absolutely hate doing?  Ironing shirts.

3. What is your favorite time of the day?  Maybe early morning. When Pat & Colby are gone to work and Zach and Wyatt aren’t up yet. Coffee and a sunrise…

4. What sound do you love? Fire crackling in the fireplace, melting snow dripping off the roof, dishwasher humming, little people singing.

5. Are you moody? Hmm.

5. When you have 30 minutes of free-time, how do you pass it?  Read, sing, talk on the phone, sew something fun.

6. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?  Knit and crotchet well.

7. What are 5 words that describe you?  Busy, Sensitive, Opinionated, Organized, Creative

8. Do you use salad dressing or mayonnaise? Both. Miracle Whip for sandwiches, Mayo for certain recipes.

9. What do you do when you are feeling very sad or depressed? Write out thankful lists, call someone, pray, sing, read a book. Like one older lady said in Sunday school, ‘Do violence to the flesh! Make yourself do something for someone else. Make yourself think about something else. Read a book. Exercise. Make sure you take your vitamins and get enough sleep. And be thankful.’ I say, thank you, Rose.

10.When company comes for night do you like them to strip the bed in the morning or…? I always appreciate it if they do but it doesn’t bother me if they don’t.

11. What is your favorite song?  I’ll Give It To Him,  Him That Cometh Unto Me, Just As I Am – I Come Broken, Did I Mention His Love, He Gives The Power, Keep On Walkin’, Island of Joy….

12. What is your favorite Bible verse?       But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.                                                  

13. What can you tell us that very few people know about you? Oh, dear me. I’m a very open person. I don’t know if there’s much that people don’t know about me. Except. I probably share different stuff here than in ‘real life’. Like everyone in ‘real life’ knows that I just got my braces off and I probably haven’t told you that. And you all know I love to read but that’s not something I announce to people… ‘Hey! I read voraciously!’ or better yet, ‘I love to write!’

14. Do you use Cool Whip or whipping cream? Whipping cream. I keep one tub of Cool Whip in my freezer for emergencies.

15. Do you treat your family nicer than you treat other people?  Maybe.

16. What do you do with your towel and washcloth when you go away?   Hang it over the edge of the tub or shower rod if there isn’t a hook or towel bar.

17. Do you find it easy to look people in the eye when you talk to them? Yes

18. What percent of the time do you know where you are spiritually? Most, almost 100%.

19. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be? …crotchet or knit.

20. What aspect of gardening do you like? Pouring over seed catalogues, ordering seeds, tilling fresh smelling dirt in the spring, marking rows, pulling the little weeds and then skip a few months… I lovety-love-love the harvest. Running out for a fresh tomato or lettuce or snacking on carrots with a tiny bit of dirt on them and the delicious smells of earthy dampness. I love the time I spend by myself in my garden with just trees and earth and sky around me and the occasional deer jumping because I scared it or someone calling for me and knowing they should just run to the garden to find me or knowing I can spend an hour out there in shorts and a t-shirt and no one will see me. I love love love standing back and seeing tidy clean straight weeded rows after a long afternoon of weeding. I love bowls filled to overflowing with green beans and rows and rows of canned goods on my pantry shelves.

21. Are you a black and white person? So, if we’re talking about colors we like, absolutely, black and white over cream and brown. If we’re talking about convictions, I think I’m black and white.

22. When you talk to others do you remember to ask questions about themselves or their family? Yes

23. When your children were/are in school, how often did you check in with the teacher to see how things were/are going? I don’t know. Lots. We’re quite open with each other.

24. What makes you feel most loved by others? Time. Coffee together. An invite to get together. Talking together. When others can share their hardships or whatever with me.

25. Tell us your height 5’8”

       The color of your eyes blue-ish grey

       What kind and color of hair you have Straight brown, thin, poufed a little bit in the front, greying on the sides.

IFF - Sell me your machine.

I have this love affair with my induction-top stove.


First off, I'm going to have all the excuses out in the open. For many years I lived with a very basic coil-top stove and one redeeming feature was that that stove, plain and simple though it was, was brand new when I got it as a bride. I loved that stove and cooked many a meal on it's lovely coil top. I realize that most of you have likely had an induction-top stove for many years. Also, I hesitate to sell you my machine in the embarrassing possibility that I would sound like a bragger, or better yet, think I know everything there is to know.


Okay, now that I got that off my bosom I will proceed.


I really, really love my induction top stove for these reasons:

• Pretty much anything that boils over just wipes up clean.
• Water boils a time and a half to two times quicker than any other stove.
• I can make cream soups hours before they need to be served and switch on the 'perfect simmer' button and they never burn on or boil but are perfectly hot whenever we want to eat.
• You can adjust the heat and it changes instantly and holds it at that temperature.
• The stove heats only where you place your pot on the element. (It's magnetic.)
• The stovetop is cool enough to touch as soon as you take off the pot.
• You can even cook with a piece of newspaper between the element and the pot for instant cleanup, say when canning or making salsa.

There are so many things I love about my stove but there are a few cons, too. One of them is that it takes magnetic pots to work. I got my stove on a promotion when they were giving away a set of pots for each stove, so I'm good there. Also, so far I haven't found a nice big pressure canner that works on an induction top so I've done my pressure canning at Bren or at church and I've done as much canning as possible with the good old-fashioned boiling water bath. And when I've been canning and had all four burners on at the same time I've had a couple times when a couple burners will automatically shut off, as if it gets too hot.


So yes, I would definitely recommend an induction top stove and I would definitely get one again.


What kind of stovetop do you have?

WW hatch(ed)

{WW} hatch(ed)

 

Of Chickens & Eggs

 

We have never owned chickens that have hatched their own eggs but we have enjoyed laying hens many summers in a row. We’ve bought ready to lay hens from Anstey’s Hatchery in Saskatoon and another little hatchery just north of the city and a couple times from a nice sized farm close to Warman.

 

Hens are easy to care for. They need fresh water and food once a day and if a person is really punctual and feeds the hens at the exact same time every day they will almost always lay one egg a day each. We found that the Isa Brown hens were the mildest and calmest of the birds available to us. The plain white hens were jumpy and flighty and fought with each other and the Cornish hens were even more so.

 

I liked to buy the special laying hen feed from Early’s Farm & Garden Center. Sometimes I mixed in other grain and sometimes we just fed them the basics and a lot of times we gave them our slop, which they loved. Did you know a group of hens will fight over one piece of lettuce?

 

Very quickly hens will decide where to lay their eggs and keep on doing so. So, when one hen laid its egg in the feed box one of the first mornings I was not surprised to find an egg there every morning all summer.

 

Hens are good pets for families who don’t own animals. They teach the children responsibility plus they provide food for the family. Little children feel so good about themselves when they are old enough to carefully bring in a basket of fresh laid eggs.

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I really love chickens and eggs but I have this problem. I think this is possibly one of the most boring (as in written) articles ever and then I got asked to send it to H & H. How in the world would you dress it up? Or change it?