Thankful Thursday

Sometimes life can get busy and I forget to look around at all of the wonderful things that God created but when I take time and just enjoy it I cannot help but be thankful for all of the things that He has created. From the tall Walnut trees growing along our driveway

to the tiny plants that are popping up in my garden, it is amazing to just soak it all in. It is hard to fathom how the Lord can cause one tiny seed to grow into such magnificent and beautiful things.

Today is my son's birthday. He is the goofy guy on the right that is picking on his sister. The baby that my daughter is holding is my son's son. I am so thankful for the children God has blessed me with. I believe that children are the greatest things God has created. It is so hard to imagine them as small as that tiny bundle in the picture now that they are grown. My love for them has grown right along with their size. I will think about how much I love them and realize that God loves us even more and I cannot even imagine how much that is because my human mind cannot fathom loving anything more then I love my children but I can rest in the knowledge that our creator loves us more then we love our children and I cannot wait until the day that I get to join him in Heaven.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

~April


Shared at the HomeAcre Hop

I made some dandelion jelly last week and I decided to wait until I tasted it to post about it because I want to make sure something tastes good before I tell you about it. I opened one of the jars yesterday and put some on toast and it tastes great! Lots of people told me that it tastes sweet like honey. It does taste very sweet (which is one reason I like it so much) but it does not taste like honey. It does taste very good though. I got the recipe from my favorite homesteading book, "The Encyclopedia of Country Living". This is my go to book for everything.

                                 Here is the recipe for the dandelion jelly.

Pick 1 quart of blossoms in the morning. Hold each flower by its calyx (the green base) and snip off the golden blossoms with scissors into your saucepan. Discard calyx. Boil blossoms in 1 quart of water for 3 minutes. Drain off 3 cups of liquid. Add 1 package (1 3/4 ounces) powdered pectin and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to the liquid. When it comes to a rolling boil, add 4 1/2 cups sugar, you can also add a few drops of yellow food coloring at this point if you choose to. Boil about 3 minutes or until it reaches the jelly stage.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

~April

The other day my husband and I were listening to a song and one of the lyrics was something about her being his nightmare looking like a day dream and I asked my husband if I was his nightmare disguised as a day dream and he said "sometimes". He is so cute, especially because he thinks he is still getting dinner tonight. Seriously though, my husband and I get along wonderfully and we have fun kidding around like that. We had a great weekend. Friday he surprised me by taking a vacation day from work and we went to a nearby auction to sell one of my goats. I really went that day with no plans on buying any animals but of course I came home with some more chicks. You can never have too many chickens, right? I seriously think we are getting close though.

 The auctioneer said they are silkies and they have the black skin and grey legs so we will see. We had a wonderful time at the auction. My husband found an old tonka truck that he bought for our grandson. They both seem to be enjoying it. I found the most amazing donuts. There is a couple of Amish ladies that sell fresh homemade donuts and it was so hard to eat just one and it was so much harder to give my husband half of the one I bought but I did because anything that tastes that good has to be really fattening. Saturday we planted potatoes and weeded some of the garden in the rain. We must have looked a little silly doing all of that while getting soaked but I am happy to say that we got everything planted and weeded and a little dirt and water never did anyone any harm.

 And last but definitely not least my husband surprised me again after church on Sunday and we drove a little over an hour away to pick up a heifer calf. We are bottle feeding her but she looks nice and healthy. She is a twin so her sister stayed on their momma and they sold us this little cutie pie. I almost tried to talk my husband into getting the other calf that was there because her name was April and I am partial to that name since it is also mine.

 My husband is also happy because we gave over half of my ducks to a friend of ours. He is not the biggest fan of ducks. I still have my 2 Pekins though.

Have a wonderful and blessed Monday!

~April

Thankful Thursday~those dang blasted goats!

While thinking about the many things I am thankful for this morning I decided to post about the things that annoyed me the most this morning so that I can remember why I love them. This morning when I went out to milk sweet BabyLynn I decided to check to see if there were anymore tent worms on my blueberry bushes (no, I am not thankful at all for tentworms, I really cannot find any use for them except to help me be thankful when they are not here). My blueberry bushes have been doing amazingly well this year. They were nice and full and getting lots of berries on them. The flowers had fallen off and I could see where the blueberries were coming on. Well, have you ever had one of those moments where you just cannot believe what you are seeing? That happened to me this morning. I checked over the bushes and was relieved to see that there was not a single worm on them. Then after I took a few steps away on my trip to the milkstand I suddenly had a realization. Not only were there no worms on the bushes but there were also very few leaves and even fewer berries!! I hurried back to the bushes and saw that something had been eating them! Then I remembered that LeRoy and Music Man (my herd sires) had gotten out of their pen last night and I decided to allow them to browse the brush that is behind their pen so that they could enjoy some greens. Then like I do with alot of things, I got busy and forgot they were even out until that night after dark when I went to shut the door on the chicken and duck pen. While they were out munching on some brush they came to the front of the trailer and found some yummy blueberry bushes! While feeding them this morning we had a chat about how lucky they are that I love them and that they make some pretty babies with the ladies. I do love my goats and I am very thankful for the milk that they provide my family. I believe that food the way God provided it is the healthiest. I am also thankful for the skills God has blessed me with to be able to turn that milk into cheese, ice cream, soap, and many other wonderful treats. The loss of my blueberries was a small disappointment to the sadness I would feel if I lost a goat. I am thankful this morning that I can look at the humorous side of things and not get caught up in the disappointments. Have a great and blessed day!


~April

Shared at the HomeAcre Hop and image-in-ing

Thankful Thursdays-the life God has blessed me with

          Here we are again, it is time for another Thankful Thursday! Today I am thankful for this amazing life God has blessed me with. 10 years ago living on a farm was just a dream that I did not think would ever come true but here I am living my dream! I do not live in a big farm house which was one of my dreams but I am thankful for the trailer we do have that puts a roof over our heads. I have learned to be happy with what we do have and not sit and wish for something more. God has met our needs in ways that I never would have imagined and sitting and wishing for something else never makes anyone truly happy. Learning to be content with what you do have and appreciating the gifts that come along in life are ways to truly enjoy life.
          About 8 years ago we were given the opportunity to move to where I lived as a child up until I got married at age 20. I do not know if this happens to you but when I go to weddings now I see the bride and groom and think they are way to young to get married! Good heavens, they look like children! Then I realize "Whoa! They are older then I was when I got married!". My mom would tell me that is a sign that I am getting older. I say it is a sign that I am old! One of my Sunday School children informed me that she thought I was 86! She is only off by 45 years. Anyway back on topic and stop rambling April. When we first moved here it was covered with thick brush and briars. I am pretty sure the first animal we started on our farm other then my puppy (who by the way is no longer a puppy now but you probably figured that out) were some banty chickens. As all chicken lovers know you cannot stop with just one! We now have chickens, ducks, goats, and a cow! Goats by the way do an amazing job at clearing land. Easiest work ever, put a few goats in the brush and sit back and relax while they clear the land for you but don't expect any trees to be left. They love bark also. We now are able to grow most of our own vegetables and meat. Our chickens and ducks provide us with tons of eggs, the goats give us milk that I make cheese, yogurt, ice cream and many other treats with and this year we planted a few fruit trees in hopes of having our own fruit. I do not know who dubbed this "The Simple Life" because it is in no way simple but I have learned to enjoy the simple things in life so maybe that is where the name comes from. Some things have changed for me and I have a little more time to get things done now so I am planning to be able to update my blog more often so please tell your friends and share my blog. I also have a Facebook page. You can go to it by clicking on the word facebook in this post. Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Shared at The Homeacre Hop
~April