A wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

As usual Wednesday (or thanksgiving eve as Josiah calls it:) found all us girls elbow deep in pies, nuts and other sundry things, associated with Thanksgiving.

Faith amazed all again with her swift pie making skills accomplishing the making of 3 pies in less than 2 hours. (quite a feat I assure you, especially when two of them were apple!)

That evening Mumsie and I began on the stuffing. Ohh the beautiful smells that wafted around the house!!! Faith says that onions and celery frying in butter is one of her favorite scents.


One of my absolutely favorite thanksgiving tradition, is getting up early in the morning, when everything is still dark and silent, and then tiptoeing into the kitchen to meet mumsie. Together we carefully drag the turkey out of it's hiding place (this year I brined it over night) and begin to stuff it, all the time very studiously ignoring all the people who say not to stuff it to tightly. After the turkey is safely bestowed in the oven, Mum and I creep back to bed and try to slumber for another hour or so.

5 hours later Mr. Turkey has a beautiful tan, and sits on the counter waiting for our yearly turkey carver, Uncle Paul.


This is the turkeys delicious appearance after uncle Paul was done with him;)


While Uncle Paul was demolishing, I mean carving;) the turkey, Grace and Aunt Carmen were making the mashed potatoes. They got a little carried away and made a huge pot of them, but then we had more for leftover thanksgiving casserole, which was wonderful!


Downstairs Faith had done a stunning job decorating, despite our very sparse supply of decorations.


I am not responsible for any hunger cravings or jealousy that this picture produces:) Seriously though, God has blessed us abundantly and has provided all our needs as the groaning table testifies to that fact.


We all gathered downstairs in hungry anticipation. After Dad read a beautiful thanksgiving psalm and we thanked the LORD for his bountiful blessings, we all dug in.


The table was lively with stories and laughter and of course eating. Everyone was groaning with satisfaction a little while later, and there still was a full platter of turkey!


After a small break, we made ourselves dive into the pies (we had 5 distinct varieties!) and managed to do justice to most of them. We are very thankful for our family that was able to spend time with us this thanksgiving and also especially for John and his wife Mandi who we were so happy to be able to talk to, and see, over skype!!! Technology is so wonderful when you have a brother and family half way across the world=)
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"

~Chs

Giving Thanks!

From Websters Dictionary.
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Thanksgivings: 1. Fourth Thursday in November in the United States; second Monday in October in Canada; commemorates a feast held in 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag.
2. A short prayer of thanks before a meal.
3. The act of rending thanks, or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies.
4. A public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness; also, a day set apart for religious services, specially to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of His bounties.
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Let us give thanks to the LORD for his favors and mercies which he has heaped upon us this year. Let us take the time out of our busyness to specifically thank the LORD for each individual blessing - whether it is a remarkable deliverance, or in the ordinary dispensation of His bounties.

~Chs

Friendship and Applesauce.

Making applesauce is a delightful thing to do with friends, and last Friday our dear friend Mrs. Winter came over and we helped her make some applesauce for her daughter. Fun Fun!

We used a mix bushel of apples that we got for a outstanding price.

After boiling the apples and putting them through the "squeezo strainer" we returned to the steamy kitchen to can our apple sauce.

When we were all finished a beautiful row of a dozen jars of shiny Applesauce sat on the counter!! Thank you so much Mrs. Winters for letting us "help" you. It was extremely enjoyable!
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That evening we had lots of more fun! A couple of our neighbors joined us for dinner, which just happened to be one of our very own chickens.

Isn't it stunning in our new plum crock pot with the bright orange carrots nestled all around it?! Art in the Kitchen;)

After dinner we had a invigorating round of games. The first one was PIT, a very loud very fast pace game.

You basically have to get a set (nine) of one commodity and when you do...

you ring the bell with all your might and call "corner on corn" (or whatever you have). (I know that is very vague, but if you would like to get the details, you will have to come over and play it with us!)

When we were done with PIT (I won by the way:) we played Dutch Blitz. Now that is a fun game! Competitive, fast, and quite a brain worker! It teaches you to do at least two things at once;) We all had a down right wonderful time. Thanks Mr. Bryson, and Matthew for joining us!

~Chs

The attack of the Cabbages

Once upon a time there was an attack of rotting cabbages upon the peaceful valley of Lily Spring. All the inhabitants were terror stricken and did not know what to do, but cowered inside, quivering in fear, till one young lass recovered her senses enough to suggest that they call upon the great warrior; Don Josiah. He had fought many a battle in his days, and had such courage, he would even take on the horde of cabbages. So the great Don came and telling the people to "never fear!!!" he headed out into the barrage of cabbages with his machete in his hand and began to destroy them!

With a ferocity fearful to see he chopped at the cabbages with stunning accuracy. The enemy began to pile at his feet as he slashed this way and that way.


Not a single assailant was allowed to escape.


When the assault ceased, Don Josiah walked among his fallen enemies making sure they were all destroyed. Then in humble triumph he returned to the valley people and announced that they were once again free to play and work outside in their glorious valley of Lily Spring.


As conquering hero's are apt to do, Don Josiah departed among the cheers of the villagers leaving the lasses to clean up after his exploit.
(this is an embellished and elaborate account of a true happening)

~Chs

A Quote to Meditate on this Wednesday.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep,
to gain what he cannot lose.
~Jim Elliot

Bocce Ball

This last Wednesday, if you had been looking for us you would have found our entire family, at the famous Palazzo di Bocce, a beautiful and fancy Italian restaurant with bocce courts.

(no I did not take this photo, and do not know to whom the credit belongs, and all of the rest of the pictures were taken by Grace and therefore the credit belongs to her:)

Our friend Mr. Ostrander, who goes to our church, plays on a league there and invited us all out for a treat.

Now if you have never played the game here is a brief overview of how it goes. First you divide yourselves into two teams, and half of each team goes down to the other end of the court. Then the team who starts takes the small ball called the pallino and tosses it down the court.

Then (in an order which I will not take the time to explain now) the teams throw down their balls each trying to control their ball and get it as close to the pallino as possible.

The team who gets their balls closest to the pallino gets a point. It was a great game, for even the littlest ones could play, and sometime they were even better at it, for us adults with muscles had a hard time keeping our balls from flying across the court with great force and not even getting close to the pallino.

Thank you so much Ostranders for providing such a fun afternoon for us. Our whole family enjoyed it to the point that we are contemplating going again and taking some friends. If you all have never played Bocce, I suggest you try it. It really is quite easy..... once you know how.

~Chs

Friday Verse

As in water face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man. ~Proverbs 27:19

~Chs

A Reflective Quote for Wednesday.

LORD, accept me; I here present myself,
praying to live only in Thee and to Thee.
Let me be as the bullock
which stands between the plough and the alter,
to work or to be sacrificed; and let my motto be,
"Ready for either." ~Charles H. Spurgeon

Go to sleep, little Garden.

As the nights began to become successively colder, and frosts began to fall, we all knew it was time to put our garden to bed for the year. We usually begin much earlier, but this year we have been unaccountably busy, and therefore have just finished the important task.

The first part of the procedure, was to empty the garden of all the remaining vegetables. God had blessed us exceedingly and our pepper crop was phenomenal.

We also had piles of Green tomatoes laying around forlornly, and we had great fun finding ways to use them. If you are very patient I might be able to get Faith to post some of our Green Tomato recipes;)

The cabbages quite surprised us this year. Despite all the cabbage moth's flying around, we got 12 solid heads of cabbages! They were of varying sizes I grant you, but up to this year, we had never gotten good cabbages at all.

Unfortunately our fall pea crop suffered from frost bite, and therefore we had to tear them out. But the Goats and my Duckies just loved them:)


There was one last thing that needed to be removed from the garden. That being Faith's cute baby fall lettuce. They were quite healthy, but because of the cold were not growing. So she tenderly transplanted them to our cold frame, where they now happily reside, much warmer, and hopefully growing faster.

Now that everything was out of the garden, the hard work began. Weeding and fixing the rows that our "dear chickens" had demolished.


It took a lot of hard work and time, but such was necessary for a good growing season next year.

After the rows were straight we then had to dump ashes, then manure and finally leaf mulch on the prepared beds.

Now our garden is finally finished and put to bed for good. Winter you may now arrive.

~Chs

Twas the first of November,

and all round the yard, Frost had fallen, near and far.

Twas on the trees, thick and white,


and on the ground, it was not light


The pale moon hung in the sky,


and dead leaves on the ground did lie.


Even the cars are covered with Frost,


And every bush was white all across.

The sight did leave us full of wonder, that frost on the first of November.

~Chs