Nuts, Nuts, Nuts!

The time for nut collecting has come! Our pecan tree has started bearing nuts and we, (Me Elijah and Naomi) went out in the freezing cold and collected nuts :-) Thankfully mom said we could have hot chocolate when we came in. It was actually quiet fun! We made up a game that when ever Elijah knocked the tree with the rake we all had to scramble and pick up as many nuts as possible. The rake got stuck up in the tree a couple of times but we got it down all right. A pecan has a little outer pod that falls off when it is ripe. Than there is the inner shell that you have to crack, first we were doing this with wrenches which were not working very well so mom ordered 3 nutcrackers they just arrived yesterday and we are going to use them right now...so I should get off the computer and help=)

This a Drake nutcracker, the type mom ordered, it seemed to work well. It adjusts to the size of your nut,and cracks them fast and easily.

Love,

Tinctures

There has been a cold going around in our house and my mom decided to bust out the tinctures:-)

Here is the basic recipe:

~Fill a Pint jar 1/3 of the way full with dried herb(s) of choice
~Add just enough boiling water to cover the herbs
~Fill the rest of the way full of vegetable glycerin
~Put an old wash cloth in the bottom of your crock pot
~Put lids on the jars of herbs and put them in the crock (our crock pot fits three pint jars)
~Fill the crock pot 3/4 of the way full of boiling water
~Put the lid on and set it to the lowest setting and let it steep for 3 days
~Let cool, than strain and squeeze. Compost herbs or throw them away

Store in a cool dark place. Make sure to label them!

One of the things that is nice about using vegetable glycerin is that it gives the tincture a sweetness, which really helps if the herbs you choose are not so tasty. :-)

My signature is not working, I hope that it will again:-(
Love,
Hailey

Singing Maidens

These are a couple of songs I've learned

to play on the guitar... I'm still learning so

it might sound a bit off.

The second song, "Sukkotah Shalomah"

is a song I wrote.  I was inspired by the

phrase we used as a wall hanging we

created for our Sukkah.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I've learned these two songs on the

guitar, like AbbiYah I'm still learning :-D



 

Quilling Fun

Quilling is the art of rolling paper and pinching at the corners into different shapes. You can do all kinds of things with quilling, like decorating cards, make name tags, decorations of all kinds. I learned about quilling from my Keepers at Home book. Here are some projects that I have done.

This was a birthday card I made for my mom.

This is a butterfly that I made. I found this idea on the website linked below. I have started a cork board in my room to pin my quilling on to have them on hand to give as gifts and to put on cards.

A couple of months ago my new friends AbbiYah and YahChanna (other Torah Keeping Maidens) came to visit our farm. I made YahChanna and AbbiYah two cards with their names on the outside and a Bible verse on the inside. I quilled some flowers around their names. It was my first quilling project and I was pleased with it.

Here is a link about quilling in case you would like to learn more.

Love,

A Dancing Maiden

   these are the girls I met at Sukkot, shining examples to me           

During our Sukkot camping trip I

learned a new way to worship YHWH.

      DANCING!

Yes, dancing in a Hebraic way.

I really enjoyed it.  When we got home I would practice dancing everyday.  And then momma surprised us with two dance DVDs Rejoice In The Dance & Worship Him in Dance.  There are five basic steps in Hebraic dance.

1. Miyim or grapevine
2. Terkasia
3. Yeminite
4. Hopping Box
5. Coupe

From these five you can put them together and create your own dance steps.  Once you know the steps it's really easy.  And joyful to dance for YHWH.

At Sukkot I met some girls that were older and younger than me.  These girls were a good example to me, because they let the light of Yahshua shine through them and made me want to follow.  So I made a commitment to YHWH that I would choose to follow him, walk in Torah.  I'm very grateful for being able to meet those girls and I'm very very happy to give my life to YHWH.

Guitar Playing Maidens

About two weeks, after Sukkot, my Daddy comes

home with this huge box...

What's in the box Daddy?
Such fun trying to figure out what could it be...

First he took out what looked like a backpack

folded up on itself, wrapped in plastic.... huh?

Why did you buy a backpack?

Then as he was pulling out more smaller boxes, I opened

the backpack... and it wasn't a backpack but,

a gig bag for a guitar!!!


Squills of excitement filled the room...

"Daddy, Daddy did you get me my guitar?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

OK, I'm going to backtrack a bit and tell
what happen before I received this gift...

almost a year ago...

I started saving my money to buy a guitar,

I thought I would have to save a lot of money to buy a nice guitar,

until a friend told us that the Toys-R-Us store had

guitars for twenty four dollars! I thought

"Gee! I've just got enough money!" So about a week later,

we were at the toy store picking which guitar I wanted, there

were many different colors to pick from,

pink, blue, black. etc. First I wanted a pink guitar,

until I saw that the rosette

it said 'ROCK STAR!' sooo I didn't choose the pink one.
I don't want to be a rock star I just
want to worship Yahweh through music.

Oh, I love the color blue... but the flames made

it look more boyish than girlish... soooo

I moved on to the next color... natural... hum... well that's more like me.
So natural it was, and this is what it looked like...

Once I got it home and started fiddling with it,
I realized that maybe it wasn't such a good
deal after all. It never stayed in tune, well actually
I don't think it ever was in tune... now, I understand
that if your going to invest in a guitar and be
serious about your playing it's best
to spend more money for a better
guitar.

I was wanting a nicer guitar, but spent my money on
the toy one. So I asked my Daddy if I were
to learn three songs on this little guitar would
he be willing to buy me a nicer one?

He said it was a deal!! Yes!! now all I had to
do was to learn two more songs, I had already
learned one, 'How great is our El'

But, soon I became discouraged because no matter,
how well I learned the songs, if the guitar is not
in tune, it sounds terrible. Soon, the guitar
was left in it's box over in the corner. I didn't loose
interest but was discouraged, because I love
beautiful music and the only time the
guitar made beautiful music is when
it was in it's box, lol.

One month ago....
I found my encouragement, my
inspiration at Mousetail Landing State Park.
It was during Sukkot, the Fournier's were
hosting the gathering and nearly each
night we would all gather at their
campsite for worship, testimonies, and
fellowship.
It was the worship time and the beautiful
worship music that inspired me.
I wanted my family to worship
together with music like the
Fourniers. I wanted to play
like they did. So I committed
myself to learn those two songs
and get my 'real' guitar. And that's
what I did. When we got home I had my guitar
in my hands as often as I could. I practice,
no matter how horrid it sounded and
I learned my three songs :-D

Then I had Daddy listen to all three songs and
reminded of our agreement.
He said, 'well, we did agree and you did fulfill your end
of the bargain so I guess I'll have to get you your guitar"

I thought for sure we would go guitar shopping the next
day or two. But no, I asked again and he said
he'll take care of it and not to worry about it.

about two weeks ago...
here is what was in the box

1. Full-size Solid-Top Harmonia nylon string guitar.

2. Soft guitar case with shoulder straps and a zip compartment for music.

3. Guitar stand to use when your leaving the guitar out.

4. All four volumes of Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class DVDs

5. All four Books for the four volumes, plus $40 bonus e-books.

6. A Music Stand that folds up for easy transporting.

7. An easy to use Guitar Capo - Planet Waves NS Capo.

8. A DVD showing you how to Tune and String your guitar.

9. A string winder that makes changing guitar strings a snap.

10. The Planet Waves Chromatic Headstock Tuner. It tune any string instrument with a head - guitars, bases, violins, banjos on and on. It's accurate even in noisy environments.

and that is the story behind the gift box

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

On a final note YahChanna has inherited my Toys r Us guitar. With the Chromatic Tuner we are able to tune both guitars and you know what, that little guitar sounds pretty good now!!

So I have or should I say we have exchanged our recorders for guitar lessons and now on Shabbat's or in the evening we can sit around play music, sing and worship together as a family, just like I had hoped we would :-) Because now I have learned not only three songs but seven so far. Yahweh is good to his children!!

Here is the long awaited carmel recipe, taken from our favorite recipe book http://www.allrecipes.com/ hope you enjoy them :-D

Ingredients:

2 cups white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1 cup evaproated milk

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 cup butter

1 1/4 teaspoons vanill extract

Directions:

1. Grease a 12x15 inch pan.

2. In a medium-size pot, combine sugar, brown sugar, cornsyrup, evaporated ilk, whipping cream, and butter. Monitor the heat of the mixture with a candy thermometer while stirring. Wehn the thermometer reaches 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) remve the pot from the heat.

3. Sitir in vanilla. Transfer mixture to the prepared pan and let the mixture cool completely. When cooled cut (we used a ruler and pizza cutter) the Carmel into (strips then into) small squares and wrap themin wax paper for storage.

** with our second time of making these we added peacans and heath bar pieces.

It's dinner time!

This time I made:

Spaghetti w/ Meat sauce
Garlic Toast
Chocolate chip Cookies for dessert


Love,

Candy Making Maiden

We needed caramels for our pie tonight, we didn't go to the store

to buy them because what they had put in the caramels, so

we decided that we would make our own!

First we mixed all the ingredients, poured them in a pan,

then turned the pan on and began to cook it, and stuck a

thermometer inside. Then, we waited till it reached 250 degrees.

Once it reached 250 degrees, it looked like this! and
increases three times it's size.


Then we poured it in a lightly greased pan, and waited
for it to cool.

Once cooled...

we sliced the caramel into strips

then cut them into squares

And now! here they are! All nice and wrapped up!

Plus their good tasting too!

Bright Lights

I've started a new devotional called Bright Lights with my Mom. It was started by Sarah Mally and has lots of testimonies and good lessons, so far I like it!


One lesson I wanted to share with you is called "Developing a Strong Relationship with Your Parents". I think this is very important to us young ladies, as we get into our teen years. We never stop needing them as we learn and grow. Most teenagers think that being under their parent's authority is bad and can't wait to be on their own with no one to tell them what to do. They don't understand that they will always be under YAH's authority. Here are some ways to give your heart to your parents:

~Look for ways to honor them
~Express thankfulness
~Ask them for advice
~Do not keep secrets from them
~Trust them
~Maintain a clear conscience with them
~Look for ways to serve them
~Be available if they need you

The hardest thing for me is obeying them cheerfully, with my smile and to remember my "mam's and sirs". I need to make that a priority.

I am still learning. =-)

Love,

Hailey

Congo Bars

As per Mrs. C's request, here is a cookie we shared with them during our visit. I really like this recipe, its delicious!

1 c raw sugar, I like to use sucanat or maple sugar.
1/2c melted butter
3 eggs
1 1/3c flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
1c nuts finely chopped (optional, my dad is not a fan of nuts so I often omit, very good without)
1 1/2c chocolate chips
dash of salt


~Combine butter w/sugar and stir
~Beat in eggs, one at a time
~Fold in flour, B. powder and salt
~Add vanilla nuts and chips, and mix
~Pour into greased 9x13 pan
~Bake at 325* for 25 minutes
~Cool and cut into squares

*Pull out sooner than later

My mom got this recipe from our friend Mrs. Good, when we lived in PA, hope you like it!

It's Dinnertime!

Today I am making:

chicken sausage

sauteed spinach w/garlic

pineapple chunks w/shredded coconut

Parmesan Potatoes

Here is the recipe you asked for Mrs. C. We hope you like it as much as us.

1/2 cup flour of choice
1T salt
1/2-3/4 cup parmesan. cheese
2 tsp lemon pepper
1-2 tsp garlic powder
1-3 tsp dr. parsley
2/3 cup butter or oil
4-5# potatoes



~Split butter in half and melt in 2 9x13 pans
~Wash and cut taters into chunks
~Mix seasonings together in large bowl or bag
~Toss wet/damp potatoes in seasonings to coat
~Lay in single layer in 9x13 pan on the butter and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees

hope you like it:-)

Shabbat Shalom

We wanted to introduce to you my sisters; (My mom calls them our mini-maidens in training.) And share a couple Shabbat Blessings with you for your table tonight.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hailey, Naomi and Eliana

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies for Shabbat

It is preparation day again! YAY!!!

For the last couple of weeks I have been preparing our Shabbat dessert. This week I made cookies.

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: Makes about 5 dozen

Ingredients

* 3/4 cup butter, softened

* 3/4 cup granulated sugar

* 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

* 2 large eggs

* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

* 2 cups all-purpose flour

* 1 teaspoon baking soda

* 1 cup uncooked quick-cooking oats

* 3/4 teaspoon salt

* 1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate morsels

* 1 cup raisins

Preparation:

Beat butter and sugars at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended.

Combine flour, soda, oats, and salt in a small bowl; gradually add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in morsels and raisins. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake at 350° for 8 to 14 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Quilting Maiden and Goat Girl

This is my finished quillow. It was quite easy to make, and I learned a lot about quilting in the process! It goes well on my bed and it is really warm at night (it's winter here).

it looks nice on my bed 

this is the back of the quillow. The inside of the pocket.

the front of the quilt

This is how to fold it so it fits into the pocket. 

Pulling the pocket inside out...

And there! Now it is a pillow! 

I hand embroidered the butterfly :) 

I don't have any instructions, as my sewing teacher showed me how to make it week to week. But Mum noticed that if you google 'making a quillow' there are lots of instructions on the internet! There are a few links HERE if anyone would like to make one too. 

Now to my goats! Keeping and raising goats is a family project for us. At the moment I am responsible for milking the dairy goats and feeding our two weak kids that needed a helping hand to get going. 

Here they are at 4 days old...Rebekah and Pip. When they were born neither of them could stand and we thought they wouldn't make it. Their mother had 5 kids! They are both very small, but we brought them into the laundry and started bottle feeding them and they are now doing really well. They are almost ready to go back in the paddock with their brother and sisters. Harmony, their mother, is happy to let them hang around but she won't let them feed so we will have to keep bottle feeding them for about 3 months. 

This is Harmony with her other 3 kids. 

and this is baby Rebekah thinking that my cheek is a teat! 

So far we have 14 kids...6 girls and 8 boys, and still have one doe to kid (which should happen tomorrow! Check my blog for updates!)