Garmin

I had a lot to write about, so I did like Crystal and put it in several posts. It's much more organized this way! Read on....
Check this out: http://sportys.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&product_id=11883&did=19
My brother helped build this. Good job, Justin!

Revive Our Hearts

This is a bit of an unusual post, but I just wanted to recommend a great site for any woman doing housework. :-) Okay, so it's not just for women doing housework, but it helps me pass the time. Crystal recommended it to me. It is http://www.reviveourhearts.com/ . You can listen to their radio progams from either today or the past. Right now, I'm listening to the Counter-cultural Woman series. I saw it recommended on Misty's site, and it's really good. I've been listening while I fold laundry, clean the living room, etc. It's really good for keeping my mind busy on productive things while I work. I can't say I agree with EVERYTHING she says, but there have been VERY few things that I do not agree with. Overall, I'd say she presents a very biblical view of things. I've got a lot of help out of the radio programs so far. You should definitely try listening to some of the programs. They are about 20 minute segments. A lot of them are a series of programs, so I like listening to one after another. They seem to stream really fast too, so there's not a lot of cutting up while you wait for the program to load. Hears a quotation from one of the programs. Just some food for thought:

-Did you know that Jesus is domestic? You say, "That sounds kind of strange. What would make you think that?" Listen to this verse in John chapter 14. Jesus said, "Do not let you hearts be troubled... In my Father's house are many mansions... I am going there," to do what? "to prepare a place for you." (John 14:1-2).
What is Jesus doing right now? He's homemaking. So as women, when we are homemakers, we are creating here on this earth a physical, visible, tangible reflection of an eternal, invisible reality.
Jesus said, "Don't let your hearts be troubled." You see, when you're making a home, you're creating a place where your family's hearts don't have to be troubled. In this world, their hearts will be troubled. This world is a messy, chaotic place, but you want to create an environment in your home- physically and also in the spirit of your home- that your husband wants to come home to and that he doesn't have to trip over 17 things in the path to get there.
There are moments, if you have children, there are going to be times when your house is not all put together. It's not all orderly, but the question is, do you have generally an envionment that is orderly, that reflects and orderly heart that's not chaotic, that is haven? If you do, then you are showing your children and your husband and your friends and your guests something that they cannot see now, and that is what God is preparing, what Christ is prepaing for us in hHeaven- a place.
You're saying, "I want you to get a glimpse of what you can experience in eternity- the heart of our Father who's going to prepare a wedding feast for us there. As I prepare food for you now, I'm giving you a taste of Heaven, and as I provide clothing for you now, whether it's homemade or store bought, but as I'm taking care of you clothing needs as my family, I'm giving you a glimpse of Heaven, where we will be clothed in fine, white linen and how you can be clothed spiritually in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You see, through our homemaking, we give those that we love a picture of Christ, a picture of Heaven, a taste of our real home.-

I thought that was a really good lesson to think on. If you are a momma or a wife or just a woman that frequently welcomes others into your home, you can make your home a place that reflects Heaven and what God is doing for us there. It is such an important job. I don't think you have to be a perfect housekeeper to do this, but I do think it's important to make your home as pleasant a place to be as possible. I can remember when I had a hard day at school being so happy to get home. Our home was a pleasant place, a place without harsh judgments, yelling, or coldness. Yes, we had our bickerings like every other family, but overall, it was a peaceful place to be. Our parents were warm and loving to us and to each other, and I always felt secure at home. Mom and Dad never, to my knowlege, went to bed angry at each other. We never had to be afraid that one of them might get mad and not come back. They did not yell at each other and seldom ever yelled at us, although they might have had to raise their voices now and then to get our attention. Home was a place where we could talk about anything we needed to talk about and have an ever-listening ear. Yes, it was a place with boundaries, but those boundaries were never oppressive. Even as a child, I was able to recognize that my parents had my best interests at heart in their boundaries. One important thing that I think my mom did for us was to respect our dad. The longer I live, the more families I see in which the mom did not respect the dad, and the kids learn to either think their dad is worthless or resent their mom. Even when she did not agree with him, my mom always respected our dad and let him be the leader in the family. She was always welcome to voice her opinion, but if he made a decision that went against that opinion, she always respected his decision. She also helped us to look forward to the time when our dad got home from work everyday. She always had us worked up and excited for when "daddy comes home." She never ever failed to greet him with a smile and a kiss. It didn't matter what transpired that day or the day before, when he got home, he got a smile and a kiss. It did not matter if they'd had a disagreement or whatever, she was always happy, and even excited, to see him and made it clear that she still loved him and respected him no matter what. That unconditional love and respect rubbed off on us, and as a result, we were always happy to see him and never had rebellion problems with him because we respected him no matter what.
Just think about what that teaches children about their Heavenly Father. That teaches them to love Him and respect Him and obey Him even if they don't understand why. That teaches them to look forward to the day that He comes back, not be afraid of or dreading that day. It teaches them about a loving and warm and happy home that they can look forward to someday- a home where all will be peaceful and safe. We as women have been given the important job of cultivating that Heavenly environment in our homes, both in the physical environment and in the spirit of our homes. We've been given the job of ordering our homes in such a way that our children and husband will want to be there, and we've been given the job of respecting our husbands in order to teach our children and others looking on how to respect God. When a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church and a wife respects her husband as the church is to respect Christ, everyone gets a picture of Heaven. I don't know about you, but this really motivates me and encourages me. Sometimes it's easy to feel as if what you do is not that important, but you never know... it might just show Jesus to somebody.

Silver Dollar City Pics (plus some random ones from this summer)

I'm a little late on this too, but here's my pictures from the trip to Silver Dollar City. I had a great time riding down with Florence and Aunt Wilda. If you saw my mom's blog, you've already seen that dad was "King of the Pig Races." He had to start off the races with the royal decree: "Run them hogs!"He got tired of having that snout on his nose, I guess.

This is the damage I did to Arthur's truck a few weeks after we got it painted from our accident. I side-swiped a brick pillar at the bank drive in. Now when I tell Arthur I've got to run in to the bank, he says, "You already did that once. Please don't do it again." :-) He was really understanding though. I have a good hubby.

This is a picture of part of the family that was at Sami's graduation. We have the greatest family. Pretty much everyone you can see well in the picture is family or friends that were there to support Sami. She was valedictorian. Way to go Sami!

Just a quick note: I want to encourage everyone reading this to stay close to your family, even if you don't agree with everything they do or say. Your family can be such a great support system for your kids. I know I could call any one of my aunts, uncles, or cousins right now for any reason and they would help me if they could. Family is a beautiful thing.

Speaking of family, this little darlin' had a birthday this summer. Her tiara says "The Candy Queen." :o) We got her the little purse with the lotion, combs, etc.

Finally, I come to this sweetie. She was partied out, I guess. If you look really close, you will see that her drool is blue. :-D The washable marker just couldn't handle it!

Yummy! Yogurt!

Okay, I blogged this first, but for some reason it posted last. I was very excited this morning, and this is what first motivated me to blog:

I am sooo excited! I made yogurt last night! Well, most of it probably made this morning, but my work was done yesterday afternoon for the most part. It was super easy. I really truly believe that anyone can do this!

Ingredients:

-1/2 gallon (8 cups) Milk
-Starter (You can buy the cultures dried at some health food stores, but I just bought a little container of plain yogurt with live cultures- just a generic brand is fine as long as it says it has live cultures).

1. Heat the milk on low in the crock pot for 2 and a half hours.
2. Unplug the crock pot and let it sit with the lid ON for 3 hours.
3. When the 3 hours pass, take out a cup or two of the warm milk and whisk into your yogurt starter (1/2 cup of yogurt with live cultures; I don't know how much of the dried cultures to use).
4. When it's mixed well, add that mixture to your milk.
5. Put the lid back on, and leaving the crock pot OFF, wrap it with a couple of towels and leave for 8-12 hours.
That's it. You now have yogurt. If it's not thickened yet, turn the crock pot on warm for a few minutes and turn it back off again, replace the towels, and let it sit until the yogurt thickens.

When I got up this morning, there was a thin layer of thick yogurt on the bottom, and all the rest was still runny. I looked up on the internet and discovered that it probably just didn't stay warm long enough, and if I'd rewarm it a bit and let it sit longer, it would still set up, so that's what I did.

After a bit of reading, I found that yogurt cultures thrive best between 85 and 110 degrees. I decided to stick my meat thermometer into my yogurt (after thorough cleaning, I promise)!After about 2 1/2 hours on "Warm", my yogurt never rose above 102 degrees. I turned the crockpot off, rewrapped it in towels, and went back to bed for an hour and a half. :-) When I got back up, I had 2 beautiful quarts of yogurt! MMMM!!! Oddly enough, the thermometer registered 104 degrees when I got up. I guess the fermenting of the yogurt produced a couple degrees of heat.

Now that I know what temperature my crockpot runs, I will probably try a slightly different method next time. I will bring the milk to a boil and turn it off. Then I'll let it cool to the touch. I'll mix in the yogurt and add it to the crockpot. Then I'll leave the crockpot on "warm" for two hours and turn it off and let it sit. I'll let you know when I try this if it turns out any different. I was afraid to try this method before because I wasn't sure what temperature "warm" got to, and the cultures will die at 120. If you want to try this, I recommend either monitoring the temp. until you know how hot your crock pot will get how fast or trying the method I tried first. It ought to work no matter how hot your crockpot gets since you let it cool down for three hours so it ends up around 90ish degrees. You heat the milk to kill any competing bacteria, and you want the crockpot warm so it the yogurt cultures will thrive and your yogurt will incubate well. I think I may halve the recipe next time and just put it in a bowl sitting in a crock pot of water. We will NOT eat 2 quarts of yogurt before it goes bad! Anyone have a hankering for homemade yogurt? I did read that you can substitute it for sour cream in just about any recipe, and if you strain it through cheesecloth so it's thicker, you can substitute it for cream cheese as well. They say if you mix it half and half with mayonnaise, you can substitute it for that in a recipe too. This will not be quite as thick as store bought yogurt, but it's thick enough for me so far, and they say it will thicken a bit more in the frige. Of course, you can always strain some of the whey off if you want it thicker.

I'm not sure I ever would have been brave enough to try this if I didn't find this crock-pot recipe. Every other method I read involved either great amounts of warm water being constantly monitored and changed inside an ice chest or heating pads and huge bowls, or an oven being constantly turned on and off to maintain the right temperature, or setting it on top of some warmish appliance (which seems very inexact to me). I like this method much better. It's so easy! I suppose a person could buy a yogurt warmer thingy. They do make them, but I like just using my crock pot. It's easy, and I already have it, so I don't need a new appliance that is only good for one thing that I only do once in a blue moon.

My new favorite quote:
"To make yogurt, you simply do everything you've always been told never to do with milk- warm it up, contaminate it with bacteria, and let it sit out all night." Sorry I don't remember where I got that quote.

I got my recipe from this site:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/
She made a New Year's resolution to use her crockpot for one thing every day for a year and blog about it. She does normal dishes, things like this (yogurt, applesauce, applebutter), crafts, desserts (like fondue or creme brulee), just about anything you can imagine and somethings you wouldn't (like a hot foot bath). I've got a bunch of good ideas from her blog. I'm going to have to try more of them.
I hope you try this, and I hope you love it!

Pictures from the 4th of July

These are obviously several months old, but I never got them up, so here are a few pictures:

This is Lee pulling his family's float.

Here's the float. Aren't those cute kids?

I think this is such a precious picture of some of my cousins' kids.

This little lady's momma has a new blog. You can see it at kylenmandy.blogspot.com

I tried twice to upload a video of the great turtle race just for fun, but it won't upload, so you will just have to do without, sorry! :-) I know, you're disappointed.

Here's a still shot instead. I think there were probably 50 turtles in town that day, if not more. They had multiple heats based on the age of the turtle's owner. :o)

And here's a trick roper. I had a video of this too. This guy taught me government.

There's something for everyone in Ochelata on the 4th of July, so if you're in the area, you should come! There was a parade, turtle race, bike races, water balloon toss, "Wild West" show, trick roper, horse shoe competition, and softball tournament. In years past, we've had Native American drummers and dancers, live music, and other entertainment. One of the local churches has a chicken dinner for all who want some, but we usually get Grandpa's chicken, and it also is open to anyone who shows up at his door. :-D Whether you're family, friend, or strangers that were met and invited that day, all are welcome. This year he fried somewhere between 55 and 60 pounds of chicken, and it ALL got eaten! We also have other things like cheesecake, cookies, watermelon, chips, just whatever people decide to bring. Nobody leaves hungry! Then of course there are always fireworks at the end of the day. It's always a good day.

Yey!!!

Arthur recieved a call from Sprint saying that they'd received an e-mail regarding our account and that we'd be receiving an invoice from them that stated that our balance is now zero. I am soooo glad about that. I don't know if it was my e-mail they received or if the lawyer e-mailed them. He sent me a copy of the letter he sent them, and I recieved it the same day that we heard from them, so he might have e-mailed them telling them that a letter was on the way, I don't know. Either way, I'm glad it's resolved.

I'm headed out to Branson today to spend the weekend with some family, so Arthur is "bachin'-it." Hehe, he may be happy that he can dress to go hunting with the lights on tomorrow morning. :-)

Since I'm here, I'm going to post a few "update" pics. Wow, it's been a long time since I've added pictures! Sorry some of these are sideways.

This first picture is of the roses Arthur got me for our anniversary. Aren't they beautiful? I love all the different colors.

This is the figurine that he got me for our anniversary. I really like it. Sorry it's a pain in the neck to look at. :-)

This is the top of our wedding cake. Yes, we did eat it on our anniversary, and yes, it was delicious!

This is what I got Arthur for our anniversary. :-) I bought him tickets to the Cardinals game. I couldn't decide what to get him, and then I saw an ad for half-price tickets, so I got REALLY good seats for the price I'd have paid for much junkier ones. We had a lot of fun. It was kind of sad to think about going to games without Grandpa since he always took us, but it was still our special day, and we had fun. "Buy me some hot dogs and lemonade..." What? I don't like peanuts or cracker jacks!

This is Albert Pujols, as you can see from the back of his shirt. This gives you an idea of how close we were.

These are the gorgeous flowers Arthur got me for my birthday this week. He gave them to me the night before my birthday so I could look at them all day on my birthday. Isn't he sweet?

He picked out each flower individually. I really love that. It makes the bouquet so personal! Do you think I'm totally spoiled yet? I have another present coming, but it's not here yet, so I'll have to wait to see what it is! I also got a sweet card and dinner from him (and a pumpkin pie blizzard, mmm... and no, I didn't get dinner at Dairy Queen).

I'll try to add more pictures sometime next week. I have a lot to catch up on!