Cold Season Herbal Tea

We got head colds right before Thanksgiving, so we took it easy for a few days and did not get out for Thanksgiving. =( Oh well, did not feel up to it anyway! Did manage to cook us a turkey and gressing and greenbean cassarole though!
I also made up some of my new tea to try! It was SOOO good! I think it is some of the best tasting herbal tea I have ever tried!

The tea is called "Cold Season Immune" and it is one of Dr. Christopher's formulas, of course! You can read about it Here, but I highly recommend buying THIS book, so you can make the tea yourself (and tons of other formulas, etc)! The book may be around $70, but it is really worth it!

The "Cold Season Immune" formula has

6 parts garlic,

1 part rosemary,

1 part parsley,

1 part watercress,

and

6 parts rosehips!

This tea is full of vitamin C! And is great for fighting infections.
I left out the garlic though, since I thought fresh garlic would be better to add as we drink it. I ended up not putting it in the tea I made the other day though, since I wanted the girls to drink it and knew they would not with garlic in it! =)

I hope you get a chance to make this tea and try it!

God bless!

~Music Mondays~ "Do You Hear?" and "Drummer Boy"

Christmas Music Monday! Yippee!
I wanted to share two more songs! Hope that is okay! They are two great songs by two great groups! I am sure everyone will enjoy them! =)
For more great music, go to Shawntele's blog, "Saved by Grace" and check out her song and the other ladies links!

"Do You Hear What I Hear"

By Third Day

"Drummer Boy"

By Jars of Clay

Samuel Adams Saturday Speech (cont. part 18)

"If there is any man so base or so weak as to prefer a dependence on Great Britain to the dignity and happiness of living a member of a free and independent nation, let me tell him that necessity now demands what the generous principle of patriotism should have dictated."
-Samuel Adams

To be continued....or go HERE to read the entire speech!

Giveaway @ Kellie's for Craft Kit!!

While skimming over my facebook today, I noticed another giveaway! It was a craft kit giveaway, so I had to check it out! I found it on a facebook friends blog (glad to find her blog too!!).

Kellie @ "Training Up A Child" has the great giveaway of a craft kit from "Creativity for Kids"!!

This is another great site that I had never seen before that has GREAT ideas for homeschoolers for Christmas or birthday gifts! A ton of good crafts to keep you children busy and learning! I will have to shop around here over the years to come (Lord willing)!

I think I would have to pick the "Make Your Own Cupcake Soaps" kit! I think my girls would love it, and it looks like it would be easy enough for them and they could give some to "Nonnie" and their Aunt!!

Doesn't it look fun? Hope you will go over and check out Kellie's giveaway and maybe you will shop around at "Creativity for Kids" and get some Christmas shopping done there!!

~Music Mondays~ Love Came Down & I Heard the Bells!

Hope ya'll will join in on Music Monday! There should be some great Christmas songs shared over the next month! If you have one to share, I hope you will! Just go to Shawntele's blog, "Saved by Grace" and link up! One lady shared a really great A Capella song today! It the singers are just so talented and the song is very....well you just have to go hear it! =)

Well, I have so many Christmas songs that I love it is hard to choose, especially since we only have 4 Monday's left before Christmas!!

I decided to share Jars of Clays song "Love Came Down at Christmas"! But then I found the Jars of Clay version of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas", and the youtube of it is very beautiful! So I just had to share both!

Christmas is such a busy time for everyone and I think it is important that we remember the true reason for the season and that Jesus came to bring love, for He is love and Christmas should be a time to show our love! Not so much in how many gifts or how great the gifts are, but that we show actions of love! That we are a good example and keep our hearts and minds on things above and not on things that do not last. Christmas is a time to love, to make an extra special effort to show those close to us how much we love them and to do good to those in need! To show love to someone hurting, lonely or someone that is just not giving much attention or appreciation.

Hope you enjoy the song, "Love Came Down At Christmas" and may you keep Christ love in your heart, thru the Christmas season and Always!

Things are not very good in this country right now. I do not believe that we will ever see it back to how it was, but then again I do not believe it was all that great from my Christian stand point. We have been killing millions of babies for years now, we throw our children out to the wolves and they grow to be products of a sinful world, we tolerate what is evil and we compromise.
Everything seems really upside down right now, but God can and I believe will give His strength to good people and there will be peace on earth for many, again!
Praise the Lord! He gives peace, no matter what the world gives or takes away!

As I said the video of this song is amazing! It takes you thru Christ life and is very touching! I hope you will take the time to watch it while you hear the song. Jars of Clay did a great good on the music, I think!

Samuel Adams Saturday Speech cont. (part 17)

"Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are indebted for a constitution to the suffering of their ancestors through revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and with open and uninfluenced consent bound themselves into a social compact. Here no man proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to honorable distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and vice with the name of hereditary authority. He who has most zeal and ability to promote public felicity, let him be the servant of the public. This is the only line of distinction drawn by nature. Leave the bird of night to the obscurity for which nature intended him, and expect only from the eagle to brush the clouds with his wings and look boldly in the face of the sun." - Samuel Adams

To be continued....or go HERE to read the whole speech!

Great Giveaway for Games!

Looking for some great games for gifts this Christmas? Here is a great review and giveaway You should check out! I have never heard of these games, but they look so fun and great for children! I know my girls would love them!

One is called "Giraffalaff Limbo" and the children have to spin to see what animal they have to walk like as they do the limbo!

The other is "Scatterpillar Scramble" which is a balancing marble game, with music and looks very exciting and entertaining!

While you are checking the games out, be sure to check out the other giveaways at The Mommy-Files!

Thanksgiving Crafts!

I am not as much of a craft person as I would like to be (or maybe I should say hope to be!)! I think it is mostly because I am too much of a clean freak and the idea of having glue and little pieces of paper stuck all over you and everything is just not appealing to me! =) I know, I know, I need to get over that! My girls love to make crafts and I just have to overlook stuff like that and make it as fun as possible!

We did out Thanksgiving crafts on Monday (the 23rd) and made some turkey pictures! First we did the "hand turkeys" tracing the girls hands on construction paper and drawing the head on the thumb and making legs for the hand turkeys! I also printed off some cute Thanksgiving pictures for them to color that I found linked up on HERE.
For the main, big craft, we made "Thankful turkey place mats"! I just made my own patterns, drawing and cutting them our of construction paper and we used an old desk calender pages to glue them onto! Very frugal, huh?

Here is both girls, (above) with their finished products!


Princess S. got to cut out most of the feathers for the turkeys! I let her come up with most of her things to write, but we had to settle for "animals" and "bugs" instead of each individual animal and bug!! =) She wrote all the things she was thankful for on her feathers too. She is a very good writer!

Princess A. "wrote" with her markers on her feathers, making circles and squiggles! Then mommy wrote the words that she approved for her turkeys feathers!

Both girls had a good time and are very proud of their turkeys! I plan to cover them with clear plastic so they will not get tore up and we can keep them better for future Thanksgivings!

~Gratituesday~ Health!

Happy Gratituesday! =) I hope you will join Laura and the other bloggers over at "Heavenly Homemakers"! You can leave a comment on Laura's blog about what you are thankful for, or make your own blog post and link up to her blog! Remember, she has some giveaways for this Month's Gratitusday Challenge!

I love Thanksgiving! I was really looking forward to spending it with family I have not seen in years, but we have started coming down with headcolds.
=( Boohoo!
With us coming down with headcolds, I am reminded to be more thankful for our health! Praise the Lord, our family has not been sick much! And for that I am VERY thankful! God is sooo good!
Homeschooling, staying home a lot, and not being around a lot of people helps keep from being sick so much. So I am thankful we can be home a lot and really thankful we homeschool! I do enjoy seeing friends and family ever so often though! =)
I am also thankful that I have been learning how to use herbs to take care of my families health!

I hope everyone else has good health this winter too! And pray that our family is over this soon and does not get sick the rest of the winter!

May you and yours have a blessed Thanksgiving!

~Music Mondays~ Give Thanks!

There are some great songs linked up over on Shawntele's blog, "Saved by Grace" today! Hope you will go over and hear them. It is a great way to start your week out!

I wanted to find a special song for this week on giving thanks, and I think this is it! I had never heard it before but it is really good! It is a good reminder during this busy week, that we need to be thankful for God's gift of His Son, for us! A good song with Christmas coming up too!

Hope ya'll have a very blessed Thanksgiving week and week-end!

God is Sooo Good!

"Give Thanks"

By Don Moen

Samuel Adams Saturday, Speech (Part 16)

"This day we are called upon to give a glorious example of what the wisest and best of men were rejoiced to view only in speculation. This day presents the world with the most august spectacle that its annals ever unfolded--millions of freemen, deliberately and voluntarily forming themselves into a society for their common defense and common happiness. Immortal spirits of Hampden, Locke, and Sidney, will it not add to your benevolent joys to behold your posterity rising to the dignity of men, and evincing to the world the reality and expediency of your systems, and in the actual enjoyment of that equal liberty, which you were happy when on earth in delineating and recommending to mankind?"

-Samuel Adams

To be continued or read the whole speech HERE!

Canning Pork Roast

CANNING PORK ROAST

Last week, King Ed brought home two huge packages of pork roast (two large boston butt pork roast in each pack), from the store. He said one was $14 and the other was $12, so he could not pass them up.
It was a good week to can, since we were in between just finishing Kindergarten and starting 1st Grade!
Here is the first roast. Remember there were 4 of these to do!

Two bowels Full! Yippee!

I had to cut out a lot of fat. If I had been making sausage, I would have left more of it, but for canning chunk meat, I cut a lot out. Here was the bowel of fat and the 4 bones, one out of each roast.

Everything you need for canning meat!

I use sea salt.

And the rubbing alcohol is for cleaning the rims of the jars before I put the seals and rings on. My husband says he grandmother did this. I do this when canning meat to make sure the rims are extra clean!

Here are the 16 quarts with the meat in them, and 1 tsp. of salt in each, ready for seals and rings and to go into the canners.

Since the meat was cool, I bring my canners up very slow. Takes a while, but I do not want to crack any jars!

Since I had 16 quarts, I put 6 in each canner the first round and then I ran the last four after those were done.

I ran each canner 1 hour and 30 mins. on 10 lbs. pressure.

Here are the finished jars! Yum! It smelt so good when I opened the canners!

And below is a close-up!

All said and done it was a productive day! Especially if you consider that I did some house cleaning, and cooked a huge supper of sausage, gravy, biscuits, fried eggs and hash browns, etc! =)

Neno's Award!!

My dear, online, sister in Christ, "Sunflower Faith" has given me an award! How sweet! I meet Sunflower Faith not long after I started my blogging, almost a year ago. So it is interesting that she gave me this award, that ask, "Why do you love to blog"?!

This should be fun too!

Wow. There are a lot of reasons I love to blog!

One reason I love to blog, is because I am not much of a social person, in person! I do not have a lot of friends that I see or do stuff with. We home-church at the moment, we do not have family very close that we get to see very often, and I am not one who likes to talk on the phone! So blogging has opened up a new world of corresponding and meeting like-minded, Christian, home-schoolers! I have a lot of great sisters-in-Christ now and Praise the Lord for them!

I also love blogging, because it is a way to learn, share, and it is like your own personal way to reach people with your opinion on the news, what is going on in the country today, homeschooling, and just everything! I started blogging because I was concerned that women are just not paying attention to everything going on and they have been in a alternative reality! But now I see a lot of women getting involved, concerned and doing stuff about it!

I pray that my blogging is inspiring and pleasing to my Heavenly Father!

Here are the women and their wonderful blogs that I have picked to give this award to:

1. Stephanie @ Living Life On HIS Terms

2. Tanya @ A Beautiful Calling

3. Elizabeth @ Family Life With The Babler family

4. Connie @ A Country Homemaker

5. Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers

6. Kathleen @ Bear, Bub and the Cubs

7. Laurie @ Common Sense Homesteading

8. Laurie @ Women Taking A Stand

God bless you all!

Neno’s Award—-Rules and Regulations
1. As a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging.
2. To seek the reasons why we all love blogging.
3. Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it.
4. Don’t forget to mention the person who gives you the award.
5. Answer the award’s question by writing the reason why you love blogging.
6. Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like.
7. Don’t forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post.

~Music Mondays~ Brave

Wow! Shawntele has a great song up today! Newsboys, "Something Beautiful"! Love it! Hope you stop by her blog, "Saved By Grace" to hear it and check out the others who joined Music Monday! I can't wait to see/hear what the others have picked for this week!

This week I wanted to share "Brave" by Nicole Nordeman. When I first heard this song I was breathless! It was like I could have written this! So close to my own hearts cry! Amazing. Praise the Lord, He gives us the strength to let go and to trust and to truly live! It is His love that sets us free and free we are in Him! "What can man do to us....?" Praise the Lord! God is sooo Good!
It is amazing how long we may hold onto some things, afraid to give them to God. It is like we can trust Him with some things, but others we think are just too big to hand over! Or maybe we think they are too small to bother Him with! LOL! How simple we can be at times! He is God! He can handle everything and what a load that takes off of us! We just have to be brave, to trust!
We have to be brave and not worry what others might think about us! We are no longer of the world, we are set apart, we are lights to shine and be a good example! We cannot compromise, meet half-way, or straddle the fence. We have to take a stand and remain standing! Praise the Lord, He gives us strength!
Okay, enough of me rattling! Here is the song!!!!!

"Brave" By Nicole Nordeman

Verse 1

"The gate is wide

The road is paved in moderation

The crowd is kind and quick to pull you in

Welcome to the middle ground

You're safe and sound and

Until now it's where I've been

'Cause it's been fear that ties me down to everything

But it's been love, Your love, that cuts the strings

Chorus:

So long status quo

I think I just let go

You make me want to be brave

The way it always was Is no longer good enough

You make me want to be brave

Brave, brave

Verse 2:

I am small

And I speak when I'm spoken to

But I am willing to risk it all

I say Your name

Just Your name and I'm ready to jump

Even ready to fall...

Why did I take this vow of compromise?

Why did I try to keep it all inside?(chorus)

Bridge:

I've never known a fire that didn't begin with a flame

Every storm will start with just a drop of rain

But if you believe in me

That changes everything

So long, I'm gone

(chorus)

Uno Moo! Giveaway! Check it out!!

Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! I found a giveaway that is on my Christmas wish list!

(yes, I have a mental wishlist, which is the best, so I forget most of it!!)!

Anyways, here is the game/toy!

She is giving away three of these games and I think my girls will LOVE it!!

If you want to enter this giveaway, or check out some more giveaways, check out:

The Mom Reviews