Faith Friday - Shrek the sheep

FAITH FRIDAY

Here is something that is making the rounds on Facebook, and probably forwarded in emails. I think this has a great message.

This is Shrek the sheep. He became famous

 several years ago when he was found after 

hiding out in caves for six years. Of course, 

during this time his fleece grew without anyone

 there to shorn (shave) it. When he was finally

 found and shaved, his fleece weighed an

 amazing sixty pounds. Most sheep have a

 fleece weighing just under ten pounds, with

 the exception usually reaching fifteen pound

s,

 maximum. For six years, Shrek carried six times

 the regular weight of his fleece. Simply

 because he was away from his shepherd.

This reminds me of John 10 when Jesus

 compares Himself to a shepherd, and His

 followers are His sheep. Maybe it’s a stretch,

 but I think Shrek is much like a person who

 knows Jesus Christ but has wandered. If we

 avoid Christ’s constant refining of our

 character, we’re going to accumulate extra

 weight in this world—a weight we don’t have to

 bear.

When Shrek was found, a professional sheep

 shearer took care of Shrek’s fleece in twenty-

eight minutes. Shrek’s sixty pound fleece was

 finally removed. All it took was coming home to

 his shepherd.

I believe Christ can lift the burdens we carry, if

 only we stop hiding. He can shave off our

 ‘fleece’—that is, our self-imposed burdens

 brought about by wandering from our Good

 Shepherd.

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and

 burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My

 yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am

 gentle and humble in heart, and you will find

 rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my

 burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

This is perfect

Down Memory Lane - Grandma's car

Grandma Ada's Packard

I think it is pretty classy.

On the back of the picture, written by my grandmother, it says:

"The good old "Pack" itself. Taken from our front steps. You see the neighbor's house across the street in the picture. We will be in our new house for the winter months."

It looks like this picture was taken in August 1934.

This may be around the time my grandparents moved to California. I know this is not the street that I remember them living on, so maybe that is the house she was talking about moving to. It could be that they drove the "Pack" when they left Iowa. Wish I knew the story.

Anyone know what model year the Packard is?

UPDATE: This probably a 1924 Packard Single Six.

What's Cooking - Pork Carnitas

PORK CARNITAS

Awhile back Pam, an internet friend, had mentioned she made pork carnitas for one of their mission trip meals, and then shared the recipe. Thank you, Pam!  I happened to have a pork roast in the freezer so decided to try it. I thought it was good. I ate it as the main meat of the meal with sides of mashed potatoes and a vegetable. She served it with a delicious cole slaw. I also made sandwiches with the meat on hamburger buns and added some barbecue sauce. That is very good. But what I thought was the best was what my daughter and I threw together with some I had left in the freezer. She and the twins came one weekend and we had gone to the parade downtown. When we got home it was lunch time so had to come up with something simple and quick. I rarely think ahead. Bad me! 

My daughter has a wheat allergy so eating out poses a problem, especially with the few places to eat in this town. We either have pizza, broasted chicken (coated with flour), Subway, or the bowling alley which is mostly fast food.

I happened to have some corn tortillas on hand, which does not have wheat in them. She fried those to slightly crisp and we made tacos with the pork carnitas. Those were the best tacos I have ever had! We just added the lettuce, shredded cheese and salsa on the tortilla. The 8 year old twins thought they were great too, and they can be finicky eaters.

Here is the recipe for pork carnitas, which can be found at My Recipes website here

Ingredients

• 
  Preparation1 3-lb. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch chunks, trimmed of excess fat
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 large onion, quartered 
• 3 cloves garlic

1. Sprinkle pork with salt, chili powder, cumin and oregano. Place in a slow cooker along with onion and garlic. Cover and cook on low until meat is tender and falling apart, about 6 hours. Shred pork and serve hot.

Note:

This recipe also appeared in the February 2010 issue.

All You 
APRIL 2012

'Tis Home, Sweet Home - Decor

DECOR

This is a favorite gift I received from a friend many years ago. I just love it! Isn't that little bird just the sweetest? My friend didn't make it but it was crafted by someone in her town I think. It is a lovely way to display some old, pretty teacup and saucer sets that you might pick up at a rummage sale, flea market or thrift shop.

These are not the best pictures but have tried to show you different angles. The cup is glued to the saucer in a couple of places that actually touch the saucer.

If you look closely at the pictures of my kitchen hutch, you will see this on the top shelf.

This 'n' That - More decluttering

MORE DECLUTTERING

Before

After

 

 I showed you the 'before' picture in  this post . Now you see the hutch after doing some decluttering. Below is part of what I removed.

There was also a large stack of white dish towels and a small white platter that I gave my daughter. I think there were a couple other things she took too. I also took out some large coffee mugs that were put in another cupboard. Below is how it looks today. I am sorry I didn't get a 'before' picture of this part.

On the left is what I kept of the embroidered white flour sack dish towels (my favorite to dry with). In the middle are a few terry type kitchen towels that I use to cover bread dough as it rises, or the baked bread to help soften the crusts a bit while it cools. On top of those are what is left of my dish cloths. I transferred a couple of ratty ones to the rag box. I have a couple that I knitted that I have held back for gifts but I think I need to 'gift' them to myself! On the right side are kitchen towels with crocheted tops to hang on cupboard handles that a friend gave me, and some of my microfiber cloths.

Bottom shelf - small plastic serving plate, divided pickle dish and a covered candy dish on the left, a matched crystal sugar and creamer set (could as well get rid of that as no one uses them anymore), and then a stack of serving bowls, one wicker bread basket, and two salsa bowls. Those larger bowls are only used when my kids are here and we have a large meal, which is maybe twice a year. 

On the right side are some jar candles and an empty beer bottle. Why do I have an empty beer bottle? I use that when I make an angel food cake. I turn the cake pan upside down and put the center hole over the bottle to hold it up while the cake cools. It has been my experience that every time I make an angel food it rises higher than the little legs around the top of the pan, so when the pan is turned upside down, the cake ends up touching the counter and that is not a good way to cool it. Years ago I used an empty pop bottle but most are plastic now. (I don't drink beer - can't stand it)

The last picture is of some more books and magazines I have culled out, along with my wristwatch that no longer works. I think the battery is dead, which could be replaced, but the band is also broken. I had been wearing it with the broken link tied together with dental floss. Since I only paid $10 for it, getting a new band and battery would cost more than a new watch. So I have a new one that I like even better. The magazines are from a stack waiting for me to read, and these I finally finished. I cannot throw out a magazine that I have not read! The book "Jars of Clay" is one that I have tried to read a few times but just can't seem to get interested, so rather than have it sitting on the shelf and making me feel guilty every time I see it, I am finally letting it go and maybe someone else will find it a good read. I think I may have bought it at a rummage sale in the first place.

I am just getting started on the decluttering and organizing, but this is more than I have done in a long while so am feeling pretty good about it. You didn't get to see all the magazine articles and pages printed from the internet that I tossed out of the filing cabinet. Still not finished with that either but things are looking lighter.

Faithful Friday - What's in Your Sponge?

Faithful Friday

 

 

WHAT'S IN YOUR SPONGE?

 

There are five sponges lying on your kitchen counter top. Each member of your family has been cleaning up different areas of your home, but all the sponges look the same. You are curious as to what was cleaned in your home, but you can't tell by looking. . .  They all look the same . . . . So what do you do? You squeeze each sponge to see what comes out. As you squeeze the first sponge. . . you see that cola comes out, and so you decide that someone cleaned the kitchen with that one. Upon squeezing the second sponge, you find tub and tile cleaner -- that one was used to clean the bathroom. Next, in the third sponge, you find motor oil -- hubby was cleaning the garage! In the fourth sponge, baby powder puffs out when it is squeezed -- yep, the baby's nursery was done with that one! And finally, in the last one, is floor wax -- that was the one you used on the hall floor! As you lay the last one down, you look again at their similarity -- and they all look the same until they're squeezed.

 

Christians are the same way. As life squeezes us, different things come out -- anger from one, a need for revenge from another, tears from one, remorse from yet another -- also greed, untruth, lust -- and finally, from one saint, pours forth the love of Christ. Just like the sponge, we can only squeeze out what is put in -- stay in the Word daily, and be in continuous prayer, so that when life puts the squeeze on you (and it WILL), Jesus, and Jesus ALONE will shine forth from you!

 

(This was found in our church newsletter.)

Down Memory Lane - Farming

 

I started farming at a very young age! Here I am with my dad on the only tractor he ever farmed with.  I think it is a 1939 or 1940 John Deere B. I was told that Dad would take me out in the field with him and I would fall asleep with my head bobbing against the steering wheel. I guess he did that so Mom could get things done, or maybe she had to get groceries or had a Ladies' Aid meeting at church.

 

 

When I got a little bit older I started helping in the field with the work horses, Daisy and Queen.

No, not really. I never learned how to work with the horses. I don't even know what this machine did. Maybe it is a cultivator?  I have several pictures where I posed on the tractor at various ages. I did learn to drive the tractor and helped Dad quite often with some of the field work as I got older. I often sat in the oats wagon when he planted oats, and made sure the hopper stayed full. And later, when a little older, I drove the tractor while Dad was on the oats binder at harvest time. This was the machine that made the bundles of oats, and it was called a binder because it formed the bundle and then bound it with twine. My dad had to operate all the levers to make it do its job. Nothing like the machines of today.

 

After all the oats was bundled, we walked the field and set 6 bundles on end and laid a seventh one across the top. This was done to aid in drying the oats before it could be threshed. I did learn how to set them up and did a pretty good job. I thought it was fun except for the straw stubble we had to walk on and scratched the legs.

Oat Bundles in Shocks stacked by Amish farmers.

 

 Later, on threshing day, we walked the field with pitch forks, and using the fork we tossed the bundles into a hay wagon, or we called a hayrack. That was the kind of wagon that was used for hay rides too. It was basically a flatbed wagon with a high back and low sides that were not solid. A bit hard to explain.

This is a little bit like the wagons Dad had. His also had boards on the sides that were lower than the back and front, but open like the back and front on this one. And the sides sort of formed a triangle with the front/back. You can sort of see that in the picture below on the wagon on the right side of picture.

 

When the wagon was full, it was taken to the threshing machine set up in the pasture close to the barn. The threshing machine separated the grain from the straw.

 

 Someone would pitch the bundles, one by one onto the belt that took it into the machine (far left). The grain came out of a large 'spout' over the grain wagon (probably behind that pickup in picture). It was always my job to sit in the grain wagon again, and level the oats as it was augured in. Threshing time was always during the heat and humidity of the summer so I was all sweaty, and the oat chaff would stick all over me. Oh, that was so prickly and itchy! The straw was blown out the other side (right side, large, long tube where straw can be seen blowing out the end), forming a straw pile. The cows would eat from that during the winter. Straw was also used as bedding in the barn. You can see in the picture that it took quite a few men to get the job done, and that is why farmers formed threshing rings. Several got together and bought a machine, then they went to each farm in the ring, taking the threshing machine with them, and doing the harvesting as a group. My dad was the last one in his ring to continue threshing so he had to buy out the other farmers. Then my mom's brother-in-law from Illinois would come every year to help as he loved the job. And some of Dad's brothers or older nephews helped too, while I tended the grain wagon.

Here is a link that tells about a threshing demonstration done 3 years ago near Cherokee, Iowa, a town where we lived for 7 years in the mid '60s.

 http://www.chronicletimes.com/story/1650424.html