Saturday, January 30, 2010

Chick-fil-A

The Best Video Clip ever about my favorite restaurant - Chick-fil-A!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Surprise...

Remember, the surprise that I mentioned? Well, it was a surprise 65th Anniversary Party for my grandparents. We had it at 3pm yesterday, and they loved it! We got to their place about 1:45pm, and thankfully, they were up in their room. Karen (the activities director), Stephanie (her assistant), Momma, Daddy, and I all got to work. Karen and Stephanie blew up purple and white balloons while Daddy arranged a trellis centerpiece to form a place for Nana and Gaga to sit. Then he put a banner that said "Happy 65th Anniversary Bud and Lee!" at the top. Mommy and I got the food table set up, and Stephanie and Karen rearranged chairs to accommodate the people. About 2:50pm, I went up to surprise Nana and Gaga with a visit and quickly decided that we HAD to go for a walk! :) They still had no clue until we walked in the room with all the people there and we all shouted "Happy Anniversary"! Here's a picture of their cake...



The food table all laid out. We had chicken salad sandwiches, delightful eggs, peppermint patties, fruit salad, cake, lemonade, and coffee.

Me pinning their corsage and boutonniere on with Momma looking on...

Just some of the many guests looking on...


People came up to give their well wishes and hugs...


Here are Nana and Gaga cutting their cake...




The party planners getting to relax and talk for a few minutes (me, Karen, and Momma)...



Nana and Gaga really enjoyed the party. There were about 50 guests. They also received quite a few cards from people who weren't able to attend. Nana told Mommy, "I was mad at you this morning for not taking me out to dinner today, but now I know why." That was too funny! We had a wonderful time with them and what an example of one man and one woman being faithful to each other for 65 years. It was a very special time and wonderful memories were made!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

True Leadership

Do we realize that we are leaders each and every day? And have a choice to make in how we respond and care for people? Do we care selflessly or in a selfish way?

An excerpt from
The Essence of Leadership
by Mac Anderson

The general said, "Yes, I love photography, especially taking photos of my men." He shared that while he had been waiting for the past few days he took photos of his men, and at night he would email the photos with a brief note to their mothers back in the USA.

Charlie asked if he could see a sample of a letter, and the general walked into his tent, turned on his computer, and read the last letter he had sent. It said:
Dear Mrs. Johnson,
I thought you might enjoy seeing this picture of your son. He is doing great. I also wanted you to know that you did a wonderful job raising him. You must be very proud. I can certainly tell you that I'm honored to serve with him in the U.S. Marines.
Sincerely,General Earl Hailston

Wow! I had goose bumps as I watched Charlie randomly interview a few of General Hailston's men, and without exception, you could feel the genuine love and respect that every one of them had for their leader.

You may have heard the quote... "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Shabbat Shalom Ya'll!!!

Today is Shabbat, and I praise the L-rd for His Rest for His people each week. What a blessing we missed those years that we did not keep it. From Creation in Genesis to now, YHVH intended for His people to find rest in Him and illustrated that through the weekly Shabbat.

Thursday night was family night at Nana and Gaga's. The theme was "Hawaiian Luau," and we had chicken and pineapple, grilled beef kabobs, spice cake, and chocolate covered bananas. It was very good. The whole evening was fun...though the music was too loud for me! While we were there and watching the weather station, we saw that Southern California was getting torrential rain, so as soon as we could, I called Beau and his mom to make sure they were okay. Thankfully, they were although they had been out when the rain first started...Praise Yah for His protection on His children.

Yesterday, Friday, was a busy day getting ready for Shabbat. In the morning, we all worked together to clean house. Many hands make light work! :) Then I checked e-mail and did some work while Mommy fixed lunch. After lunch, we made a delicious Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake together. Mommy also made a cream cheese spread for our bagels. We like to have 3 spreads and third our bagels with each third having a different type of spread for our Erev Shabbat meal. With our bagels, we have Peppermint Mochas - just like Starbucks, but we can make them at home for 50 cents compared to the $3.50 you'd pay at Starbucks. After we finished in the kitchen, us girls took off for a walk. We made it to Brad's house which is a 1.2 mile round trip walk for us. We do have our walk landmark's - either Brad's house or the tree. There is a single tree out in the middle of a corn field which makes our walk 2.2 miles round trip. That was good Mother Daughter time. :) And we got home in time to quickly finish up our Sabbath preparation and be ON TIME for Yah's Sabbath arriving even with Eddie and I slipping a little bit of website work!

We enjoyed our supper and then listened to Monte Judah's teaching on the weekly Torah Portion which was good as always. They were training a new admin to run the PalTalk room from their end this week, and he did a good job. The previous admin and his family are moving, so that he can serve as the congregational leader for a congregation in Arkansas. We'll miss them serving that way each week...but e-mail and Facebook will still work to keep in touch. :)

This morning, we listened to Eddie give the 5 minute update as well as part 2 of TNT - Torah and the New Testament. This teaching was on are we allowed to eat unclean meats? And what did Peter's vision in the New Testament really mean? It was a good teaching as always. Then we had a delicious lunch of chicken noodle soup that Momma had fixed yesterday, homemade cheddar cheese and crackers, and pickles. And soon, we're going to go for a walk. I'm so glad the weather is nice where we can do that.

Plus, I have an exciting praise! I've been on call for jury duty all this month. I can be called in on Mondays or Fridays. Well, so far, I had not had to go in. But, I got called to go in on this coming Monday. I was upset as I have a surprise planned middle of the week which I'll tell you about later (remember - surprises are shhh!) and was afraid the jury duty would run over. So Mommy especially started praying that the trial would get cancelled. When we got home from Nana and Gaga's on Thursday night, there was a message letting me know that the jury trial on Monday was cancelled! Praise the L-rd! Isn't He so good??? Now, I just have one more possible day left to serve.

And now for the interesting picture of the week... Daddy brought in a 125 gram (4.5 oz) egg from the barn yesterday!!!!! It was massive. Here's a picture of it (far left of carton) beside normal Jumbo eggs...
And Here I am blogging today...


Shabbat shalom Ya'll!!!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Halleh kicks up her heels...

Daddy's had some fun cow "adventures" this week. Halleh (Hebrew for Praise) is our miniature Jersey heifer (girl). She can be quite full of mischief and fun as you can see by the picture below of her in the washtab with Max watching. She's saying "Daddy, can I please have some more hay?" Plus she managed to escape this week... Daddy had been cleaning out the barn and left the lowest strand of the electric fence unhooked due to going in and out with the pickup truck. Well, as he was driving the truck back up to the barn, the calves decided to race the truck. He was going about 10mph and the cows were going 15mph, so they won! Plus Halleh decided not to stop at the fence and ducked under. Daddy had fun (not!) chasing her and getting her back in. Thankfully, they are both okay, and she is safe and sound.



Yesterday was a good day at work. I began the day with a call to Switzerland as our team is working with the Switzerland team to begin Online Coaching in Europe. What an exciting opportunity! :) Then in the late afternoon, a good friend, Julia, and I got a Photoshop lesson from her daughter! That was a great learning experience and Kristen was a very good teacher.

I made about a dozen goals for 2010 and have been faithfully working on them each week. One of them is to blog 3 times a week. Another key one is to have a quiet time each day with the Lord. I've been faithfully doing that for about the past 5 or 6 years, and I know that is a huge part of living a life pleasing to the Lord. How about you? Any goals for 2010? As Eddie so wisely put together, the statistics say "Only 3% of people are successful and only 3% of people make goals, so therefore the 3% of successful people are those who make goals."

Monday, January 18, 2010

A New Week

Sunday was a busy but productive day. I had 5 items on my to do list...and they all got done. Doesn't that just make you feel good to complete something? And I'm famous for making "out the door" to do lists. :) That morning, we had breakfast, and then Momma and Daddy ran their paper route. Mommy and I ran ours after that. It was a good day, and I enjoyed talking with Ellie in the evening.

Yesterday (Monday), we had Nana and Gaga out here for the day. We had a wonderful day together. Mommy fixed a delicious meal - beef roast, dressing, apple banana salad, black eye peas, and banana pudding. Then after lunch, we played a few games of Bingo; I even managed to win one.

I taught a cake decorating class last night. We had fun making clown cupcakes and learning new techniques. I enjoyed some good Messianic music on the way there and home too! :) Then Eddie and I worked on his website last night...we are getting very close to being done.

Today was a busy day at work, but I got a lot done! I was excited to work with a new Online Money Map Coach and have her complete her final exam to become offically an Online Coach! Plus we are Beta testing our new chat site...which is like going from a clunker to a Honda Ridgeline! :)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Maggie gives the Truck a Bath!

A belated Shabbat shalom! I pray each of you had a wonderful Shabbat! Last night our family listened to Eddie Chumney as he spoke at B'nai Shalom Congregation (Monte Judah's congregation), so that was a bit different from our usual Friday night. We as always enjoyed Eddie! :) Then he and I got a chance to chat and catch up after the service. Today, we listened to Beit Yacov as usual. "Uncle" Mark did the 5 minute update and then a teaching on Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) as tonight begins Rosh Chodesh. We finished off the day by eating popcorn and listening to Mike Clayton's Torah Portion.

On Friday, I had a busy day. I met Mark (a fellow Crown volunteer) for lunch. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Mark loves HOT food and wings...so he wanted to take me there. I got the mildest wings - the sweet BBQ wings, while he got HOT Wings. I did try a bite and survive! :) It was great catching up and fellowshipping. I then headed off to a Money Map Coaching Appointment before heading home to prepare for Shabbat.

While I was gone, Daddy had been mucking out the barn. While he does it each morning, after our recent thaw and warm up, he discovered that it made everything a muddy mess. So the barn got a thorough cleaning! He used Hodu (our Honda Ridgeline Pickup) to haul the manure out to where he is working on improving the pasture quality. While he was doing so, Maggie (our cow) discovered that Hodu was VERY dirty! She decided to give the hubcab a spitshine! (see below).


Followed by a buff of the rear bumper - look how shiny this corner is!

When your cow tells you that the car is dirty, it must be dirty!

I pray each of you has a great start to a new week.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Iced In

This morning, we were iced in...okay, that , was a bit of a play on words with me doing cake decorating...but I had to cancel my morning appointment due to the ice...hopefully, things will melt off today and warm up from our freezing cold temp of 6 degrees this morning! At least the mercury so far has gotten up to the mid-20s. Here are some pictures...


Our Driveway all covered in snow.
Momma by the mailbox.

The sunrise over the barn with lots of snow and ice.

The fence totally iced.


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A New Week

Wow! It's hard to believe it's already Tuesday...and a new week is flying by.

On Shabbat, our family enjoyed having our assistant congregational leader and his wife here for the day. As I call them, Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie, are sweethearts. We enjoyed lunch together of Chicken Quesadillas, Cinnamon Apples (just like Cracker Barrel has), and Cole Slaw. Then we topped it off with Snow Cream. :) After fellowshipping, talking, midrashing, and fellowshipping some more, we had popcorn and cheese & crackers for supper. That's not counting the multiple kosher marshmallows and homemade peppermint patties that we got into in-between.

Sunday was a busy day. I got quite a bit of work done in the morning while Mommy and Daddy ran their paper route, then Mommy and I ran ours after lunch. That afternoon, I finished up the work I needed to do as well as worked some on Eddie's website. Please pray for us as we work to finish that up and go live soon! And finally, I enjoyed talking to my closest girlfriend, Ellie, that night.

Monday, we spent most of the day with Nana and Gaga. We did their laundry in the morning and then ate lunch with them. It was a nice relaxing time. After getting home, I snuck a couple of hours of work in before heading out to teach my cake decorating class. It is a nice sized class with 8 in it. Two decided not to continue with the class...that will sometime happen after the first night of class as sometimes the cost is a little more than people can go at this time. I prefer classes with about 8 to 10 in them as it is not too many to be stressful but enough to keep me on my toes. As they say, the perfect balance. A lot of them are already talking about going on to Course 2. I also learned that one of my students is a Seventh Day Adventist, so we were able to talk about keeping Sabbath. People who are SDA keep the Seventh Day Sabbath, but they don't keep the Biblical Festivals. I would be interested in understanding the reasoning behind that...keeping part of the Torah but not all. So that sounds like a study project I just gave myself.

Today, I was going to meet Mark (a fellow Crown Volunteer) for lunch, but the car wouldn't crank. Since the van I was driving has a wheelchair lift in it, it also has a secondary battery. That wouldn't work either...so we called AAA. Due to the delay in timing, Mark and I had to reschedule for Friday. :( But we're both looking forward to it. When the person from AAA got here, they said the battery was deader than dead and to leave the car idling for 30 minutes which I did. Tonight, I have a Money Map Coaching Appointment, but I'll be able to use Hodu (Hebrew for Give Thanks) which is our pickup truck. I do love the manuverablity of the Honda Ridgeline...plus driving a truck! :)

I'm planning on picking a topic for study/discussion on the blog each week as well as my normal weekly events and thoughts. Do you have a topic that you'd like to discuss?

Saturday, January 9, 2010

I Got My Snow Cream!!!!! :)

Yes, I did indeed get my first bowl of snow cream. In fact, we're planning on having snow cream for desert today for our company. :) Now, that I've hopefully gotten you good and hungry for it, would you like the recipe?

Snow Cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar (we use evaporated cane juice)
1 egg
1 Tbsp vanilla
Lots of Fresh Snow

Whisk together the milk, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Bring in the fresh snow from outside, and add until the consistency is that of ice cream. Yield: 3 large bowls. Recipe can easily be multiplied to fit the size of your family.

Today, we are having company which is unusual for us on Shabbat...but I'm looking forward to it. Our assistant congregational leader and his wife are coming. We got all the food prepared yesterday before Shabbat!

Okay...now that was interesting. Our neighbor was going out to the car in what looked like pajamas...and we had noticed it being that it was snowing. I made the comment that it looked liked their church service had been canceled due to the snow...and my Momma laughingly reminded me that today is Shabbat aka Saturday, so their church wouldn't be until tomorrow. I guess that shows how Hebraic my thought is becoming...or maybe how blond I am!

On Thursday, we made homemade Mozzarella Cheese from Maggie's milk. It is an all day task. Not that it is difficult; it is just that every 30 minutes or so, you need to do something with it. We begin by heating the milk to 90 degrees, adding the starter, and letting it sit for a while. Then we add lipase powder...later on the organic kosher vegetable rennet. Then as the curd forms, we cut it, heat it, drain it, and finally stretch it. The stretching is always Daddy's job! It is then soaked in a salt brine at the very end. Now, realize that is ONE whole days worth of work condensed into a paragraph. Maybe I can take some pictures this next week of the process. It has been really neat the demand for the cheeses that we make.

We also made fresh homemade butter. We had about 2 quarts of cream saved in the fridge to make it with. So Mommy put that in the Kitchen Aid with the wire whisk, and put the mixer to work. It takes about 30 minutes to whip it from cream to butter. Then we wash it, salt it, and form into patties. We ended up with 1 lb 9 oz of finished butter. Our butter tastes like as my grandma so aptly put it "what butter used to taste like."

Oh, speaking of my Nana. She made a really cute comment the other day. In trying to explain to my uncle why my family "doesn't do Christmas", she told him that we understood that Jesus (Yeshua) was born on Saturday, so we don't do Christmas. She was so cute! She's trying to understand why we don't do things and had gotten Shabbat which is on Saturday and Christmas mixed up. So we got a good chuckle out of it...and appreciated that she is trying to understand. Gotta love my grandma!

Well, company will soon be here...we're all looking forward to it. Shabbat shalom to y'all!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I'm Dreaming of Snow Cream

We are certainly getting the snow here today. They have been calling for 2 to 4 inches...and I think we'll reach that without any trouble. Thankfully, I'm nice and warm inside. The good thing is that we'll hopefully be able to have our first snow cream of the year tonight. Am I making you hungry?

Yesterday, I had a Money Map Coaching Appointment. I still serve as a volunteer Money Map Coach with Crown where I meet with various people to help them understand their finances on a one on one basis, what the Bible teaches about it, and how to establish a plan to acheive true financial freedom. You can ask me questions here on the blog if you'd like, or you can chat for free with an Online Money Map Coach by clicking here. We all need to take that next step with our finances...and the new year is a great time to do so.

Then yesterday afternoon, we had a family care meeting at the Assisted Living where my grandparents live. They are both 85. I call them Nana and Gaga. Nana is a in a wheelchair due to a bad hip and not being a canidate for a hip replacement. She does well though. Gaga has alzheimer's which is a very difficult disease to understand and deal with. I will share more about my feelings and the transitions our family has had to deal with on that in a later entry. The meeting went well...we are hoping to get my grandparents more active in activities as they haven't been as active lately. While overall the Assisted Living has been good to work with, you as the family have to stay on top of them to make sure they receive top quality care. Even though my grandparents have aides and nurses helping them, we as the family are THEIR ADVOCATES! If you don't speak up, they don't know. So we constantly are checking to make sure they receive quality care, their medications, and such. After all, they are our family, and we want to take care of them.

Do have elderly in your family? Are you involved in their care? What are your thoughts on the subject of elder care in our country?

Today has been a busy but good day at work...I've gotten a lot done. Doesn't that always make you feel good? Our ITs are working on updating some sites that we use internally, and we got good news today that the updates will be completed soon! Well, got a few more things to wrap up before the day's end. So hopefully, you don't get too buried in snow!!!!!!!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!...Plus a Recipe

Today it has lightly snowed all day off and on. We've got about 3" on the ground, and our temperatures have stayed in the lows 20s even during the day. As the sun sets now, it will fall into the teens. Thankfully, all of the animals have water heaters. For the cows, it is a small heater that floats in their water tubs...otherwise, their water would freeze. The cows generate enough body heat that keep them and the 9 chickens in the barn with them comfortable. We turn on a heat lamp at night for the other 15 chickens in the "house barn" or garage/barn. That definately helps them. With the newer chickens who are our meat/layer breed called Freedom Rangers - they are a heritage meat bird unlike the Cornish Rock Cross Meat Birds that are normally used - we are getting more eggs now. The Cornish Rock Cross birds are unable to reproduce, die from heart trouble if kept too long, and so many other health problems due to all the genetic modifying that has been done. We raised them the first year, but said "why are we feeding them organic feed and trying to be healthy, when they are not healthy birds to begin with?" So we did the Freedom Rangers this year and have been very happy with them. We kept 10 hens and 2 roosters to raise our own little meat chicks. That will be fun come spring.

Today was a good day at work...I got a lot done which always makes me feel good. A lot of projects are beginning to roll along which is always exciting. The new chat site that we'll be having will bring a lot of technical improvements that we've been hoping for. I was excited to welcome aboard a new trainer today, John. John is a great guy to work with and very detailed, so I know he'll work well on our team.

For supper tonight, we'll be finishing up the Cream de Glase, and as promised here is the recipe:
8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar (we use evaporated cane juice)
1 tsp vanilla

Combine eggs, milk, and sugar in the top of a double boiler, and cook over hot, not boiling, water stirring constantly. Cook until the mixture is thicked (similar to cook and serve pudding) and slightly coats the spoon. Pour into bowl to cool. Serve with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Makes approximately 6 servings.
My cake decorating class last night went really well. I have 10 students in my class, and they are all very excited. Everything went smoothly even with the bad weather and roads. Here is a picture of my cake from class last night...




Monday, January 4, 2010

Busy Start to the Week

Wow! It was a busy start to the week. Yesterday, I woke up not feeling quite myself...a dry throat, a bit stuffy in the sinuses, and just a bit blaugh. But being the first day of the week, I did get to sleep in. :) After getting up and having breakfast as a family, Momma and Daddy ran their paper-route. Daddy does three routes for The BAG which is a local "ad bag" with the Krogar, Meijer, Walmart, etc sale ads in it and delivered to each house at their mailbox. He and Mommy run a route and Mommy and I run the other two. While they were gone, I finished up the Elderberry Syrup that Mommy and I had begun making the night before. It is good for fighting colds, so I made sure to take a big taste when I finished it and another dose later that day. See the recipe below. I also made Cream de Glase which is an egg based custard that we serve with fresh strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Now, that fruit is just starting to come back in, we couldn't resist. I'll plan on doing a recipes entry later this week with the recipe for that! :) Between that and staying on the phone too while they were gone, I was a busy little bee. I told Momma..."boy, my feet are tired" when she got home. She said, "Now, you see why I say that my feet are tired!" I can certainly understand more so. Since my job is a sit down at the computer job...I sometimes forget how phsyically tiring (albeit rewarding) work that can be!

After lunch, Momma and I ran our routes... When we got home, we did a few other household chores and ate supper. By about 6pm, Momma and Daddy were going to run over to Nana and Gaga's (my grandparents) for a couple of hours and also take some medication to the nurses at the Assisted Living where they live. My grandparents are both 85 years old. While I was welcome to go and normally would, I stayed home and camped out on the couch. I was pretty tired by that point, so I curled up with my two sweet kitties and watched the movie called "The Pretender" by Christiano Films. It is about how a young man pretends to become a Christian just so he can win this girl...and how we need to be genuine in our relationships and watch out for the wolves in sheep clothing. Very good message! I've watched it before...but it's worth rewatching. Shortly after that, I headed on to bed...

Today has been a busy day. We got our bulk food order for our home based bakery. We also order in bulk for those in our local Messianic community. Plus today is my first day back at my regular job with Crown...so it's been play catch up with e-mails, phone calls, get projects rolling again, and the usual catch up. Now, it's off to teach the first night of cake decorating class tonight which I'm looking forward to.

And finally, as promised, the Elderberry Syrup Recipe:

2 cups dried Elderberries
4 cups boiling water
1/2 cup honey (fresh preferrably)
1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed from organic lemons preferrably)

Put the elderberries in a large saucepan and pour the boiling water over them. Let sit overnight. In the morning, bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Pour into a blender, add the honey and lemon juice, and blend until smooth. Pour into jars and label and refrigerate. Take about 1 Tbsp 3 times a day. It is supposed to help fight colds. It sure did seem to help mine. :)

Saturday, January 2, 2010

We Delight in Your Shabbat

Shabbat today as always was a delight! I decided to take today's title off of Steve McConnell's song - We Delight in Your Shabbat (which you can download for free by clicking on the song title) as it is one of my family's favorite songs to enjoy at the beginning of Shabbat.

Last night, we listened to Monte Judah via PalTalk as normal. I enjoy helping admin in the room as it enables me to be able to serve the body...something that I missed when we left traditional Christian church. His message was on this week's Torah Portion of VaYechi (Hebrew for "And He Lived") which was on when the brothers find Joseph in Egypt. As Monte was talking about how the brothers picked Judah to be the one to tell Jacob that Joseph was alive and in Egypt, my thoughts went to how the brothers began by telling one lie (that Joseph was killed by a wild animal), had to cover it with more lies (being sad he died and probably attend his "funeral"), and more lies throughout life...only to be exposed as BIG TIME LIERS in the end. As the saying goes "The Truth will find out out!" What a lesson for each of us to remember in our daily lives.

Today, we began by listening to Eddie Chumney's 5 minute update which is never 5 minutes long! He followed it up by a really good teaching on TNT - Torah and the New Testament. As the TNT might signify, it was a dynamite message! You can hear it by going to Way To Zion. We also enjoyed reading some articles that Daddy had been saving for us to read as a family...and finished the day off by our usual popcorn (salted and cheesy), beef jerky, and grape juice along with listening to Mike Clayton.

Since we don't wash dishes on Shabbat unless it cannot be avoided, we had our usual stack to wash, but it was fun being in the kitchen with Momma. She and I made quick work of the stack with her drying and me washing. I enjoy washing better than drying, and Momma graciously gave me first choice of which job to take. Daddy has already milked Miss Maggie for the night and brought in another gallon of milk as well as 5 more eggs. Having our own fresh milk, eggs, and cream as well as making our own dairy products is a blessing!

Well, I could talk all night if you let me, but I have a cake to bake for the cake decorating class I'll be teaching on Monday night...so a belated Shabbat Shalom!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Welcome

Wow! It's 2010! It's hard to believe that we begin a new Gregorian year today. And with the New Year, I've decided to enter the blogging world! I enjoy writing and lead an interesting life, so I wanted to be able to share not only the everyday happens but the lessons that the Father is teaching me. My hope with this blog is to constantly point you back the Father and encourage you to grow more and more like him!

Why did I name it "In HaShem's Hand?" John 10:27-28 gives us the promise of "My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me, and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands." That is one of my favorite verses reminding me that even though the storms of life buffet me, I am safe in the Father's Hand. The other piece is what do we call the Heavenly Father? I grew up knowing Him as "God." As we have began to understand more and more of our Hebrew Roots, I have come to understand his real name is YHVH. However, since Hebrew scrolls do not have the vowels in them, it could be prounced as Yahweh, Yahuah, and a few other variations. I really like Mike Clayton's ministry and the conclusion that he has come to of HaShem (Hebrew for "The Name") which is a very respectful and commonly used name or title in Judaism...so I concluded that "In HaShem's Hand" would be the title of my blog.

What does this new year find me doing? Well, I have had this past week off from my work with Crown Financial Ministries which has been a nice end of the year break. I have enjoyed spending more time with my family, cooking with my mom (we made applesauce muffins and even tried marshmallows - more on our cooking in a later post!), working on Eddie's website (I'm working with Eddie Chumney a well known Messianic speaker on redesigning his website), and so much more. It's been a busy fun week! We've also made more mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Having a dairy cow producing about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons of milk a day will keep you on your toes! Our family farm - Restorahtion Farms - is home to Maggie the dairy cow, Max her bull calf (don't ask what he'll become next year unless you really want to know), Halleh a miniature Jersey heifer (she's 6 months old right now), 24 laying hens, 3 roosters, and my 2 cats plus the 3 humans - my mom, my dad, and myself. All on just under 6 acres. Add to that the cold and snow during the winter, and I know that my dad just loves getting up in the morning to take care of the animals (did you detect a bit of humor in that statement?)!

Well, lunch is certainly smelling good. My sweet daddy lovingly kicked my mom out of the kitchen and told us both don't peak...he's in charge of lunch. The smells and the hint of needing one pound of hamburger make me very hungry!