50 lb of Carrots!

What do you do with with 50 lbs of carrots and a case of celery?

First we diced and and sliced a bunch of each along with some potatoes. 

It is amazing how fast we can work when everyone helps. 

We ended up with approx 20 quarts of canned veggies which are perfect for soups and casseroles. 

Then we sliced and diced some more and made fermented carrots. They were actually really yummy!! 

It takes an alot of creativity to figure out how to best use free bulk items. But oh the blessings! It makes my life so much easier to have canned/frozen prepped items! 

Life...

Just when I thought we were at the end, the craziness increased. Just in time for Christmas! I have had some pretty amazing moments in the past week. For the moment they are still unbloggable.

But in the meantime.. until I find time to post the 200 some pictures I took for Christmas..

A story from my 10 yr olds.

Setting the scene.. Several weeks ago I found a set of really good walkie talkies on an online yardsale for only $6. My boys love these things, especially when they are on one of their adventures. Certain little fingers like to push buttons and mess things up..


So today the boys left the walkie talkies where little fingers could push buttons. It was switched to a different channel. Suddenly to my boys absolute shock, they were listening in on a conversation.

I explained how it all works and that they must NEVER, EVER speak to someone they don't know.

Later:

Son #1 Mom, what if we could use these walkie talkies and listen to Japan. We could find out all the war secrets and tell the army. We would be hero's!


Son #2 What are the Japans?

Me: I think maybe the Japanese would come after you if you listened in on their conversations and shared their war secrets.

Son#1 We would be rich! We could be millionaires. I would buy a house and a car. Mom I would even be rich enough to give you an allowance.

Me: Gee thanks! That is so thoughtful of you

Son #2 What are the Japans?

Son #1 They would never expect a 10 yr old boy to figure out all their secrets. I would listen quietly on my walkie talkies..

Me: (eyes rolling)  explained to #2 what Japan and Japanese is...


The conversation continued for some time.. This is only one of many such conversations my children have. I hope someday they will be able to use this active imagination for some God given purpose!

The REAL Deal of Christmas...

So I have been working really hard to teach my kids the real meaning of Christmas. I saw this  making Christmas special post by John Piper.. Which really inspired me to outdo Santa and focus on the giving and receiving of gifts at Christmas! 

But alas real life intervened and this week found me dealing with several large unbloggable things. I found myself saying quite frequently "Let's just skip that. I am to tired today". 

Today was especially bad. I had two kiddoes with me at the Children's hospital for the majority of the day for some pretty major appointments. I came home, weary and extremely bogged down with details. 

The kids wanted to watch a Christmas movie or go look at Christmas lights, all I could think was "how many minutes until bedtime". 

Finally it was bedtime. The boys headed upstairs, Nesiah in her bed while the girls took Lady out for her nightly walk. 

They came back inside very quickly  with a big packaged addressed to our family! 

I allowed the boys to come back downstairs to help us open this package. Oh, the joys they found in this box full of goodies!

The most amazing thing, this box of goodies was sent to us by a cousin of my dads. Someone I only ever met once. Someone who lives far away from us.

We had just had a discussion with our advent celebration about the importance of listening to God's prompting in giving of gifts. We were discussing giving gifts to those we don't know. The kids were having a hard time with that one..
When this box arrived from someone who is a stranger to them, someone who listened to the prompting from God, on a day when their momma was to tired to do something extra special.. Sometimes the lesson is in the receiving not the giving...