How Dare You!

"How dare you be so prideful that you say you know God gave you eternal life?" a non-believer challenged me years ago. "Who are you to say what God does or doesn't do? Some Christian you are."

Little me, having never been challenged about my faith before, stumbled around in shock for a suitable answer, which was cause for more challenge and ridicule by the non-believer. So how dare I make such a statement and not even be able to back it up? This person was looking for proof and was delighted when I had none. Well, now I do.

*brandishes the Sword of the Spirit, freshly charged with the Word*

How dare I believe and say I know that I have eternal life through Jesus Christ? Rather, how dare I disbelieve it! To disbelieve God's promise of eternal life is to call Him a liar.

I happened across 1 John 5:11-13, and the response I SHOULD have given came together like cement.

11. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
12. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
13. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."

There's your proof. "...that ye may KNOW that ye have ETERNAL LIFE..."

So, my beloved brothers and sisters, go out into the world to witness and be sure of your faith! Look these verses up and underline them in your Bibles (especially those of you that I'm tagging who are going on mission trips in the next few months).

A mass of little posts

1. My best friend's grandma was just diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma (a kind of cancer that my grandma also has) a couple days ago and is getting chemo treatments. The doctors are being very optimistic and it was in an early enough stage that they may be able to kick it back into remission.

2. My goats are fairly ready to pop! A friend of mine has given me lots of advice and even let me borrow nipples to put on pop/soda bottles for my kids. (note: I will not feed kids pop. I drink the pop and then fill the bottle with milk for them.)

2a. The Cowboy is making me a milk stand for Jazzy and Jo. He tells me it will be very skookum. :)

3. Mom's full time job ended Monday, so she has 60 days of freedom before she starts work again in June. She's a senator's aide at our state capitol. If any of you are interested in politics, I'm trying to convince her to make a blog. Stay tuned...

4. The pudgy little bumblebees are out in the garden doing their bumbly, little jobs. Sooooo cute. Especially cute when they eat so much and get so fat that they can't fly. :) Awwwwww...

5. I'm almost entirely prepped for the class I'm co-teaching at the community college starting the week after this. Please pray that I'll be able to do everything necessary! I'm right now learning to master the drop spindle because I'll have students wanting to learn it! Oh, dear, oh, dear!

6. I've gotten the bug to write again, so I may not blog much in the next few days. I may be pouring my heart and soul into a Word document. ;)

On Weaving Baskets

Have a pine tree? You could make a basket!

HERE are some lovely instructions. :-)

My first little, tiny basket:

 
And I gave it to a little doll named Nellie that I made out of yarn:

   
  

My God has POWER

I just finished speaking (over facebook chat) to a Christian sister in Alaska, and the conversation stirred the fire for Christ in my soul. All I want to do right now is shout to all the world the wonder, power, and majesty of GOD! So amazing He is! I am overwhelmed... How beautiful is my LORD! My spirit, soul, and body rejoice in the hope of the glory of God!

Don't have doubt in your mind - The Lord is moving! He's doing great things, and you and I are part of it, my brothers and sisters! Stand strong in the faith and hold tight to the Solid Rock.

He will have His victory.
 
  

Menu for 3/14-3/20

As my family's schedule is all different, I only plan to make dinner. My breakfast and lunch each day: Grits and/or dinner leftovers. Pretty easy.

~Sunday~
Dinner at Cowboy's parents' house

~Monday~
Roasted chicken, egg noodles with Parmesan cheese, basil carrots, and broccoli.

~Tuesday~
Spaghetti, green beans, corn, and French bread (I'll be gone)

~Wednesday
Corned beef and cabbage soup (St. Patrick's Day meal!)
(Thaw chicken casserole in fridge for Thursday)

~Thursday~
Crunchy Chicken Casserole, fresh bread, steamed peas

~Friday~
To be determined, because of... Guests! :-D

~Saturday~
Dinner at Grandpa's

A Glorious Day!

The rain fell all day. That was the first warm fuzzy. I do love a good downpour!

Then I decided that I had a baking itch. Mwahahaha... The result?

The peanut butter cookies were from yesterday (yesterday? Two days ago? Whatever...), but they wanted to be in the photoshoot. So there are peanut butter cookies, The Inedible Bird Food (Long story: oatmeal breakfast cookies full of dried fruits and what-have-you. The Cowboy gave one to his boss who promptly described them as inedible bird food. Haha! I loved that description, so it stuck. Hey! Stop thinking that I'm weird... Even though I am...), and four loaves of zucchini bread. Two with chocolate chips in them!

Note: The (home-grown) zucchini was shredded last summer and frozen in plastic bags (2 cups each) for this very purpose. Just in case that tip will be of use to anyone.

And, as my little (okay BIG little) brother demonstrates, this will all be gone by tomorrow:

A Kitteh After My Own Heart

I couldn't do a Wordless Wednesday with this, because it has words, but it made me fairly fall out of my chair laughing. SO. TRUE.

:)

Lo, I am with you always

If only I could have remembered THAT yesterday.

As I told the Cowboy, yesterday was a "build character" day. You know, when something terrible happens that you have to deal with, your very loving brother/father/grandfather tells you: "Builds character!"

Turns out a full-size freezer can completely thaw in two days. It also turns out that when you're at home by yourself, it takes a long time to lug everything out of said freezer, decide what's good or not, and find places to stash the good stuff to keep it cool until you can deal with it. And when you throw away the yucky room-temperature stuff, the bag becomes so heavy that people my size can't lift it. All the while, your fingers are freezing to the shelves and sides of the freezer and you have to tear them back off again.

That was about six hours of my day, including getting all the now-thawed beef bones into stock pots to boil out broth. This is when Cora realizes again that it is her oldest brother's birthday, and she is supposed to make him a birthday dinner. Not only that, she has no present for him.

This is when Cora falls into a chair and cries, "I can't do this!" *flails*

But she did, because she had to. Knowing something is required does wonders to your reserved energy. I made dinner. Score 1 for Cora.

My darling brother came home, gave me a silly grin and said, "Well, I guess I'll get my birthday dinner and then mosey on into the ER." Oh, no... :-( He's been having problems with wonderful afflictions such as stomach ulcers and other internal bleedings lately.

When Mom got home, she convinced him not to go because he wasn't in a great deal of pain, but it was entirely traumatic for Cora. Her mother said, "This is just the first of many disasters you'll have to deal with while you're married. Especially if you have kids." Builds character. Thanks, Mom.

Today, Cora will be cooking more meat. Anyone want some steak? We have lots to eat in the next two days...

Mawwige

I always thought marriage was inevitable. Whether I was interested or not, I would probably get married. So I might as well take stock of my options, right?

Every eligible bachelor I met after that, I analyzed. I went down a mental checklist.

I took into account his posture - Did he stand straight and tall like he knew who he was and what he was about? Did he slump like he didn't really care about his appearance and was living his life just to "get by"?

Did he carry himself like the man I would respect and honor for the rest of my/his life and be the man I want my sons to be? Did he make himself "available" to young ladies through flattery or flirtation?

I looked at his countenance - Did his face show an active joy? Did it show peace? Or did his face say, "It's all about me, yeah."?

And clothing, too. Did his pants hang down around his knees? Were they full of holes? Did his shirt have writing on it that would shame me? Were they expensive, snobby clothes? Were his shoes those shrimpy little whatchamacallits that are so fashionable these days?

Was he the type who would command and demand my respect and control my every move, or would he earn my respect through caring, love, and devotion, like Paul described to Timothy?

What about language? Were his words "drawing room fashion," as I like to put it?

Did his hands look like they were used to hard work, or were they soft and delicate?

Could I live, work, and sleep next to him every day for the rest of my life? You might think it forward of me to ask that the moment I met a man, but that's what marriage is.

That's a very small sample of my checklist. I set the bar high and would accept nothing less. Truthfully, I thought I'd set it so high that I would never find someone.


***


And... Then one day in late September 2008, while at college... Second day of choir... A young man walked in the room. He'd just switched classes and needed an extra credit to be a full-time student. I went down my checklist from across the room:

He stood straight and tall. His attention remained on the instructor. His face showed the joy and peace of the Lord. He wore work jeans, a long-sleeve, button-up flannel shirt, and work boots. His hands were massive and you could tell they hadn't rested for a day in his life. On and on the list went, and I put a check by each one.

On my way home from school, I said to myself, "Self! I could marry a guy like that." Then another voice answered, "Why don't you marry him?" So I thought about that. All weekend I thought about it. By the next time I saw him, I pretty well knew for sure. Now to actually meet him.

You can't just walk up to a man and say, "Hi, my name is ___, and I'm planning to marry you." Finally, I worked up the nerve to walk up and say hi while we were in the cafeteria (this being the girl who was so shy she had trouble saying "Hi" to acquaintances!). He knew my brother, David, and was around David rather often, so that helped me get to know him in the future.

Two months later, we were fairly certain we'd get married, but my parents had still never met him. I hadn't even discussed him with them. A few months after they did meet, the Cowboy asked Dad if he could "court" me. September 2009, the Cowboy asked for my hand. And now I'm wearing the ring the Cowboy designed (it couldn't be a big ring that would overwhelm my tiny hand or have pokey edges to get caught in my knitting or scratch a baby).

According to every conservative Christian book on courting, we did everything wrong. The woman took initiative to speak to the man. The man did not go to her father first. Neither met each other's parents. They never had chaperons as their parents trusted their judgment implicitly.

So that is how I came to be engaged to my best friend, high school sweetheart that I met in college, and my first love after Christ.

God works in odd ways sometimes. You have to be able to distinguish His voice from what you believe from the books you've read. Trust Him fully. You trusted Him to save you from eternal death! Trust Him to find your spouse!

Pictures from around the farm

Some of the animals you'll see around my family's farm.

My Joshua, the purebred barn cat who thinks he is Teh Mighty Warrior. Here he plots to attack a fallen leaf.

Jasmine (brown) and Joanna (black and white). My brothers don't believe they're girls because they have beards. :-P

One of the new calves (Angus/Hereford). Ain't he cute? Awwwww... :-)

This is Who I Am

I was sitting here with my bowl of grits, deciding what to blog about. I've met two new friends in the past day (Anna and Cora Beth), and I realized that they didn't follow The Punmaster's Palace when I blogged over there.

So a little more about me. I say I'm the 6th of 7 boys. A little humor there. I have three brothers, but throughout my life, young men have lived with us and become like brothers to me. Having almost solely male companionship my entire life has given me an odd outlook on life. How many other girls do you know who think a heartfelt, romantic gift is a new shotgun?

I'm engaged to a man I've known for a little over a year, and that is a story that people either find fascinating or creepy when they hear it. It's a little long, so I'll not write about it here. I call him the Cowboy.

I do work outside the home, by request of my parents. I look forward to one day being a stay-at-home mother. I was homeschooled from day 1 until 10th grade (then started college). I want to continue that winning streak when I have munchkins. :-P Fortunately, the Cowboy also has those dreams (though he was public schooled from day 1 and had a full-time employed mother).

By request of my father, I do not wear skirts, save on special occasions. Because of my code of modesty, I actually wear men's clothing. If you'd like me to elaborate, I can. :)

I'm a college graduate now, and live with my peeps (immediate family and grandparents) on a farm. Grandpa raises cows, I keep two milk goats and two barncats, and the rest of my family have a worthless mutt (not a dog person, here) and a cat who is known as the Blimp. If you saw him, you'd understand. We have a huge garden and feed nearly everyone in my valley.

I love Star Wars, hate Jane Austen, love brussels sprouts, and hate bananas.

And that is me. Well... a little. I didn't even mention costumry, tatting, knife collecting, sewing, writing, knitting, gaming (yes, I'm a gamer! I got to level 10 in Tetris! Wow, that was epic... Maybe I'm not a gamer), weaving, sniper movies, dyeing cloth, and... um... yeah. There's a lot in my head.