The More I Seek You With An Empty Cup

You are welcome to take my picture and use it on your blog for your encouragement.

Last night my honey and I came home from a meeting. The meeting was precious and gave our hearts comfort, just because we were with two Christian friends. We are at a crossroad in our lives and are looking for a new way to make a living. We won't be farming. Age 57 and 60? Yikes! Life sometimes crashes in on us, which make us more dependent on the Lord. It is causing me to trust the Lord and that is definitely not a bad thing. So many times in life our cups are empty and in need of a fresh out pouring from the Lord to fill it. I realize I am not the only one that is going through hard times. All across America families are making huge decisions in their lives about what to do next. Elizabeth Elliot says, "do the next good thing". So many are losing jobs. It breaks my heart, but we are praying for an out pouring of mercy and grace on our land and that people would find help in the Lord. Crisis has the opportunity to do that and my sweetie and I are finding ourselves in a little crisis. My encouragement though is that the Lord will never leave us. I CAN look back on my life and see HIS HAND all over it.

After we got home Mr. Phil went out to do the chores, I had my own praise time by myself with the Lord as my audience. I like to go to youtube and put in a christian artist and listen to songs. My paniced heart was put to rest again. So here we are crying out to the only one that can truly help us in "any situation."

Here is one of the songs Kari Jobe sang. I hope it blesses some of you who are out there and who are very weary. Life is hard. For me, it makes me long for heaven. What a day that will be. Until then lets just keep encouraging one another as scripture says. I Thessalonians 5:11 says, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." Wow, that is how I feel every time I get a comment from you all. I hope I can be that for you!

We Cry Out

Father of life seated on Your throne of grace
It’s only by Your mercy we are saved
Lord, You have said if we call upon Your name
We and our families will be saved

So we cry out Your name
El Shaddai, God of grace
Lord most high, Jesus Christ
We rely on Your grace
Adonai, crowned in praise
Lord most high, Jesus Christ

Father of love never failing to forgive
Each moment is a gift from You to live
We’re only here to tell the world about Your grace
Until the day You take us all away

We will cry out on Your name
El Shaddai, God of grace
Lord most high, Jesus Christ
We rely on Your grace
Adonai, crowned in praise
Lord most high, Jesus Christ

Heavenly Father we come in the name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names. We are with our hands lifted up before you Lord, to ask that you would fill our cup with you. Help us to be grateful for what you choose to put into it. You know what is best and what you have for us to do. We ask that you would make the path straight. Thank you for being such a Wonderful Daddy.

We love you and want to live it with our lives. In Jesus name, Amen

Talk about something that happened that encouraged me. I did a little bartering with a blogger friend. You will love Cathy, she is a sweetie! Course all my blogger friends are sweeties, right. Her blog is called Live well, laugh often, love often. She also has a store Made With Love by Cathy, that you will want to look at also. I received the feather trees as my trade and then she put in a market bag she designed in just for me. I felt so loved! The market bag had scripture all over it. I love it!!!!!! I will use it a lot!

Hope all of you are warm. I am trying to wear more clothes. We are going to have a heat wave from our 10 degrees to 42 degrees on Sunday. That will be nice. I think.

Going today to celebrate our grandson's 8th birthday and our middle son's 34th birthday today....... hmmm ........... I always thought when I got to my 30's I would be old. What does that make me now? heheheh

Blessings from our Home to yours,

Linda

Feed the Birdies Please!

This is a little junko. They are one of my favorite little birds. Doesn't he

look so sweet just perched on the end of my bird feeder?

It is bitter cold here in Kansas. It is 5 degrees outside. When you live on a farm it takes a lot more work to keep all the animals fed, watered and kind of warm. We are also feeding the birdies lots of birdseed. The pictures are taken right out my kitchen window. They are all puffy this time of year, specially since the weather is cold. Just thought you would like to see.

Mr. Cardinal has lived on our farm for sometime. He was extra bushy yesterday when I took this picture. He almost doesn't look real. He sat in the evergreen tree all day. Mrs. used to live on our farm, but she has not been around for some time. Makes me sad. I love watching them in the spring time courting. They really do! He breaks open the seed for her and feeds her. It happens every spring! I hope a momma bird from another farm kicks one of her girls out of the nest so she will come live at my farm. That doesn't sound very nice of me to say that after I wrote it. smile!

If you like the scripture picture, you are welcome to use it on your blog for encouragement. Just put that it is from Prairie Flower Farm. I love this scripture and I am so thankful for the love the Lord has for me. He is so totally wonderful! If someone has not told you they love you today, I do and so does Jesus!!!!!!!! He said so on the cross!!!!!

If you came to my house I would serve you hot cocoa with fresh whip cream on the top or Wild Huckleberry Sweet Tea that my friend gave me! What would you serve at your house?

From my Home to yours,

Linda

A Dozen Quilter's Quilt Group

My friend Melissa over at Lilac Lane included me in a quilt group called, A Dozen Quilter's. When you go to her blog notice the little apron tutorial on the side. Adorable! She is a Moda girl now!

It has been really different for me. It has pushed me out of my comfort zone as far as design, color and style. I love it that everyone has their own taste and I am learning to appreciate that. Usually when I do a quilt it is two color. I just love cream or white and a color. I thought it would be fun to let you see what I have done so far. Each lady has a month. She will pick a design and fabric preference. Then the 11 other ladies go out and buy or use their own stash to make what she wants. I usually talk to the lady that is in charge of the month to see if she has a certain idea and what she might prefer.

My month to decide what I would like will be this spring. I have been dreaming of what I would like. Any idea's ladies?

Debbie wanted turquoise and red. She had always wanted a house block. So I did it.

Carmen wanted soft pinks and sage. This was harder then what I thought it would be. I like it!

Christy wanted Amy Butler fabric. This did turn out pretty don't you think?

I am working on a new block for Gayly for January. She wanted something with a star block. She gave us a site called Quilters Cache , this had lots of star blocks to choose from. Hope you can find something you might like! There other blocks beside stars. You will find everything there. Be sure to go to the home place and you can find other designs also. Tell me if you like it!

From our Home to yours,

Linda

Our 2009 Grammie and Poppa Snowman Camp

"WELCOME TO OUR GRAMMIE AND POPPA SNOWMAN CAMP"

All our grandchildren showed up in the afternoon. Sleeping bags, warm clothes and pillows filled the front room. Lots of happiness was going on for sure. We have 6 grandsons and 3 granddaughters. The boys talk more and louder then the girls hands down.

They laugh and keep the party going.

Before they got to the farm, I had the table and house all decorated with snowmen. My friend Mary blessed me some years back with lots of snowman gifts. Everything you could think of, she gave. I have collected snowmen over the years and have received some from my kids and honey. I decorated real simple with evergreen branches. I also sprinkled pretend snow on the branches and snowmen. It looked like a winter wonderland.

Everyone got situated with their stuff in designated spots and then it was time for supper.

Our evening meal was spaghetti, corn and herb bread. Mr. Phil bought me new snowman dishes (plates, salad plates, bowls and mugs) for the snowman party. Thank you honey! The kids loved them. We put the food on the plate and told them they had to eat it to see what design was on the plate. My momma always did that when my siblings and I were little. The children seem to enjoy it when I do it for them. As the kids ate we listened to what had been going on in their life. That is probably one of our favorite parts of the party.

Games and treats!

After our meal we had some games, puzzles, popcorn and hot cocoa. I found so many games for only $1.00 each at WalMart, Dollar Store and Target. There was lots of laughing and conversation between the cousins as they played together.

It was getting late and time to get the crew ready for bed. Ha! We had kids under the dining room table and girls with Grammie. Poppa had all the boys. YES! That was a sight. Before bed though Poppa read the CHRISTmas story. It never gets to old. One message that stuck out and the children memorized was “nothing is impossible with God”. Now when you break that down. Nothing means there is not one thing that God cannot accomplish. It was a sweet time for Poppa and myself to listen to sweetness from our grandchildren lips. They are learning to love our God. We trust as they watch us love God they will also. As I get older I realize what a huge responsibility that is on our shoulders as our grandchildren’s watch and listen to their Grammie and Poppa. I was not raised in a Christian home. They loved me, they just didn't know the Lord personally. When Mr. Phil got saved, we started going to a Bible teaching church that was on fire! We went everytime the doors opened. We loved our new church family and we started to grow. Our little family was young and we were so hungry to know how the Lord wanted us to live. I am so thankful that we can teach our grandchildren now.

The girls went to sleep first and it took the boys about 2 hours to finally get calmed down. Poppa took good care of that. smile.

The morning came soon. They all enjoyed pancakes for breakfast. Really easy to make snowmen pancakes with the gel decorating tubes. I used black and orange. The kids loved them. After the children ate their breakfast they went outside to play with their forts. The day was warm and they had a total blast. They drug stuff from everywhere on this farm to make their forts their own. The girl made their fort into little houses. It was so cute to watch them all. I was in the house getting the house ready for the party. I am giving you some of the instructions to some of the things I made. I will also link you to some other blogs that other bloggers told me about. I hope you can use some of these ideas if you ever have a Snowman Party.

SNOWMAN CANDY HOLDER INSTRUCTIONS

Needs: toilet paper tube, black and rust marker, white tissue paper, red ribbon

string and small candy

1. Toilet paper tube

2 Cut tissue paper about 1 1/2" bigger on each end and enough to cover the tube tight.

3. Tuck tissue into one end of the tube (this will be the bottom).

4. Twist the top and tie ribbon and make a bow

5. Open the bottom end up again and stuff the tube with candy.

6. Draw two little eyes, nose and mouth.

SNOWMAN INSULATED WATER BOTTLE HOLDER

This is not my pattern. I just came up with making it into a snowman. I have permission from Kathy the designer of the water bottle holder to put it up on my blog. You will have to go to her wonderful website to get the pattern, for this insulated water bottle holder. Look around while you are there, she has adorable things to look at. Pink Chalks Studio water bottle carrier I used cream flannel for my water bottle and some snowman fabric for the lining. It was some fabric I designed so our grandchildren can have something of Grammies. If you can't find the flannel cream fabric, I can sell you some.

1. Trace nose to paper backed fusible webbing. Iron paper to rust fabric. Cut the nose out. Set aside. Click here for placement and pattern for Snowman Face Pattern

2. Iron paper backed fusible webbing to black fabric

3. Use a 1/4" paper punch and punch out 7 circles. I was so excited when I tried this and it worked! I wasn't sure how I was going to cut those little circles out with them being so little.

4. Cut a pice of cardboard 1/2" by 4"long. Lay a 5" red piece red yarn on the bottom edge of the cardboard.

5. Wrap yarn around 30 times. Keep the 5" yarn piece from getting in the way.

6. Tie the 5" yarn tight around the yarn in a double knot. Cut the yarn away from the cardboard on the other end of the cardboard to make a pompom. This is soo easy to do. Shape the pompom by cutting all the stray ends. Make it into a little ball. Set aside.

7. Take the paper off the back of the nose and eyes and mouth. Look at picture for a reference on placement. Iron in place.

8. Measure any kind of ribbon for the strap and sew to each side of the water bottle holder.

9. Glue pompoms to each side using a glue gun. It is finished. Now I like to put my water bottles in the freezer for about a half hour. Then put them into the Snowman Water Bottle Holders. With the insulation in the inside it kept the grandkids water very nice and cold for a long time.

The spoon was found on an adorable blog called Homespun at Heart. Scroll down to January 19th, 2007, when you get onto Monica's blog I love her heart, it is precious. You will have fun at her blog site. My friend Sharon at A Merry Heart Journal told me about Monica's snowman party. Thank you Sharon. Monica gave me permission also to put this up. I used a black and orange permanent marker to put the faces on the spoon, but I just read that it is not safe. oops! You can find EASY WRITER food decorating pens here:

http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/coloring/pens.htm. You can also find them at the store. Monica uses edible food markers. They come of when the child eats with the spoon. Thank you Monica! So appreciate your help here.

For dessert I made little strawberry shortcakes in little mason jars. I made angel food cake using all my chicken eggs. I cubed up the angel food cake and layered with strawberries/sugar and whipped fresh cream, using powdered sugar instead of sugar when you whip it. Then put a big dollop (I like that word) of whipping cream on the top. Make the cream flat with a spoon

Use the orange and black decorating gel to put on the face. Put a lid on the jar, so that when they open it up, they have a little snowman staring at them. Hehe! Surprise!!!!! A snowman looking at you!!

After we ate we had a fun time, making some crafts. The children made thank you cards to their Momma's and Daddy's for blessing them with a wonderful CHRISTmas. The highlight was the snowman race though. Do you see 2 cute little wind up snowmen in the picture above? Well, we would start at the end of the table with two children and they would race. Each child would wind up a snowman and we would say, "ready set go". We laughed and laughed at what the snowmen would do. One time they came together and went round and round in a circle. We raced till every child won a prize.

Each family took a little gift home for their parents. It was a very special time fo everyone. They are still talking about it. I love having them all in my life. God is so good to me. I am such a very grateful Grammie for all that the Lord has blessed me with.

I bought a storage tub for our snowman party. After the CHRISTmas sales I was able to picked up some things on sale for next year. I just think this tub is going to be so useful for me to keep everything organized in one place. I am amazing myself! smile

As I have been writing this post I have been thinking about some of you Grandmothers that would love to have a party, but don't live close to your grandkids. Well, I had this great idea. Why not have one already made up and send it in a box? You could get a cookie pail and fill it with goodies just like we made here and paper plates, cups and what ever. You could write out the instructions for the games, the stories to be read and what ever else you come up with. Be sure to send a love note about how much you love them. This is getting me excited. I think that you still have time beings it is still winter and all the snow is coming down all over the country. Please tell me if you do something. I would love to hear about it.

I still had ideas that I wanted to do, but just ran out of time. I may post about them at a later date, but thank you so much for coming by and seeing what we did. It was a lot of fun and I just want my grand-babies to remember their Grammie as one that loved them very much. If you all have any idea's of other parties we can do let me know. I love designing things. We have had so many different kinds of camps. I will continue to record for you when we have our Valentine Camp. Blessings!

From our Home to yours.

Linda

Do You Knit Or Crochet? A Few Projects For You!

I wanted to get this up before CHRISTmas and just didn't. So here it is now. It is still winter out and sounds like we are getting more snow. Yea for me! For those knitters out there here is an adorable pattern. Free! I love free. This is one of my favorite patterns for mittens. You can find it at Knitting at Knoon Designs - Kathy's Mittens. I am not the best knitter, but I did get these made. I used a nubby cream all cotton yarn, that I get in a shop up in Lawrence Kansas. Love it, because it makes up so nice. I made 9 of these mittens for each one of my grandchildren. I put them up every year on a garland between the dining room and the front room. They one day will be their ornament, but not right yet.

Here are another two patterns for washcloths, that I found over at two very pretty blogs. The first one is from Yesteryear Embroideries. I have not crocheted it yet, but I want to after I get a few things wrapped up here at Prairie Flower Farm! I just think this is soooo cute! You will enjoy her blog also.

Photo used by permission from Yesteryear Embroideries (thank you)!

I saw this some time back as I was blog surfing and Kathleen gave permission for me, so I could show you what I want to do.

The other washcloth is from Homespun Living. This dishcloth is knitted and beautiful. It is real easy though. You do have to concentrate on the rows at the beginning. At least I did. My first dishcloth was turned around at times. You can get the hang of it real soon though. I am interrupted so many times in a day, so I use a counter. Fix up a bag with all that you need in it to make some washcloths, so you are ready when you have some sitting time. I always have something ready, because I just can't seem to keep my hands still. Smile You enjoy your stay at Homespun Living. It is also very beautiful. You will be right at home. Leave both the ladies little comments if you don't mind and tell them I sent you. :< ) this is a raggedy annie smile.

photo used by permission from Firefly Farm (thank you)!

If you start any of these projects you can start filling your CHRISTmas box with gifts and not be like me trying to get gifts made at the last minute. What a wonderful idea Linda, I think I am going to start a CHRISTmas box! When I am working on an order, I can make a few extras and they will go in the box! Great idea! Now, if I can just do it.

Blessings and I would love to see if you have any knitting or crochet patterns. Let me know or leave a comment and link, so we all can come to see you!

I wanted to add that I like to use Peaches and Creme 100% cotton yarn. You can find it at craft stores all around. It is really soft and has lots of colors available. I like to get the big cones that are available in white. Just thought this might help if you are going to start knitting or crocheting.

From my Home to yours,

Linda

Bible Study, we are using David: 90 Days with A Heart Like His

My girls and I are going through this book called "David: 90 Days with A Heart Like His (Personal Reflections Series)". If you are interested it looks like there are some books that are used books for only $4.68. That is a very good price. We have been gleaning a lot of history from it and our hearts are being encouraged. I love my time with my girls. Trust that the Lord is preparing our hearts to be servants for the Lord. They have their own personal study, but this one we are doing together everyday. We open our Bible and read the word first. Then Beth gives questions and study. It has been really good so far. I am asking the Holy Spirit to teach us together. My Tressa is 18 now and Tay is 15. Where has all the time gone? So thankful and grateful they are in my life. They encourage me so. I love being their momma. God has been so good. Having 3 boys first and then 13 years later getting one girl and 3 years after that another girl!!! They are my delight! Boys are wonderful, but girls are more relational, so that is really fun for me.

I am still working on the snowman party. I had more things come up and need to work on those things first. I am still working on tutorials for the party. It will be fun for you to use if you choose to have a party during this winter.

Are you doing a study we might be interested in? Please comment and let me know, if you have a minute. If you can't leave a comment on my blog just use the email that comes to you (if you subscribe) and just reply back. That works. You can also email, which is at the top right of my blog for your use.

Blessings and so thankful you are in my life!

From my house to yours,

Linda

Starting The Year With My Heart On JESUS!

We watched the movie The Nativity Story and again my heart was turned to the price that was paid when this little baby named Jesus, came into this world to save me from my sins. I think it is hard for me sometimes to really realize that there was a real baby Jesus. Maybe because I never saw Him born. I never saw Him die. Maybe? Watching the movie put it into perspective for me though. To think that Mary and Joseph had to make choices and had they not followed the instruction of the Lord, life would be very different for us all. I read His word and read that He was born and He "did die". I believe in faith that it is true. I want to continue this year to be one of His followers. I am so thankful for a husband, that is a leader in our home. He helps me to keep my heart close to the Lord, as He washes me in the Word. I am thankful for children who are like their parents, who find themselves as sinners and yet have the freedom to come for forgiveness from the ONE who knew no sin and can be forgiven. All because God chose a momma who would choose to have her baby, named Jesus. I am so thankful on this first day of the year. My prayer is that God would take our family this year and that we would be brave to tell the good news of the special little baby long long ago, who came to change the world forever.

I am going to keep this up until Easter. I will remind my grandchildren of the baby who came for them, if they would only believe.

Romans 10 9-13 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame."For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Just for fun

Here is our New Year Granola Recipe. Enjoy!

My honey bought me this little roaster for our granola recipe. I think it is just the cutest!

I sure will enjoy using it when I have to make granola.

I use my flour grinder to grind our wheat, that we grow on our farm.

It really grinds up fast and I use it in my recipe for our granola.

I like to gather everything that I am going to use before I start.

10 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups shredded coconut

2 cup slivered almonds

1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup flax seeds

1 cup salted sunflower seeds

brown sugar

1-2 cups cranberries

Add all the ingredients except brown sugar and cranberries to the roaster.

In a small saucepan cook ingredients below on low, until the butter melts.

3/4 cup water

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 tea. vanilla

Pour liquid mixture over all the dry ingredients.

Bake at 325˚ for an hour and a half. Check every 20 minutes.

Add cranberries or raisins after it has been cooked.

Let it cool before putting it into a container.

My honey is happy. He is all set!

This would make a wonderful gift for anyone to bring in the New Year.

I am so thankful for all of you!

Blessings, Linda