Thursday, September 15, 2011

A New Blog!!!

Hello everyone!
I wanted to let you know that I (Rachel) have started a new blog called A Butcher, A Baker, A Candlestick Maker. It is a blog dedicated to stay-at-home daughters with the purpose of encouraging, inspiring, and edifying them with lessons I am learning and things that happen during my own journey. My vision for this blog is that it will quickly become a haven of rest to other stay-at-home daughters, and a relaxing site to visit.
I will still be posting on this blog, as well as The Inkpen Authoress, but I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog with a specific purpose so I wouldn't take up all the screen time here. :) *smile*
Please go on over and take a look, and let me know how you like it! And if you want to, you could post about it on your own blog! (hint-hint ;) Have a blessed day!
                                      ~Rachel

Monday, September 12, 2011

One Lovely Blog Award! :)


So in this tag, I'm supposed to write 7 things about myself and then pass this on to 15 other bloggers. Here we go! 
#1. I love fairs! Our county fair starts this Thursday and it's always a real fun time! :D
#2. I got a charming, dimply smile from a real cute guy today. ;) (Levi's so adorable!)
#3. I have to be in the right mood to watch BBC's North and South. 
#4. I have accidentally started a tradition of bringing this one wooden dagger to every costume party I've been to.....but it broke on it's last trip out! :P
#5. I have to admit that I have *really* slacked off of photography of any sort recently...my goal this week is to purposely pick up my camera and snap away soon!
#6. I have a bit of a "cow-lick" :P
#7. I'm really looking forward to starting choir back up tomorrow!!!!!!! :D

There we go! And I award:

Thanks Katie, this was fun! :)
~Sarah

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembering......


Today we are remembering all those who died on September 11th, 2001, and all those who have given their lives since, to protect our freedom. We pray for their families and our country and thank God for His mercy in these 10 years. 

Psalm 118


1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever! 

2 Let Israel say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’ 
3 Let the house of Aaron say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’ 
4 Let those who fear the Lord say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’ 

5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
   the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. 
6 With the Lord on my side I do not fear.
   What can mortals do to me? 
7 The Lord is on my side to help me;
   I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. 
8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to put confidence in mortals. 
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to put confidence in princes. 

10 All nations surrounded me;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 
11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 
12 They surrounded me like bees;
   they blazed* like a fire of thorns;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off! 
13 I was pushed hard,* so that I was falling,
   but the Lord helped me. 
14 The Lord is my strength and my might;
   he has become my salvation. 

15 There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
‘The right hand of the Lord does valiantly; 
16   the right hand of the Lord is exalted;
   the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.’ 
17 I shall not die, but I shall live,
   and recount the deeds of the Lord
18 The Lord has punished me severely,
   but he did not give me over to death. 

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,
   that I may enter through them
   and give thanks to the Lord

20 This is the gate of the Lord;
   the righteous shall enter through it. 

21 I thank you that you have answered me
   and have become my salvation. 
22 The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone. 
23 This is the Lord’s doing;
   it is marvellous in our eyes. 
24 This is the day that the Lord has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.* 
25 Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
   O Lord, we beseech you, give us success! 

26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.*
   We bless you from the house of the Lord
27 The Lord is God,
   and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
   up to the horns of the altar.* 

28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
   you are my God, I will extol you. 

29 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever.
"Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for a friend."
-John 15:13 


~Rachel and Sarah

Friday, September 9, 2011

A Butcher, a Baker, a....costume-maker?

Well, life has been flying by! Saturday afternoon, shortly after I wrote our last post, we made the decision to put Licorice down. It was rather sad, and everyone cried, but we were so blessed by all the folks down in Warrenton that it helped a lot.
Daniel and I came home Sunday evening, and then on Monday we processed our broiler chickens. (There's the butcher part of this post)Yes, it was Labor Day. And I have taken to misquoting Pride and Prejudice when speaking of the holiday:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Heffington in possession of a Labor Day must be in want of a project."
Truly though, the rest of the week flew by on the wings of rain....we are indudated with rain. One would suspect a hurricane would drop enough rain to satisfy anyone. But no, I suppose God knows we need more rain...or something... :) Because it rained pretty much non-stop Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Our project all three days was to convert the bushels of apples into applesauce, and to do whatever baking Coastal Farms required of us. (Here comes the baker side of the post. :)
Actually, it is rather funny how the Lord works--it seems He is wanting me to be a baker in my first year as a stay-at-home, graduated daughter...we are seriously expanding that side of our business, and I am to head it up. I enjoy it very much, though it is tiring. :) I've been baking all day today...here's what our final tally-for-tomorrow's-market was:
8 huge loaves of challah bread
8 long loaves green chili cheese bread
14 fresh Italian herb bread
10 dozen mashed potato rolls
8 dozen cinnamon rolls
and quite a few Welsh-cakes, though I wasn't in charge of making those.
It has taken 9 hours so far, and all I have left to do is swap out trays in the oven to finish. :) *Utterly Exhausted But Content Sigh*
I ought to tell you that I talk to inanimate objects. This evening after I had finally gotten to a slightly more sane spot in the baking, I opened the oven to find a bowl of dough--forgotten, I supposed--and cried, "Who are you?!?" in a perfectly serious tone. I thought I was going bananas....turns out it was pizza dough Sarah had managed to make around my on-going mess. I was not trying to be funny, or cute. I really wanted to know, "Who are you and *what* are you doing in the oven?"....it gave Sarah a laugh. :D
Tomorrow we are going to a Lord of the Rings costume party--Sarah's going as Eowyn, The Oldest of Many (Matthew) is going as Faramir, Leah's going as Galadriel, Our Gentleman won't tell us *who* he's going as, and I'm going as Rosie Cotton, the hobbit-lass. :) I will be using many many pins and such to get the younger-than-me-girls pinned together and costumed. We will post pictures when all is said and done! And would anyone like to see pictures of the baking at some point? (It's fine if you'd rather not! :D )
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! ~Rach

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Roads go ever on and--Ivanhoe!

                           
"Roads go ever on and on..."
And so do road-trips, at times. :) As of today (Saturday) Daniel and I are still down in Warrenton, NC staying with the Taylor family while our dog gets treated for a garrison of problems relating to her accident with the car.

The Car.

The Big, Bad, Car.

I'll move on. The amputation went well, but took a turn for the worse when it was discovered that the flesh around the wound was so traumatized by the accident and impact that it was dying. Some of the muscle was languishing as well--such a condition can heal up, but usually it gets into the bloodstream and kills the animal. So we are on hold a little seeing what happens with her.
The vets and technicians at Warrenton Animal Clinic have been *amazing* and they have bent over backwards to try to save Licorice. Right now, things are looking up a little. They lengthened the incision and rinsed it all out super well, then sprayed the inside of the wound with some miracle salve. They ordered a liquid food for Licorice after finding that she couldn't/wouldn't eat anything--wet dog-food, wet cat-food, barbecue chicken, you name it, they tried. They switched her medicine or gave her more so that she wouldn't be nauseous. They've been absolute angels.
As it stands, if Licorice is still stable this morning, Daniel and I will be probably be coming home sometime soon, to return mid-week and collect her.
We've had a blast here with the Taylors, despite the rather grave moments when Licorices fate still hangs in the balance. We've laughed far more than is good for any of us, we've watched old movies, we've sung and played instruments together. I've been kissed several times (by a horse), been stalked by a rooster with 3-inch spurs, witnessed the logging operation a few hundred yards over, got a cold, got over a cold, made biscuits, eaten pizza, taken rambles, and generally I have had a fantastic trip. :) 
I've also collected several new movie quotes from Ivanhoe....
"Oh what a disgrace, oh what a pity!
His son has run off and left the city!" ;)

"Ahhh, my little bucklehead!" (To say to a horse. :)

Never-mind. I do recommend this version of Ivanhoe! It's the only one I've seen all the way through so far, but I think the casting was pretty good--especially Rebecca, Isaac, and Wamba. I would have liked to see a bit more depth to Rowena (though there really isn't much you can do to her) and I would have liked it if Ivanhoe had *not* kissed Rebecca, as that doesn't happen in the book.
Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert was not quite how I pictured him...I think Ciaran Hinds has more of the right look for a Knight Templar who has been in Palestine for years and years than this guy, but he acted the part well. :) Prince John was the perfect mix of Usurper and Weakling--I really liked his part, and of course, how can you beat John Rhys Davies as a Norman knight? 
Anthony Andrews makes a wonderful Ivanhoe, but we were laughing over the strangeness of the book and movie being named after him--he's lying on a cot sick for nearly the duration of the movie...he really doesn't do much but break Rebecca's heart, however unintentionally! :D
The only other person that I  entirely couldn't get my head around was Athelstane--he was *not* how I picture Althelstane of Coningsburg to be. :P But over all it was a movie well worth watching, with nothing remarkably reprehensible in it, which is a rarity in this day and age! (Granted, this is from 1982. :D)
~Rachel