Why I believe Salvation is a Free Gift

I believe the Salvation is a free gift from God. There is no way that we could possibly earn enough or do enough to gain salvation but thankfully we don't have too. Jesus offers it to us for free!

Here are some verses that cause me to believe this:

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Romans 5:6-16 
"6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because  all sinned - 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification."

Romans 3:23-24 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

It isn't that our salvation didn't cost anything. It did. It cost a lot but Jesus paid the price because we weren't able too. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!!!

Are there any verses that you particularly like on this subject? I would love to hear!

Having Fun With Centerpieces

 

Today I am going to talk a little about decorating for company. This is something I love and find extremely fun - However this is something that some people can find extremely stressful. So if you think decorating is fun too or would enjoy trying to decorate a little more than please join me for this post - check out my ideas and leave some thoughts or ideas of your own in the comments. I would love to hear from you. If the idea of decorating extra when company comes seems overwhelming and unnecessary to you then please feel free to skip this post. Decorating is not a necessary part of being hospitable. It is simply a fun part for some of us.

 

Today we are going to specifically talk about centerpieces. Since many times our hospitality is centered around the table I think it is fun to dress it up a little. I think this can be done in many ways and does not need to cost an arm and a leg - in fact generally I don't spend anything on this. I just try to creatively use what I already have. Now I am blessed to have a wedding flower business so I fairly regularly have extra flowers around so that does make it so I can use flowers in lots of centerpieces which is fun. But you can also pick flowers (wild or from your garden) and there are lots of other centerpiece ideas that don't involve flowers.

 

  Here are some ideas that I have shared at earlier times on my blog. Below each picture is a link to the post that will have more information.

Beautiful fall leaves, a blue canning jar with simple flowers. Cost: Very little or nothing

 

 

A tall centerpiece with books, branches and candles. Cost: very minimal

 

 

A round slab of wood, moss, wild greens, a few flowers and odds and ends. Cost: a few dollars

 

 

A grouping of rootbeer bottles, evergreen branches, logs slices and a few flowers. Cost: a few dollars

 

 

Denim Vases with a few flowers. Cost: around $10

 

Fall harvest, a glass dish, old candles, acorns and leaves. Cost: $0

 

 

A fish, Some shells and pine cones on a platter. Cost: $0
 

 

Greenery, silk flowers, pine cones, candles and a little horn. Cost: Very minimal

 

A bowl with floating Zinnias and Bachelor buttons from the garden with a little greenery.

Cost: $0

 

 

 

 

 

Candles and Doilies Cost: Free 

Colorful Swiss Chard from my parents garden. cost: $0 

A little basket, apples and gourds with moss. Cost: $0 

I put these together for a political banquet as we wanted something on the tables but didn't want to spend a lot. I already had vases, candles, ribbon and Epsom salts and then I made the fabric flowers for some cloth and beads I had on hand. It was a fun and simple project and added something to the tables at our event. 

Another winter centerpiece with evergreen, a candles, pine cones and a bow. 

A line up of various bottles with flowers stuck in them randomly can made a pretty fun centerpiece.

 

Other simple centerpiece ideas:

 

• A bowl or basket of beautiful apples (or other fruit).
• A basket of pine cones.
• Floating Candles in a bowl or vase. Other visual interest like branches, rocks, etc. can be added to the water.
• A bunch of Indian corn tied with a bow.

 

Something to think about with centerpieces is that you want to make sure that it isn't in the way of people trying to visit. So it is best if they can either be low or skinny and really tall (they can then get bigger at the top).

 

 I would love to hear any centerpiece ideas that you have! (Especially frugal ones.)



Life Out Our Window

 Lately we have greatly been enjoying looking out our window towards the river. We have discovered there is a whole lot going on our there. The thing is in the past few weeks the ice melted in the middle by our house. Our neighbor just to the East of us still has ice (though I think it will go in the next week) but for the last week or so the open river has ended at our house. There are a lot of birds coming through that love the open water and so we are very privileged to see them. The kids have been busy naming them and coming up with their life stories. We are not actually sure that we are seeing the same birds each day but it makes life more interesting to think that we are. :-)

The other day there were two Canadian Geese out by our house. They were just waiting around and doing various odds and ends. Their names are David and Elody (Mara's been doing the naming lately). Then all of a sudden two swans (Edgar and Rosalie) came swooping in. Just in time - the two couples had a lunch date up river. Off they went.

 The swans can go pretty fast. They started to leave the geese in the dust (or is that water?).

 Oh that wasn't very nice, we had better slow down. So good to see you again old friends.

 A rather gray day isn't it?

 David and Edgar got to visiting and Rosalie and Elody came along behind visiting too.

They have been back many times. We did our stretches with the swans the other day (we were watching from the inside and the swans were out on the ice) - the kids found it much more fun to follow their antics than they like to follow mine. The swans bob their heads and stretch their necks in such funny ways before they take off flying. Flying didn't work so well for us when we tried.

   The kids say there is another gander that is trying to get Elody's attention but the crow is on David's side. They have their home site all picked out for them. We shall see if they use it.

 I hope you enjoy the pictures that Mara took for the swans and the geese and all or our silly imaginings as we have fun watching them.

House Building Update

 I planned to write this post on Saturday but sometimes time gets away from me and it was too late so it never got written. I just thought I would share an update on some of our progress this past week.

Something that the kids and I found pretty exciting is that Ken got all the internet cable boxes working and so now our computer was able to be moved up and out of the basement. It is now in my office which is so handy as it is is right off our our great room. The kids do their math and foreign languages on the computer this year and of course I use the computer for blogging and also my wedding flower business. I am trying to get a new website finished and get switched over to it (for my business) and having the computer in a handier location will really help for being able to use little bits of time that I might have (while cooking supper or waiting for a music student to arrive and being available while my kids work on schoolwork) to work on my website. Ken was also able to move his office stuff up to his office upstairs.

    After I get my business website finished then I am dreaming about doing some updated on this blog (the look of it). Any suggestions for making it more usable for you?

 While Ken worked on wiring the phone and internet boxes the rest of us got all of the outlet and switch covers on. That is a really nice thing to have accomplished. It looks so much better with them on.

On Saturday I finished the tiling!!! I had thought I was done back in February but then remembered I hadn't done the trim in our bathroom closet. Now it is done! I got all the grouting done today. I just need to get everything cleaned up a little better and then sealed. It is a very nice feeling to have that project done!

  Tomorrow the electrician is supposed to come to get all the wiring done in the basement. That will be pretty nice. Our contractor might be here to finish up our kitchen window trim as well. Things are still moving forward.

  What sort of things did you do last week?

Why I Believe Jesus is the Only Way

The only way to know God and have a relationship with Him, the only way to salvation and the only way to heaven.

  I believe we simply must know Jesus and here is why:

John 14:6 "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Colossians 1:21 "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-"

John 10:9 "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and out and find pasture."

Ephesians 2:18 "For through him we both have access to the Father by the one Spirit."

Hebrews 10:19-22 " Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."

Romans 6:3 & 4 "Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

There are so many more verses on this subject but I think you get the idea. :-) If you have a verse that you would like to share that goes along with this topic I would love it if you would put it in the comments!

Some Fun (and Educational!) Books

We recently discovered a new author at our place: Holling Clancy Holling (can you imagine naming your child that!?) It started when I was looking around for books about the Mississippi. Now that we live next to that great river I really have been wanting to learn more about it - the history that transpired on it or it's shores, what life is and was like all along the Mississippi, the animals that live around it and so forth. It is my new area of interest so when we start thinking about a subject like that we start reading all that we can about it.

   When looking for books I read about one called "Minn of the Mississippi". It is the story of a snapper turtle that starting at the headwaters ends up going all the way down to the gulf in her years of life. It is fictional but has a pretty fun storyline along with all sorts of facts about snappers, facts about the Mississippi, history of the Mississippi and helps with geography (H. C. H. likes to use little memory joggers in his writings like showing you that the Mississippi river is shaped like a baited hook on a line. The top part is the baited hook with a few different lakes being the bait -you should look at a map and check it out- we live in the hook area). There are many illustrations in the books done by Holling and his wife and they are very well done and detailed and factual.

I do have a hesitation with these books as H. C. H. does not seem to have a biblical world view and so will talk about an old earth (billions of years!) and also seems to like to throw in a little bit about native religions at times. For our family I didn't find the problems worthy of not reading it- I just sometimes edited as I read aloud or we discussed it.

  I also read Pagoo aloud which follows the life of a hermit crab and in the book you learn a ton about sea life. Very interesting and well researched!

  My favorite that I read was "Paddle-to-the-Sea" which is about a little wooden boat with a wooden man carved in it that an Indian boy made and then put in a river that would go into lake Superior and then his hope was that it would make it all the way through the great lakes and to the Atlantic Ocean. So in the book you follow the little wooden boat on it's journey. In it we learn about currents, logging (a little), the geography of the Great Lakes and so forth. This one was the most entertaining of the ones that I read.

   I did not read the other two books but the kids did and enjoyed them. I guess Seabird is about whaling ships.

  These books are divided into quite a few very short chapters and there are pictures on every page. The content has something that every age group (including me!) can learn from.

  Have you ever read any of these books? What are your thoughts on them?

Hosting Guests with Food Allergies

 Do you or your family have any food allergies or sensitivities? It seems to be pretty common anymore. Our family doesn't have any so we are grateful but we do have friends and family that we enjoy having over from time to time that do have foods that they can't eat. I also try to remember if we are having someone over that we haven't hosted before to check and see if they have any foods we need to avoid.

  Dealing with food issues can make cooking for company a little more challenging but try not to let it stress you out. It sometimes become a good opportunity to do a little experimenting. :-) I have found that people with food allergies are usually pretty grateful that you have made the effort to cook something that they can eat and generally not to picky (maybe I have just been blessed with some pretty nice company!).

   I have found the Internet to be a pretty valuable resource when finding recipes without certain ingredients. I simply start googling Gluten free recipes (or bread, or dessert or pizza, etc) and there is a wealth of information out there. Or I might search for "Egg free recipes" or "Dairy Free Recipes". Often I have found that people have multiple allergies and so the recipes also tend to be lacking a lot of the common food allergies so often you will find a recipe that works in many ways. Otherwise you might have to do some substituting.

  We have some friends that we like to have over every so often and between two of their children they have allergies to Eggs, Dairy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Coconut and Tomatoes. So cooking for them does cause me to need to do a little bit of thinking. The mom always tells me not to worry about the allergy foods and she can just bring something along for the kids that have issues but I don't want her to have to do that (though if the idea of specialty cooking stresses you out then maybe you would be wise to accept an offer like that).

   This last time I made Chicken and Noodles over mashed potatoes with veggies made without adding butter (I just caught myself on that one!). I made homemade noodles without eggs and the chicken gravy I made with just broth and no milk. I had to remember to mash the potatoes without milk or butter too. It is interesting how much you need to notice what sort of things you often just throw in without thinking about it.

   We also made cookies - most of them were chocolate chip but thankfully I checked and there was milk product in the chocolate chips so I left them out of some of the cookies and put in raisins instead. Here is the cookie recipe as it is a good one for several allergies and we just like it anyway. Maybe you will find it useful... (I usually triple the batch as it is pretty small)

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 cup sugar (you can substitute honey if you like)
1/4 t salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 t molasses
1 1/2 t vanilla
1/4 cup oil
1/3 chocolate chips (or raisins)

Stir together (dry ingredients first with this one) . Drop by spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven until done. (maybe 8-10 minutes?)

 Do you have any tips for dealing with food allergies when having company? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Oil Cleansing

I just thought I would share a quite update on our health goals. They have been going really quite well. I am pretty happy. Water drinking is up at our house and we continue to work on it. Charts have been super helpful for this. Tooth flossing has become a habit and from what I read that is a very good thing. I am wishing I would have worked on this with everyone sooner as we have had some expensive dentist visits lately. I made my tooth whitening toothpaste and am enjoying using it. I also have been working on doing oil pulling once again. I have been doing much better at getting to bed on time. Not always fun but I am working on that self-discipline. We have been stretching pretty regularly much to the kid's chagrin. Posture is still a work in progress but it is something that I have been remembering to think about and try to work on.

  My newest health activity is using an oil cleansing for my skin. I have always had a pretty low maintenance skin care plan. No make-up (something I just have no interest in or time for) and just simple face washing in the morning and shower at night. But lately my facial skin has been bothering me a bit (I guess maybe I feel like I am looking older and I struggle with that a little) and it is kind of pitted and not so smooth and there are some pores that look like they could be cleaned out better. I had head of Oil Cleansing and so I decided I would give it a try.

  Basically it is thoroughly massaging oils into your face and then washing it off again with a very steamy washcloth. This is supposed to be good for all skin types (you do adjust your type of oil) and causes those with oily skin to be less oily but also helps out dry skin. The oil is supposed to dissolve the dirty oils in your pores and then the hot water cleans them out.

Here is where you can go for more information:

Wellness Mama

Keeper of the Home

Balance Me Beautiful

I seem to be running behind on my posting this week. I had hoped to post about dealing with food allergies/sensitivities when being hospitable and then also I have a homeschool highlight planned about some fun books we found at the library. Hopefully I will find more time tomorrow! 

Why I Believe Jesus is the Son of God

This is one of those things that is foundational for everything else that I believe. In other words - very important!

Reason #1:  The Bible says it!

John 20:31 " But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

Hebrews 1:1-2 "In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe."

Hebrews 4:14-15 "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin."

John 3:16-18 " For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."

Matthew 3:17 "And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Reason #2: Jesus is the fulfillment of Prophecy
Here are a few examples...

Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times.”

The fulfillment is spoken of in Matthew chapter 2.

Jeremiah 31:15 "This is what the Lord says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”

The fulfillment is found in Matthew 2:17-18

Isaiah 61:1 "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,"

Fulfillment found in Luke chapter 4.

I would love to hear your thoughts or any verses you like on this subject! The Bible is very clear on the subject that Jesus is the Son of God - He was with God in the beginning and is equal to God. 

Helping my Dad in His Sawmill and Enjoying Lovely Weather

  We were able to work on various house projects this week. Here are some of the things that we have been doing....

On Thursday we made plans to over to my parents to help my Dad cut up some of the logs that we had needed to cut down on our property to make room for building the house. My Dad has a sawmill so we could make those logs into lumber to use.

  We are using these logs for making a mantelpiece for our fireplace, a built in desk for my office, bunk-beds for the kids and we may put some on the ceiling in our living room.

Dad did all the cutting and we moved and stack boards. We also helped to roll the log when necessary, fasten it in place and put new a new log on.

This was a big and heavy board. 2" x 12" but 16 feet. We will use sturdy ones like this for building furniture.

The one inch thick boards were so much lighter! This may be used for our living room ceiling.

  It was so much fun to see the logs turn into boards! We also made some posts for the bunk beds. All of these boards still need to do some drying and also will need to be planed and then sanded. Turning logs to lumber is a process but it is pretty neat!

Our outlet covers arrived! Ken had wanted knotty alder to match our doors and trim and so they had to be special ordered. The process took a couple of months but we have them now. Hooray! They did still need to be varnished so I worked on that yesterday and today. Now they are ready to put up.

Today was a very beautiful day. It is very warm for mid March and we are loving it. It is now time to get back outside and work on the siding. This weekend we are trying to finish up siding our detached garage. Hopefully we can get to working on the house soon.

 What did you do this weekend?

Being Hospitable Even if You Don't Feel Your Home is Very Nice

 We live in a brand new large home. It still isn't finished yet but it is already a place that is very comfortable to have company (though at the moment we do have a pretty muddy driveway which makes life interesting for our guests). We did design it with having company in mind. BUT... I have lived in various situations throughout my life and no matter what the current situation we can still find ways to be hospitable.

  I think one of the most common hesitations for having company that I have heard concerns their homes and feeling like they just aren't good enough. The thing is (as I talked about last week) the reason for having company is not to show off our homes. So you don't need to have your home to magazine standards in order to be able to invite guests and have a good time with them.

It really doesn't matter if your house is.....

• Small
• Undecorated
• Unfinished
• Chilly (tell guests to dress warmly)
• Cluttered
• Up many flights of stairs
• Not really a house but a garage (or a tent, or a camper, etc....)
• or whatever your issue may be....

Yes you may have to be hospitable in a way that works for you but where there is a will there is a way!

What if your house is small?

  Common sense might dictate that you don't have large dinner parties or host a dozen overnight guests but then maybe you just might be super creative and figure out how to make that work anyway!  But truly nothing says that to be hospitable you have to have over a lot of people at once. Having one or two is okay too.

 My brother Luke and his wife MollyBea used to live in a little bitty apartment. They did have 2 bedrooms but the rest of it was really small. If you stood in the middle of the kitchen I think you could touch everything else in that room. They had a little bitty eating spot with a little bitty table and room for 2 chairs (maybe they could fit 3 if they worked at it?) and their living room had room for a loveseat and chair. So, pretty small. But they still had company - and had it often. Mostly it wasn't large groups and I know having our family of 6 over was a cause for consideration before they did it but they made it work. They didn't let a little bitty apartment stop them from being hospitable.

So, if you have a small house you could....

• Have over small amounts of people at a time.
• Host people when the weather is warm and have them in your yard or even at a park.
• Figure out ways to utilize every inch of space in the house. I remember being impressed many years ago when I read an article about somebody with a tiny house that had a large party but they made it so they served appetizers in the kitchen, other stuff in the dining room, dessert in the bedroom, and so forth. Every inch of space was creatively used for entertaining.

What if you are embarrassed about your house?

This doesn't sound very nice to say but it is realistic. There are probably times that all of us have been embarrassed by the way our home looks. Maybe you are struggling to keep it clean. Maybe it isn't finished. Maybe all the decorating that has ever been done is taping your child's artwork up on the walls. You know what the issue is for you if that is something that you struggle with. With me at one time it was the issue of having white carpet that was never white - in fact it usually looked rather nasty.

 The first thing that we need to remember to do it to practice thank-fullness. God has blessed us with a home - it may not be as fancy as some others but it protects us from the elements and we are able to live there happily. Just spend some time thinking (maybe writing down) all the ways that you are thankful for your home. Being thank-ful can really help us to learn contentment.

   And then once more, let's remember that when we are hospitable it is for the purpose of sharing Christ's love - not to show off our homes. Some people are going to feel more comfortable in a modest home that is cluttered than they ever will in a magazine style home. God can use you in whatever situation you are in. 

 Another note on this subject - I have found having company a great motivator for cleaning and decluttering. So if that is something that you need to do - go ahead and invite some guests to come over some set time next week. Having that on your calender will be some great inspiration to do some cleaning, decluttering or even possibly decorating.

You can be hospitable in all kinds of situations!

 Growing up our family lived in a unfinished house. My parents were building it debt free and it was worked on as there was time and money and so that meant the process was pretty slow. That didn't stop my parents from having company. We had people over frequently, exchange students would come and live with us and nobody seemed to mind that we didn't have sheetrock on our ceilings (or even some of the walls at times), or that we had bumpy cement flooring, shelves instead of cupboards, bare bulb lights and so forth. In fact there were many people that loved coming to our house. If they could be hospitable - so can you.

This fall we had our own little experiences with unique situations for hospitality. Living in a garage without plumbing made hospitality interesting but not impossible. We still had friends over for lunch and birthday celebrations at our "house".

Then we moved into the basement of our house while the drywalling was still going on upstairs and dust loved to come filtering down. We were then dealing with getting all of our water out of the pressure tank. It was at this point our lovely elderly neighbors were about to head south for the winter and I really wanted to have them over first as our neighbor had asked if he could hear me play my violin. I will admit, I hesitated. I hadn't minded having family (my family and then Ken's parents staying with us for a week) but having somebody come that had never seen me in a normal home and here I would have them for a meal when I didn't even have a kitchen or a sink. But we invited them anyway. They gladly accepted and we had a lovely time. I cooked in a crockpot and with my little electric burner and they seemed to enjoy the lunch and then we left the dishes for later and went upstairs to our unfinished living room, lit a fire in the fireplace, sat around in our deck chairs and played some music. They seemed very appreciative and we had a lot of fun together. When they come back north I look forward to having them over to our finished home but I am glad we were able to share that time in our unfinished home too.

   Now there may be seasons in your life when hospitality will need to take a little break for a while. You may be dealing with some serious sickness or a disease and it just won't work for you. Or whatever the case may be. This fall we did have a little break time from hospitality when our lives were super busy and the garage was not just chilly but truly cold. We dressed in tons of layers but I just didn't feel like inviting others to come over at that time. But I knew that would be just a short season. 

  I hope that if this is something that you have struggled with that this post doesn't make you feel guilty but that it will encourage you to realize that others have done it - you can too!

  I would love to hear you comments on these thoughts about hospitality!

Feeling a Little Old Fashioned

 The other day I sat on the hearth (by the warm cozy fire) to mend socks and promptly felt quite old fashioned. The combination of mending socks and sitting on the hearth did it. It is rather fun to have an old fashioned thing like a hearth in our house.

Here are some other old fashioned things going on around here.....

Putting Megan's hair up with rags so she could have curls in the morning. She had been wanting curly hair but we haven't unpacked the curlers yet (and don't know where they are- probably at Ken's office) so she (having read stories about it) suggested rags. I failed to get an after picture (above shows her in the morning after sleeping on them but before we took them out) but she did have curls. I think my methods could improve but over all it was just fine. She said that it was much better for sleeping on than the curlers.

 Noodle making. Sometimes we just want some homemade noodles.

 Snowmen (this was our best one - made on the river). Snowmen are of course a thing of today but they were also very much a thing of the past. How fun that we can enjoy the same activity that they did 100 years ago.

Stacks of firewood. I think it looks so pretty. This needs to get all nice and dry for using this next winter.

 Have you had fun doing an old fashioned activities lately?