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Ye Olde Thanksgiving Pictures

11/29/2013

Warning: If ye do not like either laughter nor pictures, do not waste thy tyme on this poste!!

The day set aside for thanks, November the 28th, was a joyful day. My fair sisters and I went a little, how shall I say, nutty, with the portrait session that morning. The following are the results. (If there seems to be an overabundance of pictures of me--it's probably because I don't have my own camera and I have two sisters who were both taking pictures. That is also the same reason there is a sort of "bouncing" back to a previous "set" of pictures.)

I wouldn't win any prizes for most authentic Pilgrim anywhere...

I look more like a cavalier's maid...

"Doesn't seem to bother her much."

"Bossy milk maid..."

I suawnee! I look like my Granddaddy! ("Suawnee" is one of his expressions.)

Better? ;)

She spotted us!

A classic case of a photographer being photographed...

I had something in my eye!

This one must have come off Katherine's camera...

I look rather quizzical...

Classic Abby...fighting. (She really is quite timid; but she wants us to think she's a tiger!)

I had the giggles...

SEE??

Sisters!

Sisters!!

How to take a picture of Racheal:

I've been famous my entire life for screwing up pictures...

Abby hiding behind the piano leg...

Secret aumusement

Oh, look! It's me again!

Oh, really?

Liberty Seamstress

I just like this one.

Heehee...

KT and Abby...

An artist to the core, Katherine adjusts Savannah's skirt to get a shot of her shoes...

Ah, here she is! Finally...

I guess that amused her... ;)

She really looked the most authentic. She just took her Reformation Day dress and used different accessories.

Katherine said I looked like a doll sitting down there on the floor...

Rubbing my eyes again...(notice my toes... :D)

Katherine getting set for the triple pictures...

Katherine looks like she did when she was about 12. :)

Savannah took one look at this one and said, "That's a Nate face!" (If you don't remember who Nate is, drop me a line and I'll explain. :D)

We are females afterall, so we had to have shoe pictures!

We betook ourselves to the Grandparent's apartment for dinner (in this case the mid-day meal). I ate too much, less because it was Thanksgiving (why is it traditional to eat too much??), than because I always fill myself overfull when gathered around with family (and/or friends). Don't know why...

Anyways, the food was grand--trukey, green beans, faux-taters (calliflower), olives, cranberry sauce, salad... :) Grandma made some oyster dressing (which I didn't eat for two reasons: 1) I can't have the bread and 2) I don't like oysters anyway) and some apple salad. I didn't eat any of that either because there was stuff in it I wasn't supposed to eat. Grandpa and Grandma had corn and sweet potatoes too. (I LOVE sweet potatoes, but they aren't a GAPS approved food. :( )

Don't know WHAT I was up too!! (And no, I do not generally hold my silverware like that!)

Grandpa love his corn!! He still eats it faster than I ever did even missing some of his teeth!

Later in the day, I was goofing around with my cap and joked that I was a Navy nurse (because I had on my Navy blue wool coat.)

Mum!

There is a story that goes with this apparently random picture of the ceiling fan. (In fact, it really IS a random picture...) I picked up someone's camera (Katherine's I believe) and while wildly geticulating about some crazy thing, I cliked the shutter. This very nicely balanced picture was the result! :D

The youngest of our coffee drinkers.

One of my favorite men!

Caught me goofing off again. (I really, really like those shirts...they are quite comfortable and the sleeves are completely practical.)

Katherine eating a food that matches her dress... ;)

Charming Savannah...

Ye Thanksgiving Feast! (After most of us had finished...)

The antique light fixture that illumines my grandparent's table.

Coffee

Savannah's turkey...

I believe this really was the best picture taken of Grandma--she's harder to photograph than I am!

They were both giggling... :)

Look alikes... (sorta)

Mama

Savannah "napping"....

...while I wash the dishes.

After a little while, Grandma and Mama went over to the local nursing home to visit Grandma's last remaining first cousin and bring her her traditional Thanksgiving turkey leg. From what I hear, Helen was delighted and they had a lovely visit.

While they were gone and Savannah and Katherine went to feed chickens and take some wood to the basement to feed the furance, Grandpa and I had a little interview session. I got some good stories, I think. I really intended it to be a bit more "interview-ish" but some places it's more like a conversation. :) I haven't taken the footage off my camera yet.

For my filmmaking friends--this is my set up. :) The mic only records in mono, but it is good quality. (Sennheiser is a good brand, I think.)

Here's hopin' that your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as mine was!!!

Racheal

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

11/28/2013

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There are so many things in life (EVERYTHING) that we have to be thankful for...I don't know about you, but personally, I take way too much way too glibbly and with ingratitude. Days like Thanksgiving (from a Biblical perspective and not the secular "family-get-together-and-pig-out" perspective [disclaimer: not that it isn't a joy to gather with family and eat good food; that just happens to be one of my favorite things to do...]) are helpful to remind us that we should be thankful for everything we have been blessed with. Even the "bad" stuff.

So...with that being said...what are some of the things I am grateful for this day?

A warm house (it's kinda chilly out of doors!), the smell of turkey cooking, my sister playing the piano in the other room, the fact that I didn't hurt the cat too badly when I turned around and stepped on her, the dishrack full of dishes I have washed already this morning, my grandparents in their cozy appartment (to which we shall retire for lunch/dinner), the ability to see, to hear, to smell, to taste (I love food), the fact that my Granddaddy is making some progress in his recovery from his hip replacement, the fact that he fell in the beginning so now we know he probably has Parkinson's, and so many other things. But most of all, that I have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, my King. That God Almighty ordained before the foundation of the world that I would be one of his children...poor, disobedient child that I am so very frequently. Praise God for His glorious grace!!

Oh, yes, I'm also very thankful for a sense of humor... :D

Racheal

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Wheee!!!!!!!!!!!!

11/26/2013

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I've been working on The Cow Cavalry again...and I only have two and a half pages of script left to rough edit!!!!!! I'm really excited!!!!

True, there is still a long(ish) way to go before the whole thing is locked, but once I have the rough edit down, from there on out, it's primarily tweaking. That is going to be time consuming and a lot of mathematical figuring, but at least I know how to do that now, thanks to the kind help of fellow-filmmaker and composer Bradley Jamrozik. I do not cease to be thankful for his explanation.

Anyway...that's been what I have been doing all day long. :)

Racheal

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Grandfathers

11/25/2013

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I don't think I mentioned it here, but Granddaddy fell last week and broke the 'head' off his left femur (if I heard correctly).

He had a hip-replacement surgery late Friday afternoon. They got him up today for the
first time since the surgery. Generally, they like to get the patients up within the first 24 hours of surgery, but he had an elevated heart rate they were a bit worried about and he was still sleeping off the anesthesia and the pain pills. (Pain pills containing codine are evil...) [Okay, so I don't really know which kind of pain medication they gave him, but still...]

This fall and broken hip was quite providential as it turns out (of course, everything is, but somethings are more noticeably so). It appears that Granddaddy may actually have Parkinson's. We would never have known that (or, I think, even suspected it) if this hadn't had happened. The symptoms that Daddy was talking about and Mom quickly looked up do sound rather like some of the things we had noticed about Granddaddy and his functionality.

Daddy says Granddaddy was quite clear this afternoon and was actually talking in full
sentences (he's not done that clearly in two years!) (Apparently one of the Parkinson symptoms is difficulty in expressing oneself.)

On a related note, the therapist who came in the afternoon was none other than my
therapist when I broke my wrist. It appears she is still saying nice things about me. :D ("I worked on your granddaughter Racheal."--to Granddaddy, who, according to Daddy replied, "She's a good girl." That's kinda special. :]) I guess being a stubborn turkey leaves good impression sometimes. ;P (Of course, by that point in my life, having been a "therapist" myself, I knew the importance of giving it everything you have and trying to make the therapist's job a pleasant one.)

Anyway, it was an encouraging update on Granddaddy.

We likewise got an encouraging update on Grandpa today. I went with Mom and Grandpa to the doctor today (I like the oncologist--he's nice and he treats Grandpa with respect instead of blowing him off 'cause he's an "old guy"--which at nearly 91, I guess you could say. :]) Grandpa's GIST cancer is apparently stable (yay!) The last CAT scan had shown what Dr. S thought was new growth, but this new one is more encouraging.

So...two encouraging reports about my two different (and totally different personalities!) Grandfathers.

Oh, and I got some more work done on The Cow Cavalry today. :)

Racheal

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Sola Scriptura

11/24/2013

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The Appendix to Chapter 2 of Authentic Christianity is on none other than that most important doctrine of "Sola Scriptura" (Latin for "Scriputre alone").

Remembering that this book is basically an exposition of the Westminster Larger Catechism and requires at least a rough idea of the history of the Westminster Assembly (read the introduction to the book), it is not surprising that Dr. Morecraft addresses the Roman Catholic view of Scripture.

He quotes Roman priest Henry Graham:

[The Scriptures] nowhere claim to state the whole of Christian truth, or to be a complete guide of salvation to anyone…the Church existed and did its work before they were written, and it would still have done so, even though they had never been written at all…and we may confidently assert that the very last place we should expect to find a complete summary of Christian doctrine is in the Epistles of the New Testament. (p. 208)

Along the same lines we read:

…both sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same devotion and reverence. (Vatican II, Dei Verbum, 9) (p. 209)

Clearly, the Roman position denies the sufficiency of Scripture, holding Church Tradition up as equal (or sometimes I think superior) to the Bible.

The Protestant Reformation (whose doctrines are clearly laid out in the Westminster Confession) went about refuting Rome's claim on truth. The entire first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith is quite clear as to what the Reformers believed concerning Scripture, but I'll only quote a small portion of it.

[I]t pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal Himself, and to declare that His will unto His Church; and afterwards, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and
comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing: which maketh the Holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God’s revealing His will unto His people being now ceased. (WCF, I, i)

The supreme judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture. (WCF, I, x)

Modern Romanists are still trying to refute the Reformation--by using the Sola Scriptura argument against us!

"The Protestant teaching that the Bible is the sole spiritual authority--sola Scriptura—is nowhere to be found in the Bible."

And

"Sola Scriptura contradicts the clear teaching of God’s Word that there exists, alongside Sacred Scripture, a divine Tradition and a Teaching Authority (the Magisterium of the Church) which must equally be heeded and without which
Scripture is inevitably misinterpreted." (p. 210 and 211)

Here, Dr. Morecraft takes a moment to clarify what exactly we mean by "Sola Scriptura".

We are not arguing that all truth, such as mathematics, physics, industrial science, etc., is to be found in the Bible.

Or that the Bible is the only form in which God’s truth has come to His people: “God…spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways” (Heb. 1:1).

Or that every verse in the Bible is equally clear to every reader. Some passages are less clear than others to be sure (e.g., Rev. 20).

Or that the church in its preaching-teaching office is not of great value and assistance to the people of God in understanding the Bible, for preachers and teachers are gifts of the ascended Christ “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:10–2).

Or that all extra-Biblical knowledge is unnecessary, like how to cook a meal or how to perform brain surgery.

Or that there is no need for textual and historical study of the Bible. Or that theology is merely a matter of proof-texting.

Or that Christian living was impossible before the invention of the printing press.

Or that God has failed to reveal Himself elsewhere, as in creation.

Or that we only study the Bible and never read theologians or early church fathers, as if we do not appreciate them. (p. 211)

Rather, when we say Sola Scriptura, we mean that it is:

It is our one and only source of truth about God and salvation, our only infallible rule of faith and practice. Everything that is necessary for salvation, for glorifying and enjoying God is taught in the Bible clear enough for the ordinary believer to understand it. This is the viewpoint of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. (p. 212)

Moses wrote down the law of God (the Word) in order to instruct future generations (see Deut. 31:9-13 and 32: 46-47). These two passages can have four principles derived from them. These four are as follows: 1) the Word was written down; 2) the people were commanded to read it for themselves; 3) in this written Word, the people would find "life in the fullest sense" (p. 213); and 4) no external institution was necessary to interpret the Word.

“God’s Law never directs the priests or the people to give equal reverence to some ecclesiastical or priestly tradition; instead, they are repeatedly pointed back to the clear revelation of God’s covenant.” (99. Douglas Jones, “Issue and Interchange,” Antithesis, 1:5 (September/ October 1990), 47.)

Furthermore, the Law itself explicitly forbids both the covenant people and the Levitical priests from adding another standard to God’s written revelation: “You shall not add to the Word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you” (Deut. 4:2). (p. 214)

So we see that not only does the Old Testament stand as God's Infallible Written Word to His people--to be read by all the people--but nothing is to be added to it as a standard for life.

Likewise, the New Testament contains a case for Sola Scriptura. There are four points brought forth in the New Testament: 1) the contrast between the wisdom of God versus the wisdom of man; 2) the relation of the Word of God to the traditions in Christ's teachings; 3) the nature of apostolic teaching; and 4) the necessity of inscripturation of the Word. We'll go into each of these with a little more depth.

First, the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man. Human wisdom is fallible and therefore insufficient as a foundation for any belief concerning God. (I Cor. 2:11)

In 1 Corinthians 2:5, Paul informs the Corinthian church, “your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Here he sets over against each other the power of God and the wisdom of man and says that our faith is not to stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. (p. 215)

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we speak, not
in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining Spirit-produced thoughts with Spirit-produced words.” I Cor. 2:12-13

The contrast comes out also in Colossians 2:8: “See to it that no one take you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” The exhortation here to the Colossian church is regarding the choice that
believers have before them: allow themselves to be enslaved to human, empty, deceptive philosophy that does not come from God or lead to God, which is found in the traditions of men, or be “firmly rooted and…built up in Christ,” by rooting themselves in the tradition that originated with Christ and is about Christ and through which Christ comes into a person’s life. (p. 216)

And so, the contrast cannot be any stronger or clearer: (1) The wisdom and power of God versus the foolish and impotent wisdom of men; (2) The words and ideas that originate with God versus the words and ideas that originate with men; (3) The tradition of Christ versus the tradition of men; (4) The divine authority of Christ versus the pseudo-authority of men; (5) The Word of God versus the word
of men. And the apostolic command to Christ’s church is that “your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God". (p. 217)

Secondly is the relation of the Word of God to traditions in the teaching of Jesus. Tradition is not of necessity a bad thing, but it most definitely is not on-par with the Scriptures!

The Pharisees added rabbinical traditions to the written Law-Word of God so as to protect that Word from misinterpretation. Jesus told them that rather than protecting the Law-Word of God they were “neglecting…nicely setting aside…invalidating the Word of God by your traditions which you have handed down.” They had emptied the Scripture of meaning and authority. Having placed their traditions alongside Scripture as the final authority for the people, they had in effect supplanted Scripture, lowering the prerogatives of Scripture and raising the value of traditions originating in human wisdom. (p. 217-218)

"But if the normal Biblical practice is to reject any secondary explications or traditions, then the burden is on the Roman Catholic apologist to prove that Christ now approves of secondary traditions. In short, the Roman Catholic apologist has the burden of demonstrating that God has now changed His normal practice and established an infallible and authoritative explicator of His Word." (102. Jones, “Issue and Interchange,” 48.) (p. 218)

The third point is the one which Dr. Morecraft spends the most time on: the nature of apostolic tradition. Crudely put, the oral apostolic tradition died at the same time the apostles did. The written apostolic tradition (i.e. the Gospels and Epistles) did not--it endures as the New Testament. The Roman Catholic claim of the progressive nature of apostolic tradition (i.e. popes et al.) is entirely contrary to Scripture and the apostles themselves!

Jesus commissioned certain men to act as His authorized representatives in the church and world, to speak for Him in His name. They are called apostles. An apostle of a person, in the ancient legal sense of the term, was viewed as that
person himself whom he represented in a court of law. The apostle’s words were legally received as the words of the one who commissioned him. Christ’s apostles
were His apostles in this sense. The apostles’ word was Christ’s word, and it was to be received as Christ’s word, and not merely the word of men. To receive their message was to receive Christ, and to reject their message was to reject the Christ who commissioned them. (p. 218-219)

Christ sent the Spirit who inspired the apostolic fathers--the "rock" that Christ built His Church upon.

Notice that Christ was not speaking to Peter alone [in Matthew 16] but to them, i.e., to all the apostles. And you in His question is plural, so that He was not asking Peter what he as an individual believed about Him, rather He was asking all the apostles what they thought of Him. And Peter answering for all the apostles said, “Thou art the Christ” (16:16). Then Jesus says to Peter, speaking to him as a representative of the apostles in whose behalf he had spoken, and not merely for himself: “Upon this rock I will build My church” (16:18). (p. 220)

As such, the apostles had authority as demonstrated here:

Paul’s exhortation to Timothy was: “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, the treasure [the good deposit] which has been
entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:13–4). What does this exhortation tell us about the nature of apostolic tradition? “The standard or pattern of sound words,” i.e., the revealed system of theology and ethics, is what Timothy received from the apostle Paul. Paul received this “deposit” of truth, “this treasure” of sound doctrine from
Christ and passed it on, or delivered it, to Timothy who in turn was to “retain” it, “guard” it and “preach” it to Christ’s church. (p. 221)

That “treasure-deposit” is to be the church’s one standard of faith and life, theology and ethics. (p. 222)

There is one deposit of truth that was, in the apostolic age, transmitted in two ways: through the spoken word and through the written word. The former passed when the apostles did. Now church recieves that single "deposit of truth" in one way--through the New Testament.

Why was the oral transmission of the apostolic traditions by the apostles as authoritative in the church in the New Testament as the inscripturated form of those traditions? Because those orally communicating those traditions had apostolic authority directly from Jesus, the revelation of the Father, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that authority bound the church to believe and obey what was contained in the treasure of sound doctrine. (p. 225)

The office of apostle is a non-continuing office (unlike what the Roman church teaches) for two reasons: 1) apostles had to have seen the resurrected Christ and 2) they had to have been personally called by Christ Himself.

The author of the epistle of Jude lived when the apostles were still alive and still transmitting the truth of God orally, and yet he could still urge his readers to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). He knew of a body of revealed truth, called “the Faith,” i.e., that which is to be believed because it is divinely revealed. He knows that this had been “once for all delivered” to the church of Christ. Therefore all claims to additional revelation—oral or written—were false claims. This “Faith” was accomplished and completed in the generation of the apostles. (p. 226)

The final point is that of the necessity of the inscripturation of the Word.

The Word of God that was originally delivered in oral form needed to be reduced to writing in order for the rest of God’s people to know the truth about Him and His
will for them down through their generations, so it could operate as an effective standard for faith and obedience, truth and life, theology and ethics. In written form it is an objective infallible standard to govern the church through all generations, to test the truth claims of prophets and teachers, for the establishment of the church in all ages, to guard against Satan, to give the assurance of salvation
against human opinion expressed by preachers or priests. (p. 228)

The written Word of God was also the standard for testing the preaching and teaching of the apostles’ oral instruction. Paul considered the Berean Christians more “noble-minded” than the Thessalonican Christians, “for they received the Word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things [the preaching of Paul and Silas] were so” (Acts 17:11). The point is that the apostles themselves appealed to an objective and written standard as the basis for what they taught, and they encouraged their hearers to compare what they taught with that written standard. (p. 230)

To round off a great afternoon of reading and note scribbling, comes the great Martin Luther himself, with a profound statement that can also evoke a chuckle...

Any teaching which does not square with Scripture is to be rejected even if it snows miracles every day. (117. Luther, quoted in John Armstrong, “The Authority of Scripture,” Sola Scriptura, 141) (p. 234)

Amen. Sola Scritpura!!

Racheal

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Faith and Duty to God

11/24/2013

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Westminster Larger Catechism Question 5: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

The section covering this question in Dr. Morecraft's Authentic Christianity is rather brief.

To put it concisely: an orthodox faith and an obedient life is the whole duty of man. (p. 204)

There are two principal teachings in Scripture, namely: what we are to believe about God, and the duties which God requires of us.

Of belief (or faith), Dr. Morecraft instructs us:

We are to believe whatever the Bible sets forth as true, and we are to believe nothing in point of faith but what the Bible teaches (Isa. 8:20), because it is the only book in the world of divine authority, and therefore the only book in the world
that is infallible in what it teaches about God. (p. 205)

Secondly,

It tells us what we OUGHT to do, what God wants us to do, what we are under a divine obligation to do. The Bible tells us what duty God requires of man. (p. 205)

The relationship between biblical faith in God and our duty to Him are closely tied.

Faith in God is the foundation of obedience to God. The things to be believed are set before the things to be practiced: “This is a trustworthy statement...that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds” (Titus 3:8). (p. 206)

There may be more later...I'll see how well my brain holds out with continued reading...

Racheal

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Saturday...

11/23/2013

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This felt rather like a normal Saturday. I was busy all day doing one thing or another (of course, I did sit at the computer a little too).

I started out with my first "job", post dishes of course, being the not too large ironing pile. To tell the truth, the only reason I tackled that job was because I was beginning to feel the pinch of most of my shirts being in the ironing pile. Since I wear primarily cotton button up shirts, if the ironing doesn't get done regularly (in Florida, Savannah and I were each ironing our own clothes), I start to notice a thinning choice-wise in the clothing department. I'm really having that issue since I didn't bring that many clothes with me, thinking I was going back, and I haven't collected too many more yet. I listened to Charlie Zham most of the time, even trying to sing along (believe me, that didn't sound too grand). That CD sure has gotten a work-out this past week and a half what with my sewing and all. :) I'm glad I went back and got my own CD at the Reformation Day Faire...

Lunch was the next thing in order (one of my three favorite meals); the usual dishes job followed on the heels of post-lunch coffee. Some of us sat around and bandied a little more on the script idea Mama had. Savannah is doing most of the work on it really, but I'm always game for throwing in an idea or two. I did a little more doll dress embellishing while she wrote and bounced things off me and got started weaving in the ends of my latest pair of socks. (They've been done for two weeks at least!)

I cleaned the back bathroom/laundry room and the mudroom. I really actually kind of like cleaning the bathroom for some strange reason. I got some of the rusty colored stuff (whatever it is) off the shower which made me happy. I don't ever remember having my wrists (primarily the right one) start to hurt as fast as it does now when scrubbing or putting a lot of concentrated pressure on it. I guess that must just be some remnant from breaking it...

The cat has been kind of ornery today...I heard her sharpening her claws on a chair in the other room and bounced up to go stop her. She took refuge under the sewing machine cabinet (which doesn't have a machine in it), so I reach under and hauled her out--in the processes, I got the inside of my leg clawed (by accident). Later in the day, she kept swatting at my feet from under a blanket that was thrown over a chair. That was kind of funny. :)

I went out twice today (once in the morning and once in the afternoon) to check the chicken's water since it's freezing weather. I need a pair of gloves...perhaps I ought to dig out those blue things from wherever I poked them. I took a pan of "slop" up the hill and dumped in in the garden and decided not to take the ashes up because my fingers and legs were so cold (just below the knee skirts really aren't the warmest when the wind is chilly and blowy).

I helped Mama peel beets and squash (both cooked) before vaccuming the den and kitchen. I had to clean the beater bar before I could vaccum though. That is one thing about a house full of long-haired women...you have to clean the beater bars and shower drains out a little more frequently than you might actually like to! :D I really don't mind either job, so it doesn't really bother me, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to use the vaccum cleaner more than two or three times before needing to take the thing apart again.

I am now looking forward to supper (another of my three favorite meals ;])...

Racheal

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Doll Dress Design

11/22/2013

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As you may already know, sewing has never been one of my favorite things to do. However, a couple of years ago, I found that I really, really enjoyed making doll dresses for Lady Libby (who, by the way, is currently running a sale).

The modicum of sewing skills I had have actually been expanded somewhat I think, due to the creative process of stitching these mini dresses. I have actually learned how to design on my own (to a small extent). One of the latest outfits I made is proof of that.

I decided that I wanted to make a flounced Civil War dress (if I had been thinking a little clearer, I would have made cap sleeves rather than long sleeves and made a ball gown). We don't have a pattern with flounces like I was thinking, so I scratched my head, thought, gritted my teeth, marked the fabric, and cut it. I started with three flounces, but I had to go back and cut a forth one later (I'm so glad there was extra fabric!) Anyway, I'm pleased as punch and proud as a peacock over my flouncy blue dress. I have a few pictures of it here--forgive the pins, I haven't done the hand-work yet.

It would look better without the pins still being in it and holding it weird...

I put the flounces on by putting the flounce upside down and right-sides together...then I ironed them down correctly once they were stitched on.

The dress is completely lined (minus the sleeves).

Something I have just started doing (it makes the quality better) is turning the lining under and stitching it around the arm holes.

A petticoat to make the skirt stand out even more. (It needs a ribbon in the waist.)

I had a great time putting this dress together though when I started out, I really wasn't sure what I was doing! :)

Racheal

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November's Fury

11/18/2013

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As a subtitle, I might add something along these lines: "And Pepper Relish"...

Anyway, I'll get around to the pepper relish when I get around to it. I'd like to first start with yesterday's storm. Of course, as I write, it's getting on towards suppertime and I'm kind of hungry, so if things just seem to come out of nowhere, or go nowhere, blame that.

When I got up yesterday (Sunday) morning, Mom was already looking at the weather trying to determine if she should stay home from church. (I was already planning on it since I've been sick with something since Friday [I'm practically better today].) She decided to stay home, so we all were home for the wind and rain and tornado threat which thankfully never materialized for us, although the town seven miles to the west of us got some damage (probably when we were in the basement).

Right before the weather actually hit us, we brought the grandparents up from their snug little apartment in the barn. I wheeled Grandpa up backwards (and later took him out the same way) because it's much easier to pull a wheelchair through river rock than it is to push it. We couldn't get Grandpa into the basement, so we eventually put him in the little hall nitch area outside of my parent's bedroom. Not, of course, that that would have really been safe if we'd had a direct hit to the house.

Some of us spent a large portion of the afternoon watching the live feed weather report on the television. I tell you, those folks do an outstanding job covering their viewing area with up-to-date information. They have non-stop coverage during any serious (tornado threatening) storm. There were up to four tornado warning going at any given time through the central part of the state.

I am very thankful we didn't get hit with anything more than some awesome wind and rain. The rain itself wasn't overly impressive (not if you compare it to the multiple downpours we had several times this past summer in Florida with a tropcial storm coming over us), but it was blowing practially straight off (90* angle ) from the house as soon as it hit. Some dead branches fell out of the trees, but that didn't hurt anything.

After it was over, we got a little "camera happy" as Savannah put it. Here are only some of the pictures:

The West...aren't those clouds amazing??

These were the trees that lost most of the dead wood...for the most part, it was just little piddly branches.

Don't you just love the red roof?

The clouds were continuing to hurry away to the north-east...

"I'm tryin' not to blow away here!!"

By the time we came in, my hair was in a worse state than that...

Sunset over the old corn-crib barn that my uncle pulled down with his Dodge diesel several years ago...

Katherine had just finished tying the coops down again...apparently the big one blew over during the storm. I guess she didn't have any problem rounding up the chickens...

Dunno what she was laughing at...me probably.

Savannah!

She said she tied the scarf on more to keep her hair down than because of the temperature. She's prone to what we affectionally call "Minny Mouse ears" when the wind blows. I think it's kinda cute myself. (No wonder, I get horns!!!)

"Grrr...ye olde wind...ye cain't knock me down!" (Heh...it nearly did.)

I just like this one...

Some said when they saw this picture: "You look so short!" (I guess my ears were getting a little cold?)

Um...what?? (I guess someplace along the line, I finally learned how to ham it up for the camera....)

I see this one and I think: "Come listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere..."

Aren't they just too cute???

Guess who's boot is who's... :)

Is this what you call an "Advanced Selfie"? :D

The chimney...duh, right?

Today, I tackled my first ever batch of pickle relish. Mom had made some earlier in the year and we all decided we liked it--so, Mum being busy with other things today, she asked me to take care of the box full of peppers that has been sitting in the garage for weeks. So I did.

First I washed them (I hate washing stuff up here because the water is so cold...so I turned on some hot with the cold and that kept my fingers from becoming ice-blocks). Then I cut them open and cleaned the seeds out and trimmed any rotten or moldy stuff away. I got done with this part just in time for lunch.

After lunch (dishes), I pulled down the food processor and chopped up the two dishpans full of peppers. When I got started I was thinking, "That pan [the big stock pot] is going to be way too big..." HA! My naivete was showing big time. I filled that large pot half-way up; but if I'd gone with the smaller pan (which I would have done if it hadn't had chicken stock in it), I would have had peppers spilling over by the time I got done with the first dishpan!

I put them on to cook and turned my attention to the onions. I peeled them, cut them into quarters, and pitched them into the food processor. I had tears running down my face and my nose was running by the time I got done with them. I decided that if anybody wanted to stop by all of a sudden, "now wouldn't be the most opportune time." Vain females...

Next I drained the pepper "mash" as it practically was by that point, then I added in the onions, and Mom measured (by eye) the vinegar and I dumped it in. Once that cooked for a little while, I poked it into jars, put the lids on and loaded the Conservo. They are still there, being processed.

Some of the peppers....

I declare, that pot is as big as I am!

I wasn't standing on my toes here, but if there had been more stuff in the pan, I would have to to get enough leverage to stir. :D (It's that a great spoon, by the way?)

Pepper Relish

See the small pan on the stove? That is what I would have used if it hadn't been full of chicken broth!

Isn't it pretty?

Busy day...

Racheal

P.S. By the time I got done with this post, we had eaten supper. :)

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90 Years Ago...

11/14/2013

2 Comments

90 years ago yesterday, a baby girl was born. That baby grew up during the depression, married in 1944 at the age of 21, and would eventually have four children--the youngest of whom is my mother.

90 years ago yesterday, Grandma was born. At the age of 6, she and her parents moved into the house I am currently seated in.

90 years...just think of all the things she has seen in her lifetime--the end of horse-drawn farm equipment...the evolution of airplanes from bi-planes to jumbo jets...ships from fossil-fuel power to nucluer...plus numerous other things.

Wow...

She has survived at least two heart-attacks; one I think, the year I was born. Even though she has slowed down and has pain in her leg a lot, she is still going pretty strong. One thing we've always said about Grandma...both her memory and constitution are like a steel trap!!

Something tickled her...and it wasn't me with the make-Grandma-giggle catchphrase either....

She was so pleased with her gift that she actually smiled for the pictures!! (This isn't necessarily the best picture of her ever, but you can tell she is smiling. :] )

I cracked some joke about Grandma having the fly-swatter in her lap...when I was little and being naughty, she'd swat me one of those things. They sting pretty serious just in case you've never been smacked with one...

Of course, we had to get Grandpa into the pictures. Unlike Grandma, he likes having his picture taken!

Grandpa and I hamming it up--it's just possible we might have been snorting over the accident we'd had that afternoon with a certain...um...well...perscription, shall I say?

Savannah and Grandma. Once Savannah and I dared to call her "Gram-crackers" since it was one of the things we associated with her. Needless to say, she wasn't pleased and we never did it again. :P

(To be entirely honest, I believe it was actually me that was brash enough to actually call her that to her face.)

Katherine and Grandma. Katherine was just born when the above mentioned incident took place (I think), so she doesn't have that memory. :D

Grandma and Meself...

And one more of my striking Grandpa and sister!! ;)

I'm very thankful to still have my Grandma...(and Grandpa!!)

Racheal

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Ye Olde Thanksgiving Pictures

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

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Grandfathers

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November's Fury

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90 Years Ago...

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The Middle Kid

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