Giving thanks to the Lord!

    Thanksgiving for us has always felt like the beginning of a very special part of the year. We celebrate Thanksgiving and then soon there after begins the season of Advent, ending with the celebration of Christmas. We are to always be thankful to God for everything in our lives, no matter the time of year, but I've always enjoyed the special emphasis of this time of the year. It is a time to reflect on everything God has blessed us with, both big and small--and--to remember that we did not and do not deserve any of it. And then to be thankful for the biggest gift: our salvation which was only brought about by our Saviour dying for our sins on the cross. This time of year is a time to celebrate and rejoice in that truth and to live out our thankfulness to God by blessing others. 

I love Psalm 118... In fact I have verse 24 painted in my kitchen! It is a long Psalm, but it tells with wonderful words of God's love for us. Listen to Ps. 118: 14-29:

"The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tent of the righteous: 'The right hand of the LORD does valiantly, the right hand of the LORD exalts, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!' I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us we pray, O LORD! O LORD we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD. The LORD is God, and He has made His light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! You are my God and I will give thanks to you. You are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the LORD for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!"

   In this Psalm the writer not only gives thanks to God for what he has done for him, but also for giving him a Savior who is Christ the Lord and for continuing to sanctify him and work in his heart. The psalmist says everything I want to with such beauty that I figured I'd just let him say it. :-) 

   We are incredibly thankful to God for everything--he has given us shelter, food, clothing, a steady income, and multiple other things that we do not need. He has blessed us with godly family--parents, grandparents, siblings--and godly friends and a church body that fears the Lord. He has given to us a beautiful daughter who is a joy and a delight to all. We thank Him every day for her--she is one of the greatest blessings in our life and we love her so much! But most of all our great and magnificent God loves us so much that He has given us the gift of eternal life through His son, Jesus Christ. This is the greatest blessing of all and we strive to live each day of our lives to the fullest with that knowledge!

   But just when we thought we were filled with blessings to the brim, he has seen fit to blessed us once again. We are so thankful to God for giving us the wonderful gift of another child to love and raise to His glory. Due next July, J Berkompas Baby Number Two will make his/her appearance to the world, Lord willing, and make our little family, a family of FOUR! We are so excited, thankful and full of joy! And we can't wait to meet this next little one--it seems like a while now, but the next 8 months will go by fast. He is SO good to us! So, stay tuned, the next year or so should be an adventure of it's own kind!

To God ALONE be thanks and glory!!!

I got a reader question!

I am totally flattered. :-D People get reader questions if they are famous bloggers... you know like Nancy Wilson or Jasmine Baucham. I, on the other hand, am not famous whatsoever, so you understand the excitement. 

This came from a sister of a friend of a brother in law (how's that for a confusing relationship??) Here's her question:

"I see that you're an excellent knitter! =) And I was wondering if you knew of any basic beanie hat patterns that a novice could do with the 40 in. string attached needles? I've knitted with the straight needles, I'm simply foreign to the ones with strings attached. =)

I hope you don't mind me asking, I simply find it difficult to find a good pattern now-adays. "

You are too nice--I've only been knitting for a few months, but I did find a few patterns. Knitting with circular needles is the same as knitting with straight ones--just ignore the cable string! Pretend it's not there. That what I had to do when I first started. Also, you can alway use circular needles that have a bigger cable than the pattern calls for. So if you have a 40 incher you can use it just fine. Here's a few of the beanie patterns that I thought were interesting or cute. I hope I've given you some ideas, Rebecca! 

First off there's always my Favorite Boyfriend Hat that I made for Jonathan (I've posted about it before), but it could with different colored yarn, be a hat for the ladies instead. :-) Here's the link. 

Next up, the Amber Hat. Go here for the pattern. 

The Koolhass pattern--very cute. Go here. 

The Zig Zag Beanie. Go here. 

The Foliage hat. Go here. 

Just a random blogger (like me!) posting her pattern--it's cute though. The Anne of Green Cables hat--go here. 

Same with this one. This Butterfly Beret isn't a beanie, but it was so pretty I had to post it. :-) Go here. 

Finally, yeah this Urbanista hat is on a guy, but it's cool enough that I'd wear it!! Go here. 

I think I  like pattern browsing as much as I like knitting... 

Oh, one more thing, since you said you're a novice, if these look too hard don't despair! Just pick one, take a deep breath and take it one stitch at a time. You will learn a lot more if you try something a little more challenging each time. It's the best way to learn. If you get stuck, find a REAL experienced knitter and pick their brain. :-) Or google it--that always works too!

Two new recipes

Tried and true! Cooked 'em tonight for dinner. I recently went out for shopping and lunch with some friends of mine, (this friend and this friend, in fact) and we had lunch at Olive Garden. I haven't eaten there in ages, but the breadsticks and soup were SO good that I had to make some tonight. :-)

The night before last I made Roast Sticky Chicken and made sure some meat was still left on the bones. I turned that chicken carcass into the New England Soup Factory's Sweet Potato Chicken Barley Soup with some Quick Soft Breadsticks on the side.  The soup was excellent! I made broth with the chicken carcass, half an onion and some fresh herbs and then followed the recipe. I didn't have parsnips, but I used a yellow potato instead and I used dried dill (a tsp) instead of fresh. But other than that I followed the recipe! As for the breadsticks, they weren't quite the same as the Olive Garden's, but they were still good. I didn't use all three tablespoons of brown sugar--it was too sweet with just two but that's just my opinion! Anyways, pretty quick and easy recipes. Give them a try! 

Train up a child....

I've been thinking again... :-)

It's not easy raising a child. It's easy having a child (well, except for that labor part); it's even fairly easy having a newborn. But then that perfect little cherub in the pink blanket decides one day that she is going to grow up--and then she decides she has a mind and a will of her own. Oh the nerve!  And then you really realize that we all are sinners from the moment of our conception. I won't deny it... Kaylee Bug was/is an almost perfect baby in many ways. Pretty easy going, happy most of the time. I don't think people believed me that she could be grumpy! But she's now 18 months (getting pretty close to two) and she definitely has a will of her own. 

One of her favorite words right now is "no", but she says it in such a sweet, winning way, it's almost hard sometimes discipline her for it! She not yet two, but I've been thinking a lot about the future and how we are going to turn such a little sinner into a grown-up faithful woman of God. It's somewhat daunting to think about. Not only because there's a lot to teach her, but also some of those lessons I know I will have to teach her, I  haven't even mastered yet. I think God uses our children to help quite a bit with our sanctification. :-) Think about it: I tell her "no" when she asks for something she doesn't need, and since she's 18 months old, she throws a fit or gets grumpy and sulks in the other room and I have to discipline her for that attitude. But, I do the same thing sometimes (okay a lot of the time!). I will need to teach her how to have a cheerful attitude,  how to have a humble heart, how to have a giving spirit, but I am still working on it myself! How do I teach her without being a hypocrite? I guess the answer is grace and humility. She will need to understand one day that I am far from perfect and I am just as much in need of a savior as she is. My sanctification is always an ongoing work in progress. 

As parents we MUST understand that our children are not our own. They have been given to us for a time, to raise in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They are His and His alone. We have been given the task of raising them to be men and women whose chief end and purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If this seems sometimes like an almost impossible task, we should always remember that not only has God promised us that if we follow His Word and commandments, He will be God to our children, grand-children and great-grand-children (and beyond for generations) but He has also given us a guide-book, if you will, for raising up those children in the Lord. Guess we just have to follow it, huh? :-) Easier said than done sometimes!

We should never ever write off our children, especially our firstborns, as children who will be "doomed" or messed up for sure since we have no idea what we are doing. We may not, but God does and He has told us how to raise those children. Sometimes I don't feel like I have a clue what I am doing, but I trust that if I follow His commands, he will bless me and my family. We should pray daily for our children and our children's hearts, like Job did (Job 1:5), pray that God will turn their hearts toward Him and that He would set straight their paths. And we should use the tool of discipline that He has given us with love--if we love our children, we will teach them with the rod what is right and what is wrong. As Proverbs 19: 18 says:

"Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death."

Remember the Lord disciplines those whom He loves--we have to do the same. He will always bless those who follow His commandments and His Word and that blessing will fall on our children. And that is such a comfort. They are blessing given to us, if only for a short time! 

"Hear O Israel, the LORD our God the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And these words I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write of them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Exodus 6: 4-9

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not turn from it" Proverbs 22:6

"Discipline your son and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart" Proverbs 29:17

"Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." Proverbs 13:24

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward." Psalm 127:3

Apples anyone?

The three of us had a great time a week ago with friends and family at WPC's annual Cider Day. Four huge containers of apples were graciously donated by a family at church , four presses were borrowed and lots of eager and willing hands made light, although wet, work. :-) When the day was done we had over 100 gallons of cider! We would have had more, but we ran out of containers. We brought 5 of those gallons of cider home, along with a garbage bag and a rubbermaid tote full of apples. We like apples, especially Jonathan, and I don't think he realized exactly how many apples there were! I've been working on them all week and am just over half done. It has been a week full of apples! 

Here's our cider in the freezer--this stuff is SO good, not to mention good FOR you as well. Nothing but pure squeezed apple! (sorry for the bad pics... these were taken on J's iphone. That's why everything looks burnt. It really wasn't!)

I have yet to conquer this... It was even fuller when I began!

Applesauce is a very time efficient way of processing apples. Fairly easy too if you've got an apple peeler/corer/slicer thingy. :-) 

The finished result: I added two more gallons to those four also. Just apples, water and spices. I don't normally add any sugar. 

Now the more creative ways of processing this fruit-- can't go wrong with apple crisp. I used the Test Kitchen Cookbook recipe (altered MY way of course :-)) 

Made and froze a dozen Apple Pie Muffins. 

I also tried my hand at Crockpot Apple Butter. This stuff is SO good on toast and I heard, from a source with very good taste, that it's great with havarti cheese as well! This picture was taken in the process of cooking the apples to death. And I mean to death--I think it was around 20 hours! Again, just apples and spices. :-)

This is my achievement today. Caramel Apple Spice Cake.... mmmmm... it looks so good! I did change a few things though. I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white, brown sugar/ rapadura sugar instead of white (I ran out!), I used half a cup of applesauce in place of oil, I used cranberry juice instead of apple juice, I added my own spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg) and made my own caramel sauce recipe for the topping. I don't know why I even use recipes--I never end up following them. This is for church tomorrow, so I hope it tastes as good as it looks! 

I also made two pies and froze them, but forgot to get pictures of those. They were probably the ugliest pies I've ever made, so it's probably a good thing. Don't want to ruin my pie making reputation! ;-)

So for the rest of my apples I have these recipes to try:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Awesome-Apple-Bread-647

http://www.recipezaar.com/Country-Apple-Squares-100988

http://www.recipezaar.com/Harvest-Pumpkin-Apple-Bread-73469

If you have a favorite apple recipe, please share! I can't let these apples get the better of me--I will win! 

He must be famous

This is kind of a funny thing.... Weird how you find memories in the most unlikely of places. 

Jonathan is getting back into duck hunting this season (he's gone out three times now) and when he's not out hunting, he's here looking up stuff ON hunting. He describes it as the Duck flu, aka H2HN virus (Have to Hunt Now). ;-) Anyway, he was looking up some stuff on the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge site and found this picture on a page about Youth Hunt day at the refuge:

Recognize anyone? 

They're famous--must be legends around here! They've got quite the haul too. Not bad for a bunch of little guys! And I love the paint (or is that mud??) on my husband's face. Whatever he puts his effort into, gets done with exuberance and top notch effort. I'm sure this season will be no different. Now I'll just have to figure out how to cook the thing once he does bring one home!

We are still here...

I thought I would post something here so our distant relatives don't think we've dropped off the face of the earth! We are alive, well and blessed. I've just been super busy with life, I haven't had time to post anything and we're camera-less at the moment, since Christopher needed his camera back for a week or so. :-) I promise that I will post pictures once we are able to borrow it again! 

For Kaylee news though, she did count to 2 this morning while putting on her shoes... Smart cookie. She even held up two fingers! At this rate she'll be reading by age three. ;-) 

Lest you all think I'm perfect...

... and I certainly hope that you do not!! I am sharing a picture of a most miserable knitting failure. While I am blessed to be able to pick up most "crafty" things without too much hardship, it certainly doesn't guarantee a perfect result every time! I was making this hat for a little boy at church who just turned one. I picked out the yarn (blue to match his eyes) and set about knitting a smaller version of the hat I made for Jonathan. However, when I finished, it wasn't long enough, so I had the idea of adding a trim in a different color and yarn. The trim worked well enough, but because the hat was a stretchy rib and the trim was a plain stockinette, I couldn't even get it on Kaylee's head! Jonathan tried to console me by saying that I could just give it away as a newborn gift, however I think it's a bit tall and skinny for that! 

So, if anyone knows of a little pin-headed baby boy who needs a warm hat, let me know 'cause I've got one for him!

And, just so you know, I started over and did finish one for little Steven and the end result was MUCH better!!! 

The decorating drags on...

I think I'm beginning to see decorating as a life long process... Little by little every other month, you know, that sort of thing! Time and money aren't always available for what I want to do, but in the long run, what *I* want to do doesn't really matter does it? :-) But still I like my house to look nice and cozy, so I'm plugging away at it when I can. 

My recent endeavor is a twiggy wall hanging. Not sure what else to call it?! Maybe a twig swag. At any rate, my husband says that I've brought wildlife and foliage into the house and hung it on the wall. But he's warming up to it! 

For this I cut a bunch of curly willow branches from my parents house and dried them. Then I arranged and bound them with chicken fence wire. I also added some red curly twigs, grasses and wheat that I spent too much on at Joann's. Ah well... I love the result though!

You'll have to excuse the messy living room.... Such is life. It does look a bit odd right now because I haven't hung any other pictures on the walls. I will get to that eventually. 

I'm working on one of two acrylic paintings to hang above the fireplace. This one's in progress. It's nice to get back into painting (I haven't painted for at least a year and a half), but it's hard! I think I've lost some "artsy-ness" by not practicing all the time! 

Two new recipes for all to try

I made both of these recipes tonight along with sides of steamed buttered cabbage and boiled beets. And all of it was really good! Even Kaylee thought so which is saying a lot. I love finding good recipes to use with chicken legs/thighs since they are much less expensive than chicken breasts. However, Jonathan and I aren't big dark meat people when it comes to chicken, so it has to be good! This one is easy to throw together (I marinated the legs for the afternoon and it really added to the flavor) and cheap to make. Try this out for yourself and see...

 http://www.recipezaar.com/Caramelized-Baked-Chicken-LegsWings-145038

It went very well with this recipe...

http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Garlic-Rice-71739

Jonathan really loves basmati rice, but I get tired of eating the same white rice all the time. This shakes things up a bit. :-)

Enjoy!

It's getting close to Christmas...

... and I got my Christmas gifts knitting project yarn from Elann.com in the mail yesterday!  I loved picking out the different yarn for different gifts. There's some really nice yarn in this pile that I can't wait to work with.  And no I'm not going to tell any details about what the yarn is for and for whom the gifts are intended! :-) 

Here's my almost finished pile of baby leg warmers to sell at the Ladybug bazaar this saturday. I'm frantically knitting my last pair as we speak!  I'm embroidering various things on them and I've still got that to do on most of them. The pair in the middle are finished. 

Now... back to knitting... 

Pumpkins and Reformation Day

Yesterday, our church had it's annual Reformation Day celebration and feast. It was a fun time with good food, great fellowship, singing, teaching, costumes and a great play. Since this year is the 500th anniversary of the reformer John Calvin, our Reformation Day had it's emphasis on this godly man. We had such a great time that I forgot to take pictures.... Oh well... :-) 

Today we went out to our local Joe's Place Farms and selected two pumpkins. You see, our neighborhood is really into decorations and we've gotten a more than a little tired of looking at and driving through all of them for a month. We are tired of our culture's obsession with and celebration of death. Luckly it's not the neighbor across from us that have two graphic zombies hanging from their tree... The evil, darkness and plain scary-ness is frankly disgusting and just too much. So we decided to add a little light...

This is my creation! I really wanted to carve four pumpkins with the words "CHRIST HAS CONQUERED DEATH!", but decided at the last minute it was too much work. There's always next year. :-) 

Jonathan's pumpkin turned out to not be a carving pumpkin, which is a little odd, but it was fine because he had fun smashing it to get to the seeds. 

Before being cooked--the pumpkin seeds. :-)

The end result is pretty yummy! 

Easy too: just mix the seeds with salt, butter, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Tada!