dumplings and cookies

"We'll all have chicken 'n dumplings when she comes...."

( 4th stanza, She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountains, folk song)

Here in the south where I have always lived, I've noticed that most people have deep opinions, far and wide, about chicken and dumplings. Sometimes it has to do with the region one grew up in or how a grandma always made them. And it has been my experience that you either love chicken and dumplings or you can just leave them for others to enjoy.

Yet it is equally true that if I want to please my husband with a delicious comfort food all I have to do is put on a pot of chicken and dumplings and he is grinning from ear to ear. How can I resist that?

 My husband and I have had very distinct differences in how we've viewed dumplings in the past. He grew up with chicken pastry, a rolled-out flour dough cut into wide strips and placed into the cooking chicken stew. While I grew up with dumplings, little balls of sticky flour dropped down into the lightly boiling pot of chicken stew.  Through the years though I have successfully made a true dumpling lover out of him. 

                                      Simple Dumplings

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup milk

Mix all dry ingredients. Cut in the butter with pastry blender or fingers.

Add the milk. This dough is a bit sticky, you may want to have extra flour for you fingers as you drop the dough into the hot stew. I try to make them no bigger than a teaspoon because the baking powder causes them to expand to nice-sized dumplings.

I was at the cottage the other day to bake these cookies.

Instrumental Christmas music was playing on my iPhone, a Christmas pine-tree scented candle was burning and the cottage's oven baked these cookies to perfection. It was cozy and bright with the twinkly lights I'd placed across the kitchen shelves.

He became flesh and dwelt among us...

From Heav'n above to earth I come to bear good news to every home;

    Glad tidings of great joy I bring, Whereof I now will say and sing.

To you, this night is born a Child of Mary, chosen mother mild;

   This tender Child of lowly birth, Shall be the joy of all the earth.

'Tis Christ our God, who far on high Had heard your sad and bitter cry;

   Himself will your salvation be, Himself from sin will make you free.

These are the tokens ye shall mark, The swaddling clothes and manger dark;

   There shall ye find the young Child laid, By Whom the heav'ns and earth were made.

                                                                   ~ From Heaven Above to Earth I Come 

                                                                                    Martin Luther, 1531

Written for his five year old son, Hans, this Christmas carol was simply called by Luther, "a Christmas child's song concerning the child Jesus" and was sung in the Luther's home at their Christmas Eve festivities. 

I wrote the words as they were written on the sheet music. The tune sounds very familiar to Martin Luther's great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God".

I sit here on this bleak, though not quite winter day, and I listen to the excellent performance of Handel's Messiah performed by the Queens College of Oxford while addressing my Christmas cards. Chicken and dumplings were made in the mid morning hours and are keeping warm in the crockpot for tonight's supper. A candle of balsam pine glows and makes my house smell just like the evergreens of the forest.

advent beginnings

 God's infallible, inerrant Word will not allow us to trade the glory of the incomparable God for the glory of created things. Indeed, regarding Christmas, the Scriptures summon the world to come and behold a wondrous, glorious display of God's immeasurable love for the world. God revealed in His Word the Advent of his beloved Son-the incarnation of God in Christ who had come to dwell among us. This Immanuel, "God with us"(Matthew 1:23, ESV), broke into a sinful world-lost in dark depravity-that he might cast the saving light of redemption. This is the glory of Christmas

Recapturing the Glory of Christmas

                                           R. Albert Mohler,Jr.

This year I have already been gifted an Advent book that was on my list of things I would like for Christmas. 

In years past Advent was celebrated with my children in various ways with various resources, many times using the same ones year after year.  It was one of the highlights and favorite things to do as a family leading up to Christmas Day.

Last year was the first year I realized we were no longer doing anything special for Advent daily or even weekly. Something was missing and I was the one missing it the most.

Therefore, this book is recapturing a place of an Advent devotional in my daily schedule. I can now do this on my own or with my husband. Either way I want the worship and adoration of celebrating my Savior's birth to be lighted from within and from without.

Two years ago I did a few Christmas posts including some of the stanzas of Christmas carols that might not be as familiar. I truly enjoy reading and even singing the words of the carols so much I thought you might like it too. Once again I am recapturing some of these Christmas hymns. Let me know if you know these stanzas.

King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth he stood,

Lord of lords, in human vesture, in the body and the blood,

He will give to all the faithful his own self for heav'nly food.

                                  ~Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, 2nd stanza

                                           Liturgy of St. James Fifth Century

we give thanks

          The housewife who sets before her family on Thanksgiving Day        a  perfectly roasted goose(turkey), is an artist.

Willa Cather, 1927

Thanksgiving Eve and finally I am taking a break off my feet now to rest a spell until the next round of bustling begins in earnest, hopefully most of that being tomorrow morning. I must not give allowance for the preparations to become frenetic, therefore, I must make haste slowly...

I had made my lists days ahead of time and now I trustingly work my list. And I trying to engage my family's help whenever and wherever needed because I do need their help! 

We will have seventeen people coming together to give thanks in my dining room tomorrow afternoon and eat a traditional Thanksgiving meal, eleven adults and six children.

mMMMenuMenu:

Roasted Turkey

Dressing/Gravy

My dressing is not stuffed inside the turkey, but cooked as a separate dish. I do use the drippings from the turkey for the dressing and gravy.

Cranberry Sauce

This is made with fresh cranberries, oranges, coconut sugar and honey.

Roasted root vegetables(carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes,

 turnips and onions)

Macaroni and Cheese

Claire prepares this dish with gluten free noodles.

Green Beans

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

 Onions and butternut squash roasted in the oven and placed on a bed of green lettuce with the additions of dried cranberries, nuts, feta cheese and a vinaigrette that I must share the recipe here because it is simple to mix up and very delicious:

1/4 cup olive or avocado oil, I add a bit of both

2 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1-2 Tablespoons maple syrup

salt and pepper

Sourdough bread/rolls

For Dessivir:

Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream

Pear/apple crisp with vanilla ice cream

We certainly have much to be thankful Happy Thanksgiving

being my own guest

The weekend was approaching at an alarming rate, but then every weekend arrives faster than a speeding bullet in the grand scheme of daily living it seems. We were having guests coming to stay on Friday night at the Cottage and I especially wanted to stay there myself overnight to see what it was like to wake up in the cottage and to get an overall feel of just being there...in my PJ's...as a guest, so to speak.

The next morning I observed the morning sunlight's marmalade toast appearance as I poured my coffee into one of the cottage's mugs. I settled in the comfy cushioned rocker to read the Word and pray. 

The bed slept well, my husband did stay with me, and the queen mattress was comfortable. The propane gas heated the cottage quickly and warmly. The only thing we must get adjusted is the water pressure in the bathroom. When the hot water was turned on the pressure went down. My son says he has a solution to that issue and he will remedy that when he comes. I love easy solutions to problems. 

The dining room buffet glowing in the afternoon sunlight.

late october fun times

This is a neat birthday story.

 To call our firstborn a beloved son as well as a friend is a privilege we do not take lightly. We are greatly blessed. Witt called his father last week and said that for his 42nd birthday he wanted to come out and cut wood. An entire day with noisy hand-held men machines cutting huge pieces of fallen trees and splitting logs with his father. His wife, Claire, being the wonderful woman and wife that she is graciously gave him that gift. He arrived at our house around 7:45 where I had prepared a full breakfast before the morning's work began in earnest.He stayed through lunch until mid afternoon. I placed a lite candle amidst the apple crisp and vanilla ice cream and we delighted in this gift that he is to us.

I do not know who enjoyed this gift the most, my son or his father. 

Then it was time to celebrate my granddaughter, who shares the same birthdate with her father.  In a style befitting a fourteen year old  that is growing in loveliness daily as even her soul is reaching toward godliness and purity in glorifying the Lord, we dressed in some of our most tea appropriate attire and headed out to an afternoon tea. In years past I have attended many afternoon tea gatherings with friends at this wonderful hotel as well as sharing precious times with my daughters there too.

But this day it was all Breanna. 

I do not know who enjoyed it the most, Breanna or me.

The weekend was upon us before we knew it and Breanna's brother came to stay a few nights. On Sunday afternoon Ivy joined us with big plans for them to play together. At first my husband tells them not to get dirty sliding by down that hill.   But after a quick second thought of remembering what he would have done if given the opportunity when he was their ages...  enough said. They had so much fun laughing and playing together. Both of them were covered in the dry dusty dirt, it reminded you of the character of Pig-Pen in the Peanuts cartoon when your attempted to brush them off!

considering all things

Titus 2:1 exhorts us, believers, to speak those things which become sound doctrine. I personally believe those things are in all things. In this space of blog world that I am given I desire to be as the woman in Titus 2, to love and value the things the LORD loves and values pertaining to everything in life. I seldom mention world events though, of course, we are all affected by them, but today I want to share this podcast  for your consideration and I pray you will take the time to listen to it, especially if you are a believer and an American citizen. I have mentioned this podcast before and I find these ladies are serious in considering how they can teach women how to go to the scriptures, how we must learn to read the Bible wholly and in context, and  to study the Word carefully and prayfully.

This particular podcast is relevant and urgent for these times. Michelle and Amy do an excellent job in regard to solid Biblical understanding on this matter of a choice to vote for who our next leader will be. They are focused and balanced but not dogmatic. When it is all done and said we can all agree that God is Sovereign over all things.

elections-and-the-freedom-to-choose

Good Drop Cottage

Perhaps ladies you would like to know a bit more about the guest house we have been refurbishing. We bought it at an auction not knowing exactly what we would do with it. We still do not though we are now using it to serve us as a Guest House. My husband, son, and I stayed there during Charlotte's wedding since the female part of the wedding party was staying at our house for several days. We've also had the privilege of a few guests staying there and are hoping it to be a welcoming place for more guests in the future.  Before I get into a few photos showing our current progress I must first share why we call it  Good Drop Ridge because the naming of everything has a definite purpose. I have explained the ridge in a previous post, but Good Drop Cottage is a very special place too. During daily Bible reading times we may have our attention and focus drawn to certain verse as was the case with Good Drop Ridge. 

Psalm 65: 10-12 says,

"Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly; Thou settlest the furrows thereof; Thou makest it with showers: Thou blessest the springing thereof.

Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness: and Thy paths drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness; and the little hills rejoice on every side." (KJV)

Its beginnings.

Its middlings.

While I am showing this photo I must insert something very important about the kitchen floor.

If you go back and look at its beginning it had a 1980ish linoleum floor. I finally convinced my husband to remove it in order to have the original hardwood. One thing you must realize is that under linoleum of this time is a hard papery glue substance that is a booger to try to remove. We researched several methods and it was not looking promising...Until we discovered a simple and inexpensive way to remove it that was almost unbelievable.

You take old towels and saturate them with diet cola. Let it set overnight. The next morning you remove the towel and the gooey wipes right up without any scrapping or any fancy machine. It was amazing!

And a few photos of its endings, though we are still not completely finished.

Stayed tuned for the completed tour!

a variety of wrappings

 Autumn begins to be inferred

By millinery of the cloud

Or deeper color in the shawl

That wraps the everlasting hill.

                           ~Emily Dickinson

As I rode an hour's drive yesterday to do some necessaries in town, I beheld the initial "shawl" colors wrapping the trees alongside the road and I was greatly satisfied to see this predictable, yet not diminished, annual display of beautiful color. And even more importantly, I was truly thankful that I could be so totally satisfied in such an amazing pleasure that the Lord has given us at this time of year.

I have been occupied with harvesting a few things like the canning of pears and fermenting of peppers. Today I will go to the garden and snip some green leaves of turnips and kale to bring inside and gently cook, because fresh hardy greens are an autumn delight too in my home.

 I hope to put on my blog if not today at least by the weekend my entire blog reading list. I have enjoyed a recent jumpstart of some new homemaking type blogs and in the process a meeting new lady friends who blog.

On the sewing side, I finished the quilt that I made from my mother's nightgowns. The only part of this quilt that was not hand-sewn was the border, it was sewn on with my Janome machine. I do love any stitching done by needle, thread, thimble and my very own hands. Hand-quilting has a rhythm I especially find soothing. It now has a home on a twin bed I added to Charlotte's old bedroom for when the younger granddaughters  stay for the night.

The white-throated sparrow has returned from  the north to my neck of the woods and to hear its melodious song is pure magic. I sat outside yesterday as the late warm sunshine hued the scenery and I enjoyed it's song in the mighty oak tree.

praise Him all you people

Despite what is going on in our nation and the world His people will continue to worship Him.

"One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts." Psalm 145:4

 I thought you might be lifted up and encouraged by this video made this fall by the Worship Collective at the college Charlotte attends. She is the violinist who you see at the beginning...you glimpse her wedding ring :).

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one

Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise
Thou mine inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only first in my heart
High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art

High King of heaven, my victory won
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my vision, O ruler of all

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my vision, O ruler of all

the marvel of a grape harvest

I rounded the corner into the kitchen bright and early, but not too early as breakfast had been eaten and a load of clothes was already washing. That bucket of grapes was haunting me and the little fruit flies were beginning their flight, the aroma was too sweet even for them to resist.

It was a grape jelly making day.

I wish you were here to taste its sweet fruitiness on a buttermilk biscuit! 

I am also canning some of the juice from the five pounds of grapes I was given. I discovered how simple it was. 

 Basically, after making the juice from the grapes you heavily strain it. The juice is then heated to 190 degrees and poured into the canning jars to process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes. 

 I used purple Muscadine grapes. No extra sugar needed.

after dinner leisure reading

 Through the years I have read a wealth of books aloud to my children. Excellent literature read immediately after lunch and bedside before the lights were turned off when it was time to sleep. Then there were the evenings when we would read after dinner in the living room including my husband for family read alongs. I especially remembered the Little Britches books we read through with such anticipation every evening.

Missionary stories were also a favorite during family read alongs and famous Christian biographies had a place  to be read on Sundays at the table after eating Sunday dinner.

My husband and are are alone now and  last week we began  revisiting this pleasant leisure immediately after dinner clean-up. 

Darkness falls earlier now, but being outside on the porch is pleasing so with the  overhead twinkly lights and a lamp on a wicker table by my side we read several chapters a night. This book was written in 1947 by Mrs. Gordon H. Smith, an autobiography of her family's return to Indo-China  after WWII. We are learning about this country and its history too, Indo-China was the name for Vietnam then. I  found it interesting how the authoress used her husband's name. I like it.

home again

• Maybe that’s the best part of going away for a vacation
•  — coming home again.”             
• ~Madeleine L’Engle
• I went away from home for a few days. This time it was to the shore, or beach as we call it here in the south. This time it was with six precious friends, sisters in the Lord as we think of ourselves. 
• 
• Our days began early at sunrise.
• And would end beyond sunset.

 In between there was much talking and eating and walking the beach. Fun times to fellowship and make memories being together. We had quite a few other things we considered doing, some of those things we did actually do and others things we let simply slip away.

Some stayed the entire week while others, like me, left after a few days. 

I find the veracious quote above to border all of my comings and my goings, whatever my season of life.

interested in podcasts?

 On this last day of September I fervently desired to share several podcasts I enjoy listening to on a regular basis.  Some might be on a youtube platform, yet for the most part overall they are for listening to for enjoyment, for gaining insights and for being encouraged. I especially appreciate these godly women for the good content they bring forth with the added bonus of allowing me the opportunity to listen while I go about fulfilling my homemaking role in the home.

These are not listed in any manner of preferential order. 

Home Living

A Word Fitly Spoken

The Art of Home

Tea Time Tuesday

I will be out of town for most of the week and my computer will not travel with me. I look forward to returning and catching up with you all.

the grape harvest

"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, if it is only picking grapes and sorting laundry."

E.B.White

 

Our friend, the clock maker,  has a vineyard and today was the first day of the grape harvest. As I walked down the rows of grapevines that were heavy with ripe grapes, I inhaled the deliciously sweet and fruity smell of those grapes

Because of the damp and somewhat drizzly morning, I exited the vineyard rather wet, but my feet were more tired from my rubber boots than anything. I would walk to empty my little blue bucket into the larger containers that sat on the gator in the middle of the rows of vines. A few yellow jackets would fly around me, but other than that it was a source of joy to be there picking grapes.

 

Then I came home to sort the laundry I had begun earlier in the morning.

September tapestry

The work of Edmund Blair Leighton was brought to my attention once again and what a pleasure it is to observe his beautiful artwork. He was an English painter of the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This one is called September.

Enjoy! 

something lovely to look at, something lovely to listen to

"One can always find something lovely to look at or listen to."

                                                                   ~L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Windy Poplars

The sedum in the back garden was falling over with the weight of its heavily producing blooms. What a happy plant sedum is with its many clusters of little star-shaped flowers! I thought the color was perfectly contrasted against the 

cherry- wooded dining room table.

I found a podcast I wanted to share. I have enjoyed listening to this weekly podcast while I go about my homemaking duties,

The Art of Home.

helping with Miss Marion

This photo was taken back in the early spring.

Caregiving an elderly family member could possibly become a part of your life, and many times it comes unexpectedly.

I have a small blog I entitled Shadow Pearls for the seventeen months I was the prime caregiver for both of my parents. It was sometimes the best of times and sometimes the worst of times. And my attitude and trust in the Lord is what helped to make it something I can now look back on with the blessing it did give me and my family overall. It was not a worldly blessing at all, it was downright hard, yet the blessing received was deep, wide and rich because to care for those who need you, those who cared for you when you needed them, comes around to a full circle and you see the Lord's abundant grace and  never ending mercy. I was glad when I was doing it and I am even more glad now that I was able to do it then.

There is a family in my church that cares for his mother in their home. She has dementia. My heart knows what they are living day by day, evening by evening. It is such a privilege to give them a bit of time so they can at the least pretend life is "normal". I tell the daughter-in-law that while others have no framework to understand what they are doing, I do understand and it is a joy for me to come alongside them in little ways.

This past Saturday Miss Marion came to our home and my husband and I kept her all day so this family could go with their visiting daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter for a day of fun and adventure. I love her and she has paved a grove in my heart. 

philomath

                      

 a lover of learning  

This could also be entitled Homeschooling Yourself.

On Happy Homemakers Monday on the last Monday of August I explained I would give some details concerning my new learning plan, a self-imposed objective to extend my own personal learning. Homeschooling myself, so to speak. It is quite simple and while I am not a slave to this plan or the schedule, still I have always done better when I keep a rhythm to my days by having an intentional plan. I definitely did this when I homeschooled my children so it works for me now too.

 The plan is not in cement, it might change a bit depending on the season, yet without any sort of set schedule or plan, I do not believe I would have reasonable amounts of success to accomplishing my goals. 

 Some of these things were already in my daily life, but adding them to "the plan" lends a recorded purpose to my learning curve.

             Four main parts:

I. Literature Reading/Vocabulary

II. Geography/History/Science facts

III. Greek Study

IV. Scripture Memorization 

I. Literature/Vocabulary:

I already have a reading list, but by practicing any new vocabulary I've acquired from reading is necessary if I want to retain the meaning of these words, especially with the hopes of assimilating them into my daily vocabulary.  I allow myself to concentrate on three words weekly. I usually get these words from reading material. I will write sentences for each word and try to use them throughout the week.

II. Geography/History/Science:

This one is fun and my husband has joined me. It does require me to either make a weekly page of facts or information to learn and know or in a pinch I can open one of the several geography/history/science books we have in the library and begin reading and studying any information.  

III. Greek Study:

This is a subject that has been dangling around in the back of the closet for some time. When Charlotte was in middle school, we began a study of Greek with her and a friend using Koine Greek for Beginners.

 This involved learning the Greek alphabet then moving on to the grammar lessons. Since both students had already studied Latin it was much easier to advance in the grammar lessons. This study also included Greek vocabulary words to learn and decline.

  With great expectations of continuing with Greek, I ordered this curriculum of Greek study from Memoria Press. However, due to demands from other subjects for Charlotte  in high school we never and got around to any further formal Greek study. 

But I never lost the idea that I would open those books and  study Greek for myself in the future. What better time than the present? However, I needed a thorough review of basic Greek so I am back in Koine For Beginners once again. This week I am re-learning the Greek alphabet.  After the initial four letters, I add up to three new ones daily. This also includes writing the alphabet every day.

IV. Scripture Memorization 

Most of what I am memorizing presently is in Hebrews since I do lead a Precepts Bible study starting back this Friday. Scripture memorization takes quite a bit of work and persistence. But it is so worth the effort! I can not stress memorizing the Word of God enough. It certainly takes daily practice and review. I might not add but one new verse a week, but I continue with repetition until my brain seems to know it rather well, then the rest of the time is spent reviewing other chapters and verses.

A loose-leaf binder notebook holds all this homeschooling together so I can grab it easily. Usually, as of late summer  I am doing most of my homeschooling in the evening after dinner.

How are you being a philomath?