Walking Therein

The 39th Homesteading Carnival: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM Edition

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

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My Mother turned 60 yesterday. Had I been up on this, I could have had it published for her birthday! Anyway, I have always been late on things like this. My Mom, on the other hand, would have sent a card out last week, scanned pictures, written a great tribute and posted it fifteen minutes early, because she always arrives fifteen minutes early!

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Good Health

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I am usually not too worried about my Mother in the way of her health, because, as far as I can remember, she has always been pretty healthy. In the past few years, though, she has been in the hospital, and it is very difficult being so many miles away with her sick.

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Life. Money. Development. presents Diet Tips for Preventing High Cholesterol Levels posted at Life. Money. Development..

My Mother sends me emails for healthy home remedies all the time! I was so thankful to get the email with recipes and remedies about Honey For What Ails You since we have all been out with influenza for weeks.

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Sewing

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My Mother never had time to sew. She was a working mom taking care of her family. She always got up early and went to the rat race and made a pretty good wage working at Kroger as a checker and as the department head. She was responsible for making out the schedule for all the checkers. Since I am a working at home Mom, I have time to sew, for which I am thankful.

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 Little girls love tea parties and they like to have things to play with as food for those parties. Laura William's 5 year old asked for PB&J sandwiches. See what she did to make her some in Sew Crafty Friday #1 AND Online Craft Club - Felt PB&J Sandwiches posted at Laura Williams' Musings.

Abi presents Dish Towel Bunny posted at lighter side.

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Gardening

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Because Mom worked, she also never had time to plant a garden. This is perhaps one of the things I wish we had done most. Now that I am a Mom, I can see the great value in the lessons learned by the hardwork and also the sowing seeds and cultivating and caring for the plants to reap an abundant harvest.

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Jennifer in OR presents Rouge-Bleu: A Newbie Vine Farmer in Provence posted at Diary of 1.

Tiffany Washko presents Now Is the Time to Pick a CSA posted at Natural Family Living Blog. I had no idea what a CSA is, so I had to go see. CSAs work when the farmers sell a portion or a share of their harvest to their neighbors. For a seasonal fee they get a box of fresh farm fruits and veggies every week. A very informative and important post!

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Mom's Cooking

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One thing that was not hindered by mom working outside the home was her cooking. My Mom is one of the best cooks I know. Though we did eat out when we had games to get to, Mom always made sure we had a hot meal for dinner. We usually sat all together at the table to eat and talked. Mom was a member of the Clean Your Plate Club too. My brother had a hard time with that one. He hated his veggies. There are some pretty funny stories about that.

I also remember making things like donuts and frying apple fritters. We loved to cook and bake when we were little. I am thankful we were encouraged to do that. It has gone a long way in my encouraging our children to cook and bake in our home. Mom and her friend, Dee, came up for a visit last year when Loolie was born, and they were delighted at the service and the delicious, nutritious meals the girls cooked while I was resting with a newborn.

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Belle presents her delicious crescent roll recipe in her post Homemade Cresent Rolls....YUM! posted at Born 100 Years to Soon.  

Karen Dowell presents Oatmeal Gingerbread (and a cure for dizziness) posted at Wiggly Wigglers.

Sister Brenda says that this gingerbread is so good, it a must make, as she presents Our home - Gingerbread recipe from( Diana Rattray) +picture posted at haflinger.

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Hard Work, Learning and Organization

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Mom had no problem having us do chores. I don't know that we had a strong work ethic (because we hated it so much!), but we were definitely not strangers to washing dishes, mowing the lawn, cleaning and dusting, taking care of the yard and taking out hte trash. We learned how to be organized and get our chores done.

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Robin Sampson presents The Single Most Productive Tool You Need to Stay Organized posted at Heart of Wisdom Blog.

Rachel of The Milk & Honey TeaHouse is excited that her first article is being published in the new online girls' magazine, Growing In Grace Online Magazine -- March Issue!

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The Good Olde Days

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I think my Mother drinks mostly water now. When I was growing up, though, she drank Tab. Ewwww! Do you remember Tab?? Then she moved onto Diet Coke. I was a Diet Pepsi drinker myself. Tab and Diet Coke left too much aftertaste.

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Read what Erica Burgan has to say about remembering how her mother saved money at the grocery store, and how is doing the same as she presents A Review of The Complete Tightwad Gazette posted at The Sojourner.

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Homemade Is Best

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I don't recall if Mom used cloth diapers or not. I seem to recall that she did, indeed, use them. I started out using them with Amanda. I did not have much support from my friends, tho, and I stopped using them shortly afterwards. We did decide with Isaac, baby number six, that we were going to use totally cloth diapers. This meant I had to learn a lot more about sewing, as I made all of them. I really do not see all the fuss about using cloth diapers. We do what we must. I realized that it would be so much better for the earth to use cloth, instead of burying more and more plastic diapers in a landfill. We have cloth-diapered 3 children in the past four years. Let's see.... at eight diapers a day for three children, let's say two and a half year's each.... that is 21,600 diapers we have *not* buried in a landfill. And, at about $7.00 a pop for thirty diapers, well, that's a huge savings!! We use organic cleaners, too, so we have learned a lot over the past four years!

We also have tried our hand at homemade soap, raising goats for milk and raising chickens for eggs. We have not gotten to kill any of them yet, but that is another story!

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Jeanette Fields presents a very nice picture essay of her dealings with the Attack of the ....... bobcat! as she shows us how to prepare a chicken to eat at The ol' homestead.

 N. & J. presents The Making of Homemade Soap Making posted at Bad Human! Don't take chemicals from strangers!.

Autumn Beck presents 6 Reasons Why Cloth Diapers Are Making a Comeback posted at All About Cloth Diapers.

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Being Grandma

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One thing I have regretted since not living near Mom is that our children have not gotten to go to Grandma's or have birthdays with Grandma. She has come up and visited each new baby, but not been here for the births or firsts that are so fun to experience. It is strange, tho, how well Isaac, the four-year-old, knows his Grandma. He has only seen her a handful of times, but misses her and talks about "his Grandma".

I remember spending Sundays with my Grandma. We went to church and out ot eat with her. My Grandmother died when I was about 12, and I am glad we had time Mom made that time for us to spend with her while she was with us.

Amanda, Jocelyn anf Rachel probably kow my mom the best, having lived near her when they were little. Mom also took some time the last time she was here to show Amanda a little about horse training. She also shipped her saddle all the way from New Mexico to Amanda.

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Amanda has some exciting news about her horses in A Praise and A Prayer! at The Daily Planet.

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The Value of Time and Faith

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I have not had the privilege of living near my Mother for the past ten years, and I miss her terribly. This being her 60th Birthday means we are both getting old! :) She is exactly twenty years older than I am, and I will be turning the big 4-0 later this year. I think it would be well-advised that we live much closer to each other for the next ten years. And, then, we will be old, so we may as well live closer for the rest of our lives, don't you think?

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Amanda of The Daily Planet brought up a very important nugget of Truth this week in There’s Got To Be More To Life.

Jocelyn of A Pondering Heart poses her thoughts on Keeping My Eyes On Jesus. These girls are a real tribute to their family.

So often people take the things they treasure the most for granted. Life has a way of offering us the opportunity to evaluate and review those things in our life that are important. Many times this occurs through a tragedy. Yet, many tragedies turn into amazing blessings, which help us to clearly understand our path in life. Learn how one woman turned the tragedy of her father's heart attack into the blessing of having the courage to live her dream as Patricia Twitchell presents Comfort Comes from Unexpected Places Read about the dream that has blessed so many others who have come to know her as The Teddy Bear Lady of Myrtle Creek, posted at Just Bears and Stuff.

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I hope you enjoyed The Homesteading Carnival and a little walk down memory lane to celebrate the Birthday of a very special person in my life. Happy Birthday, Mom!! God bless you and keep you and may we be close soon! I Love You!!
Blessings~

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

8:12 PM, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 .. Posted by MaidenInTraining

Happy Birthday Grandma!
I hope you had a wondrful birthday.
I love you!

Love
Hannie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!!

8:20 PM, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 .. Posted by rjdjohn316

Happy Birthday, Grandma! I wish I had been there to share it with you... Hope you had a wonderful and blessed day! If I had been down there, you would have had the best birthday cake ever! (You probably wouldn't want me to put your age on it though, haha!)
Happy Birthday again, Grandma! I hope we can see each other very soon!!!!! Love you!!!!
With Love,
Rachel :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

8:30 PM, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 .. Posted by Jocelyndixon

Are we saying how old you are? : ) I wish we coulda been there with you yesterday, but alas we could not (plus I was sick in bed).

Great job on the carnival mom.... : )

Love ya!
MJ

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!

8:46 PM, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 .. Posted by SuperAngel

I hope you had an amazing birthday! I so wish we could have spent it together, but maybe someday soon!
I love you and am thankful for you being my grandma! I know that the person I am today has to do with the grandma I grew up with!
Love you!
Amanda
http://superangelsblog.com

thanks

11:46 PM, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 .. Posted by Jennifer in OR

This carnival looks great, and Happy Birthday as well to your grandma!

Thank You

11:48 PM, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 .. Posted by Grandma Starr

Jacque Thank you so much for the wonderful tribute.
I am so proud of Matt, You, and all of my grandkids. I had a great day yesterday, but I know it would have been really great to spend it together. Thank you Hannie, Rachel, Jocelyn, and Amanda for your comments.
I love you all and am trusting God that we will all live much closer soon.
Grandma Starr

Happy bday Mom

2:22 AM, Thursday, March 6, 2008 .. Posted by Aunt Jen

Hey Mom.....I had a blast with you on your bday.....but I must admit.....if the dixon family had been there w/would've laughed and cried even more w/all the fun....I bet we woulda had to change our shoes ......Thanks Jac for the trip down memory lane I'm believing we'll spend many bdays and holidays and ...even good ol' regular days together very soon.......I miss you....ALL OF YOU.....still praying for the whole family....lots of love, Auntie Jen

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8:09 AM, Thursday, March 6, 2008 .. Posted by FoggyMountainFarm

Thank you for hosting this week!

Laura @ Laura Williams' Musings

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9:31 AM, Thursday, March 6, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Great carnival -hope your family is feeling better.
Blessings, Jeanette

A nice tribute to your mom.

9:43 AM, Thursday, March 6, 2008 .. Posted by mamatigerj

I, too, am living far away from my mom; she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about a month ago, so I am really feeling the pain of that separation just now.
It was nice to read your post and reflect on similar things.
Thank you.

Thank You!

7:57 PM, Friday, March 7, 2008 .. Posted by Belle

Thank you so much for adding me in your homestead carnival.
I thought this carnival was a really good one!
Thanks again!
Belle