My Favorite Finds



The back of Old South Church in Windsor, VT as seen from the church grave yard.

For Your Soul~
Jeanne Damoff:  From Brokeness to Beauty  "And so I pick up my little triangle and my little stick, and I wait. I watch the Conductor and follow the music. I marvel as the violin coaxes heartbreaking beauty from only four strings. I tremble as the trumpets shout and the cymbals clash. I weep as the cello mourns. I listen, and I let the music thrill my soul — this glorious chorus of God’s design in human history — and all the while I watch Him, count the measures, and I wait." ... "Are you telling your story?"  My grandmother told her story well; she didn't let an opportunity to use it to God's glory slip away.  I'm not as good about it.

For Your Wallet~
Homestead Revival:  Frugality. This is a great post.  I love this blog.  She doesn't update regularly anymore because she feels she needs to devote more focused attention to her homestead, but it's so rich with good information from years past, that I still visit it often.


For Your Health~
Delicioius Obsessions:  The MANY uses for coconut oil... whoa!  It's so good for you; inside and out.  So far, I personally use it for moisturizing my skin (face, included), oil pulling, frying (such as eggs), chocolate-making (more on that later), and we even gave a spoonful (which I had solidified into 2-teaspoon tabs) to BooBoo when he had a dry, hacking cough.  It worked like a charm at relieving the tickle in his throat (Joe held it while he licked it, otherwise he would have just gobbled it up and a 2-teaspoon tab of oil melting in his tummy would have done no good for his throat!).  There's another list at One Good Thing with good reference links at the bottom.


Just Raising Awareness~
Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund:  A Michigan pig farmer is being bullied by the American government. Why must they control everything?  Is the small-time farmer really such a threat?  "Time is running out as government agencies and corporate influence close in on small fresh farms, unbeknownst to a vast sleeping public."  Pass it on... Baker Green Acres Farms needs help. I recommend taking the time to watch the video in the article.

Morningland Dairy:  After a two-year battle, the State of Missouri shut down an independent, family cheese maker without proper testing or sufficient proof of improper handling or poor quality product.  "If you are fed up, as are we, with power-hungry bureaucrats who are making every effort to deny us the right to choose what we feed our families and to destroy small family farms, then please stand with us in this fight."  So very sad. 

Joel Salatin, Farmer/Owner of Polyface Farms

Getting Crafty~
Sew, Mama, Sew:  The Wonky Star tutorial (quilting).  If you feel like getting out the needle and thread, this looks like a fun project.  Make one square, it can be a pillow; make four of them, a baby quilt; get ambitious and make sixteen squares for a full-size quilt.  If you're like me, you might be tempted to reduce the one square down a bit... to about a fourth of the size, and call it a mug rug!


In the Kitchen (and for the Super Bowl)~
The Mommypotomus:   This contains a long list of guilt-free Super Bowl-food recipes.









Happy Football-watching!!