The 2nd day of Christmas

It is nights like these when homesteading is a bit of a struggle. It is cold outside and not just cold but bitter cold.  It is 8* but feels like -2* and someone needs to go out and feed the animals.  This morning to get to the animals we had to clear our paths.  It snowed all night  and the wind howled around the house just to make sure we knew it was going on.  Even though it is cold, once we get out to the barn we tend to stay a while with the animals and not just throw feed to them.  We let them know we are their for them, talk to them and make sure it is clean and warm in the barn.

Today it was work for me (someone wanted  off for the holiday to be with their family. I took their work day for St Stephen's Day - to help someone else. I know I would want someone to help me some day) while Dude went to family celebrations (he represents well).

The crockpot was set with Bean and Ham soup from a Taste of Home  recipe found  here  .

Being on the homestead we want to make sure we are using homegrown ingredients.

• Ham from a locally grown pig.
• Beans from a farm in northern Colorado and canned here in quart jars.
• Carrots, onions and garlic from our garden.
• Chicken broth from our hens, process and frozen.
• Spiked the whole thing from chilies we canned.

We came home to the house smelling wonderful and dinner ready to be eaten.

These cold days and nights we generally read or craft.  Our goal is to try and save money but homesteads require quite a bit of money to keep them running... buy a pig here, need more canning jars here and the big one this year will be putting up a barn and new flooring in the house. We are constantly remodeling.  

Tonight thank you notes needed to be written so I sat down and made them.  I saved pages from my day to day calendar most of the year, I also had  cutouts I did long ago, along with feathers I found or embellishments from here and there. A couple of friends were cleaning out their scrapbooking shelves this year and gave me things they may have thrown out.  Here are a few I came up with:

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  I want to say thank you for starting this journey with us and hope you enjoy our posts.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from all of us at Dis-l-do Homestead

Sunday before Christmas

The 4th Sunday of Advent ... to pause and listen.

I have been trying to slow down on Sundays and make it more about faith and God. Well, I must admit it is difficult for me.
Started the day making juice for Dude and I.  We are trying to get healthy hoping it is the old adage of "it is never too late" is actually true. hmmm
Then we cut up carrots to pickle later but we got to playing with the odd formed carrots. 

Then it was off to mass and the children's program. The message was be open to the "yes". By the grace of God let the Holy Spirit come into your life. Listen and let the Word of God come into your heart. Allow God to change your thoughts and actions.

Hmm... doesn't all that require slowing down?  I think will I EVER make it? Who knows but I will continue to try.

The children's program was adorable.

Because, I also feel Sundays should be about family and honoring those who know a little bit more than us, I went to the city to see my mom. Her house is home.  It is love.  My mom is in her eighties but she continues to be young at heart and it is contagious. But again, I was in a hurry and could only stay a few moments. It began to rain mix with snow and I needed to get on the highway before it got bad.  I dropped off a bag of goodies for her and again, rushed off... what wisdom or a bit of Irish common sense goodness did I gain hurrying off ? But even in her presence I gained in her smile and gratefulness that just by stopping by we connected, we are family, love and  she understood the "busy -ness" of life.

I got home and realized I have not finished my cards.  I do that, start a lot of things but don't finish them. So I sat down and made plus FINISHED my Christmas cards.  I did have help from a certain cat.

I was thankful Dude made dinner.

I am still working on slowing my Sundays down and be more like our cat, Lou Grant.  He gets it. All week long he hunts mice, rabbits, teases the dog and watches over the goats but on certain days... he is just Lou.

I want to be more like Lou.  To just relax and BE.  To just allow God to seep into our lives, to be an instrument of love and beauty (that a simple purr means all is right in the world) of all that is around me but then I realize, in a way, I am... Yes, I need to slow down and  breathe in the presence of God more.  To realize the important things in life aren't things but love for each other , to honor our ancestors and elders, to laugh and be with family in whatever form it presents itself to us. 

...and I thank God I have another day to try again.

~Peace~