Canceling Christmas is Sinister
Please take 11 minutes and 47 seconds to watch Neil Oliver eloquently make the case for celebrating Christmas.
Go here for the video.
A Handmade, No-Spend Christmas
That’s my goal. We’ve been hit hard with car repairs and other expenses, as well as runaway inflation, so our plan is to either make all our presents by hand, trade, maybe use a few low-balance gift cards we have and just generally make this a different kind of Christmas. When I mentioned this to some of the family, I included that Dollar Tree gifts or gift baskets could be done, but I don’t expect to do them myself. It’s just an option if anyone wants to.
Josie, on her Cedar Creek Homestead youtube channel is talking this week about having a simpler Christmas. She tells a wonderful story about a Christmas during her childhood when all she wanted was a rocking chair, but knew there was no money for one and didn’t expect to get it. But out in the barn was an old rocker that had belonged to her grandpa. It was in rough shape.
But unbeknownst to Josie, her parents had plans for that chair. While she was at school during the day, her mother had been going out and sanding, repairing and staining the chair. On Christmas morning, there it was waiting for her. She was so surprised and pleased. Josie had a love for old things, so it was a double blessing.
This story reminds me of a couple of things. One was the story in Mark 14:3-9 about the woman who anointed Jesus with the ointment. She was criticized but He defended her saying “She hath done what she could.” What marvelous praise!
Another thing Josie’s story reminded me of was something my mother used to say: “It’s what you do with what you have that counts.” I’m not responsible for what’s impossible, but what I’m able to do.
My parents were a young married couple during World War II. This was before toys were mostly made from plastic, and metal was being used in the war effort, so new toys were scarce, and tricycles even scarcer. Daddy found a used one, and like Josie’s mother, cleaned it up and gave it a new coat of paint. And that was what my brother got for Christmas that year. Strangely enough, it was the start of his life long love of everything on wheels; everything from bicycles to motorcycles to race cars. I even saw him ride a unicycle once.
So, I plan on looking around at my assets and take stock of what I can do this December. I don’t have the talent of my sister to knit and crochet, or my friend Abby to bead or do paper engineering, but I can sew a little, bake and do a few other crafts.
Our home is full of books and magazines with projects and ideas.
One thing I tried this past year was making my own potpourri. We had a lot of oranges that needed to be used, but were past the eating stage. I sliced the nicest looking ones, put them on a cookie sheet and set it under our wood stove to dry them. I couldn’t believe how nicely that worked. For the others, I scooped out the pulp and dried the peels on the window sill on brown paper bags. Our back pasture is full of wildflowers, which my husband picked and brought to me later in the year, along with some berries (I have no idea what kind they are, and it didn’t matter since they weren’t for eating). After drying the flowers, I mixed it all together with the orange peel. No, it doesn’t smell as lovely as the store-bought kind, but essential oils or cinnamon oil can fix that.
I really like the chunky kind of potpourri, and was able to have some for free. True, it wasn’t nice enough to give for a gift, but it’s in the Making Do category.
I hope to do what I can, with what I have.
Filed under Christmas, Christmas, Crafts - Cheap, Free, Holidays, Making Do, Thrift, Thrift, Vicissitudes of Life, Wildflowers
Happy Columbus Day!
My goodness, I’m so thankful that in 1492, Christopher Columbus had the bravery to sail off into unknown, uncharted territory and that King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Spain funded it.
I’m also grateful that I went to school and learned history before the revisionists and haters took control of education.
Uvalde
This article says it better than I can. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/05/the_best_way_to_prevent_another_uvalde.html
Filed under Current Events, Texas
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
As a nod to the Irish, I’m posting a link to one of my favorite video channels, Hillbilly Kitchen and Becky’s demonstration of Irish Soda Bread. I haven’t tried this recipe but it looks good and fairly simple, so it’s on my list of things to do soon.
Filed under Baking, Food, Recipes, Saint Patrick's Day
What it’s all about
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Beagles and Us
When I was a little girl, my parents said I could have a dog of my own. Some neighbors had Beagles and that was what I wanted, but Daddy said no, that Beagles bark a lot. He was correct, they do, so I had to keep looking. I chose a Dachshund instead, which ate holes in all the blankets on my bed. My mother would’ve preferred the Beagle. After a couple of years, Mama couldn’t take anymore, so we gave Smokey to my friend, Judy.
I spent many dog-less years, filled with cats, until I took our older son to the animal shelter to choose a dog. To my delight, he chose a Beagle and he named him Hobbes (from Calvin and Hobbes). Hobbes was pre-digital cameras, so I don’t have a photo quickly accessible.
Then that son grew up, had a family and took his son to go get a dog. The son chose Petey.
I wish we had them longer, but the life expectancy for Beagles is only 10-12 years.
Now we have 2 sisters
I’m glad we have 2 now, and that they’re sisters. They love us and each other sincerely, but have 2 distinct personalities. Zelda is more confidant and adventurous. Sissy is a bit more reticent, but not about food. She’s really fond of food.
John Zmirak has written some very nice articles about his 2 rescue Beagles on The Stream. Here is one of them.
Understanding the Culture
I’m not the author of the following. It was written by someone with the username of John Wayne. It was so cogent and timely, that I asked him for permission to post it, which he gave.
[Cogent from Merriam-Webster: appealing forcibly to the mind or reason : convincing. pertinent, relevant.]
“It’s the last piece of the puzzle!
They destroyed out borders and our sovereignty…
They destroyed our credibility and standing in the world…
They destroyed our security by giving away our well guarded technology and taking orders from third world insurgents…
They destroyed our personal rights and our personal liberties under the guise of the lockdown hoax…
They destroyed our personal ownership of our own bodies with the totalitarian nazi “vaccine” mandates…
They destroyed our Constitutional Rights through censorship, fraudulent witch hunts, and political prisoners for peaceful protests…
They destroyed our neighborhoods and cities by inciting racial wars…
They destroyed our morality with normalization of perversions, murder and abuses of little children, drug abuse, and demonizing God…
They destroyed intelligence with schools teaching pseudo-science, faux social ideologies and ignoring true academics…
They destroyed our voice in the government through mass fraud and corruption…
Now, when they utterly destroy our economy, the can claim that only a totalitarian, oppressive, almighty marxism will be able to save us!”
For more, please watch William Federer’s speech Understanding the Culture, which was filmed at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Southern California. For the video, go here. Federer is the author of Socialism – The Real History from Plato to the Present: How the Deep State Capitalizes on Crises to Consolidate Control. Here is the link to purchase the book.
Filed under America, Current Events, History
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