Homestead Happenings
Issue #79
November 2009

Happy November!!

Hard to believe November is here already and the time has come to start planning for the holidays! Life on our homestead has been busy. My son left for Manila in October to spend time with his fiancée and her family. Both my son and his wife-to-be will be coming home the beginning of December. We are all looking forward to the holidays with them both here and to begin planning their wedding!

Thanksgiving is a great time to stop and reflect on life and give the Lord thanks for all His goodness. This month’s article is on thankfulness. I also have included information on cooking turkey and using up those turkey leftovers as well as links to some of my favorite holiday recipes. Plus a few more goodies added as well.  I hope you enjoy this months newsletter!

Have a blessed holiday this month!

Remember the newsletter has graphics, pictures and various fonts. If you are not seeing them you need to go into your Yahoo account for this newsletter (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HomesteadHappenings/  ), click on “Edit Membership” and change the way you receive the newsletter. You don’t want to be on the “Daily Digest” setting. You want to click on “Individual Email”. If you don't see any graphics or pictures you may view the newsletter here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/newsletter.htm  

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NEED TO CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS? PLEASE NOTE: I am not able to change email addresses for you. There are so many ladies who receive this newsletter that I don’t have the time to be able to do this. If you need to change your email address you can go to the groups homepage (link above) and log in then click on “Edit Membership” and make your changes there.

Thank You! Crystal :)

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Thankfulness
By Crystal Miller



1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Dictionary definition of: thank
tr.v. thanked, thank•ing, thanks To express gratitude to; give thanks to: We thank God daily for His provisions


Thanksgiving is just around the corner. The thoughts going through the minds of my children and I have been a turkey dinner, making pumpkin pies, dinner rolls and sweet potatoes. We are all very excited. In all of this excitement I have not wanted to lose sight of why we celebrate this day. It is the desire to spend a day expressing our gratitude to God for his provisions in my life and His blessings.

I want to make sure my children understand the importance of this day. I want them to realize that each and every blessing they receive is from the Lord! I want to instill in them the need to be thankful on a daily basis even when this holiday has passed. I want them to learn the value of expressing gratitude.

I have been amazed at how much my attitude about my life and any difficulties I may be going through or discontentment I may be feeling can so dramatically change when I simply remember to stop and thank the Lord, no matter what.

Remember the Bible story where Christ healed 10 lepers and only one came back to thank Him? This story has made me stop and reassess myself and take a look at my life. Am I stopping and thanking or running ahead and moving on with my life? Often times, thankfulness is a concerted effort. Who can be thankful for things that don’t seem to help us at the moment? Or who stops to be thankful for all that we take for granted in our life?

Thankfulness of the heart will change your life. It can be a healing balm on situations that could be looked at with depression, gloom, hopelessness and discouragement. Looking at a situation and stopping and thanking God for it will result in surprising changes within you!

Instilling a thankful heart in ourselves is a work, but passing this onto our children is, for me, the motivation to press on! In light of my desire to always encourage my children to be thankful I have started a tradition with them at this time of year.

Each year I try and do something to give my family time to reflect on all we have to be thankful for. I like to start a few days to a couple of weeks ahead of time. We begin by reading books on the first Thanksgiving. Learning about the hardships that our forefathers went through is important. They set the example for us, especially when it comes to being thankful when life is difficult. Then we examine our own lives and I ask them to share what they are thankful for this year.

My favorite method of doing this has been to make Thankful Tree. I cut out large leaves in fall colors and I leave these leaves in a basket with a pen next to them. As the days before the holiday approach everyone takes the leaves and writes down something they are thankful for and attaches it to the tree branches. As the tree fills up with leaves we have them trailing down to the ground (the base of the tree) and some years we have had big piles of leaves around the base of the tree.

What has been the best part of this process is that at first everyone one is thankful for the basic things in their life. I am thankful for my mother, father, good food to eat and so on. This is good as it is recognition in their own minds of what God has provided so that they will not take things for granted. But as the day’s progress they ponder this topic in detail and then more thought out and meaningful blessings begin to appear on the tree. One child is thankful that someone showed him how to tie his shoes, or someone is thankful for a hard working father, or someone is thankful for trees that provide wood and warmth for our home, someone is thankful for a quiet life that gives them time to think. The list goes on and on. Thankfulness is often a searching of the heart and this takes thought and time.

Every year that I have done this my family and I have found that when we do finally sit down to that wonderful turkey dinner our hearts and minds are overfilling with thankfulness to God for all the ways, big and small that He has touched our life.

I have kept many of these leaves from year to year as well. It is enjoyable to read them and remember those years, what was happening in our life and the blessings we were experiencing that year. Even in bad years or years filled with sorrow or disappointment we find that we have much to be thankful for. God is good all the time, His love never ending and His provisions for our life complete in all we need and for this we “Give thanks in ALL things for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning me”.

I pray you all have a blessed Thanksgiving Day and that your hearts are filled to overflowing with thankfulness to HIM!

Crystal :)


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Visit Crystal's Country Store!

New eBook from The Family Homestead:

Freezer Cooking with Meal Starters:
The the Stress Out of a Busy Day by Being Prepared!

For more info: http://crystalscountrystore.com/freezercookingebook.htm

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In The Kitchen



This month the talk is all about turkey! First off do you need some info on how to roast a turkey? It may be your first time or you may just need a refresher because it has been a year since you roasted one!  Here is the info: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/howtoroastturkey.htm 

Now after Thanksgiving you may find yourself with a lot of leftover turkey and wondering what to do with it. Well maybe some of these ideas will help: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/turkeyleftovers.htm 

Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes
I cook very traditional foods for Thanksgiving. I don’t experiment a lot because my kids all have their favorite recipe that I make and would be heartbroken if I experimented and tried something new! ~smile~ So here are a few of my tired and true favorite foods that I make each year:

Mashed Potatoes: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/yummymashedpotatoes.htm
Sweet Potatoes: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/favoritesweetpotatoes.htm
24 Hour Fruit Salad: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/24hrfruitsalad.htm
Spiced Cranberries: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/spicedcranberries.htm
Hot Mulled Cider: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/mulledcider.htm
Holiday Eggnog: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/eggnog.htm 
Pumpkin Pie: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/pumpkinpie.htm 


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In The Home



Looking for an easy project to do with your children? How about making a Thankful Tree? http://thefamilyhomestead.com/makeathankfultree.htm 

Need an easy centerpiece for your dining room table for Thanksgiving? http://thefamilyhomestead.com/simplethanksgivingcenterpiece.htm

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Herbs and Family Health

With the cold and flu season upon us it is nice to have some simple herbal remedies to help in the event you get sick. Two herbs that are easy to use and easy to have on hand are ginger and slippery elm.

Ginger
The part of the plant that is used is the root. Ginger makes a good tea to drink when you have a cold as it helps with stuffed up noses. It is also known as a mild sedative and can help with fevers. Add a little ginger (and garlic) to your pot of chicken soup to help fight the common cold. Or make yourself up a cup of ginger tea; it is very easy to do using fresh ginger root. You can purchase ginger root in the grocery store.

Ginger Tea
Grate 2 T to 3T fresh ginger root. Add to 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cover and let this steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain and sweeten to taste with honey. If you are fighting the common cold add a slice or two of fresh lemon to the water too.

Or an alternative:
Use 1 teaspoon of ginger powder and add this to a large mug of hot boiling water. Let this steep for 5 or more minutes. Add honey to sweeten. You can add lemon juice to this tea if you would like.

Slippery Elm
The inner bark is used in this medicinal herb. My most common use for slippery elm when you have a cold is helping with sore throats. A tea made of this herb is very soothing for a sore throat. You can purchase the herbs through a health food store or from http://www.bulkherbstore.com/  or http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ .

Slippery Elm Tea
Take one teaspoon of the dried herb and put it in a small sauce pan. Pour one cup water over and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover with a tight fitting lid. Let this simmer for 20 minutes. It takes this amount of time because the herb is a bark and needs the extra simmering time to extract all its helpful properties. After the simmering time is up, strain the herb out and sweeten it with honey to taste.
 

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FYI

Have you ever thought you saw some article on my site but then find you can’t locate it again? Well, finally I now have a search page to help you out! Here it is: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/search.htm  You can find this link on the top of the main page of the site too.

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Facebook

The Family Homestead is now on Facebook!

Click Here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Family-Homestead/115582552812 

If the link is not working you can do a Facebook search for: "The Family Homestead" and will easily find it.

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That is all for November! I hope you all have a blessed month in your home!

You can Email Me: crystal@thefamilyhomestead.com 
My Website: The Family Homestead
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com 

My Store: Crystal’s Country Store
http://crystalscountrystore.com/index.htm 

Visit My Blog!
http://www.homesteadblogger.com/quiverfull 


Clipart by Lisa’s Country Clip Art: http://www.countryclipart.com/ and/or Graphic Garden: http://www.graphicgarden.com/ 
and Marchia's Graphic Garden: http://graphicgard.topcities.com/ 

Copyright: Crystal Miller, 2009 Please ask permission before using any of my articles other than for personal use!

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