Come and be Thankful

Markie took this lovely picture. The local paper published it on the front page!

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

I am always grateful for Grace's beautiful creations. I have my own floral designer!

All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

I think this was a younger girl's creation - learning from their big sister!

 For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day all offenses purge away,
Giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.

Rose has Grace's gift of creativity.

 

Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.

 This year more than any before it, as I read the words to this song I realize that they strike a chord in me that was not there prior to this past year - the most difficult 12 months of my life.

I have always loved the song, with the imagery and the spiritual truths expressed so beautifully. Always I have been thankful for the usual things. My family, my extended family, the precious body of Christ, food on our table, a roof over our head and a free country.

I didn't know how precious this list was until I risked the losing of some of it.

• Last year we moved from Florida to Missouri - away from my wonderful parents and my precious sister, Molly's family for the 1st time since we were married 24 years ago. Although we are confident that this is where the Lord wants us, the phrase "You don't know how good you have it until it's gone" rings so true. What sweet fellowship we had! I miss being "around the corner" from them, getting ice and popping in for a glass of sweet tea. I miss dropping by my mother's kitchen and knowing there would always be enough for us to stay for supper. I miss sitting at Sonny's together. I am thankful for those years but I am also thankful for the Lord's mercy in allowing us to build a wonderful relationship with my brother Jason and his family who live up here on 220 acres of family land along with us. I am thankful to my father for purchasing that land.

• Along with Molly, my sweet sister Katie and I made up the trio of sisters. We did everything together. All of our children were like brothers and sisters more than cousins, playing bluegrass music and jailbreak.I thought Katie and I would be together up here. I could bear leaving Molly because Katie was here. Katie and I were going to be together up here. But that is not the case.  It has all changed. Some of you know the details. I never realized how much a unit we were - 3 sisters. I miss them both so very much. I am thankful for the many memories we have and the relationships our children have built. I never thought it would change.

• We left a group of wonderful brethren in Florida. We had so many fun and uplifting get-togethers. Any excuse to get together would do! We miss those times. During our recent trip back to Florida, we had a get together. Seeing those familiar faces just brought such joy to my heart! All the kids said it was like "Old Times".We treasure those relationships and are so very thankful for the friends the Lord gave us. We are equally thankful that the Lord has providentially brought so many like-minded brethren into our lives in such a short amount of time. We could not have asked for a more supportive community of believers during our difficult time after Eddie's accident. How beautiful it was to watch the church of Jesus Christ step in and lift up our weak hands. Along with my parents and Eddie's brothers, these brethren have enabled us to move forward as a family. I am so thankful not only for the acts of love, but for the opportunity my children had to see the body of Christ in action.

• My precious husband has always been my rock. He is the most sturdy perseverant person I know. I took it for granted that he would always be invincible in his role of provider and protector. God allowed him to cut his hand a little over a year ago. He came within 1/4 inch of losing it. This affected him and our family more than I could have imagined. For a contractor and master carpenter, who has always worked with his hands, losing the use of one is devastating.I am thankful that the Lord saw fit to allow him to keep his hand by providing an excellent surgeon. I am thankful that his persevering spirit has led him to never quit. He has been innovative and determined to provide and protect his family as always.

• Food on the table...There have been lean times in our marriage, but during this time of transition after the accident, our family has truly realized the beauty of thanking God for our daily bread. He has been faithful and we have not "seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread."  Our precious children have just jumped in whether financially or in helping to grow our own food. They have learned skills that will help them all of their lives. The words to this song have been a reality in our lives. Watching the seasons and seeing so much true increase paints more vividly the picture for me. The Lord has blessed us abundantly. Our harvest is safely in before the winter storms begin. As we look at the food on our table, we remember the lean times the Lord brought us through when we learned many different ways to fix lentils!

• Creative solutions. What seems like evil, God means for good. How true that is in our case. God has taken us from having a self employed father who often took his son and sometimes took his daughters to jobs with him to having  true family based businesses where literally every member of the family is involved. Each member is able to work in their skill area. We are building together and Peter is free to begin building for his future as well. We are thankful for my father and mother for being very involved in this process - investing in many ways in order for our family to be successful in business.

• Our nation has been a nation of just laws based on the Sovereign lawgiver's gift to us, the Bible. Our laws are not based on Shariah law, Hindu law, or a code from some ancient civilization. They are based on English common law which is based on the Bible. How grateful I am to have been born into a country where for over 200 years, the Law has been King. In countries where instead, the King is Law, we find ever changing laws based upon the whim of the politician. Worse yet we find dictators with a lust for power who are subject to no one. In the United Stated of America the magistrates have been subject to the written law. This protection has granted her citizens much peace, freedom, and protection. As we are all aware, our country has increasingly become less free. More and more the law is either ignored by those in authority or interpreted in order to accomplish an ulterior motive. We won't know what we had until we lose it. I pray we don't lose it.

Well, this is a blog so I felt I should journal the lessons God has taught me in the last year or so.

 My heart is so full. None of us know what the future holds. May we delight in the love of God, the precious loved ones He surrounds us with, and the good gifts He grants us. May we truly be content with such things as we have and place value on things eternal.

--Beth
 

 Below are some pictures of our little homestead.

We certainly want the seed to fall on good soil!Pete and Eddie were the rota-tillers!

It's always so exciting to see new growth! Look at that hard worker, Rosie!

We tried non GMO field corn this year. It grew great!

Eddie's favorite! Almost all of our seeds used in the garden this year were heirlooms saved from previous years thanks to Sarah B.

I love walking out and finding treasures hidden under the leaves!

I never really liked cukes until we grew them. There is a huge difference in taste in my opinion. Sarah canned a good 65 quarts of pickles. Not sure how many are left since a certain person can eat a jar in one sitting :) They're under our bed so I guess we're kind of in charge of guarding them from midnight snackers!

Harvest time is so much fun! We still have lots of collard and turnip greens to harvest as well as lettuce spinach and even peppers. A friend told us about Wallo-waterers. They're great for extending the growing time on peppers and tomatoes!

Now doesn't he just look so happy?

Well, we ate it for one meal, but we prefer non-field corn for human consumption!

Yup - "The Father" was pretty happy!

We grew squash, among carrots, okra and other things. You know those zucchini jokes? Well, we lived them. We were just glad people at church didn't run away from the zucchini bestowing Dischers :)

And then there's the processing...

I would say we have at least 60 gallons of squash frozen as well as a number of quarts. Wanna come for supper? Guess what we're having?

Oh! We can't forget this gourd. What a specimen! Markie's our pumpkin grower.

We grew potatoes and onions this year. Not a huge harvest but the potatoes brought back memories for Eddie.

Our sweet potato harvest! Unfortunately when we pulled them up it was raining and we couldn't put them in the sun to cure. We had to leave for Florida 2 days later. We lost about 3/4 of them. But we've eaten a lot of them and after freezing the puree, there are still more than enough for sweet potato casserole today! Oh and there are plenty for dear Kitty (she hates them)!

And then there were the tomatoes.

"Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes
What'd life be without home grown tomatoes
There's only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and home grown tomatoes"

And more homegrown tomatoes!

How nice it was to bless others!

"If I could change this life I lead
You could call me Johnny Tomato Seed
I know what this country needs
It's home grown tomatoes in every yard you see."

At the end of the season we had 3 tables full of ripening tomatoes! The Lord blessed us with at least a 300 lbs harvest! Praise the Lord! We canned about 85 jars of tomato products.

We canned and froze about 20 gallons of green beans. Sarah figured out her pressure canner from the Powers! She even canned chicken and beef stock this year.

Oh. Did I mention squash?

3 very nice families allowed us to pick their pear trees. This was after one "haul". We canned about 90 qts of pear products, gave a bunch to friends and ate them to our hearts content.

We were also blessed to pick an apple tree. Because of the drought this year, they were not as abundant as last year. We got what the deer kindly left us :) Between these and buying 2nds locally, we were able to can about 15 quarts of apple sauce.

Our picking crew

Did I mention that we grow children around here too?

We have a few chickens. Most of them are in the freezer.

Kitty's sow had 10 piglets. We are raising out 2 for meat. Kitty is raising out one for her grandparents.

Our milk cow gave us a little heifer in May. We named her "Crescent". She will be a nice little milk cow in a couple of years. We love all the fresh milk! The girls make yogurt, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese and butter regularly and Sarah just tried hard cheese for the first time. We won't know for 6 months how it turns out though! I can quote you our famous line here. "Well, if it doesn't turn out, the pigs will be happy!" ha ha

This is "Little Guy" the Highland calf, standing with "Little Guy" Discher. He's a steer that we're thankful survived. He was born premature in July but is doing great!

This Highland calf was born in April. His mama takes great care of him and he's growing nicely. We do have beef in the freezer. Jason got a great deal on a steer last year and we went halves on it. The Lord has also blessed us with one "auto-kill" deer, so we have venison as well.

And we can't forget Rosie's rabbits.

 Or the horse

 May we wholesome grain and pure be.

Happy Thanksgiving to you, blessed friends.