Advent

O Lord, stir up your power and come!  Rescue us from sin and all evil by your holy protection.  Help us to prepare our hearts for your Son's new coming in grace this Christmas.  We ask this through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

Our Weekend

7 trees are up with 6 decorated.  4 are still in boxes waiting to be put up.

Rejoice & Give Thanks!

Thanksgiving blessings from our family to yours!

A Simple Feast

Our Thanksgiving Menu

Roast Turkey stuffed with root vegetables & fresh rosemary (local)

Butternut squash (local) Pilaf

Cornbread Crockpot Stuffing

Steamed Green Beans (local)

Sweet Potato (local) Casserole

Thanksgiving Table

Inspired by Thrifty Decor Chick, I transformed orange craft pumpkins found on clearance, into beautiful metallic pumpkins with a can of Rust-Oleum Burnished Copper spray paint. I finished the pumpkins off with monogram label tags printed on cardstock. These pumpkins are now ready for our Thanksgiving table!

Thanksgiving Holiday Market - November 23rd

A special Thanksgiving Holiday Market at the Midtown (North Hills) Farmers' Market.

Pastured pork maple sausage links (Mae Farm, Louisburg, NC)

a bag of Lettuce greens (Cedar Rock Farm, Castalia, NC)

2 dozen Pastured eggs (K. Edward Woodlief, Kittrell, NC purchased from Mae Farm)

Sweet Potatoes (R & V Farm)

Local Honey (The Pleasant Bee, Raleigh, NC)

Rainbow chard, fresh rosemary & cilantro (Piedmont BioFarm, Pittsboro, NC)

2 bunches of Kale & FREE radishes (thanks Rocky River Farm, Siler City, NC!)

Christmas Tree Lighting at North Hills

Market Day - November 14th

Local honey, 3lbs grass-fed & finished ground beef, 1lb ground, pastured pork sausage, 2 dozen pastured eggs, 1lb Carolina style pastured pork BBQ, 2 green bell peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes, kale, green beans, fresh rosemary & cilantro

Saturday marked the last day of the Midtown (North Hills) Farmer's Market for the year. Since May, our family has gone out every Saturday morning to partake of its local treasures. We've experienced the seasons like never before. And looked upon the faces of the people that grew our food. For me, the farmer's market has been more than just some trendy alternative to Whole Foods. It's evidence of God's provision. My own attempts at feeding our family organically-grown food from our backyard was anything but successful (unless you count an overabundance of fresh basil!). So I count it a blessing to have found such a wonderful place right in our community. To have people that care about providing responsibly grown, nourishing foods. That treat their animals ethically and allow them to roam and forage and eat in the way God intended. God bless those who fed my family during this market season. I can't wait for April!

Fall Decorating - White Craft Pumpkins

Monogrammed and polka-dot pumpkins on the dining room table

The creative juices have really been flowing lately around the house! I fell head over heels for the white craft pumpkins at Michael's. I think over the course of a few weeks, I bought all our store had! With some black craft paint, I created a monogram on a large pumpkin and polka dots on a smaller one. I did not free hand the letter or the dots if you're wondering! I made an M template using Microsoft Word and used a lid from a jar for the dots.

More pumpkins on the pine china cabinet my Daddy built

The first polka dot pumpkin was so cute (and easy!), I went back and bought a few more. I did two more polka dots and then branched out with a striped one for the china cabinet.

Damask design for pumpkin in foyer

Looking to move beyond stripes and dots, I turned to the internet for inspiration. I found this post from The Pleasures of Homemaking about decorating pumpkins with scrapbook stickers. Absolutely brilliant - and something I never would have thought of! Back to Michael's I went. I found the really cute crown Manuela used in her design, as well as a damask design similar to the textured wallpaper in our foyer.

More scrapbooking stickers on a pumpkin upstairs

I love being able to bring a little bit of the season into our home!

Market Day - November 7th

Since it was very cold out this morning (in the 30s!), we left the kids at home with my Mom, warmly in bed. My husband and I stopped at a few yard sales (my newest obsession) before making our way to the farmers market. Today we picked up a dozen pastured eggs, rainbow chard, a small bag of salad greens, 2 butternut squash, 3lb grass-fed & finished ground beef, pastured pork sausage links, pastured pork bacon & a few red potatoes.

Only one Saturday left for the Midtown (North Hills) Market!

Thinking Victory At Home

Last night, I found myself in a mood. My tired body would have rather been in bed reading. Instead I was in the kitchen, making pizza dough for the next day's dinner, chopping onions and green peppers and shredding mozzarella cheese. A million "to-do's" filled my head. My husband's upcoming surgery, workshops, a school conference, what would I make for breakfast, when would I find time to make BBQ sauce and yogurt, to work on next year's calendar for work. The kids were also being rowdy and kept hopping out of bed. It was just all too much!

But then it came to me, just as I spoke victory at work, I can also speak victory in my home. I could turn this mood around by looking at the positive. I'm so blessed to be in my kitchen making dinner for tomorrow. Some do not know where their next meal will come from. Some other mother, some where in this world is staring at bare cabinets and an empty fridge wondering how she's going to feed her babies. I'm so blessed!

I'm so blessed that God chose me to be the mother of these three children. Some woman out there would give anything just to have one child, but I've been blessed with three. Three healthy, vibrant kids. I'm so blessed!

From the widow's perspective, I'm so blessed to have my husband. And from the perspective of the daughter whose mother has passed on, I'm so blessed to still have my mother with me and in good health. I'm blessed to have our home, to have means to provide for our family and to have the physical ability to do all those things on my to do list.

I'M SO BLESSED!