Life is fun!

Some kids, somehow, in the middle of the night, were able to change the "Warning Construction ahead" message and replaced the traffic warning with another "warning". This photo is old, but I just found it in my downloads.

My friend, Ian, took this photo very early in the morning on his way to work.

This morning during "Morning Prayer" I read Genesis 15:1-6

I read the words, "...do not fear, Abram!  I am your shield; I will make your reward great."

Was this a one time promise specific to Abram, or is it for "all time and everyone"?

Could we put our names in place of "Abram"? 

I love that we are not to fear and the fact that the Lord IS OUR SHIELD and the thought of heaven as our reward...

Covering our light?

Today's Gospel (1/26/2017) 

MK 4:21-25

 The thoughts I have been pondering and reflecting is from today's Gospel reading, "..there is nothing hidden... except to be made visible;"

NOTHING HIDDEN, I am not hidden, you are not hidden, my thoughts and your thoughts are not hidden, my works  and your works, faith, family, worries, prayers....NOTHING is HIDDEN...

He also told them, "Take care what you hear..  Also the word "hear" is said 3 times in this short passage, "ears to hear ought to hear."He also told them, "Take care what you hear."  

I have a lot to ponder!

MK 4:21-25

Jesus said to his disciples,
"Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket
or under a bed,
and not to be placed on a lampstand?
For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; 
nothing is secret except to come to light.
Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear."
He also told them, "Take care what you hear.
The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, 
and still more will be given to you.
To the one who has, more will be given; 
from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

Trust

Have you ever felt like your hopes and dreams are "nothing" to others and to God, that they will

 will never ever be real?

Have you ever felt weary and tired...you have had these hopes and dreams for years and prayed, and prayed, but there fulfillment it not near, and may never happen? And are you tired of the effort everyday life brings?

These are currently my tormenting emotions and thoughts, but it boils down to trust in God does it not?

Do I trust Him with every aspect of my life? Do I trust Him with my hopes, dreams, family worries, marriage, job, money worries, failures, future, ETC.?

Do I trust Him when I realize what I hope and dream for may never happen?  

Not right now, today, at this moment..... but I will........

I MUST!

You MUST!

We MUST!

Proverbs 3:5

Psalm 22:4 – 5: In thee our fathers trusted; they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. To thee they cried, and were saved; in thee they trusted, and were not disappointed.

Isaiah 12:2: "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,  and he has become my salvation."

Wisdom 3:9: Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his elect, and he watches over his holy ones.

Sirach 2:6,8,10,13: Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him.  You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will not fail; Consider the ancient generations and see: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame?  Or who ever persevered in the fear of the Lord and was forsaken? Or who ever called upon him and was overlooked?   Woe to the faint heart, for it has no trust! Therefore it will not be sheltered.

Sirach 11:21: Do not wonder at the works of a sinner, but trust in the Lord and keep at your toil; for it is easy in the sight of the Lord to enrich a poor man quickly and suddenly.

Romans 4:5: And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.

Jeremiah 29:11:"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Proverbs 16:9: "A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

Proverbs 1:33: "But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil."

Proverbs 3:5: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." 

Write one or all of these, (there are many more positive Scripture verses, just look on the Internet) on a piece of paper and read them every day, several times a day.  I will try too!

Thoughts on today's reading

Thoughts and prayers base on today’s (Sunday the 15th of January 2017) Mass readings:

Psalm 40:2, 4,7-8,8-9,10 and   Corinthians 1:1-3

Prayer:

Father, please put a new song in my mouth, grant me ears open to obedience, help me Holy Spirit to earnestly pray: to do your will, O God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart. I do want to not restrain my lips out out of embarrassment, or shyness. Help me to remember that I have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere: To those who accepted Him.

Amen

The three words that I have been pondering are from the Gospel according to St. John 1:29-34

“ …..Jesus coming toward…….”

Can you see Jesus coming toward you?     He is! 

Every moment of our lives.

He has His hand outstretched to you and me….what do we do?

This is from Stacy, a friend who has a deep love for the Mass.....

This video uses parts of the movie The Passion to follow along with the Mass.  It's difficult to watch, but it is the cause of our hope and joy for salvation.  

Please share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZurFnbV_2U&feature=youtu.be

 

Maine Catholic Womens Conference

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised."

Proverbs 31:30

I plan on attending this conference, I hope to see you there.

Catholic Women's Conference

Registration opens March 6th and closes April 20th!

 

The Sixth Annual
Catholic Women's Conference

Saturday, April 29, 2017
Holiday Inn By the Bay, Portland

8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Stay tuned for registration information!
 

Join us April 29, 2017, for the Sixth Annual Catholic Women's Conference, presented by the Office of Lifelong Faith Formation. The conference features Leah Darrow.  As a former professional model, Leah now teaches other women an appreciation of the true meaning of beauty and God's design. She reflects on the virtue of modesty with inspiration with Sacred Scripture.
The mission of the Maine Catholic Women's Conference is to come together as Sisters in Christ for a day to nurture and strengthen the Faith of the Catholic women of Maine, so they may share the abundance of God’s Mercy and Love and the fullness of His Truth with others.
The cost of the conference is $60, which includes a continental breakfast and lunch. There is a special student rate of $30.

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SPONSORED BY:

I am making soap~

"Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me," declares the Sovereign LORD."

Jeremiah 2:22

My first bars of soap!  I found the best site for learning the process, it is posted below.

After 24 hours, the soap is un-molded and cut into the size I want.
My daughter and I have a small hands, so I cut the soap small. The soap will need to cure 5 weeks. The next batch will be cut larger for my husband and sons.

The same bar of soap looks small in Justin's hand. I will ponder
ideas for a more "manly scents":)  I also made a batch with Thieves Oil and Rose
petals.

I am having so much fun making soap, but it is hard to wait for the soap to cure. Thank-you "Nerdy Farm Wife"!

The following was taken from: The Nerdy Farm Wife

https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/soap-making-101-making-cold-process-soap/

• (1.) Choose a recipe and run it through a lye calculator, especially if you decide to make changes to it. (You can find some recipes HERE, but a google search will find you tons more!) Each type of oil requires a different amount of lye to saponify (turn into soap.) So, if you’re out of the castor oil called for in a recipe and want to use shea butter instead, you’re going to need a different amount of lye or your soap will end up too harsh or too soft. I like to use the Majestic Mountain Sage Lye Calculator.  Just plug your recipe into the blanks and calculate the lye needed. If you click the screenshot above, you’ll see it gives a range of liquid to use and a range of lye. I use around 6% for lye and a midway point for the water/liquid (about 15 ounces in the example above.)

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• (2.) Assemble your ingredients and safety gear. Lye is sometimes hard to find; my local Tractor Supply store carries two containers at a time and I found a small, local Mom & Pop type hardware store that has a few as well. Make sure the bottle says Sodium Hydroxide and nothing else. Shake the bottle and if you hear lumps and clumps rattling around, it’s past its prime and won’t measure correctly. You may have to order online. If so, here are two sources: Bramble Berry and Amazon.com.
• I buy my oils & butters mostly from Mountain Rose Herbs or BrambleBerry, but you can also check your local grocery and health food stores. Don’t forget you’ll need heat & chemical proof gloves and safety goggles along with a kitchen or candy thermometer (a separate one used strictly for soap and not food use.) Wear long sleeves in case any lye splashes on your arms. (This has not happened to me in 10 years of soapmaking, but  it’s always better to be safe than sorry!)

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• (3.) Prepare your molds by lining with parchment paper. I have homemade wooden box molds that my dad and brother made for me, but you can also buy them from several places online such as Bramble Berry. I’ve even seen people use rubbermaid containers or heavy duty cardboard boxes. A quick google search will likely give you plenty of inspiration!

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• (4.) Now, we start measuring stuff. First, you’ll want to measure out your water into a heat proof tempered glass jar, pyrex measuring cup, stainless steel or heavy duty polypropylene plastic (recycle symbol 5) container. [NOTE: I’ve been told that glass/pyrex can weaken over time and shatter, so to be absolutely safe, use one of the alternatives.] Mark this container clearly with a symbol such as a skull and crossbones and don’t put it in your fridge or on the counter where someone might mistake it for a beverage.
• All soap ingredients should be weighed with a digital scale, this includes your liquids. This picture shows me measuring water for a recipe that called for 20 to 31 ounces of liquid. I decided on a mid-range of 26 oz. You can see I went over .3 ounces. This is okay for liquids, but not okay for oils or lye. Those need to be precise. More liquid means your soap takes a bit longer to set up (useful if you’re adding honey or beeswax or other items that speed up things) and less liquid means it sets up and is ready to pour into molds faster.

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• (5.) Next, measure out your lye. (Make sure you have on those gloves and goggles!) I use an old plastic cup, labeled “Lye” in several places all over with a Sharpie. I pour slowly and carefully then immediately re-cap the lye container and place it far from the reach of children and pets. I take a wet paper towel and thoroughly wipe down the scale and surrounding area in case a tiny grain got loose.

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• (6.) Pour the lye into the water (or other liquid.) I do this in my kitchen sink in order to catch any splashes or drips and just in case I have a “volcano.” This only happened to me once because I tried to pour my lye into a very hot herbal tea. I should have been patient and waited for it to cool first, but did not and had to start all over. So, make sure you pour the lye into water that is cool or no warmer than room temp. Also, you always add the lye to the liquid and not the other way around (the other cause of lye volcanoes.) This mixture shoots up to over 200 degrees F quickly, so use caution when handling. Turn your face away to avoid directly breathing in the fumes. (I keep the window over my kitchen sink opened during this step or work outside on my back deck. If you don’t have proper ventilation, consider wearing a mask.) Stir with a heavy duty plastic spoon or rubber spatula until fully dissolved and set in a safe place, out of reach of children and pets, until it cools to about 90 to 115 degrees.

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• (7.) While the lye solution is cooling, weigh out the oils and butters called for in your recipe. Place these in an enamel or stainless steel pot, that you plan to use for soap making only. (Do not use aluminum during any stage of the soap making process.) Turn the heat on low and gently heat the oils until they reach 90-115 degrees F.

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• (8.) Before mixing, make sure your lye and oils are roughly the same temperature in the range of 90 – 115 degrees F. It’s okay if they’re 10 or even 20 degrees different than each other though. I sometimes add an ice cube or two to my lye solution to cool it faster (remember the water amount can be adjusted by this small amount) or set my pan of oil down into a sink filled with a few inches of water and ice cubes if it needs cooling. Temperature is a subjective, personal preference that varies between soap-makers. Some will only mix at higher temperatures than I list while others let everything sit overnight and mix the next morning at room temperature. Once the desired temps are reached, slowly drizzle your lye solution into your pot containing oils and butters.

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• (9.) Using a stick blender, start combining the lye solution and oils, stopping to occasionally stir and check consistency. It only takes a few minutes for most of my recipes to reach “trace” – which means when you drizzle a small bit of the soap mixture over the surface, it will leave a faint pattern or trace before sinking back into the mixture. (Click on the picture above, which demonstrates this.) My first several batches of soap were made without using a stick blender. Every single one failed. I highly highly HIGHLY recommend using one. I have one by Cuisinart that I’ve had for many years. Make sure you use it strictly for soap making and not for food use. Once trace is reached, you’ll add any extras such as honey, oatmeal, natural colorants, and essential oils and blend for just a bit more until they are all incorporated.

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• (10.) Working quickly, pour the soap into your prepared molds, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. Pick up your mold and give it a few sharp raps on the table or counter surface to help get rid of any little air bubbles that may have formed. The soap is still caustic at this point, so keep your gloves on and be aware that the mixture can burn your skin. If that happens you can rinse thoroughly with water or pour vinegar over the spot to offset the alkalinity (or both.)

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• (11.) Cover with the mold top, then several layers of blankets and quiltsto make sure the soap is well insulated and retains the heat needed to finish saponifying. Leave undisturbed for about 24 to 36 hours. (It’s okay to peek at it every now and then though. If you spot a crack forming on top, it means the soap is too hot and should be uncovered.)

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• (12.) Unmold your block of soap. You can cut it into bars right away or later. I like to do it fairly soon after making, so that the soap is still soft and easy to cut. Use a ruler and a knife to cut into desired sizes. Let the bars cure in the open air on pieces of wax paper or brown paper, turning occasionally, for about 4 weeks. I find they are gentle enough to start testing on myself after three weeks.

This wraps up my post on the basics of soap making. Remember, this is just an overview! I did not cover every tiny detail there is to know about soap making because that is impractical for the space limitations of a single blog post. Be sure to check out the links and books on my Soapmaking Page so you can research more thoroughly before you make your first batch.

Making Butter

"He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate."
Genesis 18:8

A Christmas gift from my husband this past Christmas was a butter churn, it was one of my request:)

 My family has a great love for "real butter". Here is how I do it:

 1. I buy heavy cream, organic, when available, one pint.

2. Pour it into the churn.

3.  Crank the handle....(it is best to have help, a.k.a. children or grand children), 15 min. more or less,

can seem like a long time of cranking a handle.

4. Drain off the buttermilk and place the butter in a bowl of ice water,  drain and do it again. The butter is soft, now is the time to add salt if desired.

As you know I like gardening, making jams, jellies, canning and making Kombucha...see my older posts for more details.

PS I did make a video of this process, but could not upload it, I will try again another time:)

Strong Woman by Fr. Wade Menezes

I really like this and thought I could share it with you, I hope you like it too~

JMJ~Tina

This is taken from:Fathers of Mercy + Blog + Culture + A Strong Woman vs. A Woman of Strength

A Strong Woman vs. A Woman of Strength

by Fr. Wade Menezes on January 4, 2017

A Strong Woman vs. A Woman of Strength

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face . . . but a woman of strength is adorned with the beauty of God’s grace working in her life.

A strong woman isn’t afraid of anything . . . but a woman of strength exhibits the virtues of courage and fortitude in the midst of her very trials and fears.

A strong woman won’t let anyone get the best of her . . . but a woman of strength is other-centered and so gives the very best of herself – indeed, all she’s got – to everyone.

A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids those same in the future . . . but a woman of strength realizes that life’s mistakes can also be unexpected blessings from God and so capitalizes on them and learns from them.

A strong woman works out everyday to keep her body in shape . . . but a woman of strength prays daily and builds solid relationships to keep her soul in shape.

A strong woman believes that she is strong enough for life’s journey . . . but a woman of strength has the faith to know that it is through life’s journey – with all of its ups and downs – that she will become strong and fully live her vocation whether single, married, or as a consecrated religious, in the midst of the modern world.

Here is the link:


http://fathersofmercy.com/culture/strong-woman-woman-of-strength-virtue-grace-courage-fortitude-confidence-trials-fears-other-centered-daily-prayer-lifes-mistakes-solid-relationships-lifes-journey-vocation/