Thinking about Family

 I believe this is well worth your time. Sometimes it can be so hard to see past our culture to what God really desires from us. LOTS of food for thought in here. I haven't read his book. If any of you have, please do leave a note with your thoughts about it. I hope, for those of you with families, or hoping to have families one day, this will be a inspirational.

Blessings!c

Looking to the new year

God has been working hard on me in the last year or so. He had brought me face to face again and again with the reality of myself, a nasty business I assure you. He has chipped away at me through sticky fingers and pee on the floor, and piles of laundry, and, and ,and, until I snap and the ugly me, who can stay so carefully hidden, even from myself, pops up and comes shining through- and I am shocked at who I am. Selfish, impatient, proud, irritable, vindictive, keeping track of every supposed wrong against me...all the things that are the very opposite of love.

A friend of mine cares for her mother, who is sick with dementia. Watching their struggles as this illness unfolded, I was struck with how illness can also strip you bear and reveal your heart. You no longer have the sense to hide your faults from yourself and the world. Yet some people face illness and loose their minds and become more beautiful and Godly with each passing day. I watched all of this and I knew if I wanted, one day, to be lit up with the Spirit of God, even when I had lost my  mind I had to start changing now. There are so many carefully hidden weeds to be pulled. Even though I know all these things and have a heart to be a better person, I have found I can't make lasting changes all on my own. I need God himself to win these battles, that can so easily overcome me. I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but I can't be filled with something if I'm already full. So many "good" things can fill our hearts and keep us from being filled with God.
I've also been thinking of how little time we truly have to do work like this. One of my dearest friends just lost her precious 17 month old baby, Lilly. I spoke with a mutual friend of ours at the funeral, and we made tentative plans to have dinner together. A couple of days ago, she passed out, they took her to the hospital and found that her heart was failing, though it is perfectly healthy. One day she is young and beautiful, cooking dinner and raising four kids and the next she needs an emergency heart transplant. I don't know how much time I will have to become more Christ like and to influence my children for Him. Each day is a gift that needs to be invested wisely, whether it is 17 months, thirty something years, or a hundred. I pray that we may all move closer to Him, make the very most of whatever little time we are given, and be purposeful in our journey each day.

"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." 

James 4:13-17

Trying to use all the deer...and get in the Christmas spirit

What? You don't think that looks very Christmasy?
Well, neither do I.
There has been a LOT of life going on around here for the last few months, and it's been hard to try and mentally put these things on hold and focus on the holidays...but it is deer season too, lol. And the Lord blessed us with some deer meat. So I figured I would share a little slice of reality from around here. Prompted by Darian Allen's lovely cook book "The Forgotten Skills of Cooking", which is a perfect cookbook for any homestead cook who wants to learn how to use everything, and do everything (not to mention the fact that it is loaded with the most lovely photographs), we decided to try deer liver.
"For a big treat that evening [that the deer is killed] have the venison liver for supper. Really fresh, just fried simply in a little butter and seasoned with salt and pepper, it's one of the best things you can eat"

I don't like liver. Years ago when someone would ask me what foods I didn't like I would quickly respond, "Oh, I like everything but, runny eggs, creamed corn, liver, and octopus." First I learned that it was canned cream corn that I thought was so disgusting (I used to call it snot and boogers, shhh, don't tell my kids), and the fresh homemade stuff is just lovely. Then I learned to LOVE a poached egg on buttered homemade whole wheat bread...with fresh cracked pepper...umm makes me hungry just thinking about it. So I was determined to give it a try, since we had it and it was free or would be wasted. I must say it was hard not to think "Liver!? Gag!" while I was eating, but the pieces that were cooked to a pink perfection (rabbit trail: The directions said to have the pan on very high heat, and I left my iron skilled on Very High Heat for a little too long, and when I put the clarified butter in to cook, it smoked so thick I couldn't see the bottom of the pan, and while I was looking at it trying to decided if I should try and cook anyway the butter burst into flames and burned for a good three minutes, just like crepe Suzettes do in the movies. So. I decided the pan was just a little too hot) it had a lovely creamy almost mushroomy sort of taste. We all loved it, but the real surprise was just how much my toddlers loved it. One of the girls ate SEVEN servings! Seven. And she almost burst into tears when she thought the sixth helping wasn't coming fast enough. The funniest part was she completely refused to touch her mashed potatoes. So if you know someone who hunts deer, or if you do, you might want to give it a try.  It certainly went over well at our house.
I like to try and be a good steward and use as much of the animal as possible. I have the heart in my fridge and I'm to try and do something with it next. My mom says she always enjoyed it just in stew. I've really enjoyed looking through the blog "Hunter Angler Gardener Cook" for ideas on how to use everything. I like a lot of game, but I'm not crazy about deer, but since it's such inexpensive free range meat for us I'm determined to learn to cook it well.
I've always loved corned beef...good corned beef anyhow, so I think I'm going to have to try this one out.
And this sounded like a really delicious way to prepare the heart. Isn't that a crazy sentence for our modern day world?
I'm going to try my hand at the venison bone broth, though I am a little nervous about the flavor, but I figure I can use it in tomato based stews if nothing else.
And I hope to try my hand at my own deer sausage this year.
Edible Aria can make anything look at sound great. I'm going to have to try this soup.
And I thought Quinn's Venison Meatballs sounded really good too.
So, umm, yeah, Merry Christmas!
P.S. I made a tomato veggie stew with the deer heart, and it didn't have any "deer" taste to it, though it was a little chewy. If there is a next time I will try to pound it some before I cook it. I rinsed it and cut off any pieces that seemed tough and fed them to the dog (yep we have dog now). Then cut it into about half inch pieces and dried them well on a paper towel. Then I browned them in olive oil in small batches, de-galzed the pan with red wine and add tomato sauce, spices, and veggies. We liked it well enough I would try it again.