Wood Stove Maple Syrup

     
  The wood stove is such a versatile beast. It warms the home, but can double as a stove. If built for the purpose of baking, it can do that too! Since it is running all the time for the purpose of heat, the latter two are thrown in for FREE! Why not use that heat to cook down a little maple syrup too?

Simple Meets Plain

        We traveled to Michigan this month and made a rendezvous that has been in the works for about 2 years! It was very momentous for our family. As I told the Millers, "We have met Quakers and we have friends who are plain, but we have never met anyone with both qualities at the same time!". This was a super, special meeting!

Community!

Fellowship And Support

"Iron sharpeneth iron;so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Proverbs 27:17

Jessup Gathering 2012
      Community...a known and yet unknown space...almost sacred yet very common...balmy yet stirring.  Known in the sense that it is a safe place to open even the deepest spaces of our hearts ...to bless our fellow man,to exchange the stirrings in our hearts ,to receive constructive criticism.Unknown in the sense that we ourselves do not know the beauty that can be achieved through these refining processes."I will seek that which is lost,and bring again that which was driven away,and will bind up that which is broken and will strengthen that which was sick:" Ezekiel 34:16\

     Community can have a powerful impact on an individual level, and or on a family level. When we had our last baby a whole freezer's worth of food came knocking on our door, a Blessing Way was held in our family's honor, and my husband's milking shifts were taken on by another so that we could bond as a family. This was huge! Gideon was my 7th child, but this was the first time I had more than a day to recuperate after his birth before taking over household duties again.