A day of praise & thanksgiving

In keeping with my old testament readings lately, I am declaring today a Day of Praise & Thanksgiving to the Lord for all He is and has done for our family!  It's good to remember the mercies of the Lord and to proclaim that His goodness endures continually.

So with all my heart, I thank You, Lord, for...

• Knowing You, that somehow in the billions on the planet, I was blessed to have the gospel told me at a young age


• My beloved husband, my partner in faith and dearest earthly friend


• My precious daughter who came as a miracle and continues to bless my life in more ways than I could have imagined


• My home, our sanctuary, and lovely yard; flowers, peaceful neighborhood, and lovely places to walk


• My husband's good job


• Hot showers, clean water, good food, warm beds, washing machines & dryers, books & libraries, cars, telephones, and all the thousands of comforts that make life so blessed


• My mom's arm healing so well after a nasty break, and that it wasn't a hip or worse


• Our families who love us and love You


• Dear friends and all the richness they bring to my life


• The privilege of homeschooling, for all the good books and resources we have available, and for our wonderful support group


• Our beloved church family and their uncompromising stand on Your Word


• This free country and all the privileges we enjoy as a result of that freedom


• Healing from our illnesses and infirmities, for the blessing of health


• Your WORD!!! that changes me and gives me strength, confidence, courage, and perspective


• Writing and sewing and hiking and cooking and entertaining and reading and art and all the joys of creativity and self-expression


• Daily purpose because of You in my life


• Our sweet little dog and the laughter that she brought to us


• Mercies new every morning, answered prayer, and grace for every need

You are altogether awesome, wonderful, incredible, and You fill my heart.  I give You praise and honor today for revealing Yourself to me every day...and thank You for taking me to live in the secret place of the Most High.

My homestead moment

Guess what I did today?  Dehydrated cranberries...lots of them!

I've been waiting for them to come in again for the holiday season and was delighted to find them at Costco this week.  I'm on a fairly strict candida diet right now, but have discovered the cranberries are a low-glycemic fruit.  I cook them up with stevia and even though it's not quite the same, it's great to have a treat like this. 

Off season they're pretty expensive so I'm experimenting with some ways to preserve them.  Anyone ever tried canning them with stevia instead of sugar?  I called the Ball company consumer rep today to ask them about it, but they said there hasn't been any research done on canning with stevia where they can definitively say, yes, it works and is okay for you.  I might boldly go where no professionsals have gone before.

Did I mention that it takes a long time to cut that many cranberries in half??  I might just be content with freezing them from now on.