Medieval Festival

edieval festivals are quite unusual and fun. A couple weeks ago, some church friends hosted one. They did an awesome job, and we enjoyed it.

Me in my outfit--dress made by my oldest sister some years ago

Sweet friends in their lovely costumes

More sweet friends in lovely costumes

Most of the costumed attendees (some arrived later)

The food tent (quite obviously)

There was rope-climbing...

...a trebuchet!...

...a pinata...

...a cheesecake and tart contest...

...and archery! (My brother, Andrew--seen here shooting --won the competition.)

But it wasn't all just fun and games. Mr. Phillips gave a talk on the history of the trebuchet and later on chivalry, which we didn't get to hear all of, as it was pretty late and we needed to get home. I enjoyed the fellowship of saints, talking of various things.

Banana Bread and Muffin Recipes

I think this is the best banana bread I've ever made. Granted, I've only tried three or four different recipes, but still....Betty Crocker's banana bread is one we've used for years but I was never satisfied with it because it was rather dry and not too flavorful. Usually Betty Crocker Cookbook has good recipes, but not so much here. One of my friends (Jenny Leding) posted a banana bread recipe that was good, very similar to this one. But I think I like this one a tiny bit better. :) I haven't compared them side by side, though. Oh, and there was a recipe that our friends/family made that was scrumptious, but when we tried it, it didn't turn out quite as well. Anyway, this is good, and maybe even better with the white chocolate chips (I haven't tried it that way, but the place I got this recipe said it was delicious). Enjoy!

Note: I used maybe a third of home-ground white wheat flour in mine. I also added chopped pecans and walnuts--you can't have banana bread without nuts! ;)

Banana Bread

Recipe from Amanda & Friends

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups mashed overripe bananas (the darker the better, practically)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional:

1/2 cup white chocolate chips (for mini loafs)
1/4 to 1/2 cup heath chips (for mini loafs)

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs,mashed bananas, and vanilla until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake at 350 in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes for mini loafs (50-60 for regular size pan), until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then place on a wire rack.

Tropical Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Honey Butter

Recipe from Del Sisters Kitchen.

3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. coconut oil
1/2 c. honey
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla or cinnamon extract
2 c. whole wheat flour ( I used 1/3 white and 2/3 wheat)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. chopped apple (I used a bit more than this, since it looked sparse)
1/4 c. macadamia nuts (I used chopped walnuts and slivered almonds)
1/4 c. coconut

In a bowl with a wire whisk, mix together the wet ingredients. Add the dry, then fold in the apple. Put batter into 9-12 greased muffin tins. Sprinkle with nuts and coconut. Bake at 375 for 20 min. Or till browned. Cool 10 min. then remove from pan. Serve with Cinnamon Honey Butter (opt).

Honey Butter

1/4-1/3 c. butter softened a little
1 T. honey
1/4-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix these together and serve on split muffins!

Sin Is Covered

Based on Psalm 32:1, from Spurgeon's The Treasury of David...
"Sin is covered." Every man that must be happy, must have something to hide and cover his sins from God's eyes; and nothing in the world can do it, but Christ and his righteousness, typified in the ark of the covenant, whose cover was of gold, and called a propitiatory, that as it covered the tables that were within the ark, so God covers our sins against those tables. So the cloud covering the Israelites in the wilderness, signified God's covering us from the danger of our sins. -- Thomas Taylor's "David's Learning: or the Way to True Happinesse," 1617.

I had never really made that connection of the ark and covering before, so I really liked this quote. It's amazing how many details there are that we can easily miss. I had been wondering why the top of the ark was called the mercy seat, and I guess this is why. Praise God for His grace! :)

Born from Above

I got a couple of votes for showing more of my personality on my blog. I guess I'm afraid to show more of it because I have so many flaws/sins and don't want to be a bad example. But also...some of the reluctance to share about myself is due to vanity or pride. And if the Lord can be glorified through my weakness, then perhaps I should be more open. He must increase, but I must decrease. - John 3:30 So, here's my testimony, and may God bless you through it in some way. (This is not so much about my personality, perhaps, and it wasn't what I started out to write, but here it is.) I'm very shy, quiet, and lack knowledge in many areas. My growing up years were ones of self and pride, and still are in many ways. I played piano not to bless others, but to please myself and to gain compliments. I sometimes felt left out of things, or not connected enough with others due to my shyness and all. Fear was a big part of my life. Fear of failing, fear of looking stupid, fear of man. When I was thirteen, I felt so lonely and desperate, that I decided I wanted to serve God. Or thought I did. What I really wanted was friendship with people at church and a closer relationship with my saved family members. But I didn't really want to be conformed into the image of Christ. No. That would be too hard. Perhaps in my heart I knew my profession of faith was false, but most of the time I convinced myself it was true (perhaps Satan also blinded me into thinking it was true). So I was baptized, forced myself to play piano in church every week, etc. But the joy wasn't there. Even the friends I thought I would gain weren't there, because I wasn't reaching out to them, and I was still the same selfish, timid person, repulsing the very friendship I craved. Also I was lazy. And when anyone mentioned the end times, Christ coming in the clouds, or dying, my heart would start racing in fear. This started me wondering. Reading the Left Behind series had the same effect, like a huge black cloud had come over me, and trembling and tears probably went with it. Am I really ready? Three or four years had gone by, and the doubts plagued me like a swarm of locusts. I kept it to myself for the most part. My unsaved sister would ask me questions, which I should have been able to answer simply enough, but they took me off guard and I found that the "right" answer was not how I felt. She asked me if I knew I was going to heaven when I died, if it felt sure. I hesitated. I probably stammered a few words of uncertainty. "Why don't you just admit you're not saved," she said quietly. That took me off guard. Why had she said that? She must have seen my uncertainty in all the answers I ever gave her. Why not, indeed? My will crumbled into defeat, my deception into honesty. I told my family I didn't think I was saved. They argued and encouraged, but I knew it was hopeless. I was free to be myself again . . . though it wasn't much different. Free to wallow in my sin and fear. In some ways I was relieved, but in some ways I was sad. My life drifted without purpose except to please myself and be respectable enough that I wasn't in trouble. I hid things from my family, guilty conscience notwithstanding. I even questioned the authenticity of the Bible. Throughout this, I still thought I wasn't doing so bad. I made excuses. A couple months later my brother and I traveled to some friends' house for Thanksgiving, around 2005. We had never even met all of them in person, but knew them from online. They were so kind to open their home to us and treat us like family. They were unpretentious and stood for their convictions regardless of what we thought. The women wore head coverings all the time. One evening, my brother Joel and Charity (our friend and Joel's future wife) asked me about how I was doing. How I was really doing, or what I was thinking. Something along these lines. I forget what I said, but it got them concerned, and Charity clasped my hand and prayed. We went upstairs to talk some more, and they showed me some Bible passages that they thought might help. They only made me feel worse, and inspired no change at that time. They asked if I'd like to be alone. I said yes, and went into a nearby room, crying it out, not sure what I wanted or if I could have a change. Could I stand for convictions, like they did, and perhaps be thought a freak by others? How could I? My heart didn't want to submit. But I feared God's wrath. So I kept sobbing and asking . . . yet not really asking. My mouth said the words, but my heart didn't. Or maybe they did in some way, but it wasn't a full desire to change or submit, only a wish for some pardon sometime. In any case, all my tears and prayers were not enough to save me. Only God's changing grace and cleansing blood could do that. I think I was in the room for over an hour or two, until the room was pitch dark. I gave up. I stumbled out into the other room, where Joel and Charity still sat prayerfully, Bible spread between them. They looked up questioningly. I might have mumbled something about there being no change. Charity, knowing I didn't want to go downstairs and eat while I was in such a bedraggled condition, went to get me some food. In all my crying out to God, perhaps I thought there must be some change, but I was like a baby kicking against the womb, unable to come out on my own, and yes . . . unwilling. In 2006, my dad died after a battle with cancer. His faith was steadfast in Christ to the end, throughout all his anguish. About a year later, I was watching a video online. It was linked from a friend's blog. It wasn't a perfect video, but it was about revivals in history, called Revival Hymn, and there was something about it that God used. The outright sorrow of the people in the film captured me, their abandonment of self and zeal for a new life. Perhaps the Bible verses quoted were an arrow to my heart by the Holy Spirit. I was struck by my sin and need of God, and I wanted to have that love and peace, wanted to turn from my sin. I didn't feel a lightning-bolt change, but there was a new desire that I think came at this time. Because of my past false hope, this hope was left for a while, and I only told a friend or family member or two that I thought I might be saved, and wondered if I should get baptized. I believe one of them encouraged me to stand firm in the Lord. I know my mom was supportive, but she didn't push me to get baptized. She wanted me to be sure. It was not long before I was convinced it was a true change, and that I wanted to be identified as Christ's. So I told our pastor of the good news, and requested to be baptized. Somehow I had worried that they might not believe I was truly saved now, like the boy crying "Wolf!" . . . But they received my testimony and joyfully celebrated with me for the second time . . . but really for the first time. It was perhaps exactly a year after my father's passing. My life in Christ grows as I see His beauty more and more. At times I start to look more at the waves and tempest and my poor wobbly feet on the water than the Savior, and I start to sink in doubt, but God pulls me back up again, just like He did for Peter.

My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things; That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.

John Newton (1725-1807) English minister and hymn writer

Poll for June

The results from last month's poll:

Little House on the Prairie came in first with 9 votes! This is one of my very favorites, as well.

The Chronicles of Narnia came in second with 2 votes.

There's a three-way tie for third place. :) Ballantyne the Brave, Trixie Belden, and The Mandie Series (with 1 vote each).

Some of the other series are even better than some of these, in my opinion, so I'm sorry they didn't get any votes.

Other choices were:
The Black Stallion
The Henty Books
Anne of Green Gables
Nancy Drew
Scout (by Piet Prins)
The Peabody Series (by Jerri Massi)
The Bracken Trilogy (by Jerri Massi)
The Ivan Series by Myrna Grant
The Sugar Creek Gang

The poll for this month is now up.

Website

This looks like a great web-site for mothers and daughters!

Raising Homemakers

They're also having a giveaway right now, which is always nice.

Award

Thank you, Bluerose's Heart for giving me this award! I don't even know you, but I'm glad that you like my blog. I count it all of God's grace.
Now, you don't need to do the tagging thing if you don't want to, but I DO want you to know that I greatly appreciate your blogs!

"The rules to the award are: link to the person who nominated me for this award; share seven interesting things about myself; and nominate seven other beautiful bloggers."

Seven interesting (?) things about me:
1. I am the youngest in my family.
2. I sound a lot like my sister & mom (especially on the phone), but I'm quieter.
3. I would rather spend time with a few friends than a big group of them.
4. I would like to write a fictionalized account of one of my ancestors' lives.
5. I like to take walks with my family.
6. I'm one of the shyest person you've ever met or would meet (working on becoming less so).
7. I have three sisters-in-law (so far).

I'm passing this award on to:
Jennifer @ Blessed Femina
Jasmine @ Joyfully at Home
Esther @ Unknown Artist
Mia @ Aspiring Homemaker
Chantel @ Life, Laughter, and the Little Things
Caroline @ Standing in the Sunlight
Laura @ Actually Laura

Book Giveaway

For history lovers and homeschool moms, here is a giveaway for a collection of stories from the past, entitled Uncover Exciting History. Ends May 31.

Photos

Here's a link to my album of Big Bend Photos.

Hope you enjoy!

We had a lovely time there. Despite the skunks. ;) ...But they didn't spray, so we were safe.

"The Family" Book Review & Quotes

finally finished reading The Family by J. R. Miller! It was excellent, and one I will probably read several times throughout my life. With poetic sensitivities, the author writes on the roles of husbands, wives, parents, children, brothers and sisters, and additionally touches on the wedded life, the home-life, religion in the home, and home memories. Here are just a few quotes--the whole book is almost equally as worthy. Though some of it is possibly seen through rosy-tinted glasses, should not his ideals be sought after, if not entirely attainable? I may not agree with his every point, but in the majority I do.

From The Mother's Part
'Let it be remembered that Christ's work in the home is the first that he gives to every wife, and that no amount of consecrated activities in other spheres will atone in this world or the next for neglect or failure there.'

'A woman whose heart is not touched by the sickness of sorrow and whose hands do not go out in relief where it is in her power to help, lacks one of the elements which make the glory of womanhood.'

From The Parents' Part:
'No father can afford to let his children grow up without weaving himself into the memories of their golden youth.'

'Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse into the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other hands the sacred and holy trust given to her.'

'The parent's life flows into the child's life. We impress ourselves upon our children less by what we teach them than by what we are. Your child is a sensitive plate; you are sitting before the camera; if you do not like the picture the fault is with yourself.'

From The Children's Part
'If he then strews thorns for their feet, what does it avail that he brings flowers for their burial? If he dishonors them by disobedience, by unkindness, by unworthy conduct, by sin, what does it avail that he sets up the costly monuments over their graves, cutting in the white marble his praises of their virtues and their faithfulness?'

'Did his [Jesus'] subjection break his power, repress the glorious aspiration of his soul, stunt and hinder the development of his life and make his career into a failure in the end?'

'No one is fitted for ruling others who has not first learned in his place to obey.'

'We have only to remember again who Jesus was. Was there ever any human parent in this world who was really worthy or capable, in this sense, to be his teacher, to guide and control his life? Was there ever, in any home on earth, such a distance between parents and child as there was in that home at Nazareth? Yet this Son of God, with all his wisdom, his knowledge, his grandeur of character, did not hesitate to submit himself to the training of that peasant mother and that peasant father. Shall any other child, in view of this model child-life at home, assert that he is too far advanced, too much superior in knowledge and culture, too wise and intelligent, to submit to the parents God has given him? If Christ could be taught and trained by his lowly parents for his glorious mission, where is the true parent who is not worthy to be his own child's guide and teacher?'

From Brothers and Sisters:
'There is not so much happiness in the world that we can afford to leave our homes desert spots when they might be blossoming gardens. Certainly it is worth-while to think of the matter, for each of us honestly to inquire whether in our home there are not seeds of beautiful things that are yielding no beauty; whether there are not treasures hidden in our fleeting life which we have never yet discovered; whether we are not blindly passing by Heaven's richest gifts to us of friendship and tender affection lying within our own doors while we press out, quest into other fields and vainly seek for satisfaction.'

From The Home-Life
'One single fact clearly presented and firmly impressed is better than whole chapters of information poured out in a confused jargon on minds that cannot remember any part of it.'

'Human lives will never grow into their best in gloom. Pour the sunshine about them in youth; let them be happy; encourage all innocent joy; provide pleasant games for them; romp and play with them; be a child again among them. Then God's blessing will come upon your home, and your children will grow up sunny-hearted, gentle, affectionate, joyous themselves and joy-bearers to the world.'

From Religion in the Home:
'"My mind was ruled with small cares to-day,
And I said pettish words, and did not keep
Long-suffering patience well; and now how deep
My trouble for this sin! In vain I weep
For foolish words I never can unsay.

"Yet not in vain, oh surely not in vain!
This sorrow must compel me to take heed:
And surely I shall learn how much I need
Thy constant strength my own to supersede,
And all my thoughts to patience to constrain.

"Yes, I shall learn at last though I neglect
Day after day to seek my help from thee.
Oh, aid me, that I may always recollect
This gentle-heartedness and oh, correct
Whatever else of sin thou seest in me."'

'Another pleads timidity. He cannot make a prayer in his family. He would break down. But is timidity a sufficient plea to excuse one from a duty so solemn, on which such vital interests of time and eternity depend? We had better test all our actions as we go on through life by inquiring how they will look at the judgment-day or from amid their own consequences at the end.'

From Home Memories:
'No other work that God gives any of us to do is so important, so sacred, so far-reaching in its influence, so delicate and easily marred as our home-making. This is the work of all our life that is most divine. The carpenter works in wood, the mason works in stone, the smith works in iron, the artist works on canvas, but the home-maker works on immortal lives. The wood or the stone or the iron or the canvas may be marred, and it will not matter greatly in fifty years; but let a tender human soul be marred in its early training, and ages hence the effects will still be seen.'