Wake up America

Wake up America and take your rose colored glasses off. This man is trying to take away our rights as Christians and our beliefs. We need to pull together for the sake of this country to get him out of office. Our founding fore fathers are turning over in their graves. Did we not found the country on the behalf of religious freedom?
We all need to be down on our knees in prayer. The time is at hand and drawing near.
God bless,
Tara

Been a crazy day here on the homestead.  I haven't had it together today for sure.  I just could not get  the kids schools stuff all done, I have been busy doing a sewing project and had to keep ripping seems out, forgot to wash jeans and my dear sweet hubby was all out and not a very happy camper, and I forgot to run the dishwasher that I would come to run 3 or 4 times and get side tracked with something else and not get it turned on and had trouble finishing dinner tonight.  And the phone has rung off the hook, which is strange because my phone hardly ever rings.  There are some days it may only ring once or twice and that is just junk calls.  Has any one else had a day like this?  I am praying for a much better one, because the weekend is plum booked up.  The next few days are going to be crazy to say the least. Hopefully tomorrow will be much better.  I just have to keep reminding myself that tomorrow is a new day and that God is not the author of chaos.  Satan likes to get in where ever he can.  So "satan get behind me and my family, in Jesus Christ name Amen."
Have a blessed night,
Tara

The Prairie Homestead

This is a great blog, if you have a chance go over and take a look.  She has lots of goodies.
God bless,
Tara

Happy Valentines to everyone.  We are having one of those day here.  Teenage hormones are raging as usual.   We are enjoying being back at our home church.  We moved our membership back a few weeks ago and have set our feet to running to try and help build it back up, but as usual Satan has reared his ugly head.  We knew we would be attacked and we have.  Dear hubby's truck broke down the other day and it is going to be a major repair again. But, we know that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.  I just keep telling Satan to get behind us the name of Jesus Christ.  We did have a busy week prepared, but none the lass I have had to make changes.  Today I am trying out a new recipe for Bacon wrapped chicken in the crockpot.  I wrapped chicken breast with bacon and placed in the crockpot then made a mixture of cream of chicken, cream of mushroom and sourcream, a little milk, garlic, salt pepper and a little bit of dried ranch dressing and covered the chicken with this mixture.  It smell really good right now.  I will serve it over pasta and have a side salad.  Farm wise everyone is holding on right now.  We have put the bulls out with one set of cows and we are about through having calves right now.  We are about to start on the grass planting and there is some major fence repairs that need to be done and a new pig pen built in a different area.  We got a small dusting of snow yesterday, but other than that the weather has been really warm this winter, which was a gift from God considering how poor of shape our cattle were in and no hay.  It has been an answer to prayer for sure.
Hope you and your have a blessed day,
Tara

 I wanted to do this post yesterday, but as usual the day was very busy.  Yesterday was my little mans 7th birthday.  It is so hard to believe.  Time has flown by.  This little boy is the light of our home for sure, he loves to play war and and build forts in the woods and pretend he is in the civil war or wwII.  He loves his little army men.  He likes to roam the woods and see what treasures he can find.  He loves to bottle feed the baby calves and roll in the mud with the baby pigs.   He loves to pick buttercups for his momma.  He likes to aggravate his older sister and wrestle with his brother and cuddle in his dads lap to watch war movies or look at hunting books.  I could never imagine a world with out him. 

Children are gift from God.............................................................
God bless,
Tara

Well I got my Large Family logistics book out again, this time no chest pains though.  I recommend this book for all you moms out there.  I am not doing everything like she is doing and I think that was the problem when I first read it.  Now I am taking parts of it and adjusting it to my own family's needs.  We have done a much better job for sure.  One thing that has really helped and I don't know why it has taken almost 18 years to learn is to CLEAN AS YOU GO WHEN COOKING.  That is my one big tip for today.  Just washing things as you dirty them up makes a huge difference.  There is not nearly the mess when you get through.  Also,  making sure the dishes are done before you go to bed.  I know first hand what a difference this can make.  I have let dishes stand overnight for years, and woke with a grouchy attitude about begrudgingly starting the day with a pile of nasty dishes.  Boy what a difference a clean kitchen first thing in the morning will do for you.  I have to just remember that God blessed me with this home, and children and I need to be the very best for them and Him.  It is a daily struggle for me and I know with God grace and mercy I can do it. And you can too.
God bless ya,
Tara

Yum, Yum

There is nothing like warm bread or cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven.  My recipe is just right to make one loaf and a batch of cinnamon rolls or 2 loaves of bread or just a batch of dinner rolls instead of a loaf.  I love the smell of it baking in the oven and the sense of providing food for a hungry family. Tonight we had spaghetti with whole wheat noodles.  There was a bit of a taste difference, but not that much. The thing I did notice was it seemed to be more filling than the regular pasta, don't know if that is true, but seemed to be for us tonight.  I like things that are filling, and that the meal goes farther and no one is hungry again an hour later.
I am still working on my wheat bread though.  I can't seem to get it baked right, it is always way over done on the outside and still raw on the inside, I am still learning how to cook in my old oven and it does have a few hot spots.  God is the provider of all things great and small and I thank Him for another lovely day of being home with the kidos doing school work, keeping my home and doing some lovely baking. 
God Bless,
Tara

We were blessed to get to see this beautiful sunset at a lake nearby yesterday.  My dear hubby needed some new work boots and after after trying several places we failed to find something he liked or that we could afford LOL.  We decided to take a detour home and got to catch this beautiful setting.  It always amazes me of God's handywork.  I don't know how anyone can see such beauty and not see God in it.
God bless you,
Tara

Hard to believe this was our Christmas card picture 3 years ago, boy have they grown up on me.

We had a very good day yesterday in the Lord's house and then a wonderful night of fellowship with friends eating good food and watching the game.  This week is going to be pretty busy, I am really working on my goals for this year, hospitality. Last week I had some of the youth and their parents over and this week we will host a family for dinner who is dear to us. I have so missed having people over and cooking for them.  Sometime back the Lord started convicting me about how we never have anyone over or that I make a meal for anyone.  I think it is because I had let our home get so slack and it was to much of a task or work to get all the mess cleaned up, and I am embarrassed about our house. So I have been working on keeping a better schedule, and being proud of what the Lord has given to us in the way of our house. Trying to redo some of the little things like rearrange furniture and change out pictures, It is amazing what just having everything cleaner and those little decoration touches can do to help.  The Lord has blessed us beyond measure for sure. 

It has been a long couple of months, we have had troubles with animal sickness and then the business of Christmas and my blogging had gotten swept aside.  We have finally gone back to some normality around here.  Last week I was able to help with a retirement part and I did the food for it, and it just turned out beautiful , here are a few pics of the event