Another 101 in 1001 update!

It's end of the month yet again!  Time for another 101 in 1001 update.

2. Do the 1000 hours outside challenge (1000 Hours Outside )  396/1000

7. Find 5 interesting places/events to visit in local area (4/5)

My husband took the kids to the local festival for some fun while I spent a couple of hours making pizza sauce from tomatoes in the garden.  They had fun.

16. Make something we want out of stuff laying around/trash rather than buying. (4/5) 

Been working on an item in the backyard.  It is now useable, but not finished.  Used an old bunkbed, placed it on two pallets, put some scrap wood cut to size in where the bottom bunk mattress would be (those were trashed... full of mice), and am cutting a bunch of branches from the trimming I did around the farmyard this summer into sticks to cover the sides to make it like a 'tree fort' of sorts.  Not sure how I'll do the top yet, as I need more wood to cover that so it can be another seat or lookout, but for now it works at the fireside for sitting.

22. Finish cleaning barn office and redoing the awards/putting them up in frames

I aim to work on this during the week yet.  I finished the sitting/kitchen area and got the frames up, but the actual office desk (which we started and got somewhere on earlier in the year) is full of random piles of things again and needs more work than I thought.  Also, since this has 4 zones, I've completed 2 of them now... the kitchen/seating area, and the shower/sink area.  The laundry/storage area needs doing and the actual office zone.  Both were started.  Both had a lot done.  Both have been undone somewhat as they are more 'used' it seems.  I guess I didn't have as much of a maintaining plan in place for those areas.

27. Fix floor properly in bulk tank room

Hoping to work on this sometime this week.

42. Read entire Bible in a year (26/66 books)

I'm just finished Psalms and starting 2 Corinthians.

54. Try 10 new recipes (8/10)

I made a zucchini boat recipe that used cottage cheese.  Recipe can be found here.  It was really good!  My oldest two kept getting more.  We used 4 rather large zucchini a friend gave us and only had half of one left at the end of the meal (we served it with sausage).  It would be a lot quicker if you already had the cottage cheese rather than making it yourself.  

Also, not sure if it should count or not, but I made tomato sauce from my garden tomatoes (since that is it's own item, I won't put it in here).

Today I made a crockpot cabbage soup using all sorts of garden veggies.  It looks and smells delish.  We'll see how it tastes.  Since I had so much cabbage, I made a 'second batch' by prepping all the veggies and spices and putting them into a freezer bag for later.  Recipe can be found here.

Edit to add:  I made two new recipes before Sept 1.  Apple juice (from crab apples the size of cherries.  Just take off the stems, wash, chop in half, boil water and cover for a few minutes before turning off and letting sit for a number of hours with a cinnamon stick and a large scoop of honey mixed in.  The kids love it!  And the chickens love the leftover apple pieces.)  The second recipe was a creamy zucchini sauce.  I got more zucchini we needed to use up, so this is what I did last night for supper.  

93. Make salsa or pizza sauce from scratch. DONE

Spent two hours on this on the 26th.  Whew!  Biggest problem is how tiny my tomatoes are.  They just didn't want to grow to full size and they are starting to ripen already.  I was afraid of them going bad, so I blanched them, peeled them, pureed them, cooked them down and then saw all the little seeds and strained them out.  I'd do that before cooking next time, to be honest.  Added my spices and my 2 lbs of tomatoes (which was probably about 50 of them, it was ridiculous the amount of work that took) became 2 cups of pizza sauce... which promptly went on the pizzas I made for supper that night.  Tasted great!  Too much work for tiny tomatoes, though.  I'd do it again if my tomatoes were larger.  Most of mine were barely bigger than cherry tomatoes!  Here is the site I used for a recipe.

95. Successfully grow a garden 

Been harvesting tomatoes!  The pepper plants have little tiny peppers starting.  I am not getting any cucumbers this year.  My mother in law did a lot of gardens with the kids and yesterday they brought me 30 corn cobs which I made 18 for supper, and the other 12 blanched and froze (1.5 kgs of frozen sweet corn!  Yes!).  Making soup currently using one of the cabbages she had me take from the garden (she has quite a few... I honestly don't know what else to do with cabbage besides soup as my kids don't like cole slaw).  Also used beet leaves, celery, and for the first time in years we have carrots in the garden!  Trying to use up all the giant zucchini she gave me.  That thing is giant!  Half of it was 4 cups chopped (after removing the seeds and the peel).  I still have another quarter of it in my fridge.  Been chopping it up and cooking with eggs and ham and cheese at breakfast lately.  Used half of it today in the cabbage soup... 2 cups for freezing, 2 cups in the crock pot.

15 down, 86 to go!  We are 132 days in.

101 in 1001 Update

So, here we go on what seems to be my monthly update of the 101 in 1001 challenge I am trying to do!  Let's see if I'm getting these done! 

2. Do the 1000 hours outside challenge (1000 Hours Outside )  324/1000

We've been spending a lot of time outside on some days.  A few days we've even had 10 hours out there!  It's fantastic!  I will say, the smoke in the air does pose problems to some of us as we have been getting headaches or in the case of my one daughter, she has breathing issues which are made worse with it.  Hopefully the air quality will improve further.

7. Find 5 interesting places/events to visit in local area (3/5)

We visited the museum for their Canada day festivities on July 1st and then we went to an event a few hours away late July for their thresher men's reunion.  That was fun!  So, that's 2 more 'local' events!

16. Make something we want out of stuff laying around/trash rather than buying. (3/5)

I've been getting frustrated with some of the things in the kitchen lately, and so I finally took some scrap wood from in my workshop and made things out of it!

First, I was getting tired of the metal water bottles falling all over the place and making it difficult to put things away.  They don't stack of their own accord when they are round, haha.  So, I took a short piece of pallet board, drilled holes in it and used a dowel that was once taped together for a tent pole and chopped it up into pieces to hold my bottles in place!  Nice!  So much better!

Then there was the area I had my baking pans.  They didn't fit nicely together anymore as the cupcake tins were thicker and made it more difficult, so I found out that I could put a shelf in!  I found a board that was almost the right width... and then put in (very awkwardly, I might add) some braces to put it on.  It isn't perfect, but it functions as intended!  I'm happy with the outcome!

21. Create bike/walking trails on the farm

I've been going to the back to check out the field to see how this would best work.  It looks like we might work on this at the same time as building the fence.  See below.

23. Build cow fence

My husband and I took a walk through the old pasture area to assess the current situation with the fence.  It looks like we may need to redo the entire thing.  A bunch of wire was ripped out when someone mowed a few years ago, not noticing that it got wrapped around the blade.  Also, the trees have encroached on the fence area and we will need to replace so many of the posts that we figure it might be easiest to move it in by a few feet.  The ground is really bad out there, too.  Not sure, but I wonder if we will need to disc it and try to level it better.  I wonder why the ground is so very bad?  

25. Fix roof on barn

I've had a design in my head for this for awhile now, and even though I was researching it myself to see if I could do some of the work, I really don't see it happening.  It's pricey, but we found someone who drew up plans that follow my vision (he seemed excited by the idea) and so we are hoping to get this finished before the snow flies this year.  It isn't exactly what I was thinking when I wrote it in, as I was thinking of doing the work myself, but I just cannot see myself doing this.

41. Volunteer some time to clean/mow/fix up the old Heritage Cemetery

My husband called up the different groups to see about the old cemetery we found his ancestors in that is located in a field and has had little to no work done in it for years.  He called the owner of the field as well to ask for permission.  Looks like we have the go ahead to do work there.  The last time anything was done was well over 40 years ago, we were told.  He figures it might have been his grandpa, and the marker that was made for his 3 greats grandparents looks like a project his grandpa might have done himself.  We are even looking into a simple headstone to replace the marker that has broken and is practically unreadable anymore.  Thankfully we have a photo of it from 8 years ago when it was still there.  I looked into headstone cleaning as well, and there is a product we can get from a local store that is supposed to be made for the job.

42. Read entire Bible in a year (23/66 books)

Currently reading through Psalms and Romans.  

74. Visit a local museum we haven’t seen before (DONE! July 2023)

We saw two this last month!  This one and this one.

77. Visit a Nordic/Icelandic area (Done July 2023)

We went to another area a few hours away earlier in July that has a heritage museum about the Icelandic people who settled there originally.  Very interesting history!

88. Make a wooden item (birdhouse/deck box/bike shed) with the kids (DONE July 2023)

Z was very insistent on me making a wooden 'toy' that he saw in one of the Childcraft 'how it works' books.  Each chapter is separated by an image of simple structures being 'manned' by little 'robots' made of strange things.  He loved the one with logs.  It looked simple enough to reconstruct, so we did.  I had him learn to use the saw and the hammer.  My 8 year old has been begging to learn to use tools, so she used them as well and helped.  I used the power tools, as I'm just not comfortable with my 5 or 8 year old's using those.  I will likely make more things with my older kids as well later on, but I loved that this thing worked.

Z using the saw.

Bella using the saw.

Time to hammer in some nails!

The finished project.  

94. Hatch our own chickens 

So... we started on this (you can read that here).  We were checking the eggs regularly.  Then one morning my husband went to check on them and they were gone.  All of them.  Not a single egg left in that corner.  Not a remnant of them remaining.  No egg white on the ground to say they smashed.  No chicks.  No shells.  Nobody took the eggs (that we know of).  The only thing we can think of that happened is that the chicks hatched all overnight, and the chickens... um... ate them.  I didn't think that would happen.  The hens were broody and often sat atop the eggs.  The roosters were protective of the hens and didn't like when we wanted to check the eggs with the hens on them.  The hens were laying more eggs in that spot (we had to frequently check them to make sure we took the fresh laid ones out).  The chickens had plenty of food.  They had plenty of water.  They were lacking nothing.  I just never thought this was something that would happen.  It makes me sad.  

The chickens haven't lain a single egg in that spot since.  Not a single one.

100. Take a tour of my local area… bring camera

So, I recently downloaded a game called Pikmin Bloom on my phone.  The interesting thing about it is that they have 'spots' in the game with 'large flowers' you attempt to bloom with your pikmin, and 'mushrooms' you attack with your pikmin that correspond to churches, local points of interest, and interesting historical signs around town.  I went on a walk with the kids on Thursday (as I do when we are done with the library craft classes for three of the kiddos) and found some interesting points of interest using this app!  I didn't even know they existed before now, and I've walked those areas many times before!  Things like a historical well pump, different lot numbers from the original site, plaques telling the story of the man who the walkway/park was named after, all sorts of interesting things!  So I am hoping to 'tour the town' using this app to help me see these interesting points.  They have photos of them when you tap on the flower as well.

So, looks like I completed another 3 items in 25 days!  Yay!  I wonder what August will bring?

The Agriculture Museum

 This month we drove a number of hours to another new museum we've never been to, The Agriculture Museum.  There was a fair of sorts happening and we thought it would be interesting to visit, as it happened to be my husband's weekend off.  So, away we went.

The kids saw some adorable ponies and were able to pet them.

There were fun opportunities for picture taking, which I must do of course!

They had some interesting critters to pet in a children's area, including this tortoise, other turtles, some other reptiles, and snakes!  I wasn't touching the snake, but my son got to hold it. 

This heritage museum is similar to the one we visit often in that it is a whole village, but one thing they had that ours did not was a railway with rail cars, a station, and even a grain elevator!  That was interesting to see!

Another thing we really enjoyed was the ability to be able to pump the foot pedal of the printing press ourselves.  We all gave it a try.  My son took this picture of me working the machine.  It was interesting and actually a bit difficult to get the hang of to start.  Once you got it, though, it was easy.  Like the man said, it was like riding a bike!

I liked the post office area.  The boxes there reminded me a little of what it was like to get the mail from the post office as a kid.  We had to go into the building and find our box.  They weren't near our house at all.  These were much fancier looking!  But the style was similar to what I remember as a kid.

I took this picture of the under stairs area pantry.  I think this is something I should do in my basement!  The museum here had lots of two story buildings we were able to go upstairs in and view.  The kids thought that was great!

This one house, one of the first ones we saw, reminded me of my childhood.  I have no idea how old the house I grew up in was, but the doors, the hand rail, the wallpaper, all of it reminded me of what was in my house growing up before we modified things.  The door handles were the same, with the large keyhole underneath. 

The register is one thing I miss from my childhood.  Sounds strange, I know.  I remember putting our socks and boot inserts over it to dry them after coming in from the wet snow outside.  It was very much like this one, just with a different scrollwork.  There were similar beautiful floor vents as well that I remember having in our house before they were switched out.  The floor is similar, too.  The hardwood underneath the linoleum looked very similar.  It splintered into our socks like crazy.  Those slivers make that floor all the more memorable.

And this post at the foot of the stairs!  So similar to what we had!  It's crazy!

I did not expect to have nostalgia visiting a museum I had never seen before!  I had a lot of fun, and the kids really enjoyed it, too!  

Calvinism and Arminianism

 This week I have had a lot on my mind. Over 2020 and 2021, the changes that have occurred in our world have definitely affected the local church. We started attending a different church, one that follows the doctrine of Calvinism. I will be honest, I knew nothing of different 'isms' as they weren't spoken of in our church. I found out recently that my beliefs lined up with what was called 'Arminianism', or at least I think that is that case. The one difference I found between the two was the issue of salvation through free will vs predestination.

Now, the reason I've been thinking of this so much this week is due to the message we had last Sunday. I have been attending this church for 2 years now, and the messages have all aligned exactly with the Word, so I have had zero issue with anything. This last message was very loaded! There was so much info that it is hard for me to even begin to talk about, but the thing that had me questioning was when he talked about how important doctrine is. Yes, I believe the doctrine of a leader is definitely going to come through in their teachings, which is why I had no issue with the messages before because all of them lined up with the Word and used the Word to explain and teach the Word rather than using other books that likely had doctrinal messages contrary to what the Bible teaches. So it was with this message. It all lined up for me, until he mentioned Calvinism and Arminianism as two opposing doctrines (just wait! Hold on! My mind is weird in how I describe this). He was saying that there are wolves in sheep's clothing, but that they believe themselves to be sheep (no, he did not say those who follow Arminianism are wolves). He used the scripture from Matthew 7:22-23 which says:

"Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' "

This scripture as well as others was used to show that wolves in sheep's clothing may very well believe they were sheep as well. I mean, look at Paul on the road to Damascus! He fully believed He was right in what He was doing in persecuting those who were saved! But God called Him out of that in a very literal (and blinding) way! So this made sense to me. The common belief is that these wolves are 'out there' somewhere, rather than the fact that the Bible tells us to beware (not out of fear, but to be aware) these wolves that come to us. Right to us. And something he was clear to point out is that they were wolves because they were teaching something that is contrary to God and His Word, yet likely believed they were right. He also made a point to make sure we knew that people with opposing doctrine were not always wolves. People make mistakes. We are human. He went on to say that he knew an Arminian (I had to look it up, honestly, as I had no idea what that was and I keep spelling it wrong) whose doctrine was Biblical and besides one thing (that they believed that God gave man free will to become saved by, whereas Calvinism is the belief in predestination of those who will become saved) that they had all the same doctrine. And we shouldn't let that get between us as though the other person is a 'wolf in sheep's clothes' because they aren't. Yet doctrine is important. Oh man, so much to unpack.

Anyway, that is what led to this post. I will spell it out, I believe in God giving us free will. I believe this because the Word says that He loves us all. He died for all. Not just for those He predestined, but for ALL. So much of scripture supports this. I also believe He calls us. Whether we answer that call I always believed was up to us in our free will. However, I read something that stood out to me today. It was in Romans 8:28-30 which says 

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."

I had never remembered seeing the word 'predestined' in my readings of the Bible before. But here it is! Those God foreknew, He predestined. Foreknew means that he knew beforehand... and looking at the previous verse it talks about those who love him. So, those He knew beforehand would love Him, he predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus who is to be the firstborn of all brethren. So, Jesus is the first. We who are saved are adopted and take on His name as sons of God. Since I also believe that God knows all things past, present, and future, this would make sense. He should know beforehand those who will love Him. Sure! Of course! And so, since He already knows that, to predestine them to be conformed to Christ makes sense as well, because they will love Him by their own free will at some point in the future. I don't think it is saying that God is choosing who will love Him, because He loves all as Jesus died for all so all could be saved (John 3:16 is one of the first verses we memorized as kids and I think it is good and pertinent). I believe He would want ALL to be saved and washed and cleansed. However, He foreknew those who would in fact love Him, and called them. It almost seems circular. I feel like it may be something that is hard for the human mind to fully comprehend, the scope of it may just be too big for us. Another couple of examples would be that David was said to have a heart after God (and he made mistakes in his life, but sought out the Lord and was repentant each time), but Pharaoh we are told had his heart hardened and wouldn't let God's people go. God knew these things in advance and used them to bring glory to His name. So what if it is 'both/and' rather than 'either/or' in terms of free will and predestination?

What if both Calvinism and Arminianism views are valid? What if they are just looking at the other group as dismissing something entirely because our minds cannot comprehend a free will that also has that predestination element because the two words are contrarian? We both believe God knows all things, right? He knows what will happen in advance, and knows those who will love Him and be saved. So what if He predestines those people? It says He foreknew them, and therefore predestined them to be conformed to the image of Christ. I believe the Bible is fully true. I believe we as people will often misrepresent without knowing it, we are fallible, we make mistakes. What if some of our initial beliefs about things are mistaken as 'either/or' when God intended them to be seen as 'both/and'? All I know is that I want truth. I want to understand better.

The Bible talks about how things that are impossible for man are possible for God. Luke 18:18-29 says

Then a certain ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’”

“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.

On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad, because he was extremely wealthy.

Seeing the man’s sadness, Jesus said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

But Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

“Look,” said Peter, “we have left all we had to follow You.”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times more in this age—and in the age to come, eternal life.”

So, in my understanding, it is impossible in our minds that free will can coexist with predestination because the words are contrary, but to God it is possible because He knows all things, past, present, and future. He already knows those who through their own free will are going to love Him, so He predestines them to be conformed to the image of Christ. My mind still finds this kind of contrarian, but also is seeing that it makes sense.

What if our feeble minds can only see the 'either/or', but God is saying it is 'both/and'? Am I God? Can I fully understand what He has designed? I cannot fully comprehend His ability to make possible the impossible. I can only believe because I am His, and He loves me and that is truth because He says so in His Word over and over. So the 'fights' in between the different 'isms' need to end. 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 says

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree together, so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be united in mind and conviction. My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: Individuals among you are saying, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that I do not remember if I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

We are dividing over these things! Things that are likely only a question in our own minds, and not the mind of God! If it is indeed that we have both free will AND are predestined, how much God must be shaking His head at us for our divisive attitude. Why do we have the isms? Why do we follow the Bible, but then also follow a specific person in history that said a thing, divided with the church over it, and now we hold another group in contempt for that one thing? The Bible is clear that we are not to be doing this! We are to be of one mind! We are to agree! So why not follow the Bible, follow Christ, and put little to no emphasis on these other doctrines?

Oh man, I have so much in my mind on this. What do you think? Is it possible that this is a human misunderstanding? If so, how do we come to terms with that and come together again? How do we make sure we are not of those who call out 'Lord, Lord' and yet are met with 'I never knew you, away from me you evildoers'? We must make our focus the Bible and ALL it's truth, not just the parts we like. Oh man, so much I want to say. So much that is off the topic of before. SO many things on my heart lately.

I guess my main prayer on this note is that we come together and not let some minor differences divide us. Discussions are great. Understanding truth should be our goal. Our main goal should be loving the Lord and knowing Him, teaching Him to our children and grandchildren (and others, of course, but my world is my home and family). And of course, keeping our minds open to where we may have had things wrong in our own beliefs when God's Word says otherwise. Just my two cents.... or maybe that is a lot more than two cents, haha. I can't even get pennies anymore! (Wait... does that make them more valuable? 😉)