The Christian life is a battefield

Ceder Creek reenactment 2011 from this past Saturday

I am not saying this lightly, a friend of mine reminded me of this with her blog post today. So many times the enemy Satan tries to get us to believe that God is not winning the battle! He wants us to believe that he has triumped when we sin or when we get discouraged. ladies dont' believe it!!! God the God of the universe has triumped with Christs resurrection from the dead! What a hope, we are still alive, not dead, we are still fighting and fighting strong, but not strong in our own strength, only in the strength of God alone!

" If we would ripen in grace, we must live near to Jesus- in His presence- ripened by the sunshine of His smiles. We must hold sweet communion with him!"- Morning and Evening October 20th by Spurgeon

Ladies we must hold sweet communion with Christ, then only then can we have victory! Death is swallowed up in victory through Christ! Oh death where is thy sting?! We have victory praise God in Christ! Fight the good fight and don't do it in your strength, rest in Christs strength.
I am trying, I might fail sometimes, but Christ never fails, He will always prevail. 

 “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
 “O death, where is your victory?
  O death, where is your sting?”
 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 15:54-57 ESV)

In Christ,
Rebecca

What has been under my fingers?

 The start of a penny rug has been under my fingers these past 2 days. A friend of mine told me about this frugal and useful thing that you can do with old wool scraps and peices of old wool coats and pants and dresses. During the Civil War and even before the civil war women made these penny rugs out of scraps as useful items for their families. They recieved their name Penny rug because they would use pennies as templates to cut out the wool circles. They also were penny penching projects that took little money and were useful.

 They used these rugs as decorative table runners and cloths as well as cushions for chairs and also as floor rugs. I read one account online of a women making a new rug usually once a year to go in front of the front door in their home. This way they could wipe their feet before entering the home. They were also used as mats to put on the table underneath your candle stick holder or lantern so that wax would drip onto the penny rug instead of your lovely table. Mine will be decorative as well as useful at civil war events and at home to put hot dishes on top of, or a lantern, or just look pretty.

 My penny rug is made out of circles of old wool from many garments we have made over the 3 years we have done reenacting and also from modern wool projects. I barely even dented the wool scrap bag and I have a wool penny table runner. :)

 I am currently doing a blanket stitch around each circle on each penny. This will take a few more evenings and then I will attach them to an old peice of canvas for the backing. Its been documented they used old feed sacks or canvas or any other old peice of material for the back. They did not waste precious wool for the backing because it was precious and would only be used for things to be seen on the penny rugs.

I got all my documentation and information from the following sources.Early Style Penny Rugs and   Penny Rug crafts history of the penny rug and A Story book life blog and  few other places I could not remember. There were no actual pictures of antique penny rugs, just pictures of reproductions that I could find. But I am sure that many ladies would have done any design they had enough wool for or fit there fancy. So I cannot say my design is 100% accurate for the 1860s time period.

Well I am off to do more blanket stitching on my penny rug to finish it in time for saturdays reenactment as a sample of what these would look like while I demonstrate how to make one. Thanks to Mrs. Wilcox for sharing with me this wonderful craft!

In Christ,
rebecca

Making dinner at my house

I have been experiementing a lot I believe my family would say in the kitchen lately. i decided to make homemade hamburger buns a few months ago, but never got the photos up until now. I found the recipe over at heavenly homemakers blog. It was fun to cut them out almost like cookies, with a glass jar. I made sliders as i call them, they are mini hamburger buns, instead of the ginormous ones most people eat.

 I even made strawberry lemonade and it was delicous! Its making me want summer to come back looking at these photos from August. :)

 The fruit of our labor below. It was perfect with fruit salad. My dad was so pleased, he keeps on saying to everyone whenever the subject of hamburgers comes up that my daughter Becca makes the best sliders. ;) Glad you liked them Daddy! I can always count on you for an honest opinion, truly! Whenever something does not taste good he tells me. :) Which actually happens more than not.

Next I will be post pictures of cookies and bread. Coming soon! Baking is a favorite past time of mine and I plan to now actually take pictures of the food after I make it. Usually we love how it tastes we eat it all before I remember to take pictures. :)

In Christ,
Rebecca

My Colonial outfitt

 Now that I finally have access to all my pictures since they have been transfered to my new laptop I thought I would do a proper post about my colonial(1771-1776) outfit. I have worn it many times for french and indian and american revolutionary war reenactments as well as volunteering at a historical 1771 farm. Last time I wore it was in August volunteering at the local farm which has reenactors live like a family would have in 1771. I made this outfit I guess in august and september of 2010, but never got around to doing a proper photo shoot of the garments. So here you go! :)

I used white linen for the gown which I dyed lavendar for the gown using the J. P. Ryan Pattern.  I could not find any linen online that was the color I wanted, so I dyed it myself. They would have done this anyway, so I did. But yes its not a period dye, its rit dye, but hey it works. :)

I sewed the whole dress by hand except for the indside seems, so all those pleats in the skirt are by hand. The neck kerchief is cotton, but I plan to make a linen one soon when I volunteer again or have another event to attend. The grey petticoat is also linen and I did not use a pattern for it, I just pleated the skirt into the waist band. A good book about this can be found here, it has diagrams and drawings of all kinds of garments form the period. When my sister and I and are friends and family went to Williamsburg for our graduation in 2010 we were also able to study many garments. We found the book on that trip as well.

My cap was made by the lovely Sarah Jane over at Romantic History. She was having a sale of many of her own garments she had made for living history and I jumped on the cap because I was running out of time before an even to make one actually. In the future I will probably make a second one to have one hand if I volunteer more at the farm.

The apron is also linen and I just made it up. :) I saw pictures and drawings and just cut out a rectangle and sewed it into a waist band. Its pretty easy. I am not wearing shoes as I do not have period shoes yet. I have been using my civil war boots to tell you the truth. I don't do much colonial reenacting so I was not willing to invest the money in a nice pair yet. I got a thrift store pair for the farm since we do a lot of messy work.

I will be posting photos of my new regency gown as well soon once I can do a photo shoot. I finished it in September in time for us to do the Defenders day reenactment at Fort McHenry. So pictures coming soon! You will see lots of stripes and lots of blue! Blue is my favorite color. :)

In Christ,

Rebecca

Don't Curl Up in a ball.....

when you don't want to deal with conflict whether it be inside your soul against the flesh or with other people! This picture reminded me of the many times these past years that I have just sat in the corner curled up in a ball and given up instead of dealing with the conflict. When someone asks you whats wrong when they are trying to help don't say," nothing." Deal with it!

"God's highest purpose is not to make you comfortable, wealthy, or happy. If you have put your faith in him, he has something far more wonderful in mind- he plans to conform you to the likeness of His Son! He began to change you the day you put your trust in him, and he will continue this process throughout your life. Coflict is one of the many tools that God will use to help you develop a more Christ-like character. To begin with, he may use conflict to remind you of your weakness and to encourage you to depend more on him(2 Cor. 12:7-10). The more you rely on his grace, wisdom, and power, the more you will be imitating the Lord Jesus(Luke 22:41-44)." - from page 37 in The Peace Maker by Ken Sande

In Christ,
Rebecca

The Story of my Laptop and some Links

Inspired by another blogger I will be doing a post with some favorite links. You see my old computer has been slowly but surely dieing for some time now. It is about 7 years old. It was my first ever laptop and first ever computer when I was 13, so my dad has been slowly since yesterday getting all my files and pictures transfered from the old computer to the new laptop he bought me yesterday. Yes I have a 2011 laptop!! I must say its awesome and I never thought I would have a modern computer anytime soon, the Lord blesses us and surprises with these things sometimes. :) My old laptop had some funny quirks, such as the k key was missing, so I always had to copy and paste a k from somewhere on the internet whenever I wanted to use a k in a word! lol! I knw I should have called dell and gotten it fixed, but I lived with it for about  year or 2. :) It also seemed to be like an older person, since it was old it breathed real heavy like an older person would like it was going down real soon. haha So I had to get a fan for it to keep it from heating up too much and then exploding.

So long story short, I am typing to you on my HP pavilion g series laptop. So once all my photos are transfered from my old laptop to this one I can start sharing more photos from the past few months with you all.

One thing I have been doing a lot of is baking! Some of you might have seen my statuses on fb that I want to start my own baking business out of my home. I have been experimenting a lot ad found that I have a bread recipe I beieve would work for selling bread. I also have been making a lot of gluten free recipes because my sister has finally found out her allergy to gluten is what has been making her not feel great for a while now. So here are a few recipes I will share with you I have tried and loved these past few weeks. Sorry there are no photos of my food I made, but it got eaten too fast!

First, I love this ladies blog for gluten free foods, she has everything you could imagine that would not be gluten free, but it is gluten free.

We absolutely loved these chocolate chip cookies and these breakfast cookies. I also made these cupcakes, except with cream cheese frosting and into a round layered cake instead of cupcakes for my sisters birthday in september. I also put strawberries on top to decorate it with a friends help. It was too much fun! :)

I discovered this  blog a while ago when I posted about those bagels I made, which was my first recipe I tried from this blog. I love love love all her stuff, because it all whole grain and focused on putting real foods into your mouth. :)

The recipe I really really love from this blog is her honey whole grain bread recipe ! Its the best bread recipe I have ever used, it never comes out bad! It always rises nice and high and the dough is easy to knead. But let me tell you a secret a friend recently told me about kneading bread by hand, don't use flour to put underneath the dough and on your hands so it won't stick, use olive oil! I never would have thought of this, but since you are not adding more and more flour your bread then can rise better because it won't be too heavy from all that extra flour. So do try it, its really helped me in my bread making! :) I plan to use it for my baking business bread and of course I will be asking her permission as its her recipe. Hoping she won't mind. :)
I made 12 loaves this past week and gave 8 of them to friends and we kept the other four. I also made parmesan bread sticks using Sue gregg's recipe in her baking with whole grain cookbook. But instead of using her bread recipe I used the heavenly homemakers recipe and did what sue gregg said for topping the bread sticks.

I am still knitting away on that nubia for the reeactment this saturday and Sunday. I will post pictures when its finished.

Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

I have been singing these verses yesterday and this morning in my head. " Search me O God and know my heart, try me and see if there is any grievous way in my me, and lead me in the way everlasting. " Psalm 139:23-24

In Christ,
Rebecca

Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down!

I was reading through the next Psalm as I have been reading a Psalm or two each day for my Bible study along side 1 Chronicles and Acts. I read Psalm 95 and the song Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down came into my head. This song is so soothing and comforting! I just had to share it with you all.

Psalm 95

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;

let us fmake a joyful noise to gthe rock of our salvation!

2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

3 For the Lord is ia great God,

and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;


let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!


7 For he is our God,


and we are the people of his pasture,


and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

9 when your fathers put me to the test

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

10 For forty years I loathed that generation

and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,

and they have not known my ways.”

11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

A view into my day

Hi everyone!

I have been sorting through photos from the past 4 months June through September and realized I have some catching up to do. So from now on I will try and post a few times a week until I can catch up on all that you all have missed. :)

For today here are some photos of one of days this past week. I had seen another lovely blogger Miss Linda do this and I enjoyed seeing what her day was like. So here is a sort of diary of my life on a typical day.

I forgot to get more photos in the evening so you will have to be content with just commentary. :)

 

In the morning I love to get out of "photo album" which I have turned into a memory verse card holder. I put all of verses in there I want to memorize on index cards. I have to say that I have not been doing this lately, but I have been going over verses I have memorized in the past in the mornings. This method is handy to bring with you anywhere as well!

" So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of Wisdom."-Psalm 90

I have been reminded more and more by the Lord and friends and my family that we need to remember that this life is but a vapor and so short. The Lord is at hand and He is coming again soon. Its reminded me as well to get a heart of wisdom, but not earthly wisdom that comes from myself or others, but the wisdom of the Lord.

Then I glanced over at my dresser and realized even more that I am an adult now and really have grown in the past year. I have the responsibility of getting things from the store for my mom by driving. I also have a cell phone of my own now, it updated this of the weather before I started my Bible study. Its a great feature as I am always wondering about the weather.

The red journal underneath my phone is my prayer/Bible study journal which I use each morning to write down verses I am memorizing or really want to ponder throughout the day. I have always had a journal ever since I was 13 I guess and now I love writing in them. I hope someday my children and their children will be able to glean some wisdom from the Lord from my scribbling. :)

Acts 18:9-10 " Do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." 

Then I studied chapter 18 in Acts and chapter 19, I have been just really loving reading Acts. Its so encouraging and challenging!
In chapter 18, Paul was afraid to share the Gospel for fear he would be abused and persecuted again, but God said to him in a vision do not fear! How much more then should we not fear as we are not getting beaten and put in prision in the US as Paul was in Rome and other provinces. The Lord has shown me more and more that I need to share the Gospel because the days are coming when the Lord will come again. We should not hide and not tell of the hope that is in us. I must say many a time I do not share the Gospel because I am afraid, but God says do not be afraid, and we have many Christians in our cities in the US, probably more than Paul had, but he still preached the Gospel. How much more should we? These were my thoughts all day yesterday.  I felt as though I really have not been doing what I should do as a christian, I have felt as though I have not verbally shared the Good News enough.

Then I also read from Psalms 92:4-5 " For You Oh Lord have made me glad by your works; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. How great are you works Oh Lord! Your thoughts are so deep."


I read this and remembered that yes I should be joyful always because My God's works are so so great! His thoughts are so deep, too deep for me even to understand, but He wants me! His steadfast love never ever wavers for me His child. He loves me with a love no one else can ever love me with! That is a promised hope, its not a hope that is unsure, its sure!! My God loves me with a steadfast love. He will never forsake His bride!

Then I went on a run, I tend to pray while I run now. I used to listen to my ipod, but it has basically died. So now I use the time to pray and remember my God who is always with me. I feel more at peace this way and remember that He will protect me while I run through the neighborhood. Yes I do wear pants when I run, I have found its easier and warmer in the winter months. I could wear a skirt, but it gets in my way, so pants it is. I wear loose sweat pants, not so pretty, but warm and great for exercise. I have been convicted by the Lord in the past few years that its definitely not a sin to wear pants and for some things its necessary.

When I came in from my run I was cold, but at the same time hot, I hate that. But it was worth it to get a good 30 minutes of exercise. I love earl grey tea, ever since I went to England in 2009 with my sister and Jennie Chancey on the England tour I have fallen in love with the taste of tea. I have it most every day in the fall and winter months. Earl grey is my favorite type!

For my early meal I wanted some scrambled eggs made in my cast iron skillet, but I had neglected to clean it the previous day. So I thought I would do a little tutorial on how to clean your cast iron in this post. Yes this post will be a little long. :)

I clean my cast iron with sea salt, I was actually reading a magazine called Reminisce and it has stories and things that lots of elderly people send in about how they lived in the 30s-70s when they were children and young people. One lady did an article about cast iron and I tried what she said to do, which is use no soap or water to clean your cast iron! I had never heard of this, I was always using water, but no soap with a scrubber to clean it. But she said that salt has properties that are great for cleaning, so its great for clean cast iron.

So what I do is I get a dry paper towel, pour some sea salt in the dirty pan and scrub. If you have a lot of stuff that is stuck on use some sort of scrubber to get it off, but no water or soap, just the sea salt.

And here you have it! I beautiful and clean cast iron pan. :) Not using water or soap helps it to stay smooth and that way you have an anti stick coating on your pans. Its lovely isn't it! :) Cast iron just is so fun to me! I love using it and taking care of it. :)

Now if you are not going to use your cast iron pan after you clean it up, then re-season it, this means re-oiling it. I use coconut oil to oil my pans, but you can also use canola oil or vegetable oil. But coconut oil is the best I believe health wise. We only buy extra virgin, here a photos below. :)

We get it in a huge bucket way bigger than the one in the photo. We use this little bucket for storing small amounts in the house. We store all of our bulk foods in our garage. If you want to know more about getting different whole grains and other organic foods in bulk shoot me an email here- ra.stricker@gmail.com

I only use about half a teaspoon full of the coconut oil and then you melt it in the pan. Its a solid at room temps, but is a liquid at higher temps.

Here is photo of what the coconut oil does when it melts, it was hard to get a photo for some reason. But its basically a clear liquid. Then you can whatever you want, I did eggs.
My tea and my bread and eggs, yummy! Then I practiced piano for church on sunday, I am one of the pianists for the services at our church. I did not get photos of that, but I did get photos of my music for my voice practicing and from my lesson. I had to drive to my lesson as well, so I listened to my favorite group Selah in the car.

Above, on of the songs I am studying for my college vocal lessons. Its so beautiful! This song can be found in the Celtic Woman songbook. Its my favorite song I am learning right now.
Here are some photos from my lesson, the exercises I must do daily to become a better singer. They are difficult, but fun! :)

 These are from the Little Book Cocone exercise book. I also do the Big Book Cocone exercises as well. I have also been using Italian Arias as well to sing the song Alma Del Core, which is my most difficult exercise right now I believe! There are some high notes in it. :)

This one is my favorite I believe because its easier than number 8! Its funny that 8 is harder than number 9 for me. :)

I always write out a to-do list for each day or else I am lost not remembering what I need to do.

 After I do some more things on my to-do list I read this lovely book Womanly Dominion. Its so good!!! I can't put it down, its so good. I read about Abigail and how she was a woman who did not just sit and knit she was intentional for the Lord. She did not say oh the Lord will do that, she got up and moved in order for the Lord to do what He wanted to do in her life. We as women should not just be sitting around we need to be active in our faith pursuing God's will for our lives!

I also uploaded this wonderful program to my parents computer, because the family computer is right next to the piano. So I can just scoot on over to the computer and type of the music after I compose it. I believe this will be better than having to go up to my room upstairs when I have a tune that needs to be written up. So I uploaded that before I went to my lesson and after I did some music practicing and reading. I also heaped up more compost outside and remembered the gardens need tending today. Then I helped with some more chores in the house before leaving for my vocal lesson.

 My sister made us all chocolate milkshakes after dinner. It was so yummy!

In the evening Dad taught us from the WORD from Ecclesiastes and I learned a lot. I wore those earrings as well.

I changed into my princess night gown I call it since it has elaborate embroidery all over it and its red.

I did some knitting on my nubia which is a type of scarf they wore in the civil war in the fall/winter months. We have a reenactment in a week or so and I want to get it finished in time. I do that while we watched The Polar Bear king, a great movie from my childhood. It was instant on netflix which is always a plus not having to wait for it to come in the mail. My sister did some sewing a civil war dress she is sewing for a customer and my mom watched as well. Then we all went to bed. So that was my day! Sorry this is so long, but I thought it would be fun to give you glimpse into my day. :)

In Christ,
Rebecca