Thanksgiving Is Upon Us!

1 Thessalonians 5:18 

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Busy making noodles for Thanksgiving day!

I love Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is a pure holiday with God at it's core. It is not about Pilgrims and Indians. It is not about food or football. It is about thanking God for our many blessings! 

Let me thank God publicly with you all.....

"Dear Lord, thank you for my children,

my two little boys and my little girl.

Thank you, Lord, for my husband.

Thank you for his love and companionship,

Thank you for the freedom he affords me

to stay at home and watch our children,

and make crafts and projects.

Thank you, Lord, for your word in the English language,

Thank you for preserving your word to every generation.

We can know what you really said,

Without any doubt,

You have given us everything we need to know.

Thank you, Lord, for a healthy body

Thank you for designing our bodies to heal,

injuries and infections, they are amazing!

Thank you for strong muscles so that I can lift little ones,

 and run, and hang laundry on the line.

Thank you for my clothes line, and my washer; 

new gifts this summer.

Thank you, Lord, for family and friends who love us, 

and help us, and share our burdens and our joys.

Thank you, Lord, for our home.

 Thank you for a place that is warm and dry and comfortable.

Thank you, Lord, for our Church, 

a place where we can be encouraged by believers,

to live and work for you. 

We are not alone in our service to you.

Thank you for fellowship!

Thank you, Lord, for the work you have provided my husband. 

His job and income are a blessing.

Thank you for the food we can put on our tables,

 and in our tummies.

Thank you for farmers who's labors feed the world. 

Thank you, Lord, for blessing the crops with sunshine and rain.

Thank you for our easy transportation,

Our vehicles, and fuel, and tires.

Thank you, Lord, for safety!

Especially, on our many, many travels this year.

Thank you, Lord, for all of the "little" things,

The daily answered prayers,

The flowers who's fragrance and color brighten my life. 

And, most of all, 

Thank you Jesus for loving the world,

But particularly, for loving me,

So much that you died to pay for my sins,

And offered me eternal life as a FREE GIFT!

I can't get over the wonder of it!

Thank you, Lord, for the many blessings you have showered on me!"

2 Corinthians 9:15 

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 

I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

Librivox Audio Books

Librivox is a website that offers free audiobooks for books in the public domain. This is any book published before 1924. These books have no copyright and are free to the public. All the books on Librivox are read by volunteers. Some of the volunteers sound like professionals and some, well,.....let's just say they can be hard to listen to.

If you don't have a book list of books you would like to listen to it can be hard to know what to search for when you go to Librivox.org. In this post I will share a few books that I have listened to recently and also places to find interesting titles.

When you go to Librivox.org you are able to search for books by author, title, or volunteer reader. If you find a high quality Volunteer Reader on Librivox, you can just click their name and everything that they have read aloud for the site will come up.

When you click on a book you would like to listen to, you have the option of listening to it online or downloading the audio book for offline listening later. You can also turn your screen off while you listen, which is nice for saving battery life on your device. Another nice feature is that you can listen to the audio book in the background while you go to other web pages, (as opposed to YouTube, which requires you to pay a subscription fee to play in the background.)

Here is a list of books I have listened to and links to the audio book on Librivox.org. At the website there is an overview of each book to give you an idea of what the book is about. I am not going to do that here just for time sake.

Five Little Peppers by Margaret Sidney

Did you know that The Five Little Peppers is a series? I didn't know this until I saw the books on Librivox.

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

I read this as a child and enjoy hearing it again recently.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

I never read this book growing up. I am glad I had the chance to listen to it this summer.

Thornton W. Burgess is an author I highly recommend for young children. My five year old likes to listen to his stories on Librivox. He and I both enjoy them very much.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

I haven't finished listening to this book, and therefore, can't give it my stamp of approval. That being said, this recording is superb, and the reader sounds like a professional!

I have been able to find good authors to look up through Lilacs In Springtime blog. I went to her blog and clicked on the Books tag. 

A few authors I found through Sarah at Lilacs In Springtime are:

Amy Le Feurve

I really enjoyed The Carved Cupboard and Bulbs And Blossoms by her.

Grace Livingston Hill

I haven't listened to any of her books. From what I have heard, Grace Livingston Hill wrote good, clean, Christian love stories. I am not one who enjoys love stories, which is why I haven't listened to any of her books. If you like those kind of books you should give them a listen on Librivox.

Pansy

Pansy is the pen name for Isabella MacDonald Alder. She was a prolific writer of Christian fiction. There are numerous of her titles on Librivox.

A few other book lists that I have found helpful are:

Ambleside reading list

Robinson Curriculum reading list

The link for the Ambleside reading list is for a page that is for the Ambleside books that are on Librivox. It is a very handy page. Someone has already gone through the effort of linking all the audio books. You don't have to do your own searches for the recommended authors and titles. You can just click the links and they take you straight to the audio books on Librivox.

The Robinson Curriculum Reading List link takes you to a web page that contains a very long list of books. I like the Robinson Curriculum book suggestions. I find one I'd like to listen to on the list and then go look it up on Librivox. I think all the books on the Robinson book list are in the Public Domain.

And my final recommendation for places to look for ideas for books to listen to on Librivox is:

Lamplighter Publishing

Lamplighter publishes old Christian books that are in the Free Domain. You can search for some of their authors and titles on Librivox.

If you have any old authors with books in the public domain that you would recommend, please share them with the rest of us! I would love to hear any of your suggestions!

Wait Upon The Lord

Isaiah 40:31 

 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. 

Does, "wait," mean sit around and do nothing?

A preacher once pointed out that, "wait," can mean, "serve." As in, "waiter," or, "waitress." 

We should be doing the Lord's bidding, much like a Lady In Waiting is doing the bidding of her Master. Jesus is our Master. He has given us much to do. He has commanded us to, "Occupy till I come."  He has commanded us to, "Preach the gospel to every creature."

Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." A preacher once put it this way, "If you aren't a fisher of men you aren't following Jesus." Jesus said he will make you fishers of men. He didn't say he might make you fishers of men. 

The point is, Jesus gave us things to do and, waiting on the Lord, is doing all those things. Waiting on the Lord is not like sitting on a bench and waiting on a bus. Waiting on the Lord is more like being on your feet, eager to fulfill His beck and call. Let's wait upon the Lord.

The following sermon is on the subject of being faithful stewards. It goes hand in hand with doing Christ's bidding. I have enjoyed it multiple times. I feel that there are many thoughts to mull over. This message has meant a lot to me. I hope you find something edifying within it, too.

Apple Butter Made With Crabapples

Crabapple Butter Recipe

10 lbs. Crabapples

1 Orange Peel (Optional)

4 cups Sugar

2 tsp. Molasses

2 tsp. Salt

1 TBS. +1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Nutmeg

1/2 tsp. Ground Cloves

1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

Wash the crabapples and cut off the stems and blossoms. Cook the crabapples and the orange peel, if you choose, in a large pot with a some water (about 2 cups), covered until the apples are soft and mushy (about 20-30 minutes).

 Use a Victoria Strainer to process the crabapples. This will eliminate the seeds, skins, and orange peel. 

Place the resulting apple sauce into a large roaster pan. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Cook the apple butter in a oven at 350° F. for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally, until the apple butter reaches the desired thickness. 

Pour the apple butter into prepared jars. Apply lids and screw bands. Water bath pints for 20 minutes.  This recipe yields a smidge over 7 pints. 

I have picked crabapples off of the tree at the park for 3 years. The first year I made crabapple jelly. The next year I tried crabapple butter. And apple butter is what I opted for this year, too. 

This is an Apple Butter recipe that I have modified from Chef Jon. To see his original recipe click HERE.

I am sharing this recipe because it has turned out so good and I don't want to forget how I made it when I want to make apple butter next year. 

Last year I cut the crabapples in 1/4ers. But this year I found that that was unnecessary. I cooked the crabapples whole without any issue. I just cut the stems off because I thought they might jam up the strainer. And, I cut off the blossoms because I thought the tiny hairs would come through the strainer. The hairs from the blossoms would probably be unnoticeable in the final product. I may skip that step next year and see how it turns out.

This year I  added two orange peels to the apples while they cooked, on a whim. I was very pleased with the how the flavor turned out. But, the orange peels are totally optional. If you have some, I suggest throwing them in. If not, that is fine. The apple butter will be great either way.

The amount of sugar in Chef Jon's recipe is much less than the amount in other recipes that I have seen. For example the Ball Canning recipe for Apple Butter called for 4 lbs. of apples and 4 cups of sugar. Chef Jon's recipe calls for 5 lbs. of apples and 2 cups of sugar. Apples are acidic enough to water bath safely without any sugar added. You don't have to worry about the safety of cutting back the sugar in the Apple Butter. I think the amount of sugar in this recipe is just right.