Scarlet Thread

 

Joshua 2:18+19

Behold, when we come into the land,

thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: 

and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee.

And it shall be, that whosoever 

shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.

Looking at this Gladiolus I kept thinking of the scarlet thread from the Bible story about the spies. That scarlet thread saved Rahab's life and the lives of her family members. 

We can be saved by a "scarlet thread," too. The blood of Jesus is our scarlet thread. His blood will attone for our sins. If we place our faith in Him, He covers us in His own righteousness.

His blood will protect our soul from judgement. Hell is the judgement we deserve because of our sins. When Jesus's blood is applied to our account we are shielded from this judgement.

Dear Reader, have you trusted Jesus as your Saviour? Do you believe His blood is sufficient to save your soul? If you have never before trusted Jesus as your Saviour, please do today! 

He will save you. He said, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

Trusting Jesus is easy. Easy as taking a drink of water.

Easy as walking through a door. Jesus said,

"I am the door: by me if any man enter in,

 he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, 

and find pasture."
John10:9 

Easy as eating a piece of bread. Jesus said,

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

John 6:51

Jesus did all the work for your salvation. He offers you eternal life as a gift. Who pays for a gift? The giver does all the paying. If the recipient has to pay for the gift it ceases to be a gift. Not only does the Bible describe salvation as a gift, it describes it as a free gift, just to emphasize the fact that He paid the price and we pay nothing. Nada. Nothing. Zilch.

Romans 5:18 

Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Jesus offers mankind eternal life, but He doesn't force anyone to take this gift. The individual must receive it or reject it. Do you receive this gift? Do you believe the record of God?

He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself:

 he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; 

because he believeth not the record 

that God gave of his Son.

And this is the record, that God hath given to us

 eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

1 John 5:10+11

If you don't believe Him you are calling God a liar. God says that Jesus sacrificed His perfect blood to attone for your sins. Do you believe Him, or not?

Jesus died for everyone and that includes you! 

1 Timothy 4:10

 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

I will leave you with this one last thought:

God loves you so much that he'd rather die than see you go to Hell.................

And he proved it on the cross.

Romans 10:9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the

 Lord Jesus, 

and shalt believe in thine heart

 that God hath raised him from the dead,

 thou shalt be saved.

Skin Salve

In this blog post, I tell the story of my first experience making herbal oil infusions and how I used the infusions to make a healing salve.
Come along to hear all about it!

 I am using these jars of calendula infused oil and plantain infused oil to make a skin salve.

I hope it will be a good recipe for diaper rash and minor skin problems like bites and scrapes.

Calendula has antibiotic properties and promotes healing of the skin. It is real good for cold sores and chicken pox lesions.

Plantain is one of the best herbs for stings. Anytime I am stung by a bee I pick the closest plantain leaf, chew it quickly, and smear the crushed leaf onto the sting area. It relives the pain immediately and keeps the tissue from swelling. It really works! Without the plantain I swell up for two days and itch really bad after the swelling has gone down.

Here is the story of these herbal infusions that I have:

Three years ago, back in 2019, during the summer I grew calendula. I picked the flower heads to dry. By the end of summer I had a good quantity of flower heads. I learned about using the calendula to make an oil infusion to be used in an ointment. I decided to try this technique. I, also, wanted to make a plantain oil infusion because I knew plantain's properties would compliment those of calendula flowers.

I bought some organic cold pressed extra virgin oil especially for this purpose. I dried a bunch of plantain leafs and packed them into a quart jar. I packed my calendula flowers into a pint jar. Then I poured the oil over the herbs.

I remember thinking about how long I would have to wait for the infusions to complete. It would 8 weeks before I could use them. So long!

But, the time flew by. I had other projects to be working on and a baby to get ready for. One thing led to the next. The baby was born, a few months later we moved, that whole year (2020) we were traveling for work, once we got back home we settled into life. I was busy. There was another baby to get ready for, a 1st grader to homeschool, dresses to sew,.......

The oil infusions got pushed to the back of the cabinet and we're forgotten.

Three years later I am finally pulling them out and putting them to use. I am so excited to be making my first ointment with home grown herbs!

This is my recipe:

2 1/2 cups of Plantain Infused Oil

1 1/2 cup Calendula Infused Oil

1 cup Raw Bee's Wax

1 T. Shea Butter*

*The Shea butter was sent to me as a sample when I ordered my bee's wax. I didn't have a use for it and threw it in with the melting oils just to put it to good use.

Melt the oils and wax together, gently.

Pour the hot mixture into clean jar or containers.

You can see my messy work station:

I plan on using this ointment for a lip balm, chapped skin, bug bites, minor cuts and scrapes, razor burn, and diaper rashes. I got some of this ointment on my hands while I was working with it and I can tell you that it is definitely moisturizing!

Initially, I thought the extra time would make these infusions more potent, but the more I think about it, I wonder if they lose thier efficacy over time. I guess I will just have to experiment. At any rate this ointment is going to be a great lip balm and moisturizer.

Can you relate with how time marches on? I can hardly believe that three years have gone by!

Paw Paw Time!

 We went to the Paw Paw Grove this week 

 to see if there were any ripe fruits. 

 We found a few!

You can read about our Paw Paw harvest in 2020

in a blog post HERE.

Paw Paws are native to the North American continent.

The fruits have a very tropical taste and aroma.

They are a special treat!

This is the time of year when many 

treats are being harvested.

Apples, pears, and grapes,

are a few that come to mind.

It has been several years since I have had

any local pears or grapes.

Genesis 1:11 
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass,
 the herb yielding seed, 

and the fruit tree yielding fruit
 after his kind, whose seed is in itself, 

upon the earth: 
and it was so.

Have you been busy with harvesting

or preserving?

Let me know your favorite fruit!

Seed Saving

I have been saving seeds from the plants in my garden. I have looked up information on collecting seeds. Hopefully, I am doing it right. It will be interesting in the Spring to see how well the seed I have saved germinate. And then next summer to how the fruits or flowers compare to their parents.

I have many Bachelor Buttons that came up voluntarily. I collected a bunch of seed heads. 

Bachelor Button Seed Heads

I am mixing together several different herb and flower seeds as I collect them. I think it will be fun to have a mixture to sow in an area of the yard. I have cilantro, dill weed, bachelor buttons, calendula, borage, and cosmo in my mix thus far.

Calendula seeds develop on the maturing flower head in a visually interesting way. The shape of calendula seeds are quite unique, too.

Looking directly down at a seed head of calendula.

Calendula seeds 

Borage usually self sows very readily. I have included borage seeds in my mix just as insurance.

Borage

I have these gorgeous rust colored sunflowers that I am saving seed from.

Also some ordinary sunflowers.

This sunflower was still opening up one morning.
Can you spot the sleeping bee resting on the flower?

I heard that once the rays have fallen off of the sunflower blooms the heads can be cut and dried in a paper bag as the seeds continue to mature. The seeds look quite under developed at this stage, but I hope they turn out to be viable.

This is my first time saving tomato seeds. I have Black Krim, Rutger, and Roma varieties.

I followed the fermentation method for saving wet seeds with my tomatoes and my cucumber.

I wanted to save pickling cucumber seeds. I don't remember the exact variety of cucumbers that I planted. I didn't grow anything that would cross with cucumber so, I'm sure the seeds I saved will grow some kind of cucumbers.

Once the seeds were clean and dry I put them in labeled, paper envelopes for storage.

Do you save seeds from your garden? 

Onion Pack For Congestion

 

I had to make onion packs this week for my sick baby. This is an old home remedy for congestion. It helps break up the congestion and get the phlegm moving.

When I was a new mom I was at a loss for coming up with a way to put this on a person. I tried putting the onion on the skin and wrapping a scarf around the chest. It didn't work.

This works:

Dice about a 1/4 cup onion and place in the middle of a flannel rag or cloth napkin. Sprinkle with ground mustard. 

Go easy with the mustard it can be irritating on the skin. Ask me how I know....

Fold the napkin strategically encasing the onions.

I fold it so that one side of the pocket is only one layer of fabric thick. You can see how the onion juice easily soaks through on that side. 

I place the thin side against the skin and then safety pin the pack to the inside of the patient's shirt.

Make sure when you safety pin the pack on, that you go through all the layers of the pack that way it will stay neatly folded and doesn't spill onions everywhere.

I also had to mix up some garlic infused oil for earaches. This is my favorite remedy for earaches.

I mix about 1 TBS. Olive Oil with 1 freshly grated garlic clove. I put one to two drops of this garlic infused oil down the ear 4-6 times a day. Wiggle the ear a little to make sure the oil goes all the way down. You can use a small piece of a cotton ball or wadded up bath tissue to plug the ear and keep the oil from running out and staining pillow cases.

Lavender essential oil (diluted in a carrier) wiped on the outside of the ear hole has been very soothing, in my experience. I don't recommend that essential oils be put into the ear canal. Keep the essential oils on the outside!

I like to use a blend of Laurel Leaf, Eucalyptus, Peppermint, Melaleuca, Lemon, Cardamom Seed, Ravintsara, and Ravensara essential oils, also, wiped on the outside of the ear hole. This helps take the edge off of the pain. I use the dōTERRA Breath® blend (diluted in a carrier). 

There is a cool company that sells knock off Young Living and dōTERRA blends. HERE IS A LINK. I have never tried them or done a side by side comparisons. But, I am sharing their site because they are much cheaper. And, I am not an essential oil cult member, even if I am a dōTERRA consultant. ;)

I hope you are all staying well! Let me know if you have any tried and true congestion and earache home remedies! :)

A Bunch of Drying

 I've been drying some of summer's bounty the last couple months.

The children and I picked pineapple weed all throughout June. We were able to collect almost a full quart jar of dried pineapple weed flowers. I blended them with mint and lemon balm for tea.

The rest of the herbs and flowers from my yard, that can be used for herbal infusions, I have been collecting and blending together. 

There is a little borage, calendula, mint, lemon balm, lavender, and rose petals. I added some anise seed and ginger. I'm calling this Yard Blend Tea. :)

From our neighborhood community garden I have all this basil to dry.

These hot banana peppers are from my garden. I did not feel like pickling them. I decided to hang them and once they're dry maybe I can grind them into some kind of chili powder. ? I have never done anything like that before. Have any of you ever dried banana peppers? I could use some advice!

Psalms 104:14
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,

and herb for the service of man: 

that he may bring forth food 

out of the earth;

Beautiful Flowers!

 

These beautiful flowers made up a bouquet that I put together a few weeks ago. 

I love being able to have fresh flowers to beautify our home! I was not always so, though. As a teenager I thought pretty things were just a vanity. I considered growing flowers a waste of soil that would be much better utilized for growing vegetables: food for people to eat. I had a very practical mindset. Putting effort into being pretty was a frivolous waste of time and resources.

I grew up. I learned to appreciate beautiful things. I realized there is value in beauty. God made beautiful flowers, and sunsets, and rainbows and mountain ranges. He made them beautiful for more than practical reasons. Imagine if he made all the flowers the same color. They would work. They would attract pollinator insects. They would be able to develop seeds and reproduce. The flowers could have been all the same. But God showed us that He values beauty and variety.  

Ecclesiastes 7:29 

Lo, this only have I found, 

that God hath made man upright; 

but they have sought out many inventions. 

Luke 12:27  

Consider the lilies how they grow:

 they toil not, they spin not; 

and yet I say unto you, 

that Solomon in all his glory 

was not arrayed like one of these. 

Key Lime Pie | Double Batch

 

Key Lime Pie was Mr. In The Mid-west's birthday request this year. I had never made a Key Lime Pie before. I read several recipes and watch a few video recipes. What I ended up doing was a combination of several recipes and (sort of) a triple batch split between two pies. 
It turned out to our liking, so I figured I better write it down before I forget what I did to make it. :)

Graham Cracker Crust

3 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs, ground fine
10-12 TBS. Melted Butter
1 TBS. Molasses
1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon 

Blend the graham crackers in a food processor. Add sugar and cinnamon; mix to combine. Split the graham cracker mixture between two pie plates. Melt the butter and molasses; then pour half into each pie plate with the graham cracker crumbs.

Mix together the crumb mixture and the butter mixture right in the pie plates. Press the crumbs into place evenly over the bottom of the pie plate and up the sides. Use the bottom of a measuring cup or glass ramekin to pack the crumbs together very firmly.
Bake at 350° F. for 15 minutes or until desired level of toasting is achieved.
Remove the crust from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix filling ingredients:

Key Lime Pie Filling

2 cups Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice (it took almost 3 lbs. of limes to get 2 cups of juice.)
2 TBS. Lime Zest
3 (14oz. each) Cans Sweetened Condensed Milk
8 Egg Yolks
10 drops Natural Green Food Coloring (optional)

Mix the filling ingredients with a whisk. 
Pour into two graham cracker crusts.
Bake at 350° F. for 30 minutes.
Chill over night. 

Garnish with lime zest, lime slices, and whipped cream.
Serve with more whipped cream.
Enjoy!