Thanksgiving at the Cottage Homestead

Can you believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving already? It seems to happen quicker every year. Today I thought I would share what we are doing to prepare and share some tips and suggestions with you!

Let’s talk Thanksgiving prep!
Make all of your casserole dishes, cover and pop in the fridge! Bake tomorrow. Saves a lot of prep time tomorrow!

Make and bake your pies today. Stick the pumpkin pie in the fridge and take it out tomorrow morning-ish.

Do whatever you can do today to save yourself the time tomorrow. The more you can do today, the more you can enjoy tomorrow!

I have 7/10 dozen rolls rising for customers to pick up this afternoon.

Two of the ten are staying frozen as requested by the customer. And the final one will be picked up on Saturday.

After these are picked up I will be making our traditional fudge and Krispies treats and making my pies. Usually I will just do two pumpkin pies, but decided to switch it up and make one pumpkin and one pecan. I’ve never had a pecan pie, so I’m super excited!

I’ll be picking up some local homemade cranberry sauce that a local homestead made. Sure, I can do it, but I wanted to support our local farmers and homesteads. It’s super important to keep them running!

I’ll also be preparing our cinnamon rolls for the morning. As is tradition for us, we like to have our cinnamon rolls, coffee, and orange juice while we watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I look forward to that every year.

Then tomorrow we will go to my mom’s and have dinner there.

We look forward to all the deliciousness that comes with tomorrow and the days after.

We have so much to be thankful for. We need to remember these things on the daily. We take so much for granted. I hope tomorrow you take the time to stop and reflect on all the blessings the LORD has bestowed upon you. His mercy and grace for starters! Thank Him for not giving you what you deserve. 🥴😬🫠

“And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.” 1 Chronicles 29:13

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! May you all have a blessed holiday with friends and loved ones. 🦃

Glean & Gather

We’re all about dreams and goals here, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. The biggest one we have currently is to be able to find land and build our homestead. Be it a home on the land or one that we build. It’s a HUGE dream for someone who doesn’t have the income, the credit, the savings, etc., to just go make it happen. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, now is NOT the time for buyers to get a deal. At least not one they won’t be house poor under. I mentioned this to a dear sister in Christ a few weeks ago and she reminded me that God can make all that happen. Because, He can do far more than we can ever ask or hope. Nothing is too big for God!

I love how He loves to put people and words in places and times when we need it the most, don’t you? Like my dear friend and sister in Christ. Like the stream of Scripture and devotionals written by women who’ve been there, done that.

This week’s theme seems to be another gentle reminder that God has it all under control. In one daily devotional, Truth for Life 365 Daily Devotions by Alistair Begg, he writes about Ruth, which just so happens to be one of my most favorite books of the Bible and one of my favorite women of the Bible. They, Ruth & Naomi, acted in faith. Ruth went out to glean in the fields of Boaz. She was faithful and dutiful and she found favor in Boaz’s eyes and she and Naomi never had to worry about it again. God provided.

In my Journey for Women, the ‘gather sticks’ devotional reflected 1 Kings 17 where Elijah is sent to a widow who was gathering sticks, presumably for her and her son’s last meal before they died. He instructed her to get him some water and make him a cake of the flour and oil that she had left. She faithfully did so, trusting in the Lord, and she and her son never had to worry about it again. God provided.

Are you sensing a theme here? Gleaning in the fields, gathering sticks. Dutifully doing your job, the mundane little every day things. How often do we grumble and complain about those everyday mundane little things? How we take them for granted? How often do we say we’re going to do something and then just not do it? Even the things, or especially the things, that God has called us to do.

“He assures her the Lord will provide for her needs moving forward. She just needs to gather her sticks. (see 1 Kings 17:8-16)

Sometimes God simply asks for us to do what we said we would do. Obedience to the small tasks is often what activates the blessings God promises to lavishly bestow on His faithful servants.” Author unknown, from Journey for Women (May 16, 2023)

Friends, we just need to gather our sticks and glean the fields as God has called us to do. Joyfully and faithfully, I might add. You know, since we are to do all things as if for Christ. All the mundane, little daily tasks are to be done joyfully. With faith. That’s hard to do when cleaning out the litter box. It’s hard to do when it’s outside your comfort zone. It’s hard to do when you’ve had a really long day and everything hurts. It’s hard to do when you didn’t get a good night’s rest. But we do it anyway. And we trust that the Lord will continue to provide for all of our needs. And some of our wants! I mean, He did put that dream on your heart. He wants to see what you will do with it and how you will respond to it. Will you give Him all the glory He is due? Or will you take the credit? I sure hope it’s the former. Because you can’t even open your eyes in the morning without Him!

Thank you, GOD, for waking me up today and giving me another opportunity to serve You and to give You glory in ALL things. Even the little, mundane, everyday things. Thank YOU for all the sticks and the barley. I trust You, LORD. Thank YOU for your faithful provision!

Be a Good Steward

Anyone else looking for other shopping alternatives? No? Just me? 👀

Over the last few years, things have shifted, in a big way, for me.

I’ve been more conscious of what we consume, in every way. I’m having to make my dollars stretch a LOT farther. I’ve had to let go a lot of things. I’m reusing and repurposing anything I can. I’m cooking and baking from scratch, gardening, getting chickens, etc. It’s a whole thing! 🌱🐓💐

Since I’m an America First 🇺🇸 kind of girl, I’ve been really conscious of spending my dollars with like minded shops/stores/people, as well as local.

It’s super important to me. God has bestowed upon me blessing after blessing and I must be a good steward of those blessings.

Thankfully, I’ve found one such place that checks many of my boxes.

• Made in the USA
• Clean & non-toxic
• Affordable
  …just to name a few

I am now working to swap all the gross toxic crap with healthier options. Under my kitchen and bathroom sink, in my medicine cabinet, including supplements! I’m really excited to get everything swapped over and share with you my thoughts on it. It’s all part of our journey in going from cottage to farmhouse!

A Simple Saturday

I thought today would be more like, ahhh yes, crochet and TV.

It ended up being more like, AHHH, fidgeting with printing things, a little bit of crochet, slow cooking a chicken for the week, making chili for dinner, visiting with a lovely friend & talking all things homesteading, running to the store, eating dinner, cutting up said chicken, saving bones for chicken stock, baking a cake, making frosting, frosting said cake, and making pie dough for tomorrow’s birthday dinner for my dad. AND doing all the dishes.

I am exhausted and my back hurts. But I’m happy. I got to do ALL the things I love to do. Except dishes. Those I don’t love to do. But, it gives me time to think on things, say little prayers, and just be thankful that I had a reason to dirty those dishes in the first place.

All in all, today turned out just like I’d hoped it would. Feeling accomplished and thankful.

Birthday cake for my daddy. 😊

Let Your Light Shine

One of my Easter devotionals this morning was about Nicodemus and Joseph, two Sanhedrin that had become followers of Jesus. 

It spoke of the enormous sacrifices they made in order to give honor and bury Jesus Christ. 

Those who were crucified weren’t given a proper burial. No. Rather they were discarded into unmarked graves beneath piles of rocks. There was no embalming process, no service, no grave marker. Nothing.

But Nicodemus and Joseph went beyond to honor him.  Joseph gave up his own tomb and Nicodemus offered up myrrh and aloes (a LOT) for embalming. Both of those are extremely costly sacrifices. 

Passover had just started so embalming Jesus would have made Nicodemus ritually impure. Having any contact with the dead would make them unclean. As a religious leader that was just unheard of! But he did it anyway.

Next, they could have risked their reputation. Seeing as their peers just murdered Jesus, the act of burying him and giving him due honor could cost them their stature, their jobs, and possibly their lives. 

This act of faith could have and did cost them much. It got me to thinking about how many leaders (specifically in the social selling industry) encourage you to not share your faith or talk about politics, etc. (“You don’t what to alienate half your audience!”) This morning it hit me so hard that THAT is of the enemy, the destroyer. He doesn’t want you sharing about Jesus, your faith, or the fact that salvation is an ask and belief away. Of course not! He wants you to be as far from it as possible. 

My response to that is this; if I don’t share my faith and my Savior, it’s HIM that I have to answer to. Not any one else. You aren’t going to lose out on business because you share the Truth. If you do, then it wasn’t your business to begin with. Because what is for you, will not pass you. Nothing can stop what God has in store for you! All things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  That means, Christian, you were called to this position, to use your platform, to use your testimony and experience, to do the will of the Father. 

Like in the video I shared yesterday from Alex Bryant, we are not to remain silent. About our faith, our political standings, or our convictions. It’s precisely how we got where we are today. It’s how we let everything just slip away. We must speak up. We must speak Truth. We must share the gospel. 

It’s time to stand up and speak out, Believers. It’s literally our job as Christians. So don’t hide your light under a bushel. Put it out there for the world to see! 

I don’t know about you, but when I stand before the throne on Judgment Day, I don’t want to hear, “Depart from me I never knew you.” *shudders* Ugh, that is the most horrifying thought! Nothing in this world scares me more than that. 

How about you? 

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,” Matthew 10:32

Garden Update! 🌱

Garden update!

Brought the babies out to harden them off and give them some suns and some warms. My gifted basil along with the seeds I started indoors. 3-4 of which are lavender! There are tiny little growths in there! I hope they keep growing. My lavender didn’t make it back for a 3rd year, unfortunately. Tomatoes, green beans (‼️), green peppers, sage, savory, dill, chamomile, and parsley.

My ‘salad bar’ is growing nicely! I wasn’t sure the red lettuce made it, but it’s growing! And I have baby spinaches!

My gifted elderberry are starting to leaf out!

Elderberry row & ‘salad bar’ (far left(

My gifted oregano in the large pot on the table will much enjoy this. It can probably stay out there since it’s already a fairly established

And this week we will be out there foraging in our own backyard for dandelion, violet, clover, and purple nettle (the good kind).

There is a lot of work to be done, but it’s finally warming up enough to be able to get out and get busy. After Easter, though.

This week I will be a busy baker as I prepare 5 cakes (plus our own!) and 4 dozen bunny buns (bunny shaped rolls.) plus our own!) for Easter orders. Plus I have a crochet order to get finished before Easter.

It’s fine! I’m fine! Everything is just fine! Because I GET to do what I love!

Plus, it’s Holy Week! 🙌🏻🌿✝️

So thankful for His amazing grace!

‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

It’s not even 2:00 and I have all of my sides prepped for Friday’s Thanksgiving dinner. 🙌🏻

Yesterday I made our fudge and Rice Krispies treats and pie dough.

I have yet to do my pies, dinner rolls, and cinnamon rolls. The rolls I will make up to the point where they would need to rest and rise and then I will stick them in the fridge until tomorrow morning and complete the process.

I made our stuffing from scratch this year and I am convinced I will never do it any other way from here on out. It’s all ready for the bird on Friday morning. The only shortcut I took was buying a loaf of French bread. I’ll attempt the French bread for Christmas.

I’m killing myself now so that I can enjoy the next two days instead of driving myself crazy with all the things. I want to be able to relax and watch the Thanksgiving Day parade and eat my cinnamon rolls and drink my coffee and orange juice.

Tomorrow we will have dinner at mom’s and on Friday I will host dinner at my house for my dad and Other Mother.

I’m so looking forward to all the things. Especially the stuffing and pumpkin pie. 😋🥰

May you all have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving! 🦃🍁

Happy 246th Birthday, America!

Happy Independence Day, friends! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Even today, with all the nonsense going on in our great nation, we are a FREE people. We are free to worship. We are free to choose. We are free to love. We are free to serve one another with grateful hearts. We are free to gather. We are free to speak our minds. We are free to disagree. We are free to protect our families and property (All God given rights, by the way). All because ‘some old guys’ stood up and said NO MORE to government control. We are free to do the same. Our founding documents make it so.

So while you’re hanging with friends and family, grilling up some brats and pounding back a few brewskis, and blowing stuff up, remember that. Remember that countless thousands died to protect your right to do so. Remember that these Founding Fathers of our GREAT nation did this for US. So that we would be free.

Remember that YOU are We the People!

The Sweetest Gift

You know how you love your Bible but know you probably need a new one, one with larger font…🤓🧐 but you have such a hard time giving up your old, comfortable, worn, marked Bible? This has been me for a few years now. I LOVE my Bible. All the notes, underlinings, circled scripture, marks, dog eared pages, coffee stains, tear stains, maybe even some Cheetos dust (don’t you judge me).

But then you’ve had your eye on this one particular Bible for a couple years. One that’s in one of your favorite colors, larger print, preferred translation. You saw it on sale one time and kicked yourself for not getting it then and haven’t seen it on sale since.

Then this new couple comes and joins your church. The lovely wife of the couple is in your Thursday night ladies’ Bible study. You noticed that she has the very Bible that you’ve had your eye on and you make a comment about it. You show this Bible to your mom because you have a birthday coming up wink wink.
Fast forward to Sunday morning and you hadn’t given it another thought.

But she did. She comes up to you with Bible in hand and tells you that she has thought about you since Thursday and would you please accept this as a gift and hands you said Bible. You tell her that she is so sweet and kind and she doesn’t have to do that. She tells you that it’s just her ’church Bible’ and that it’s nothing and she would love for you to have it if you would accept it. I graciously accepted it and hugged her big. What a sweet, precious gesture and gift from a sweet, sweet, gracious and Christ loving sister. 🥰

I just feel so humbled and blessed.

Dirt Therapy

Spent about an hour today digging in the dirt and loving on my little plant friends. Harvested some lemon balm and chocolate mint leaves and am having myself a delicious little cuppa. With just a splash of honey.

This would be so good as an iced tea, too! Doesn’t look like much, I know. But the flavor packs just the right wallop!