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. 😊

Out of Touch

This past Friday my phone just up and died. Out of nowhere, zero warning. It just so happens that it was the same day a big white balloon was spotted floating over our state. Coincidence? Who knows. But I digress. At first, I thought it was the battery, so I took it in to have the battery replaced. That wasn’t it. So that was a waste of fifty bucks. So I ordered a ‘new’ one and it should be here by Thursday. Let me just tell you it’s been a really long 3 days already. I am not ok. 

What this period of darkness has taught me is that we have become grossly dependent upon our devices. I can do NOTHING without my phone. I don’t wear a watch, so unless I’m home or in my car I have no idea what time it is. I can’t just shoot a text to let so and so I’m on my way or look up an address. I can’t look up that recipe I saved for dinner or research that thing I thought of the other day. I can’t just check my email or see how my friends are doing on the socials or watch TV on my Amazon FireTV. Because not only is that thing glued to my hand, it is the source of internet for my entire household when we are home. I have also realized that I can’t even listen to music because my iTunes library hasn’t been synced properly and all I have access to is Christmas music. I can’t even write a blog post! I’m currently using the TextEdit ‘app’ on my MacBook Air. And let’s not even get started on trying to get into websites and apps on your computer because they need to confirm your identity by sending you a code on, you guessed it, your phone. So I can’t even check my bank accounts. That’s pretty scary. Of course, I could call, but…. I don’t have a phone. 

Yes, of course, I could go to the library, my mom’s, or a handful of other places to use their Wi-Fi, but that’s not always convenient when you have other things to do at home, like testing some recipes or working on crochet orders. It’s in between batches or hand/wrist breaks that I catch up on emails, socials, etc.  Quite the conundrum.

I feel like the Lord allowed this to happen for me to come to a deeper realization of the deception and dependency to help encourage others to maybe step back and take a look and see just how dependent they are on their devices and to encourage everyone to take some time unplugged as often as possible.

It’s time to get back to basics, friends. Remember those? Many of you reading this will not. But people my age and older will remember the days of going to the library to research all the things, going to the video store to rent a movie (sadly those are gone, but save a few), calling your friend on the phone to catch up (which sounds really weird going from an introvert who would much rather just send a text), sending a handwritten letter, going out to the movies, reading physical books, taking classes for painting, pottery, knitting or crochet, etc. Meeting friends face to face for lunch or dinner, or even just a coffee. Have people over in your homes to enjoy each other’s company.

We really don’t need ALL the apps and to have the news smack us in the face every time we open it up. There is so much more joy and peace to be had without it. The enemy wants us to be dependent upon these things, upon him. He prowls around looking for whom he can kill and destroy (John 10:10). He has a done a splendid job thus far. Just look around you! 

Perhaps I will only use my cell phone as a modem for the internet for business purposes and remove all social media apps and other time wasters from the device and leave them strictly desktop access only. I don’t know. But I do know that something has to change and I am mad as hell about how dependent they have made us on these things.  

My advice to you: 

Unplug. Often. 

Read The Word. Daily.

Buy chickens. 

Plant a garden.

Buy local, USA made. 

Support your local farmers. 

Avoid big box stores. 

Buy & read out of print history books. 😉 

**Update: I have my ‘new’ phone and am back online. It was a long week!

The Clock Strikes Midnight

It’s October 31. For a few more minutes, anyway. And I’m over here like…

It may be Halloween, but it’s Christmas at the Cozy Cottage. We are raring to deck the halls this week. So stay tuned for some fun DIYs, recipes, and more!

Focus

That’s an F word that I struggle with. Anyone else? I have a majillion and twelve different things floating around my noggin. Sometimes writing it out helps. Other times, not so much. I can write it down, but then I don’t remember where I wrote it down or put the note or what have you. It’s a vicious cycle.

I’ve been busy. A good busy. I’ve been stressed. Not a good stress. The two don’t make a very good team. Truly, all I want to do is garden, bake, and crochet. And maybe blog.

Let’s start with the garden. It has been sooo much hotter and drier than normal that my garden is NOT at all thriving like it did last year. I know that I’m not alone and that people all over the country are struggling with the same affliction. This does not make me feel better. I’m fortunate that I don’t have a huge crop to manage in this drought. That I just have a small plot and a few pots. Or am I? At least I have access to a garden hose to make sure everything gets watered. But I tell you, the water from a hose does not feed the garden the same way. It just hits different. The heat has been ridiculous. We started June off with our late July-August temps and there is no end in sight. This will also make for a less than stellar fall. We are not amused. But we will count our blessings and look forward to all the blessings our garden will give us and look forward to the cooler weather coming.

Tonight, in fact, a friend and I are going to a lavender class! I’m pretty obsessed with all the lavender things. When we do get our farm, the plan is to have a field of lavender. It will be used for baking and household things such as soaps and what have you.

Here are a couple clippings from my garden. It just makes me so happy.

Fresh cut zinnias and lavender from my own sweet garden.

Next up is baking! I love baking. Have I told you that lately? Maybe I might have mentioned it. Once or twice. I can’t recall if I had officially announced it here on the blog, but I have officially launched my baking biz! Not at all a great time to start a business using some of the most expensive grocery items in the land, but here we are. Asking the Lord for His blessings and provisions over it. The Cottage Baking Co. is officially open for business. It even has its own spot on the Shop page. ^_^ I’m excited to see how it grows. I have high hopes for it. Most of all, it will be a lot of fun. Because if I’m not baking, I’m dying. And because Brady really wanted some cookies, I baked some chocolate chip cookies. I also tested a new cookie recipe to add to the menu.

Mocha Crinkle Cookies. Coming soon to the TCBC menu!

Good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies.

And crochet. I just want to crochet ALL THE THINGS (and bake all the things, but I digress). Now accepting donations of Hobby Lobby gift cards and yarn. So many patterns, so little time, so little yarn. Well, one wouldn’t say that last part if they say my armoire. But it’s not the RIGHT KIND of yarn. What?

Feed me tacos and call me pretty. Now available at Max & Penny Crochet Co!

It’s time for us makers to be getting busy for our fall/winter craft fairs and shows. We have one in November that I am preparing for. I want to make all the things, but need to be realistic about my time, supplies, and market. It’s such a catch 22. You want to make ahead enough things, but when you do, you don’t know if it will sell, and if it doesn’t, then you have all this stock. The struggle. The trick is to make just enough to sell out. 😉 If you know the secret sauce, lemme know. Kthx.

We are less than 3 weeks out to the August primaries here in Missouri. Christian brothers and sisters, we need to be out and voting in record numbers. We have a country to save! God did not call us to sit on the couch behind our keyboards complaining and praying. He called us to MOVE and pray. Pray and move. Get on your computers and research candidates and bills. Get OUT in your community and get behind constitutional conservative candidates and support them and help them in their campaigns. Get out in your community with other like minded people. There is strength in numbers. Literally. All it takes is 3% to stand up and say we aren’t taking it anymore! We do not comply! Check out the Patriot Academy and find a local class and get familiar with your country’s constitution. Get familiar with your state’s constitution. If you have any questions about any of it, feel free to send me an email and I will be happy to direct you to where you need to go or answer any questions. I am so passionate about constitution education that I became a constitution coach. I don’t get any thing for just telling you about it. Zero. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Just the peace knowing that someone else is learning the truth.

Time has gotten away from me and this post has gotten long. Until next time, friends! Stay cool, stay hydrated! Eat cake!

Home Alone

Home alone today. Brady’s off fishing with friends from church. I don’t even know what to do with myself! I have a list, though. But also, how often do I get a quiet house to myself for a day?

Answer? Not very often at all. Part of me wants to sit around watching MY shows and eat Bon Bons (do they even still make those?). Alas, I am on a weight loss journey so none of that will be happening. And as I said, I have a list. Also, I have a business to run.

It’s going to be like mid-summer this week. We are not amused. If you’re new here, I don’t do hot well. Warm, ok. Hot? Ner.

I have a ton of gardening to do, but I’m on hold until my refund gets here to get all my supplies. I also don’t do patient well. I want it right meow! I feel so far behind, but as I recall, last year we didn’t plant for another week, so I’m doing ok. And most of it I started from seed. I just have to breathe!

Our little berg had a city wide yard sale this past weekend. I scored some goodies. But the one I’m most excited about is my old wheelbarrow. I have been wanting one for a while now to use as a planter. Specifically, at least this year, for a little herb garden. I found it for $5! FIVE. FIVE DOLLHAIRS. Part of me just wants to leave it as is. The other part maybe wants to repaint it a fun red or a brighter yellow. For now, I’m just going to drill some holes in this puppy and throw some dirt in it. My other tough decision is whether to put it in the front yard or the back yard…. Too bad I’m indecisive. But how cool is it?! I’m so excited.

Now to find some more half barrels and such. Without spending an arm and a leg. I’m all about being frugal.

We’re doing a lot out here on our little ‘urban’ homestead. Much of which I’ve forgotten to photograph. I suck at the part. I’ll try to do better. We have one project happening that I will be sure to remember pics for. I’ll save that for another post.

In the coming weeks, we will also be adding a chicken coop! That will be another post in and of itself. Pretty freaking stoked about that! The biggest task on that will be to get the run built. It will need some repairs and some paint. And a few add ons, I’m sure. It was free, so I don’t feel like doing the work would be such a bad deal. Remember, I like frugal. Free is even better.

I think I’ll hang out a little bit longer and enjoy the quiet. Maybe read a bit. Then get to work on the list. I have a lot to read and brush up on for the upcoming elections and such. You know, like the U.S. Constitution and the Missouri Constitution.

Do you know the 28 Principles of Liberty? Look for a post on that coming soon, too!

Today’s verse of the day:

“fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭41:10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Happy Little Homemaker

I loved this blog post from over at Heart’s Content Farmhouse. I find myself doing more and more of the things that people are turning away from. I feel fuller. Freer. Do you know that I haven’t had a dishwasher for doing on 5 years now? Honestly, I don’t miss it. I feel like it’s more work having a dishwasher! Dishes piled up way more when I had a dishwasher because we couldn’t be bothered to empty the clean and replace with the dirty. It was a ruthless cycle. Now very seldom do we have a mountain of dishes and the sink is almost always empty.

Making everything I can possibly make from scratch. Finding ways to DIY whatever I can. Reviving vintage recipes and decor. Making everything old new again. I’ve not ever been much of one to keep up with the Jones’, though they are lovely people, I’m sure. At least my favorite Jones family is for sure!

I’m always on the hunt for what I can learn to do old school next. I find much joy in learning new skills and new ways of doing things. I am definitely going to make one lucky man a darn good housewife, if I do say so myself. You lucky so and so! 😉

How YOU doin’?

How can you find more joy in the homemaking?

Spring Has Officially Sprung!

Happy first day of Spring! Spring has officially sprung here at the cozy cottage. The bedding has been switched from red and white to aquas, pinks, and blues. The bunnies have hopped out of hiding, and the flowers are beginning to bloom. The chalkboard even got a fresh spring makeover (it needs a true makeover in the sense that I have been meaning to paint it for ages now).

The first day of spring couldn’t be more beautiful if we planned it. High of 72° and sunny is the expected forecast today. Perfect day to go to an open house for a 1903 farmhouse nearby! Also perfect for finally getting our garden turned over!

Here are a few glimpses of our cozy cottage in spring…

I love changing up the chalkboard for all the things!

Penny overseeing the makeover.

This hutch so beautifully displays my grandmother’s strawberry Corelle dishes & my darling vintage Pyrex! Oh, and a cute crocheted chocolate bunny.

Crocheted throw pillows can brighten or soften any space. Crochet = cozy

I do hope you enjoyed this little peek into our humble and cozy little cottage! Do you switch things up for spring?

Perpetual Christmas

I popped onto Pinterest to look for a recipe I was planning to make this week for Christmas. Does anyone ‘just pop onto Pinterest’? Asking for a friend.

But I digress…

When scrolling through my Merry & Bright board, I saw all the things I still want to do/make/create/experience. So I made a decision. I’m going to keep doing/making/creating/experiencing ALL THE THINGS until I get it the way I want it. This may take some time. I figure it will be done by the time Christmas rolls around again in 2021.

On that same thread, we went Christmas lights looking last night and came across the most festive subdivision I’ve ever seen. Talk about Merry & Bright! All the feels were had. I wish we could have Christmas lights all year long. So much joy and merriment in those lights. They just make my heart happy.

I think I just need to build a Christmas town. Whomever wishes to live there may do so. There is but one rule. You must love Christmas as much as we do and ache at the thought of taking all of the decorations and lights down enough that you want them up all year long.

By March I’ll probably be sick of it and pack it away. But I’m thinking I will definitely work on the doing/making/creating year long so that I will be ready for Christmas 2021 on November 1.

I just love ALL THE CHRISTMAS THINGS and feel shafted this year. We’re trying our best with what we have and the current circumstances. But it’s hard! This year has been hard. The true Spirit of Christmas lies in our hearts, yes. But part of the joy for me is shopping for that perfect gift, wrapping it thoughtfully and watching the recipient open it and love it. This year, it was all we could do to stay afloat and keep the lights on.

I’m making my son a stocking and I have one gift. I’m baking everyone else’s gifts. I wanted to make things for the whole family, but I had to fill that time with making things for other people to gift so that we could keep a roof over our heads. It’s what you do when you had to make the choice to save your mental health. Retail is not for the faint of heart, especially at Christmas time. Retail is definitely not for everyone. HA! Bless those that love it!

Making that choice left me no other option than to put everything into my makeup business. Crochet helps fill in the gaps. Despite the current and temporary struggles, I’m much happier and more at peace. And I think it shows.

So who’s down for Christmas Town?

Our Cozy Christmas Cottage 🎄