over at my blessed life they are having a giveaway for a $35 gift card to marie-madeline studio... my new favorite website!!! check it out!

giveaway!

awhile ago i found this great website with pre-made dresses, patterns and material...
marie-madeline studio

and this week they are giving away a fat bundle! enough to make a quilt top!!

hop on over there and check it out!

this blog is going to be taking a LONG break...
to follow my mission adventures go to

INDIANA ADVENTURE

passionate homemaking giveaway!

Over at Passionate Homemaking (one of my favorite natural living blogs) Lindsay is having a giveaway for SOAP NUTS! We're really into alternative anything and I have always wanted to try these out!!

Hop on over to passionatehomemaking.com to enter her contest and read about this amazing alternative to laundry soap!! :)

our prayers are answered!!!!! :)

Well, I probably had a couple of people (if anyone reads this blog) wondering what in the world had happened to us with the previous post of "please pray for us!". Yesterday we finally got our answer and all is well!!!

When our first goat had her c-section, we had her blood drawn to test and see if she had CAE (CAPRINE ARTHRITIS ENCEPHALITIS - a goat disease they can die from). We took the other goats in later to have them tested as well, and a couple of days later we got a call from the vet... He didn't tell us if they had CAE, but he told us that all of their results had come back positive for BRUCELLOSIS, and a USDA person was coming to our house to give them all another test. Our state is free from this disease (commonly referred to as BANG'S disease) and we certainly didn't want to be the ones that brought it here.

What happens with Bang's disease is that you have to slaughter your entire herd of animals, and the really horrible thing is that it can be transmitted to humans and it is an incurable disease!!!!! We have a lot of money put into our 11 goats, and we are certainly attached to them, we were all heartbroken when we heard the news, and started praying super hard!!!

I really didn't want to end up killing them, and I REALLY didn't want to end up with a incurable disease right before I left on my mission... like I said before... I don't that I've ever prayed harder in my life!! Well, we just got our test results back yesterday, and they were all negative!!!!! I learned a very valuable lesson through this: when we doubt, faith leaves... but when we push doubt out and allow faith to rule our actions... MIRACLES CAN HAPPEN!!!

the life of an (absent minded) chef

today I experimented making cheddar cheese muffins. The recipe sounded divine with ingredients of yogurt, cheese, honey, whole grains... yum... I just had to make them. I thought they turned out pretty good, a little on the blah side, but of course... no recipe is really ever complete. The next batch is going to have more yogurt, a little less honey, more cheese, some fresh chives and a dash or our favorite seasoning SPIKE. I'm excited to try it!

That's the good side in the life of a chef...

but the other is sad indeed.

I had typed up this recipe for my cookbook that is going to be printed soon (i'm praying!), and I was doing a test run and ended up with muffin dough the consistency of cookies... not usual at all!! So I got the original recipe and found out that I had added an extra cup of flour and missed an entire teaspoon of baking powder, and to make a long story short I ended up making a double batch. The first batch turned out nice and golden brown. BUT... this absent minded chef turned off the stove and put the second batch in. 15 minutes later I was thinking they looked a little doughy and realized much to my chagrin that I had turned the oven off! I turned it back on and set the timer for 10 minutes only to come in and realize that I had totally and completely burned them!! SO... they went to the garbage disposal (aka CHICKENS - who LOVED them).

the saddest part is yet to come... the first person to try them was my youngest sister who informed me that they were GROSS. my dad said that they were really blah (with a disgusted face) and another sister (who shall remain nameless) said the following "the apple muffins you made weren't that good, and these are worse".... ohhh, pierced to the soul!

we've got 7-10 days...

...to pray for a miracle!
I can't give you particulars now, but I certainly will once it's all over. The past couple of days I've prayed harder than I think I ever have in the past. And I'm learning so much about what a faulty person I am! Just when I think my faith is super strong, it gets tested... and I learn how weak it is, and how much room I have for improvement.

So, please, if you could... please pray a few prayers in our behalf and pray for a miracle!!!