What's In the Canner?

These days are getting busier and busier with the garden produce coming in! I'm planning to can green beans today. It is amazing that  I pick and pick and pick green beans and then snap them ALL....but I never have as much as I think I do to fill a canner! I think that our green beans must be just about the most expensive green beans in the world...IF you count the hours that I have put into them! They had better taste GREAT!! I think that part of the reason it is taking me a long time is that I have stringed beans instead of stringless. However, they are producing way more than the stringless bed is producing and I am grateful for what God is providing. I am sure I didn't appreciate the hard work my Mom did all the time I was growing up as she was canning so much food for her less appreciative family. I certainly didn't make it easy for her when she told me to help with the green beans!!
After I get the green beans in the canner, I am planning to can some more tomatoes. The jars are in our dishwasher now. I went out to the mini barn to get out some more jars and I find that a little mousy or two have visited them....yuck. So I scrubbed them and am now disinfecting them further in the dishwasher. I don't know WHY I thought it was necessary to share that with you.....but I did!!

Becca started her homeschool classes this week at the big church her classes are held. She is a junior in high school this year AND she is also getting college credit for what she is taking! So far she loves it and is also taking a Photography class that she is really going to enjoy.

Israel is still homeschooled as well and is doing a good job, especially in Math. He still struggles with Reading but I keep telling him that he has only learned the English language 3 years ago and had gone from home to home until he finally got to us, his forever home. He is about a year behind in Reading. But since he is at home learning, it doesn't really matter, does it? He had SEVERE lead poisoning in Africa and it may have affected his attention a little bit. He should have been really been disabled with the conditions in which he lived but as always, God is good and protected His Israel.

We have been telling Israel about the story of Joseph in the Old Testament and that at one point he told his brothers that they meant what they did to him for evil but God meant it for good. So we have paralleled it with his life. God meant for all the bad things that happened to him for good. It wasn't easy to see that but it has worked out for good. Now every time I have something unfortunate happen to me or us, Israel says to me, "God meant it for good."
Soooo....for instance,  we were driving home from an exhausting camping trip/wedding where we were making the wedding cake and the outside wedding was interrupted by a HUGE storm.. I lost my cellphone IN THE STORM. As we were heading home on a Sunday evening, the camper we were pulling had a flat tire and of course, we had no spare....God meant it for good? Of course He did!!  I don't know God's Mind but He had a reason for that to happen to us. Maybe He was saving us from an accident that would have happened if we were not delayed. Maybe He was teaching us to be better prepared the next time. Maybe He wanted me to be able to spend time with my adult nephews, sister, and brother in law who "happened" to come along at that time.  Maybe THEY needed to spend time with us....????

That was all for free....I don't know why I wrote that but now that I have, you're stuck with it.

I have had to get rid of four of my "chickens"....who turned out to be very good crowers. I gave two of them to a cousin and her neighbor and then I found on Craig's List a lady who wanted some for her property. I drove about an hour and 1/2 to deliver them but not before one of those feisty roosters grabbed hold of my arm and would not let go. I thought I was literally going to kill him before he released his nasty and sharp beak.That rooster is about the size of a young turkey. He is huge!!  I have a lovely bruise. (I'm trying to figure out how God meant it for good....but I haven't quite got an answer yet. I guess I don't need to know, right? Maybe He was telling me to wear gloves and long sleeves when handling a "honked off " rooster.....) Anyway, I drove to the area where my son is a police officer and truly enjoyed seeing our old town/hills again. I think I wouldn't mind moving back in a few years. Give me a little cabin in the woods anyday, right??

My green beans and 'maters are calling me and I am blessed to be planning to babysit two of my grandsons tonight so I have a lot to get done today! Blessings to you!!
Beth