Hello, world.

I decided it's been way too long since I've blogged regularly. :) This is my humble attempt at re-starting at least somewhat regularlyposting. I think my blog is going to begin taking shape and focusing on home-building and Judeo-Christian holidays. Influences include my grandmother and mother, Karey Swan, Abby Warmington and Sally Clarkson.

I'm marrying a farmer in November! Wow. Life has certainly changed for me in the past 6 months. I got a text message from a friend this New Year's day that offered up a prayer for God to have "many great blessings up His sleeve" for me this year. If you could have told me that day that I would be engaged by June, I think I would have laughed... rather like Sarai. God's plans certainly aren't our own. While I was trying to cry/laugh/kill dreams/make new dreams about how I would live as a single person for the foreseeable future, He was smiling and preparing my heart for a much different path than I was beginning to envision.

My fiance is an incredible man of the Lord who loves and pursues me with his whole heart. He's goofy, passionate, raw, sensitive, honest, hard-working, patient and many other wonderful things. His downfall is chocolate and ice cream... I think we've gotten along rather well on those points, though. :) We have made our semi-long-distance relationship (50 miles) work, thanks to cell phones and vehicles. He calls me his treasure and we are growing in our love for the Lord and one another. I look forward to seeing how the Lord continues to grow us and lead in our journey of paths uniting. November 19th is coming soon!

One of our biggest physical hurdles right now is a dwelling place. We have looked at a few houses and discovered a LOT in a short amount of time. This week we're scheduling a showing at a house in Lake O which we're both kind of excited about. Some pros: it has an acre+ of land (bonfires and gardening opportunities!), a basement which they actually took pictures of for the website (big bonus, trust me), brand new copper plumbing and electrical wiring AND a one-year home warranty. Some cons: no trees in the yard, I don't like some of the paint/carpeting, and there's not a garage. These "cons" all seem pretty feasible to modify in time... unlike a basement that's crawling or permanently flooded... you get the idea.

One smaller hurdle we are currently crossing is purchasing a freezer to fill with produce for the winter! I think Tom is purchasing this one tomorrow, thanks for a 4th of July sale.

My first contribution: strawberry jam. I researched and found a pectin that needs WAY less sugar (Pomona's Universal Pectin) - for 6 quarts of freezer jam, I only used 3 cups of sugar. Hallelujah! The color is beautiful and Tom definitely approved on the initial taste-test. It's about $4.80 a box at Harvest Health. 1 box probably makes between 3-4 quarts of jam - using only 1-2 cups of sugar (my favorite Certo recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of fruit and 4 1/2 cups of sugar - you do the math). You can also use honey as a sweetener - which I wasn't quite brave enough to do on my trial run, but I would probably try it now, at least with certain kinds of fruit (peaches?).

Needless to say, I will be patronizing Pomona's for quite some time (thank you, Harvest Health!). I am very excited to fill a freezer with jam and other good things for my home.

See you all again soon!