Pressed and Broken

I think I told you that I needed to can salsa. Well I did, I mean we did. My daughter-in-law and I canned 40 quart on Monday and I need to do another 10 or 15. Honestly we don't live on salsa but we like it a whole lot!! And its a healthy snack...tomatoes, peppers and onions from the garden, non GMO if you please. I skip the sugar, duh, why would salsa need sugar, I use apple cider vinegar and homemade tomato paste. I was having a hard time getting it spiced to the slightly hot degree because my jalopeno peppers were not hot this year so I put some habeneros in, just a little and the flavor is great. I know by now you are drolling, it makes me want to eat some now too but I can't type and eat...I can't text and drive either! The problem with the healthy part is that the chips we eat with it are not exactly a health food, but they are a yummy snack. We also eat salsa with breakfast burritos, I put it in rice dishes and chicken casseroles. The flavor adds that special touch to a lot of foods and we love it. The most interesting thing about my boys and salsa is that they do not like plain tomatoes, onions, or peppers! (A few of them like peppers and onions) I think that is kind of weird...I mean all those things are the main ingredients to salsa. And then I thought, hmm, is that how God looks at me? Did He say,"You would be better if I turned up the heat, if I pressed you and mixed you until you lost your identity."And I ask God," Why, Why did I need to be tried so hard, why the heat on me, could I not be useful without this? I don't know, I really don't know. I would like to believe that he could have used me for His Glory without all this. Its some hard food for tho't, its some I don't even like but maybe...maybe? I want my goal to continually be to honor Him, to come forth as gold after the fire. But the fire hurts and I hate it.
 And then came the broken part. Literally! Jeremy broke his arm on Tuesday. I was 2 hours away visiting a friend. My phone rang and the voice said," This is Nate from JZ Barns, what shall I do with your son that possibly has a broken arm?' I replied with, "Tell me you are joking." To bad, but he wasn't joking!OK, not a whole lot a mother can do 2 hours away except make a few phone calls which I did so his Uncle Nate took him to the DR. and then to the hospital for xrays. I got a call about 2 hours later saying it is broken and then the nurse called me several times with further instructions for the following day to get it set and casted. It was all a fairly smooth process. He was tired of his cast less then 24 hours later but he had to get over it! In case you are wondering what happened....he was in the shop, building barns of course, actually, well, not right then. He said he was building biceps! He has been jumping up and grabbing rafters and swinging along to the other end. I had asked him one day if he ever tho't about what might happen if he missed the next rafter and yes he had, but he wasn't planning to miss. Well he wanted to turn around and head the other way and the combination of turning and lunging forward to grab the rafter didn't quite go as planned and he found himself on the floor with his right arm in pain under him. Had he just dropped straight down on his legs he would have been fine but because he was stretched out he landed on the floor laying on his side. Its only the 3rd time he broke a bone...when he was 5 he broke a leg on the trampoline and several years ago he fell and hurt his arm and we had it xrayed and they said it was a sprain and he had it in a sling for a week or so but last week the Dr. said his arm was broken before now so I guess it was broken that time too. Grandma Zook said that 8 grandchildren have had broken bones. I'm thinking the Zooks are high maintenance! In fact 4 of our 5 sons have had broken bones. The oldest only broke a finger, the next broke his arm playing football, and David and Jeremy both broke legs on the trampoline. I don't know what I'm supposed to do different!


my mother and 4 sisters

 My yard sale is finally history!! Yippee! I had wanted to have a yard sale in 2013 but then cancer changed all my plans. I had lots of stuff cluttering up this old house and it feels so good to be cleaned out!The best part about the yard sale was that 2 sisters from PA came Wed. eve. and helped me set up. The other best part was that on Fri. morning my Mother and 2 sisters from OH drove in and surprised us all. The 6 of us sat under the shade tree and watched people, Oh and talked a lot too. It was just great! The other best part was that I sold a lot of stuff! So it was pretty much all good but I was super tired when Sat. night rolled around.

missing him like crazy



 If you feel pressed and broken you  might want to believe that God wants to make something beautiful with you. It doesn't take the hurt away but it might help to bear the pain just a little bit.