Thankfull for what?...

The turkey is in the smoker with his blanket of bacon on top so I wanted to count my blessings with you.
Here in the holler we are thankful for so many things!! Just the other day I decided to try to write out all of God's blessings to me. After filling a page I realized that the things I'd listed were only a drop in the bucket. I can't begin to write down how blessed I am. Some that I can remember in this early hour are...

• God's protection and care over me when I ran from Him and rebelled against Him
• His gift of faith and salvation when I had come to the end of myself
• How God changed my life from "never satisfied" to "peace, even in life's storms"
  
• JP, who loves Him and is my dearest friend this side of heaven - he knows me and still loves me!
• My parents, they taught me to learn from God's word and have always given me unconditional love
• Our son, who loves Him and is true joy - words can't define our love and pride
• Our daughter-in-love, who can place a value on the lovely woman who makes our son happy and who we have loved from the first meeting
• You know I'm thankful for my grandkids - who could not love them?
• Our family who loves us and each other (I'm just finding out how rare that is) I've never know anything but love and acceptance from my family.
  
• The wonderful country we live in (warts and all). Most of all, the people who have given all to give me this life and liberty.
• The holler with our wonderful home and four legged friends

Well, I know I've left out many blessings. The caffeine hasn't kicked in yet and I'm gonna need another cup of coffee. Suffice it to say that I am blessed beyond measure and want to remember that every day of the year. Oh, I'm thankful for all the friends I've met on our blog!! We hope you and yours have a blessed Thanksgiving and remember to count your blessings!

Psalm 100

Thanksgiving psalm

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

America's Best

It is no accident that our Republic was established and has endured the test of time until now. It is the result of men of vision and courage, willing to give their all when their fellow countrymen needed them. It is the result of their parents teaching them the importance of liberty, honor, right and duty. It is the result of spouses willing to support their efforts and to keep the home fires burning with love and order during their frequent and long absences when duty calls.



We wish to salute all American's who have served their country with honor on this Veteran's day.

Mrs. JP's grandfather served in the Army in WWI.



Mrs. JP's father served in the Navy during the Korean war.





My grandfather served in the Navy in the War in the Pacific during WWII.



Our only son currently serves in the Army, and we could not be prouder of him, his wife and his children. Happy Veteran's day, son. We love you and are so very proud of you.







I pray that we would all, as still free Americans, honor our Veterans on this day and thank them wherever we encounter them; that all who call Christ Lord would elevate their prayers on behalf of all of our brave military men and women and their families; that Americans would remember that these folks are heroes, not victims or villains; and that liberty and righteousness are still worth fighting for.



Blessed Veterans day from us in the holler!

Edit (11/12/2009): Well, I blew it.

I wrote up this nice post while I was at work and went and forgot to mention one of the most important people to us: our daughter-in-law. She served in the Air Force and was on deployment in Oman when our son met her.



Thank you for your service to our country. We love you very much. Please forgive your father-in-law for being a knucklehead, again.

Thanks!

Fall has fallen...

JP took these pictures from our front porch when the leaves were so pretty. We've about seen all the fall color here for this year.


Scrappy says hello. She's snuggling in a flannel shirt we share.


We have so much to be thankful for. Thankful blessings from the holler.

Go ahead and laugh...

Last nights supper was one of our family classics. Pork and kraut done in the crock pot. I wish I had taken pictures, not that it was that beautiful but it was good. So easy to make and so warm in the tummy going down. If you like kraut that is!! I just sear a pork roast off in a cast iron skillet and put it in the crock pot with a bag of kraut (this weekend we're gonna try to make our own saurkraut - more on that monday) , smoked sausage cut in chunks, and 4-5 potatoes in big chunks, turn the crock pot on and go. By the time JP gets home it's ready. At the end I pull the meats aside and thicken the sauerkraut juice up by adding some instant mashed potatoes. YUMMMY
It takes a lot of faith for me to cook using a crock pot. The whole end of the day is riding on this thing doing it's job. I can't see a flame, I can barely feel that it's warm until mid-day, and if I have to leave the house I'm in a panic because I think "what if it burns the house down!" I know I'm silly and I truly love the idea of throwing all the ingredients in and "setting it and forgetting it" but I'm always kinda surprised when it turns out so good. How long have these things been around now? I know, I know but yesterday was different I did something new and totally foreign for me. I used a crock pot liner!!! Are you kidding me? This thing is gonna 1st - not melt into our food and 2nd keep the whole clean! I can hear the snickering - go ahead laugh. My mother has used them, I've seen that they work. It just felt so weird. It was like throwing everything in a tupperware and putting it in the oven (yes, I'm aware that they make oven-proof plastic - that's another story.) Lo and behold, at the end of the cooking, eating, and making lunches, I just picked up this little liner and threw it away. I'm not sure but I think I heard a little angel chorus right over this clean crocker. I washed it anyway, some habits die hard.
Blessings from the holler.