In a conversation the other day with a friend, I said this...."I'll just do me and let the rest be." I knew when it came out, that I would do a blog post or Bible study about it....I am doing both. Yesterday was the Bible study.
Now when you hear a quote about "doing me" you might think that sounds like a person who wants to do whatever they want. However, the "doing" isn't about selfishness, rather it is about being content. You see, I've been blessed to be able to do all sorts of things and enjoy it over the years. I truly have! It is with that feeling and knowledge I wish the same for others. I want everyone to be able to do what they love, how they do it and enjoy themselves. I understand what a blessing it is and choose to "let the rest be."
Social media doesn't help us in this....it really doesn't. You see your friend post a picture of a beautiful pie, her counters clean, no sink full of dishes....now, keep in mind...you have made beautiful pies, on clean counters, with no dishes in the sink at one time too....only, there wasn't social media to document it! That doesn't mean your pie at that time wasn't enjoyed by your family. Or that you didn't enjoy baking it. You did! And, if truth be known....more pies than your friend...(hey, it's about being content here...DickyBird!)...LOL....yes, the "let the rest be" is important!
I joke about the pie, but it could be whatever you have in your life - and we all have them - that you tend to "beat yourself" up about. Try to remember to: "just do me and let the rest be."
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin
For my Mosaic Monday I thought I would share my interesting past week in light of what I do....resell.
I do lots of loading and unloading, shuffle, shuffle, pack and stack. It's just what it is and this week it was ALL week!
I had appointments every day with potential clients and booked an estate sale or two along with 2 partial buy outs. I enjoy what I do, so it doesn't seem like work, but my body is telling me otherwise.
Lisa and I set up at the Birnamwood's Farmer's Market. There aren't too many vegetable vendors yet, so we were invited to set up some "junk." We enjoyed the time with the other vendors and even brainstormed a collaborative event with Hoekstra Husbandry. I hope we can do it!
(Items for sale at this week's Theme event: "Knee Deep in June")
(My full van of inventory for the farmer's market)
(Lisa and I at the farmer's market. My friend Shelly took the picture. She was set up with eggs, maple syrup and maple syrup fudge that is so good!)
This week is more of the same. However, I did give myself today off as our barn and outbuildings are getting painted. I hope to spend the day in the garden.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
Linked to: https://normandylife.blogspot.com/2018/06/mosaic-monday-87-visit-from-friends.html
I heard this song the other day, it really hit me hard, listen and you'll see why. In more than ways than one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsMErwEEaRQ
So, this "digging for gold" "building my kingdom" part, ya, I need to work on that. After all, this is nothing if we don't have HIM. Building a brand, a business, an "empire" - that's our kingdom. What effort are we making in building HIS kingdom?
This past weekend I set up a sale by our daughter and son-in-law's house in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Many of the items I took had been part of another sale, old inventory, items I really wanted to be rid of but, still good. I had several customers say, "you have such nice things and you're prices are great" (smile). What made my weekend, was that Anna and I set up Sunday morning pulling out tables close to the road next to the FREE pile. The last hour of the day and while we were cleaning up, ALL items in driveway were FREE. It was nice to see those who needed things, take them. A van full of latinas came at the end. I told them everything was free. The eldest lady looked puzzled....I said "it's all free." One of the younger girls said..."totos abuella, totos." She turned to her and said "totos!" "Si, totos"....oh they had a blast. We gave them bags to use too. (I can hardly spell English, much less Spanish, but I think you can see what I mean).
During the sale, another latino came in the garage and said, "you are so happy here, the other sale...they look crabby..." (I do hear this a lot). I said "well, when you have the joy of the Lord down in your heart, your face will reflect it." He said "are you a Christian? I am too." - just little things like this...trying to build His Kingdom....in a small way.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
My friend, Renee and I, happened upon this little restaurant on one of our junking trips. I don't even remember exactly where it was - but, I do remember exactly what we ordered - cream of mushroom soup. It was the BEST we both had ever eaten - so good! That was a few months back. The other day, I actually sent her a text that said, "this is random, but I dream about and crave that cream of mushroom soup" she replied "me too!"
So, while visiting Anna and Jon this past weekend, we went to the Waukesha Farmer's Market. As soon as I saw the table full of mushrooms I knew I was going to try to copy it. I have never made cream of mushroom soup from scratch before, but this is what I came up with.
I bought oyster, shiitake and crimini mushrooms. I talked with the vendor, these were grown locally in what she called "caves" (dark cool roooms).
1 small sweet onion, diced add to a pan with 2 T melted butter and cook until soft.
I just diced up mushrooms, I didn't measure - use as much as you would like in your soup - remember they shrink while cooking. Saute with the onions.
Add: salt and pepper, 1 t or so garlic powder and thyme. I also added some dried flat leaf parsley from my friend's herb farm - Ewe & Herb, LLC. https://www.facebook.com/Ewe-Herb-LLC-1702720866422534/ Cook until tender.
Add 1/4 C flour to the pan, coating the mushrooms.
Let that cook a minute or two to brown the flour a bit. Add 2 C liquid (water, vegetable or chicken stock) along with another tablespoon (or two) of butter. Let that start to bubble up and add 1 C heavy cream.
Let that thicken up and simmer for 10 minutes. Take out about 1/2 of the soup and put in your blender, pour that back into the soup.
If the soup is too thick add some additional water or stock. I had a bowl of soup and also baked chicken breasts in some to serve over rice. It was so good! Al even liked it (wink, wink).
It's really easy to make. I hope you give it a try. I see cream of asparagus in my future as well.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
I feel like we never had a spring here in Wisconsin. We had a huge snow storm on April 14-15, with 28" of snow...then in 2 weeks were were up in the 80's....no spring. In fact, it was in the 90's here for the past several days. 90's and humid! That's our August weather, not May!
However, May did bring on the blossoms - apple, lilac, honeysuckle, rhododendron - all blooming like crazy. Want to know what else is blooming like crazy? Mosquitos - Wisconsin's real state bird! CRAZY amounts! My friend, Karen posted a picture from her car's back up camera. She ran from the house to car with a swarm of them chasing her and hitting her back windows. Deer flies, gnats...makes going outside terrible. We are held hostage to them, in the car, house, barn....etc. My hair line is peppered with bites from working in the garden. Ok, enough complaining...we could have 28" of snow - it's still Wisconsin after all!
I've had a busy May, let's not lie...I've had a busy 2018 thus far and the summer is booking up with sales and events. I have been on so many "picks" this past month and more lined up. I don't know what is going on, but I LIKE it! My barns are full....now to sell! I might even do my own evening auction here with boxes of buy out stuff. We shall see....if you want to follow along with these things....LIKE my 2 main pages: https://www.facebook.com/Town-Hall-Trinkets-LLC-729693193716630/?ref=settings and https://www.facebook.com/itsapopup/
June will bring to the farm: to the barn and outbuildings some fresh paint, rhubarb recipes, chicks (you will not believe where those hens are setting), weeding...weeding..., a possible remodel on the old milk house, possible additional small outbuilding or 2 (wink,wink...Al?), honey extracting and projects with my "4H kids". I want to get back to sharing posts about these things with all of you.
I had to give blogging a break, when I hit this "impossible to reach" view number...I couldn't keep up....pushing for new content was like a full time job. However, I don't need to hit those numbers, I just need to share and write. Numbers are just that - numbers and who's counting anyway....
We brought home an old dog, Cooper, from that living estate sale we did for Dan and Lynne Holt. They had to move to an assisted living and Cooper couldn't come. He is a sweet old dog. He sleeps a lot....
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
No one bought these old seeds from our last estate sale. Instead of tossing them, I thought I would give them a try. Even if they don't come up, I'm only out my time. I have extra garden space anyway.
Have you used old seeds before? Some of these packs are from late 1980's.
We've had extra corn seeds that we put in the freezer and used the next year - believe it or not, it works. However, I've not tried seeds this old.
Do you save seeds? I know my dad use to let some plants go to seed and he would collect them to use the next year. He always had a huge vegetable garden. My mom had her end with flowers. When I say huge, I mean they bought part of the empty lot next to their house and put that all into a garden. My parents had a double long lot in town and half of that was garden in addition to the extra lot. No one in our neighborhood had a bigger garden than my dad. When I was little we would sell the extra vegetables to neighbors so we had money to go to the fair. Do kids do things like this any more? They should. This built my entrepreneural spirit.
Well, outside to plant some seeds. What are you doing today?
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
