Prairie Oak Homestead

When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don't sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ. ~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~ When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence. ~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~ When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance; when you stand face-to-face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility-and endure it as Jesus endured. ~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~ When you are content with any food, any offering, any climate, any society, any raiment, any interruption by the will of God. ~THAT IS DYING TO SELF~ When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good ...

 This is one of my favorite herbs :) Used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, improve vision, boost the immune system, improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis. Elderberry juice was used to treat a flu epidemic in Panama in 1995. Elderberries have been a folk remedy for centuries in North America, Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, hence the medicinal benefits of elderberries are being investigated and rediscovered. Elderberry is used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, to improve vision, to boost the immune system, to improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis. Bioflavonoids and other proteins in the juice destroy the ability of cold and flu viruses to infect a cell. People with the flu who took elderberry juice reported less severe symptoms and felt better much faster than those who did not. Elderberries contain organic ...

Our friend invited us to spend Thanksgiving with her family.  So we loaded up the vehicle and her, her husband, Ryan, Hunter, and I and set off for Ohio.  We played road games like I spy and talked and had a good time on the way over.  We arrived about 7 hours later and were glad to get something to eat and sit down. :) Her family was very kind to us and we felt very comfortable there.  It was great spending Thanksgiving with a lot of people.  The food was FANTASTIC!  We played cards, went to Wheeling to go to Cabela's, and just relaxed.  It was a great time for our family.  I loved seeing how their relationships worked.  They were all very close.  You could feel the love they had for each other.  It was great to be around. :)  I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving.  Now that we are home, we have a ton of stuff to do in the next two weeks.  We are leaving for our cruise on the 10th of December and I need to g...

I love Johnny Cash and I really like this song for Thanksgiving. I am thankful for so many things. I thank the Lord He made my husband, my son, friends, family, my church family, people who have stepped up and became a mentor to me, and yes I am thankful He made Johnny Cash :). I have been truly blessed. This Thanksgiving I want to focus on thankfulness and not sadness. I want to focus on contentment. It is such a strong, wonderful characteristic to have. One that I desire to achieve. I pray everyone has a good Thanksgiving. Remember your loved ones that are not sitting around the table with you. They are there in your heart...

The tests of life are to make us, not break us.  Trouble may demolish a man's business, but build up his character.  The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man.  If God, then, puts or permits anything hard to our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is what we shall lose if we flinch or rebel. ~ Maltbie Babcock

I am studying to become an herbalist.  Here in my state there is no licensing, only certification, but you don't have to be certified either and can be self-educated.  I have been studying herbs for a long time, but I decided I wanted to really get into it.  Of course, I won't be working outside the home.  I just wanted some more knowledge and to be able to help friends. So every once in a while I will post something about an herb.  Today is Turmeric.  I really like this herb.  It does so many great things... Turmeric is one of nature's most powerful healers. The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. Turmeric has been used for over 2500 years in India, where it was most likely first used as a dye. The medicinal properties of this spice have been slowly revealing themselves over the centuries. Long known for its anti-inflammatory properties, recent research has revealed that turmeric is a natural wonder, proving beneficial in the tre...