Dear Mothers,
Jill R. on the letters group came to visit yesterday. I loved our visit. What fun! The whole thing was a riot. Before Jill got here, I had to walk Olivia, age 4, to preschool. When I got home I had to go to the store. My house was a mess but I had to go to the store before Olivia got out of preschool. Anyway, when I got home, I ate lunch and had to rest. I was so tired. As I laid on my couch to rest, I could hear cars outside and I thought, "Oh, dear Jesus, my house is in shambles. Anyone who stops here will think I never do any work." I had Baby Rose the night before until 8:30 and, oh, my carpet was needing to be vacuumed in the worst way. And then I actually hear someone come upon my porch. I froze in panic. Thank God, it was Jill and not someone I hardly knew.
Then last night, the mother of Baby Olivia, 5 weeks old, asked me to babysit this morning at 5:30 A.M. I was too tired last night to clean much and so got up at 3:00 this morning and cleaned the house and then went back to bed. Ta Da!
But, anyway, Jill and I had a great visit. I bore my heart to Jill about Mary and she said what she always says, "Oh, Connie, it isn't anything. She will be alright." Jill really encouraged me. I value her words. She had raised Tony, her son now 32, very close to the hearth, too, as I did Mary. And she said he fell away, too, but came back on his own and to his mother's teachings. Not because Jill said so. But he made that choice and it was his own decision to believe her teachings. Does that make sense? But now he believes right. The Lord has protected him and kept him. And I pray the Lord is keeping Mary. And, like Jill and I both said, "We wouldn't have chosen the life we lived, not in a million years." But our husbands deserted us and we just responded the way God led us. And He really kept us both. And He will keep our children.
Jill looked out my side screen door that I write so much about. I said, "Doesn't it look so old-fashioned out there?" And Jill said that what makes it so pretty is looking through the screen at the yard. This door is very old and painted black. And I have dried flowers in it. But I thought about what she said about the yard looking old-fashioned through the screen. I thought of the lady preachers I write about and how we have to look at them through the eyes of feminism. Or through a door that is worldly and not pretty with dried flowers in the old screen.
Jill brought me Country Mother presents as she always does. She brought me a sack of the most beautiful rosy red apples from off of her tree. (Jill, did you spray your apple tree?) Those apples have nary a mark on them and they were big, too. Mine from my tree are a lot smaller. I had prayed for tomatoes yesterday morning and Jill brought me some, along with some lovely long, narrow eggplant. (Do I slice that lengthwise, Jill, and fry it?) I have my own tomatoes and have used up the first crop of them and now I have a lot of green ones. But the ones Jill brought will tide me over. Thanks, Jill. Oh, and a big red pepper.
Also Jill made a lovely jar of pickled vegetables. Zucchini is sliced pencil thin at the bottom of the jar and then small tomatoes at the top. Herbs, too. Also she gave me a cute old-fashioned bottle of sage vinegar that she made. In the apple bag was a pumpkin candle -- my favorite! Also she gave me some cake and a dozen of her chickens' eggs. Oh, they are lovely and light brown. She opened the box and showed me that she left one egg dirty so that I would get a farm feeling about the whole thing. Only she and I understand that one. We both love the country things. And what is cute is that she puts old-fashioned country stickers on the brown paper bag of apples.
Jill brought soda pop and I got out the potato chips, as this is traditional. I also got out some of the cordial for her to try. Every time I get this out she says, "Now how do you make this?"
Country Mothers
But ya know back in the old days, Jill and Dixie and I would get together to pray. Heck, none of us had a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of. Just kidding, but I am saying we were poor ya know? We were each raising a family.
Jill lived in an apartment but her backyard was big and she planted trees and a huge garden. She canned and harvested food all winter.
Dixie had a small farm and, oh, she had two canners going each day in the summer. She had grapes and made grape jam and she tried to peel every apple on her big apple tree. She made pie filling for winter apple pies. She froze them in a bag with flour, sugar and spices. Often she gave me a few bags. When Dixie's apple tree got cut down by the landlord, Dixie was broken hearted. Dixie had a huge garden, too. Her root cellar was a sight to behold with all of the jars of corn and green beans and tomatoes. Many jars of pickles, both dill and sweet bread and butter pickles. When Jill and I would come, she would dig out the soda pop she had hid from Emily. Dixie was sure to let us know that she never touched the stuff. To her, it was a strong drink. She was a mighty woman of God. (Jill write something about Dixie if the Lord leads you.)
I think knowing her as I did and knowing how powerful she was in Jesus? Well, she just taught me the discerning of spirits by her life. And Jill does, too.
These women are mighty for God and are the best homemakers you could imagine. I have to tell you the truth. I am never deceived by lady preachers. I like some of what they say. But ya know most of us have never seen powerful homemakers for God. I mean if you know the wisdom of God as explained in Proverbs 1-8, then you can make it in your family. I mean us girls had almost no money to deal with to buy groceries. But our families never went hungry.
And all three of us grew the big sunflowers to feed the birds. Jill still grows the most huge heads of sunflowers that I have ever seen. You can take those heads and nail them to the tree for the birds for the winter. I mean just leave the seeds in them. We all love birds.
But ya know when we girls would get together, we would just say things like "I am not afraid to go without. I can make what I need. God will help me." Dixie would look at us with eyes of discernment and say, "Connie, do you need potatoes?" And I would say, "No, I am OK. I am not going to take your potatoes." And Dixie would say, "Quit embarrassing me." Then she would start sacking stuff up out of her own cupboards for me and Jill. Dixie was a giver as Jill is, too. Jill would give you her last 2 bucks in a heartbeat if she thought you needed it. But I am trying to show you Jill and Dixie and how they have lived as homemakers in the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Yesterday when Jill first came in the door, she was telling me some meals she had made out of her garden. One was that she cooked a cut up chicken breast and put it in a huge skillet with a bit of oil. Then she cut up loads of her garden produce and heaped the skillet with veggies. Probably zucchini, onions, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, etc. -- probably herbs, too. Her husband said it was a meal fit for a king.
Baby is crying. I will have to go.
Love,
Connie
