Mistakenly Marmalade

Over the summer my dear husband (Pa)

and I (Gamma) had the joy of keeping our oldest three

grandsons with us one-on-one.

These three grandsons belong to our oldest daughter

who live two hours away from us,

so our time with them is not often but sweet when it happens.

Each of these boys are different and unique in there own special way,

so we, my husband and I, tried to accommodate to their

individual likes during the time they were with us.

 On one of the mornings when the middle grandson was here

I asked him what he would like for breakfast,

and after naming all that I had to offer his reply was,

"Gamma, do you have marmalade jam?

I could have toast with marmalade jam."

Now what 9 year old child loves marmalade??

Our precious little grandson who has some of his 

Canadian Great-Grandfather in him is one of those children 

that loves marmalade. :) Really loves marmalade!

I disappointed him when I said that I didn't have any.

But, Gamma to the rescue!! 

" We could make some, I said."

Oh the delight of this precious boy's heart!

This is the grandson that LOVES to cook,

so while he was with us I kept him busy in the kitchen

and during his time here we canned peaches
(in memory and honor of Grandpa Don)

made homemade pizza and doughnuts topped with nutella for Pa.

Our last adventure would be the marmalade,

and though he didn't get to have toast with marmalade

that day he sure enjoyed it the days that followed.

The first tea cup exchange that my dear Stephanie hosted

I received a beautiful cookbook from the lady who gifted me.

"Barefoot Contessa at Home" was someone I had never heard of

but I have so enjoyed her recipes.

I had always wanted to make a marmalade jam recipe that was

in her book but never got around to doing it,

so why not make it for my grandson?

If you love marmalade, you are going to love this recipe,

but I have to warn you ahead that it takes two days to make.

Well worth it though!

Anna's orange marmalade

4 large seedless oranges

2 lemons

8 cups sugar

Cut the oranges and lemons in half crosswise, then into very

thin half-moon slices. Discard any seeds.

Place the sliced fruit and their juices into a stainless-steel pot. 

 Add 8 cups water and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring often.

Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar until it dissolves.

Cover and allow to stand overnight at room temperature.

The next day, bring the mixture back to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 2 hours.

Turn the heat up to medium and boil gently, stirring often,

for another 30 minutes. Skim off any foam that forms on the top.

Cook the marmalade until it reaches 220 degrees.

It will be a golden orange color.

(If the marmalade is runny, continue cooking it and if it's hard add more water)

Pour the marmalade into clean, hot Mason jars; 

wipe the rims thoroughly with a clean damp paper towel;

and seal with the lids. Store in the pantry for up to a year, or

give it all to your grandson. :)

Enjoy!

You are probably wondering why I titled my post

"Mistakenly Marmalade"?

When I went to the little neighborhood grocer 

that carries mostly unique items I was delighted

when I saw that they had "Ocean Spray"

bagged oranges. 

  My first thought was...

These are going to be quite sweet and flavorful.

Yes, they were certainly flavorful, but they were not oranges,

they were mandarins. oops!

It was a mistake that I had not realized

until the jam was in the jars sealed and ready to enjoy.

 I believe I fell upon a recipe that I will use from now on.

"Debbie's Mandarin Marmalade"

I like that!

*~*~*~*

Ashley over at Precious Moments 
was having a give-away and I was the blessed winner
of these delightful cards from Mrs. Smith.
You can visit her beautiful etsy shoppe at

 Delightful Daisy 
Thank you again Ashley for your sweet thoughtfulness
in your give-away,
and Mrs. Smith, for your generosity in sharing your creations
for someone to win and enjoy.
You have both blessed my heart!

*~*~*~*

Thank you Heavenly Father, for grandsons!
 Thank you that we as grand parents,
have the opportunity to come along side
our dear loved ones and teach them
of Your love and grace.
May they grow to know You, love You and serve You.
Amen.

Joy!
~ Debbie ~

I'm joining Stephanie's party over at
Roses of Inspiration

 

  

Fruit ~ More Fruit ~ Much Fruit

Spirit producing fruit will go on producing

from one life to another.

There will be fruit, more fruit, much fruit.

~**~

Such a beautiful picture but not always an easy process.

As Christians, we often pray that God will

make us more fruitful, but we do not always

enjoy the pruning process that follows.

In my last post I shared with you on The True Vine  

that apart from the Vine we can do nothing.

Abiding in Christ reflects one's dependence on Him,

communion with Him, and obedience to Him.

When we remain in these things our lives will

result in becoming fruitful for Christ.

It is Christ alone, who provides grace and provision

for the needs in life.

 Therefore ~ we must remain faithful to our service for

               the Lord and to the study of His Word in order to bear fruit.  

"Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;
so shall ye be my disciples."
(John 15:8)
 A true branch, united with the vine, will always bear fruit.
There is always fruit where there is life.
"I am the Vine, ye are the branches;
He that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit;
for without me ye can do nothing."
(John 15:5)
If there is no fruit, the branch is worthless
and it is cast away and burned.

There are two ways that the branches are pruned,
by cutting away the dead wood and by cutting away living tissue.
With the living tissue you do not want the life of the vine 
to become dissipated causing the quality of the crop to become jeopardized.
~ I found it quite interesting as I researched the pruning process of a vine ~
The pruning process is the most important part of the enterprise,
and those who do the pruning must be carefully trained
so as to know where to cut, how much to cut and even what angle to make the cut. 
After finding this out I've made sure my husband and I were extra careful
when pruning our trees.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away;
and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it,
that it may bring forth more fruit."
(John 15:1-2)
Because the Father loves us, He prunes us and encourages us
to bear more fruit for His glory.
Sometimes this pruning process hurts,
but in the end we will rejoice over God's love for us.
We may not want it ~ but we need it.

  How does the Father prune us?
Many times it is simply through His Word as it convicts and cleanses us.
"That he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word.
That he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing;
but that it should be holy and without blemish."
(Ephesians 5:26-27)
Our Heavenly Father is ever so near to us 
when He is pruning our lives.
It is the sweet fruit of trusting in the Lord
and allowing Him to do the work that is needed in and through us
that will produce joy to the glory of God.     

~**~

Sometimes the pruning process comes as God must chasten us.
            "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous;
nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby."
(Hebrews 12:11) 
Hebrews 12 1 through 11 is excellent!
Our Heavenly Father makes no mistakes ~ He knows what we need
in order to grow and produce more fruit.

~**~

In the end we must remember that the fruit we are producing
is not for ourselves, but for others.
We should strive to be gracious women
who willingly feed others by our words as well as our actions.
"The lips of the righteous feed many;
but fools die for want of wisdom."
(Proverbs 10:21)
This verse should cause us to see the importance
of serving others, not just pleasing ourselves.
The Spirit produced fruit will go on producing from one life to another.
There will be fruit ~ more fruit ~ much fruit.

We bear fruit when we win others for Christ (Romans 1:13)
We are a part of the harvest (John 4:35-38)
As we grow in holiness and obedience,
we are bearing fruit (Romans 6:22)
The fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is the kind of Christian
character that glorifies God and makes Christ real to others.
God's Word has so much for us.
Oh ~ that we might dig deep and grace our lives with the nuggets of gold
that are found through out the Scriptures.
"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord,
unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every
good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."
(Colossians 1:10)
All to the glory of God, that should be our utmost desire!
"By him therefore let us offer sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name."
(Hebrews 13:15) 

~**~

All for Jesus, all for Jesus!
Our Precious Heavenly Father,
have Your own way in our lives.
Prune us as needed so we may
bear much fruit to Your glory.
Amen.

Be Beautiful!
~ Debbie ~ 

I have joined Stephanie's party over at
Roses of Inspiration 

Jesus ~ The True Vine

Hello dear friends!

Take a moment with me, grab a cup of your favorite hot drink,
maybe even a cookie or two 
relax, and drink in the goodness found in God's Word.

**~~~**

My husband has enjoyed a small garden over the past three years

but unfortunately where we live, up in the high country,

not much will grow due to the short season.

Our success has been potatoes,

and I must admit that they have been quite enjoyable to grow,

especially when the time comes to digging them up.

With pitch fork in hand, we make our way to the garden

looking for buried treasure. 

This year he tried growing zucchini, and as we all know,

zucchini will grow just about anywhere! 

We learned something beautiful as our zucchini began to blossom.

The flower or bloom is on one end of the zucchini

while the other end of the zucchini is connected to the plant.

But what was enjoyable to watch day after day

was that blooming flower.

At certain times of the day that flower would open big and wide

in all it's splendor and beauty, but then, it would

close tightly before the day would come to an end. 

**~~~**

The amazing thing was how that flower closed,

it was like a cloth being rung out tightly,

twisted you might say, and ever so tight!

Once the zucchini would get large in size

the flower would die off but the zucchini would remain connected to the 

plant until we would cut it off from it's growing source, the plant.

I couldn't help but think of the Scriptures where Jesus talks of being the Vine

and we are the branches, and how we are to "abide" in Christ.

Our zucchini is weak and useless and will not grow

without the plant that it is connected to.

It will not produce it's own life,

 it must draw it's life from the plant. 

That is the way it is with us and Christ.

We must draw life from the Vine.

It is our communion with Christ through the Spirit 

that makes possible the bearing of fruit.

John chapter 15 speaks to us about Jesus being the True vine ~

I would recommend  reading the whole chapter ~ but I'd like

to focus on verses 4&5 .

~~~

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,

except it abide in the Vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

I am the Vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in me,

and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit,

for without me ye can do nothing."

**~~~**

To "abide" means to keep in fellowship with Christ

so that His life can work in and through us to produce fruit.

How beautiful is this picture...we can be glorious women,

in sweet fellowship, bearing good ~ not rotten ~ fruit. 

We must let nothing hinder us from this precious communion with Christ.

Verse 3 tells us to be "clean through the Word which Christ

has spoken to us." We are to be washed and holy, confessing our sin.

This precious communion also involves obeying Christ because we love Him.

In verse 9&10 Jesus tells us "as the Father hath loved me,

so have I loved you, continue ye in my love.

If  ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love,

even as I have kept my Father's commandments,

and abide in his love."

WOW! That is to the point!

I did some cross referencing and look what 1 John 2:3-6 has for us.

~~~

"Now by this we know that we know Him,

if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him"

and does not keep His commandments, is a lier, and the truth

is not in him. But whosoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God

is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

He who says he abides in Him ought himself

also to walk just as He walked."

**~~~**

The test of "knowing" Him ~ To know God does not depend on our good works

but instead demonstrated by them.

When believers are born into God's family, they are united with Him

in an eternal relationship that cannot be broken ~ praise the Lord!

But fellowship with God, however ~ communion with Him ~ can 

be disrupted by our sin.

Obedience is a sign of relationship and fellowship with Him.

~~~

We demonstrate our love for God with life service not just lip service,

and our desire should be to do what God has said in His word.

Verse 6 ~ obedience ~ Jesus "walked" in total dependence

upon His Father, and He was fully submissive to God's will.

We too, should walk as Christ walked.

May we graciously walk and seek God with our whole heart,

for there is joy and blessing in following in Christ's footsteps.

Oh the wonderful love of our Jesus!

We have a living relationship to Christ and belong to Him ~ But our

relationship must be cultivated, it does not come automatically.

~ It would be glorious if it did ~ but it does not.

Abiding in Christ demands worship ~ meditation on God's Word ~

prayer ~ sacrifice and service ~ but what a joyful experience it is!

~~~

Oh ladies ~ once we have begun to cultivate a deeper communion

with Christ, we will have no desire to live a shallow life as a Christian.

**~~~**

"And he that sent me is with me;

the Father hath not left me alone;

for I do always those things that please Him."

(John 8:29)

What a beautiful verse we can claim for our own lives.

Even Jesus did those things which PLEASED His father.

May we follow after Him in our walk of faith.

Does your heart long for and desire to do those things which please God?

"God is faithful"

Our Precious Heavenly Father,

we have a future hope because we know You are faithful to Your promises.

As we seek to follow after You, 

we humbly ask that You would draw us ever so close to Your side.

Teach us through Your Word and Spirit

to live graciously as we abide in You.

Amen. 
 

 Be Gracious

~ Debbie ~ 

I am joining Stephanie's party at
Roses of Inspiration