Braggin on my LIttle Sister... Check her stuff out

Picture of my son Riley taken by Crabigail

My Baby sister who is no baby anymore takes my breath away with her wonderful eye for photography!It is a God given gift! She is self taught and has been told by old hat pros that she blows some pros pants off... love you Stinkerbell.. for today enjoy her view not mine BEAN

http://crabigailjane.wordpress.com/2009/11/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crabigail
http://www.imagekind.com/MemberProfile.aspx?MID=07aea21b-e56d-43b6-8508-887838da36f6

Want to Win a gift?

Need a free Christmas gift for a child in your life?!!
Go to one of my Fav blogs to read
http://newlifeonahomestead.com/?p=3158
and read her post about how to win a NEW Crayola Color Explosion Glow Dome!
It looks like a fun toy for kids of all ages and it looks really cool!Christmas is just around the corner and I am sure we all could use a free gift!,

The Crayola Color Explosion Glow Dome is sure to bring wide-eyed wonder to kids’ faces when the lights go out and they watch their artwork glow and spin on a moving, two-layered dome of light. Kids control the “glow-motion” fun and can dial up slow, medium or warp speed to create a wild, animated scene. For ages six and up; suggested retail price is $29.99.
Crayola is also hosting the Give The Gift Of Creativity Sweepstakes where you can enter to win a 7-night Caribbean cruise for a family of four on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas. Check it out HERE! http://www.crayola.com/gifts/vacation/home.cfm

Good luck! Bean like to view free stuff

Are you preparded?

What a cool thing I came across.. Thanks http://newlifeonahomestead.com/!


http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/ has this wonderful tool to log inventory of your pantry and also be able to shop for needs so you are always ready in Emergencys. You can log in how many people you fed in your house hold. Be able to better set goals for food storage this new year and your goals for your familys needs. Nursing Moms need more calories per day so keep that in mind if you are bf. Children and Adults have diffrent needs too. Maybe your like me and live with or have Diabetes or some type of dietary guidlines. Those with dietary guidelines will have greater needs for proper food during an Emergency.What a cool tool to help us plan and spend less tobe able to met our familys needs in a Emergency. I live in vermont and history has show that with in a matter of hours you can be trapped in your house because of a good old New England Nor'Easter storm. Better Safe then sorry...
Beans View today is What do I need to stock up on?
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Thanksgiving

My Husband and oldest Son just left to go help My Father(also Our Pastor)Move tables and chairs for our Church Thanksgiving Dinner tonight. This is a dinner our church has been hosting for 25 years. We have all the fixings of Thanksgiving served. Homemade Rolls with homemade butter, Peas & Carrots, Homemade Stuffing ,Squash and Mash potatoes with REAL gravy,Pickles and pie.

NOTE pickles and pie are not served together..

The Head of our Mercy Minstry(food and clothes)heads up the dinner. She had been working for months on gathering Turkeys I believe around 30 are being cook as i write.
100s of pds of veggies and even giving out apples to be cooked into yummy homemade New England Apple pie.

Everyone in our church body takes part in this dinner. The doors open at 5 pm but long before that our body has been in the doors. You see unlike alot of Church Thanksgiving dinners this dinner is not for our body. Yes we all come and enjoy the yummy homemade treats that were made in love. But I was thinking this morning as my Son and I talked about him serving tonight.

What my favoite part of this dinner is? Its not the Stuffing(which I love!) Or the Apple pie!

So why do I love it so much? Its a few things.. Let me draw you a picture of what my view will be tonight.

As soon as I walk up the side walk I see men and woman with children lined up waiting for the doors to open. The aroma of Thanksgiving is in the air even if it kinda smells like smoke,beer and sometimes unbathed people. But still Thanksgiving lingers thicker then the gravy cooking inside. I walk thur the door greeted by one of our men minding the door for the night. As I pass the kicthen I see many busy hands at work loading food into hot boxes to be sent upstairs.
When I walk in the Worship Center I see not chairs lined in neat rows but rather tables and chairs to seat about 500 thankful people. Then I will see men and woman of all walks of life in aprons with spoons in hand ready to fill the some 500 plus people plates that will shortly be lined up. As the doors open people filing in with smiling beaming. As I write I can picture one of the homeless mens who loves pickles. Each year always asking if he can have a extra pickle. Or the little dirty faces of little boys and girls as they grab just one more piece of pie.Or the Moms who say thank you so much to each people who serves them.

The aroma of Thanksgiving is my favotie thing about tonights dinner. It runs off those we serve like water coming out of a cool spring. The terms meaning aroma fragrance, and scent, are used primarily by the food and cosmetic industry to describe a pleasant odor.


I think the reason I love this dinner so much is because I don't often smell the aroma of thankgiving in our world.

When the Colonists gave thanks to God for rain after a two-month drought in 1623 that was the aroma of Thanksgiving. True Thanksgiving is being Thankful for Gods providing for your family. Most of us will sit down at a table this week with our family and eat way to much food. Watch football until we fall asleep on the couch.Maybe visit some family far away but will the aroma of Thanksgiving fill your house?

I am Thankful that tonight I get to sit at a table or spoon up mash potatoes to someone who oozes the Aroma of Thankgiving.

Thankfulness, Gratitude, or appreciation is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.

What Aroma will fill your house this Thanksgiving?
Thankful for My view today BEAN

Chocolate,Marmite Toast,and English Tea OH My?

Chocolate,Marmite Toast and English Tea OH My?





We have this lovely young lady in our Church Body from the UK. She lives as I learned last night near Christpher Robin and Pooh old stomping grounds! The kids just loved that! She has joined our small group on Thrusday nights. She came last night with a few English treats for us To quote her "For us Crazy Peanut Butter loving Americans to try!" For those luckier then I who have never tried Marmite it is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing, and is suitable for vegetarians and vegans[1].The British version of the product is a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful flavour, which is extremely salty and savoury with umami qualities, somewhat comparable to soy sauce. This distinctive taste is reflected in the British company's marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it."

Well some of us at small group loved it then there was me.. Which I found funny because My Dh tellls me all the time I use to much salt! But this blacklish brown sticky stuff on my toast was not complment for the fine English black tea and Yummy Cadbury Milk Chocolate! This peanut butter loving American was thinking yea some Peter pan with this would be just the thing! One of the young men that is in our small group said something that hit me funny last night. He said as he took a bite of his Marmite and toast,: My Jaw is not use to the new taste yet. I think I need to eat more before I know if I like it or not.


Marmites slogan is "your love it or hate it "

But somethings in life are not that easy. Sometimes it takes a while to see your true feelings about new flavors. I am not just talking about Marmite on toast or Peanut butter on Toast. But Sometimes God may give us a spiritual bite into the mouth of our hearts. We may spit it out right away and say like i did to the Marmite OH my thats to salty! Or we may ask for more the warm sweet goodness like Chocolate and English Tea. But sometimes we have to take more then one bite to understand our feelings. Chew on it think about how it taste.Think about how it settles in our gut. How often has Gods word tasted like a big spoonful of salt but after awhile it settles in our spirit. Maybe Just maybe we will see the goodness and long for more. FACT you die for a lack of salt before a lack of water! I was thinking as I was laying in bed tasting the Marmite roll around in my gut. Gods word is like that sometimes it tastes like salt and in the end is better for us but often we long for sweet water which taste good but won't keep us well in the long run.

Matthew5:6

6"Blessed arethose who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.


Righteousness is one of those salty bites God feeds us. Right Living?

The reward for of Right Living may be sweet but the first few bits are bitter and salty to swollow. I think the young man last night said it best. I need to eat more of this before I know if I like it or not. So next time God puts a salty bit into your mouth take a few more bites before spit it out. You may grow to like it..



Will I try Marmite again? Maybe... Thats Beans View for today

A man has to work to eat

A few weeks ago my Mother took my kids apple picking. Noah who is a big strong six year old boy was strugglingto pull the wagon full of crisp fall apples up the orchard hill. After stoping to rest his wise Grandmother told him that a man has to work if he wants to eat. You like to eat don't you she asked? He replied oh yea I love to eat and started pulling the wagon up the hill.

Those words have come back to me alot this week. Having our family go from two incomes to once since i have been sick has been a struggle to make ends meet. I have been cooking more homemade things for two reeasons really one is it cheaper and two i am not working so i have more time to cook thur out the day. But as always I have been blessed with free food from our mercy minstry at church. This week I have gotten 6 quarts of heavy cream which i made homemade butter with and put up and one that was made into whip cream that we had with pudding we had gotten from our food shelve. It was a yummy treat! The Butter making was a little work the kids and i passed around a jar and took turns shaking it until yummy fresh butter we enjoyed with warm homemade butter milk (which was taken from the heavy cream) biscuits. The kids enjoyed making the butter it was tons of fun! We also recived a bag full of carrots. They were the biggest carrots i have ever seen! But they were yummy with mayple syrup on them and homemade butter! After thinking about how easyit was to peel and cook up the 5 freezer quart bags of carrots i called our head of mercy minstry and said do you still have carrots? She said yes she had been given 700pds in all and was over run with them still and i could have a 50 pd bag if i wished.. I thought wow thats alot of work but a man (or woman)has to work if he wants to eat. So guess what i will be doing for the next few days? Anyone got any good carrot recipes? I am thankful For God funny ways of providing for my family. Anyone who said free food was easy never looked at a 50 pd bag of carrots in their kicthen floor... thats my view for today..

Needy people

I filled out a survay on myspace a few days age and one of the ? made me start thinking about something...... My childhood.



It was alot diffrent then most of my friends growing up.

My Dad was and is a Pastor all thou he did have outside jobs when I was growing up from a truck driver to a plumer, to a salesman. Not sure if I missed any but one thing is for sure no matter what job he was doing to put food on the table he was aways preaching to someone about something somewhere... My Mothers tells me I am just like him, not a bad trait to have been passed on and I am not alone. All us Gantts tend to preach from time to time even my mother... Back on track sorry just like my Dad I tend to get off my notes. The ? in myspace was have I ever had a room-mate?... I laughed and said the better ? for me is have you ever not had a room-mate. Let me give you a picture of how I grew up. Some of my first memorys as a child is my family always having people over. My mom was always helping out someone with something. My Dad was always bring someone home who needed food or shelter of some kind. Mom would add a little water to the soup and welcome them with open arms. When I was real young my Brother Bryan was my room-mate. We shared alot of hotel beds and pop up camper cots. We always had some lost son on our couch. A daughter of a church lady ( not Dana Carter either) who was going to be out of the states for a year shared my room with me. My Sister in law lived with us before my Brother and her got married for a year. She and I shared a room.

Then there was Donna who is still my room mate only I moved out of my parents house and she never did. Donna has been my room mate on and off since I was around 8 years old. My sister from a diffrent Mister,, and Mama. . I am greatful to my parents for open doors and arms. They taught me one of the greatest lessons that All I have in life is not mine but Gods. If i see others in need i must met that need to the best i can and ask God to do the rest i can't. Give my coat to a brother who is cold, " My parents always met the needs of the needy. This word Needy keeps coming to my mind. In this day in which we live there are many needy in this world. Homeless, Jobless, No family, No one to care if they live or die. I am thankful that my parents taught me this lesson.. Matthew 25:34 -36

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'.......

Who is needy in your communtiy? Are you looking or looking away?

What are you able to do about it? Do you have extra coats ?boots ?hats? Gloves? Food? Add some water to the soup and invite someone for dinner.

Why are you not meeting a need? Pride?Fear? Lazy?

I am fearful that the needs of us and those around us are only going to grow greateras time passes us. What kind of lesson will you teach your children? Thanks Beans view for today..