Author: Rachel

Follower of Jesus. Wife, full-time career woman, writer, blogger, reader, crafter, dog mom, amateur historian and now future farmer. Although a Hoosier by birth, the Pacific Northwest is my home.
About me · Faith Life

Let’s talk bibles!

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Let’s chat about bibles. The purpose of this post is NOT help you discern what translation is the best one because 1) My opinions are my own and; 2) Let’s be honest – the BEST bible translation is whichever one makes you pick up your bible, open it up, and start reading. Instead, I want to talk about bibles, in general. I have inadvertently started bible collection. It wasn’t on purpose, but I’ve discovered that I love exploring different translations and bibles that are focused on a specific topic.

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You gotta listen!

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Although it feels like a multi-part true crime podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill from Christianity Today is, in fact, a deep investigation into the collapse of Mars Hill Church that was once in nearby (to me) Seattle. It was recommended when I was listening to the Hearing Jesus podcast, and I quickly became addicted as I was sucked into the titillating and shocking behavior of Mars Hills’ leader, Mark Driscoll. Episode after episode kept me hooked. Check it out – you won’t regret it!

About me · Auto-immune journey · Faith Life

Crying out to a God that listens

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I’ve been in painful health sojourn lately, and while it physically broke me, my cries to God were heard. Not in the way I hoped, but we don’t always get the answers to the questions we ask….

Backstory first, of course: I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis, an auto-immune disorder, in January 2015. In the subsequent 7+ years, I have only been in a brief remission once, have damage in dozens (or even hundreds of joints), have failed off every medicine available out there, and have had my diagnosis changed to the following: Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Pseudo-RA, and Pseudo-Gout (only with calcium crystals instead of uric acid). 

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Home

Divine timing and bubbly water

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I’ve had this blog for 12 or 13 years, and I don’t really know how much I’ve talked about my autoimmune disorder on here (without scrolling back and taking time to read), but I suffer from very, very bad Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA). I’ve also been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis because, honestly, I don’t have the exact hallmarks of either disease. But what I do have is horrible, debilitating, painful arthritis that I do not wish on anyone.

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farm life · In the kitchen · The farmgirl life

Grapes? Grapes. Grapes!

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Since we moved here in May, I’ve been irritated at the 20 feet of vines growing along our front fence perimeter. The rest of the fence line was completely clear, so why did the previous owners allow this to grow so wild? About 3 months ago, we were about to pull onto the road when Tim said, ”Wait, are those grapes?” We stopped the car, got out to investigate, and sure enough – those vines were grape vines! Thanks to my handy plant identification app, I discovered that they were California Wild Grapes. Since then, we’ve left them alone until this past Monday, when it was officially harvest time.

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farm life · The farmgirl life

Harvesting, property updates, and dirty feet

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Blueberry harvesting has started, and it’s obviously going to be ongoing for a while. Our smaller plants are mostly ready, but the larger plants still have a bit to go before the berries are ripe. Right now, I’m just picking, rinsing, freezing, and storing, but I plan on making some freezer jam in the near future. We eat a lot of fruit with granola and yogurt for breakfast, so I likely won’t have to buy blueberries for a very long while. I’m giving some berries to a friend, but we’ll still have more than two people ever will need. I also harvested some spinach, oregano, and lemon thyme this morning. I’m excited!

Harvest time!
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farm life · Home · The farmgirl life

Update! Gardening! Farming! We have a name!

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We moved in seven weeks ago today, and I can honestly say that life has changed drastically since then. We were overwhelmed new homeowners on an unfamiliar piece of property with no plans to utilize the greenhouse. Now, though, we are making large, grand plans for our future gardening/farming operation, as well as the addition of a new barn/loafing shed.

We have gone super-small this year since we obviously got started late, so we have two types of peppers, two types of cabbage, lettuce, spinach, fennel, broccoli, tomatoes, and several types of herbs growing in our greenhouse, in addition to our 12-bush blueberry crop that has what appears to be roughly 7,230,437 blueberries growing at the moment.

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