Courageous Men's Ceremony



“The Resolution” hanging on our dining room wall.

This past Sunday, our church had a Courageous Men’s Ceremony. For those of you who have seen the movie, there is a scene when all 5 men and their families gather together to read and sign “The Resolution.” Since our church had been doing a study to go along with the movie for the past couple of months, we culminated the series with a celebration similar to the one that took place in the movie.

Nearly half of the church participated on Sunday! All of the families were dressed up and many of the men were in suits and ties. We all went up on stage, and our Pastor read the resolution, clause by clause, and the men repeated after him. Then they all signed the resolution along with their wives and pastors as witnesses. It was a very special ceremony, and I know that many men have committed to being the leaders that God has called them to be.

After church, we were all invited to celebrate at a local burger restaurant. I know, it wasn’t quite as fancy as the ceremony, but logistically it was better than a fancy restaurant. But the food was still tasty and the fellowship was good! It was a great day and we are so thankful to have a godly husband and father to lead our family!

Making Applesauce

After going to the orchard on Monday and picking up a bushel of apples, we turned it into applesauce and apple butter yesterday! It was a LOT of work and took us over 3 hours. I don’t know how people make dozens of bushels worth of applesauce! One is plenty of work for us! J

It started with washing the jars, lids, and apples.

Then we peeled and chopped enough to make 4 loaves of apple bread (recipe coming on Saturday).

Josiah was very helpful with chopping.

You can see all of our canning and applesauce making supplies in this picture: our food mill, pots for boiling apples in, our canner, jars, and a strainer (as well as two willing bodies! J)

We washed. . .

. . . and chopped. . .

. . . and chopped some more! I like to call this “Mount Apple.” It makes me think of Mount Carmel in the Bible. A mountain made of caramel and apples would sure taste good right now!

After cutting the apples into 1/8’s, we boiled them skins, seeds, cores and all until they were soft and mushy.

Then we drained them. . .

. . . and put them through our food mill.

And out comes the delicious applesauce!

And we did this over, and over, and over, and OVER again.

Then it was into the canner to be processed.

The end result was 12 quart jars of applesauce. Three of these went into making crockpot apple butter, but the rest will be for eating all by itself!

And everybody’s favorite part: cleaning up! Well, not exactly a favorite, but a necessary part. We look forward to enjoying the fruits of our labor!

Going to the Orchard!

One of our family’s favorite traditions is visiting a local apple orchard. This is the third year in a row that we have gone, and we have so many good memories from each year. We visited the orchard yesterday, and I thought you would all enjoy a peek into our day there!

We started out by going to the U-Pick orchard to select our bushel of apples. We picked a variety including Mutsu, Ida Red, Jonagold, and Melrose.

The Michigan crop is huge this year, especially when compared to last year’s harvest. In fact, at this same time last year we picked our apples from bins because they were the last ones of their kind! But as you can see from the picture above, apple production is up this year!

Roma bringing a handful of apples to the bags.

Rubia juggling some of the apples.

This year, we decided to try the corn maze across the street from the orchard. We began with the easy maze since we hadn’t done one in awhile.

Rubia and Ben took off right away to try to beat the rest of us. I thought it was funny that they are both on the same foot in this picture.

Roma and I were the victors of the corn maze. We went to the observation deck to watch for the rest of the family. Can you find them in this picture?

I love the look of dried corn stalks as far as the eye can see! This photo was taken during our exploration of the more difficult corn maze. It was quite tricky!

“I think we’re lost.” J

Yes! Finally, the welcome exit sign. The other kids had beat Roma, Mom and I this time. I suppose it’s fair that each team won once.

As our reward for finishing both mazes in less than an hour, we received free cider and a donut! This orchard makes the best donuts I believe I have ever had. I enjoyed a cinnamon sugar donut with a cider slushy.

Roma enjoying her hot apple cider and pumpkin cinnamon donut.

After our treat, we looked around the store and purchased some things to take home. Then we went outdoors to the animal pens. A new attraction this year was a live bee hive display.

Bees are so fascinating to watch!

The horse seemed to especially love Rubia! She dreams of owning a horse someday in the future.

Next we played on the playground! Here, Ruby comes down the big slide.

Ben enjoyed being King of the Hill.

Sitting on the old John Deere tractor.

The younger kids tried to bury Ruby in the corn bin. It can be quite messy!

Later on, I enjoyed a delicious caramel nut apple. To be honest, I don’t believe that I had ever had one before going to the orchard. It was very good!

Our day was completed by a photo in the pumpkin display. We had a great time and look forward to going back next year!

Remembering Bianca's Rite of Passage

Last week, a reader asked if I had a Rite of Passage after reading about Ben’s recent Rite of Passage. The answer is yes, and I thought it would be fun to do a post about it!

I had my Rite of Passage several years ago around my birthday. My birthday was during the week and so for my birthday trip, we went to the movie theatre and saw the American Girl movie, “Kit.” I received a scrapbook similar to the one Ben received as well as many other nice gifts. Little did I realize that my birthday celebration was far from over! J

I was told that Daddy had planned to take me out to a special luncheon on Saturday afternoon. I then realized why my Abuela wanted to buy me a special dress, shoes, and jewelry as a birthday gift.

Daddy and I all dressed up and ready to go to our lunch. He even bought me a rose corsage!

He took me to one of the nicest restaurants in town! I was surprised when the host and our waiter wished me happy birthday when I walked into the restaurant. When we got to our table, I found it decorated with balloons and birthday confetti. It was so beautiful!

Our first course was a wonderful insalata Caprese, enjoyed with strawberry lemonade. Our second course was soup. Daddy had tomato bisque while I had French Onion. And finally our main course of steak with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. It was all so elegant and delicious!

After our meal, the waiter brought out a surprise birthday dessert for me: chocolate cake with a candle and a scoop of ice cream! Then Daddy pulled out a small box and presented me with my very own purity ring. It’s a beautiful sterling silver ring with a heart and a cross with a tiny ruby in it (my birthstone.) I have worn this ring every day since he gave it to me.

I was bubbling over with joy and happiness over our special time together, so I wasn’t suspecting anything else. Daddy casually mentioned as we got in the car that we needed to run by the church to pick up a movie our Pastor had left for us. Mom called and Dad exchanged a few words with her. When he hung up, he told me that there was a women’s meeting going on at church, so we might see some cars and people there. I was still oblivious to anything going on!

We reached the church and sure enough there were cars there. As we walked up to the doors, I saw a piece of paper that said “Rite of Passage” on it. I walked in the doors. . .

. . . and was shocked to find friends and family from all over the country standing there! I burst into tears and ran around greeting everyone.

Mommy explained what was going on, as we had never had a Rite of Passage ceremony in our family before. I was so excited!

We entered the sanctuary and the ceremony began. We opened with prayer and then all of my mentors and friends introduced themselves and explained their relationship to me.

Then we watched a beautiful power point slide show with pictures and captions of my life up until this point. Daddy read his letter to me before leaving. I found out later that he returned home to meet all of the men and boys and bring them back to church for the fellowship dinner following the ceremony.

I then shared my testimony with all of the ladies there. I had wondered why Mom wanted me to write it out!

Then my Abuela shared her letter, as did several other ladies in attendance.

The highlight of my ceremony was the Path of Blessings/Roses. Twelve of the ladies present formed a path, each of them holding a rose and a card with an exhortation on it.

I walked down the path, collecting the roses and cards. On each of the cards was a character quality that I was encouraged to pursue.

Hugging Mommy after receiving my roses.

My dear Great Aunts, Abuela, and Mommy.

My mentor circle after the ceremony. I am so blessed!

The beautiful cake we had after the ceremony.

After the ceremony, I came out to the fellowship hall and found all of the men and boys waiting there. We all enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by the ladies of the church. We had a baked potato bar with all of the fixings, punch, and of course, cake. I actually didn’t eat any of it because I was so full after my lunch! Later that evening, I had the pleasure of opening many gifts and reading through letters from those who could not be in attendance.

My Rite of Passage is a day that I will never forget! It was fun to see how Ben’s ceremony would be different because he is the first man in our family. I look forward to celebrating more Rite of Passages down the road with my younger siblings!