Covering Thy Head

In the six years that I have been covering my hair, I have tried many different veiling styles. At first, I started with a simple, white lace veil. At the time, I associated myself as Pentecostal and many of the girls at school asked me if it was part of my religion that I start covering myself with a "wedding veil" a certain number of months before the wedding. I knew that this wasn't working for me and had to rethink and seek God's will of what my covering was supposed to be like.

* I want to take this moment to pause and remind the women reading this posting that I feel the type of covering I wear is something that I feel God has led me personally to - I do not feel that this is the type of veil for every individual. He led me to this and it is also approved by my husband.

For most of the last six years, I have worn the Darted Veil from Plain and Simple, which usually drapes down between my shoulder blades: Darted Veil

Although I have ordered blue veils in the past, I have almost always worn black as a personal preference but I also believe that white should be reserved for those that are unmarried.

Helpful links:
Quaker Jane - Great discussion about things to consider before taking up the covering (or bonnet in her case)

Covered4Him - Wonderful long veils

Plain and Simple Coverings - Excellent selection and articles about putting up your hair in different styles of buns

Modestly Covered - I just found this Etsy shop a few weeks ago - beautiful long veils

Menno Simmons, Our New House, and Selling My First Plane

Menno Simmons, Our New House, and Selling My First Plane

Lately I've been curious about the origins of the movement encouraged by Menno Simmons. I've been very interested in the documents that came from the meetings of his peers whether Mennonite or Swiss Brethren. 

You can find links here to those documents.  

http://www.gameo.org/library

My deepest interest like I said is with the early history. I've tried reading a variety of Menno's early writings and I think I just haven't found the right ones yet. Most of what I have found so far has only been fluff meant to encourage his followers or has been brief paragraphs about "the ban".  His most thorough writing I've found thus far has been about the educating of children, there is no mention of college. Menno's educational references are all made towards the word of God. 

I've only begun to read, so if I find any interesting pieces I will bring them to your attention. 

Here is a link where you can specifically find Menno's writings. 

http://m.ccel.org/

Simply do a search for "Menno" and you will find anything you are looking for. 

Menno was known as a prolific writer, so there is a fair chance that I just haven't found his "meat and potatoes" yet.  

It's surprised me with what I have found that he can write so much and say nothing, but yet clearly he has had an enormous affect on Christian history. I'm certain there are writings I am missing or perhaps better translations. 

Our New House

Last weekend we received our appliances so now our house is a home! All of our furniture is in as well. Now we just need to take over the rest of our library and we will be set. 

I do unfortunately have to update that during the move Elizabeth Ann's loom was damaged and will not be usable until I am able to repair it. I'll try to remember to do a post on it. Including pictures. 

Hand Plane Making

I've not yet even begun to make and sell wooden hand planes yet, but I have already "sold" one to a good buddy of mine. It's a good motivation booster and also encourages me all the more to leave truck driving. 

Well with all things in our life, everything is very fluid. We'll try to keep you updated. 

Michael E McCartan

A little bit more about us...

To understand the purpose of this blog it helps to understand whom Elizabeth and I are; where we are coming from and to where we are going.

We are both simple people, we know where we stand on faith issues and our greatest pleasures come from the simplicities of living a natural life.

We've been married for five years as of May 25th 2012. Two things brought our marriage together: faith and homesteading. When Elizabeth and I met we were both on the same page in terms of our theology and our desire to homestead, for us the two are almost inseparable. I'm trying to make this as simple as possible, but with all things in our life, it is all intricate.

Elizabeth and I were what the world calls "fundamentalist Christians", we now look back and think that is a joke compared to where we are now. After we were married it seemed that we only became more and more conservative as the months went by. We struggled deeply with our desire to blend into a crowd, but our overwhelming convictions had greater control over our decisions. Elizabeth and I both come from families that can easily blend into any American scene, Elizabeth and I however are anything but that. In a day and age when most Christians look no different than heathens, Elizabeth and I stand out as the exception. We don't accept the idea that as Christians we are to be "separated" but yet still be identical to "the world". 

To make this easier for everyone to understand in the most simple of comparisons I will explain like this; we have the theology of the UPCI, the wisdom and preaching of the Old German Baptist Brethren, and the lifestyle of the Amish. Now to get quicker to the point I will explain this, we currently are not living off the land as we desire yet, nor are we horse and buggy yet. Being as we come from non-plain families, our conversion to the simple life that we desire is taking longer than we'd both prefer. That being said, we have both committed to making the big jump in what is now approximately 4 years and 10 months. 

To make a full conversion and to learn all that we will need to know, it is best to make the process as long as is tolerable. There are so many topics to study and so much experience that is needed to be garnered. 

To be clear on all topics; we will not have electricity.
We still discuss where we stand on plumbing. We both know ourselves well enough to know that if we declared now that we will have plumbing in the future, that we could end up changing our minds and appearing as liars. One of our greatest precepts that determine our methods is, Work with nature-Not against it. God designed this world to function a specific way and it is up to us to obey his design.

In this blog Elizabeth and I will do our best to keep everyone up-to-date on where we stand with our "conversion". Every week we are learning lessons that we can take to our farm, we'll relay those lessons and information to you.

Here are some basics on the two of us. We are both college graduates, Elizabeth is currently studying to get her masters in business. She works in an office for a large company. I on the other-hand drive a semi for a relatively small trucking company. On Saturday's I am learning the art of "wooden hand plane making" in the town of Eureka Springs, AR. The two of us have many story's that will be finding their way onto this blog in just a matter of time, check back often!

What this blog is about....

This blog will be a place for us to post information about homesteading, sewing for plain men and women, non-electric woodworking and biblical studies.