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

We Have A Prayer Closet!

I make this statement not to boast, as a closet can be of any size or in any part of one's home. It's just a great feeling when one can liv by their convictions and Biblical commands.

It's probably a simple 3'x4' closet adjoining our bathroom. It has a simple padded prayer bench.

It is convenient, quiet,  and solitary. There isnothing ostentatious about it. It is a simple place to have genuine prayer with God.

I've not taken a foto of it yet, I will try to post one later.

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

Why No Pictures?

The absence of pictures on this blog is not because of an ideology. We've just been unfortunately in a position where we are most often only able to update the blog over our phones. Due to this situation we have to deal with the quirks of the phone and blog format, they have shortcomings.

In roughly a month or two we should both be living in our home daily. This will open up copious hours that heretofore have been waisted.

I should also make it clear that we try our best to use only photos that we ourselves have taken, and in the instances where we have used photos from other sources we will be replacing them in time with our own illustrations or photos.

I'm sure you have noticed that there are no photos of us. That will also be addressed in the future. We don't intend to paint this blog with our faces, but we will let people see us to better understand our walk with God.

We encourage questions! So let us know if we can help you in your walk with God!

Michael E McCartan

A Poor Update

A Poor Update

Alot has happened in the last 4 months. We've been so busy between my driving for a living, moving into our house, and everything else in-between. 

Elizabeth Ann is still healthy with our child. Everyone save a lone individual is certain that the gender is male. We'll see coming the first week of May or so. 

Elizabeth is eagerly looking forward to her homebirth. 

It seems that aside from one weeks break, all of my weeks driving have been spent going to Pennsylvania. Ordinarily I would enjoy this, but the routine has become less than pleasant due to weather and rushing to get home by the weekend. 

It looks like I'll be able to leave driving in another month. I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish by April 16th so that when I have to go renew my license I can have it changed to a civilian license instead of commercial. That way I won't be able to go back to driving. 

I'll be staying home to watch our child. It's not the way we prefer things to be, but being the first generation to convert requires us to make some sacrifices as our name's first plain family. 

My sons will not be put in this situation as they will have learned a trade before they marry. 

I have so much to tell about woodworking news that I am disappointed that I can't even leave a teaser! It would leave to many questions! 

Bottom line is that I've made many new and good connections and have also acquired many new books and tools. I will try so hard to keep an inventory for this blog once I am home fulltime. 

This blog will be much more active once I am home. 

I am very encouraged that I will have a two car garage to use as my woodworking shop. It will have all the room I'll need for anything I pursue.  

Elizabeth and I are not your typical plain people. I think as the blog goes along you will learn more about that. 

Just one unique example, Elizabeth and I both believe that through proper diet that the body is able to restore health to the teeth. 

We'll explain how and tell you about our discoveries/realizations as we have them. 

Elizabeth will be making some bone broth pretty soon, I'll try to get a blog entry out of it. The idea is to use the marrow to strengthen your own bones. 

There is much more to strengthening your teeth than this, but it is one example of a much greater picture.  

Orchard!

Our property has .8 of an acre. It's not alot but it is plenty of room to have a small orchard. Something great for us is that it already has a fruit bearing peach tree! We've not yet decided on what trees we will have but we will need to decide soon as the time to make an order has come!

A small update on our chickens. We've still got only two, both of which molted and are no longer producing eggs. Once I am home fulltime and we can let them out of the coop more, we will see if they resume laying eggs. If they don't, then their fate becomes questionable as chickens are not intended to be pets for anyone but children. 

We'll post some pictures of them, they are both very fat now and could use some good sunlight. 

We apologize for the absence of photos on our blog, it's not out of principal but rather that most times we are updating our blog from our cell phones which often causes us trouble. We have many photos we'd like to upload and will in due time once we figure out how to reliably. 

Lord Bless!

I've got several ideas for topics of theological discussion that I'd like to touch on. Once again, that may be a while. We'll see

Big Changes in the Household

2013 has brought many changes to our lives so far - sometimes it is quite overwhelming and there will be many more to come.

One of the things that we have been keeping a secret for awhile is that we are expecting our first child in the beginning of May! My pregnancy has progressed very well. I had a few bouts of nausea in August but nothing horrid. Since then, I have had a wonderfully smooth five and a half month journey. With approximately three months to go, we are both becoming more and more excited. 

I have been blessed to find a midwife who also is supportive of our non-vaccination and homebirthing preferences. Since we have decided not to use a doppler or ultrasounds, we will not be finding out the gender of our child. Thus far, it has been affectionately known as Pickle.

To top the baby news, we are also in the middle of closing on our first house! We found a 2002 home in a quiet rural subdivision with 3/4 of an acre. The land behind us houses lots of cows and a very large pond. We're excited to have a bit of pasture as well as room for orchard trees, raised beds, room for our current dog (and soon, another!), the chickens and our darling Pickle to explore. Michael will also have enough room for his woodworking ventures.

We're looking forward to this new chapter in our lives and hope to be able to bring new experiences to this blog. Please leave us any helpful hints you have about choosing goats, cows, and raising babies! 

Elizabeth

Sorry

I apologize for the lack of new content. Work has been more than steady and we are still adjusting to some of our life changes.

If we haven't mentioned it yet, we are now down to two chickens. One is Baldy and the other is a Red Star. They seem to be getting along like the best of buds. Both are molting though so we currently have no egg supply. Unfortunately the three other chickens we had with Baldy got picked off one by one by a hawk so we had to find some company for her quickly. Livestock tends to not do well when isolated. Due to the threat of the hawk we kept Baldy in the coop 24/7. She wasn't used to this and it's actually still the case till we can come up with a solution that works for us.

I'd really like to elaborate about what's going on in my woodworking world but really don't feel like I can do it justice till I am home all the time. My tool collection is steadily increasing as is my library. What is deeply lacking is me getting the experience I need and that will only come with me leaving truck driving permanently.

Today I was able to visit a Woodcraft store. I was pleased to see how inexpensive some lumber is, though I still think that I would feel compelled to order what I wanted instead of purchasing what's in-stock. I looked around at the tools they had for sale and it really made me comfortable with the selection I have.

My next two greatest priorities with woodworking involve a new bench and a milling machine. More will be sure to come after that like a table saw and perhaps a band saw. My choices will really be determined by how much work I have of what types.

Once my bench has been made or ordered my next focus will shift to making a Trying plane. Once I have made it I will have all the planes I need to thickness stock. My focus will then promptly shift to a need for a moving fillister. I'll need it for when I make boxes. It helps in making a rabbet around the bottom to raise the interior into the box. It all helps with the gluing surface as well. Depending on how lids are made a moving fillister can help with them as well. Usually the moving fillister will remove the bulk of the material and a rabbet or shoulder plane will come in and more accurately remove the rest. These tools are a real treasure to use.

I've got alot of experience that I need. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm only 29, so many times I think I'm 59 and the clock is ticking. Truth is I'm fine and have plenty of time ahead of me. Of course at this point having sufficient time to read the quantity of material I would like, would also help alot in advancing my "career". I'm not sure what my future holds, only what I would like to do.

Lord bless you in your path

Michael