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That was my story several years ago. Actually, that was me last year. Well, I have to admit, that was me just last week.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Spring – I really do! I love the smell of the cool, refreshing breezes that blow on otherwise warm days, watching the grass grow greener daily, seeing the flowers that are popping up everywhere, observing the birds that are “house shopping”, preparing their nests, hearing the pitter patter of the rejuvenating rains on the porch roof as I watch the storms blow across the mountains, anticipating just when the little knobs on the tree branches will burst into bloom……… I love the excitement, the thrill, the newness of it all! But along with all of the beauty comes… yep: pollen.

Some people are blessed to not be allergic to pollen. We have some of those people in our family. But we also have several who, like me, have strong reactions to it. And it can take away from a lot of the enjoyment of spring. For a LONG time, I have been wondering, What can I do about this? I don’t like to take all the expensive, chemical-laden, commercially produced, temporarily-symptom-fixing products that we can buy at the store. Granted, I think those things have their place, and I’m all for using them at the right time. There has been many a time, even this week, when they come in extremely handy for “emergencies” – those times when I would really rather not be blowing my nose and crying and sneezing all the time… like when I’m singing special music in church or teaching piano lessons. But to live on them all through the pollen season??? Well, that’s not my first preference.

So that’s why I’m writing this: to let you know about something that I’ve found just within the past several days. It’s an amazing substance. It’s sweet (although slightly sticky, as most sweets are), delicious, good for you, and 100% natural!!! How much better can it get?? Would you like to know the name of this wonderful stuff? Actually, you probably use it all the time; you certainly know what it is; it’s usually a “pantry item” in most homes. At our house, we jokingly call it “partially digested bee food.” But the more common (and certainly more appetizing!) name is: honey. That’s right! Just plain old, regular honey. I love it. So when I looked up a remedy for allergies in a home remedies book, I was delighted to find this listed first. Actually, the book says to take a 1-inch cube of honeycomb, swallow the honey, and chew on the waxy part for about ten minutes. (This HAS to be local honey – the stuff produced by the bees in YOUR area – so that the allergens  it contains can build your immune system against the pollen that you deal with in your area.) Do this every day for a month or two before the pollen season, so that when it starts, you already have built an immunity to at least some of the problem.

Well, I didn’t discover this until a few days ago. And I was reading the page between sneezes and through watery eyes. But I decided that it was worth it to give it a try. We don’t currently have any honey in the comb, so I used the next best thing – a spoon. No, I didn’t chew the spoon. But I stuck it in the jar, pulled it out, spun it around several times until it quit dripping, and then enjoyed the wonderful sensation of eating something that I really enjoy, and hoping that it would help my problem! I did this four or five times the first day, three or four the next, once the next, and once or twice every day since. And guess what? My symptoms have pretty much all disappeared!!! It’s been several days now; I’ve been able to take walks, work in the yard, and flop on the grass, with everything blooming and a strong breeze blowing right in my face, and I usually only have a tiny bit of trouble (if any) when I come back inside later! It’s such a relief, and I’m just praising the Lord for every clear breath I take!!

Now I’m not going to dogmatically say that the honey is what did it. And even if it was, I’m not going to declare that it will do it for you, too. But I just wanted to let you know, because if you are at the point where I was (and usually am every spring), you’ll probably want to at least give it a try!!!

Proverbs 24:13 – “My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste…”

(P.S. And if it works, let me know. I’d be really interested in hearing if this helps anyone else!!)

This is what we used to think, as Mayfield has been one of our favorite ice cream sources for a long time , but about two years ago we were shocked to find out that not everyone has had the opportunity to experience the fantabulistical taste of  Mayfield’s ice creamier and milk. Why? As we soon discovered, Mayfield is only in the Southeast! There are three processing/packaging plants: one in Athens, Tennessee (we toured it in 2009), one  in Birmingham, Alabama, and one in Braselton, Georgia. Mayfield has a commitment to only delivering their products to stores that can be reached easily – without too much time spent in transit – to ensure that their products are always fresh and have a longer shelf life.

This last weekend during a short family “get-away,” we had the opportunity to tour the Mayfield Dairy plant in GA. Having loved our tour of the one in TN, we were  curious to see how much of a difference there would be, how much more of the process we would be able to witness firsthand, etc. We arrived just in time for the last tour of the day, and thoroughly enjoyed it! If you ever get the opportunity to tour one of the three plants, take advantage of it! The tours are free and absolutely fascinating, the gift shops are fun (for those of us who enjoy things like that ), but, of course, the best part is the ice cream parlor!  Mmmmm…. you have to experience it to know exactly what we’re talking about…

While touring, we found out some incredible facts that were absolutely too interesting to not share. Some of them apply to the dairy industry in general, but most are individual to Mayfield.

~ Mayfield milk contains no artificial growth hormones

~ The plant can process and package 150,000 gallons of milk on an average day

~ 1 milk truck (you know, the ones you see on the highway that just look like sparkly-clean gasoline carriers) holds 6000 gallons of fresh milk

~ The milk trucks have no cooling system, but are insulated, like a thermos

~ The average cow can give 8 gallons of milk every day

~ It takes all the milk given in a day by 750 cows to fill just one milk truck

~ The plant gets about 20 full trucks every day

~ The milk for this particular plant can come from farms as far away as Indiana, but can only be transported a maximum of 96 hours

~ Milk, arriving in the trucks at above 42 degrees F, is rejected (If that does happen sometime, doesn’t it make you wonder what they would do with 6000 gallons of warm milk?? We didn’t get a chance to ask that question…)

~ Once arriving at the plant, the milk is transferred from the trucks into gigantic, metal towers that are kept exactly 23 degrees F even on sweltering summer days (talk about a powerful refrigeration system!!)

~ Mayfield milk gets it’s “distinctly-fresh-all-year-long” taste from a system unique to them, called Aro-Vac. It is a process that heats the milk and removes the steam, which actually serves to withdraw all unusual flavors in the milk that result from undesirable things the cow has eaten (such a onion grass, etc.). Even though this plant packages milk for other brands (particularly Great Value – from Wal-mart), the Aro-Vac system is still used exclusively on the milk labeled Mayfield.

~ Mayfield milk is always packaged in yellow jugs, which keep UV light rays from affecting the taste and decreasing the nutrients

~ The bottling system at Mayfield can produce 6000 sealed, “ready to purchase” gallon jugs every hour, or up to 300 pints a minute

~ Mayfield stamps an expiration date for exactly 18 days after the milk is sealed inside the jug, but the milk is usually still good for 5-10 days after the expiration date

~ After the milk is processed and packaged, it is sent to a giant refrigerator that holds approximately 600,000 gallons

~ Mayfield milk isn’t processed on Wednesday and Sunday

~ Mayfield’s total annual production is 69 million gallons of milk, and 28 million gallons of ice cream!

We thoroughly enjoyed our “get-away,” and learned a lot in the process! For your information, Mayfield tours make great home school field trips!

An interesting thought: next time you have the opportunity to visit or tour any sort of factory, plant, museum, etc., TAKE NOTES and ASK QUESTIONS on what you hear and learn. In our individualistic society, this can have a great impact. No one is used to seeing and meeting people who are interested in the lives of others or things other than themselves. We found that when the guide saw that we were actually interested enough in what he was showing us to WRITE IT DOWN, he was noticeably impacted and we were able to have a more powerful influence for Christ. Plus, I think he threw in a little more interesting trivia, just for the notepad!!

- watching “The Star of  Bethlehem” and then discussing the incredible power, sovereignty, majesty, and wisdom of our Creator

- playing many games, including Dutch Blitz, Occupation, Catan, Duck-Duck-Goose, Swap, Kings-and-Peasants, etc. 

- listening to the Staddon family practice beautiful family harmony – with voice (esp. the quintet ), piano, violin, and handbells

- getting to feed many large appetites

- spending quality times around the table, reading the Bible, relating our most embarrassing moments, sharing spiritual insights, singing, laughing, writing  lists of everything else we wanted to do, etc.

-gaining experience and knowledge regarding photography and operating a website and blog (special thanks to James and Robert!)

- staying up to a record time of 4:00 a.m. on New  Years  Eve

- blowing up our gingerbread house

  Well, needless to say, when the “Staddon  Wagon” pulled out of our driveway on Friday, we were left with a sense of loss but also one of having been wonderfully refreshed! One   particular thing we appreciate about the Staddon family is their constant JOY!! (That comes from having Jesus first, Others second, and Yourself last.) Whether in helping prune our fruit trees, eating a peanut butter ball, helping  clear the table, or playing Catan, they constantly had smiles and words of encouragement!  Thank you, Staddons!

Note: For more stories and  pictures, please visit the Staddons’ blog!! (We promise, it’ll be worth it just to see the incredible gingerbread-house-explosion shots!!!)

Every year, we try to think of ways to simplify the Christmas season so that we can concentrate more on the true meaning of Christmas – that Jesus came to Earth to save us from our sins. Sometimes we succeed; and a lot of times… well, we’ll just leave it at that. This year, we had a kind of “forced simplicity”, which made Christmas 2009 go down in Neely Team history as probably “the most unusual Christmas we’ve ever had!” 

The night of Christmas Eve, we were planning to follow our regular Christmas traditions the next day, and to just enjoy the time with each other. We had invited about ten other people to come have Christmas dinner with us, so we had gotten the house in ship shape,and by the time we went to bed that night, we were ready for a good night’s sleep, in preparation for what looked like would be a fairly busy day the next day. Yes, it was busy, but not quite in the way that we had planned!…

For me, it all started around 5:15 am, when I awoke to hear the excited whispers and restless movement of two of my sisters, in the bed next to mine. We have a rule that no one is allowed to get up before 6:00 on Christmas morning, to allow the sleepy ones (i.e. Dad, Mom, and a couple of us “stick-in-the-mud” older girls ) a teensy bit more time to sleep! So anyway, I was lying there, trying to tune out the noise of the girls’ excitement and go back to sleep, when I suddenly realized how dark it was. The power had gone out! I didn’t think much of it at first, because we have power outages all the time (especially when we have a windstorm like we had that night), and they usually don’t last very long. However, it was about 5:45 before I finally drifted off to sleep again, and my last thought was, Hmm. I wonder if the power will come back on in time…

Well, that altered a few people’s plans to get up at 6:00, as they were still lying in bed, wondering what would be the point of getting up in the dark, with no lights, no water, and no way to cook the breakfast we had planned! Finally, around 6:45, my siblings managed to wake me up enough to get out of bed, and  all nine of us headed downstairs to Mom and Dad’s room, to wake them up, too, in spite of the dark. After all, that’s what flashlights and candles are for, right?

That morning was actually very similar to other Christmas mornings, except that we got up later, couldn’t turn on our Christmas lights, couldn’t turn on ANY lights, except for our candles and flashlights, and had scrambled eggs and grits (which we cooked on our gas-powered stove) instead of baking the breakfast casserole that we usually have on special occasions. After it got to be light outside, Dad went out and hooked up the generator, which some friends just helped us hard-wire to the house back in October – just in time! The effect was wonderful! It wasn’t like having all of our regular electricity on, but it was good enough to run a couple things at a time, so that we took turns running things like the hot water (for showers and dishes), kitchen lights, refrigerators, and freezers. It’s amazing how attached we can become to our modern conveniences… and how much we miss them when they’re gone!!

After breakfast, we all gathered in the living room again to read the Christmas story and open gifts. Usually we just read the Christmas account from Luke 2, but this year we READ it, taking time between each verse to discuss the scenario and imagine what it would’ve been like to really be there. From Luke, we went back to Matthew and read the story about the wise men. Then we got into a discussion about “the star.” What was “the star” that the wise men followed? We had quite the discussion about that, and talked about several different possibilities; all in all a very interesting conversation! But more about that later…

We had to cancel our dinner plans with our friends because of the power outage. That was okay, because it gave us more family time; more time to relax and enjoy each other’s company. We altered our meal plan just a little, so that instead of baking the turkey, we grilled venison cube steaks and tenderloins – delicious!

We had another interesting twist to the day when shortly after dinner, the generator suddenly ran out of gas! We had called the power company, and they had said that they hoped to have the power back on by 11:00… PM… on SATURDAY night!!! So, with that in mind, Dad decided that we had to try to get some gas, so that our refrigerators would stay cold. At first, he was planning to go out by himself, but after some discussion, we decided to all load up and go. So, we enjoyed our time, spending Christmas in our 2nd (or maybe our real) home – the van! I have to mention here that usually we spend a lot of Christmas afternoon settled down in the living room, sitting in front of the Christmas tree. It’s so cozy and homey… but obviously that wasn’t going to work very well this time, so we loaded our two-foot-high tree into the van, plugged the lights into a power inverter, and enjoyed our little Christmas tree in our “home away from home” – how appropriate!

I realize that this is pretty long, and I don’t want to bore anyone, so I’ll skip to the end of the story… The power actually came back on around 7:00 pm, so that night we cozied down and watched “The Star of Bethlehem.” Let me take just a moment here and encourage anyone who has never seen that video to PLEASE do so!!! It is AMAZING!! Words fail me when I try to describe it, but it is an unbelievably fascinating tribute to the accuracy of the Bible and the sovereignty and perfection of God!!!!!! To know that the God of our universe would actually come to Earth, be born as a human baby, live a perfectly human life, and die an excruciating and horrible human death… just to save me, and all of us, from our sins and give us the opportunity to live with Him forever, is hard enough to fathom!!!! Then to see the design and perfection with which He had planned the universe to announce His coming, birth, and death… it was incredibly humbling!! It was a wonderful end to a truly wonderful Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

One thing the video covered that particularly stood out to me was a story they told about Darwin’s trip. He was taken by ship, and during the course of the five-year voyage, became close friends with the captain. They were both seeking answers, but though they studied the same things, they arrived at vastly different conclusions. Darwin, because he had already determined in his heart that the Bible was only good for moral issues, not science, became convinced that the world and all therein was a result of random chance, mutations, natural selection, etc. The captain, on the other hand, found striking evidence for the Creator and later became a strong Christian. This reminded me of the importance that we interpret everything through the truth of Scripture, God’s infallible Word, and that our hearts must be tender toward that truth. These two men witnessed the same sights, walked the same shores, and studied the same creatures and processes, but because one carried with him that baggage of worldly philosophies, he was blinded and led to draw up some of the most ridiculous theories imaginable. The other found God’s Light, grace, and Almighty hand to guide and direct his life and help him see his true origin and the reason for his existence.

Because of this fierce battle between these two vastly different worldviews, I was also reminded that we, as Christians, must be seeking God and studying His creation so that we may be equipped to pass on the truth to the coming generations. The Lord used this film to renew my excitement in these things and my awe for Him and His matchless ways! He truly is amazing!! If you have not seen this, we highly encourage you get it. You will be inspired! Our whole family is now ready for a trip to the Galapagos! 

“O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good… The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works… I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” (Psalm 104) 

“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens… When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalm