We at Blogger Friend School wish to offer our deepest condolences to a former friend and participant here at Blogger Friend School, Chrissy–MamaSmurf. She not only touched everyone’s hearts with some beautiful posts, but always made it around to offer encouragement to many blogger classmates and friends despite her ailing frailness as she battled cancer.
We offer our prayers for the family during this time and we would really encourage all of her classmates to leave a comment on her blog for her family extending our love and friendship. We know that she is at peace and rejoicing from above.
In the Nook...Mother's Day was so special for me this year! It wasn't just mother's day for our family, it was mine and my husband's 5th wedding anniversary. We went to the town we got married in and spent the afternoon with my closest woman friend Carol. We have been close since the day we met in August 2000. We had chinese cuisine from the buffet restaurant and then went to the mall and walked off all the calories! It was so much fun because I hadn't spent much time with my friend Carol in a while. We're only a 90 minutes apart but there just hasn't been that much time for me to go down to visit her and she's been very ill, so I wouldn't ever ask her to be away from home during such a hard time.
Yesterday was also the first time we've ever had our picture taken together, so I'm posting that too. My face is really red in the picture because it was soooo hot in the restaurant and the sun was coming right in the windows where we were sitting. Our crazy weather here has had us freezing one moment and burning up the next. After we returned home from our trip we had to build a fire because it was raining terribly and with the wind being so hard it got really cold. I think our high was the few minutes we were at that restaurant, the rest of the day was wet and very cold!
I'd like to ask that you please pray for my friend Carol; her health is not the best and she's been going through a really rough time with Dr. visits, hospital time and her husband is also in ill health. Carol is a wonderful artist and she loves to paint and make all sorts of little craft things (that's why we are such good friends, I suppose), she also has written several books that are mystery novels and children's books. I'd like to get her books into ebook format and sell them online for her to have extra money to pay all the doctors and hospital bills with.
I also got beautiful white roses from my husband for our Anniversary and a love letter that he wrote on a piece of wood that was cut from a tree! I gave him a wooden coat rack that I engraved our family name on and painted. My daughter gave me a really nice craft box to organize my art things and now I need a few more of them for sewing, paper crafts, and my calligraphy supplies.
In the Nook... I had heard of Diaper Cakes before but had never actually seen one. One of the ladies at our co-op is expecting in July and we're having a baby shower for her tomorrow. I wanted to do something extra special for her since she's been through a lot of sickness, and her mother also passed during this pregnancy. I made her a Diaper Cake today and I think it turned out beautifully. I went online to find out the instructions about two weeks ago and found a store that sells them, so I checked out what they had, as far as design and how they're set up. I could not believe they range in price from $89-$200+ ! Mine was less than a third of that to make. There cakes only had 1-3 flowers on them and the layers had big gaps between them...not like stair-step layers. Anyway, I wanted to post my pictures of the one I made and how it looks after I finished it and wrapped it in it's veil of tulle.
This is the right side of the cake
This is the left side of the cake~
This is the final touch - the tulle veil ~
I found this on Leinani's blog last week and couldn't find the link again to share, but NOW I have it and if you'd like to have a free paper greeting card to send to someone you can get a free one with a stamped envelope to mail out here: Power of the Letter.
It's really truly free, no strings! I got my card in the mail on Good Friday and had completely forgotten that ordered one. I also added my favorite photo of a Tiger Lily that my husband picked for me off the side of the road last year. I would add a picture of the card, but I already have it sealed and ready to mail to a dear friend of mine. This is in celebration of John and Abigail Adams and the letters they wrote to one another during the times they were separated from each other. Go get one! They're beautiful cards.
In the Nook...
As much as I love visiting my oldest daughter and grandchildren I am sooo happy to be home again! It felt like we'd been gone forever! Yesterday we've been playing catch up and today we're all just doing our own thing, well, between loads of laundry, cooking dinner, and going through my new products for review. Last weekend, March 7-9th we were in Indiana all weekend at the Girls of Integrity conference with RebeccaIngramPowell ,her daughter and her very best friend and phenomenal young woman of God. The conference was wonderful and the Holy Spirit definitely filled this place!
I had promised myself and my daughter that we would definitely find a way to go and though we encountered some very bad weather we made it. We had about 4 inches of snow at our house when we left that morning around 10:30 and the roads were clear for close to 100 miles but then we got to Louisville, KY and it hit us like 10 tons of bricks! We kept driving slowly and watched carefully for other drivers and we made the 3-hour drive in about 8 hours...an hour of that was stopping for some lunch after we got through the worst of the storm. I wasn't too nervous about it because I knew I had my daughter and my husband with me and the good Lord watching over us to keep us safe. I kept thinking if we had waited to leave another hour we would not have gone at all. Have you ever seen those discount books at rest areas or gas stations on the interstate, they have all sorts of hotel, motel, lodging place coupons in them? We found one of those at the Denny's where we had lunch and ended up paying only $39.99 a night for our room, which was very nice with the exception of the very small full-size bed. My husband was such a great asset to the conference by helping out with moving tables and preparing food for lunch on the full-day of the conference. All the men that came stayed in the gym for the most part and no boys from age 12 and up were allowed because they would have been a distraction to the girls attending...truly, I don't know if they were NOT allowed but they weren't preferred...LOL. We had a great time, my daughter, on the other hand, gathered some great information and met lots of nice young ladies, even some homeschoolers, and she enjoyed seeing Mrs. Rebecca, Danya, and Misty Rae again. I have a few pictures from the singing part of the conference and from the lobby of church that is painted like an enchanted forest complete with a real waterfall.
Kelsey sitting in front of the painted wall
Here is the waterfall
Here is another view of the waterfall ~ you can see where the painting starts
The conference auditorium ~ the stage area. Rebecca told the girls everytime she said "average" they were to shout out this phrase! It was fun to hear them all in unison.
Danya Powell and Misty Rae singing worship music
I have more pictures but I'm not posting them because this is enough to see what all was going on. That's all I have to write about right now, so I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Right now, I'm backing my template up...there were some really funky things happening to me on HSB this morning and considering I've lost three blogs in the past I think it's safest to back it up again...besides it's time to do that again anyway.
I made a little change with my Friends List. It's on the left side and to open it just click on the word "Friends" and it pops out! Neat, huh! To close it click on it again! Thank you
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Seven Steps to Raising Godly Children
Principle - Impart God's word on your children and live in a way that you are their greatest example of what a Christ-abiding parent should be.
Pattern - Teach your children a pattern of prayer; when to pray, how to pray, and why prayer is important.
Persistence - Don't ever give up...teach your children to always have faith and not to give up when things get hard.
Participation - Our children crave our attention! The way our children see us is the way they'll see God in thier lives.
Praise - Encourage children, praise them when they do something right and help them when they have a hard time.
Prayer - Teach your children to pray and then to TRUST God for the outcome.
Priority - Make God the Head and Heart of your home and let them live with God's desire coming first in your lives.
