• Feb. 3, 2010 - Flaming Whoopie Pie

One week ago today, our Breezy Tulip turned 19. This year, Breezy wanted to sew and do some baking for her birthday.  She sewed a couple of skirts, a journal cover and a little wallet.  She also made some whoopie pies using this recipe.  Instead of a cake for her birthday we put her 19 candles on one of the whoopie pies....hence the flaming whoopie pie. As usual, books were the choice gifts for her birthday. On another note, we have prayed for years that the Lord would bless the work of our daughter's hands.  And so it is a joy to see how the Lord uses the talents He has blessed them with to bless others. This week Breezy began a series of original paintings to sell and will give 100% of the sales to the Rescue Haiti's Children Fund.  She has one painting finished and is working on the next.  Her plans are to create six paintings based on Matthew 25:35-36.  You can visit her blog to see updates as she posts the paintings as she finishes them.  After they are all finished she will put them in her Etsy shop for sale.

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• Jan. 25, 2010 - My Sweet Mom

Sometimes I have flops in the kitchen or things don't taste "right" to me and it used to bother me, but not anymore. Why? My sweet mom is a wonderful cook, she can make the yummiest foods and she still cooks for us girls almost every other week as my sisters and our daughters gather at her house to spend some time together. As she has gotten "older" she says her cooking just doesn't taste right or that it  flopped.  While it may be that things don't taste the same to her I think her cooking is still the best! "I'm not sure my mother really understands just what her cooking means to me. It represents everything warm and good and cozy."  - Carmen J. Crofton

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• Jan. 20, 2010 - Christians Can Always Rejoice

Christ is on His throne! Read this post by Nathaniel Darnell and be encouraged!  Christ is the Lord and worthy to be praised!

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• Jan. 18, 2010 - America Rising

Last spring my family went to our first Tea Party Rally in Indianapolis on April 15th. There were well over 10,000 people there. The media reported about 1,800 to 2,000 were there.  Hmm. They lied. I was there and saw with my own eyes what they would not admit to see. Our family has contacted our U. S. Senators many times over the past year, one a Republican and one a Democrat. The Democrat ignores us, never responds back, or sends a patronizing response in the form of a letter or email. The Republican has been mostly silent and only made one reference to one statement that he made months ago. Neither Senator seems concerned about our Constitution.  These are just some of my observations.

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• Jan. 17, 2010 - Some Encouraging Blog Posts for the week

Okay, here are some of my favorite blog posts for the week.  Some of them are rather lengthy, but well worth the time. Christie at Divine Calling wrote about Stay at Home Moms and Stay at Home Daughters Her sister Stephanie wrote more about being a Stay at Home Daughter here.  Excellent job ladies! Geoff Botkin wrote a very eye-opening article about why we are so easily lead into socialism called Why the Public School Systems Teach Revisionist History Sarah Mae got all fired up after watching Children of Caesar by Voddie Baucham and you can read that post here.  Go Sarah Mae! and Ken Ham writes on the Meaningless of Atheism.

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• Jan. 12, 2010 - A Homemade Christmas- Embroidered Ornaments

My last homemade Christmas post will be about the little embroidered ornaments that I made for our tree this year. I was inspired by Natalie at Cinderberry Stitches to create something a little different than a framed embroidery piece. I think her work is simply adorable.  I asked Breezy to write out a few words for me and then to draw some simple little swirls and flowers for me on an index card. I went over the designs with a darker pen and then picked some of the designs and transferred them onto a piece of muslin. I used a light box to transfer the design to the material, but I have used a window before with equal success.  I wrote directly on the muslin with a fine-tip Zig pen.  With it being fine-tip you can stitch right over the top of it and it won't be seen.  I put a second layer of muslin behind the piece with the design so that there would be a double layer.  This helps hide the threads that might show through from the back. The stitches I used were a straight stitch, daisy stitch, french knot and blanket stitch. You can find a nice stitch directory here. After I stitched the front pieces, I cut out the square along with muslin for the back. I did a blanket stitch along the outside edge of all the layers, stuffing a small amount of fiber-fill inside before I completely closed it.  A long piece of embroidery floss was used to make the hanging loop.  One of the funnest things about this homemade gift was that I was able to actually surprise Breezy and Emily Rose with them.  As I worked on them they thought I was just working on the ones for our tree, ha, but I was faster than they thought.  I think that we are planning on putting the designs up on Emily Rose's blog so that if anyone wants to use the patterns they can.  When we do I will put the link here.

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• Jan. 8, 2010 - A few challenging posts for the week.

Here are a few blog posts that I have been reading that have really blessed and challenged me this week. Voddie Baucham's post on Showdown with the Abortionists.  Generation Cedar's post on Organizing Your Life. Joyfully Home's post on the new film Homeschool Dropouts. Sarah Mae's post You are a Legalist.

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• Jan. 4, 2010 - Wanna see something cute?

Last month when we went to the Sufficiency of Scripture Conference, the girls had a "special impromptu opportunity" and you can see it here. It makes this momma smile.

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• Jan. 4, 2010 - Question for myself

Am I loving my husband God's way or the world's way?   This is just one of the questions that I am asking myself after listening to this with my husband. (You can listen to the first session for free at that link.)

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• Dec. 22, 2009 - Snowflake Ornaments

This homemade Christmas post is more of a homemade winter post.  Let me show you how I make my crocheted snowflakes. Several years ago, I made a variety of snowflakes to use for decorations.  I usually leave these these snowflakes up in a window all winter. I start out using a thin cotton thread like this and a steel crochet hook like one of these. If you already know how to crochet than these are really simple to work up. If you haven't crocheted before I would suggest doing some other practice pieces before attempting these. I found my patterns in books and magazines, but there are several free patterns online. You can find some here. The snowflake in the middle of the picture above still needs to be stiffened. I use a glue like Aleene's Fabric Stiffener.  You can put it in a little bowl or a plastic bag. Just swirl the snowflake around in the glue to coat it, remove it making sure to squeeze out the excess glue. This part is a little tricky. You need to start reshaping the snowflake and making sure that nothing is twisted. I pin it onto a piece of styrofoam that has been covered in plastic wrap. I pin all the little loops so that the snowflake is in the correct shape and then just let it dry for a day or two.  An important thing to think about is the type of pins you are using.  If they are not stainless steel they may leave a small rust mark, so....either take them out right away and just leave flat or make sure they are stainless steel.  When you are storing them just be sure to have them lay flat and they should keep their shape for years to come.  You can go to Simply Vintagegirl for more Homemade Christmas ideas.

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• Dec. 21, 2009 - To the battle front!

I love this time of year, but sometimes we expect things to be different and become disappointed in ourselves and our families. That is really just wrong. In my case I have been dealing with a cough for over 3 weeks and it is getting old, but it is just a cough. I need to remember that! I firmly believe that we need to just own up to our short comings and become the grace-filled sturdy women that God would have us to be. Is it hard? Sure it is. Do we fail? Sure we do. I have been loving studying women from the past with my girls...godly women..sturdy women. It isn't all the fluffy stuff that we like to read and learn from... it's the day in and day out faithfulness in all the little things. It is their lives as a whole, what their character was, who they put their trust and hope in, what they taught their children, and how they helped their husbands that inspire us. Our time with our families is short and precious. How will you spend it? To the battle front ladies!

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• Dec. 18, 2009 - What kind of tools are you giving this year?

Wondering how to bless your husband? One way is to give him tools that encourage and teach biblically sound fatherhood! Some of our favorite resources are on sale over at The Western Conservatory.  One of my husband's favorites is the Father to Son DVD set.  Yes, I know, we do not have sons, but it is still a wonderful example of mentoring your children!  And, by the way, it is 50% off.  Go read about it and watch the trailer here.   My husband has been able to use these DVD's to help mentor other fathers, too. So many men have not been mentored by their fathers and really don't know how to or even what it looks like to mentor their own children.  This DVD set gives examples and ideas on how to do just that.  And just for a heads up, Geoff Botkin is going to be hosting an online men's mentoring season on Saturday mornings in January and February.  You can read about it here.

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• Dec. 16, 2009 - Deals of the Day!

Best price ever on the paper dolls that Breezy and Emily Rose created is happening over at Vision Forum today!!  They are the featured "deal of the day". We had a wonderful opportunity to attend the Sufficiency of Scriptures conference in Cincinnati, Ohio this past weekend and while we were there the girls were able to meet Doug and Beall Phillips.  Mr. Phillips gave them an impromptu interview on his video camera, which was incredibly fun to watch happen. :)  Later, Mrs. Phillips had them pose with her for a photo and you can see it here on Doug's Blog.  So back to the sale, if you have been waiting for the perfect deal to get the paper dolls, today's the day!  On another note, Life in a Shoe is giving away 3 sets of the full conference audio of the Sufficiency of Scripture conference!  It was a wonderful conference and you will be greatly blessed to listen to it. So hurry over there and enter her giveaway, it ends tonight, too! You can read more about the Sufficiency of Scriptures conference here and here at their blog, you will need to scroll through several pages to see all the photos and posts. They were doing live blogging and they have a lot of posts.

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• Nov. 30, 2009 - Happy Birthday Emily Rose!

Birthdays are so fun, especially when it's your children's birthdays!  Emily Rose is 17 today and we are going to celebrate by letting her sew all day! :) We have gone to antique malls in the past on her birthday, but this birthday she wanted to have an all day sewing spree.  Since Rob and I are a little under the weather that will be perfect.  Rob worked on her sewing machine last night and got everything working smooth.  (that is an added blessing to have an upholsterer with extensive sewing machine knowledge for a dad!) To add to the fun we like to look back at old photos to see how much we have changed so here are a few photos for you to enjoy of Emily Rose over the years.  The above photo is one of my favorites, she was 4 and we had traveled to Maine with my mother. That was such a wonderful and memorable trip. Breezy and Emily Rose -1994 Here she is with Charlie our "little" dog in 2003.  We love looking at pictures of  Charlie at this time, because we had no idea how big he was going to get.  He was a stray and a mutt, but as time went on we found out he had a LOT of mastiff in him.  Emily Rose wrote a sweet post about our years with Charlie here.  Charlie was a huge part of the girls' childhood.  And here she is again when she was around 4.  She had a fun day with extended family eating watermelons and picking daisies.  This was taken in September of this year while we working on getting a shot for the back of the girls' new paper doll series.  This is another of my favorites.    Breezy wrote a lovely post about Emily Rose on her blog with a few more favorite photos.  I am sure that Emily Rose would love it if you would leave her a birthday wish on her blog!

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• Nov. 22, 2009 - Today's Fool Count

A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left.  Eccl. 10:2 Today's fool count: 60 Update: That would be the 60 Senators who voted to continue down the path of a complete government takeover of our health care system.

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• Nov. 17, 2009 - A Homemade Christmas - Afghans

There is just something about homemade Christmas gifts that make gift-giving so delightful.  I love what Emily Rose said on her blog about homemade gifts - "The one who receives the gift, sees the decoration, or enjoys the dish will know and remember that those things were not there because we ran out of time, but because we took the time." This year I have definitely been taking some time to make my daughters both an afghan.  Not that I am taking my time and trying to make it seem special because it has taken me so long, it's just that I am a little slow with this project. Last year after Christmas I was able to purchase yarn on sale so that I could make my daughters both an afghan like the one that their Great-Grandma Carmella made for my husband.  We decided I would alter the pattern a bit and make it more of a wave instead of a V shape.  After several months of messing with them, I decided it just wasn't going to happen; I had to keep count all the time while I was crocheting and it was not going very fast, so I unraveled all that I had crocheted and began again.  This time I went back to the traditional V shape and it has gone so much faster.  I let the girls choose their own colors.  Emily Rose's is above and Breezy's is below. One of the challenges of making gifts for family members in the same home is trying to keep them from seeing the gift while you are making them. Since I had the girls pick out their colors and it was going to be a bigger project, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do this in secret.  As the blankets have "grown" I began to roll them up so the girls couldn't see how big they were and how much more I had to do. One thing that has been fun about making two at the same time is that when I grew tired of the same colors over and over I could just switch projects. I used Vanna's Choice yarn that I bought at JoAnn's Fabrics last year; it is one of my favorite yarns.  The pattern that I used is called Chevron and I used this pattern as a base and then just made it much wider by about 90 stitches and I will not be adding any fringe. Emily Rose is hosting "A Homemade Christmas" on her blog over the next several weeks.  If you want to join in on the fun of sharing ideas about homemade gifts and gleaning from others, you can click here. Dates to participate in A Homemade Christmas: • November 17th • December 1st • December 15th • December 29th (wrap-up with projects/gifts we couldn’t share before Christmas) The main/opening dates are listed above, but the linkys will be open two weeks after the beginning date so that you have plenty of time to get in your posts.

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• Nov. 14, 2009 - Proverbs 14:1 Woman

Part of my daily reading of God's word includes a chapter of Proverbs, reading the chapter that corresponds with the day of the month.  While each of the chapters in Proverbs challenge and teach, when I come to the 14th day and read chapter 14 it always makes me......pause.  The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down. - Proverbs 14:1 The second part of the verse makes me fearful: I do not want to tear my house down! So, what makes a woman wise? Where does that wisdom come from? How can one be wise? Does it just happen with age and experience? God's word tells us that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.  Do I have the fear of the Lord? Really? Do I really examine everything I do in the light of God's word?  The entire chapter of Proverbs 14 is full of teaching about wisdom.  Here are just a few: The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way. v. 8 The prudent gives thought to his ways/steps v.15 One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil. v.16 In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence and his children will have a refuge. v.26 Prudent and discern are two words that I really need to make sure I understand.  The 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary gives me the best definitions for these words - you can find their definitions here - prudent and discern. So as I seek to build my house and not tear it down with my own two hands, I need to daily renew my mind with His word, I need to daily pray and plead for His wisdom and discernment, I need to daily build my house!

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• Nov. 6, 2009 - a little peak

Want to read a little more about the creative process and thinking behind the creation of Daughters of His Story Paper Dolls and Noble Rose Press?  Eyebright over at Defective Compositions graciously interviewed Breezy and Emily Rose about their new endeavor.  You can read that interview here.

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• Oct. 21, 2009 - Do Not Fear, but Trust in God!

Are you homeschooling your children, but living with fear about the outcome? Are you thinking about homeschooling and the thought gives you "little terrors?"  I remember years ago meeting a mother who homeschooled her children.... I didn't want to talk with her...I was afraid...what if I had to do that? What if God wanted us to do that? I just stayed clear of her and thought that would work....but God had other plans for us. Within a few months of that meeting, we were homeschooling too....with much excitement mingled with fear.  I remember driving our little Breezy home from government school on that last day and checking my rear-view mirror for a police car. Were they really going to just let us do this? The school officials didn't seem to have any concerns about what we were going to do. Were they being serious or were they just biding their time until they reported us? Such were my fears.  After a few weeks, I realized our home was different, it became peaceful, not rushed, not living on the governments daily schedule, calm.  Hmm.  My little daughters were playing together again.  I hadn't even noticed when Breezy started government school that my daughters didn't play together anymore.  There was the big sister with another life and there was the little sister who was "too little."  I hadn't even noticed it...it was so subtle.    Fears about how to homeschool, what to teach, how to teach, and will they turn out okay quickly began to diminish as the Lord began to teach us to not fear, but trust in Him.    We are in our last "official" year of home educating and I stand amazed at how God has taken our humanly weak efforts and blessed us beyond measure, building strong foundations for His glory. He has taken our short insights and stretched them long into our children's minds. He has taken our fears and given us confidence in Him.  For a great insight into this topic of fear of homeschooling, Mrs. Victoria Botkin has written a lovely and encouraging article that you can read here at the Western Conservatory for the Arts and Sciences.

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• Oct. 19, 2009 - More Paper Doll Giveaways!

I really will blog again about something besides paper dolls, but in the meantime here are two more giveaways for the Daughters of His Story Paper Dolls. Dawn at My Home Sweet Home is hosting a giveaway through the end of October. and Monica at The Homespun Heart is hosting a giveaway that ends on Thursday, Oct 22 at 10 PM EST. So head on over to these beautiful blogs and enter for a chance to win.

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