Be Strong and Courageous

 I have been so fed by the gracious words of Ann today in her blog. The title of today's blog "  hurting women can help eachother heal  " And the quote that caught my eye, and my heart. --- "And when you’ve been hurt, you’re making sure that won’t be happening any time soon and you keep this wary distance from anywhere where you’d have to show the bare underbelly of your tender heart. But no one tells you that the shields you carry to keep you safe, become the the steel cages that keep you alone."

via Facebook -- Well I am DONE ~~~ sewing that is, 2 dresses, 2 pair of drawers, 1 chemise, 1 pinafore, 2 aprons and 3 petticoats! Photos next week ( I promise Tanya). I 'plan' to get another whole set of underpinnings, and some haversacks (shoulder purses) done before our next adventure, but this will do for now. Here we come 1860's."

Christ is Risen!!

The old adage of don't cry over spilt milk could apply to my week. In trying to ease my hubby's day off list of to do's the kids and I headed out to pull weeds mow the lawn and then of course rinse the mower off and return it to the garage. Oh but alas, in turning on the hose bib at the back of house - NO water came out the 75 foot hose,  and I waited for like a minute for it to do so. At the point where I am wondering how low the houses water pressure is, I hear my son say, "MOM WATER IS SHOOTING DOWN THE WALL!"  Well indeed it was --- OFF goes the water, and I immediately run in to check under the sink, where said above pipe leaves house and connects to the outside world. Funny thing is, no water under sink (or so I thought).  I leave the house for 20 minutes to run and pick up Emma from track, come back to start dishes and dinner when I realize there is NOW --40 MINUTES later ---water pooling at my feet. To say I freaked would be an understatement ---- wher...

So here we are 2 month into the dare to search the daily Eucharisteo and find the Joy god has set before us. the journey waivers at times with my stubbornness and doubt that all things can be for Good. I have been rereading Ann's book and every time finding new bits of Joy that just jump off the page to encourage my walk of faith. so here we are the Monday before Easter and my thoughts today have been all over the place, husband to work, kids to school, time with a friend and now onto the tasks of the day to sew some more and begin the planning of our first Reenactment trip. But for now just now in the moment I have Pandora playing Rita Springer radio and Jadon Lavik's rendition of Come Thou Fount, we sang it yesterday in church as well. Just soaking in the words of blessing, as I type. 329. Great teachers for my kids - mostly. 330. School's back in session, safety. 331. From scratch Banana Bread. 332. Good nights rest. 333. Family of prairie dogs greeting the risin...

In Ann Voskamp's book   A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are - One thousand gifts ; she writes the following verses ( I share 2 translations for you) 1 Corinthians 11:26 (The Message) 23-26 Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord's Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, broken for you. Do this to remember me. After supper, he did the same thing with the cup: This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you. Each time you drink this cup, remember me. What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt....

Well here we are folks the winner is..... Drawn out by my trusty assistant Addysen... Mommy of Two Little Blessings. Mommy of two little blessings can email me via my blog and I will get her the coupon code for the $20 gift. Thanks to all who played.

Love the Psalms to such great melody, singing God's Word what could be better.

One day when heaven Is filled with His praises  One day when sin was as black as could be  Jesus came forth to Be born of a virgin He dwelt among men, my example is He Living He loved me  Dying He saved me  Buried He carried my sins far away Rising He justified  Freely forever  One day He's coming  Oh, Glorious Day  Oh, Glorious Day  One day they led Him  Up calvary's mountain  One day they nailed Him  To die on a tree  Suffering anguish Despised and rejected Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He  One day the grave could conceal Him no longer  One day the stone rolled away from the door Then He arose o'er Death He had conquered Now is ascended  My lord evermore Oh, Glorious Day  Oh, Glorious Day One day the trumpet will Sond for His coming One day the skies with His Glories will shine Wonderful day My beloved was bringing  Glorious Savior this Jesus is mine Oh...

Watched this on face book this morning, a great display of worship with a purpose, watch the whole thing :). Definately a celebration!

  A Soft Place to Land  is giving a way a copy of the Reluctant Entertainer this week. I have read clips of this book and there is some great insight into why we are called to fellowship with one another. To 'Entertain" graciously and share our lives with one another.  I am a person who love to fellowship and cook and get to know people, my stumbling block seems to be making the time to do so. She talks in the post about purposefully setting up get together times (her is so the house will stay pick up) and for the fellowship as well. I have been much better at having ladies over for coffee, and walking, and fellowship time at this point in my life. With all the kids in school and when my husband is working his long 12 hour days, there has been "time" to make time. I have been weekly getting together with one are two ladies for the last month or so. It has been a blessing to get to know these 'new' gals and look forward to summer (a little bit) when all t...

****AND THE WINNER IS ~~~ Mommy of two little blessings ~~~ I will write a post and share the how the drawing went down later  *** ***UPDATED: Drawing for giveaway will take place Monday 4/18*** I am so very excited to have a giveaway and do my own review of one of DaySprings great products.  I will be able to giveaway a $20 gift credit to one of my lucky readers. (See the end of entry for rules.) So first and foremost I  want to thank DaySpring {In}Courage for letting me have the opportunity to do a review of this adorable set of jewelry.  I was able to sign up months ago for this great opportunity, and I am glad to have the chance to share my thoughts with you all.   I have been gleaning such great encouragement from their blog writers and reading reviews on their products for just about a year now. I was so glad when the opportunity arose to be able to do one myself. There are lots of wonderful home decor, kitchen ware, stationary, note ...

I love Sara mae over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee  and she has just release her E-book So she is giving a way a few copies along with some other great gifts! Here is what she had to say about it. " Woo hoo, the E-Book is finally finished! Even though I wrote the bones of this E-Book two years ago, I changed some of it, added new days, and added completely different challenges. I am also honored to have Sandy ( Reluctant Entertainer ), Kimba ( A Soft Place to Land ), Kimberly( Raising Olives ), and Darlene ( Time-Warp Wife ) as contributors to it. I think you will really enjoy this E-Book…I also think you’ll accomplish quite a bit with each day’s challenges; each day comes with a Mary challenge (deals with the heart) and a Martha challenge (all about cleaning) for you to complete. At the end of the book you will find some wonderful resources from ListPlanIt , official sponsor of the E-Book. 31 Days to Clean – Having a Martha House the Mary Way is only $4.99 and you can g...

It has been a few weeks since I posted a 5 Minute Friday blog post so here goes. If you and I were to meet for the first time I would hope I wasn't too busy to connect with you. I have the tendency to be of a single track mind sometimes. If you met me I would hope that you would discover how blessed I consider myself to be a follower of Christ. I also hope that we would have time to swap information about where we are from and what we love most about where we are currently. If you and I were to meet I hope that we would have something oddly in common, like your favorite color being the same as mine - cerulean blue - not sure why but it is. I know for sure if you met me a cup of coffee would not be that far away, whether in my home or out and about. If you and I met I also hope we could talk about what God is doing in our lives to take us just through today. One final thing as time runs short I hope I had time to show you pics of my most wonderful husband and 3 great kiddos, as...

Our grade school's Booster participated in a great fundraiser last month, with the Antiquities Company.  We were able to raise nearly $2000. I was also able to sell a handful of the tickets for the 10x13 portrait and work the weekend of the event earning me a great package of photos. Here are just  few of the ones I chose. the kids all had a good time, yes Addysen smiled the whole time - praises, and even Andrew 'gladly' posed. Our little Cleopatra My favorite of Emma is her head shot, she was glad I let her wear a smige of make up (me too - her lips are so glossy).  For those of you that know Andrew, he is a gentle soul in many ways, and this photo catches the daily potential of  what I see in him, to be kind and gentle at all time .

The days of winter seem to be coming to an end, and I thank the Lord for His goodness to warm the air and grow the grass, and show the suns rays in my windows. I have been so blessed by this journey  to write these thanks out  and to be reading through the Psalms again. I read 50- 60 this week and was struck by the common thread that forgiveness and mercy are ours and "He is the Lord of salvation" Psalms 51:14, 52:8,53:6, 54:1, 55:16, 56:1, 57:1,59:10 -- they all speak to God's mercy and salvation for us! 300. Staying present in the moment with God - as my stable thought - a choice to just do it. 301. Jillane (28 months) signing uncle Keith and saying it ( my sister's little girl on a visit to our home) 302. Communion service at church being given with such purpose and clarity - such an important thing - to give Thanks!! 303. Fog strewn valley breaking clear at sunrise to show the power of  the Son's sun. 304. Lessons (hopefully) being learned in discipl...

Well I must say, getting behind on one week of the projects through my whole process off, but none the less here are a few looks at how I keep it organized. I  finally got around to taking a photo of the 'office' space for the paper clutter challenge. Now mind you I have a huge pile of papers in the craft room to deal with still - but let's not go there today. :)  Here is how I conquer our paper, mail comes in, we open almost immediately and then shred junk  or sort for later the bills and other things into the basket. I admit I will let it fill to the top some weeks before truly addressing the paper, it will then get paid, filed or shredded as well. I  keep a home management journal on the desk with the kids calendars all running as well as household go to's for menu's, upcoming events and such. The shredder and recycling basket get emptied pretty much every day. So my "before and afters' are not that different, although I did toss a few things ...