"She works with her hands in delight" Proverbs 31:13

You caught me red handed!

I love strawberries! Yesterday we went out to our local berry farm with baskets in hand to pick some ripe strawberries. I shouldn't say some strawberries because we actually ended up picking 13lbs of them! I really enjoyed getting to walk up and down the long rows in the strawberry patch picking...and eating...our own strawberries. There is something about doing it yourself that makes them taste better. :) You should've seen us though after we were finished! Eric and Philip had red stains all over their clothes, shoes, and hands, and Mom somehow managed to get some on her purse! I managed to walk out with stainless clothes...but my hands were bright red. :)

Hmmmm...now what to do with all of those strawberries! Strawberry ice cream was first on our list yesterday. ;) Today, Mom said that I could put some freezer jam up and that would at least use up most of them. I ran out to the store this morning and bought some sugar and fruit pectin. I doubled the recipe, and this afternoon, I was able to fill up six freezer containers half-way. I have never made freezer jam before so I'm hoping it won't turn out to be strawberry soup. :) I just wiggled a container about 10 minutes ago, and it seemed to be setting up okay. We shall see! Well, that put a little dent in our strawberry supply...but we still have half of a basket full of strawberries to use. Any suggestions? I was thinking about a strawberry cake or pound cake of some sort. Hmm...

We were excited to have Nan drive out this morning for a visit! You know what happens when us ladies get together...shopping. :) Mom, Nan, and I decided to drive around our little town to several antique stores. Then, we stopped for lunch at a little country diner...I have decided that I love onion rings. :) Afterward, we popped into a small fabric store that I had been meaning to check out (to see if they had good deals :). For some reason...I was under the impression that they only sold upholstery fabric. Well, I was wrong! A little old lady runs it, and she carries a rather wide selection of quilting fabrics and supplies. I was happy to see that her fabrics were reasonably priced...around $3.84-$4.50 per yard...which is great! Mom and I spotted this fabric on the rack for around $4, so I thought I'd grab some to make into another skirt. Hopefully, I can get that made this week! Anyway...I am talking way too much. :) It's from all of those strawberries I ate yesterday. :) Again, if anyone has suggestions for what to with all of these strawberries, I'm all ears!

Embracing Biblical Womanhood Week 4

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." Proverbs 3:5-7

For this week, I have chosen the above verses to memorize and meditate on. These are actually a couple of my favorite verses in Scripture, and I wanted to take this week to focus on them. They pretty much speak for themselves. :) It's so sad to think that all of today's problems in society stem from men and women who are relying on their own ways of thinking instead of God's. If we only lean on God's Truth and direction in our lives, think of all the truly wonderful things He could carry out through us as Christians! We must trust God instead of ourselves. We can all be assured that He has a beautiful plan for each of our lives, and if we seek Him and trust Him in all things, He will direct our paths.

Mother's Day Weekend

                         

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! I was going to write a Mother's Day post, but somehow the day got away from me. :) We had a fantastic day though...although it was cold and rainy! Dad cooked a Mother's Day breakfast which was served to Mom in bed, of course. She was a Queen for the day. :) Later that afternoon, we drove to South Boston, VA and had lunch in a little country restaraunt called Ernies. That place was packed but worth it!  :) It was so nice to be able to go on a country drive as a family and have lunch out! Sorry, no pictures. :)

All-in-all, I think Mom had a nice Mother's Day...until dinner. :) Haha! Well...I had a nice dinner planned with lit candles and had it all cooked on time and ready to eat. Then, we sliced into the chicken...the chicken that I thought was finished cooking. Totally wasn't finished! I checked it with a meat thermometer and everything and thought it was done... but it wasn't quite...edible. :) So I stuck the chicken back into the oven to finish cooking, and we ate a chicken-less Mother's Day dinner! Nothing like mashed potatoes and salad for dinner. :) Sorry Mom! So that was my unfortunate kitchen disaster for the weekend! Mom didn't mind...we were all actually still full from lunch so that worked out perfectly! Haha! I had promised her a pedicure for Mother's Day, so I'm going to make up for it with that. :)

Oh and I'm going to be posting my verse for the week tomorrow. Have a blessed Monday everyone!

Picture from allposters.com

Sit! Down! Nevermind...

               

My grandparents (who live right down the street) have left for a cruise, and I have been left in charge of their two dogs (Kita and Dauber) and cat (Bridgette) for a week and a half. This is a terrible crooked picture...my first attempt at using the self-timer on the camera. :) The dogs wouldn't stand still...and Eric and I couldn't stop laughing! Let the pet-sitting extravaganza begin!

Garden Update

                     

The master gardener (Dad) has been quite busy these past couple of weeks...getting our garden ready and planting its first seeds. I always love to see what Dad and Mom decide to plant each year in our garden and can't wait to actually start using the vegetables! I managed to slip outside right before it started pouring down rain to snap some pictures of our garden in its early stage. I really enjoy keeping track of the plants growing and thought I could just post the progress on here!

                     

For the past couple of years, we have really enjoyed planting our own potatoes. And they're so easy to grow...which is nice. :) I love having to dig them up when they're ready to be harvested, although it's not the cleanest job in the world.  My little cousins enjoy that part too. :) When the potatoes are ready, they each take turns helping Dad dig them up. Behind the potatoes, we have two rows of corn that are already sprouting up really well. We have enjoyed planting corn each year too...and the deer have enjoyed it also in the past. :) Thankfully, we haven't seen any deer around lately!

                     

One new vegetable that we're trying to grow this year is spring onions. So far they're doing well...we just aren't really sure how to tell when they're ready to be harvested. :) Hee hee. Dad has also planted squash, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, and lavender. Mom loves lavender. :)

                      

Here is an artsy shot with my clematis in the background. :) I was having too much fun with my camera this morning.  Honestly each year I keep thinking that I have officially killed this plant! In the fall it gets all shriveled up into a little wad of mess...which I guess is normal for plants in the cold weather. :) Anyway, it always comes back! It has been the easiest flower to maintain! I plucked it in the ground about 3 years ago...and I really haven't touched it since. :)

                        

Okay, this is not very garden related...but rainy days always make me want to bake something. :) Again, we had some leftover bananas that needed to be used up. I decided to make a new kind of banana bread...with chocolate chips. :) I found a really easy recipe in my...ehem...chewed up/ slightly half-eaten Taste of Home cookbook. Haha! Thanks Bud. The recipe said to bake the bread for 1 hour, but it took mine around 1 hour 30 minutes to bake.  I think the humid rainy weather might have had something to do with it. Seriously, I thought the top was going to burn to a crisp! It's a great recipe though. I'll post the recipe for y'all if you want to try it...

An Afternoon of Folding Clothes...

No...this is not our laundry pile. :) Last week, Mom and I took about seven or eight totes full of boy's clothing home from the pregnancy center's storage shed to be organized into different sizes. So that is what I was doing this afternoon! I look kind of mad in this picture, but I was really concentrating on my sizing. :) I'm just glad Buddy didn't decide to chase one of our cats right through all of my folded piles...like he did last time when I was working on the girl's clothes.! It was such a mess!

Finished at last!! Now, I just have to make signs with the different sizes on them. I think I'll do that tomorrow...I'm kind of tired of looking at Winnie the Pooh, dump trucks, and itty bitty baseball uniforms for today...although they are very cute. :)

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to take some pictures of the vegetable garden that Dad has been adding to recently. I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday!

An Unexpected Blessing!

Don't you just love unexpected blessings? :) Today, Mom and I drove out to our friends, the Kilpatrick's, home for a visit and to drop off some skirts that I had made. We had a wonderful afternoon of fellowship! I enjoyed an afternoon walk with my friend Hannah, playing with their three kittens, stamping Mother's Day cards, and spending time with the kids while the moms spent some time with each other.

As we were getting ready to leave, Mrs. Kilpatrick surprised me with many beautiful dishes that she no longer needed. I think most of them are from Okinawa, which I believe is a small island off of Japan. I have the perfect place for them...in my hope chest. :) I love the blue plates and bowls because they remind me of the toille design that you see in all of the old colonial and country decor...my favorite! I can't wait to use them! Thank you Mrs. Kilpatrick!

Lately, Eric has caught some sort of strep throat-type bug, and tonight I have an awful headache (which is what Eric had at first). :) Hopefully we are not all getting sick! Maybe it's just allergies...I hope! Ah, it's that time of year. :)

Embracing Biblical Womanhood Week 3

Are you following false ways in your everyday life, or do you plan to in the future? What would be considered a "false" way? This morning, I picked Psalm 119:128 as my verse to meditate on for this week, and in it, David gives a very precise answer to my last question:

"Therefore, I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way." Psalm 119:128

To me every idea, philosophy, practice, "ism" (humanism, feminism, atheism, etc.), way of living, and way of thinking that is not from the Word of God and in line with His principles is a false way. Think of all of the ways that society and feminism today promotes as right for us as women. "In order to be successful, you must be a 'working woman'." "Don't submit to your husband...women are equal to men!" "Children are not a blessing. They are a hindrance and too expensive to raise!" "I wear the pants in the family!" I could keep going. Those are only a few false ways found in feminist thinking. Society says, "We don't need God...we are God...God can be anything or anyone that we want Him to be!" This verse is a great reminder to us of how much we really need to watch for these false ways and to avoid them. Any way that is not of God is of man and is false. God's precepts alone are right.

Please don't get me wrong...I do not see myself as having a "perfect" lifestyle or way of thinking! God has changed my heart drastically over the course of my lifetime, and for that I am very grateful. When I was in public school, my peers were a large negative influence in my life. In my early teenage years, I was addicted to Christian rock music which led me to crave the heavy beat of secular rock. I still look at my graduation photos today and shake my head...wondering what possessed me to pick out such a low-cut dress to wear for my pictures. After graduation, I thought that the next step for me to take in order to be successful in the eyes of others was to get a great job outside of the home. The Lord is constantly working on me, as He is in all of us. I would encourage each of you, especially as women, to look toward God's ways and not to the false ways that we are led to believe in the world today. It is my prayer that God would continue to give each of us a discerning spirit to help keep these many false ways of thinking our of our lives.

I'm back!

                      

This is Buddy after his lunch...out like a light! He has such a hard life. :) Thank you for your encouraging comments under my last post! I have arrived back to blog-land after a much needed break, so get ready for some posting. ;) Today, I'm working on some skirts that need to be sewn for a friend...so that is my project for today! I can't wait to finish. :) In the meantime, I hope y'all are having a wonderful Monday...if Mondays can ever be wonderful. ;) See you soon!

A Blog Fast

                     

Hello Everyone! I just wanted to let y'all know that, after much prayer, I have decided to take some time off from blogging for now. I'm going to be taking a blog "fast" so that I can use that time to pray about some things that have been on my mind lately and to re-gain my focus, which has been a little too toward my blog recently. :) I'm not sure when I'll be back to blog land...I'm just going to follow the Lord's leading...but I will definitely let y'all know. :) Until then...thank you for reading...for commenting...and I'll see you when I get back! God bless! ~Alli