Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Hope you will join me in spending some time meditating on the many blessings and provisions God has given.

Scripture Sunday

Great Deal for Fireproof DVD

Family Christian Stores is having a prebuy offer - buy the Fireproof DVD now for $19.99 (retail $24.99) and receive the Fireproof Soundtrack, a $13.99 value and Love & Respect DVD Seminar, a $5 value, for FREE! We don't really live near a Family Christian Store so I went online to look around and I found out that this prebuy offer is actually good in stores AND online (but only while supplies last).

When I shop online I always go to ebates.com to see if I can get any money back while making my purchase but no luck. However, yesterday I learned about InboxDollars and I signed up for InboxDollars to read emails, do surveys and get paid. They ALSO offer money back when buying online so I looked and sure enough they give 3% back for Family Christian Store purchases. All I had to do is log into my InboxDollars account, search for Family Christian Stores, click on the link and make my order.

I was alittle nervous because sometimes shopping online you have to pay big bucks for shipping. Guess what?!? Family Christian Stores is running a special so shipping and handling was only $0.99 cents. Even if I lived close to a Family Christian Store it would cost me more than that on gas alone.

So to recap I got the Fireproof DVD, soundtrack, a seminar all for $19.99 + $0.99 S&H (plus tax but that depends on your area) and I will get a 3% credit in my InboxDollars account.

Organizing my Closet

I went into my closet to get one thing and decided I just couldn't take it any more. So I pulled everything out, made a pile of clothes to sell at a garage sale, organized my shoes, neatly stacked my towels and went through all my boxes of Creative Memories stuff to decide what to sell, what to use and what to give away.
Here are my before and after pictures. I am hoping little by little to get every area of my house organized.

Before

After

P.S. This past week I've been reading The Homespun Heart - Making your Home a Haven and I guess it really inspired me.

Cathy Marie Hake

Have you ever read any books by Cathy Marie Hake? If you haven't and you love to read, I would suggest starting with Letter Perfect. My sister Kathy started reading her books and then let me borrow some and I must say I think she is my favorite. (author that is, although Kathy is my favorite sister but she is my one and one sister)

I have always had a hard time reading so I never enjoyed it until recently. Although I am a slow reader I can get these books done in 2 or 3 days. Someone like my Mom or sister could read them in a day.

I have already read Letter Perfect, Bittersweet and Whirlwind, looking forward to reading Fancy Pants and Forevermore next.

Here is a little section from Letter Perfect that I thought was great and I wanted to share it with all those single young ladies out there who are longing to find a good Christian man.

"Marriage is like bread." Mrs. O'Sullivan walked over to a crock and pinched out a wad of starter to make her loaf. "You can have the right ingredients, but if you don't work it right and give it time, it falls flat. Starter, it's like the soul of bread. You lasses need to be sure your men have hearts for the Almighty so as your days and family multiply, your spirit grows along with it. Starter has to be refreshed-if you don't, nothing else you try will make the difference."
Ruth and Laney watched as she went back to the table and put the starter into a huge, brown earthenware bowl. She tossed in several cups of flour and some water. "Man and woman blend together to become one, but something's still missing."
She added salt and stirred. "Love. If you rush to the altar, you can mistake infatuation for love." She stirred more, then dumped the dough onto the floured tabletop and started to knead it. "Life'll push you around, punch you down. Without spiritual leavening, you can't rise up again. Without love, life loses its flavor. Many couples have respect and honor, but I pity them for the lack of love."
"If a bride loves the groom, won't that season the marriage?" Laney watched as Mrs. O'Sullivan continued to knead the dough.
"It didn't work for Leah in the Bible," Rush said.
"That's right. It didn't, and she was miserable. You lasses give God time to bring the right man to you. I'm not hurrying my bread into the oven. It has to have time to rest and grow. Same goes for love-you need time to court and go through some ups and downs."

Let me know your thoughts if you have read any of her books.

The Christmas Season

Although it's really early to be decorating for Christmas, I just can't help myself. I love Christmas time. I love the weather, the family time, the food, the music, the smell and most of all I love the reminder of Jesus' birth. God loved me so much that He sent His one and only sinless Son to become man so He could die on the cross for my sins. I am very thankful for His sacrifice!

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Give Thanks

My sister Kathy is blogging daily what she is thankful for. I thought this was a GREAT idea. God tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that we should give thanks in EVERY thing. It is so easy to focus on the negative but that isn't what we are suppose to be doing. We take so many things for granted. Our lives are so full of blessings from God and yet we don't take the time to thank Him.

This morning as I woke up I realized how blessed I am to be healthy.

• I don't have to take any medication.
• My body isn't in physical pain all day long.
• I can breathe without any discomfort or machines.
• I can see and hear the world around me.

Leave a comment and share what you are thankful for today.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Golden, Crisp and Delicious

What am I talking about? Apples

Mike and I spent our Saturday morning going to apple orchards, a pumpkin farm and a corn maze. It was a beautiful cool morning with clear skies.

We headed to the apple orchards first and enjoyed some fried pies and then went home with 3 bushels of apples, a loaf of apple bread and a bag of dried apples.

Then we saw a pumpkin farm and decided to stop and check it out. This was the last week they would be open for this season. They had some huge pumpkins (wish I would have taken a picture of some of them.) We picked up a medium sized pumpkin, 2 acorn squash, 2 spaghetti squash and a butternut squash. Next year we are going earlier in the season so we can enjoy more and maybe even can or freeze some things.

Our last adventure was the corn maze. This was a huge reminder of how directionally challenged I am and how grateful I am to have Mike. He can find his way through anything. It really amazes me how talented he is.

What a great day of just enjoying each other's company and God's beauty and bounty.

Betsy Turns One

Happy Birthday Betsy!

She loves laying outside in the sun.

Sense & Sensibility ePatterns

Have you ever watched the movie Sense & Sensibility and thought to yourself how much you loved the dresses they wore back then. Last week I watched that movie with my sister and that is exactly what I said to her. They have such beautiful dresses.
Well guess what... you can now get ePatterns to make your own dress.
Check out all the cool dresses you can make. They have lots of sizes from children to plus.
I've recently become interested in aprons and she even has an apron pattern. So make sure you go check it all out.

P.S. Kathy - if you ever want to start sewing again write me down for an apron and a dress or two :-)

My New Best Friend

Heather over at Chocolate Bytes had a bloggy giveaway last week and I won. My prize came in the mail today, a Senseo coffee maker and lots of coffee pods. You know the really cool one that you can make one hot cup of drink (tea, coffee, cappuccino, etc) at a time. Since Mike doesn't drink coffee I normally don't make any but now that I have this new Senseo coffee maker I can make a cup just for myself.

Thanks so much Heather... I already enjoyed my first cup of coffee from it!

P.S. Check out Chocolate Bytes about some free gourmet chocolate.

Three Chicks on a Trip

I am home and getting back in the swing of things. I am very thankful for a husband who keeps everything clean while I am gone. I didn't come home to any clothes to wash and the kitchen was all cleaned up. Thank you Mike for making things so easy for me.

Mom and I flew out to Vegas the day after Mike's birthday. When we got to Vegas it was late but we still stayed up a while talking. There is always lots to do at Kathy's work, so Mom stayed really busy. I was able to bless them by having dinner ready for them when they got home.

After a long week of working and getting alot accomplished, Kathy took us on a 3 day cruise to Ensenada. What a great time of relaxing with Mom and Kathy.

Mom got to relax ~ which is a hard thing to get her to do.

We played hand and foot ~ we found the perfect table to use.

We went to La Bufadora(blow hole) and got to see some beautiful scenery.La Bufadora is also a flea market that has tons of shops selling sterling silver jewelry, vanilla, leather purses and lots of other hand crafted things. They had food vendors also and we were able to find churros. They were delicious but very greasy.

Thank you Kathy for the trip and everything else! You are a very sweet and giving sister!Another special treat when I go to Vegas is getting to eat some of Paul's things from Argentina. This was my breakfast one morning Peanut Butter and Dulce de Leche toast.
I also ate an alfajor ~ yummy

Bloggy Giveaway Winner!

And the winner of ten handmade Christmas cards is...

Tiffany from All that Blooms

Congratulations Tiffany! I am emailing you right now for your address so I can get these cards out in the mail to you.

Hope you enjoy them!