Why isn't it real anymore?

Since I won't be here tomorrow, I thought I would write a quick post tonight before I go to bed, so that you'll have something to read from me tomorrow. :) Yes, you are all very special to me and I wanted to do this - just for ya'll! :)

Well, this is something that I thought would make a good post. It happened last evening while I was mixing together some frozen orange juice (you know, that you buy in this cardboard "cans") and water for supper. I happened to mention to Mother how orange juice is my favorite juice. "Yes, I know," she told me with a smile. I guess I've mentioned that a few times. :)

"I don't know what my favorite juice is," Mother said absently.

"Do you like grape?" I asked, whilst continuing to stir.

"Yes, but only if it's real."

That phrase made me stop for a moment. "Only if it's real". Mother didn't meant to make a fantastic statement at all...she just non-challantly meant it. (Does that make sense?) "Only if it's real". In other words, "there are grape juices that aren't real". I know this topic is very...strange and rare, but it just got me thinking that how does it come so easy to say something like that? How much of the world that we know today, is real? How much of it is not real? Over the years, people have invented new kinds of this and new ways of doing that, until we don't really know if something is natural or not. Today, when we're walking through a grocery store shopping, we are constantly looking at the ingredients before placing it in our carts. How much of the food we eat is real? Do you ever wonder what something really is if it doesn't say "All Natural" on it? Back in the "olden days" (I love that term! :), there used to be just ONE store (usually referred to as a mercantile, trading post, etc. - where you could get just about any *necessity*), just ONE doctor (who was usually trained in most of the different fields of live (to put it bluntly), etc.), just ONE of everything necessary. And I'm not saying that it's wrong that we have expanded so much in our knowledge of (i.e.) sickness or food health, but I think that there would be a *lot* less stress in our world today if we didn't have as many new gadgets to worry about! And no, I'm not one of those old-fashioned-get-real freaks...although I do wish that a lot of our world today would go back to those plain, simple lives that our ancestors had...I'm just sharing a fact with ya'll that I had the other day regarding all of this. :) What's your opinion? Please state any disapproving comments with love and gentleness. :)

Hope to come back and see lots of comments tomorrow!

Blessings,

Goodwill + beautiful, feminine skirts = wonderful deal! :)

Today my Dad had the day off from work and we decided to get out of the house for a little while and just spend the day with him. :) Mother stayed home with the two youngest, though...just because we would be out of the house for awhile and she wanted to rest a little before we got back - while Priscilla and Grace napped. :) So, we went to our local Goodwill (actually, it's in the next town to the North). I've found so many fun treasures there and today was *no* exception! :) We each got something (or a few somethings :). Dad found a movie that he and Mother really like, Noah got a couple movies, I found three beautiful, feminine skirts, Lydia got two skirts, and Eunice found a cute skirt for herself too! :) Lydia was very proud of herself because she bought her *own* skirt today. :) If I get pics of us wearing them soon, I'll try putting them up for you to see.
Oh! And then after Goodwill, we stopped by our library on the way home and came out loaded-up with books!! :) I'm starting to read through the "Sarah, Plain and Tall" series with Lydia and Eunice (Prisky sits in every once in awhile :) and we've enjoyed reading the first couple of chapters together. I *so* enjoy reading to my little sisters!

Well, tell me about your day! How has it gone so far? Have you done anything fun? May God watch over you this evening!

Blessings,

Valley of Vision

This morning, in my devotions, I read something in my day-to-day book by Joni Eareckson Tada that I felt led to share with ya'll.

"My favorite Puritan prayer about valleys has seen me through many a dry place in my spiritual journey:
"LORD, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision...Let me learn by paradox that

~the way down is the way up

~that to be low is to be high

~that the broken heart is the healed heart

~that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit

~that the repenting soul is the victorious soul

~that to have nothing is to possess all

~that to bear the cross is to wear the crown

~that to give is to receive

~that the valley is the place of vision.

LORD, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine; Let me find

~Thy light in my darkness

~Thy life in my death

~Thy joy in my sorrow

~Thy grace in my sin

~Thy riches in my poverty

~Thy glory in my valley."

Visions of Virtue Magazine - official website!

Hurray! I got my VOV magazine website up and running! Please feel free to check it out at: www.visionsofvirtuemagazine.webs.com.

"A Brush With Death"

My Dad had all of us, as a family, sit down and listen to today's broadcast on "Focus on the Family" with Dr. James Dobson. The broadcast was entitled "A Brush With Death" and the speaker was Joseph Youseff. I would strongly encourage you to hear this program at this link: http://listen.family.org/daily/A000002415.cfm

The guys may not need a tissue, but the girls might...I did.

Do Hard Things

I am so excited right now!! :) Actually, I've been excited for the past couple of days. I've been meaning to get on my blog and tell you the good news sooner, but haven't been able to.
Okay, so...at our church (HOFCC - no, on the one that the Harrises go to...but they do come visit every once in a while :)!!) we have a couple tables that are all piled up with different Christian resource books, etc. I've had my eye on the "Do Hard Things" one, but always forgot to bring money that Sunday, completely forgot to get it, something would come up at the last minute, etc. - but THIS Sunday, I was determined to get it!! :) The retail price (on the back of the book) is $16.99, but I got it for $11- because Alex and Brett give discounts for their books at any HOFCC!! :) I was so excited to finally be able to have my very own copy of "Do Hard Things" and yes, I know, I haven't read it yet - but I'm going to!! :) Just as SOON as I'm done reading a book by Danae Dobson (James Dobson's daughter) that I got a few days ago at Goodwill. I'm so excited about reading it and will hopefully be sharing things about it that I'm learning as I go through it. I just wanted to share my exciting news with ya'll! :)

Have any of my followers read it? What is their opinion on it?

Blessings,

Update on Mother and myself :)

Hello dear followers!


Well, thankfully, Mother has been feeling a bit better from her morning sickness. She still stays in bed quite often, but has been able to get up a lot more a try to does some things around the house. She can only do so much, though, before having to lay down again. She's almost to her second trimester and we are so excited that the baby is growing!! Mother is starting to show signs of her little tummy getting bigger! :) So cute! She's been able to go to church the Sunday before last, and hopefully can go this Sunday. She seems to feel well during the mornings, but then, toward the afternoon/evening, she starts not feeling well again. She has the very-picky-about-foods thing right now, so I've been having to fix "specialty" foods for her. :) But, I just wanted to update ya'll on her and let you know that I am very thankful for all your prayers (as she is!). Please continue to pray for Mother to get better and for the baby to keep growing! Thank you so much! :)



As for me...well, school is going exceptionally and surprisingly well - considering I've been so busy with the household duties. God has really helped me get in some time to finish - yes, finish! :) - my English! So now, I only have Math (we use the Math-U-See curriculum, so I basically just have to watch my lesson), and two subjects that are 95% of the time just reading (in other words, I will finish with those two soon! :). I'm really glad that this school year is going so well! Praise the LORD!!



I'm not sure if all of my followers saw my last post about Visions of Virtue...? Dani and I have been doing a lot of talking about it - as I have with my Mother and God - and we feel that God is leading us to start actually printing it as a magazine and sending them out to our subscribers for small subscription fees (just enough to help pay for the ink and paper use). We are going to start doing it once every two months (instead of every single month), and I will actually take over VOV and be the editor. Dani will still write for it, and have her own section of writing in it, but won't be as involved in it. She hasn't been able to be, anyway, for the last few months and I had started becoming over stressed about things because she didn't have time to send me some of the things I needed to complete the newsletter. So, I'm doing a lot more things that are flexible for the subscribers to write for, and plus some fun areas that I will be writing and telling about things, etc. If any of my followers would like to subscribe, please e-mail me OR, better yet, I am working on getting a VOV website up (for the magazine), and you can go there (as soon as I give ya'll the link :) and sign up on there. Anyway, just wanted to let all of you know about that.



Thank you so much for stickin' with my blog, even though I haven't been on here lately. Love you all!

Blessings!

Update on the Hahner Family Band

If you'd like to "follow" the Hahner Family Band on their trip down to Arizona, feel free to follow their Band blog here: The Hahner Family Band.

This was their last post - this morning:
"We are, Lord willing, on our last day of travel for a couple weeks. We have been very thankful for wonderful weather and safe travel the last three days. The first day, we went through Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and stopped at the Boise Meridian RV Resort, where we all enjoyed a good night's sleep. On the second day, we went from Meridian, through Boise down through Salt Lake City, and to Cedar City in Utah. We had planned to stay in Salt Lake City, but we got there a lot earlier than we had planned, and there was lots of traffic, so we drove to Cedar City, and arrived there around 9:30 p.m. That was about 12 hours of driving, with only a few brief stops. Being in the car is fun- we have lots of time to read, knit, cross-stitch, etc. (Dani, Emily and I :) And yesterday, we went from Utah to Nevada to California and into Quartzsite, Arizona. All our meals up until last night were oatmeal, toast, sandwiches, dry soup, etc. Dad took us out last night for dinner! We are leaving Holiday Palms RV this morning, and we are all happy about that. :) The spot they gave us is close to the road, and lots of cars go by and people are walking on the road, so it's not especially comfortable. Peanut, our Bichon Frise, has been traveling with us in the car, and has been wonderful! She usually gets car sick when we travel for about an hour, but she has not gotten sick at all! We are very thankful for that! Our destination today is Tuscon, where we will be only about 10 minutes away from where our grandparents are staying. Thank you all for your prayers for our family-please continue to pray for us!"

Please continue to keep them in your prayers! Thank you so much!

Please pray...

Hello dear followers!

I just wanted to ask ya'll to keep my "bosom friend" :) and her family safe as they make their journey down to Arizona. They're going to be having a concert - the Hahner Family Band - down there and will be in Arizona for over a month. The live by Spokane, WA, so you can imagine how far of a drive it all is! I spoke with Dani last night and she said that on their first day of travel, they drove for 8 hours (approx.) and got to a little south (?) of Boise, Idaho. They're making good time! I'll be talking to her this evening, too, so I'll try updating ya'll. You can join their "Arizona Tour 2010" on Facebook, too! Greg (Dani's older brother) made a page specifically for them.

Thank you so much!

Some trivia quizzes! :)

Okay, here are some fun Jane Austen book/movie trivia quizzes! Have fun! :) And don't forget to let me know how many of each you got right...

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Movies/Sense-and-Sensibility-217566.html - "Sense and Sensibility"
My score: 9/10 - 135 points

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Movies/Emma-Gwyneth-Paltrow-3301.html - "Emma"
My score: 20/20 - 300 points

http://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/Movies/Pride-and-Prejudice-The-Movie-76005.html - "Pride and Prejudice"
My score: 10/10 - 150 points

Those are the ones for now...I'll put up more later! :) Have fun!

American Girl quiz

Okay, I know that I'm too old to be taking these girlie quizzes, but I just thought I would do it for fun. :) C'mon, don't make me feel too old! :)

Click on the link for my results and take one of your own! Let me know who you turned out to be. :)

http://www.americangirl.com/fun/quizzes/quizzes.php?quiz=historical

Worth Fighting For

Bloggers "Noah", "Queso", and "Jonathan" have started a wonderful blog called "Worth Fighting For" in regards to fighting for a baby's right to life. They say, as follows:



"We start off with a very small group this year, so if you would like to contribute in a friendly way, please share the word about us and the Harris brothers. There will be continually more information given about us and the Rebelutionaries AND, the more people we get, the more causes people may suggest worth fighting for. Care Net is only the first of our projects and if possible, we'd like to get other ideas from the readers. Also in a little while we'd possibly like to incorporate more people into our circles to help organize these projects and do things besides writing stuff on the computer. Thanks so much!"


Please visit their blog at Worth Fighting For and leave them a comment letting them know how much you appreciate what they're doing. God bless you young teenagers!!

Such exciting news!!

Yesterday I got my first check as a paid author!!!!!!!!! Oh I'm just so excited!!! God has shown me that my scribbles aren't all in vain! Thank you, LORD!

Blessings,

Visions of Virtue magazine

ATTENTION: all young ladies who would like to receive a magazine.

Most of you know that my dear friend, Danielle, and I do an e-newsletter together called "Visions of Virtue". Well, we have been praying about it (as well as others) and have decided that God wants us to start printing the newsletter out as a magazine and send the issues to our subscribers. We will be charging a small subscription fee (we're not sure of the set price yet), but that will only be to cover the paper and ink charge - no labor. If you feel led to give more than the set subscription calls for, that would be greatly appreciated. Also, just to keep things more simple, I would be the main editor. Danielle would still write for the magazine, but I wanted to keep as many sections open as possible for other subscribers. But first, if any of you girls would like to start receiving it, please e-mail me and let me know. I will be deciding what the subscription fee will be soon (it won't be over $15), and will let you know. I am hoping to see God expand our subscribers and that many girls will be blessed by what the magazine will be holding.

Thank you! :)

Blessings,