Training our Daughters to be keepers at home

I've had my eye on this book for a while now and I'm hoping I can find a great deal on it sometime :) It is called Training our daughters to be keepers at home and I think it is going to be fantastic for my daughter and I to work through! It is a 7 year program with day-by-day lesson plans to teach Christian homemaking skills, designed to enable young women to enter adulthood with godly character and homemaking skills so they will be able to serve God as keepers at home whether single or married. There is emphasis on acquiring skills and information to live simply and well on one income. The lessons also cover: Godly Womanhood, Sewing, Cooking, Caring For the Sick and Injured, Childbearing & Breastfeeding, Caring for Elderly & Comforting Those Who Mourn, Making a House a Home, Family Celebrations, Gardening, Family Finances, Home Management, Braiding Rugs, Making Greeting Cards, Hospitality, Child Development, Child Training, Flower Arranging, Knitting, Crocheting, Embroidery, Cross-Stitch, Basketry, Home Business, Soapmaking & Candlemaking, and Raising Animals.

I'm getting excited about starting school up again next month. We've had a nice break but it will be good to get back into a routine again. I just hope they are going to be as excited as I am! :)

Cabin cake

We are celebrating my brother-in-laws birthday while they are visiting. We had a great idea about doing a whole cabin scene as we will be spending some time up in the mountains in a cabin while they're here. I had a ball making this!!! It was the first time doing trees and I just love the effect :) I hope he enjoys his surprise tonight!

..in the midst of disappointment

Those moments come often. You pray, you hope, you dream, you plan....but God chooses a different path. How do you react? All to often I choose the wrong response. It may be subtle...a grumble under my breath, a gloomy mood, a complaint. My reaction shows where my heart is. How do we get to a place where no matter what the circumstance and outcome, we rejoice? It shows me how much more I need to grow...that there are still areas where I may not be completing trusting in my heavenly Father. I'm glad my God doesn't give up on me .... I must make myself pliable so He can mold. I will always be a work-in-progress....

Give away

There is a free give-away at Generation Cedar for some really neat vision forum items. I'm hoping for the Father-Daughter CD set :) If you enter your name, please state it was through this blog and I will be entered again. Thank you !!

Shaving fun!

We just celebrated a 'late' Christmas with my family while they are visiting. We are usually together for Christmas but this year it was important for my mom to celebrate the holiday with her mom! We are so very thankful for Grandma's recovery :) We continue to think of you and pray for you!

So...the kids were very excited to find out that they would be opening presents!! Our son was given a big boy shaving kit and was very excited to try it out with daddy. He didn't know what to think of it at first but when it was all over he wanted to do it again. Here are some photos of father son time together.

Family photo

While the family is visiting, we decided to update our long overdue family photo. The last one we did only had 2 grandchildren and we have since grown our families!!! We are so happy how it turned out....everyone looking forward! What a task though....I had quite the workout with our youngest one :)

It is so wonderful to see how God has blessed our family with each new little one added. Our God is good!!!

(click on it to view a bigger picture)

Fun with Grandparents

The kids are enjoying their time with Grandma and Grandpa here! It is so cute to watch our youngest continually go to Grandpa for kisses and to hear him say 'grandma'. The kids are having fun with their cousins, and the noise level in the house has increased 10 fold :) But it is a good noise! Today the kids were busy doing puzzles and coloring with Grandma. We are looking forward to a nice getaway in Gatlinburg for a few days in a cabin. It's always so beautiful there! It's hard to believe our visit is almost half over. The time goes by way too fast....so we are making the most of it!

Raspberry jelly roll

Here is the raspberry jelly roll I made last night. I had lots of taste testers with me :) It went over pretty good but I'm still not getting the filling quite right. I think I'm going to try one with ice cream! The jam fillings just don't taste the best. They are very easy to do though....I've enjoyed making them!
I wanted to post a quick side note. For those of you who use Facebook, there has been some disturbing news. Facebook has changed its terms and conditions policy without notifying users. They have changed the policy to state that once you post any information (content, pictures, information) they own it. You give up all rights to it. It doesn't matter if you go and delete what you have posted because they have a copy of it. Please visit this link and read what it has to say.
It's quite disturbing!!

Belly Button

One of the funniest Father's Day cards I got my dad when I was a kid had Snoopy on the front holding a gold button. The card read something along the lines of "I wanted to get you something different for Father's Day and found this gold button from the island of Bali..." the inside read "now you're the only dad with a gold Bali button".....I just thought it was the funniest thing ever :)

As I poke little arms through armholes and always have to turn pants around because they are put on backwards, and as I help put little toes into socks....I am always drawn to one body part. The belly button. It was my child's lifeline to me for 9 months. It was how each of my babies grew from a tiny speck into a beautiful human being! How can anyone not believe there is an almighty God??? How could 'chance' create a fully functioning being that began from something smaller than the head of a pin? Only a most powerful creator could orchestrate such a miracle. I love my children's belly button. I love knowing that God used me to create these 3 beautiful blessings!

They're here!

These trips usually go by soooo quickly but I'm so glad we are able to visit with my parents and sister and her family. I'm sure I'll have lots of great pictures to post :)
It's been fun watching the kids familiarize themselves with each other again. The 7 grandkids range from 3 months to 6 years so they all have someone close in age. We were waiting by the window all day for them to arrive and our youngest, when Grandma and Grandpa pulled up, said 'grandma' for the first time. It was so cute!
Here is a video taken of our first born when she was 4 months old. Nana is asking her about Great Grandma and listen to her reply! We've been told this should be sent to America's funniest videos :)

Jelly Roll

So this is what I've been thinking about and mulling over. I don't see anyone doing this! I'm taking cake decorating and getting creative with jelly rolls (or whatever kind of roll you can think of....so many fillings to chose from!) This was my creation tonight. I tried using angel food cake the first time instead of a regular vanilla cake and ..... way too sweet!!!!! Looked very pretty but it was not a winner :) This one had a strawberry filling...thus the strawberry decoration. Everything was done in buttercream. I'm looking forward to making my next one. I've got so many ideas. You can write a message on these as well, just like a cake, but it's something different!

Busy weekend!

I'm so excited about the weekend! My family from Canada are coming to visit.....my parents and my sister and her family.
I've also been working on another creation which I don't know if I'll get done tonight with company coming over. We're having a pizza party tonight with 7 kids :) The kids are looking forward to spending the evening with their friends from church.
So...it will be a short post tonight. Still more cleaning and organizing........

Tulips

I love my husband! He picked these up for me last night....just because :) He's such a special man and I'm so in love with him.

Teeth!!

Poor baby is getting teeth....5 at a time! He is working on his last molar and getting all 4 cuspids at the same time. Our kids have been early teethers. Our daughter's first tooth poked through at 3 months of age and our older son's first was at 4 months. That's probably also why our daughter lost her first two teeth early as well. Anyway...he's being a trooper! I wouldn't have known they were all coming in except for seeing them when I make him laugh :)

Crunch time

Well....it's happening. First of all I want to start off with a praise. Hubby had a company meeting today and he is not one to be laid off. We praise the Lord for this!
Next...a prayer request. Please pray with us that over the next couple months work will pick up for him. This is not the end of lay offs. Today he had his salary cut back and benefits taken away. Crunch time begins! My human nature wants to worry and stress....but I know that God has promised to take care of us and provide for us. We have especially seen this over the past 3 years. We have had incredible medical bills because of hubby's condition and with every single bill that arrives, the Lord provides a way to pay for it. Our God is good!
Hubby loves where he works. They have been so very good to him. They are wonderful Christian believers and it is a great work environment. It would be very sad if he ever had to leave. Please remember us in prayer especially with the uncertainty that lies ahead.
Oh....and they loved the cake :)

Logo cake

I made a cake today for hubby to take into work. Now I know why cake decorators stay away from the color red!!! It is the hardest color to get a deep rich red....and not too pink looking. Well, I managed to at least get it red enough (after all, it is mostly men at his work place :)
I put the business logo on it as well so hopefully I'll get some good feedback from it! (I'm putting 2 pics because the logo cake was taken under bad lighting!!)

Decorating ideas

Here is a quick, easy, and cheap way to decorate a room. I found these frames for under $2.00 and the glass just pops right out and snaps back into place. Then all you need is a calendar of a favorite character or fun scenes you want to decorate with. Cut out the pictures from the calendar and slide them into the frames.....voila! Enjoy until you're ready for a new look. So far we've gone through Winnie the Pooh, Princesses and now we are on to Tinkerbell.

Fun geography!!

A fun way to learn the states and their capitals!!!

ideas brewing....

I tried to do a chocolate buttercream cake today and all I have to say is....aaarrgg! *smile* It was a tough one. The icing was harder to work with but easier to smooth out...go figure! I was getting a little fed up so I didn't get creative on top. I'm going to have it taste tested tomorrow so we'll see how it measures up.

Actually, as I fell asleep last night I had an idea pop in my head. This morning I remembered it again and it is quite interesting. I think the Lord may be leading me somewhere with this cake thing. I'll elaborate more as I work the details out.
Here is my cake today. I really need to practice the writing!!! That's even harder than making the roses :)

Tired yet?

So are you getting tired of seeing cakes yet? I do want to try one more....a chocolate one. After that I'll take a break :) I was getting ready to do one for hubby to take into work tomorrow, but their meeting was cancelled so I decided to go ahead and make one for our neighbor. Today I was trying the swag technique along the side. Nothing spectacular but I just want to try all these different techniques and fill my album with different designs. This is one I whipped up this afternoon. I've already gotten back one of my questionnaires which was exciting! Well, I think I need to take a nice break tonight and read to the kids. Cake baking has taken up several hours over the past few days and I'm needing some cuddle time :)

I'm also looking forward to tomorrow....getting a haircut! I so badly need it.....goodnight!

and another...

Here is the second one done today. This was more of a hodge podge cake....I took all the left over tinted icing and tried to make it a decent color while trying out different techniques. Not one of my favorites but still fun :)

What do you think?

So....I've been seriously thinking lately (no comments from the peanut gallery...you know who you are *smile*). Well, I'm seriously thinking about trying to sell cakes as a side business. Who can't use the extra income right? I know we sure could. I feel as though God has given me the ability to be creative in this area and it is something I can do from home. Right now, I have no reasons to make cakes (birthdays, anniversaries, etc....) so I'm just baking and giving them away along with a questionnaire about the quality, taste, appearance etc. hoping for some good feedback. I'm also putting together an album of my cakes so I can show people who may be interested in ordering. I'm working on 2 different ones today and I'll post the one that is finished. What do you think?

Jesus loves me

3 years old

Cake!

I am so thrilled at how the cake turned out!!! It was my first cake making buttercream roses and also using homemade buttercream icing so I was a bit nervous.....but I love how it turned out! Thanks Letisha for the icing recipe and tips :) I've been watching cake decorating videos on youtube for 2 days now and I've been dreaming about making roses. You know you have it bad when......haha. I'm really looking forward to making more cakes.

My shadow

During our walk around the block today we decided that the littlest one would be a 'big boy' and walk with us instead of being put in the stroller. He had the best time trying to keep up with older brother and sister and he was fascinated with his shadow. He just kept watching the ground with the biggest smile on his face. It was very cute to watch :) Needless to say, our walk grew from the regular 15 mins to close to half an hour!