Happy Birthday Wishes!

(Photo courtesy of J's Magic )

We would like to wish Rachelle over at Mama's Little Bears a very Happy Birthday!
If you haven't check out her blog yet why not take a look and wish her a Happy Birthday too!

Frugal Friday Make your own cards for free!

Make your Own Handmade Cards!

What do you do with all those cards once the holidays/birthdays are done and gone?
If you were like anyone else, you would probably just throw them a way after a while.
But. . .Did you know that cards are wonderful to use to remake FREE cards that are unique?!

So, keep all those cards!
You can make more cards, or bookmarks too!

I also use paper design sheets that someone gave me.
Other things to collect are magazine pictures that are really nice, and any other odd or end.



My mother had a birthday recently and I was able to make her a very nice card.
I used card stock, textured papers, and even some dried lilac leaves!

The "Happy Birthday" came from a Birthday card I had received. I tore it off the card to give it a nice look.

This design could be for birthday or anniversary.
The word "love" was printed on Card Stock off my computer.
I printed a whole sheet of inspirational words.

These last are for a Mother's day/or Birthday design.

My homemade cards are very special to all those who receive them.
I enjoy making them.

God Bless!

~Rebecca~

(I hope you give this a try!)

Please Check out the Rest of Our Blog!

Take a peek at our new blog "Our Favorite Books!"

Lord, Teach Me!

I Love Sunday school!

Yes, even at the age of 19 I really do love Sunday school!
I had been attending the "College and Career" Sunday school class for almost a year
(although I currently am not in college nor have a "career" it is my age group, . . . well, they had to put me somewhere!! :)

Anyways, I was really enjoying the class, then summer came. Since our church has a college, many students were gone. Then my Pastor announced a summer Sunday school class for all couples, married or engaged.

So my parents who both teach/help in Sunday school went to that class. (And they REALLY enjoyed it!)
What was left of my Sunday school Class became Sunday school Teachers/helpers!

I was asked to help in the Pastor's wife's class. My mother was originally the helper.
The pastor's wife teaches 1&2 grade.
I was very excited, God had given me a small summer ministry! I was also able to teach the class a few times as a substitute teacher.
As Much as I enjoyed helping I did look forward to returning to my Sunday School Class as the teacher taught wonderful lessons.

10 weeks later The couples' class ended.

The Pastor's wife needed surgery. She would be unable to walk for6 weeks.
So I stayed in the class with my Mother as the teacher.

This past Sunday was the 6th week.
I was really excited to go back to my class in just a week.

But, I found out, I might be needed to help teach a little bit longer.

I was tempted to be upset. I talked to my Dad about it.
He said that he understood, and that he thought I should stay on because I would be impacting these kids lives for eternity.

I suddenly realized how foolish I was being! Here God was giving me an opportunity to serve, the very thing I had been praying for! And now I was pouting?
I asked God to forgive me.





I sometimes wonder how many opportunities God has given me that I have rejected and then lost those precious opportunities!







I have a rock in my room.



I bought it at a homeschooling convention for $3
When we got home My Dad got out his hammer and a wedge and gave the rock a few hard taps
And viol`a The rock broke in half revealing the beautiful crystals of this geode inside it.



The rock had to break to reveal the beauty inside.



This rock is very, very special to me.

Just like the rock, I too have to be "broken" to let the beauty out.
I have my own ideas, plans and ambitions, and sometimes will not listen to God's will.
I have to constantly hand my will over to God.

Just like my dad broke the geode for me, so God has to "break" me so that He can use me!

God has taught me alot, and I still have so much more to learn!

God Bless~ Rebecca

A few weeks ago we celebrated my Mom's Birthday!

We had 2 cakes because I made one and so did my Grandpa!

My Mom with a card made by Stephanie!

My Dad and I bought Mom a Special gift.

It is the complete DVD collection of the 1950's TV show "I Love Lucy"!

We LOVE You Mom!

~Rebecca

Having a " Meek and Quiet Spirit"

IPeter 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

A meek and quiet spirit. Something I greatly desire to have in my life but something I still struggle with so much.

The Lord has really been speaking to me lately about having a meek and quiet spirit.

The Lord has blessed my husband and I with eight children.

Lately things here have seemed to be a little strained and when ever I pray about it I feel the Lord telling me that a meek a quiet spirit from me would make a huge difference in our home.

We home school so our days are quite busy and full and there are so many things that can rob me of that sweet spirit.

Still this is my hearts desire. So I am trying to make some changes in my day that would hopefully help me to keep that sweet spirit through out the day.

Of course I can not have a meek and quiet spirit with out the Holy Spirit doing a work in my heart and life. I know that I need to walk in the Spirit and not in my flesh.

One of the things that the Lord has impressed on my heart is that I need to take better care of my dear husband. It is so easy to forget this from day to day with all of the other responsibilities that always seem so pressing.

So what can I do to help me to achieve this great desire of a meek and quiet spirit?

Well I know that one of the most important things that I can do is to spend some time with my Lord. As Mary did sitting at the feet of Jesus.

(Painting by Mary Casset)

With eight children this can be quite a challenge! I have tried having my quiet time with the Lord really early in the morning. I am not a morning person by nature so this is really difficult for me. If I wait until 6:00am in the morning this time already seems to late. My husband is getting up at that time and my little ones begin to emerge out of their rooms.

But I have to ask is my time with the Lord more precious to me that that extra hour of sleep?

My spirit says YES! My flesh still struggles though.

Another way to help me to have a meek and quiet spirit is to determine in my day what are the little issues that arise and cause me to loose that meek and quiet spirit?

There are so many things that can cause me to loose that sweet spirit..

A huge mess in the house,
Getting up to late.
Feeling like I am running behind in my day.

And the list can go on.

I have set up a schedule to try to direct our day so that we can try to accomplish the things that need to get done during the day.

Today I decided to make a little list of things that I really need to get accomplished so I feel like my day is being productive, and to remind myself of little things like doing something sweet for my husband.

I am sure that many of you would have other ideas that help you with having that meek and quiet spirit.

In my devotions I have been reading in I Peter. Peter mentions that having a Meek and Quiet Spirit was so important. That struck me as this was coming from a man who was a bold person.
He knew that having a meek and quiet spirit is of a great price to the Lord.

I know that this is a process in my life that the Lord is working on.

Hopefully someday I will be able to look back on my life and see that finally the Lord allowed me to have that much desired Meek and quiet Spirit!

God Bless, Kathy

Our Little Visitor

A Squirrelly Friend
Drops by for a snack.



"Mmmmm, something sure smells good. . ."

"Ooh! It's bread!"

"Ohhhh, that tastes so good!"

"Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!"

"Ahh, what a snack!"

"Well, better head home, oops I got an itch!"

The End.

Bible Club sure is Fun!

This past summer we had a CEF 5-day club at our house.

My Brothers (Brandon and Collin) and I scoured our neighborhood, knocking on doors and inviting kids to come.

We received varied responses.
Some wives said yes, but their husbands said "no" flat out.
Some said they would come and never showed up.
Some were interested till they heard the word "Bible" then they wanted nothing to do with us.
Some told us they had nothing to do with "religion"or the Bible.
Others "didn't believe that kind of stuff."

We were chased by 3 dogs.
Told to "go away" quite loudly.
And one person swore while we were there because his dog got outside.

It was quite discouraging.

BUT. . .
We Had 3 different families respond and bring their kids!


Isn't God good?

We had a team of 5 girls teach our club. They did a great Job!

These 4 girls taught


This young Lady was the Team's Leader
(My sister is in her lap)


This boy is our next door neighbor, I was able to lead him to the Lord in July of 2007. His twin brother accepted Christ a month later at a VBS.



This is a Picture of me, The girl in front of me is my sister, and the one next to me is a neighbor.



This is the neighbor girl's big sister, and of course my little sister!



I love this song!


The Kids were enthusiastic!



I love this pic of my little sister telling her little Brother to "SHHHHH!"


Please enjoy this SmileBox of that Week!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Who did it?

We had a busy day to day,

As I was heading to the Computer room, I turned on the lights. And what met my eye, but a plastic castle that had been bombarded by. . .

Cheerios!

courtesy of wikimedia

"Oh NO!"

I was so looking forward to just sitting and relaxing! But, I held my complaints in and lugged out our hand-held Oreck xl and began to clean up the "debris".

I still haven't found the culprits.
I think it is probably the infamous Mr. "I-Don't-Know" and his wife "Not-Me"

:) I am learning to smile, and not to groan.

God Bless, Rebecca

Our New Blog!

We wanted to invite you to check out our new blog that we just started!

Our Favorite Books!

My Daughter and I love to read books so Rebecca wanted to have a place to review them. We started a poll so Check out our new blog and let us know what kind of books you like to read!
God Bless, Kathy and Rebecca

We Remember.

I was only twelve years old at the time.

I was washing the morning dishes and enjoying the late summer when our phone rang.
My mother picked it up.

"What? What do you mean? Manhattan?" she was talking to my Father.

The tone of her voice caused me to stop a moment and listen closer.
But she left the room with the phone still in her hand.

Moments later she returned and hung up the phone.
She called my brothers and I to her and brought us to her bedroom where the small TV was on.

In moments she explained what we were seeing on the screen. Our nation had been attacked right as I was washing dishes.
I sat in disbelief as I watched the second tower crumble to the ground, and watch a panicked news reporter explain to a stunned America what was taking place.
I understood that thousands of lives had just been taken.

I remember the feeling of worry and concern for the many days thereafter.
What was going on?
Nothing this catastrophic had taken place in our country since the bombing of Pearl Harbor during WWII.



It has been nearly 7 years later.

Yet, tears still come unbidden when I think of that dark time.




I have 4 newspaper articles from the days following 9/11
Fear clings to every article.




I love my Country.
And my prayers are for her to turn back to God continually.

Please Click here for a touching Memorial

Click Here to see my America slide show.

A Memorial By Kids4Truth with scripture can be viewed here

Frugal Friday!

This week I thought I would mention a wonderful quick recipe that my family really enjoys!

One day about a year ago I was watching The Food Net Work and I saw Paula Deen making this really easy recipe.

Now I am always looking for some side dishes to add to our dinners to fill up all of our families hungry tummies! Bread is one item that I like to make. It fills them up and tastes great.
The problem is that I do not always have time to make bread that requires rising time.

This recipe is for Sour Cream Muffins. These really work out great and are quick and easy to make! Even your children could make these with a little help.
The Frugal part of my recipe is the flour. This recipe requires using Self Rising Flour.
I bought this the first time I made this recipe ,but I could not believe how much more the self rising flour cost compared to regular white flour.

So to the internet I went to find a recipe to make my own self rising flour and here it is.

Self Rising Flour:
1 cup of white flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt

So for every cup of flour you use you just add these amounts of the other items.

This works out great and you could even make some up for later use.

These muffins are so good you just whip them up before supper and they come out of the oven smelling great!




You have to try them ! You just won't believe how good they are!
Here is the recipe just check them out here at The Food net work.

I hope that you give them a try and let us know what you think of them!

Oh I just realized that I forgot take a an after picture of them I am sorry!


To find some other great Frugal ideas just check out Biblical Womanhood.

God Bless, Kathy

Check out the rest of our Blog @ In My Mothers Garden!

The Look Says It All!

I just couldn't think of a perfect caption. . .so
feel free to leave a nice comment as to what you think Caleb might be thinking!


God Bless, Kathy and Rebecca

Rebecca and I would like to thank Rachelle over at
Mamas Little Bears

for giving us an award for our Blog!

What a kind gesture !

Rebecca and I have been blessed by her blog as well so we want to thank
her for thinking of us.



Many have emailed and have been an encouragement to us as well what a great blessing!

Now Rachelle has written on her Blog Mama's Little Bears that I am to pass this award onto seven other Blogs that I enjoy reading so I will list them below. So here they are!


The first site that I would like to mention is by a woman named Michelle.
She is new to blogging as Rebecca and I are but her posts have been a blessing
Check her out at By His Grace and For His Glory.


Another site that we enjoy is by a young woman named Courtney.
You can visit her blog at Courtney's Contemplations and a Keeper in Training.


Another site that we enjoy and is new by a dear friend of my daughters
Lina's Life Lessons


Another blog that I think deserves this award is Keeping the Kingdom First

Another blog that I really enjoy is Biblical Womanhood


Well I am pretty new to blogging so these are the blogs that I enjoy.
I think they all deserve this wonderful Award!

Thanks again Rachelle!
God Bless, Kathy