Jessica's Blog

New Beauty of Home..

2009-05-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

New blog is up.. http://www.jessicamunday.com/

Not really my main blog, I blog more at Joyous Notions.. but I needed a little space just for me!

~*~Jessica~*~

Come Visit Us?

2009-01-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

2008-11-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

New blog coming for The Beauty of Home!

Keep checking for the new site!

~*~Jessica~*~

So Long For Now~*~

2008-07-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, nothing like blogging on a regular basis. Now I am blogging to announce that I will not be blogging here anymore! Blogging has never been high on my list of things to do during the day, and it still isn't. I like having a blog, but I have definitely never considered blogging a needful, nor biblical obligation to my fellow man.

God has given me plenty of things that not only need to be done, but also things that I want to do, keeping up with two blogs is not one of them. An hour of my day spent blogging is an hour that I could have spent quilting!

Therefore, I will still be blogging, but I will be blogging on my other blog, Notes From Home. I'm sorry to say that that blog has also suffered a bit, due to some changes going on here at the home-front, plus getting the summer issue of our magazine out.

So, I would love it if my visitors would come and visit me there! I will leave this blog up, and who knows, maybe I will be able to make time to blog on a personal blog again.

Many blessings on your day, ~*~Jessica~*~

How about a family picture? This actually went into the summer issue, and it definitely looked better in the magazine!~

Notice that Evangeline got bored waiting for the picture to snap and decided to snack on her toes... too sweet.

~~This Week In Photos~~

2008-05-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

Actually it's last week's photos, I just didn't post them last week! I took the kids on a walk and brought the camera along as there were the prettiest trees blooming along the road...

The kids pointed out the nest...

How quaint...

It is virtually impossible *not* to take a ton of pictures of Evangeline!

I love how big her eyes get when she's trying to get something in her mouth!

Now how can anyone not love all of that white chubbiness?

~*~My little Sanni...

The Bees Are Not My Friends...

2008-05-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

No, the bees are not my friends, but we have been trying to get along for the past two days... and failing. And when we start to fail in sharing space I end up running around the yard yelling and screaming and waving my arms about. Now, people look at me funny, and say that there's no reason to do that, but they have also been stung numerous times in their lifetime... my method has kept me sting-free, so why reform?

The weather here in Colorado has cooked up to a whoppin' *almost* 85 degrees... or at least it will be tomorrow. I enjoy warm weather, within reason. We had a few wonderfully rainy days over the last two weeks, but as predicted, it has stopped... most likely for the whole summer. We have been in a drought for the last two years, we are under constant water restrictions. So with no rain, lots of sun, and when it's sunny it's windy... we spend a good part of the summer coughin' dust.

Knowing that it was going to be hot again today, I went out early this morning to get the other half of our garden planted. I know a lot of you have gardens that are way past the starting stage, but our growing season is about half of what everyone else's is. In other words, it snowed last week, seriously!

Yesterday we did some flowers, including a beautiful climbing yellow rose, and half of the vegetable garden. This year's crop is going to be~ cucumbers, a tomato plant that I'm trying to save, peppers, pumpkins, zucchini, carrots, lettuce and spinach. We wanted to do more, but since we are planning on moving and are unsure of when that will be, we kept it small and to what we know will really grow. Our zucchini always does extremely well, the average size of them is usually 8-14 inches and makes the best fried zucchini! Tomatoes don't seem to like our soil... so whether I get the one plant to produce anything is debatable... and cucumbers went nuts last year! I tried to get enough of them at one time to make pickles, but we kept eating them!

Had to get some pictures while I was out there! ~*~

~*~ This was a very special find near our front porch. My Mom had two miscarriages in a row two years ago and planted these... they didn't bloom until now, one for each of the babies.

In The Early Morning...

2008-05-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

Our family is one that likes to be up bright and early in the morning... with the occasional bout of just not being able to get up. Anyone who knows us, knows that we are in bed at or by 10 o'clock. For our night owl friends, it just doesn't click. The phone rang the other night at 9:30, a sound that could have woken the dead... I was walking upstairs with my herb pillows to heat up, and to re-heat my tea. After checking to see how much tea I had spilt and observing that Evie was now awake and crying, I answered the phone, it was a friend from Utah. He wanted to know if he could talk to Mike. I plied him with a rhetorical question, "Do you know what time it is?"... sure, it's 9:30. Mmhm, just thought I'd ask.

Recently, busyness, tiredness, and struggling with going to sleep had gotten me out of the habit of getting up early at all, and therefore I wasn't getting up until six or six-thirty. For a lot of people, that is very early. For me, it isn't nearly early enough! Getting up at six or later usually means I have just enough time to grab my clothes and get in the shower with children running out of bed right behind me. It also means no quiet time... no time to read, pray, and write.

So the other morning, I simply decided I was going to start getting out of bed, no matter how tired I felt, enough was enough. My alarm went off at 4:30, before I could be tempted to hit the snooze button, I got up and walked upstairs to the kitchen. It was raining, how I love to just sit and listen to the rain! I stood staring out the window in the dark for a full 10 minutes... without moving once, not even to turn my head. I had time to just think without anyone saying a thing, no one wanted to ask me something, no one needed something, I didn't have a quick look out the window before having to tear off somewhere, I just stood there. I couldn't have done that if I had gotten up at six... I had time to make a pot of coffee and have quiet time for an hour before I had to even look at another human being! I have time to write in my journal, read my bible and any other books that I am using.

I have been loving it so much this week! It makes such a difference in my day, and I'm ready and downstairs early enough to make muffins for breakfast, without it running into lunch. I read on someones blog last week about how she never makes anything for breakfast, though she has lovely, nostalgic ideas of sitting down with a cup of coffee and a fresh muffin and jam. No, she confessed that she sleeps through dawn and rises early enough to have a burger at one. How depressing. If only she knew how wonderful it is to get up to see dawn...

A Trip to The Store~*~ Six Kids and A Sister

2008-05-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

A few packages needed to be dropped off at the Post Office yesterday afternoon, generally my job so I got everything packed, labeled and stamped. As I was passing through the kitchen I noticed the children scattered about with coloring books and cards, so I asked "Who wants to go for a ride?". An uproar of voices is heard along with the thunderous sound of feet blowing in all directions for for shoes and jackets. Blank stares from Mother as she inquires if I'm going to take everybody? Sure, why not?

I tell them to wait on the front porch while I grab my purse and packages, and stay OUT of the snow. I approach the front door and glance out the window and what do I see? Six children running circles in the snow. "Do you guys want hearing aids for Christmas?". Another small scuffle as everyone battles out seating arrangements. Finally six children plus myself finally make it into the car. It was deliberated that a stop at Wal-Mart was also necessary, so most of the ride was passed by the children negotiating for candy.

"Could we just get one thing, a bag of something to split between everybody?"

"No"

"How about a pack of gum?"

"hmm, maybe."

A whisper from the back- "She said maybe!"

The older boys ran everything into the Post Office for me and off we headed to Wal-Mart. Before anyone is allowed out of the car I always ask the same question, "What are the rules?". Everybody chimes in with "No running, no fighting, no asking for things, we have to be quiet, walk in a straight line... and uh, is that it?

"How about no throwing things into the cart when I'm not paying attention?", I ask. I don't know how many times I've gotten to the check out only to find bags of things I know I didn't put in the cart.

So in marched our long procession, youngest to oldest... it's like watching a trail of ducks go through the store. With me at the head with the cart, Jadon our caboose, our train snaked it's way around the store to the various needed places. Little hands reaching out once in a while to grab that interesting nick-nack, they thing they swear we need, that whatcha-ma-callit, and who knows what else. I don't even bother to turn around to see what they're doing, I just know that a "Put that back" and "Get back in line" is necessary every few seconds.

Little Evie needed some toys now that she is getting bigger, so I thought it might be possible to venture in through the toy jungle without to big of a problem getting back out of it. I was failing to find what I was looking for, no wonder. I forgot that the baby toys were in the Baby section, not mixed in with the "Mattel Mess". On our way out of the forest of junk, we passed a man looking at toys. He had a little girl in the cart, it looked more like the toy was for him as the girl wasn't paying the least bit of attention.

After finding Evie some little things that she can sit and jingle about with, and after the children had turned on every battery-operated, noise-making toy we moved on to the finish line. The produce isle.

I was getting some veges for dinner, and banannas for the baby while Jadon and Zoe went to look at the Lobsters. In between are a few comments from by-standers, "Good heavens, are they all yours?"

Almost done now, we start moving to the check-out. From the back of the train, a very loud "POW!!!". Madison had grabbed a plastic bag from the apple bin, blew it up.. and just couldn't resist.. she popped it. Now how could you just not laugh at that?

I do the self-checkout, always an interesting experience with the children helping. Even more so with people behind us who not only have no children, but the only thing they want to buy is a bottle of soda. The littles are losing it now, simply no interest, they want to know how this is going to take. I finish, but the boys are insisting that they buy the gum with their own money. Ok, these people are just going to have to be patient, though I could feel everyone burning a hole in the back of my head.

Finally done. Getting out to the car was the boring part.

~~Beautifully Springy Morning~~

2008-04-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

Due to a very busy and stressful week, I have avoided my blog. My step-dad had surgery on Monday, so the house and children have needed extra attention. We are just now starting to get caught up with, everything.

After getting lots of good sleep last night, Mom and I still managed to get out of bed early enough to go for a walk. The weather has been so pretty this week, very windy... but I don't mind that, I love blustery days. I love it when we are up early enough to enjoy the weather, take a shower and go to the store all before 8:30 in the morning!

We may not have very many trees here, (I'm from the east coast, so no, relatively speaking we do not have a lot of trees here), but we do have lots and lots of birds. We put up a bird house a month or two ago, and the kids have been dropping little handfuls of bird seed in there to see what they could attract. It didn't take long, soon we had what looked to be the bird club on our back fence. Now we have a permanent visitor who has been busy building a nest. I caught this one this morning with the camera~

After my little nature photo shoot, I put the camera to another use, I was making Peanut Butter Granola, so I thought I would put the recipe here, since I haven't been doing much of that here. This is one of our favorite recipes, and if you like peanut butter captain crunch like my Mom and I do (ooo, confessions), then you will find this to be a yummy and healthy alternative!~

The Recipe~*~

~*We have a flaker to flake our own oats, rather then dropping 10 bucks for a box of the stale stuff from the store!

Melt over low heat in a saucepan:
12 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
3 tsp. vanilla

While that is sitting on the heat, combine in a large bowl
10 cups freshly flaked oats
1 1/2 cups brown sugar

I forgot to to mix the brown sugar into the oats *before* I added the peanut sauce, so there were lumps of sugar in it.. "Oh darn", thought the kids.

Pour the sauce over the oats and stir well to combine. Try and chop it up a little bit with the spoon to get some of the lumps out of it.

Preheat the oven to 350. If your pans are as well-loved as ours.. as in Mother Dear threatened to throw ours out last night.. then I would recommend lining them with parchment paper before dumping the granola onto them.

Bake for 20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes.

~Young Kindred Hearts~

2008-04-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

For anyone who received the Spring issue of our magazine, you have already seen that we started a pen pal column called Kindred Hearts. When we started it, we thought that we would leave it open to those ladies aged 19 or older. I wanted it to be for younger ladies as well, and we did have some requests for it! So, the column is now open to girls who are 13-18 years old, as well for those 19 or older!

Our goal is to encourage ladies, old and young, to not only correspond, but to encourage each other was well! So few young ladies know how to communicate this way, or want to for that matter. Text messaging has taken over correspondence with the younger half of the population. But for those who would like to sit down and pen a thoughtful letter, please come and join us as we share prayers, encouraging words, letters, cards, and friendship with others across the miles!

Sign up here!

We have had some wonderful submissions so far! Just remember, it is so much easier to pair you up with someone when you really do a good job writing down what your interests are! Don't be afraid, write down everything, even if it seems little... it really tells us something about you! We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Would you like to link us with our graphic? Right click and save these to your computer to put on your blog or website!*

~*~Jessica~*~

It's Called A Beautiful Letdown ~*~ Only to Someone Else

2008-04-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Friday was shopping day (yes, it's taking me this long to post a happening!). The grocery shopping is sort of my job, sometimes Mom does it, but it's usually me who does the that and any extra errands. I like the job, it's a fun outing, and sometimes I can squeeze in going to the library to get a movie, a Starbucks, or maybe a quick stop at the crafts store! Generally, I take at least a couple of kids with me, if I'm really feeling peppy I'll take all seven! Mike comes of course, he's always my favorite shopping "buddy"!

On the way home, we stopped at Target for something extra. Another fun stop anyway, Mike and I like to go there to look for movies. We got our stuff and got in line. There were two girls in front of us. I couldn't help but listen to their conversation...

The one girl was relating her "guy" problems to the other. She had quite a few, probably from juggling too many guys. The other girl listened intently, related her similar problems right back. I started observing little comparisons, between those two girls and me. Both of them looked as though they had been to the tanning salon several times already, their nails were perfectly Frenched, hair looked as though the wind wasn't blowing at all that day. Tons of gaudy make-up, I think half of their lip mass was painted on. From everything else, I figured that they were on their way to a party. Both of them reeked of cigarette smoke. Which was sad in itself, neither of them looked older then 18-19 years old. Their whole appearance, everything from the way that they dressed, to what they had on their face, conveyed everything that was self-centered... it was clear that they only had them to worry about.

I smiled when I looked down at my nails, hacked off the day before so I could do my embroidery work and bread baking without the pain of long nails. Did I envy those girls? No, not one little bit. I was thinking on the way home of all of the things I noticed, and I thought out loud when I told my brother that I was glad I wasn't like either of them.

Of course I'm a girly-girl, I do my hair everyday, and wear make-up, and paint my nails, toe nails included. I do everything that makes me just look like, well a girl! But there are distinct differences in just making your self look like a girl, and trying to make yourself into something like that.

I know sometimes people look at me and wonder why I am still here. Occasionally even talk to me as if I can't stand being in the house with so many children, regardless of how much they know I love them. They know all of that, but when am I going to get out and take care of me? Well, never.

I was thankful that God never gave me the opportunity to become that way. I'm glad that I'm not a "party girl". I like my short nails and the fact that I can go outside and get my hands dirty. I love taking all of my brothers and sisters with me to the grocery store and the library.

I love being here, and like looking like a "worked" girl. I don't want my hands to look as if they had never seen a dish brush, or had never been stabbed a few times with a sewing needle, or burned taking dinner out of the oven. I don't care if my hair isn't sprayed perfectly into place because I have been chasing kids all over creation.

I'm thankful that I don't have "guy" problems. The only guy I will ever have is going to be a "Mr." and I am going to be the "Mrs.". If girls looked at dating and guys that way, they wouldn't have to stand in line and consult on what do do with harry, moe and mac all at one time.

My idea of a wild night is to stay home and drink my chamomile tea and watch my corny British comedies! In the end, thank you God for making me what I am.

~*~Jessica~*~

Never, never, never, never, never...

2008-04-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

I get the Elisabeth Elliot newsletters in my email every morning, when I find a really good one I always save it for later reading. I was digging through some of my saved newsletters the other night, and found this:

Forsaken? Impossible

Twice in my life I have heard Christians claim, in all seriousness, that God had forsaken them. This is an impossibility. Does Christ live in us? He does. The living Christ dwells in the heart of every true believer--He in them and they in Him. There are no words which adequately describe the intimacy of this relationship. Jesus, in his last recorded prayer for those whom the Father had given Him, asked "that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and thou in me...that the love thou hadst for me may be in them, and I may be in them" (Jn 17:23, 26 NEB).

Jesus Christ, in the extremity of his agony on the cross, asked why God had forsaken Him. In becoming sin for us He experienced a terrible alienation from his Father, a sense of total dereliction. God did not and could not forsake the Son who was one with Him. He cannot and will not forsake us who are not only his sons and daughters, but also the dwelling-places of his only begotten Son. "I will never, never, never, never, never (the Greek has five negatives) leave you or forsake you," is his promise. At times we may be overcome with a feeling of helpless forsakenness. This is surely not from the loving Father, but from the father of lies. The best way to answer that "father" is the way Jesus answered when tempted by Satan: "It is written." Take God's own promise with its five negatives and hold on.

I loved reading this, that bit of scripture is one of my very favorites. It is a never swaying reminder that no matter what, we are never going to be alone. Even when things are so low, you just can't see the light at the end of the tunnel; when people who say they're you friends, still up run the other way; when you feel like there is no one else there... He says "I will never, never, never, never, never forsake you". No matter what the deciever trys to tell us, we have that wonderful promise to hold on to.

~*~Jessica~*~

Just Fun for Friday~~ To Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

2008-03-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

This was in my email box a few weeks ago, I just kept forgeting to post it! As a commentary on some of these...

I told my brother we should try the hairdryer on the side of the road thing, he replied "If you want to get arrested, you can just go and do it by yourself". But, since he is such a loyal friend and partner in crime to me and as an offer of goodwill, he then said, "I will sit in the bushes behind you and come bail you out". No matter what, Mike can always make me laugh.

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds".

7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

8. Don t use any punctuation.

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat...use a serious face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme.

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance , Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.

16. Have Your Coworkers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.

17. When The Money Comes Out of The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling, "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"

This lovely list gave me a good hard laugh... probably because I am perfectly cabable of such behavior.

~*~Jessica~*~

Feeling So Springy~~

2008-03-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

Next to the beginning of Fall, the beginning of Spring is my favorite time of year. It's between warm and cold, dark and light... color and gray. It's also my preferred season for another reason: there are bugs, but then again there aren't! It's still too cold for them to be flourishing in abundance, which is the way I like it. The middle of summer hits and I start wishing we lived in Antarctica.

We are finally getting ready to fill up our garden, even though it is very small, we make the best of it. Mom is threatening to dig up the other half of our yard. I'm all for it, we don't need ornamental bushes, we need a real garden! I always grow herbs, but I keep those in pots, so it really doesn't take up any room. It's a little late to start seeds, so I will probably just get some plants. I was really disappointed with the seeds I got last year, I think they were just cheap. I got enough herbage (providing that's a word) out of them to throw a small handful in some soup. I was planning on having bags and bags of them to freeze and dry!

Normally we only do a vegetable garden, but since we have so many ideas for the magazine we will be expanding a little with an heirloom flower garden!

This week in pictures~

It was so warm this week we had to make a pie

If you look very closely, you can see the snow blowing around on Pikes Peak. The only thing that ruins this picture is the houses, oh yeah and the attractive wires...

She's getting so big! This is the first time I've managed to get her smiling...

~*~Jessica~*~

Finally, A Cloudy Day~*~

2008-03-15T10:22:00.001-07:00

I felt like blogging last night, but alas... I was simply too tired. We had a beautifully cloudy day yesterday. The Colorado climate does not afford many "cloudy" days. It always seems to be sunny, or snowing. With the extremely mild (I prefer to call it lame) winter that we have had, I can only imagine how dry our summer is going to be. I would love some rain right now, not a sprinkle; but a good, long, downpour of rain. Last summer we had more hail then we did rain. It always hails here, hard. Sometimes as often as twice a week. As much as love Colorado, I want some rain!

Now that some of my time has been freed a little, I was able to do what I love to do the most, especially on a cloudy day! Read. What better book to read on a cloudy day then Bleak House? It has been excellent so far. But then I don't think I have ever disliked a book by Charles Dickens. I usually keep three reading books going at one time: one book for my bible study; one, good thick novel; and then another reading book that's a little less challenging to read, generally a play, or a Jane Austen novel.

Not much time for reading today though, we are getting ready to launch our new website. We are in the middle of filling right now. Lots of photo tutorials are going in this one, so I think it will be a lot more fun and visually helpful. All in all, way more fun then just a bunch of stuff!

Off to work! Have a wonderful Saturday...

~*~Jessica~*~

Oh Boy, I've Been Tagged*~

2008-03-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

Ella has tagged me! I haven't been tagged for something in a while, so I figured why not. Though I hardly ever know what to write in these things!

So, here it goes!

1. I don't think anyone would know this, unless they were standing right in front of me staring at my head... but I have lovely scar that goes RIGHT between my eyes. I fell out of bed when I was 6 or 7 years old and split it on the bed frame. In some odd way I liked that big gash between my eyes. It was one thing that made me stand out from everyone else. In the tone of nah nah, I've got a pretty red line between my eyes and you don't! In a strange way, I still like that scar. I don't pay a lot of attention to it. In fact I hardly ever notice it, it's just there. I don't think my face would look right if it was gone!

2. My favorite drink from Starbucks is an iced Caramel Macchiato. It's practically the only thing I drink in the summer! In the winter I switch to hot ;)

3. Unlike a lot of people, I like to fly (as in fly in a plane, for those who might wonder if I mean flap my wings). I like layovers even better, that way I get to take off and land twice.

4. My favorite history based movie is The Patriot

5. My comfort dessert is vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and crushed peanuts! If I'm really feeling low, I have to watch Pride & Prejudice with it!

6. When I'm feeling sentimental, I like to watch Sense & Sensibility.

7. I love to go for a walk when it's half sunny and half raining

8. Any and all of my friends are online, only!

Hmm, that's all I can think of! I'm passing this on to Mrs. Connie , Lee & Emily and Jocelyn!

Blessings! ~*~Jessica~*~

Obsessive Compulsive? Maybe. Maybe Not.

2008-03-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

I was reading an article this morning, I don't usually read articles related to medical anything, but this one caught my eye. It was about people who are compulsive "hoarders". Not people that just save some things (come on, everyone does that), but people who will practically bury themselves in their house with junk. People who are truly afraid of throwing someting out, not matter how obvious it is to another person that they will NEVER need it. These "doctors" will actually dedicate their career (or a portion of it) to understanding why someone is a true, dedicated pack rat. It's amazing what people will study.

They do brain scans, compare brain waves, and even compare all of the 23 (I think it's only 23!) chromosomes in the DNA of so many people. With tons of different behavior studies, psychologists and psychiatrists and so on trying to figure out why these people are so obsessed with "hoarding" stuff. Why they feel they have to save every little thing because "they might need it". They want to know how to "help" these people out of what is to them, a disorder. It is a disorder, in a respect, but they are looking in the wrong place for the answer.

I think what kept me reading this "why are they a pack rat" article anyway is I wanted to see what words would be mentioned. Words like "fear" and "control". I think the word "fear" was used, but not in the context I was looking for. The best reason they had so far is that part of issue is genetic. Oh fine, there's something new; they have a nut for a relative.. that must be what the problem is. They have a degree to say something like that?

I have known, and still know, people that were/are pack rats. They had to save every little thing. Their house became unusable because of how they lived. Every corner, every square inch of floor was covered with stuff that should have been put in file-13 a LONG time ago. Stuff stacked to the ceiling. They could no longer sleep in their own bedroom it was so filled with junk. Personally, I never looked to see if the bed was even visible.

I never considered them to have a disorder though that needed to be analyzed by a scientist. We knew what the problem was. Their "stuff" made them feel safe, made them feel they were in control. It's like that verse in the Bible, how we shouldn't store up earthly treasure... because our treasure is in heaven. But they don't know that. I believe that these people, in the back of their minds, think that all of this stuff you can collect on earth is going to save them, or keep them safe for now. Because, really, if you don't want to believe in God, something has got to keep you safe, right?

I know others (let's be honest, these people are scattered about all over the place like a disease), they may still be little clutter-buggy, but their security is not quite coming from how much stuff they have, but more from how much it's worth. Money makes them feel safe, valuable things make them feel safe. A good job makes them feel safe. They could never ever give those things up, because goodness gracious, what if something goes wrong!? There is no possible way for them to trust something they can't see, and that's God. For something to be safe, it has to be visible and tangible. There is no "minds eye" for them, they have to put their trust in something that they can see... and for some, this is taken to a height labeled "hoarding".

I'm not a scientist, but those people that were being analyzed, I bet not one of them was a true believer.

A Quiet Sunday~

2008-03-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was so nice, sunny skies and nothing much to do. We haven't had two days in a row like that for a while. I prefer our Sundays to be like that way anyhow, lazy and quiet! After breakfast we had our "family" church. Even though I sometimes miss being around other believers every Sunday, I enjoy our fellowship being among our family only. Rather then trying to worship to music that more or less resembles rock concert materiel, we have been learning hymns together. I love hearing my 5 year old brother sing "It Is Well with My Soul".... and 2 year old Zusanah sing "He Lives"! That's the only part she knows, "He lives", but she sings it all the time, and swings as she sings!

The weather has warmed up to a lovely 55 degrees, so my brother and I have been walking more. A complete relief from almost a month of mostly no exercise, blah. I'm a stickler for a cloudy week, but we have been in the house so much, the clear blue sky is far more appealing.

Walking this morning I realized that out of anyone on the street we have been blessed with the better view. Anyone who lives across the street from us, has a four-sided view of, what? Other houses! Most of our time is spent at the back part of the house, which backs up to a nice large field, we can still the other half of the neighborhood, but they are a ways off. We can see storms come over Pikes Peak, the sunrise, and part of the sunset. Every time I look out the window, I don't have to look at another person! Relatively speaking anyway...

I'm hoping that we can move this year.. I don't know where God might move us. Praying, but not sure. We don't want to live in a neighborhood anymore, I think everyone has pretty much had enough. So we'll see.

The other half of my day yesterday was spent changing my blog, you might have noticed;). The floral mess had to go. I like to design, but occasionally I, (ahem) OVER design! I will be fixing the sidebar over the next few days as well. Since I put my blog in the magazine, I realized I had better clean up the mess! I love to change graphics. I change graphics the way some people move furniture. I will be changing other things as well, like the blog name. No more am I going to attempt to come up with frilly names for my blogs, nope I'm going plain jane. As plain as my name in fact.

Hope everyone is blessed with beautiful day...

~*~Jessica~*~

~~21 and Counting~~

2008-03-06T19:02:00.001-08:00

Wow, I haven't blogged for over a month! I have missed blogging, but I don't believe I could have thought long enough to write something other then the magazine! We have had some set backs with the Spring issue, mainly computer problems. It's only when you need a computer to work that it decides to break down. They're tormentors.

The magazine has come out wonderful! I'm so excited, we can't wait to have it in "magazine" form! We had way more pages then we thought we had for this issue. So instead of 76 pages like the Holiday issue was, we ended up with 104 pages. I couldn't believe we went over 28 pages!

With the magazine to do with this month, it left us little room to do other family things. But, last Saturday I turned 21. I felt a little "old" this birthday. I know everyone who is twice my age is going to roll their eyes at that, but that's what I thought. I started thinking about when we moved here, which was right after my 17th birthday. Four years have gone by already. I can remember each year, and specific things about it, it really doesn't seem like it's been that long... but it all did pass.

I'm not quite where I thought I would be, I don't think I planned to be home at all when I was 21. Had God not changed things, and the way I thought as well, who knows where I would be right now. I have an idea of what I could have turned into, I'm so thankful that I didn't.

I look at my brothers and sisters and I'm so thankful that I have been right here, and I didn't have to miss a thing! I can't imagine not being here for the birth of Evie and Zusanah! Or having to watch my siblings get older from a distance, just so I could go sit in college dormitory alone.

Rather then have to go and work for someone else, I can work for myself and with my family; and I get to do it with my Mother!

I could have missed all of this~

Mom and Me*~ ~*Baby Zusanah*~

I was working at my computer the other night and looked up to see seven children all huddled on the couch! That's what happens when everyone is forbidden to touch the thermostat, you can either love each other, or freeze. ~*Sleeping EvieGod knew that I would have hated being anywhere but at home. So here I am, still home, and happy that I was able to celebrate my 21st birthday here.

Hollywood Gone Feminist~*~

2008-02-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

I noticed something yesterday that I had never noticed or thought of before. Father of the Bride (the 1995 version with Steve Martin) somehow temporarily made it's way into the VCR yesterday afternoon, I thought 'Oh, I haven't seen that in a while'. Thinking about the movie for a minute, I realized the difference between the old version and the new one. In the old Father of the Bride (with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor), Kay (Annie in the new one) was just going to get married and be a wife and a mother. I couldn't exactly recall if that was stated in the movie, or if it was just assumed by the watcher. No, after I thought about it, it was just assumed by the watcher that Kay did not have a career to worry about... she was 'just' getting married. I don't even think that the movie was done where she had an interest in one, or talked about it in any part of the movie at all.

Inevitably, the movie was remade, but what was the big change? The bride was suddenly a career woman. She wasn't going to quit or stop going to school simply because she was going to have a husband to take care of. In fact, that was a big worry on the parents part that she would end up stuck with a freelance working husband and four kids with nothing on her part.

Fast forward to the sequel of the newer version when Annie has her first baby, again what was the worry? That they were saddling themselves with a kid before her career had 'taken off'. To top the storyline, Annie is not only not going to stay home to take of her new baby (movie goers would cringe at the thought of that), she was offered a higher position, which was going to be the start the career she had always dreamed of.

I found the comparison very interesting. Back in the 1950's, unless a woman was a single mother, no one ever thought of a woman having a career outside of her home and marriage. That movie was a good old-fashioned comedy. After 40 or so years go by, it's no longer 'interesting' to the average audience to watch a girl get married and be JUST a wife and a mother. No, now they need to cater to the society that has come, the age of the woman in the office. After mentally scanning some old versions vs. new versions of movies, I found the same thing.

Again, I went down a quick list of movies that have come out within the last year, and in at least 90% of them, the central female character has a career ( if not an 'excellent' one), has her kids in school, or is single and just has a great job, is very very pretty, very well educated, ultra independent with a smart mouth. Or even worse, she is a half naked something-or-another-with-a-gun running around with a body so filled with muscles you'd think it was a man and not a woman. Those are just things in some of the movies that I have noticed, but you get the general idea.

Some of the best old shows done were based on the events of a woman in the house. One of my favorites, I Love Lucy. Even though Lucy sometimes thought that she wanted a job outside of the home, what did Ricky say he wanted? A wife to come home to, and a Mother for his children. I love all of those old shows....

~*~Jessica~*~

~Blog Award~

2008-01-31T18:49:00.000-08:00

I was given the Blogging With A Purpose Award by my friend Ella!

As is the custom with blog awards, you do have to pass it along to at least 5 other people. However, everyone that I myself would give the award to has already been given this award, and some more than once! So, I must stop the passing here on my blog.

Blog awards can be so nice, though I doubt that I blog enough to have that great of a blog! ;)

If I do seem to be absent for long periods of time over the next few weeks, it just means that we are working double time to get the magazine to the printers. I will be around as often as I can!

Blessings, ~*~Jessica~*~

One Week Birthday

2008-01-27T19:58:00.000-08:00

Today Evangeline is officially one week old, and an absolute sweetie! She has been dubbed 'baby bug', by me of course. Doesn't she look like one? When she was born everyone said that her hair looked blond... but I don't know, that looks awfully brown to me. It appears that she may have brown eyes to match too. That will even things out a bit, two girls with blond hair/blue eyes and two with brown hair/brown eyes.

I was sitting on the bed with her last night, and decided to play with the camera. Poor thing. I've only flashed her a million and one times since she was 1/100 of a second old.

Off to tea, just wanted to post pictures before bed...

~*~Jessica~*~

Introducing Evie...

2008-01-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

Baby Evie getting her physical~*~

Evangeline Elisabeth made her way into the world at 12:45 this morning! Weighing 7 lb., with extra chubby cheeks. Mom and Evie are doing very well.

Evie and me~*~

We are so thankful that labor went quickly! I will post more soon!

Blessings, ~*~Jessica~*~

Baby on the Way!

2008-01-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update, we are waiting for the midwives, so I may be posting pictures of a baby by morning!

Blessings, ~*~Jessica~*~

Busy Day and Still Waiting...

2008-01-19T16:57:00.000-08:00

I don't have much to post about this evening, but felt like posting anyway! I feel that we have been putting about the house for the past few days, working... yet waiting at the same time. No baby yet, but I may be posting pictures of baby sooner than expected.

Though we have been in suspense for the past few days, we have still been working on some sewing projects. Mom almost has the girls dresses done that she has been working on over the last week, and I have been working at the girls pinafores to go with them. The dresses are Romantic era dresses, and look so pretty! I finished the bodice's for the pinafores yesterday, and put the skirts together today. Its actually the first time I have used the serger for a whole dress project. I'm a little afraid of the thing to be honest... that knife hacking away at my fabric and sewing it at the same time! But, after I completed the tops, I think I got used to it.

The curves on the neckline made me nervous, but I think I managed to keep the curve without hacking up too much of the fabric! I cut fabric for ruffles on the arms, but since the dresses have such puffy sleeves, we decided to keep them plain. I will post a picture of them when they are done!

Must run for now, blessings

~*~Jessica~*~

Birthdays...

2008-01-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

Our family seems to have birthdays concentrated into a few months of the year, rather then what most people would think, at least one birthday a month. No, to start the year, we have two (soon to be three) in January, one in February, and one in March (mine)... then we have a lull until August. There are two in August, one in September, one in October, and three in November.

But my favorite birthdays to celebrate are the ones that give me a good reason to pull out all of the cute Wilton pans, lots of dyes and make a gallon of icing to decorate ;). Though I didn't get to do as much as wanted to this time.

Jadon turned 5 this January, Zusanah turned 2. We are still waiting to see what the birthday is going to be for January baby number 3.

Instead of making and decorating two cakes, I made Jadon a train cake and Sanni became one of the girls... she got a big cheesecake.

She's so cute, she has to make that face to keep the glasses from falling off her nose.

I made this cheesecake in the pressure cooker for the magazine actually, and it came out soooo good!

As I said, we are still waiting for the arrival of the baby, nothing yet. Not only are we waiting for a baby we are waiting 5 inches of snow to drop later tonight.

New Year...

2008-01-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

More than a week into a brand new year. I noticed on the weather site that I frequent, a banner that said 'Back to the grind". What a depressing outlook on a new year to be spreading around! I prefer to look at it as having a clean piece of paper to write on.

Always looking back on the year that has passed us, I can't believe that it's gone already. I feel like it was just the fourth of July. Christmas seemed to have passed by like a flash. I have never had a Christmas go by me so fast! Though I love the holiday's, I was oddly happy to be taking down our Christmas tree. It just seemed that taking down all of the Christmas decorations and putting them all away, would usher in a new year faster, hopefully with new changes.

I also find that I am very much looking forward to Spring. We had one very spring-ish day last week, and I enjoyed it while it stuck around. I am usually a stickler to winter, cold and snowy! But, Spring here in Colorado is still more like winter then anything. We can have a day where it's 70 degrees out, then snow the next week. Not this week, the lows have been down below the teens, with wind chill factors of -2. That's cold! Yesterday was beautifully cloudy, today the skies are immaculate blue.

It might be a bit late for a new years post, but I'm going to post what we did anyway! Our celebrations for the new year is usually just limited to our family. Every now and then we will have a gathering of people over, for this year though, it was just us. Which I don't mind, our family makes quite a party with just us!

We love to entertain, and even though is was just us, I tried a new appetizer. We don't fry things very often, practically never... but we had to try this one.

Fried Pasta. It came out so good! The only thing you have to do to the pasta before you fry it is boil it. Not until it's completely cooked, just until it's tender. I made about 8 cups of dry pasta.

Then you heat about 4 quarts of oil to 370 degrees. This was definitely not a 'let the kids help' recipe, I kicked everybody out of the kitchen when I fried it. A deep pot is absolutely necessary, the oil tends to boil up the sides and out of the pot when the pasta is added. Fry the pasta until it turns light brown. Then remove the pasta with a slotted spoon, you have to work fast, once the pasta starts to brown it does it very quickly! I was surprised that it took so long for the pasta to start to brown though, about 5-6 minutes.

After all of the pasta has been fried, you can can add spices and cheese, whatever you want. I added about a cup and a half of Parmesan cheese and then garlic, pepper and thyme. All done!

A belated happy New Year to everyone!

Who Am I?

2007-12-28T19:27:00.000-08:00

Now that Christmas is past (barely), I have a few minutes to post here. The Holiday has made things around my house extra busy and I have had limited time for my blog!

However, another busy season is about to fall upon our family, we are waiting for the arrival of a new baby. To apply the correct process of numerical order, this is baby number 10 :).

I was going to write a post about me, what I like, what I do, how long I spend doing it, etc., but I see that as slightly redundant now that I have filled in my profile more diligently. I seriously doubt that anyone is that interested in reading a thesis length post of what I read, listen to, or otherwise occupy my mind with. That's what one can call (for lack of a better word) boring.

I can write about what I do at home, in fact that's why I like to blog! I may be 20 years old, but I don't go to college. I do own my own business though. Along with my Mother, I write and publish our magazine Seasons At Home. This is new for us this year, and we are busily preparing for the next issue for the Spring. In the magazine, I decided to run a column for young women who, like me, aren't going to college. A couple of years ago it never occured to me that there were other young women who actually stayed home to pursue home on purpose. I just assumed that I was just 'one of those' and moved about my business. I have discovered otherwise since then, and wanted to start something of my own that may become a source of encouragement to others who would like to do the same!

So, if you read this blog, you will find that I write about my family, all the things homey that I like to do and everything that falls in between!

2007-11-30T10:03:00.001-08:00

Hello again!

I have severely neglected this blog for the past couple of weeks! I was out of town for a week visiting family, so I wasn't home for Thanksgiving. I have to say that I am very happy to be home and back to my regular schedule. :)

Hopefully I can finish getting my blog fixed up. What I thought would be some simple html to fix on the template turned out to be xhtml, not as easy to fix as I am not used to working with it. So, the most accomplishing thing I have done is change the background ( and code for the background wasn't even IN my template, I had to put that in... wanted to do a backflip when I got that one right ;))and the header. I hate the font on the header, but it isn't the easiest thing to find.... have to keep looking.

Since this is a new blog, and will be passed around to people who don't know me.... I still have to do a post "about me". Just thought I would stick in a post (and I have succeeded in making it a post about nothing) this morning to give my blog the appearance of 'not' being abandoned.

I will be back again soon enough,
blessings to all,
~*~Jessica~*~

Woo Hoo, A Blank Blog

2007-11-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

An extra big thank you to Gabrielle for introducing me to some of her friends here (a bow)!

I have to say that I feel like a speck of dust in space, as I am used to the closed in community atmosphere of the Homesteadblogger... but I hope that that will change!

Anyone who happens upon this blog, you will notice how nice and empty it is... I will soon be changing that! It may take me a little while, but I WILL fix it! If anything you may check back and see how many times I have to screw up my template before I get the html under control :).

I will post more about me and fill in my profile as soon as I have some time (I'm slightly tied in knots right now).

In Him,
~*~Jessica~*~

Jessica's Blog

New Beauty of Home..

Come Visit Us?

So Long For Now~*~

~*~This Week In Photos~*~

The Bees Are Not My Friends...

In The Early Morning...

A Trip to The Store~*~ Six Kids and A Sister

~*~Beautifully Springy Morning~*~

~*Young Kindred Hearts*~

It's Called A Beautiful Letdown ~*~ Only to Someone Else

Never, never, never, never, never...

Just Fun for Friday*~*~ To Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

Feeling So Springy*~*~

Finally, A Cloudy Day~*~

Oh Boy, I've Been Tagged*~

Obsessive Compulsive? Maybe. Maybe Not.

A Quiet Sunday~

~*~21 and Counting~*~

Hollywood Gone Feminist~*~

~*Blog Award*~

One Week Birthday

Introducing Evie...

Baby on the Way!

Busy Day and Still Waiting...

Birthdays...

New Year...

Who Am I?

Woo Hoo, A Blank Blog

~~This Week In Photos~~

~~Beautifully Springy Morning~~

~Young Kindred Hearts~

Just Fun for Friday~~ To Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

Feeling So Springy~~

~~21 and Counting~~

~Blog Award~