Announcing my NEW Website!

This is an announcement for my new website, So Dutch.  I have been wanting to do this for a while now and it finally is coming together.  Julia did the header for me.  Isn't it neat? 

I am 100% Dutch and am proud of the good qualities in my heritage.  Why don't you hop over there and check it out? 

It is still very new and I have lots more to add.  Click HERE to see the new site.  So check back again.  Thanks for looking!!  (Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!)

Blessings,

Children and Clean Homes

Check this out!  This is a quote from "The House That Cleans Itself".  According to a study done by the University of Michigan in 2001, "kids who are raised in clean homes are more likely to complete more school and have higher earning potential than those raised in dirty homes." 

Wow!  Does that motivate you?  It stands to reason that if things are orderly, more will get done and the family will be less distracted.  Very interesting....

Let's see...I've copied my floor plans and marked my zones.  I have the game plan.  Now the book says to take a "prayer walk" through my house.  Oh, how neat!  That's a new concept!  I like it!  It's on my list for tomorrow.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Stay tuned,

The House That Cleans Itself Part 2

OK, so over lunch I start reading the book.  It's very good so far.  She begins by drawing a floor plan to determine the flow of the house and in which order you want to organize your house.  Bob drew out a plan last night so I am all set there. 

Now I need to copy it and start planning out the zones. 

The book was so easy to read I ended up reading the first 3 chapters over my salad lunch. The second chapter encourages you to find the Home Base Zone, the area that, if clean, gives you a sense that you can handle the rest of the job.  I will have to think on that one.  It doesn't jump out to me right now. 

The third chapter discusses how to get the whole family on board.  Yay!  A family oriented approach appeals to me!    I have to finish the book and then have a family meeting.  My children already are great cleaners so hopefully they will be inspired to be more organized, too.  Julia is very excited so no problem there.  Bob is generally neat so that shouldn't be any trouble, except maybe those dirty socks that somehow seem to miss the hamper.....

Well anyway, so good so far.  I'll keep you posted.

The House That Cleans Itself

I am starting to read the book "The House That Cleans Itself" by Mindy Starns Clark.  My house is usually in good order but there are times it gets out of hand.  Julia has already read the book and is very motivated to put it into practice.  We have a good cleaning chart but we are not consistent in implementing it, usually because I am not up to it. 

I hope to learn a lot.  I'll let you know how it goes! 

Have a great day!

Quick, Easy and Frugal Mittens

The weather has been very cold here lately.  It seems to have been cold EVERYWHERE!  The gloves and mittens have mysteriously disappeared, too!  We had some in the fall.  Enough for everyone.  Since my gloves got passed down to a child, I decided to make some more. 

I had this cashmere sweater that I had found at a thrift store in Michigan last winter.  I had already made some leggings from the sleeves so I cut out some mittens from the body of the sweater.   Using my sewing machine, I stitched these up in no time. 

You could use an old sweater.  If it is wool, it could be felted first.  Just make a pattern from your own hand.  Remember to add enough for a seam allowance and room for that seam allowance in the thumb, especially.  Otherwise it will be too tight.  Have fun!  Let me know if you make some.  It would be fun to see your creations, too!!

Have a great day!

The Father's Love Letter

Do you ever feel that no one loves you?  God the Father loves you very much.  Jesus came to show us the Father.  (John 16:25)   Here is an awesome letter written to explain how much God loves us.   It is all Scripture verses set in the style of a letter.  Soak up the truths of God's love.  Be encouraged and comforted.  Click HERE for the letter.

May you be richly blessed,
 

A Great Giveaway!

Beautiful sunshine and warm sand....

Hello, everyone! I am back from my long hiatus! There has been a lot going on so if you want to catch up on the details go visit Julia's blog. She good at posting regularly! Basically, we went to Florida to visit Bob's mom, I haven't been feeling very well and the usual responsibilities of life were all I could handle. Julia has some great pictures of our trip to Florida so I won't repeat by writing a long post about it.

But here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what it was like.

Let me say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Hope you had a great time with friends and family. We spent a nice quiet day eating lots of good homecooked foods and fellowshipping as a family.

Now for the GIVEAWAY! Jasmine Baucham (Voddie Baucham's daughter) has so kindly offered to host a giveaway of Julia's jewelry and a custom blog header, made by Julia for the winner's blog. Two prizes for the taking!! To enter, simply go to Jasmine's blog and leave a comment. If you want more chances to win, look at the Etsy shop and let Jasmine know which item is your favorite, by leaving a comment. Also if you post about the giveaway, you get another chance to win.

Here is the necklace set that is being given away:

I would love to hear from you but you must comment on Jasmine's blog to enter the giveaway.

Have a blessed day!

Our House is For Sale!

After praying about it for about a year, we believe that it is time to put our house up for sale. We are planning to move to the area where Bob works but we are very open to whatever God has for us. Would you please pray for us? Especially, that we could walk in peace through this whole process. If you are interested in our house, please leave a comment and I'll get back to you. :)

We have a beautiful home and it will be hard in a way to leave it. But we believe that God is faithful to provide what we need for the next season of our life. He is leading us to walk by faith and not by sight. I find this challenging yet necessary. The right things are not always easy to do.

How is God directing you to walk by faith and not by sight? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Blessings,

Apples!

Sickness had prevented us from heading up to North Georgia for a weekend visit. I had hoped to get some apples from the orchards while they were in season. Amazingly, our Wal-Mart had the exact variety of apples that I would have purchased in N. GA! So I bought several bags.



Here are the sliced apples already canned up.



Yummy!

Here are the rest of the apples cooking away for applesauce.

Applesauce is one of those "easy to can" items. It is oh, so good and fresh when it is homemade.

If you have never tried canning, apples and applesauce are a good place to start. They are water bath canned and it is pretty easy.

Happy Fall,

The Craft Show ~ Fallfest

Here is our booth at the Fallfest. We got there early, around 7:30 am. You can see the pretty garland hanging on the edge of the tent.

This was my table of goodies. Julia made the adorable crocheted donuts and we decided to put them with the rest of the crocheted items.

Julia's jewelry table is eye-catching and pretty! It all looked so professional that people were stunned that this was done all by her. They often asked how long she had been displaying at shows and how many shows she did a year.

Overall, it was a good day. We did manage to sell some things. Other sellers said that they were slow, too. The good news was the weather. Rain had been forecasted for the whole day but the forecasters were wrong! Yay! Sunshine and blue skies ruled the day! It was quite warm, temps in the 90's. Except for the loud country music, the day went smoothly. I probably won't sell there again but it was a good experience and it was nice to see friends from town.

We will be posting many items on Etsy so if you were disappointed that you didn't make it to the Fallfest, just check out our Etsy shop and you can still buy these cuties! Just give us a few days to take the pictures and get them posted. You can find the shop here.


Blessings,

A Cute, EASY, DIY Garland

This adorable garland is so easy to whip up you might put it at the bottom of your "to-do" party list!! I got the original idea from The Purl Bee and you can find the site here. I modified her instructions to make it even easier!

All you need is a charm pack of fabric squares and a sewing machine. Mine are 5 inch squares. (Similiar to this pack. It's not the one I used for the garland but just so you know what to look for in the store.)

I started the sewing with a small piece of ribbon in case I wanted to tie the garland to something. Fold the squares in half with the right sides out to make a triangle and sew down the long folded side about a 1/4 inch from the edge. Slightly overlap them at the tips and just keep sewing until you have the length of garland that you want.

Using fun, bright fabrics, you could make these for parties, to decorate a nursery or even decorate for the holidays. Just get the charms in seasonal fabrics and away you go!!

Happy creating!