My goodness, I know I can’t say “thank you” enough for all your support of the new little tee shop. I vastly underestimated what would take place and to say “I’m so grateful” is an understatement… but THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! If you ordered a tee it’s already on it’s way! Justin and I have been burning the midnight oil, pulling, wrapping, packing, taping… and meanwhile learning the ins and outs of Click ‘n Ship, thankfully avoiding going postal in the process. My $30 Walmart printer pulled us through and reminded me of The Little Engine that could. After the kids were snug in their beds we transformed the kitchen into our workshop and worked like elves, wishing we had a few little elves! By the time we packed the last box we figured out the most efficient way to knock it out and hopefully are better prepared for the future… live & learn. I am in the process of reordering and adding a few more designs. I’ve yet to find a long sleeved tee that I love, but the search will continue. I have a handful of tees left that I didn’t list initially that are listed now in the shop {which has a new tab at the top of the blog} so keep checking and I’ll keep you posted on the status of the next batch. {I’m estimating they should be in the shop in 10-14 days.} Thank you again… I’m so excited that you liked them!
Next topic, books…
First, I was honored to be included in Oh Dee Doh‘s Favorite Children’s Book Interview last week…
I loved all of Carrie’s questions and thought I’d pass the LINK along to those of you who are interested in children’s books! Our all time favorite authors include: Scarry, Wilder, and Wells and we had the opportunity to talk about our favorite illustrators as well. Answering Carrie’s questions made me realize just how much we love children’s books! This summer we started reading Laura Ingalls Wilder to the girls… we plowed through Little House in the Big Woods and are about half-way through Little House on Prairie. Morgan {age 5} especially loves it and looks so forward to it every night. Wilder is such an amazing writer and I, too, have come to have such a respect and admiration for her style. Not only do I love her style, I think her books are full of valuable life lessons and applications for our children! If I’m honest, I probably look forward to the next chapter as much as the girls do.
I also just finished a little review for our church newsletter and thought this would be a great place to post it as well… it’s for a devotional book called Jesus Calling. My friend Katie gave it to Erika and me for our birthdays this summer and since then I have recommended it so many people… except y’all, so now I’m doing so! I’ve hesitated thus far to post about it because the reality is I am consistently inconsistent when it comes to a lot of things, one of which is my quiet times. I didn’t want to depict a false image of a devotional book guru, but the reality is I feel passionate about this book and love the perspective from which it is written. Not to mention, I think a lot of you would really love it. {If you’re an iPhone user she even has an ap for your iPhone.}
Here’s what I wrote about it…
Written from the unique perspective of Jesus {written in first person}, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young is unlike any devotional I’ve ever read. It is teaching me the importance of the practice of listening to the Lord and what his Word has hidden in it for me. The book reads with an authentic feeling of meeting with the Father and hearing Scripture spoken to the heart. Filled with a devotion for every day of the year, Jesus Calling, is a powerful devotional that speaks truth into the life of a believer to combat the all distractions that keep us from communion with the Lord. Each daily entry is accompanied by scripture references from which Sarah Young has compiled her text. Jesus Calling is so packed with Biblical exhortation it was hard to chose one excerpt, but this is just one snippet of truth…
“Stay calmly conscious of Me today, no matter what. Remember that I go before you as well as with you into the day. Nothing takes me by surprise. I will not allow circumstances to overwhelm you, so long as you look to Me. I will help you cope with whatever the moment presents.”
Sarah Young is currently a missionary to Japanese people living in Australia and holds degrees from Wellesley, Tufts, Georgia State, and Covenant Seminary. In her introduction to the book, Sarah explains, “The Bible is, of course, the only inerrant Word of God; my writings must be consistent with that unchanging standard. I have written them from Jesus’ point of view…so the perspective is of that of Jesus speaking to you.” I think Sarah Young has done an exceptional job of guiding and encouraging her readers into the presence of God. I am grateful for this devotional and I highly recommend it!
I’ve done a little reading myself this last month; The Help, Her Mother’s Hope, and I’m just starting The Kitchen House. I loved The Help {I’ve not heard of anyone who didn’t} and Her Mother’s Hope. Although it wasn’t my favorite Rivers book, I still managed to finish Her Mother’s Hope in a few short days, had no problem turning the page, and I certainly will be reading the sequel, hoping some of what I’ve read will be redeemed. Something about the character of Marta and how she treated Hildemara didn’t settle well with me and honestly I found myself slightly frustrated {which is likely how Rivers wanted me to feel}. In my opinion, even the last chapter fell a little short of justifying her actions/behavior toward her own daughter. I won’t say more… in case you want to read it. It is well-written, a little on the darker/depressing side, but by no means boring. I’d love any recommendations you all have for good reads…
As you can see by the picture above we are still pretending like it’s summer around here… in fact, we’re in the home stretch of our countdown to our summer beach trip! We are headed back to McBeach this year for fun and sun and are thrilled the beaches of NW FL are still oil free! Thank the Lord!
Ok, I need to go kiss those lips. Be back soon…
Oh, before I go there were a couple questions on the post about the gingersnaps & ferns…
- The ginger snap recipe says it makes “250-300 small cookies”, I wouldn’t know for sure if that’s accurate because we made average size cookies and it yielded about 3 dozen average cookies… but true gingersnaps are probably the size of a quarter or half-dollar so it may very well yield that many.
- The recipe also calls for “butter flavored shortening”, I know, not appealing, not healthy, but I imagine this is how they stay chewy on the inside… if anyone substitutes butter please let me know how they turn out!
- I also forgot to mention that the ferns like to be misted with water, I just use a hose and lightly mist all the fronds when I’m watering them.
- In the cold months {Dec, Jan, Feb} the ferns come inside to my foyer and I sit them on folded towels so I can still water with out risking ruining my floors/rug. It’s not the most ideal place but it has windows and they seem to like it there. I think a garage would be fine but ours weigh so much we just brought them right into the house. They do not bring in bugs {that I’ve noticed} but rather lizards, but we welcome the lizards over bugs because they eat bugs!
