Sweet sixteen: { Snow, Sewing, Sisters}

 ...And yes; Sweets.
 On the 26th I enjoyed a quiet beautiful snowy birthday. The lush blissful snow made it extra special and a first. I've never had a white Christmas or birthday. I had a relaxing day with laid back meals and schedule.Other than being sick I had a great day. I was able to work peacefully on my birthday sewing project... I finished it the day after. I had some quality time with my sisters enjoying the snow and playing my recent favorite game: banana grams, which I received on my birthday.

                                   {My skirt before sewing.}

                                                                          And after!
                                          

                                              A fun project finished.

{Some snap shots of our beautiful snow and ice}

                                                  Ice encased leaves

                                              
                                                    {One of my birthday gifts.}

                          

I think next on my sewing adventures will be that dress pattern I've been meaning to make for so long,- before I make this.

So that sums up my special day. Beautiful, relaxing and stress- free. I ended my day with dinner at Olive garden and eating some of their yummy sweet desserts.




* I wanted to thank you all for your kind comments on my birthday post and on this post. I appreciate all your encouragement!



Did you all get any snow? :-) How did you enjoy your holidays and after holidays?
 

It's a new year...

...A fresh new year with no mistakes {yet}and twelve whole months of adventures to come! How exciting.

2011 is here! Are you ready? My list is made out of plans and resolutions...now time to follow through.

Thank God for a new year. May you have a beautiful new year!  God bless you all.

The end of a beautiful year...

 I am so amazed that almost one year has past in 2010. I have learned so much this year. Not only has a year past but so has twelve months of time spent with family, new books read, lessons learned, giggles laughed, tears cried, millions of new thoughts have raced through my mind this year. God has taught me so much through his word, through people he's brought to my life, books he's put in my path.
2010 has been a great year. Now it's time to make some more new year resolutions written and accomplished! Or maybe even get out some of my old ones. :-) 
      I don't know about you but I have a feeling that this new year will be monumental. I hope to learn a lot this year and I am getting my resolutions thought out and ready to face them with full fury. Here I come 2011! 

               What's been your favorite 2010 memory? 

Sweet Sixteen...

It doesn't feel much different being sixteen as apposed to fifteen. When I was little I always pictured teens as old, mature and scary. But being at the height of my teen years, it doesn't feel too different than the rest of my life. There is a sensation of excitement saying, "I'm sixteen!". My responsibilities and capabilities will grow as I mature.

Standing back and seeing my life before me gives a thrill of past memories of childhood joys. Beautiful adventures that I reminisce, in the years to come.
I look at teens around me and wonder how they feel. Do they feel old? Do they feel mature and ready to face the world?
I on the other hand still feel very much like a kid and literally I am a child and always will be in God's eyes. I am God's eternal child. :-) I have many years ahead of me -if God allows- and though I'll get older and take on bigger tasks, my life will be the same in the sense that I am God's child and He's my father.:-)

Matthew 5:9
They are blessed who work for peace,
       for they will be called God's children.


John 1:12
 But to all who did accept him and believe in him
he gave the right to become children of God. 

{My family and I are still slowly recovering from the flu. But getting better none the less.}


I hope your having a nice day after Christmas!We had a nice white Christmas. Time to go enjoy it. Going out make a snow man later... :-)

Merry Christmas

 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.  
                                                                       Romans 3: 21-26

Christmas Music

 

 

Silent night holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.

 Silent night holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight,
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing alleluia;
Christ the Savior, is born
Christ the Savior, is born.

Silent night holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

 One reason I delight in Christmas is the beautiful songs that fill the season. There are so many Christmas songs out there. In the beginning of December my sisters and I played at an hour and a half piano recital. Fifteen students and forty-eight songs. I didn't realize there were so many until you're waiting nervously for your turn. My favorite Christmas songs are mostly songs to sing to God. After all what is music with out glorifying the Creator of it? Christmas is only about two short days away!

 {I've been sick with the flu this week and some of my family seem to be catching it as well. Could you pray that we recover quickly? I appreciate your prayers. Thank you. }

 I hope you are enjoying a Merry Christmas week.

What's your favorite Christmas song?... :-)

Christmas thoughts

Amber Noelle had this video on her blog and I thought I'd post about it too. This video is very thought provoking. It makes me think if traditions I partake in are truly pleasing the Lord. Sometimes I do take Christmas and turn it into a holiday for giving and spending time with family when the real reason that I truly want to take part in it is to celebrate Jesus and meditate on the gift of Grace.

My sister Mags...

 Today is my sweet sister Maggie's birthday.
She is turning thirteen today!
Out of my two sisters and I, Maggie has the best temperament.
She makes me laugh. She's a joy to be around. She's a talented artist.

I am always amazed at her drawing skills. She has a good eye and captures most anything she sketches. She's clever, witty, smart and bright. She has an eye for beauty. She's kind and sympathetic. She's artistic in most anything. She is wonderful at embroidery and is a skilled pianist. My sister is an amazing example of a godly young lady. She is one of my best friends.

I love Maggie!

Christmas musings...

Christmas is a joyful time to express thanksgiving, give to one another and most importantly celebrate Christ's birth and His beautiful gift of grace to us.

Every Christmas year my sisters and I enjoy making a gift for each person in our family. The past couple years our goal has been to make something practical. The most fun part is to try and keep every one's gift secret. It's harder than it sounds. Especially when certain people try to look...
I am making most of my handmade gifts out of this fuzzy fleece. I can't tell you what I am making other than it's warm and fleecy... I've been busy snipping and sewing. 

I love to think up gifts; the hard part is making sure you have a enough time to make them all. I try not to buy all the gifts. Handmade gifts seem more original and creative. I am almost done with my gift making and shopping. After a rampage of sewing, I should be done. ;-)

 The past several days we've had a blissful dusting of snow flurries.... the snowflakes don't stick, but it's exciting since we've never had snow this close to Christmas.

              I do hope it stays cold. I would be so happy if it snowed (dusted) on Christmas.
                             

                     
Gift making, gift wrapping, excitement building, smiles growing, joy flourishing;
and most importantly Christ is born!



What's your favorite part about Christmas?.....
            ..........What are your traditions?
                                             
                    
                                              

Heath Bars

                               Chocolate, peanut butter, saltine crackers.

                                                           :::                                    :::

                          Butter and... Sugar....

 I know that many people are participating in Annie's sugar free challenge. I am not....
I didn't think I had the will power when I heard that Annie was having the challenge and I was in fact correct. I have been pigging out on so many sweets! With Thanksgiving, so many tempting recipes, and my grandma visiting the Hershey store and bringing back chocolate, I have failed with just trying to cut down on sweets! On the other hand, I have been enjoying myself....
Up top our pictures of a some very yummy heath bars (Not health bars, heath bars) that I made with this recipe.
I apologize to those who are doing the challenge. I might be making you struggle, but these bars are good!
The holidays are a time to eat lots of sweets. Right? Okay, so I am trying make myself feel better.

I hope you all have a sweet Christmas season, sugar or not...!

Turning the light on...

 Do you ever have a cleaning job that your assigned and you leave the light off?
Maybe sometimes you just forget to turn the light on or maybe you do it on purpose. When your finished cleaning it looks like you did a great job, but when you or some one else turns that light on it doesn't look as nice as you thought. There are still spots uncleaned. Particles yet to be vacuumed, dirt still left to be mopped, puddles of juice dried and stuck on the floor. We can compare this to our lives.I can compare it to my life.

It's easy to do the right thing in areas where the light's off and harder where the light's on. We can clean up our life and paste a smile on, but when God turns on the light were we really doing our best? Were we doing the right thing only in the areas where people see? We can only do a good and perfect job when our heart is willing to do it and when the light is on. At times I feel like I am doing a nice job having a good attitude or helping people. But when I step back, I realize I wasn't doing my best and I wasn't having a good attitude for the right reasons. It's easy for me to go out in public help others and put a smile on. But when it comes to cleaning around the house, I don't feel so cheerful. I end up hurrying and doing a quick job with not much effort involved. It's easy to act like I'm a happy person in public when everyone is watching, than to be happy doing regular jobs when no one's watching. Most importantly God's watching. When I pretend to do a good job I am not tricking Christ. He knows when I am not doing it for him.
God knows when we have the light on. Let's shine it bright on our heart.

Psalm 97 :11
Light shines on those who do right;
       joy belongs to those who are honest.

 Isaiah 5:20
How terrible it will be for people
who call good things bad
    and bad things good,
    who think darkness is light
       and light is darkness,
    who think sour is sweet
       and sweet is sour. 

 Matthew 5:16
...Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Tis' The Season

My little brother... Isn't he darling? He is so photogenic....

 With celebration on Thanksgiving week with my mother's family on Thursday and celebration on Friday with my Daddy's family and a spend the night with our dear cousin Jenna, I have had a beautiful week. As the closing of Fall seems to be blowing goodbye, I have had to get out my coat and warm socks for the chilly days. I am not ready to give up the comfortable fall afternoons just yet, but as I see the temperatures drop, I guess I'll have to learn to like it. :-)

We took our annual trip to the tree farm and pick out our special tree. I am a little disappointed with how few decorations we are putting up this year... With the little ones, child proofing has to be in order, unless we want an abundant supply of broken ornaments... :-) I think our tree still looks quite nice. :-)

My family and I love to get out the Christmas music and dance to our favorite songs and I love to bundle up with blankets at night. Christmas is truly a special time every year. I am getting plans ready for Christmas gifts. Buying fabric, wrapping, sewing, and many other present making and gift creating are my plans this month. God is truly blessing our family this year and what an adventure it is to make Him the focus this season.