And sometimes it’s your mother who works them.

This morning I asked mom if she would upgrade my version of WordPress that I use to the latest version. She had just upgraded one of her blogs with no problem so she went ahead and did mine. WITH problems! My entire blog was lost, except for a couple of posts and the ones I still had on the old blogger blog.

In short (not really) my poor mother has sat in front of her computer almost all day trying to recover my blog for me. She tried everything it seemed to no avail - but finally she was able to rescue it!

It seemed nothing short of a miracle! :-) 

THANK YOU MOM!!! 

2009 is here! It does seem as though every passing year goes by faster than the last one, doesn’t it? Looking back on 2008 I see many blessings and a few hard times that we’ve gone through.

We celebrated living in our “new house” for one year in February. It’s been wonderful. We live on six lovely acres, 3 of which are beautifully landscaped (by the previous owners). This brings its joys and its sorrows since we have to try to keep it looking nice and have a LOT of trees that always seem to need trimming. We are surrounded on two sides by a golf course and in the winter season it’s beautiful because you can’t tell it’s a golf course. This year Dad bought us snow shoes so we have enjoyed snow shoeing out there.

Also in February my grandparents (on my mom’s side) celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary - what a blessing! We see less and less of that these days. My grandparents are a wonderful example to us of a strong marriage. In May we had a grand party and it was great to see so many people get up and honor my Opa and Oma (grandpa & grandma in Dutch) for their commitment to each other. We love them dearly and look forward to seeing many more years of marriage for them! 

Oh, let’s see… what else? I turned 16 in April and had the pleasure of being bombarded with questions about if I am driving yet. I am not - probably this year!

In 2007 my Nini (grandma in Chinese - Dad’s side) was diagnosed with colon cancer and went through a very trying series of events to get rid of it. This year we were so glad to see her recover and gain back strength. Praise the Lord!

Toward the fall we were saddened to lose Tara’s cat Scamper after a very long illness. We miss him a lot as our kitties are very dear to us. He was very sweet and lovable and we have many fun memories of him. Sweetest of all was that the night before we had to put him down, he climbed the stairs even though he could barely walk and climbed in bed with Tara for a snuggle, and did it again in the morning, though she had to pick him up because he couldn’t get up on the bed himself.

We enjoyed celebrating our nation’s independence with friends from church. Though our country is far from perfect, we are grateful for the liberties we enjoy.

In August I was immensely blessed by my friend, Raeanne. I have for a long time wanted to play the harp but I didn’t think it would happen for a while (if ever) due to the expense. Raeanne is from our church and has played harp for several years and a few years ago upgraded from a small, 27 string harp to a larger one. When we were over at her house one day she offered to let me borrow her old one, as it was just sitting in her closet. I accepted. I am so grateful for her generosity and for the opportunity to start learning much earlier than I would have if I had waited till I had saved enough to buy my own. Thank you, Raeanne!!

I’m sure there’s a LOT I am leaving out but this is getting rather long. I can’t forget to mention blessings such as, Dad still having a job when so many are losing theirs, blessings in our church - especially the babies that were born this year (including one born New Year’s Eve!), and homeschooling, etc.

I am looking forward to what God will do in 2009! 

I am now offering my plush boa scarves in the Maidens of Virtue Shoppe as custom made - you pick the color. I had been selling these before but with a few set colors from which to choose. But I decided that it would serve my customers better if they could request the color they wanted, and then I could give them some specific yarn colors that match their request.

All the scarves will come in a homespun style yarn (an example is on the site). I will, however, try to accommodate requests for other types of yarn, such as chenille, bulky, feathery, or cotton, etc. (Depending on what type of yarn, this may necessitate a price change - therefore, default yarn is the homespun, and if you want a different yarn, make a note of it in the note section when ordering).

What do you think? I would appreciate any comments on whether you think this is a positive or negative change.

A while ago our church purchased a bunch of Psalters and we started singing them in our services each week. We as a family also purchased one and use it in our personal family singing.

These are literally the entire book of Psalms set to music.We have really enjoyed learning them in 4 part harmony (I am soprano, my sister is alto, my self-sacrificing mom sings tenor when possible, and Dad is bass).

Singing the Psalms are a great way to memorize them, and these are not “childish” tunes as many Scripture songs are; these are more like hymns - some of the Psalms are actually set to hymn melodies. Of course, the Psalms are “edited” to fit the verses (not word-for-word out of the KJV).

If you have not already purchased this book, I would strongly recommend that you do so! You can buy it from Vision Forum HERE.

Also, if you want to learn these in 4 part, you can get tutorial CDs. Each CD has the Psalms with the full-harmony, and then afterward the parts are broken up so each person can learn their part. Great for learning the Psalms in the car! (We have volumes 1 and 2, and I can’t remember which one it is but one doesn’t have very good audio quality - still it’s helpful if you do better learning by ear):

O Sing A New Psalm: Learn to Sing the Psalms in 4 Part Harmony, Vol. I

Songs of the Remnant (Vol. II)

Nations Praise (Vol. III)

And guess what… it’s Sarah from Destiny of One who did it - again!

However, this one I like because it’s not just the usual “random things about me”…

6 to 10 Things that I do daily:

1. Have my quiet time (read the Bible, pray, journal)

2. Do chores

3. Check my email

4. Pet and spoil the cats

5. Make lunch

6. Check blogs

7. Generally write something - letters, stories, blog posts, nature journal

8. Practice my instruments (piano & harp) - sometimes this gets missed but I’m trying to do better about doing it EVERY day

9. Wait eagerly for the mail

Now I am supposed to tag 5 people (this is usually the hardest thing for me - I always end up tagging the same people!)

R.J. (virtuousgirlhood.com)

Savannah

Emily Jo

Miss Jocelyn (aponderingheart.com/blog)

Jessica McDonald

For those of you who have been so amazingly blessed to be tagged :-), here are the rules:

*Post the six to ten things that you do on a daily basis
*Link to the person who tagged you.
*Tag five other people
*Leave a comment on the blog of the person that tagged you letting them know that have posted this to your blog.

Sarah over at Destiny of One tagged me to tell 6 random things about myself. So….

1. My favorite music types are classical, hymns, and some celtic.

2. My favorite sounds are fallen leaves crunching under my feet, rushing water, cats purring, birds singing, and wind whispering through the trees (my sister, who is sitting with me as  I type this, says, “You’re so poetic!” - jokingly, of course *smile*).

3. My favorite scents are bread baking in the oven, roses, pine needles, ground coffee (or coffee in any form, come to think of it - except black).

4. If you can’t tell, I’m going with favorites here - favorite colors: rose pink, pale green, lavender purple, various shades of blue, dark red… um… I think that’s all!

5. I love sewing, especially historical outfits.

ONE MORE! I can do this!!!

6. Ummmmmmm……. OH - favorite flowers: roses, lilacs, irises, and apple and cherry blossoms.

There! I did it. Now I am supposed to tag 6 (ish) other people.

R.J. at Virtuous Girlhood

Miss Taylor at the Godly Girlhood blog

Raeanne Ailene

Lauren

Wendy

Well…. that was 6-ISH all right.

Here are the rules for those I tagged (if you all want to do it, of course!) :
*Link to the person who tagged you.
*Post the rules on your blog.
*Write six random things about yourself.
*’Tag’ six-or-so other people at the bottom of your post-
*And leave comments on their blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.
*Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve written the post.

Have fun!

Lost
Somwhere between sunrise and sunset
One golden hour, set with sixty diamond minutes.
No reward is offered, for it is gone forever.

- Unknown

For my last birthday, my sister gave me a friendship quilt, though it wasn’t all put together yet. It’s one of the best gifts I’ve ever been given - a quilt made up of squares that my friends embroidered for me! Tara (my sister) organized the whole thing, and my friends each handmade a square. It was very neat to open each one out and see how each reflected the personality of the giver!Anyway, I am writing this because yesterday my sister finished sewing it all together, and I thought I’d post a couple pictures of it. 

Here she is basting in the batting (that’s the back of the quilt)

The finished quilt (sorry the picture is a little dark)

And there was an unexpected benefit that came with this quilt as far as Tara is concerned - she’s found that she’s hooked on quilting!

Guess what… I have just recently published a new version of The Hope Chest Record Book, which was (and still is) available through the Maidens of Virtue Shoppe. This new version is hardcover, so it is created to last and be passed down for generations to come. And it has 100 entry pages, instead of 28 like the original paperback, combound version. Yes, it is more expensive - but you are getting a keepsake with a lot more room for filling that chest to overflowing! You can purchase this through Maidens of Virtue (on the same page as the original) or from Fairhaven Press.