Days of Beauty: Give

Last one for today - Gabby, God's Little Angel by Sheila Walsh. She is also the one who wrote the Gigi series. You can view the flip book here, coloring sheets here and see the video:

While I love the idea that we want to communicate to our children that God is always with us and that His angels are watching over us and our children - I'm not sure I love this book. Do I want my children to see angels as little cherub children that save them from falling? I just don't know how I feel about that.

Again, the illustrations are sweet and charming - very pleasant visually. And, I promise I'm not trying to be negative - just honest.

If you're interested in winning a copy of this book - please leave a comment on this post sharing how you communicate that God is always with us to your children. Comments will be open until Friday, October 21 at 10pm EST.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Tommy Nelson to keep and review here. They are providing a second copy to one of you at their cost. All opinions are my own.

Days of Beauty: Give

Smack Dab in the Middle of God's Love published by Tommy Nelson is the next book up for grabs today! I immediately noticed how bright, colorful and eye-catching the illustrations are! View the flip book here.

I've only read the book once (again, Emily ran off with it!) and while it is a great story, it left me wishing for something more - though I cannot put my finger on exactly what. I guess it's fair to say it just didn't grab me. But, I don't want to diminish the message or effort behind the book. Just trying to be honest in my review here.

If you would like to win a copy - please leave a comment below sharing how you encourage your children to share God's love with the world around them! Comments will be open until Friday, October 21 at 10pm EST.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Tommy Nelson to keep and review here. They are providing a second copy to one of you at their cost. All opinions are my own.

Days of Beauty: Give

A Pumpkin Prayer is a delightful autumn book from Tommy Nelson Publishers. I was expecting something kind of like this that would allow me to walk through a project with my children while bringing home spiritual truths. But, this is really not that at all - it is a sweet prayer thanking God for different aspects of Fall.

You can view the flip book here!

The pictures are extremely charming and child friendly! Board book pages make this little hands friendly while the words are kept at their level as well. Emily grabbed this off of the counter and I've heard her reading it - but haven't seen it since!

If you would like to win a copy - please leave a comment below sharing how you celebrate this season with your children! Comments will be open until Friday, October 21 at 10pm EST.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Tommy Nelson to keep and review here. They are providing a second copy to one of you at their cost. All opinions are my own.

Days of Beauty: Give

Ok, one more days of giveaways! These will be listed in separate posts (Tommy Nelson guidelines) so please make sure to check each post today to see what you'd like to enter!

And, yes - there is beauty in giving to others! There is beauty in winning something! There is beauty in free! There is beauty in goodies for your children! You get the idea :)

So - here is the first giveaway:

I received an e-mail from Anna who has been a long time reader here that she has put together lunch box jokes for a year! She is a mom of two who pack their lunch for school and she loves to put a little lovin in their lunch! Plus, a smile!

You can click here to print out a free set of 20 jokes to cut apart and use in lunches! Or, for $7 you can download a full set of jokes to last you the entire school year. Many jokes are aligned with the seasons and holidays and your kids will have fun seeing how you are going to make them laugh when they open their lunch! 50% of her proceeds will also be donated to World Vision - love that!

She's in Canada, but has made both an American set and a Canadian set so they will match up with appropriate holidays! Anna graciously shared a set with me and has offered to give a set away to one of you!

Please leave a comment sharing how you make lunch special for your children! Comments will be accepted until Friday, October 21 at 10pm EST.

Days of Beauty: Plan

Today and tomorrow - I'm going to sort of veer slightly off the beauty path and complete some giveaways/reviews that I'm needing to get done. Hopefully, it will be beauty to those who win!!

Ok, I take that back - I am going to say a few words about beauty. See, I can't help myself?! One of the very best things that helps me to be successful in creating and pulling off beauty is to plan ahead!

I've already mentioned the site Organized Christmas! If you haven't ever checked it out before, I hope you will - just downloading the pages for your own Christmas notebook or signing up for e-mails is absolutely free.

I love Christmas and I especially love being able to savor the days and not feel hurried and harried through them. They are holy days, high days that deserve a different pace.

Now, I have two giveaways today!

First up is this Gooseberry Patch Quick & Easy Christmas cookbook! Gooseberry Patch cookbooks are always so much fun and inspiring to look at. And, I love that they are created by readers just sending in their recipes and compiling all the best of what is received.

So far, I've got a new favorite recipe from this cookbook and I'm going to share it with you! You know my struggle to love my Crock Pot - and I am really working at enjoying it. I am now up to more than two recipes we love from the Crock Pot. Yes, I am serious.

Ok - so here's a new one for you to try!

Slow Cooker Potatoes (I did not take a photo because photos of Crock Pot food are just not all that appetizing or beautiful!)

32-oz. package frozen shredded hashbrowns, partially thawed
2 10 3/4 oz. cans Cheddar cheese soup (I only used one)
13 oz. can evaporated milk
1 c. green pepper, diced
2.8 oz. can French fried onions, divided
Cubed cooked ham

Spray your Crock Pot with non-stick cooking spray. Add hashbrowns, soup, milk, green pepper, ham and all but 1/4 c. of the onions. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Sprinkle with remaining onions just before serving. Serves 6-8.

You can visit the Gooseberry Patch ladies in a number of places: blog, web page, Facebook or on You Tube!

And, while we are on the topic of Slow Cookers, I have another cookbook to giveaway today!

The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes book! I have only skimmed this book so can't give you more than a basic review. There are great pictures and lots of categories for recipes! Some of them look a little gourmet and time-involved for our taste, but I know one of you will find a way to make it work for you!

Truly though, isn't having dinner ready and cooking while you do something else beauty?! Yes, yes it is! Ok, two of you are going to win today - just leave a comment to be entered. Comments will be accepted until Thursday, October 20 at 10pm EST. Open to US residents only.

Days of Beauty: Pamper Yourself

When thinking of beauty - how can I not think of pampering myself a little? No, I don't want it to be something I am completely obsessed with. However, it is a beautiful act to invest in my own physical beauty.

Just think of Queen Esther! She was given a full year of complete and thorough beauty treatments before going to the King.

Esther 2:12,
"Before a girl's turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women ..."

God gave me the idea of doing this together with my daughters. The idea was just to take an hour and have fun in beauty with them! And, He provided the opportunity when Samuel took an extremely rare nap one afternoon!

I grabbed a quilt and a few goodies and we spent almost exactly an hour pampering ourselves! It was a beautiful day outside and we so enjoyed the fresh air, relaxing moments, fun beauty and just being girly!

We love doing Satin Hands on our feet and hands at the same time!

Yes, we did talk about how our inner beauty is more important than our outer beauty.
And, the way that we become beautiful inside is to spend time with God and in His Word.

But, we agreed that doing this together was really fun too!

I rarely paint my fingernails because it lasts such a short time since I am always working with my hands. But, when I do paint my nails - I love noticing how it sets of my beautiful ring! And, with the beautiful sky and the sun filtering through leaves so beautifully - it was really gorgeous! While waiting for our nails to dry - it was fun to lay down and look at the beautiful trees and sky!

Carve out one hour to do something pampering for yourself or with your daughter!
Beauty!

Days of Beauty: God's Provisions

I love a good story of God's provision! And, I've had a couple of them lately - but one in particular that I'm excited to share. Seeing how God cares for us ~ that is true beauty!

So, you know that I've been slip covering our couches. The larger one is done and I'm making good progress on the smaller one. But, I also had on my list to do something different for curtains at our window in the living room. The shears I had were never really what I thought and I was really hoping to replace them as part of my project.

But, I haven't known exactly what I was looking for. I've scoured stores and on-line for ready-made curtains. Nothing was jumping out at me. I have looked at tons of fabric options too - and recently when I was near a JoAnn's - I looked at fabric samples there.

I checked out four samples to bring home and draped them over the blinds so I could see them in the living room in different light and decide what I thought might work the best - if any of those options. After a day or so, I was really leaning toward this fabric.

And as one day turned into two and three - I was more and more sure that this was the right choice. But, and this is huge - did you see how much it was per yard. Go ahead, go back and click the link. I'll wait.

Are you back? Did you pass out?! $50 a yard? Even if it were half off - I needed 8 yards to do curtains and pillows. And, did I mention it would also need lining? I was planning to get a cheap sheet at a thrift store for that - but still, talk about expensive.

So, I basically just thought I'd have to save up for a while to do that or find something comparable and I had no idea where or what that would be.

Just a day or two later - I was helping at a yard sale for our CC community. And, a fellow mom brought in several big trash bags for her donation. As I was helping go through the incoming items - I could not believe what I saw...

A bed skirt and at least one curtain valance that looked almost exactly like the fabric I had in mind. Really? I asked what they were going to price it at and then gladly paid the $3 to take a risk and see if I could make this work.

Everything was all bagged and taped up, so I honestly did not really know what I was getting for $3 and a bed skirt is iffy since the fabric is only small sections not big pieces. At any rate, I figured it was a risk that I was willing to take.

When I got home, I plopped the bag on the floor and promptly took a nap! But, when I woke up - I was ready to explore the contents of the bag and see if it would be even remotely possible to make curtains out of what was there.

First of all - check out this side by side of the fabric that was $50/yard and the $3 bag - JoAnn's fabric is on the left:

There was a twin bed skirt in the bag - but right away I could see that would be tricky. I'd have to piece a lot of strips to make it work and wouldn't that look funny? Then, I pulled out whatever else there was and it turned out to be an unusual window topper of some sort and two valances. The valances were kind of funny shaped - but they were long!

So, I just turned the valance sideways (so the horizontal part was running vertically) and draped it over my curtain rod to see if it would possibly work. Yes! It looked like it might - I ran two quick lines of stitching to make a casing for the rod and cut off the funny shaped part. Then, I hung it up to see and (gasp) it worked!

Oh, did I mention the valances were already lined?

In no more than 15 minutes, I had sewn the four little seams and tossed everything in the wash. That evening, my new curtains were washed and freshly hung. Not only did it save me a TON of money but think of the time it would've taken for me to line and make these from scratch.
Wow - that is beauty!!!!

Days of Beauty: Future Home

I recently remembered a Beth Moore Bible Study I did in my single years. I can't tell you which study this was in, but I do remember that we read a description of Heaven and she encouraged us to just draw some of it out.

Reading through parts of Revelation 21 and 22 - I tried to incorporate everything I read there into these two pages that made a feeble attempt at wrapping my mind around Heaven. I don't think my finite mind really can comprehend Heaven this side of it - but I appreciated the idea and goal behind it.

Heaven is going to be beautiful!!!!!

So much more beautiful than what I've been talking about here lately - earthly beauty.

So, here's my drawing - it looks primitive and messy. I kept reading more things that needed to be added to my picture and to capture the hugeness of His holiness I even wrote faintly H.O.L.Y. over the whole picture - can you see it?

I hope you won't think it is disrespectful to share this drawing - I am not trying to say this is exactly what Heaven is going to look like - just that it was a helpful exercise to me to read the passages through in such detail and drawing it out brought it home to me somehow.

It seems appropriate in a month of beauty and especially on a Sunday to remember the beauty of our future home!

Days of Beauty: Little Girls

Little girls just love beauty don't they? Well, maybe all little girls don't - but mine sure do! They notice and appreciate beauty that is lovingly created for them. They want to be beautiful, they want to enjoy beauty, and oh - they are such sweet beauty to this mama.

Today, I'm keeping the words few and just sharing beauty captured in our back yard recently!

All from one little pumpkin!

I wrote this post three years ago and it was a guest post over at Money Saving Mom. But, I just received a comment that the links had been changed or something and I decided just to post it here for good measure (and my blog book) and such!

So, here you go - from the archives:

One of my favorite Fall decorations is a simple pumpkin! I recently purchased a 3.4 lb. pie pumpkin at Wal-Mart for $0.78/lb. I thought it would be fun to see how much we could do with just one pumpkin several days in a row to really stretch the value of purchasing it! Join me as we follow the life of the this small pumpkin…

When I first brought the pumpkin home, it made a lovely decoration perched on my porch.

A few days later, it made a fun greeting for a few ladies I had over for an Autumn in Avonlea gathering.

The next morning, it made a fun vase for our First Day of Autumn breakfast.

And, at lunch, a great hiding place for lunch during our scavenger hunt.
Next, I cooked the pumpkin. (Just half the pumpkin and place cut side down

on a baking sheet for one hour at 350 degrees; I got about four cups of cooked
pumpkin from the two pumpkins I cooked.)

I used the cooked pumpkin and made some delicious Pumpkin Struesel Muffins.

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

1/4 c. margarine or butter, softened

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

2/3 c. pumpkin

1/2 c. buttermilk

2 eggs

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Streusel Topping:

1/3 c. flour

3 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. cold butter or margarine

For muffins: cream together margarine and sugars. Add all remaining ingredients and mix together. In a separate bowl, cut together streusel ingredients and sprinkle over muffin batter. Bake in prepared muffin tin at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Makes one dozen muffins. Original recipe from Quick Cooking May/June 2000.

We were able to tie the muffins into our homeschooling this week by
having an ‘unbirthday’ party (we’ve been reading Ask Mr. Bear!)

Then we toasted the seeds for a snack. Here’s the recipe we used:

Sugared Pumpkin Seeds

2 c. pumpkin seeds (from two pie pumpkins; rinsed and dried on a baking sheet for 48 hours)
1 egg white mixed with 1 Tbsp. water (save the egg yolk for your next batch of pancakes or scrambled eggs!)

1 c. sugar

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

Mix seeds and egg white mixture. Add remaining spices and mix well. Spread on greased baking sheet and bake at 275 degrees for one hour stirring every 15 minutes.

I think I’ll send some in my husband’s lunch tomorrow. After
this yummy baking, we took a short walk outside and enjoyed coming into a
cozy smelling home!

All that from a $2.68 pumpkin!