Every Young Ladies Prayer

“If I marry, he must be so tall when he is on his knees, as one has said, he reaches all the way to Heaven. His shoulders must be broad enough to bear the burden of a family. His lips must be strong enough to smile, firm enough to say no, and tender enough to kiss. His love must be so deep that it takes its stand in Christ and so wide that it takes in the whole world. He must be big enough to be gentle and great enough to be thoughtful. His arms must be strong enough to carry a little child.” -Ruth Graham

Ruth wrote these words at the age of 17. I am moved by her vision and commitment at such a young age to the type of man she desired.

This is a beautiful example of a godly young woman with holy standards. I am thankful that my daughters have set these standards.

Mother-Daughter Retreat

The girls and I had a wonderful, long weekend with my best friend and her oldest daughter who is Sarah's best buddy. It was a great time of fun and fellowship.

We rented a cabin outside of Pigeon Forge, TN, bought some groceries and prepared ourselves for a girls only time! And a girl's time is what we had.

We cooked, laughed, watched cooking shows, painted fingernails and did some outlet shopping. Yes, we are wild and crazy. Seriously, if you saw how many people were at the outlet stores, anybody had to be crazy to get in that mass of humanity!

Coming home we ran into a lot of snow on the top of the mountain. It was amazing and beautiful. The girls made a snowman and named him Herman. We all said it looked like Narnia with the snow on the evergreens; just magical.

If It Ain't One Thing...

It's another!

Tuesday night is scout night, so the girls and I headed out to our favorite shopping destination, TARGET!!!

A little over half way Sarah says "do you smell burning rubber?" I did, and looked around to see if there was another car nearby. No luck. I thought, "lets ignore it and see if it goes away". No such luck.

Hannah and I start to debate where to pull off. Of course we do, that is how we roll. I won!

We get out and start to laugh. The back right tire is FLAT!! How are we going to do this?! Sarah starts pulling stuff out of the trunk to get to the spare and tools. She is so not me! I take the jack and after several attempts actually get the car off the ground. GO ME!!

The next step requires the owners manual and it is getting dark. GRRREAT! Hannah has this teeny tiny flashlight on her key chain; lets call it a mouselight.

Never the less we figured out, with the help of tiny flashlight, that the center cap needs to come off. Sarah has a Swiss Army knife, of course she does, she is so not me. It isn't coming off, so I go back to the manual and discover that there is a little wire tool that helps you pull it off. GRREAT, it is dark now and we have to find this dang wire. We did and we got the cap off. GO US!!!

Now, to get the tire off. (note, set the parking brake so the tire doesn't spin and your oldest daughter is trying with all her might to prevent said spinning while other daughter is trying to loosening nuts while mom is laughing her head off)

About this time a knight in shining armor on a white steed comes to our rescue . Ok, he was actually in a yellow DOT truck and had on blue jeans, but he was a sight for sore eyes. He tells us to set the parking brake. hehe! And proceeds to finish changing our tire, the hero. We find out he is from our county, so we chatted him up while he worked. Poor man! He was so kind and gave us excellent tips on changing tires as we nodded like good students.

We finally were on our way again thanks to our good Samaritan. We shopped and had a nice dinner thanking God for protection and our friendly DOT guy.

Then you will go on your way in safety,
and your foot will not stumble Proverbs 3:23

Driving Lessons!

The one on the right is learning to drive. The one on the left is teaching her. Things are going well after I couple of sudden stops that jarred Hannah's brains! And deposited water down the front of her shirt!!

Sarah is getting the hang of things and learning quickly. It is a blessing to see the one helping the other.

Saturday: Girls Day Out

William and Hayden went caving with the scouts, so it was time for 'girls gone wild'. Ok, not really; we went to paint pottery, have dinner and get ice cream. Crazy, I know.

Here is Sarah, Catherine and I in front of the pottery place. Painting pottery is so relaxing, so Hannah suggested we go. Good suggestion, I have been tense lately. (will discuss that later)

Sarah in deep concentration.

Catherine working hard or hardly working! Love this kid!!

Sarah drew a tree inside her cup.

Hannah's very plain plate for her photography.




Starting the inside of my bowl.

I am not burying my head. Really. I was writing a word and it was hard to get it right. So I got to working and all the sudden Hannah is laughing hysterically at me. I realized that it looked like I was trying to fit my head in my bowl.

After 2 hours of painting we were hungry and there was a pizza place two doors down! How convenient.

The salad was amazing and the pizza was good. But, we couldn't stop there. OH NO! There was a Bruster's Ice Cream next to the pizza place. Good grief!!!

See my eye twitching. Sweet Jesus! This is ridiculous.

Sarah dumped part of hers in the trash can. I pawned part of mine off on Hannah because she wasn't crazy about her flavor. Catherine was just happy. Then we moaned...

All in all it was a good day for us girls!

photos courtesy of Hannah Q

We have been going back and forth to the hospital for over a week and our sweet girls have been taking care of the house. And their brother!!! (he is still in one piece!) By the time we get back to the country we are tired and conversation has been scarce.

SO, since the boys had scouts last night, the girls and I took on the town! Ok, not big city, bright lights, but we did go to Chattanooga. We had a great time. We went to a kitchen store which for Hannah is like a little bit of heaven on earth. I even let her get a couple of gadgets. Then off to dinner at one of our favorite places, P.F. Changs. We had crispy greenbeans which were fabulous!! After dinner we hit GreenLife, our favorite organic grocery store and to top of the evening, BARNES AND NOBLE! Sarah availed herself of Shakespeare in original/modern language; wimpy girl!! But, she is reading it.

We realized that we had truly missed our chats and we talked without stopping the whole time. There was much to just catch up on and we like to discuss Sunday sermons. Gardening is coming up soon, so we discussed our crops for this year. WOW, what an evening! What great girls!! I throughly enjoy my daughters; they are awesome young women that I love being around. What a blessing!!

Caroline and Her Faces

This is my favorite 4 yr old. She and her mom went shopping with us Friday which means a fun day!! She is a character! Everything is interesting to her and she moves like a cartoon character which leaves us in stitches.

When we checked out she asked for a Push Pop, which of course I said Yes to. Her mom wasn't finished shopping so we went to the car to hang out and let Caroline eat her Push Pop.

She thought blue teeth were too funny.

And the blue tongue.

Hannah told her to make a 'mean' face. We had to laugh, which cracks her up. We played 'I Spy' between making faces. 'I Spy' with a 4 yr. old is interesting...


It was a fun day of girl shopping and laughing and eating and book storing! Caroline enjoyed my girls and they enjoyed her. What sweetness!

New Sewing Project, Etc.

The girls and I are working on a new sewing project. Eco-Coffee sleeves for disposable coffee cups. Hannah did the stitching and Sarah did the sewing of the sleeve. We are hoping some local stores will carry them.

We are still working on bread making, but the lady we were selling to just can't buy enough to make the trip worth our time. We hope to take samples to a local coffee shop soon. This would be much closer for us and they can probably purchase in larger volume.

William's business will be shut down now until end of February so we would like to find some sources of income. He usually does not work from November or December until end of February. It is something we are accustom to, but it is more difficult financially since the economy has taken a dive. The joke is we no longer have a 401k, we have a .001!!! Unfortunately, it isn't a joke. :(

But, God is still God and it will be all right.





Here is the Christmas card wreath we made from old cards. It took some time, but it was cheap and cute! We are all about cheap and cute.

As I Sit and Blog

The girls are in the kitchen making cookies. CHOCOLATE CHIP!!! Because I requested them.

Sarah is Hannah's sous chef on most baking projects and they are a hoot to watch and listen to. I love that they work together even if it gets loud sometimes. And the cookies get made!

Right now they are singing while they are working. Could a mama ask for more?!

Sewing Lessons

The girls have shown a desire to learn to sew. My mom wasn't very domestic except for cleaning and caring for me, so I never learned myself. It is exciting to see my girls wanting to learn more domestic skills. It also gives me a good excuse to learn something new.

Since we cook and bake alot, we decided to start with aprons, which are always in short supply around our house. This will allow them to work with simple patterns and straight stitches.

So off we went to the Wal-i hate this store-Mart to get material, thread and a pattern. They couldn't wait, so last night they started and completed an apron.

Both Sarah and Hannah are fans of 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Sense and Sensibility' so their taste in fabric design runs on the toile side.

Morning at the Farmer's Market

Early morning...very early, very cold.



Still early, still cold



Later in the morning, little warmer, or hypothermia

We delivered our first order of bread today to the restaurant/bakery. The owner was very happy with our labels and the variety. Go us!! Friday I will call her and see what she needs for the following week. She also told us to bring her anything new we make.

I just feel blessed for the opportunity to work with my girls, teach them a business model and the benefit of hard work. Of course, the hard work part they got down pat; catering is HARD work!

God Is Good!!!

Today I got a call from the lady that has the bakery. She wants to order from us!!! Tuesday we will take her several of each bread we do and see what is popular. She is also interested in us doing special orders for her during the holidays.

Tonight the girls tried a new Pumpkin Bread and it was great. We will add that to our list.

Hannah will have to take the lead in getting us ready for the Farmer's Market on Saturday. Sarah will help after her lessons. I have a full week with school, a board meeting, meals, and some baking.

I am so thankful for industrious girls. They impress me to no end at how they 'step up to the plate' when we have a task to complete. I think of the Proverbs 31 woman and how God is growing them into just that. They take on home improvements projects then throw on an apron to bake.

God is so good and faithful to us.



Proverbs 31:27 - She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Farmer's Market

Today we got up at 6am to head to our town's Farmer's Market. It was cool and overcast and fall like. Everyone was set up above our railroad tracks in a long line. It is like small town America and I love it.




Here is our sample and business card holder. Hannah found this at Target and I love it.



We had a great day and sold almost all our bread. We had 1 loaf left!!




We were set up under a small tree that was actually a large problem. We ran into this dang limb several times. I finally took the small limbs and pushed them up into the tree.




Here is some of our bread. Everyone enjoyed the samples and bought all our Whole Wheat Apple and Banana bread; we didn't have enough. Hannah and I are working on quantity adjustments this week along with a few other tweeks.





We are looking toward the next few weekends and our Harvest Festival coming up in October. It is two full days so I think we will need close to 200 loaves of different breads. William, Sarah and Hayden will work this one as Hannah and I will be doing a Ladies Retreat for our church.