. . . is a movie made by a homeschooling family in Texas. The director was only 19 years old, and the film won the Jubilee award ($101,000 prize) at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival this year. You can view the trailer online, and also a list of the theatres where it's playing at. If you can't make it to the theatre, I would recommend buying it (and other awesome family movies) off of Behemoth. You can download all kinds of Christian music, teaching, movies, and more - and all for great prices!!
Here is a short list of some other movies our family has enjoyed:
Flywheel
Facing the Giants
Fireproof
Pendragon*
The White Handkerchief*
Wars of Humanity series*
Still Standing*
Return of the Daughters
*can be bought on Behemoth
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Modest Wedding Dress Business
My mom, a friend and I have ventured into a new home business selling pre-owned modest wedding dresses. The dresses we offer for sale each have their own style, and are elegant yet modest.
These days, it is very hard to find modest wedding dresses. We believe that ladies should be modest at all times, and especially on their wedding day! It is our sincere desire to help brides to find just the right dress for that special occasion. Our collection also includes mother of the bride dresses, flower girl dresses and vintage dresses.
Please pass this info on to anyone who you think would be interested. We'd be glad to answer more questions on the dresses or set up appointments for anyone to see them. You can visit my website to see pictures, and keep checking to see if we have added any.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Missions Trip
Here is a copy of the letter we are sending out about our upcoming missions trip:
Dear Friends and Family,
As some of you may already know, Jeff, Hannah and Caleb are going on a missions trip this summer. They head to Honduras June 4-13th to help install solar panels to bring electricity to poor schools. While Jeff and Caleb are helping to do the manual labor, Hannah will be helping with Fiestas for the children. These are VBS-type gatherings where they play games with the children, give them goodie bags with supplies, and share the gospel with them. Before the lights are turned on, the Gospel is also shared to all the watching families.
The missions organization they will be going with is called Sonlight Power. We learned about this missions organization from a good friend of ours. As he researched solar and how to help others with this alternative energy source, he ran across Sonlight Power. When he told us about it, we thought it would be a good way to get our "feet wet" into missions work - something that we've been talking about as family for a long time. Jeff then decided to take the 2 oldest children and now they are leaving in less than 2 months!
In May, we will travel to Cincinnati where the missions organization is based to attend a 2 day solar training camp. At that time we will meet the rest of the team that is going with us in June.
If you would like to partner with us through giving, we have set up a website which makes it easy to give donations online. Checks can also be made out to Sonlight Power and sent to us. We greatly covet your prayers - please be praying for a safe trip, that many will come to know Jesus as their personal Saviour, and that Jeff, Hannah, and Caleb will be drawn closer to the Lord by this experience.
We will be putting together 100 bags for the Fiestas to give out to the school kids, the teachers and any other children who come from the community (a lot come to see the Americans install lights for the first time). Items needed for this will be pencils, pens, erasers, balls, colored pencils, permanent and washable markers, scissors, stickers, toothbrushes, hair barrettes and other such items. If you would like to help us put together these bags, or donate items or money for the bags, please let us know.
Thank you for your prayers!
Dear Friends and Family,
As some of you may already know, Jeff, Hannah and Caleb are going on a missions trip this summer. They head to Honduras June 4-13th to help install solar panels to bring electricity to poor schools. While Jeff and Caleb are helping to do the manual labor, Hannah will be helping with Fiestas for the children. These are VBS-type gatherings where they play games with the children, give them goodie bags with supplies, and share the gospel with them. Before the lights are turned on, the Gospel is also shared to all the watching families.
The missions organization they will be going with is called Sonlight Power. We learned about this missions organization from a good friend of ours. As he researched solar and how to help others with this alternative energy source, he ran across Sonlight Power. When he told us about it, we thought it would be a good way to get our "feet wet" into missions work - something that we've been talking about as family for a long time. Jeff then decided to take the 2 oldest children and now they are leaving in less than 2 months!
In May, we will travel to Cincinnati where the missions organization is based to attend a 2 day solar training camp. At that time we will meet the rest of the team that is going with us in June.
If you would like to partner with us through giving, we have set up a website which makes it easy to give donations online. Checks can also be made out to Sonlight Power and sent to us. We greatly covet your prayers - please be praying for a safe trip, that many will come to know Jesus as their personal Saviour, and that Jeff, Hannah, and Caleb will be drawn closer to the Lord by this experience.
We will be putting together 100 bags for the Fiestas to give out to the school kids, the teachers and any other children who come from the community (a lot come to see the Americans install lights for the first time). Items needed for this will be pencils, pens, erasers, balls, colored pencils, permanent and washable markers, scissors, stickers, toothbrushes, hair barrettes and other such items. If you would like to help us put together these bags, or donate items or money for the bags, please let us know.
Thank you for your prayers!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
We're Moving to Florida!
April Fools! Did any of you remember that today is April Fool's Day? And, in case you didn't know, it's also National Atheist Day. :-)
Visit this website to take the test to find out if you are a fool or not:
http://visionarydaughters.com/
If any of you played a successful trick on a family member or friend today, please comment and tell me what you did! A couple things we did - switch all the clocks after dad went to bed so we would sleep later, stretch clear tape across the bottom of doorways, put food coloring in water to make it look like juice, and put raisins in our scrambled eggs. :-)
Visit this website to take the test to find out if you are a fool or not:
http://visionarydaughters.com/
If any of you played a successful trick on a family member or friend today, please comment and tell me what you did! A couple things we did - switch all the clocks after dad went to bed so we would sleep later, stretch clear tape across the bottom of doorways, put food coloring in water to make it look like juice, and put raisins in our scrambled eggs. :-)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Blizzard and Birthday
Yes, you read that right. Another blizzard. Well, I guess I should say "winter storm." We've gotten maybe 12 or so inches, and travel is not advised. There was some wind, but I don't think it was as bad as predicted. So, just when I was looking for green grass to start showing itself, snow completely covered the ground!! *sigh* Our area does NOT need any more moisture. As you all probably know, Fargo and the surrounding towns have had MAJOR, record breaking flooding in the last couple weeks. Several friends of ours have had to evacuate, but thankfully everyone's okay. Our house isn't in any danger, but please be praying for those in Fargo and in the surrounding areas. Pray that homes and people will be kept safe, and that many will draw closer to God through these trials.
Here are some pictures of this most recent snowstorm. This first one is of our county road. A little while after I took the picture, the snow plows came by. Since the weather isn't very cold, the snow on the ground was very heavy and wet.
Our front porch
Dad plowing our driveway
Lydia turned 11 on March 20th. We celebrated her birthday at home before the convention, and then we had a little "party" with some friends for her when we were there. Some of Lydia's talents and hobbies are: drawing (God really gave her a gift for that!!), collecting Littlest Pet Shop items, playing piano, violin and harp (she can play very well by ear!), and writing pen pals. We each get to choose a movie to watch for our birthday evening, and Lydia chose FIREPROOF. You can find out more about it at www.fireproofthemovie.com. So, here are some pictures of her birthday celebration at home.
Thank you Aunty Jan for the wonderful birthday gifts! :-)
Happy 11th Birthday LYDIA!!!!
Here are some pictures of this most recent snowstorm. This first one is of our county road. A little while after I took the picture, the snow plows came by. Since the weather isn't very cold, the snow on the ground was very heavy and wet.
Our front porch
Dad plowing our driveway
Lydia turned 11 on March 20th. We celebrated her birthday at home before the convention, and then we had a little "party" with some friends for her when we were there. Some of Lydia's talents and hobbies are: drawing (God really gave her a gift for that!!), collecting Littlest Pet Shop items, playing piano, violin and harp (she can play very well by ear!), and writing pen pals. We each get to choose a movie to watch for our birthday evening, and Lydia chose FIREPROOF. You can find out more about it at www.fireproofthemovie.com. So, here are some pictures of her birthday celebration at home.
Thank you Aunty Jan for the wonderful birthday gifts! :-)
Happy 11th Birthday LYDIA!!!!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Convention
Hello everybody! Whew . . . it's been a roller coaster ride around here! We left for the annual North Dakota Home School Convention last Wednesday, Lydia's birthday was Friday, we arrived home on Sunday, I got a cold on Tuesday, and right now many towns in our area are preparing for/experiencing major flooding (thankfully we don't live by a river so our house should be fine). There's so much to write about, but I suppose I should start by giving y'all a overview of our convention trip.
Like I said, we left on Wednesday, at 11:00am. Our van needed fixing, so we ended up switching vehicles with a friend. Dad and my younger siblings rode in that vehicle (which was pulling an extremely full trailer) while mom and I drove in the car behind. All of a sudden, we saw dad (who was ahead of us) pull over, so we quickly did the same. I was worried about what the problem was since earlier we had smelt a burning smell. When the kids got out they told us that smoke was filling the cabin, and dad said that a hole had burned in the floor on the driver's side. Thankfully nothing caught on fire. So . . . we had to dig our friend's number out of the back of the car, and they had to meet us in Fargo so we could switch back to our van!! While we were getting their number out, someone left an important box on the side of the highway, and we all completely forgot about it until we were waiting to meet our friends in Fargo!! So mom and I drove back to get it, and thankfully it was still there, unharmed (if you look closely in the picture below, you can see the white box by the side of the road). What an adventure to start our trip!! A big thank you to the R. family for going through all that trouble for us! :-)
We finally arrived in Jamestown that afternoon around 2:30. We settled into our hotel and then went out to eat with the Bartlett family. We had a fun evening jamming and visiting with them. (You can view the links to their blogs on the side of my blog)
Thursday was a very busy day. Mom, dad, Caleb and Daniel went over to the Civic Center to help set up while I stayed back. Then we had lunch and by 2:30 I went over to the Civic Center to set up my booth. I had two tables - one for my card business, my book, and harp CD (www.gloryandgrace.com), and the other was for some items a friend of mine crocheted, and for my mom's new modest wedding dress business (http://www.gloryandgrace.com/modestweddingdresses.htm). Daniel also had a table where he sold many items - rubber band guns, wooden toys, crossbows, bows, mini wooden swords and shields, and more! Daniel sold a LOT of his things!! I . . . sold hardly anything (but a big thank you goes to Mrs. S. for buying some cards from me - I promise I won't post that picture I took of you!). :-)
On Friday we got up early and went over to the Civic. The convention was now officially open, with many vendors, lots of workshops, and a keynote speaker - Mike Farris.
I walked around the vendor hall with friends, listened to George Escobar's workshop on filmmaking (you can visit his website at http://www.adventfilmgroup.com/Home.html)
That afternoon some friends and I prepared snacks (thanks for helping with that, everybody!) and that evening for supper we had pizza and cupcakes for Lydia's birthday (more on that in a future post). It was SO much fun getting together with friends - old and new!
Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday - a lot of different workshops, another great message by George Escobar, fun walking around the vendor hall, and again, my favorite part - visiting with friends! For lunch Maria U., Andrea S. and I had a very good time talking with Mr. Escobar about filmmaking - he gave us a lot of great tips on cameras, lighting, editing software and more! I was going to play a song for offertory with the U. girls, but Maria had had the flu the day before and wasn't sure if she would be strong enough to do it. So we asked The Bartlett Boys to do it instead, and they did a great job! You can view the movie of them playing at Jonathan's blog - http://www.jonathanjbartlett.blogspot.com/. Below is a picture of their latest CD.
Saturday evening and Sunday morning we had a fun time visiting some more with the Bartletts - jamming, playing games, and going out to Perkins for brunch! We made it home safely early Sunday afternoon. We are so thankful to God that everything well and that we were kept safe! A HUGE thank you also goes out to all the volunteers - we couldn't have had the convention without you! By the way, next year's convention will be in Fargo at the Holiday Inn - and I'm already looking forward to it! :-)
Like I said, we left on Wednesday, at 11:00am. Our van needed fixing, so we ended up switching vehicles with a friend. Dad and my younger siblings rode in that vehicle (which was pulling an extremely full trailer) while mom and I drove in the car behind. All of a sudden, we saw dad (who was ahead of us) pull over, so we quickly did the same. I was worried about what the problem was since earlier we had smelt a burning smell. When the kids got out they told us that smoke was filling the cabin, and dad said that a hole had burned in the floor on the driver's side. Thankfully nothing caught on fire. So . . . we had to dig our friend's number out of the back of the car, and they had to meet us in Fargo so we could switch back to our van!! While we were getting their number out, someone left an important box on the side of the highway, and we all completely forgot about it until we were waiting to meet our friends in Fargo!! So mom and I drove back to get it, and thankfully it was still there, unharmed (if you look closely in the picture below, you can see the white box by the side of the road). What an adventure to start our trip!! A big thank you to the R. family for going through all that trouble for us! :-)
We finally arrived in Jamestown that afternoon around 2:30. We settled into our hotel and then went out to eat with the Bartlett family. We had a fun evening jamming and visiting with them. (You can view the links to their blogs on the side of my blog)
Thursday was a very busy day. Mom, dad, Caleb and Daniel went over to the Civic Center to help set up while I stayed back. Then we had lunch and by 2:30 I went over to the Civic Center to set up my booth. I had two tables - one for my card business, my book, and harp CD (www.gloryandgrace.com), and the other was for some items a friend of mine crocheted, and for my mom's new modest wedding dress business (http://www.gloryandgrace.com/modestweddingdresses.htm). Daniel also had a table where he sold many items - rubber band guns, wooden toys, crossbows, bows, mini wooden swords and shields, and more! Daniel sold a LOT of his things!! I . . . sold hardly anything (but a big thank you goes to Mrs. S. for buying some cards from me - I promise I won't post that picture I took of you!). :-)
On Friday we got up early and went over to the Civic. The convention was now officially open, with many vendors, lots of workshops, and a keynote speaker - Mike Farris.
I walked around the vendor hall with friends, listened to George Escobar's workshop on filmmaking (you can visit his website at http://www.adventfilmgroup.com/Home.html)
That afternoon some friends and I prepared snacks (thanks for helping with that, everybody!) and that evening for supper we had pizza and cupcakes for Lydia's birthday (more on that in a future post). It was SO much fun getting together with friends - old and new!
Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday - a lot of different workshops, another great message by George Escobar, fun walking around the vendor hall, and again, my favorite part - visiting with friends! For lunch Maria U., Andrea S. and I had a very good time talking with Mr. Escobar about filmmaking - he gave us a lot of great tips on cameras, lighting, editing software and more! I was going to play a song for offertory with the U. girls, but Maria had had the flu the day before and wasn't sure if she would be strong enough to do it. So we asked The Bartlett Boys to do it instead, and they did a great job! You can view the movie of them playing at Jonathan's blog - http://www.jonathanjbartlett.blogspot.com/. Below is a picture of their latest CD.
Saturday evening and Sunday morning we had a fun time visiting some more with the Bartletts - jamming, playing games, and going out to Perkins for brunch! We made it home safely early Sunday afternoon. We are so thankful to God that everything well and that we were kept safe! A HUGE thank you also goes out to all the volunteers - we couldn't have had the convention without you! By the way, next year's convention will be in Fargo at the Holiday Inn - and I'm already looking forward to it! :-)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Blizzard!!
As I write this the winds are howling, it is dark outside, and the wind chill is probably -25F! It's another Midwest blizzard! I'm sure you southerners are laughing at us crazy people, wondering why on earth we live up here. :-) Well, let me tell you, a blizzard is better than an earthquake or hurricane any day! :-) It's so nice to feel cozy and warm while a 45 mile-an-hour wind is whipping the snow everywhere outside. And it seems like every time there's bad weather, dad has the day off!!
Anyway, here are some pictures I took this afternoon. Yes, I actually went outside! The boys and dad plowed and shoveled, and I spent some time with my German Shepherd, Mercy.
Dad just said the driveway is REALLY bad!! The drifts are packed down and at least knee high. The boys sure have their work cut out for them tomorrow!
We have been extremely busy lately - as you probably know, mom is the convention coordinator for the ND Home School Convention. We are counting down the days until we leave for Jamestown, ND (we leave next Wednesday)! Some of the highlights this year for me will be seeing friends and hearing George Escobar speak about filmmaking. We are staying in a hotel for four nights, so we will probably be ready to go home to our own beds on Sunday, but I'm sure we'll be disappointed that the convention is already over (it always goes by so fast)! We've been going to the ND Convention every year since I was 2 or 3, so this is an annual tradition for our family. In 2006 mom became the coordinator and she enjoys being able to work from home and save up money for family trips. So, that being said, I won't be writing on here for a little while. But in a few weeks I'll be sure to tell you all how the convention went, and to post some pictures!! Please pray for mom as she finishes preparing, for our family's health, and for the weather to be sunny and warm next week!
Anyway, here are some pictures I took this afternoon. Yes, I actually went outside! The boys and dad plowed and shoveled, and I spent some time with my German Shepherd, Mercy.
Dad just said the driveway is REALLY bad!! The drifts are packed down and at least knee high. The boys sure have their work cut out for them tomorrow!
We have been extremely busy lately - as you probably know, mom is the convention coordinator for the ND Home School Convention. We are counting down the days until we leave for Jamestown, ND (we leave next Wednesday)! Some of the highlights this year for me will be seeing friends and hearing George Escobar speak about filmmaking. We are staying in a hotel for four nights, so we will probably be ready to go home to our own beds on Sunday, but I'm sure we'll be disappointed that the convention is already over (it always goes by so fast)! We've been going to the ND Convention every year since I was 2 or 3, so this is an annual tradition for our family. In 2006 mom became the coordinator and she enjoys being able to work from home and save up money for family trips. So, that being said, I won't be writing on here for a little while. But in a few weeks I'll be sure to tell you all how the convention went, and to post some pictures!! Please pray for mom as she finishes preparing, for our family's health, and for the weather to be sunny and warm next week!
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