Secrets

Last week, on Valentine's day may daughter Kaelyn and I received a sweet card in the mail from my sister Crystal. The front of the card said, "Can't say hello in person or come visit you today..." then we opened it and read the inside, "But this will let you know warm thoughts are with you anyway." She had written, "Love you bunches!! Have fun!! ♥-Crystal".  Inside this card were two tickets to:

So last night Kaelyn and I went to the Secret Keeper Girl event in Ocala. You may be wondering, what is a Secret Keeper Girl?  A SKG is lots of things, she values modesty, she surrounds herself with wise friends and she embraces Godly beauty. So, she keeps the deepest secrets of her beauty for just one man. But she also knows that she can share all of her heart secrets with her mom at any time.The best thing is that a Secret Keeper Girl is a masterpiece created by God

I love how they talked about the lies that girls and even some ladies believe. I want to share those with you.

• Ugly
• Unlovable
• Stupid:

Now for the truths:

• We are perfectly crafted- "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalm 139:14a (NIV)
• I am loved by God- "I have loved you with an everlasting love" Jeremiah 31:3b (NIV)
• We are Empowered by God- "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2 Corinthians 12:9a (NIV)

 The question that was asked of everyone there, What is my label, what lies do I struggle with?  I know even as a mom I struggle with lies, it may or may not be the ones that are listed above. I do know that I don't have to believe those lies or even struggle with them, because I have a God who is so much bigger than any of those lies. Let me just be honest with you, so many times we I succumb to what the enemy plants in me and those lies take root and keep growing until they have taken over like the weeds in a garden or forgotten flower bed. How many times have you looked in the mirror and said, I am so _______? Whether it be ugly, unlovable, stupid you fill in the blank. It doesn't have to be like that, by asking God to remove those lies and finding the truth through His word you and I can be set free.

Another thing they talked about was true beauty. 1 Peter 3:3-4 (NIV) tells us "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles, and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

True Beauty is:

• Not the cute hair cut
• Not the jewelry (or as was stated last night the cute accessories you just got at Claire's)
• Not the fine clothes (as stated last night the new Justice jeans)

 True beauty comes from spending time with God in His word.

One of the questions that was asked was, Do you spend more time getting your external beauty on or your internal beauty on?

A challenge that was given to all the girls and moms was to spend more time in God's word.

Today I will spend more

time in God's word than

I will in front of the mirror. 

The last thing of the night was a fashion show with girls wearing stylish, but yet still modest clothing. I love how they presented the Truth or Bare Fashion Test. This is great to know when you are shopping for clothes and also for the clothes you already have at home. 

Kaelyn and I had a great time and want to give a great big THANK YOU!!! to my sister for being such a loving and giving person. Thank you Crystal for the tickets. We loved it!

Vacation

Earlier this month our family of four joined my in-laws for a quick vacation to the  Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. A few years ago our family went and stayed in a cute little cabin (you can read about it here) called the Apple Basket. We were able to book this cabin again, and I can say that once again we were very pleased with our accommodations. Our little journey to the mountains of Tennessee began on Sunday the 5th of February. We stayed over night in a hotel in Calhoun, Ga and much to my father-in-laws delight we ate dinner at Cracker Barrel which just happened to be next door to our hotel.

Tyler and Kaelyn having some fun while we were on the road. I had mentioned before that Kaelyn had taken the lenses out of her 3D glasses we got at the movies, well she lost hers so her dad said that she could have his. After having his for a few days, I found hers. So she gave her dads to Tyler. So Tyler decides to wrap some tape around his.

I looked back one time and caught Kaelyn reading. I knew I needed to get a picture of this because she doesn’t like to read. I can tell you she doesn’t get that from me. 

Once we got to our cabin and our cars were unloaded, the kids we headed downstairs to the pool table.

Tyler and his grandpa played the most. I only took a few pictures of Tyler playing pool and they were all real blurry. It was funny to watch my father-in-law trying to teach my mother-in-law how to hold the cue stick (I think that is what it is called) and play.

On Tuesday we went into Gatlinburg and walked around. The kids wanted to go to Cooter's Place and ride Go-Karts. We had so much fun riding at the indoor track. Afterwards we played mini golf and looked around in the museum that they had. Before we left we were able to take some pictures of the General Lee. The Dukes of Hazzard used to be one of Chuck’s favorite shows when he was a kid, it may have been one of my favorites too. ( ;

While we were in Gatlinburg Tyler and Kaelyn wanted to get a foot long corndog and Chuck and I shared a funnel cake.

It didn’t take them long to finish them. Kaelyn said that it was so good she could eat another one. Umm, I don’t think so. After stopping for something to eat we went into some of the little shops. So I’m not sure what the proper name for this is, but it is a piece of plywood that has been painted and has the hole cut out of it so that you can stand behind it and look through to have your picture taken. Anyway, Chuck and I decided to pose for a picture.

I saw these very colorful boots, can you believe they were on sale for $45. I sent my sister a picture message and asked her if she would pay $45 for these boots?  Her response to was, “You couldn’t pay me to take those boots.”  Then I saw these socks in a window, one said Chuck’s sock, the other one said Chuck’s other sock. Kaelyn and I found that a little comical.

Since it was also Chuck’s birthday, we celebrated with dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Can you guess what we had to eat?? One of the things that I found interesting was that at each table they had these license plates that you could flip. One said Run Forrest Run and the other one said Stop Forrest Stop. We were wondering about that (after all this was our first time eating there). If everything was okay at your table you left the sign at Run Forrest Run, if you needed something you flipped the sign to Stop Forrest Stop. Afterwards we had to stop out front to get our picture taken.

On Wednesday we got up to some rainy weather. We stayed around the cabin most of the morning then we went into town. Later that afternoon Chuck and the kids and I went to Cades Cove. I know we saw at least 50 deer and some turkeys too. Since we went later in the afternoon, we didn’t have time to stop and walk around at all of the stops along the loop. Not to mention that it was pretty cold out there.

Kaelyn is pointing at some animals “business” GROSS!!

On Thursday we got up and headed back home. I was really wishing that we could have stayed for a few more days, but it was time to get back to reality. We had a great time and look forward to going back again sometime.

Our first rag quilt

 I have been wanting to make a rag quilt for about a year now. So about three weeks ago I finally took the plunge and gathered up everything I would need to make one. I finally finished it this past Wednesday. I didn't work on it everyday, just when I had time to sit down at the old sewing machine (she is 16 years old, my husband gave her to me for our first Christmas). I decided that this quilt would be for Kaelyn and she picked out some floral  material that my Mom had in her fabric stash.

Kaelyn wanted to have lots of pink in her quilt, so I went to the fabric store and purchased the pink material to go with it and also some pink for the back of the quilt.

I started out with cutting a "pile" of 5 inch squares out of all the material that I was using. Then I cut out 4 inch squares of the quilt batting. After getting all the squares cut and then stacked, I started sewing my squares together. I put the batting between the top and bottom piece of material and sewed an X on each square. Then it was time to start sewing the squares together. I sewed a row of 9 squares together then after I had all my squares sewn into a row I started putting the rows together. Then came the fun part of sitting down and trimming the seems. Finally our finished rag quilt.

While it is not perfect (rag quilts are so forgiving ☺) it was made with plenty of love. To see the tutorial that I used to make a rag quilt you can go here.