The Blessing of Younger Siblings...

My baby brother and I enjoyed a beautiful day on Tuesday!! I just love having younger siblings. They are such a wonderful blessing!

Valentine's Day for Stay-At-Home Daughters

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite times of the year! Even though it's emphasized as a holiday for couples, we always make it a wonderfully fun day for everyone in our house! Each year we make our own home-made Valentines and pass them out to everyone in the family... it's become quite a fun tradition! We try to 'out do' last year's Valentines with new fresh ideas!

Here are some of the cards I made for my family this year.

I can't wait to see what the rest of my family has come up with!!

Recently, I've been thinking about ways that a stay at home daughter can reach out to others on Valentine's Day. Last year, a good friend from my church held a Valentine's bake at her home. All of the single girls in our church got together and had a wonderful time socializing while baking cookies for the older members of our church, as well as those who were stuck at home or sick. It was wonderful fun and those cookies were such a blessing to our church members! I also love to voluteer at the local assisted living center and nursing home. The people there love to hear hymns and I love to play them on the piano. It's so much fun to spend time with older people-- they are so wise and have so much to tell!

This year, I've already been preparing and planning ways that I can glorify God on Valentine's Day as an unmarried daughter. First of all, I made Valentines and wrote lengthy letters to some of my more distant relatives telling them all about what our family is up to now and how much they mean to us. I know they'll love to receive those, especially my great-grandmother and great-aunt! I also helped my younger siblings with their letters and valentines for our relatives.

I love to serve my family by cooking and baking, and this year (shhhh, don't tell) I'm making a surprise Valentine's day dinner complete with a fancy cake. I even bought a special tablecloth to decorate our table.

Be sure to check back, I'll post pictures of the finished cake (and supper). Hopefully it will turn out well! I've already bought some frosting.... mmmm....


Another way I've helped others celebrate Valentine's Day is by babysitting for my family or the neighbors so that parents can enjoy a night out together. While their parents are gone, I help the children make special messages for their mom and dad... and leave them on their pillowcase! My parents love to receive cards and surprises from us!

These are just a few ideas for an unmarried young lady to be a blessing to others on Valentine's Day! I'd love to hear your suggestions! Leave a comment below!

Crystal from Biblical Womanhood is holding a great Valentine's Day contest for the unmarried, the deadline is tomorrow! Head on over there and take a look!

--Flibby

Room Decorations

Courtney requested that I post some pictures of my room, so here they are! It's a pretty simple room, but you might enjoy seeing it.

First, here's my room as it looks normally, without any Christmas decorations. There's a bookshelf out of this picture to the right.

I set up a nativity scene on my hope chest...

...and decorated a little tree on top of my bookshelf. It lights up, but you can't tell in this picture...

...and lastly, I interspersed some white lights on my desk!

So there you have it. I like to keep the decorating simple, although I would like to have had something on the window, I just couldn't get anything to look right up there.

Let me know what you think!

Sugar Cookies

Hi there!

We have been baking sugar cookies today.... aren't they lovely?

Everyone was working hard.....







Although one little cutie was just having fun eating the dough!



Stars waiting for the cookie sheet



Here are a couple of original designs

Our House


Daddy


Here is the recipe:

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c. Butter
2 c. Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Eggs
5 C. Flour
1 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 c. Milk

Directions
Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add vanilla. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Sift flour into seperate bowl, Measure and add salt, soda and baking powder. Sift again. Add sifted ingredients alternately with milk. Stir until smooth. Chill in refrigerator for several hours. Roll out to 1/4" thickness and cut with cookie cutters. Place at least 1" apart on greased cookie sheet and bake at 400^ for 8-10 minutes. Makes 6 dozen (or so).

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We had such a wonderful time making these. We will be decorating them later today, with lots of colored icing!

(In case you are wondering about all the recipes, I am working to build a recipe file of my family's favorite recipes for my hope chest.)

Have a wonderful day from our family,
~@~Courtney~@~

The Blessing of a Baby Brother.

When Noah was born four months ago, I was thrilled and couldn't wait to start helping Mom in any way I could. I did this because I knew it would be a blessing to my mother and father, but I didn't understand the blessing that it would be to me! Ever since we have had Noah in our home, the Lord has been opening my eyes to what a blessing and a lesson he is. It is almost like Flibby and I are his second and third mother! This experience has taught me so many things about the care of children and the real role of a mother. Right from the start I was doing all the things that Mom was doing and watching carefully how she did them. I have learned so much! There are so many books that you can read, classes that you can take and people that you can talk to about being a mother, but nothing compares to experiencing it first hand! I am so glad that I have this opportunity to care for Noah before I get married and have my own children. This way, I have already experienced caring for an infant and I won't wave to be a young mother who knows nothing of what she's doing. My mother continues to tell me what a blessing it will be to have had this experience in child care when I am a mother myself.

I am so blessed to have this little one in my life, and I wouldn't trade him for anything! Not only Noah, but all of my siblings are such blessings to me! Each and every one of them teach me so much, and I have no idea what I would do without them.

~Poppy