Day Two!

I really should come up with a better title but I can't think of anything better so day two will have todo for now. Today while my mother and I where out shopping for patterns some ladies behind us started talking about skirts. One lady stated that she was tired of long skirts , she say she thought them frumpy. I, who happened to be wearing a very long skirt at the time, looked across the table and grinned at my mother. Today I spent most of my time cutting out patterns and sewing. Monday I'll try to post some pictures of my latest projects. Its late so I'll wrap this post up now so I'll have time to straighten up my room before bed. I want to thank all of you for your support and for your prayers about tomorrow, I feel much better knowing that a have friends that are praying for me. I pray you all have a peaceful and Holy Sabbath.

Day one

Today was my first day of the feelin' femmine challenge and much to my horror when I woke up it was cold. I wore a skirt anyway, by the time we went out shopping it wasn't cold any more, just slightly chilly, by three or so it was pretty nice out, perfect skirt weather. I didn't have many chances to take pictures of my normal daily activities but my mom did snap on while I was helping her cook, well I was trying to help cook, I dropped the taco shells and cracked all but four of them. The only reason four survived was because I had already placed them on the tray.
We have a concert at 8:30 tomorrow but luckily it’s really close to where I live so I won’t have to wake up really early. This Sunday is the finally concert before choir tour. Its been kind of depressing listening to all my friends prepare for choir tour and listen to all the plans but I know there is a reason I'm staying home this time, I just don’t know what the reason is yet. The choir will be heading out Wednesday, please keep the choir in your prayers the second of April though the twelfth for safe travel and good health.
The concert this Sunday is going to place me in an uncomfortable situation. I will be seeing old friends that I have not seen in some time, I have changed greatly since I last saw these people and I am extremely nervous about seeing them again. Please pray that I will respond in the way that I should and that I will be able to focus on praising my Lord and not worry about the people I will be seeing.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Feelin' feminine challange

I've heard about this from several sites but I finally decided to try it for my self. I've never wore skirts for a whole week before so I think this is going to be interesting. I’m going to start tomorrow since I’m already wearing jeans today.

Brooke’s original thoughts about the Challenge:

"Yes, you can do almost about anything in skirts. I think it’s a very neat idea to wear skirts for a whole week. Some might think its weird and probably wonder how they’d survive or manage in a skirt all week: but let me tell ya, you can do practically anything in a skirt. Of course, there are particular activities that might make it harder in a dress/skirt, but most ladies will agree that skirts don’t limit your abilities to do everyday things. I think striving to wear all skirts or cute dresses for a solid week would be an awesome challenge.

(Jocelyn's Post)
I thought it would be neat, just like these ladies, to try wearing only wearing skirts/dresses. I think it would be interesting to try it for an entire week. No matter what your age: I hope you’ll join us! My sister Holly and I are going to do it this week starting Monday. I don’t know if anyone would like to join us, but if you do, I’m going to start my own “skirt goal/challenge”.

See what a great idea this was? I was so thrilled being able to see so many participating! I was sad once the week was over, but I was glad to have been given the opportunity to see all the likeminded girls posting, sharing their convictions, AND see their pictures. I loved how Super Angel added a verse beside each outfit she wore. That was clever and a great idea!

Anyway, I told Brooke I wanted to keep it going and she agreed to continue doing it with me as did Amanda. So we’re all going to continue to do the challenge at the end of each month for a week. This is the last week of February so I want to invite you all to do the challenge again. Last time I only posted one picture. One pitiful picture… you see I usually only wear one skirt in the winter and four of the exact same t-shirts… but perhaps I can pull out some of my cooler weather clothing, just for show. : ) I’ll try to get some more variety this time.

The Challenge (by Brooke)
To wear only skirts/dresses for an entire week (7 days.) Post some pictures on your blog and show us some of your outfits. If you don’t have exactly 7 different skirts, that’s o.k. Mix and match with your shirts. If you’d like, post every day of your challenge week and show us what you wore like the other ladies in the links above did. (I am hoping to do so.) And be creative! You can easily be modest and fashionable at the same time. Being modest and feminine doesn’t mean wearing a skirt that covers your toes and a shirt that comes all the way up to your neck, and has dull colors. No! You can be modest, feminine, lovely, beautiful and stylish all at the same time! So, be creative! Throw in some accessories. Put on a hat if you want; Dress up with some jewelry or earrings, fix your hair in a lovely fashion. Show us how you can look modest and feminine, yet with some added style.

Already Wear Skirts?
If you already wear skirts regularly, please participate anyway! This is for all females. Show us how you mix and match your clothes, what type of fabric skirts you like best (blue jean, cotton, etc.), your favorite skirts and outfits, etc. We’d love to hear about it!

Challenge Extras:

Venture out in your attempts to be fearlessly feminine!
Fix your hair a different way each day of the challenge week. Must not be the same in all 7 days (that means 7 different hair-styles). Be creative and try new hair styles. Take a picture and show us.
Wear a different pair of earrings if you have pierced ears, each day, or if you don’t, a different piece of accessory.
Show us pictures of daily activities of you in your skirts
The Goal of the Challenge:

Venturing out for one week to be fearlessly feminine in the way you dress
Experiencing a week of skirts/dresses and comparing it to your regular ways of dress and style
Evaluating yourself at the end of the week and comparing it to your regular way of dress: how was the experience for you? Any particular stories? Did wearing skirts rather than pants affect the way you felt? The way you felt about yourself? The way you acted? The way you carried yourself? Were you able to go about everyday activity as freely as pants? How did people respond? Were you more respected? Did you feel more like a lady? After the challenge do you desire to keep wearing skirts more regularly, or were you desperate to wear pants again? ETC.
Sharing with other girls your outfits and give ideas of mixing and matching
Showing how beautiful female femininity actually is!"

Ok back to my own words now.
I'll be post every day except for Sunday but I will take pictures and post them the next day! I'm really looking forward to this and I hope y'all will be joining me.

My weekend doings

Happy Easter a day late! Saturday morning I started a sewing project and I had planned to blog after dinner, I stated feeling sick so I laid down and went to bed early so I didn’t have time for an Easter post. Rachel had a beautiful Easter poem which can be found here. We had our Easter program yesterday and it went great! We where so nervous cause we didn't start working on it as soon as we should have but all turned out well.

Saturday I started turning these old jeans into a skirt.

It was much more difficult that I had anticipated it would be. First I ripped out the inseams, one inch below the zipper and then nine inches from the back waist band.


Then the hard part. Filling in the openings with fabric. I used a pair of my dad's old blue jeans and just cut the legs off. The hardest part was getting the fabric to fit just right; I'm a bit of a perfectionist at times so this took longer than it needed to.


I'm fairly pleased with the finally results, it took many rip outs and repins to get to this point.

All that’s left is for me to surge the bottom and to hem it. Instructions may be found here
I must head off to go cut out some coupons. I want to thank every one for their tips/support on the modest dress post last week. It really was an encouragement me, and I’m sure to others, to read y'alls words of encouragement. I pray that y’all have a wonderful rest of the day.

Modesty: Whats the big deal?

On Monday my mother, my brothers and I went shopping for clothes. Shopping can truly be an eye opener to how we throw aside modesty when it’s inconvenient. While I was looking for skirts I found a beautiful skirt, it was pink and green very springy and super girly. I held it up to me and it was to short, for a moment I wondered if I could get away with wearing it; Then my conscience started talking to me, well more like arguing with me, Think about your brothers in Christ do you want to be a stumbling block? no of course I don’t but they shouldn't be looking. No they shouldn't but you shouldn't put them in a place where they will have to fight looking. But it’s so cute. so what? You know that it might cause some one to stumble. I sighed and put it back slightly annoyed. Then I saw a nice shirt and it was to low .I put it back starting to getting frustrated with the lack of clothes my size. I then found an awesome skirt that was just the right size it came a good 3-4 inches below the off limit length and fitted perfectly every where else! By the end of the trip I had found two skirts and a shirt.
As spring rolls around there is going to be more and more chances to cause our Christian brothers (and other men) to stumble. We must strive and make sure that our clothes are not only long enough to cover what they need to but also that they are not too tight. I personally see nothing wrong with girls wear pants if they are not tight. Many jeans bring emphasis to the rear and to the thighs, If you think this is not a stumbling block to guys I highly suggest you check out the rebelution's modesty survey, Real guys answer wither or not something is a stumbling block I think it would a real eye opener to many young ladies. Also a great way to find out if an outfit is going to be a problem is ask you dad, my dad is very honest some times to the point where nerve racking to ask him but when ever I'm not sure about something I can count on him to give me an honest answer. Here is a link that has a check list for clothing.
Apart from our clothes the way we act must be modest as well. I'm sure you've all been told before sit with you legs together; well many ladies forget to do that! When you bend down to get something make sure your shirt covers your back when you bend, I try to make a habit of placing my hand on my lower back when I bend just to be sure that my shirt stays down. Button up shirts can be a huge problem! It is a good idea to wear a tank top under them, because then you move you can some times see inside. I know y'all have tips and idea on keeping modest so please share them!

There are no better cosmetics than a severe temperance and purity, modesty and humility, a gracious temper and calmness of spirit; and there is no true beauty without the signatures of these graces in the very countenance.
Arthur Helps

Pay Per Post

Hey every one! Want to know a great way to earn some extra money? How would you like to be paid for blogging? Sounds easy right? Well, it is! All you have to do is sign up for pay per post. They will pay you to write about, get this...what you want to write about! It’s super easy and all you have to do is blog. There is a list of differnt things to write about, you pick what you want to write about and then after you write your post you confirm your post, they check it and then after thirty days they send you the money. This is a great way to earn some extra money from home with very little work. It is going to take me about fifteen to twenty minutes max to write and edit this post and guess what I’m earning twenty dollars for it! That’s about a dollar per minute! When I had a regular job I earned six fifty and hour, talk about a huge increase. All I have to do is write two hundred words add a link and that’s it! Talk about easy! I’d highly encourage every one to at least check into this.
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Concert and other stuff

Oliva Joy at All that is good is giving away an awesome looking bag! Be sure to check out her page.

Last night we had a small concert at our director's old church. The church was so small! Some of our guys where hitting their heads while on the risers! It all went well until the end, one of my friends has been having knee problems and his knee started to give out at the end of the last song, He is going for a MRI this Tuesday so if y'all would pray for his knee I'm sure him and his family would appreciate it. After the concert my blood sugar had gotten kind of low and I wasn't feeling that great, a friend got me something to drink and started feeling better in a few minutes. After wards I started thinking how that’s like our daily life. I can’t eat things that have a lot of sugar yet some times it looks sooo good and I do it anyways, I always suffer later and regret it. The same goes for our Christian walk, we see things that we know are bad for us yet we want them anyways. Skipping meals is something that’s not an option for me, if I don’t eat I get dizzy and sick feeling. I may not notice the affects right way and I might be thinking I'm doing pretty good I don’t need to eat; well that doesn't last very long, I soon realized that my mother was right and that I should have eaten. Christians also tend to do the same thing, we wake up late or we have a busy day ahead of us so we skip our Bible reading and prayer time, we may think that it’s not going to affect us, yet sooner or later it will. We get spiritually weak, we don’t make as good of choices as we ought to; the list could go on and on. I know that I forget to read my Bible from time to time and those days normally go pretty bad. So let me encourage you don’t forget to take care of your "spiritual blood sugar" by reading your Bible and praying daily.

Spring Fever

Spring fever is very powerful. It makes me want to wear a long flowy skirt and spin around bare foot! What affect does spring have on you?
Be sure to go outside and admire God's handy work today!

"That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" Mark Twain

Fruits of The Spirit: Faith

Faith is the substance for things hoped for yet not seen. I'm not sure where I heard/read that but it’s so very true. Faith is not always easy; we so often rather take charge of things our self. Faith is something that I struggle with. I often wonder when God will bring that special some one across my path and me across his. It is not always easy to have faith and trust that God knows what he is doing. I often wonder what the Lord has in store for me down the road, especially since next year is my last year of high school. Even while I pray for guidance I wonder if He is going to show me when the time is right. When we take things into our own hands we often make a mess of things. God knows what he is doing and doesn't need us to help him out. Sitting back and letting God take control of the reins takes allot of faith; but there is also a peace when we have faith in the Lord. Knowing that the God who created me is in control and He is the one who is planning my future not I is a very comforting fact. I am NOT saying that we should just close our eyes and not plan for the future! We should prayerful plan and prepare but also we should keep in mind that His plans might be different from ours.

On a more personal life note our concert Sunday went wonderful. The two soloist where fantastic! Please be in prayer for my choir for the next few weeks. In April more half the choir will be heading off for choir tour. This trip will be 10 days long so please pray for the people who are going. I hope every one has a great day!

Snow!

Yesterday we got real snow! Not ice, but real snow! We got a whole half inch! I'm sure y'all who are up north are laughing. My youngest brother, age twelve, made a snowman. Mr. Snow man was about 7 inches tall and 3 inches wide and like all southern snowmen he had a very short life expectancy; when we went outside this morning the birdbath (Mr. Snowman’s "house") was full of water and two twigs. It was a very "sad" sight but for some reason made me giggle; a true southern snowman...A puddle of water and two sticks.
In other news I'm currently working on a denim skirt as soon as I finish it I'll post some pictures. If any one else has any winter weather I'd love to hear about it.

Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness

Hello one and all!
I know, I was supposed to write this yesterday but I didn't. I'm a bad bloggest(My own word for a Lady blogger). So here's the post I should have written yesterday.

Gentleness is one of the traits that, to me, is the one that is most visible. When Out grocery shopping with my mom and brothers you can always tell mothers who are gentle and those who are not. The mother who is yelling at her child as often as she draws breath is obviously NOT gentle; On the other hand the mother who firmly yet gently and lovingly corrects her child is manifesting gentleness. Yes, I know you can’t judge how people are by how you see them in a store, but it does make a good illustration. Gentleness, According to Mr. Webster, means: "Gen"tle*ness, n. The quality or state of being gentle, well-born, mild, benevolent, docile, etc.; gentility; softness of manners, disposition, etc.; mildness." Gentleness is something that takes practice. It’s very easy to be gentle when everything is peaceful but to be gentle when someone is annoying you is different story! Gentleness is something that draws me towards people, a girl I know is very quite and gentle, she and I have very different in personalities but her gentleness draws me toward her. I find it impossible not to smile at this person when ever she passes by me. A gentle spirit is blatantly obvious in those that have one. We all should strive for a more gentle spirit everyday. Let me end by saying this. No one is perfect, just because a person seems gentle it doesn’t mean they are. More important then seeming gentle is what your heart condition is. If you have a rebellious heart it doesn’t matter how gentle you may seem. So we should not strive to be gentle for praise of men, but we should strive to have a gentle heart as well. Matthew 12: 34 reads “For out of abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”.

Correction

Ok, about the video I tried to post yesterday. I've tried twice since then to make it work, and both times it didn't.

Yesterday I said my first verse of the take it to heart challenge. My brother, two of our friends and I are all saying them together and keeping each other accountable. I'm really enjoying meditating and studying each verse, I love diving deeper and trying to get every possible detail I can get from it. Tomorrow I'll write my post for gentleness. I pray each of you have a wonderful and relaxing evening.

Tagged

I have been tagged by Rachel of Byrd of the Heavens Now you will learn five "different" things about me, but only if you really want to.
1. I like doing house work, except for vacuuming, I'd rather sweep.
2. My hands are three inches wide and six inches long
3. I love playing Super Mario World with my two younger brothers (even though I die just about every single time)
4. A girl in my choir nicknamed me Chewbacca, It doesn't bother me, I think its kinda funny (No idea why, I think it’s because I have thick hair)
5. I'm practically blind with out my glasses or contacts, I actually run into walls some times with out them( I don’t know if I run into things because I can't see them or if it's because I'm some what clumsy.

I tag Sarah Ann, Marie and Ella

Ok, my middle brother, who is 15, asked me post a music video he made. He used a contemporary Christian song By Casting Crowns.This song has a very good message in it. If You do not agree with type of music, don't watch it, it won’t bother us one bit. This is one of his first videos so any feed back you have for him would be greatly appreciated.