Virtuous Girlhood

Apron Contest!

Faith and Family Books Blog is hosting a give-away with products from Amelia’s Aprons The products are:

One Regency Apron

And one Amish Apron Pattern

Check back here and at Faith And Family Books Blog for upcoming details!

Have a blessed end of the summer!

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

The Art Of Sewing

The art of sewing is a fun art to learn! If you do not now how to sew, then I suggest you learn how! You can easily ask a young woman who likes to sew if she would be willing to give you lessons if you would give her a small donation. Here are some tips:

• look for estate sales, garage sales, resale shops, and thrift stores. Today at a house on our street we found a sewing machine for sale for $20 dollars - used once! You can find needles, yarn, sewing machines, fabrics, and more at these sales!
• Buy patterns when on sale at Jo-ann Fabrics and use coupons whenever shopping there!
• Sign up for Jo-ann’s mailing list! You can get coupons and deals that you could not get otherwise.

If you know how to sew you, can do anything! You can sew basically anything if you learn the skills! Two friends of mine have a shoppe HERE If you click their home page, you can see their new products.

Have fun sewing! I am having fun sewing a pink sundress with a floral jacket for a doll.

Blessings,

R.J.

Flywheel

This is a little late as “yesterday” was Sunday, August 3rd. We are better now!

Today we watched Flywheel. When we are sick, we get to watch movies! And right now we have colds. Flywheel was a really good movie! My family gave it a 9 star rating. The reason for a 9 star rating is because of the issue of weight…

Here are some things I really liked about it:

• The funniness of it.
• How God used a TV gospel program to make an impact on Jay Austin’s life.
• How God worked in Jay Austin to change his life.
• I liked that the Kendrick brothers made another good movie!
• I hope the Kendricks and Sherwood Church produce more good movies for the family!

We cannot wait for FIREPROOF! We loved FLYWHEEL and Facing The Giants. I definitely want these for my home when I get married!

Have a wonderful day!

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

Update: Dad went to Menard’s to get light-bulbs on Tuesday and ended up buying FLYWHEEL. Yea!

He Switched Lanes!

(On a side note, Noah is now crawling and sitting up. This incident happened the first of June.) :O

JA was on the floor with Noah when Noah turned around; JA exclaimed, “He switched lanes!” And when Noah turned around again, JA said excitedly, “He switched lanes again, Mommy!”

Too cute!

Hope that gives you a laugh!

R.J.

How To Keep Busy

Some young ladies wonder how to keep themselves busy…. or how to pass those spare moments that are not spent in cooking, cleaning, taking care of siblings, and school work. The Bible tells us not to be idle! So here are just a few ideas to keep busy!

• Sew. If you are a beginner, check out this link at: Maidens Of Virtue Sewing Projects
• Cross stitching
• Knitting
• Crocheting
• Stamping (such as stampin up)
• Painting
• Writing
• Sketching
• Music
• You could offer to help some couples at your church with babysitting or a meal.
• You could also offer music lessons to children of your church.
• You could even offer to help out with schooling for families at your church.
• Offer sewing lessons to young ladies of your church! This is such a blessing to parents of young ladies.

I hope you find these ideas helpful!

Blessings,

R.J.

Crosstiching Delights

Cross stitching is such a delightful pastime! You can make many beautiful things with this art! I have made bookmarks, samplers, cross stitched pictures, and much more! It is fairly easy to do, once you get the hang of the stitches and everything! Here are some tips to doing it:

1. Never, ever, start cross stitching without finding your center first! I cannot even stress how important this is to do! If, you do not, you will make a mess of your entire project!
2. ALWAYS follow pattern directions! It is never fun to have to take out your work! And plus it usually leaves holes!
3. Buy fabric when on sale and with coupons. You can save HUGE amounts by doing this. I prefer WalMart, or Jo-Ann Fabrics for cross stitching supplies. But sometimes thrift stores will have a sewing aisle. I know The Sparrows Nest in McHenry does!
4. Cross stitching makes great gifts for family and friends! Also, gifts are even more special to them because YOU made them!
5. It’s so easy to get sidetracked when doing this! Again I CANNOT stress how important it is to STAY focused!
6. And my final point is this: Have fun cross stitching!

Here are two books about cross stitching that have been very helpful to me in finding suitable patterns to use, as well as some tips!

• Mary Engelbreit Cross Stitch, copyright 1996, available through online stores. I have the first edition copy that my Grandmother gave me. Here is an address for the book:

Meredith Press, Crafts, RW-240, 1716 Locust Street, Des Moines, IA 50309-3023. USA

• Sampler and Antique Needlework by Darlene O’Steen, copyright 1994. I have the first edition of this one, as well. Here is the address for it:

Symbol Of Excellence Publishers, Inc., 405 Riverhills Business Park Birmingham, AL 35242 USA

Happy sewing!

His Handmaiden,

R.J.

P.S. By learning these arts while we are unmarried, we as young ladies may even be able to pass this on by teaching classes to other young ladies!

Modesty

Many young women today think they need to wear the skimpy skirts, low-necked tops, and see-through clothing just because everyone else is doing it! Well, if everyone else is doing it, you do NOT have to! The Bible commands us to dress modestly. If we do not, we are not keeping ourselves pure, but it is important to do so. As Christians, our bodies are temples of the Lord. Also, we want to keep ourselves pure in every way for our future husbands.

 Here is a test to see if you dress modestly. This test was taken from Godly Girlhood. Miss Taylor has such a fun site! I encourage you to check it out! If you go to the Wardrobe section of her page,  you can read a few articles she has written on modesty.

Here is a test from the book Raising Maidens of Virtue (modified slightly) to see if you how modest you are.  You might be surprised!

1. Ask your mother to stand behind you and watch you walk. Ask her if she thinks you swing your hips or swagger.

2. When you walk up a flight of stairs, what would people behind you see?

3. Do you wear skirts that have slits higher then your standard?

4. Ask your mother to stand behind you while you bend over to pick up a book. Now do the same thing but have your mother stand in the front. What does she say? What would you father say?

5. Raise your hands above your head. Does your tummy show?

6. How low is your neckline? Look in the mirror while holding your knees. Do you see cleavage? If so, everyone else does too! Another good test for the right height for a collar of a shirt or blouse, put three fingers underneath your collarbone. 

Enjoy checking out her site!

Blessings,

R.J.

Poetry

I was just on Maidens Of Virtue and I noticed she has a great poetry page! HERE 

Here is another good poetry page!

Godly Girlhood

Enjoy looking at these encouraging websites!

Blessings,

R.J.

Felicity Movie

 For us, sadly, we were all sick with colds…….. (we are better now)

Dad surprised us when going out to Jewel on Saturday by stopping by the library and picking up Flywheel and Felicity. Here are some of my favorite things about the movie Felicity:

• Felicity loves her siblings and she has the heart of a servant.
• She listens to her parents. (well, excepting when she goes out to Jiggy Nye’s pasture!)
• She is loyal and generous, even to her enemies.
• She talked Ben into keeping his promise.
• She learned well from her grandfather and her grandfather taught her well.
• She kept her friendships even when they disagreed.
• She grew up through a time of trial and hardship!

All in all, I give this movie a 9 star rating! It was very good and you can learn a lot from it! The only thing that we disagreed with was her going out to Jiggy Nye’s pasture………

I hope you find this helpful! Oh, and we are looking forward to watching Flywheel tomorrow. And cannot wait until Kit, and FIREPROOF are in the library! For FIREPROOF because we LOVE Sherwood Pictures movies and Kit because it is about the Great Depression!

Blessings,

R.J.

Good Books For Girls

Today I will I give you some suggestions for good books for girls!

• So Much More
• How to Be a Lady
• The Elsie Dinsmore Series
• The Mildred Keith Series
• Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder ( I do not have a link for these but you can get them from your local library)
• The Caroline Years is a series about Laura Ingalls’ mother written by Maria D. Wilkes (These you can get from your library as well)
• Young Ladies Guide to the Harmonious Development of Character (A book on my wish list)
• In My Father’s House
• Daughters of Destiny
• A Practical Directory - Helpful Instructions for Young Christian Ladies 
• First Lessons in Gentleness and Truth

I will include one more set that includes a book, audio, and DVD: The Virtuous Daughters Set

Well, I think I have given you enough!

Enjoy your day!

R.J.

Beattys Farm

(On a side note, this post is a LITTLE bit late! Enjoy! :O)

On Monday we went down to the Beatty’s farm! We had a lot of fun……..swimming in their pool, picking veggies and some apples, walking down to their stream,  and visiting the nearby forest preserve, holding some kitties and their little chicks! It was a fun day! By the end of the day, I know A, JA, JR, and Noah were all too glad to take a bath and bed down for the night!

Here are some funnies of the day!

“But if I hold them, what if I drop one and the dogs eat them?” Spoken by N to Miss Dawn about the little chickens.

The girls were leaning on the edge of the pool and whoosh! Water and two girls came out! It was too funny! Too bad no photos or videos were taken! The look on their faces……….

You can see pictures of our day here! At Miss Dawn’s BLOG.

Thanks Miss Dawn, Mr. Beatty, and Mrs. Beatty for a FUN day!

Blessings,

R.J.

No More McDonald’s :(

Did you know that McDonald’s supports gays and lesbians? YUCK! We will not be going there anymore…… Too bad.

Here is some other news, we heard a couple years ago that American Girl supported abortion, so I wrote them and asked , and you know what? I GOT a letter from the director HERSELF and she said NO, they never have supported abortion! So, that means if you knew the rumor, go ahead and start buying their products again! All the money from their fund went to the ICAN Foundation, teaching girls to have good values like trust, friendship, good sportsmanship, loving their family, and lots more! So, we are pretty excited!

I hope McDonald’s stops supporting the gays and lesbians and that you would boycott them until they stop!

Onward For Him!

R.J.

P.S. Did you know that they just put out the Kit movie? We watched the trailer and it looks GOOD!

Family Movie Night

We have started a new tradition! We are having movie night! Last Friday we watched “The Great Adventure”! (A Lassie movie! A 10 star rating!)  Yesterday for a reward we watched “There Is No Place Like Home” (A Laura and Mary movie. A 10 star rating!) (It was hilarious)

We hope to watch Kit Kitteredge, Molly, Samantha, and Felicity sometime this fall for movie nights! In order to earn the movies, the children need to keep their rooms clean! :) Oh, and we watched the movie trailers and they look GOOD!

Do any other families have a movie night?? If so, please drop me a line!

Onward for Him!

R.J.

Into His Glory

A dear friend of my family, Mrs. Moeller, passed away at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon. You can read her story here: She was such an example of christian love and joy.

Please continue to pray for the rest of her family.

Blessings,

R.J.