Virtuous Girlhood

Leaving……

I will be leaving for my grandmother’s house for about a week so please bear with me as this blog will be inactive. My apologies. I would have put posts on time stamp if I had the time…………..

Please pray for my grandmother as she is recovering from another foot surgery!

Thanks so much!

Blessings,

~RJ

Double Movie Review: The Widows Might and The Lost and Found Family

A few days ago we watched the Widows Might and The Lost and Found Family. I would give them both 10 out of 10 stars.

The Widows Might was about 3 young men who are filmmakers and their friend who is a widow, who is losing her house due to unfair taxes. The boys set about to help her along with their friends and family. They end up making a great western movie, battling untruthful but hurtful news reports about them, helping a friend with his election campaign and still helping the widow! A really great film! Here are some other reviews of it here.

The Lost and Found Family is about a family with 5 foster children, who are renting a home from a once wealthy widow. She comes to visit the house and is going to sell it to have some money but after she meets the family, she starts to think of ways to help them. The 2 older children hid some drugs in the house but that was resolved. There was no bad language and really no questionable clothing except that the widow could have worn a more modest dress and the girl could have dressed more like a girl than a punk! But I guess that that was just her character! All in all, it was a great movie!

I hope that you and your family will check out these great movies!

Blessings,

~RJ

Liberty Day!

I know, I do this every year but this year Liberty Day is being hosted on March 20th, so register soon! If you don’t know what Liberty Day is, then you should check this out! It will be hosted in Medinah Baptist Church, Medinah, IL.

It is a very exciting event celebrating our nation’s history! Learn a lot and be inspired to learn more about our nation’s great history as Herb Titus and Paul Jehle share with us about history, Christianity, and government principles. Come, sit back and enjoy but be sure to stay for the evening festivities and have fun watching singing, stories, poetry, skits, speeches, and dialogs! Following these activities will be dancing and refreshments!

See you there!?

Blessings,

RJ

For Those Of You Who………

This post is for those of you who cook; here is a list of cooking websites!

• Del Sisters Kitchen
• Simply Recipes
• Food Network
• All Recipes
• Martha Stewart

Please note that I do not agree with everything on these websites!

Blessings,

~RJ

Olive Garden

Love Olive Garden but you don’t want to spend a lot of money on it? Then I have 2 solutions for you!

1. You can use Olive Garden’s recipes here!
2. Or you can use Giada De Laurentiis recipes here!

Please note that I do not agree with everything on theses sites.

Enjoy all these yummy recipes!

Blessings,

~RJ

Recipe Of The Week #22

 This recipe was made by my great grandmother. My great grandmother passed along the recipe to my grandmother who passed it on to me!

Pistachio Pudding

1 - 8 oz. container of cool whip

1 can of fruit cocktail 15.25 oz., undrained

1 can of crushed pineapple 20 oz. undrained

2 boxes of pistachio pudding,  instant, uncooked

Put the fruit in a bowl, add the pudding; stir. Add the cool whip and stir for about one minute or until combined. Chill for 15-20 minutes or until fluffy. Refrigerate leftovers.

Enjoy!

~RJ

Nail Polish Recipe

Nail polish comes in thousands of different shades and colors, but sometimes the one you’re looking for just isn’t there! Or maybe you don’t want to pay a ton of money for something you’ll only use a few times. So why don’t you get crafty and make your own nail polish!

I know it sounds a little extreme, but if you like to get creative, this is the project for you. Make sheer pink glitter, sparkly sunshine yellow, or anything that strikes your fancy. Here are the ingredients you will need:

1 paper envelope

1 bottle white or clear nail polish

1/2 to 1 teaspoon finely crushed powder eyeshadow or as needed ( you choose the color!)

1/3 teaspoon fine glitter (optional)

Start by making a tiny funnel by snipping off a corner of the envelope. Open the bottle of nail polish and position the funnel over the top.

Pour the eyeshadow and the glitter together into the nail polish bottle (use the funnel). Mix well with a small wooden stick. You can also close the bottle and shake well.

That’s it! Enjoy your nail polish!

Blessings,

~RJ

Challenge

I am sure some of you have heard about this but others may not have. It is called the Feelin Feminine Challenge.  The purpose of the challenge is to equip young women to be modest but yet stylish. You must wear only skirts or dresses for 7 days! Be modest, but let your creativity shine!

Please check out the link here.

Enjoy!

Blessings,

~RJ

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hope you all have a great day!

Blessings,

~RJ

Recipe Of The Week #21

 (One winter day my mom came up with this recipe; it’s so good!)

Recipe Of The Week #21

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 pound broccoli florets, cooked

1 cup dry stuffing mix

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 cup cheddar cheese

Some mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)

Boil chicken until tender and shred or cut into bite size pieces. Meanwhile, steam broccoli until crisp but tender.

In a small bowl mix, together the soup and mayonnaise. Set aside. In a 9×13 inch baking dish, layer the chicken, broccoli, soup mixture, and cheese. Sprinkle dry stuffing mix over the top and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Blessings,

~RJ

Giveaways?

Do any of you know of any great giveaways that are for girls or young women?

If so, could you please leave me a comment letting me know the name of the giveaway, hosting site, etc, etc.

Thanks,

RJ

Ambassador of… What?

(I found this on The Destiny of One. Thanks, Sarah, for letting me share this!)
By Sarah H.
“Have you met Tracy?” Rachel asked one of the five girls standing in a little huddle in the fellowship hall.
“Tracy who?” Karen asked
“Tracy Smith,” Rachel replied.
“I think I have,” Hannah responded. “Isn’t she the one that is always wearing the really low-cut dresses?” “That’s the one,” Rachel responded.
“Oh, so she was the girl sitting in front of me who couldn’t keep her hands off her boyfriend. Didn’t that girl hear the pastor’s sermon on purity last week?” Karen asked, shaking her head.
“Well, she does go to public school,” Emily said with a knowing tone. Emily looked over at Bethany, who remained silent with her arms crossed.
“Public school is ruining that girl,” Karen agreed. “Did you see her this morning? She had on so much make-up I don’t think you could see her face.” This brought giggling from all the girls; all that is, except Bethany, who sat just listening.
“I sat behind her two weeks ago, and she kept talking through the whole service. She has a horrible mouth. Well, she didn’t say that many bad words, but she was disrespectful to her mom and she was criticizing every one,” Hannah said.
“Oh, I know it,” Rachel said with a nod. “My mom says that she is a manipulator and can get her mom to do anything.”
“Maybe her mom needs to learn who is in control,” Emily interjected. “Why, if Tracy were my child she would be learning a few of life’s hard lessons right now.”
“That girl needs to be out of the public school system and in her home or she will end up getting herself in jail or something,” Karen remarked.
“I don’t think Tracy would …” Bethany started to say but was interrupted.
“And to think that she signed that pledge of abstinence a year ago,” Rachel said shaking her head.
“It is sad, but she is ruining her life,” Hannah said. All the other girls agreed, and there was a pause for a moment.
“Excuse me, girls, but whose ambassadors are we?” Bethany asked, and four sets of eyes turned to her with questioning looks. “I mean, listen to yourselves! You are all going on and on about how bad Tracy is and what she needs to do, but not one of you is even close to fixing the problem.”
Hannah, Rachel, Emily and Karen looked blankly at Bethany. Bethany sighed.
“It would seem from this conversation that Tracy’s crime is that her parents have not chosen to home school her and that her greatest issue in life is that she has chosen to date. But is that her real issue? The four of you are so busy looking at her make-up, low-cut dresses, and her boy friend that not one of you sees the real problem.
“Rachel, whose ambassador are you? Or for what? Homeschooling? What about you, Hannah? Are you now the official advocate for modesty? How about you, Emily? Are you now part of the purity police force? And you, Karen, when did you begin to listen to what was going on behind you instead of the sermon?
“Really, you girls you ought to be ashamed. Whose ambassador are we supposed to be? Homeschooling’s? Courtship’s? “Respect’s? Well, I don’t know about you, but I am not an ambassador for homeschooling, courtship, honoring your parents, or even the pastor. I am not even the advocate of abstinence, prayer in schools, modesty, or any of the other things that you have mentioned. I am an ambassador for my lord Jesus Christ, and nothing else, I hope.”
“You guys, Tracy has issues, I know. But you are talking about masking symptoms of a disease, not finding a way to cure it. Tracy’s problem is not that she is going to public school, or that she is dating, nor even that she is wearing revealing clothes. Tracy’s problem, Tracy’s disease is that she doesn’t have God.
“Which one of you has tried to be her friend? Which one of you has tried to love her and show her the way to God? Until you lead her to the point were she is broken at the feet of the cross, nothing will change Tracy. It isn’t that homeschooling isn’t a good thing. It’s not even that I wouldn’t like to see her stop dating and start having godly relationships. Rather, it’s that until you give her God it won’t make any difference.
“We have been sent to this earth to bring salt and light to a world that desperately needs it. We have been called to live radically different lives to be a witness to a country that is going downhill. But if we start preaching step sixteen before we have even said anything about step one, they are going to be confused and not listen to us any more.
“Have we forgotten that we are the privileged few? Not many kids are raised in radical churches and radical homes. We have been given much but we must remember that to whom much is given, much is expected. God did bless us with believing, homeschooling parents, not so that we would walk around with a holier-then-thou attitude. He gave it to us so that we could be his lights in a dark room.
“Tracy does not need to hear a sermon from you on how to dress; she needs to know that there is a white robe waiting for her in heaven if she will believe in Jesus. She doesn’t need us to tell her about how she is being brainwashed in school; she needs us to tell her that there is a God willing to wash her sins away and make them white as snow. She doesn’t need to be told that her love life is wrong; she needs to be told that there is a God that loves her and will fill the emptiness that is obviously in her heart.
“We will have many Tracy’s in our lives, girls, and they need us to be ambassadors from God to them. In order for us to do that, though, we have to decide whose ambassadors we are. I am my Lord and Savior’s, for even though I have never been ‘as bad as most,’ I killed Jesus with my sins, and he spilled his blood for me as much as he did for the murderer and the adulteress. It will be hard, I know. I don’t like Tracy and girls like her, but Christ spilled his blood for them, and he wants her to know that. Can I despise one to whom God extends his love?
“Let us decide today, girls, for whom or for what we are ambassadors.”
Would you like to share this with your readers? Leave a link to Sarah, and leave her name Sarah H.

Thanks!

Blessings,

~RJ

Recipes For Lip Balm and Lip Gloss

Here is a link for about 26 lip balms and gloss recipes!

Lip Balm and Lip Gloss Recipes

Enjoy!

Blessings,

~RJ

Choosing To Hope

(This article was used with permission from The Kings Daughter Magazine)

   Choosing To Hope

By Lisa Bode

“’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” – Jeremiah 29:11.
Dear Sisters,
A rousing melody on the classical radio awakened me at 7:30 this morning. We’d had a hymn sing at our house and lots of company the night before, keeping me up late. I would have rolled over and tuned the music out – but I didn’t want it to wake up Lana, my roommate in the bottom bunk, and I was scheduled to meet a friend for coffee at 9:00. So I hurried down the ladder, stumbled across the room, and somehow managed to hit the power button on the radio.
I’m not a morning person, and early hours tend to find me disoriented and incoherent. But I managed to find my way down the hallway to the shower, and saw a sign on the bathroom door. “Do not shower.” What is with that? I thought.
I leaned over the banister and called down to Mom in a groggy voice. “Why can’t we shower, Mom?”
She explained something about the water filter having a problem, and no one could shower until 9:00.
“But I have to be gone by 9:00, Mom,” I groaned. “I have to shower!”
“I’m sorry, honey,” she called back up. “It’s not working, and I can’t shower now either.”
“But I have to leave…” I whined, still trying to wake up, beginning to realize that my schedule constraints could not fix the water filter. My beautifully laid out plans for this morning were already going awry. I would have to make do without a shower and go on my way. I had no choice, no way to change my situation.
I stumbled down the stairs and looked out the window at the front porch. The sunrise illuminated a beautiful frozen winter morning. It dawned on me then that I did have a choice. I couldn’t change my circumstances. I couldn’t fix the shower, or resolve the much greater disappointments and unknowns in my life. But I could change my attitude.
It was my decision – would I live today frustrated and resentful, or would I choose to rejoice in hope?
Every day you and I face choices. We have dreams and desires for our lives, plans for very little details like morning schedules, and plans for big decisions like education, ministry, marriage. We have a vision of how we want life to work.
Sometimes God’s plan matches our plan. Everything works out just how we’d envisioned. Other times God’s plan is similar, but involves a little adjustment on our part, a few sacrifices or unexpected changes.
And then other times God’s plan completely intersects ours. His way points in a totally different direction, involving something we never expected, something we didn’t ask for, something we desperately did not want.
Bethany is a teenage girl who loves God with all her heart. She’s been battling cancer for a few years, and just found out that her cancer is growing and inoperable. She may have only a few months to live.
Kathryn and her sister were serving God in Moscow, Russia. One morning as they stood on a street corner, a drunk driver hit them. Her sister died instantly, and Kathryn has faced intense physical challenges ever since.
Elisabeth Elliot and her husband had surrendered their lives to Jesus and were working to reach an Indian tribe who had never heard the Gospel. Her husband was speared to death in the prime of his life only a short time after they were married. She was left in Ecuador, a single mother.
Lisa Beamer was an average Christian woman, leading Bible studies, mothering two children, and loving her husband Todd. On September 11^th, 2001, her husband boarded United flight 93. He never came home from work that day.
Each of these women had dreams, desires, just like us. They had plans for their future, ways they envisioned their lives working out. And then God allowed a tragedy. His plan involved something they did not expect, something they did not ask for, something they desperately did not want.
We look at the promises of the Bible – promises that God causes all things to work for our good, that He knows the plans He has for us to give us a future and a hope, and so many other optimistic verses that seem to paint a picture of a wonderful, happy life. And then we look at reality, tragedy, disappointment. Points where God’s plan leads in an entirely different direction from our plan, and involves circumstances that we did not want and cannot change.
Where is the goodness of God? Where is His love, His omnipotence, in events like these? He could heal Bethany’s cancer, but so far He hasn’t. He could have kept Kathryn’s sister, Jim Elliot, or Todd Beamer alive. But He didn’t. Why not?
The Bible tells us, “Good and upright is the Lord ….”– Psalm 25:8.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” – Rom. 8:28.
But how do we balance that with a disappointing reality?
In our minds, good equals our plan, what we want, the fulfillment of our desires and dreams.
But in God’s mind (and His thoughts are so much higher than ours – Isaiah 55:9), good equals the fulfillment of His plan for us to be conformed to the image of His Son. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son….” – Romans 8:29. That is the context of Romans 8:28.
Why was Peter released, but John the Baptist died in prison?
Why did Jesus calm the storm for His disciples, but later allow Paul to be shipwrecked?
Why did God say “no” to your dreams, allow your heart to be broken, and lead you in a direction you’d never anticipated?
We don’t know why. We can guess at reasons, but we can’t fully understand, and we can’t change what happened.
But we can change our attitude.
Today we can despair and give up following God, because His plan is not what we may have wanted.
Or today we can go through the motions of following God, drag ourselves through His will with a heart of bitterness, resentment, self-pity, and despair, because God overturned our schedule, or said “no” to our dreams.
Or today we can deny ourselves and lay our plan on the altar – the little details and the big things. We can give up our definition of good, our opinion of how life should work, and we can accept God’s definition of good and trust His character when we don’t understand. Today we can choose to accept His plan with both hands, to fully embrace the opportunities He does give, and to joyfully do without the opportunities He withholds.
Lisa Beamer writes in her excellent book Let’s Roll, about “…thoughts of all the loss that we have experienced personally. We’re left with choices about what we will do with those feelings. The choices… are to look at all the things we’ve lost or to look at all the things we have, to become bitter or to become better, to live in fear or to live in hope.”
It is our choice. We cannot always choose our circumstances. But we can choose our attitude.
“And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.” – Psalm 39:7.
Last fall I surrendered to Jesus in a new way (see the article “Questions” in this issue). In December we felt His call to transition The King’s Daughter ministry online. That decision was not impulsive, but the culmination of weeks of prayer and thought. And in January I felt as if my life was emptying out, as if my plans were crumbling, as if nothing was how I’d expected or wanted it.
So I face a choice, and so do you. What will we hope in – the fulfillment of our dreams and desires? They may crumble, and we may plummet to despair.
Or will we hope in God? “…And you will know that I am the Lord; those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.” – Isaiah 49:23.
Lisa Beamer and Elisabeth Elliot, Kathryn and Bethany, chose to live in hope – hope in God. So do I. Will you?

I found this article so encouraging! I hope you do as well!

Blessings,

~RJ

Recipe For Perfume

Here is a recipe that I found on Rachel’s Supply

Solid Perfume
Ingredients:
3 parts Sweet Almond, Jojoba oil, or Olive Oil.

2 parts White beeswax
1 part Cosmetic Grade Fragrance Oil, choose from our huge line of Rachel’s Cosmetic Grade Fragrance Oils
Melt all ingredients over double boiler until well mixed and integrated. Pour into containers and let cool.

Oh, if you are wondering how to use solid perfume, check out this link here.

Blessings,

~RJ