Poinsettias Anyone??

I know it's not quite time yet, but I wanted to let you all know that our FFA Chapter is selling 4"($5) and 6"($7) Poinsettias this year. Our students have been working with them to get them ready to sell starting the week after Thanksgiving. If you're interested, please let me know! Oh yeah, and there will be several of the 4" ones gracing my tables in the next few weeks... I will be sure to let you know how they look!

(I know it's a little more expensive than the ones at Wally-World, but it's for a good cause!)

Older Woman???

Let me just say... I don't recommend starting your parenting experience with a 17 year old! Even a good one can drive you crazy! Ashley, while being a really sweet kid, was not raised the same way my mom raised me. And the old axoim "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" has come to mind many times during the last 8 months! Don't get me wrong- She's great company when she's around. And it's pretty cool having a kid sister figure, but there's definitely some things that her mom forgot to teach her, like how to do dishes or sort clothes the right way (and by the right way, I mean Donna's way)

I have tried really hard not to get mad at Ash because I know that she doesn't know any better, but some days it just gets the best of me! One particular Sunday afternoon, as I was venting to my mother about all the things she was doing to drive me crazy, mom just laughed at me. After my tirade, she quietly reminded me that I needed to go read Titus 2: 3-5.

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God be may not be reviled."

Older Women???

Was my mom calling me old???

I mean seriously... I know I'm about to hit... well, we won't even say the number, but older? As I thought about what she had to say I began to realize that she was right. So, I'm not the oldest one around, and there are still women who have something to teach me (like hopefully one day how to be a godly wife and mother), but there are definitely others who would fall into the younger women category around me these days.

Like Ashley- who is not only 17, but a new Christian. Obeying the gospel this summer made the biggest change in her attitude. And while she is very eager to share the things she's gained from a relationship with God with others, she sometimes falls back into the way of thinking that made up her former life. I sometimes have to remind myself that she didn't have 17 years of a mother like mine to shape who she is. And her tender faith serves as a reminder to me to nourish my own.

But Ashley isn't the only young woman around me! There's the teenagers who were in my Sunday school class when I first started teaching- like Kaylee and Kaylin- who are facing the challenges of high school while trying to live as Christians. And there's Bayley, Sydney, Sarah, Cece, and Olivia, whose tender hearts needs to be shaped now for the life before them! And those are just some of the ones who are younger than me age wise!

The cool thing about maturing as a Christian is that it has nothing to do with age and everything to do with devotion to God and time spent studying his word. I was lucky in this department because as a child I was surrounded by a lot of mature, knowledgeable christians- like my Grandpa and my Mom. They taught me that even as a child I could understand the scriptures and that to please God, I needed to study them. Combine that with some awesome Bible teachers and a serious competitive streak over the years and it would be sad if I hadn't achieved some level of spiritual maturity. (That's not to say that I'm fully mature by any means) But not everyone is so blessed, and all around me there are women who might be older than me in years, but far younger in Christ. That's why it's so important to make the effort to spend time together studying!

To the ladies who were in our Bible Study group this summer, thanks for the encouragement to look deeper. And to the ladies in our monthly bible study group at midway, thanks for challenging me to be an older woman!

Aunt Daye's Fall Adventures

Webster’s Dictionary defines “Aunt” as the “sister of one’s father or mother, or the wife of one’s uncle.” But you and I all know that an Aunt is oh so much more than that!

My own Aunts are some of my favorite people in the whole world, especially my mom’s sisters. They are the ones who I spent spring breaks and summer vacations with as a child. They are the ones who wrestled with my brothers at Thanksgiving right up to the year that they almost couldn’t take them and then pronounced it the end of the wrestling matches. They are the ones who don’t bat an eye at taking 10 kids to the beach and actually get in the water and play with them. Needless to say, my aunts made a pretty big impression on me about what an aunt should be like.

When Austin & Bayley were born, it became my goal to be the best Aunt ever! I am not quite sure that I live up to that, and my mom’s sister, Aunt Jane, gives me a pretty good run for my money, but I do know that we do some pretty fun things when they’re with me. (Hopefully Veda will think the same thing when she gets a little bit older)

Austin & Bayley with their Easter Loot (I didn't have a more up to date pic at the time)

Somebody is gonna be a Daddy's Girl!

Bayley, the oldest, is now 8 (almost 9) and quite the sport model. She’s into anything outside. She loves to get dirty and play with animals (especially anything that she can “train”). I have created a little “John Wayne Junkie” and as to her clothing style, she’s quite the little hippie! But she’s also a tender hearted thing that hates for anyone to cry. And she absolutely loved playing with Veda when she was here! Austin, my favorite little man, is now in Kindergarten. Mom says that He’s one of those who can be so sweet one minute that you want to eat him up one minute, and the next so mean that you wish you had! He’s always up for an adventure, whether it be working cows, or cooking, or running a yard sale. And he absolutely adores his big sister! He has such a mechanical mind and can fix a lot of things that would surprise you! Veda isn’t big enough yet to know what she’s gonna be like, but I am sure that she will be just as fun when she gets a little older.

As a catch up post, I thought I would show you a few of the projects we have worked on since they moved back from the Far North and reclaimed most of my weekends! These last two projects have been the most fun by far... even if the jack-o-lanterns rotted before Halloween arrived!

A Saturday morning trip to buy Pumpkins... From FFA Members in Bell!

Cleaning out the pumpkins and deciding what to carve...


The finished products... on display... (yeah, they had help carving the designs... lots of Help!)



Thank you Grandpa for donating your clothes for our scarecrow! Definately couldn't have done it without you!
Pillowcase face with acrylic paint didn't they do a great job!

Ta-da! The finished product... after a trip to Walmart for some flowers!

On a final note... these were some of the most fun projects I've done with them yet! My cousins Beau and Caleb were around the night we carved pumpkins and Beau helped carve Bayley's spider while I carved Austin's owl... Caleb kept Austin entertained!

Daddy graciously provided clothes and hay for scarecrow which Austin and I sewed together, Mom found the pillowcase and gloves and Poppa donated the broken down hat! I think they all liked out scarecrow as much as we did since I am pretty sure that Daddy's told all the ladies at the bank about it!

Needless to say... we are working on figuring out what we are going to do for Christmas, but we'll be sure to let you know!