Thankfulness

Ok, so I'm sitting here listening to Christmas music and drinking almond flavored coffee (yum!) and I just realized I haven't written ONE post this month about what I'm thankful for. Now that is unacceptable! Since Thanksgiving is on the 26th this month, I think I'll list 26 things that I am thankful for :-)

1. I am so thankful for a God that understands my weakness, loves me in spite of it, and can't wait to forgive and help me when I ask.
Hebrews 4:15-16- For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

2. I am thankful for the hardworking, handsome, loving, godly husband God has blessed me with.



3. I am thankful for my godly, loving parents, and all of my brothers and sisters- handsome, pretty, cute, funny, smart, creative, sometimes aggravating, always a blessing. I love 'em! ;-)



4. I'm thankful for Josh's parents, and that they are so close by.



5. I am thankful for grandparents!









6. I am thankful for a beautiful place to live.







7. I'm thankful for Patrick Christopher -aka- Pat C. (formerly known as Patsy).



8. And yes, I'm thankful for Bell, even if she is a pain sometimes :-)



9. I'm thankful for health- my own and my entire family's.

10. I'm thankful for majestic beauty in God's creation.






11. I am thankful for the beauty in the tiny things that we sometimes miss.


(Frost on our porch railing)






12. I'm thankful for baby's smiles :-)



13. I'm thankful for almond flavored coffee :-)

14. I'm thankful for Alabama Christmas music :-)

15. I'm thankful for long walks in the country, sometimes with friends, in which we take pictures like these:







16. I'm so thankful and excited that my family is coming up for a visit next month!!!!!!!!!!

17. I'm very thankful that Josh has LOTS of work during a time in our country when a lot of people don't.

18. I am grateful to God for blessing me with all of these things even though I don't deserve them.

19. I'm thankful for humor :-)






Pat C. and Josh watching football :-)

20. I'm thankful for pumpkin bread, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin scented candles.....

21. I'm thankful for heaters to heat the house when it's cold outside.

22. I'm thankful that my mom taught me how to cook and bake.

23. I'm thankful that my parents taught me a better way to fall in love and get married besides dating.

Me and Josh about 10 minutes after he proposed to me :-)

24. I'm thankful for digital cameras:-)

25. I'm thankful for all of you people that read this blog, and the blessing of meeting most of you in person, and getting to know the rest of you a little through our blogs ;-)

26. I'm thankful for a holiday that encourages us to dwell on all of the things we have to be thankful for :-)

I could list more, but you wouldn't have time to read it all, and I wouldn't have time to get a lot of the things done today that I need to do. So, I hope you all are having a WONDERFUL day, week, month and year. We really are Richly Blessed aren't we?!

Brittany

I Heart Faces- Sun Flare!

When I first saw this weeks theme for I ♥ Faces, I didn't think I would be able to enter. But then, I remembered this picture! This was taken on our honeymoon during the day we spent at the Biltmore Estate in NC. At the time I was very disappointed that the sun "ruined" the picture. ;-) Since then I've learned that photographers LOVE sun flares. :-) This isn't a perfect flare but I think it looks neat!
The place we were in when I took this picture was absolutely beautiful! In fact, the whole estate is amazing and I hope you all get to visit there sometime. ;-)


Be sure to click on the I Heart Faces button and check out all of the other beautiful pictures!

Poems

I found these two poems on ladiesagianstfeminism.com and thought that you might enjoy them. If you get a chance, check out the website. There is a section called Lady Lydia Speaks which has quite a few very good articles. Enjoy the poems!


Beauty and Duty

I slept and dreamed that life was beauty--
I woke and found that life was duty!
Was thy dream then, a shadowy lie?
Toil on, dear heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A truth and noonday light to thee.

~ Ellen Sturgess Hooper (1816-1841)

Be Good, Sweet Maid

My fairest child, I have no song to give you;
No lark could pipe to skies so dull and gray;
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you
For every day.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them all day long;
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.

~ Charles Kingsley

Lady Lydia speaks on .... Dressing Everyday ~ Part 2

Some school teachers say that high school girls they have seen have never been seen in dress and have never owned one. This is all the more reason why you should do everything in your power to bring your teen daughters home to study and plan to be homemakers, alongside their own mothers. Once at home, away from powerful peer influences, they can be exposed to movies like "Wives and Daughters," "Anne of Green Gable," "Persuasion," and other classical stories. As they learn from the past, these young women naturally will want to dress femininely. If you will study the Victorian photographs carefully, you will see that there was hardly any difference between the teen girls and the grown women. Little girls looked forward to growing up and putting their hair up and wearing longer dresses. They wanted to be respectable.

Lest you think that our teaching on feminine dress is "living in the past," let me assure you that although our values are pictured in the past, they are practiced in the present and focused on the future. All three eras work in harmony, as we glean the best in clothing styles from all the previous centuries we have a record of. Do not be discouraged if you have days of disorganization, illness, and interruptions and you can't dress quite as well as you would like. Just keep the picture in your mind of what you'd like to be. Do a little each day to increase your femininity. Find good teachers and mentors who will coach you in your quest to dress femininely. Look at catalogs, and circle the things you think are the most feminine. Write letters to those you feel could give you some help. The first step in real change is to have a strong desire. The next step is to change that desire into reality. Part of the Biblical way of life is to look for ways to do better. We do not have to continue to follow failure patterns. We have the opportunity to restore society to modesty and femininity, just by doing it ourselves. One person can influence many.

Along with the changes in the way you dress, you must expect a negative reaction. There is an element of society that does not want women to "go back" to real feminine dress. These people will cast discouraging remarks up to you. When you answer your door in the morning they will say, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were going somewhere." Or, "I won't keep you long. It looks like you were ready to go out." Just say, "Oh, no. I dress like this every day."
While living overseas many years ago, I was introduced to another American woman whose husband was with a company that had transferred him to their office there. The wife invited me to go up to their apartment to visit her, at nine in the morning. When she greeted me, she was all dressed up; not in formal evening wear, mind you, but not in pants and a sweatshirt, as many women did. I asked her about it, and she said she wanted to always be ready if her husband called and said he was bringing someone home for lunch, of if he wanted to meet her somewhere.

In a magazine recently, a husband sent in pictures of his wife, to see if this particular magazine would do a makeover for her. He showed them pictures of the three young children and the wife in sweat pants, tee-shirt and slippers and the totally demolished living room in the morning. He told the staff that she was a beautiful woman, but he had not seen that beauty in a long time. He stated that the outfit in the pictures was the one she wore everyday at home. The makeover people dressed her in a dress and pulled her hair back out of her face. She said she felt alive because the clothing cheered her up. The "after" pictures showed her house looking much better. For some reason, dressing up gave more energy and optimism and creativity. Her baby had grown so used to her in her grungy day-to-day wear that when he first saw her made over, he refused to go to her because he did not know her.

No matter what your size or nationality or skin color or income, it is possible to dress femininely. Feminine dress transcends borders, language and culture.

The end!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday, so I wanted to write a post in honor of him. :-) I think I have the best Dad in the world. He loves the Lord,he love my mom, he loves his family, he works hard, he is always honest, he spends time with all of us kids, and always makes sure that he sets aside some time throughout the year to do something really special and fun with us. He takes his role as the leader and protector of our family very seriously. It is through his leading and protecting of my heart that I am now very happily married to the man of my dreams, without having ever had a broken heart, or wasting my time and my affections on a man that wasn't in God's plan for me. Thank you Dad, for that.


This picture was taken right after Josh proposed to me. :-)




Some of my sweetest memories of time with my dad are from our trips to Callaway Gardens in Georgia for Vision Forum's Father & Daughter Retreat. We talked about all sorts of things, enjoyed the breathtaking beauty of the gardens, were challenged and encouraged by the teaching, and spent hours together just having fun. I am so thankful for those times!




My dad also has a wonderful sense of humor! He can make anything funny if he wants to. :-) Another great memory I have from growing up is the "Pajama Contests" that I was always was too chicken to enter but LOVED to watch! :-)





I remember cuddling with my dad on the couch listening to Christmas music this time of year, or laying on the floor looking up at the Christmas tree with him. Christmas is my favorite time of year because of all of the w0nderful memories I have from Christmases growing up.



I remember sitting around our dining room table, or the living room, talking and dreaming about moving to Tennessee and all the things we wanted to do there. That is still a dream and I hope that it will come true soon!



So Happy Birthday to my loving, godly, strong, hardworking DAD! :-) I love you! ♥

I Heart Faces- Autumn Beauty

Here is my first attempt at an I Heart Faces contest. :-)



All of the leaves were gone from our trees but there were still some on the ground. Let me know what you think! ♥ Click on the button below to check out lots of beautiful fall photos!

Lady Lydia speaks on .... Dressing Everyday ~ Part 1

Just recently I have been thinking about an article that my mom gave me to read a long time ago. It really influenced and encouraged me then in the area of dressing modestly, and it still does now every time I read it. I thought perhaps some of you would enjoy it so I'm going to type it out for you. It is VERY long, so I'll probably do it in at least two parts. I have used the original photographs in my copy. Here goes!

The subject today is one I learned from my children's piano teacher, a woman who was born around 1911. Until the day she died, she presented herself to others as a dignified lady. She was never seen in a tacky tank top or shorts. No one ever saw her knees or the veins in her legs. Don't get me wrong; she was not wearing the styles of the early 1900's either. The week before she died, in her late 80's, she went shopping for a new dress for her next student recital. She kept her wardrobe fairly new, and although her styles were current, she was always modestly dressed in tea-length dresses and pretty hats. She always tried to be an example and an inspiration to the young. Although her students sometimes came to their lessons in awful clothing, she dressed up for them.This is a difficult thing to do in this society, since we tend to relax our standards around people who do not care. While her husband was alive, she dressed beautifully for him every day. She believed you were a bride every day of your life, even if you were not married, so she dressed as though she was a very special person with a special purpose in life. The latter decades of her life were spent as a widow, but she did not forget how important it was to dress as though she was just married. It was this way of dressing that kept her spirits high. She was here to live and work the work that God had given her, and she wasn't going to shirk that responsibility.

I have here a wedding photograph of the past century. The bride of that time did not look much different on her wedding day as she would on subsequent days. In other words, she did not "let down" her standards of dress. She respected her husband enough to want to make him happy that he married her and never have any regrets on that score. Clothing was extremely important in those days. It was individually measured, sewn and fitted for each person. Women loved chiffon and lace, velvet, satin, flowers, buttons, color, tucks and trims. Men often bought their wives the dresses they longed for as an expression of their love. Women and men dressed in stark contrast to each other. The feminine clothing of women complimented the masculine clothing of the men. The women of this era did not want to look like men but enjoyed their feminine status. It isn't nice to have won the heart of your husband only to let down around him once you begin to live together. How would you like to be given a beautiful gift, perhaps a lovely piece of furniture, but within a few months of having it in your home, it disintegrated? It may have deteriorated through your own neglect. While it is understandable that she will be more relaxed and casual at home during the evenings or early mornings, she should dress as though she were expecting someone important ( her husband) to come to the door. The day she decides to sluff around in her robe and slippers will be the day practically everyone she knows will drop by to see her. There was a time in history when a married woman dressed as carefully each day as she did on her wedding day. This applies to single women also, who can dress beautifully for their fathers, siblings and friends, making the world a lovelier place by example.
To those of you who are having a struggle changing over to more feminine dressing, just pretend you are a bride every day, whether you are married or not, or at least on your honeymoon, visiting a very special place. Make sure you have proper foundations that will cause your feminine dress to drape gracefully and hang nicely on your body. In winter, instead of wearing a hooded sweatshirt, wear a Spencer jacked or long sleeved dresses. This is more streamlined and allows more freedom in your household motions. Even if you are wearing a cotton dress, you can make sure it is fresh, clean and pressed. You can use perfume, and you can fix your hair the most flattering way to your face. You can wear colors that suit you.
If you want to find out what styles and colors are best for you in dresses, try this experiment: wear a different dress each day and note how you functioned and felt while wearing it. Did one item of clothing make you feel more cheerful of depressed? Then begin to build a wardrobe of clothing that you function best in. Don't wear the same dress every day, but rotate your clothing so that your favorites do not wear out. Beautiful outfits are more important than the latest technical gadget, more important than a vacation, and more important than ornaments for your home. When you go somewhere else, such as the grocery store or the new tea room, people can only guess about the way you live. Your clothing will send a strong message about your father, your husband and your home. Your clothing tells what kind of woman you are, whether careful or careless, thoughtful of thoughtless, diligent or lazy. If you have children, your children are going to be either very proud of you, or sullen and rebellious toward you, and your clothing can make a big difference. A woman's dress is a large part of the respect she receives as a woman.
And now a word about age dressing. There shouldn't be a huge generation gap with women's clothing. To many times the youth are separated from the aged, giving them the idea that they cannot be consulted on proper dressing. Most stores now have separate teen sections, and the girls never see the dresses of regular women; in fact, they never see a dress. Both age groups leave a lot to be desired in the way they dress. The clothing on the older and elderly women is not feminine or interesting, and the young women do not want to grow up and dress like them. Is it any wonder that they gravitate towards the styles of the stars? Older women must take upon themselves the personal responsibility to inspire the young women to dress beautifully and femininely, and they cannot do that if they remain in the knit pants and the unfeminine shirts and tops. There is no use saying "tsk, tsk" when you see a young person with spiked hair, green lipstick, black leotards and a top with holes in it, if you, yourself, are not dressed femininely enough to be imitated. You can not have credibility as a teacher if you do not dress well every day.

Family

This morning I am missing my family. I was just sitting here reading my bible and thinking, and I started thinking about them, and all of the sudden the tears started to flow. I thought I would go through some if my pictures and share some of what I was thinking about with you. :-)

I was remembering cuddling with Brason and how funny he can be.


I was remembering dancing with Berakah and thinking about how precious and sweet she is.

I was thinking about how Providence is growing up so fast and I am missing out on it.



I was thinking about Brianna and Bethany, and wishing I was there to see them turning into little women.




I was thinking of Bo, and how cute he is, and some of the funny things he says.


I was thinking about Ben and all the times we used to spend outside after dark singing at the top of our lungs and talking about EVERYTHING.


I was thinking about Brandon, and how we used to talk for hours, and missing his teasing.


I was missing my Dad, and remembering all the special time we spent together. Thank you Dad for doing that. I'll cherish those times forever.


I was thinking how great a hug from my mom would be.




I love you all so much! Hopefully we can see each other soon. I'm praying you will be able to move to Tennessee soon so we can be closer together!