Living as a Victorious Christian Woman

It's not very often that I get time to just sit in the craft room and play, but that's what I did Sunday afternoon. I took two hours all to myself, pulled out some fun supplies and let my imagination run wild. You should try it. It's amazingly relaxing. The creative juices start flowing. That's where the idea for this sticky note holder purse came from. I absolutely adore pocketbooks (you should see my closet), and these sticky notes were the perfect size to make this work. Start by cutting a piece of 12x12 card stock slightly larger than the sticky notes. Mine ended up 5 1/4 inches wide. Yours may vary depending on the size of your stickies. Then crease the card stock at the top and bottom edges on either side of the stickies to make the card stock wrap tightly around the paper. I usually eyeball it and mark it with my finger nail, but you can use a more precise measurement if you'd like. (I do words, not numbers.) Then cut deco

How do you make choices? Do you make decisions based on the circumstances around you? By what other people are choosing? Or by what the Word of the Lord says? We are faced with literally hundreds of decisions every day: Will I get up and be at work today? How will I dress? What will I do? Where will I go? Who will I talk to? How will I speak? And that's just within the first few moments of the day. Throughout the Bible, we are shown how choices affect the lives of individuals, their friends and family and everyone around them. Some chose for good, others for evil. Each of those choices is recorded in Scripture for us to read and learn from. There are 24 instances in Scripture where the words "as for me" are used. They show the contrast between those who choose earthly, worldly things and the will of God. The verses that precede these words tell the stories of people with no concern for the things of the Lord. They are sinful, wicked, world-minded people. But the

Think tiny when you see today's sketch. It's all about the little details to make this card work. A solid background color is the backdrop to make rows of small images stand out. They can be punched shapes, small stamped items or little 3D embellishments. Line up your itty bitty images, and then double mat them on coordinating paper. Mat your phrase or verse and tuck it into the design. It will overlap onto the background, balancing out your shapes. For my card, I chose to use a medium-sized flower punch. Then I added a tiny pearl to the center of each one. My background is a coordinating blue that goes with the other colors I chose. The flowers were then matted on white card stock and double matted on a dark green. I left space for my verse, which was matted on a fourth color of card stock. This card, along with many other cards, paper crafts and wood gifts, can be found in our Etsy shop . Come visit today for more crafting and gift ideas.

We're pretty sure that this pair of geese is the pair that comes back to our property year after year. Don't ask me how we know - we're not on a first name basis with them or anything. Maybe we'd just like to think that they enjoy our ponds enough that they make return every spring. They have a handful of babies each year, but unfortunately they never make it through the year. We have enough other, bigger critters on the land that we're guessing find them. But the adult geese keep coming back, and they keep trying again. I'm excited to see if this will be the year they make it. This spring is a brand-new opportunity for life. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; Endevouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3 Make this a weekend of taking advantage of the oppor

Danny's had four of the past five days off from work, so we've been having fun working on projects around the house together. Here's just a sampling of what we've done.  I made a box out of paint stir sticks for some spring plants. Danny taught me how to use several of his power tools, so it was a real learning experience. I also discovered that if one corner of a project leans a little bit, you can't always fix it. Chalk that one up to experience. I finally got around to painting my second filing cabinet. I absolutely love the way this one turned out, too. So now I can finally finish organizing the office ... a project for another day. Danny's putting together some intarsia ornaments for this year's Walk On Art Street craft fair, and this little bear was his first attempt. I think it is just the cutest thing ever - look for them in the shop sometime this summer. And we put our heads together to make this beautiful welcome si

For a special occasion or just a tasty touch to a week-night meal, you'll want to try these baked pears. Four ingredients and 30 minutes later, you'll wish you had made twice as many. Ingredients: 2 pears cinnamon walnut pieces honey 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with wax paper or parchment paper. 2. Cut the pears in half, removing the stems. Use a spoon or melon baller to remove the seeds and make a nice circle in each half. I also cut a small slice off the back side to help them stand upright. 3. Place the halves on the baking sheet and liberally sprinkle them with cinnamon (to taste). Fill the centers with walnut pieces, then drizzle each with honey. 4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. (Check at 25 minutes.) 5. Serve immediately with yogurt or ice cream.

As a little girl, I remember when the firefighters would come to the school. They'd bring their big truck, sound the siren and show us all the parts of their uniform. And then they'd teach us all how to Stop, Drop and Roll. If you ever caught on fire, you'd stop moving, drop to the ground and roll around until the fire was extinguished. As serious as they were about Stop, Drop and Roll, I assumed there would be more opportunities in life to use it. That's the mental process of an elementary school student. To this day I've never caught myself on fire, but I still know what to do. Now, as a grown up, we can still use this time-tested philosophy in our spiritual life. Sin is a day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour battle. If we practice Stop, Drop and ROLL with our sin, we can put up a fight against the enemy that would like to see us destroy ourselves. Stop: When sin enters our lives, we need to come to a dead stop. Continuing in the direction we're going is a

For this week's sketch, let's start with some basic building blocks, then let our imaginations run wild! Choose a beautiful background color stop begin with, then add four blocks of coordinating decorator paper. You can make all four blocks the same width, or you can make two of them a little wider, making a more interesting final layout. Overlap your phrase on the top two blocks, matted in another coordinating color. Then finish it up with an embellishment in each corner of one block. It can be eyelets, brads, gems or some other tiny accessory. For my card, I started with a dark purple, textured card stock. Then I chose four coordinating patterned papers. They are all from the same set, so coordinating them took no thinking on my part at all. The blocks on the left hand side are slightly wider than the ones on the right, since all of my embellishments are on the right. The thank you vellum sticker is matted in another shade of purple, then laid over the two top

It's been quite a week at the Carrell Wildlife Preserve. The deer that left the property for the winter have come back, and we can hear the baby coyotes having howling practice once the sun goes down. The turkeys are taking their well-planned out route around the property every day, and as long as the feeder is filled, there are birds and squirrels galore. Molly's not quite sure about all of this action. She spends much of her day in front of a window, growling and letting me know when something new has come up onto the deck. It's fun to watch our puppy see new things. For as the earth bright forth her bud, and as the garden caught the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Isaiah 61:11 Make this a weekend of catching spring fever. The days are warmer, the sun is high in the sky longer and the earth is bursting forth with new life. Soon everything will be green and l

Being home every day has allowed me to improve my fitness routine. It was terribly difficult to find the time and energy to work out after a long day at the office and then taking care of the house. Now I'm able to work out at least five days a week, including two trips to the YMCA for cardio. The other three days I do weights and core here at home. I'm already seeing a little of the results, so I can't wait to see what the future holds. We're also eating much more healthy since I'm here to plan meals and cook. We've cut out almost all of our bread and sweets, while adding in more lean meats and veggies. There's a baked pears recipe that I'm very much looking forward to trying. So why am I so focused on fitness now? I'm so glad you asked. 1. God created this body. (Genesis 1:27, Psalm 139:14) 2. Jesus Christ died for this body. (Romans 5:8, 1 Corinthians 15:3) 3. The Holy Spirit lives in this body. (Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

I surprised Danny with a special cookie treat this week. Despite our healthy eating habits, we both still have a terrible sweet tooth. And a treat every now and then is more than acceptable, right? Right? This is where you say, Of course! This cookie pan was a present to myself in a Valentine's Day sale last year, and I still hadn't gotten around to using it. But I had a special Valentine's cookie mix that I thought would work perfectly. I made the dough according to the package directions, then filled each cavity 2/3 full. After 9 1/2 minutes (yes, that's very specific, but that's the time that didn't make them too crusty or too gooey), they were absolutely perfect. Then I had fun decorating them. For most of them, I just followed the decorations made by the pan itself, which is much more difficult than I thought it would be. And I learned that I definitely don't have the patience to be a professional decorator. On the other hand, I can

It's been a while since I played around with different styles of cards, so this weekend I made this tri-fold card. It was so nice to get outside my normal comfort zone and let the creativity flow. This card unfolds to show the Bible verse inside. You can even use up some of your scraps, as this card measures only 4x4.25 inches when it's folded up. Start with an 11x4.25 piece of card stock. Mine is textured, which means it took a little extra work to make the creases stick. Think about this when you're choosing your paper. Score 2 inches and 3.75 inches from both ends of the card stock. This will create two folds on either end, making the flaps of your card. Fold the outer creases to the outside and the inner creases to the inside. Then I covered the outer parts of the flaps and the center section with card stock. Folded up, this makes the front of your card. You can leave them like this ... ... or you can add a la

Here we are at the beginning of another week. There are so many jokes about how terrible Monday is, how we'd like to just call in sick to have another day to ourselves and even how we'd just like to skip it all together. But that's a waste of a perfectly good day! How about we look at Monday like this: M - Marvel. For the Father liveth the Son, and sheath him all things that himself doth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. John 5:20 God is planning to do great and wonderful things today, and we'll miss out if we're walking around with our heads down mumbling about how it's already Monday again. The day of the week doesn't matter because the Lord is going to do things today that we will marvel at - are you looking for them? O - Obey. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unpr

Finally - another sketch with embellishments! This one calls for six brads or eyelets to frame a left hand border. Your main image or phrase will be in that border, and there's plenty of space left for other accents like die cuts or blocks of coordinating paper. If you double mat the background, you'll get some added dimension and another spot of color. Coordinate everything for an eye-popping finished product. The great thing about this sketch is that it can be as simple or as intricate as you'd like. Mix and match papers and images until you find something you really like. For my card, I used blue card stock for the background panel, then added a vertical-striped piece of decorator paper with the same blue in it. The border uses the green from the striped paper as the card stock background, then my hand-stamped phrase is matted on the light blue from the stripes. I moved the bottom three brads (which could easily have been eyelets) up to more closely frame

One of the most pressing projects that I wanted to tackle last week was my side of the closet. It was overflowing and messy - a cluttered home leads to a cluttered mind, so something needed to be done! After just part of an afternoon, I had six plastic shopping bags ready to go to the thrift store along with a huge bag of hangers. I promised myself more matching hangers if I tackled this job, so I'm absolutely thrilled. I don't need a closet full of clothes, though, that's for sure. I like that what I do have is taken care of and well organized now. Just being a good steward of the blessings God has given. And now someone else can benefit from the clothes that I've outgrown or just plain don't wear anymore. But there's something to clothe yourself in that makes even more of a difference. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old

This is the fourth week of my "retirement," and I'm having an amazing time being home every day. My quiet time with the Lord has been amazingly sweet (and much longer than normal), and I have so much more time to clean and decorate our home, something that went by the wayside for three and a half years.  Out of the desire to learn new things and keep the house, I decided to make this wreath - a project I've wanted to do for ages but didn't have the time or energy to do. Spring seemed like the perfect time to tackle it. To start with, I very sweetly asked Danny to cut me some tree cookies, the branch slices that would make up the wreath itself. Mine are about 3 inches in diameter. Then I made him a template for the circle they would be attached to. It's a plywood circle 9 1/4 inches on the outside and 7 inches on the inside. A circle cutter makes this incredibly easy. Then a little hot glue adheres the cookies to the circle. I was able