Living as a Victorious Christian Woman

If you've been following along with me for a while, you know about my love of vintage cookbooks. I love the way they look, the ingredients that are no longer available, the pictures with the tableware and decorations of the day. I probably have just as many older cookbooks than I do current authors and titles. So when I found a recipe in a 1963 Better Homes & Garden cookbook for Angel Cake with Coffee Cream, there was no doubt this would be part of our Christmas dinner. I very rarely follow a recipe measurement by measurement. In the case of this one, I had never even heard of coffee cream, but learned it is a thick, whipped frosting laced with instant coffee granules. Let me just say this - its incredibly addictive. I had enough leftover to use as a cookie dip, but it will not be around for very long. You've been warned. Ingredients:  1 box angel food cake mix or store-bought cake 2 cups whipping cream 1/2 cup sugar 1 1/2 Tbsp instant coffee 1 tsp vanilla 1. Prepare cake a...

Whoo hoo - we made it to Christmas Day! We shopped and wrapped and cooked and cleaned and decorated and sent and did all the things we associate with the Christmas season, and we survived mostly intact! I'm very proud of us. But now it's two days after Christmas. Life gets back to normal as we wear our new clothes, eat our new snacks and play with our new toys. We go back to work, school and our homes, and we start our routines back up like they were before. Is that what we're supposed to do? Leave Christmas in the rear view mirror and get back to normal? Pack up all the decorations and put the lights back in the box? What if we didn't go back to normal? What if we didn't pack our Christmas spirit into the box with the tree, but kept it out all year long? I read several social media posts during the holidays about customers paying for the car behind them in the drive-through. Other people adopted so many pets that the shelters were almost empty. And many of us spent...

And just like that, it's the last week of December 2021. So much has happened this year, and it's all documented in my planner pages. This was the first year that I designed my own pages in addition to using preprinted ones, so that alone was an adventure!  We don't have snow on the ground side it's been 50-60 degrees every day for the past couple of weeks. That's why one of my spreads is devoted to chilly shades of blue and happy little snowflakes. The only part of these pages that's true to life is the deer. We have plenty of those! I went out of my comfort zone for my last planner pages of the year. I don't usually use sticker sets like these, but I thought they were pretty adorable for New Year's Eve. I don't know if I'll stay up Friday night to watch the new year come in or go to bed early and start the weekend refreshed and rejuvenated. Either way, I'm ready to document the last days and hours of 2021 in sparkling style. How about you?

May your day be filled with all the joy, peace and love of God. From our home to yours, Merry Christmas!

This ornament has hung on our Christmas tree for years and years. From the front, it's just a green evergreen tree decorated in gold ornaments and garland. Very pretty, but very plain and very simple. This is how many people see Christmas. There's a tree to decorate, presents to shop for, meals to make and people to greet. Some of them will go to the Christmas Eve service tonight, not for a blessing or to worship the newborn King with their church family, but because it's what they do every year before they drive around and look at Christmas lights. It's just one more item on their holiday bucket list, something to take a picture of and post online. At the bottom of the tree, it reads: For over 2000 years, Christmas has come and gone. The sparkle and the razzle-dazzle keep us enthralled for a few weeks, but then we're back to the everyday grind come January. The celebration gets this huge build up, but it's very short-lived. But turn the ornament around, and you...

It never fails - I think I have all my gift-buying done, but then I realize there's one more group I'd like to have something for. Here's a fun and simple way to let those special someones know you're thinking about them, and you don't have to break the bank to share your love.  Included in each little packet are an ornament, a candy cane and a greeting card tag, all tied together with seasonal ribbon. And there's plenty of room to write a holiday message on the back of the tag! I found all of these bits at the dollar store, and I already had the card stock, so I was able to make the exact number of gifts I needed for just $4. I tied the candy cane to the center of the ornament with a double knot, just to make sure it wasn't going anywhere and wouldn't get broken. The ornaments came in a package of 12, and there were 12 candy canes in a box, so I know it was meant to be! Then I decorated the tags and tied them to the candy cane before making a sweet litt...

Sweet potatoes are the perfect addition to any holiday menu. Not only are they healthier than white potatoes and much more flavorful, but they can be mixed with many other flavors to create some yummy combinations. For these mashed sweet potatoes, you'll want real, true maple syrup. Trust me, it makes a difference. And if you want to create an eye-pleasing garnish, save back a little of the butter/maple syrup and a few chopped pecans before serving. Ingredients: 3 lbs sweet potatoes (5-6, peeled and diced) 6 Tbsp butter 1/4 cup real maple syrup 1 Tbsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp nutmeg 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1. Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the diced sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil, then boil 8-10 minutes, until they are fork-tender. Drain the sweet potatoes, return to the pot and mash until almost smooth. 2. In a small pan, melt the butter and stir until it begins to brown. Pour into a small bowl. 3. Add maple syrup to butter, stirring to combine. 4. Pour butter mixture into th...

Television and movies make us think that we have to have a house packed to the rafters to have a truly memorable Christmas. But for many of us, that just isn't the case. While we'd love to have a big family Christmas or invite every single person we know over to the house this weekend, it may just not be feasible.  Did you realize you can have a wonderful, joyous, very merry Christmas when it's just the two of you? There have been many Christmases in our marriage when we weren't able to get away for the holidays because of our jobs, or our families' schedules or for health and travel reasons. Our response was to make Christmas just as special for each other as we would have with a room full of our favorite people. And how can you do that for yourself this year? * Pull out an old cookbook, choose a couple of recipes together and then head to the kitchen for some tag-team holiday cooking. * Plan the same meals you would make if everyone was there, just cut back on the...

When I created this week's layouts, I wanted to include a variety of colors, themes and patterns. Usually this left hand page is a full page of lined paper for journaling, but because I'm doing three Advent journals right now, I didn't really need it. Instead, I used the front of an old Christmas card, and now the whole planner is full of glitter. Yay, glitter! Then I made an outdoorsy spread with some tiny evergreens and cardinals from a holidays sticker book. I love how simple and beautiful pages can be without a whole bunch of large images. These few days of work before the long Christmas weekend are going to need a lot of space for planning, so these pages are perfect. So, Southeast Iowa isn't expected to have a white Christmas. (Now that I've said that, we'll probably get dumped on. Murphy's Law.) No snow means I have to make my own snow, so I used all the round snowflake stickers I could find and accented them with a variety of textured and glittered s...

Why can't I be happy? Where can I find happiness?  How am I supposed to be happy about this? Doesn't God want me to be happy? Should I walk away if I'm not happy? Happy is one of those words that will forever be in the eye of the beholder. What makes me happy won't necessarily make you happy, too, and the other way around. It's an incredibly subjective idea, and its definition changes moment by moment. Right now, a cream-filled donut with maple frosting would make me wonderfully happy. But happiness is a fleeting thing that will only last a short while. I'll be hungry again, plus I'll be on a sugar high, which leads to a crash and burn with me napping in the corner. That's not so happy. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Matthew 2:10 Stop and think about how far the wise men travelled to see Jesus. They were so excited that their travel time didn't matter, leaving their homes behind didn't matter and even talking to H...

Here is that beautiful touch your Christmas dinner table needs next week! Turn a patterned square napkin into a gorgeous bow in less than two minutes. Ready? Here it is. Lay the napkin flat, upside down. Fold the bottom point to the top point. (You'll find out if your napkin is truly square!) Fold the top down about two-thirds of the way. Fold the bottom up about halfway across the new shape. Fold up one more time so the bottom edge meets the top edge. Bring each end of the folded napkin in, so they cross each other and make that "ribbon" shape. Tuck both the bow and the tail from one side through the napkin ring. Turn the bow over and floof as necessary. And there it is - less than two minutes for a beautiful bow! I can't wait to see this napkin on your Christmas table.

Is pasta one of your comfort foods? I've been making this pasta bake in many different forms for years. It's great for two people because it lasts a few days. It's also great to take to a holiday party or potluck when you need some main course dishes. I know I say it all the time, but this is one of my favorite recipes. It's a go-to when we have tons of ground beef in the freezer. It's easy to adapt using whatever you have in the pantry. And it makes enough for a few meals, making it stretch your dollar! Want to mix things up? Use ground turkey or pork and melt a can of jellied cranberry sauce into the meat while it browns. Play around with a variety of pasta sauces. Try cheese blends to find your favorite combination. Ingredients: 1lb ground beef Italian seasoning 1 box penne pasta Pinch of salt 1 jar chunky garden pasta sauce 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 1 bag shredded Mozzarella cheese   1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 2. Fill a large pot with water and heat to boilin...

We read about angels all through the Bible, cringing when they bring bad news to evil-doers, cheering when they bless the righteous and rejoicing when the proclaim the arrival of the newborn King! Did you know that only three angels are named in the Bible? Gabriel is the messenger angel, speaking to just about everybody involved in the Christmas story. Michael is the warrior angel, who fought Satan for the body of Moses and will lead the battle of Armageddon. And Lucifer, the banished angel who decided he would be better than God Himself. Praise the Lord that I will never see him face to face, since just seeing his evil work in the lives of people I love is bad enough. To be honest, I hope I get to meet Michael one day. We don't really know what the angels will look like, though Scripture does give some basic descriptions. I'm curious about how this warrior for God will look and what stories he will tell about the battles fought. And then there is Gabriel, the magnificent messe...

It may be a small thing in the bigger picture of life, but have you ever noticed that after you've used all your favorite stickers in your planner, that there are tons of little ones left? As I was putting together my last few weeks of Christmas and winter layouts, I realized that all the big phrases were gone and only the small images remained. So here's how I used them! On my second hot cocoa layout, I used the tiny cups like table scatter across the two pages. This fills in the white space and moves your eyes over the whole spread. Normally I match the larger images up with one or two small ones, like these branches with words and snowflakes with words. I'm not a big fan of "just putting a sticker on a piece of paper," so layers and clusters make my heart happy. And for this layout, I had a few tiny scraps of decorator paper that I loved, and I layered them together in three places. Then I accented them with the smallest of heart stickers, the last in that stic...

Oh my goodness, I am so in love with this darling little Christmas book! It started out as a board book from the dollar store, but now it's the perfect gift and decor piece for the holiday season. The only part of the creative process that isn't especially creative is covering the book with decorator paper. Since the book is only 2.5 inches square, I was able to use a bunch of my scrap paper, which is an added bonus! When I cover board books, I use a long, thin piece of paper to cover the sine first, then add thee front and back covers. You'll see this better in some of the other photos. Then each page gets it's own decorator paper. I think some of these patterns have been in my Christmas box for at least a decade. So that's fun. For the decorations, I used the Christmas Advent Joy printable from Chela Creates for the Community Bible Journaling Advent Calendar at AllieScraps.com. Not only are they stinkin' cute, they're the perfect size to hang over the edge...