*Coughing*...*More Coughing*...

I feel so out of it! I have been sick for 6 days with a high fever most of the time, a sore throat, and a horrible racking cough the entire time. I feel well enough today to sit here and type a little so I thought I'd let you know what was going on. :P I'm trying not to cough on the keyboard, lest I spread my pernicious germs. Ick.

I signed into my blogger dashboard a few minutes ago and was astounded by all the posts on my reading list that happened while I wasn't watching! :) There must be 50 posts by various authors that all deserve to be read... how will I ever catch up?

Thank you to all the people who have tagged and awarded me recently... It may take me a while to do the posts required by the tags and awards, as I really still feel quite ill.

My family was also suffering... my mom is still very sick and lying on the couch at present, but my brothers and my dad are feeling slightly better. Please keep us in your prayers!

Blessings,

A Very Unique, Interesting Tag

I have been tagged by Rachel! Thanks Rachel, this one is so much fun! :D

Here are the rules:
Use the first letter of your name to answer ALL of the following questions. If the person before you has the same 1st letter pick a new one. OR use different answers. :) You CAN NOT use anything twice, and you CAN NOT use your own name for the boy/girl question. After you are done, tag 5 people.......

1. What is your name?: Julia
2. A 4 letter word: Jump
3. A boy's name: James
4. A girl's name: Joanna
5. An occupation: Jewelry Designer (I am one!)
6. A color: What? A color that starts with J? oh dear. Um.... Jonquil! :D A pale shade of yellow.
7. Something you wear: Jodphurs (Riding pants - and yes, I actually do wear them, or used to anyway...)
8. A Food: Jams & Jellies
9. Something found in the bathroom: Junk? :D
10. A place: Jamaica
11. A reason for being late: Jam of Traffic :D
12. Something you shout: Um... Jitzakadoozee! (Okay, yes, I fudged that one)
13. A movie title: Oooh, this is hard... (the) Jungle Book
14. Something you drink: Juice of all kinds :D I love juice!
15. An animal: Jaguar
16. A song title: Joy To The World - hymn
17. A verb: Jiggle

I Tag,
Mckenzie, Lydia, Breezy, Emily Rose, and Gloria (my mom). :) Also anyone reading this is welcome to participate! :)

5 Practical Tips for Guarding a Maidenly Heart

Mrs. Stacy McDonald has given me permission to share something with you from her wonderful book, Raising Maidens of Virtue.

These 5 tips have been very helpful to me, and since most of my readers - well, the ones who comment, anyway - are young women, I thought this would be appropriate and possibly even help or encourage you, as it has me. :)

5 Practical Tips for Guarding Your Maidenly Heart

1. Read God's Word and pray every day. Specifically ask God to help you guard your heart. Pray for your father to make wise decisions regarding your future.
2. Avoid romance novels or discussions with other maidens regarding boys. When discussing your future role as a wife and mother, focus on preparing yourself biblically for your vocation. Keep away from discussions about romance, wedding fantasies, or eligible young men (whether they are godly or not).
3. Avoid being alone with a young man. It is best to fellowship while under the protection of your parents, within the environment of the home and family.
4. Avoid fantasizing about who might be "Mr. Right". Stay on guard, especially when you sense that you may be attracted to a young man (or that he may be attracted to you). Remember your goal is to stay pure for the one you marry, both physically and emotionally.
5. Talk to your parents about your feelings. Let them know when you need prayer in a specific area. God has placed them over you for your protection - trust them and Him.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Have you ever had a difficult time guarding your heart?

I hope this was helpful! :)

Please Cast Your Vote

Okeydokey, I have a favor to ask. Please, take the time to give me your opinion with one click! I have a new poll at the top of my sidebar that I would really like you to vote on.

I'm trying to decide if I want to change Julia's Journal to three-column. (To see a three-column blog, look at my cooking blog) I think I 've found a good way to do it. :)

Please vote!

I'm currently feeling: quiet

A Newsy Little Post #3

Hi Readers!

First of all, I changed the background. :) PLEASE, if you have my pink button on your blog, could you switch it to my new one that matches this background? Thanks!

Yes, I know, it's not technically 'Spring' yet, but....

I have daffodils blooming in my yard.

I felt so overjoyed to see their sunny faces pop up outside our house. :) Don't you just love spring? Who doesn't like feeling the earth awaken and the warm breezes and seeing the grass turn green and hear the birds singing? :)

But while I spin these airy fancies about spring, the fact remains that it is February. So, to help combat the slight chill still in the air, I have my...

Leggings! These soft, fuzzy leggings were not always leggings. They were once the sleeves of a cashmere sweater that we found at Goodwill. (while on vacation in Michigan, actually.) Mama separated the sleeves from the sweater and added blanket-stitching around the 'bottom', and yarn through the top that you can tie. (To prevent the leggings from falling down) And we had leggings!

Modeled by me. :) The shoes are from Wal-mart, just about the only place to shop in my teeny town besides the Home Depot. :P

Hoping for Spring,

I'm currently: Working. :)

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Today is my brother Mark's birthday! :D I know, I just did a post about my mom's birthday... their birthdays are very close, Mom is on the 9th and Mark is today, Valentines' day, the 14th. :)

Mark is such a neat brother. He is now officially 15 years old and can get a learner's permit. Wow. He's really growing up! Literally, as well, for he's now about half an inch taller than me, which is something he's always wanted. :) However, when I wear heels, I'm taller. He likes it when I wear ballet flats. ;D This picture was taken while on our trip to Michigan last month, and Steven and Mark had been snowball-fighting non-stop, which is the reason for the snow-dusted hat. :D

Happy Birthday, Mark!!

Okay, I know my regular readers must be exasperated with me by now. I can just imagine all of you going "Julia, where is that nice long post about the conference that we're all waiting for???" *Here I insert a sheepish grin* Yes, well, I currently have the post in the 'draft' file, and I'm still working on it. I haven't spent much time on the computer these last few days... I haven't been feeling that well. So, I'm sorry, but the post will just happen when it happens. I hope you'll understand. :)

Love and Hugs,

Happy Birthday, Mama!

February 9 was Mama's birthday! :) I'm so sorry this post was late.

This photo was taken on our camping trip in North Carolina. Mama and Daddy happened to be wearing coordinating shirts and I just had to take a picture. :D

My mother is amazing. She is the hub around which our home revolves. She presses forward in spite of difficulties, one of which being her health - She still has some symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthrtitis, an incredibly painful auto-immune disease, yet every evening since I can remember she has made a wonderful home-cooked meal for our family. She is the epitome of the wife and mother I someday wish to be. I love you, Mama, and I am so thankful that you are my mother!

If you'd like to leave my sweet mom a comment, her blog can be found HERE.

I do apologize for the time lapse in my posts... the Botkin Family/Christians at the Crossroads conference was amazing, but the weekend was a little crazy, with our family driving back and forth to Columbus each morning and evening. We're just now getting fully back into the swing of things. :P I'm sure you can relate. :D Never fear, I will be posting about that very soon!!

Love and Hugs,

What Would You Choose?

Lately I read this book, "The Parting" by Beverly Lewis. It's about a young Amish girl named Nellie Mae. She finally gets the chance of a lifetime when Caleb, the very handsome guy she secretly has had a crush on for three years, asks her to 'go steady' with him. They fall in love. Meanwhile, Nellie's father talks to a relative who's recently been 'shunned' by the Amish community for daring to declare that he was "saved", a big no-no for Old Order Amish, who believe that it is prideful to 'boast' of salvation, and that you just have to live a good life and hope for the best. Well, Nellie's father talks to this shunned relative and ends up being convinced that there's more to God than he originally thought. He goes home and starts to read passages in his Bible that he's never read before, because his religion only believes in select parts of the Bible. He reads John Chapter 3, and is convinced that God does promise salvation. He shares this with his family.


Nellie is shocked. But then she becomes intrigued by this "New Faith" and desires it for herself. She's long had an empty place deep inside.

Only problem is... if she accepts this 'new faith', she'll lose Caleb. He's strictly "Old Order", and he will not be swayed from his position for anything.

Ouch. I got to thinking about this sticky situation. Can you imagine what a hard choice it would be to have to choose between a new faith and the very handsome young man whose attention you've always dreamed of capturing?

Of course you will probably say "Oh, well, I'd choose the faith" to reassure yourself.

Stop and think about it. You know nothing about this faith. You think you know everything about this handsome, blond, young man.

Which do you think is the right choice?

What would you choose?

I'd love it if you let me know by leaving a comment.

Blessings!

How To Make A Blog Button

I am SO sorry about the confusion with the blog buttons! On my original post it malfunctioned when I tried to copy in the html code that you have to copy from that box down there in my post. Some of my dear readers are having trouble with your code underneath your button turning into the actual picture. This will fix that. I've copied the instructions for making the actual button from my other post as well, just in case. :)

• First you have to take a picture and re-size it... I think 200 x 200 pixels is the biggest you can get it and still have it fit on your sidebar. My image is now that size. I used Olympus Master to get mine the exact size that I wanted. If you can't do that you can click 're-size' once the picture is on photobucket. "Small" works. *TIP* A square image works best.


• Next you have to upload your re-sized picture to Photobucket.com, or another picture-hosting site. you have to create a username and password. But it's free.
  


• Copy and paste the HTML of the image to an HTML/javascript gadget in your sidebar. On Photobucket, all you do is wave your mouse over the image and four different codes will pop up beneath... you'll want the third one down.
  


• Now you have to get tricky and change the code. Don't worry, I will tell you exactly what to type where. -if you used photobucket- Your code will say .. something like "a h r e f = http / / : 'your photobucket username' " Right there you erase it and put in your blog address. (right after the address it will have a line / and a question mark ? .
  


• Please click on THIS LINK and copy and paste the code from the box on that post. I fought long and hard with my computer to put that code on this post, but I'm sorry to say that the computer won. (Arrrrgh.) So I'm going to have to direct you to my friend Laney's blog. How she got the code on her post I have no idea. :D

put that code in a "Text" gadget in your sidebar. I put mine just underneath the button. Erase the 'your text here' and copy and paste the code from your button image into that exact spot where the 'your text here' was. And you have a button!

In my mad post scrambling my pretty signature got deleted, (argh) so for today It's just plain...

Julia