It Was a Great Success!

A heartfelt "Thank You!" to all of you who actually and sincerely said a prayer for our Yard Sale! It was an immense success and we sold lots and lots of our junk (A-HEM,) I mean, extra and unwanted items. :D We had almost nothing left at the end of the sale... and lots of cash rustling and clinking in our pockets. :D Hurray! God is SoooooOOOOOO good.
Just so you have some small clue as to how much we actually got rid of, here are some pictures!

 Yup. Too much stuff. :) We had mostly clothes but lots of other things as well. And I added two stands of my handmade earrings to the array of available things to buy. We had a huge rack of clothes hanging along one whole wall of the carport and by the end of the garage sale it was almost EMPTY! Whew!

We cut some pretty great bargains for people and met some very interesting folks. ;)
I think I've heard enough twangy southern accents to last me for a while! :D Lol!

Our poor gravel driveway got all torn up with people trying to drive the wrong way up the hill in light little trucks or back out the wrong way with huge suburbans... *cringe* But everybody was ok and nothing too terrible happened that can't be fixed with a little raking smooth again. :D

 I was surprised that my Meow-Chi toys sold! :D Nobody knew what they were... I had to explain several times to clueless shoppers what the little robotic cats actually 'did'. They sing and dance and meow in cute robotic tones, people. How hard is that to understand? Haha!

In this picture you can see how tightly packed the clothes were on this rack (Later they looked a lot better because I color-coordinated them) ;) At the end of the sale we only had about 20 things hanging on it instead of the however many we started with! Yay! :)

We only had about 30 books or so but they all sold, even some old, dusty, piano music books!

All my Bath & Body Works perfume sold, thanks in part to the help of my sweet Mennonite friends. And most of the nail polish was bought. I was astonished! :)

Well, I hope you have a wonderful week! If you have nothing to do... you could go on over and see the newest batch of backgrounds at "I Love it!" Blog Designs. :D I love hearing which are your favorites!
Blessings,

Announcing The High School Graduation of...

We celebrate the blessing of our homeschooling journey by announcing the High School graduation of our daughter,

Julia.
We thank God for the privilege it is to invest in her life and education.
Robert & Gloria

I would like to take this opportunity to say how extremely grateful I am to my loving parents, Bob and Gloria, for caring so tenderly for me all my life, giving me the best possible education by schooling me in our home, and being such excellent role models for me to look up to and strive to reflect. I love them more than words can express, and I firmly believe that God has been very, very good to me in providing me with such wonderful parents.

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My homeschooling has been such a pleasure to me. I have learned valuable life lessons and I have been protected from so much of the heartache, struggles, and pain that I would have been subjected to if I hadn't been homeschooled. I have developed an awesome relationship with my two younger brothers and my parents are my two best mentors, guardians, and friends.

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Mama, you are such an inspiration to me. The way you have persevered and kept on homeschooling us in the midst of many trials and constant pain from your Rheumatoid Arthritis is truly awe-inspiring. I am so glad that we have hope for the first time in 12 years for your recovery! You are the true picture of a Proverbs 31 woman, and I am hereby rising up and calling you blessed. I love you.

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Daddy - thank you so much for being the best father, protector, leader of our home, and wise patriarch that I could have ever had. You are the shining example by which I will measure all the potential suitors that will come across my path in the years to come. I am so blessed by the fact that until the time comes for me to start my own family, I will be under your loving protection and care. I love you.

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Mark and Steven,

I am so thankful that you are my brothers. It is so exciting to see the many ways you are growing up and maturing into godly young men. What would I have ever done if I had not had you two around? The house would have been so still and silent and lonely without you. You guys are the best brothers I could ever wish for. I love you.

Daddy & Mommy - Married for 20 years...

Yep, today's the day! Mama & Daddy have been married for 20 whole years.



Together they've been walking a path. A straight and narrow way, but such a beautiful journey. My parents are a wonderful example of a loving, caring, patient, peaceful, happy marriage. It's the best one I've ever had the pleasure to see. Our home is joyful. Someday, when I meet my Prince Charming, my future husband, I want to have a marriage just like the one my parents have.

Mama wrote a loving tribute to Daddy over on her blog. You can stop by and wish her a Happy Anniversary there! :)

For those who are curious, today we spent the day at home, had delectable barbecued baby back ribs for dinner with steaming corn on the cob, drizzled with melted butter, and homemade hearty oatmeal bread on the side. It was delicious!
Daddy is going to take Mama out to dinner this Friday to the Seafood Buffet at the Callaway Gardens Plant Room Restaurant for an 'extra-special' meal.

And we are planning to finally put our family photos (Yes, the ones we took before converting to digital) into scrapbooks, so we can look over, remember, and enjoy the memories of the past 20 years.

Happy Anniversary, Daddy and Mama! :) I love you!

God is SO good and I am delighted! (Back from GHEA convention)

Hello friends!

Thank you so much for all your encouraging comments on my previous post! I am so thankful for the Lord's blessing on my jewelry sales today... I was so thrilled with how much of my jewelry sold! Praise God! I estimate that I sold about three/fifths of my jewelry, which was more than I expected! Yay!

I met some very sweet fellow bloggers, and actually at one point I had three different sets of people in my booth who had all previously seen my blog! :D

I met Madison from Madison's Musings, (which was delightful!!) Jess from Dixie farm girl, (She was so nice!) Saw Mckenzie's parents again, (They were very friendly) socialized pleasantly with Earwen for the second time, saw my good friends Joanna and Allison, and met a dear girl who found me through Aspiring Homemaker! It was a downright blogfest! :D

Here are my lovely mother and I in front of half of our booth... the Mai Thai coffee half! Mama was manning that side of the booth while I was busily selling my jewelry on the other half.

(BTW, that shadow behind my back is my hair - it's so long I can sit on it)

While you have a moment, quickly bop over to Mai Thai Coffee.com to learn more about this amazing product! (We've supported this ministry for seven years and we love them!)

And here's my jewelry. :) My creations.

And me, at my post.... in front of our 'buy three, get one free' banner...

And me again... here you can see more of the booth...

I had such a wonderful day - but now I'm ready to curl up in a cozy dark corner and just rest for a while. :)

Yesterday I did 30 Sit-Ups

...in a row. :D And the best part is I'm not sore today! :) I also did 20 push-ups. I'm working on doing some reps every evening, and that's been very good for my stomach muscles and biceps. :) I've also been riding the excercise bike faithfully and continuing my diet, which I now prefer to call my 'lifestyle'. :)

***Anyway.....***

Hi everyone! :)

Just a quick update to let you know that so far I'm having a wonderful birthday! I got several sweet e-cards, birthday cards, and hugs from loving family members. :) Mama made French toast for breakfast (yum!) and we're going to make a strawberry-vanilla checkerboard cake possibly around noon. :) Hopefully, if the weather cooperates, we'll be heading up to play Ultimate Frisbee with our home-church group - such nice people! :) I hope it doesn't rain!! It's supposed to be "Stormy with large hail". ACK! Not very good frisbee weather! :(

Thank you for all the sweet comments! :) You're all so wonderful. :)

I've Been Healed!

This is so exciting!

For a long time, just about 2 and a half years now, I have struggled with a very annoying jaw problem. My 'disc' was loose, I'd been told, which caused my jaws to make a variety of scary KA-CHUNKs, CREAK-Cracks, CLICK-Pops, and other weird sounds. I didn't have any pain, but I could feel bones in my cheeks and the hinges of my jaws move around whenever I opened my mouth wide enough to bite a large hamburger. That was a little unnerving, to say the least! I couldn't yawn without my jaw feeling tight and then snapping loose with a "Crack!".

Then, this morning in church, our pastor called anyone who needed prayer for healing to come to the front.

I believe that God still heals people today. (And I've been blessed as a result) I am pretty sure there is no place in the Bible where it says "And I the Lord will stop healing people at such-and-such a year" ...so the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob still works in his children's lives.

I walked to the front and asked for prayer for my jaws.

A wonderful, sweet lady named Nikki, who had also struggled with jaw problems in the past, prayed for me, then asked if I believed God would heal me. "Yes!" I said. "Then according to your faith you are healed!" She said, a smile on her face! We hugged and I thanked her and then walked back to my pew.

About ten seconds later I was brave enough to open my mouth and see if it still clicked.

IT DIDN'T.

I could open my mouth as wide as I pleased and the motion was smooth and effortless! HALLELUJAH!! "Thank you God!" I whispered. I turned to my Mother, Father, and two younger brothers seated next to me in the pew and whispered excitedly "My jaw doesn't click anymore!" Their faces lit up and they smiled happily. They knew how much the clicking had bothered me.

I ran up to Miss Nikki after the church service had concluded and told her my jaw didn't click anymore, eagerly demonstrating how I could open my mouth smoothly. "Praise the Lord!" She said, giving me a glad hug.
My sentiments exactly!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Julia