Christmas Might Not Be What You Think It Is

Hello, My Dear Readers,

Please take a moment to look at this post about Christmas by my mom. She has some very good points about why we don't do Christmas.

Please understand that I am not trying to 'push off' my beliefs on anyone else, and also that I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart, and not celebrating what we call "Christmas" doesn't mean I am not a christian.

I do ask that your comments, here and on my mother's blog, are courteous and respectful, even if you don't have the same opinion as my family. :)

Blessings!

Julia

Today I feel... Pensive, and quite Busy!

Make Your Own Digital Snowflake

Snowflakes, anyone?

Make your own at this cool Snowflake-Making-Website!

Blessings!

Julia

Right now I feel : Peaceful.

I Couldn't Resist.

New background! :D

I just had to do something for winter while it was still around. :) So I've got snowflakes in the background of my new header picture.

I really like my tulip header and background combination, and that will be back, don't worry.

I found this REALLY COOL AWESOME place to make something to use for header pictures. It's called Scrapblog.com. It's free, and you can use your own pictures. You simply must check it out! I use it to make scrapbook pages, download them into my computer, then add text with Microsoft PictureIt, because I recently learned how to download fonts off the internet. :D I'm lovin' this computery stuff. :)

Blessings to you all!

Julia

I'm currently feeling: Giddy and Jubilant!

Mom, I'm Proud Of You!

Announcing....

The start of a brand new blog, Gloria in Excelsis Deo, run by my own mother, Gloria! :) I love her title. It's so much more unique than "Julia's Journal". :P

Also...
I have been awarded by Miss Lauren Ann with this lovely award:

~THE LEMONADE AWARD~

The concept behind this award is that the blog creators have shown an uncanny knack for silver linings and making the best of bad situations (i.e., lemonade from lemons).
Rule: Name ten blogs that reflect this silver linings philosophy.
All righty then, I'm awarding....

1. My Mom, Gloria
2. Joanna
3. Madison
4. Laney
5. Mckenzie
6. Jasmine
7. Kaysie
8. Ella
9. Joelle
10. The Meiners

(This was in no particular order) All of these blogs are great, and I had a lot more that could have been awarded.

Blessings!

Julia

Currently I'm feeling: Happy, and Excited!

My Mouth Shall Speak The Praises Of The Lord

My dad read this Psalm to us after dinner this evening, and I just thought I would share my thoughts about it. My thoughts will be in green.

1. I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
2. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
   Some days I forget to bless the Lord. How can I do this? Look at the next verse...


3. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
   The Lord is so great it's not even comprehensible. Our small human minds can't even understand him completely.
4. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
   We should all be going around saying "Look at these works the Lord has done! Can you believe it? This is wondrous!! He is strong and mighty!"
5. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
   Yes, I will! The Lord is glorious!
6. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
   Lord - You Are Great!
7. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
   Singing of the Lord, for me, is easier than "abundantly uttering". Somehow, when the words are put to song, I don't feel strange going around the house, washing dishes, doing laundry.... and declaring the greatness of God. I sing while I work.
8. The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. Hear that? Full of compassion! Slow to anger. Great Mercy. This is something I strive for. I am not good at being slow to anger. Lord help me.
9. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
   ALL... That means everyone. Not just the beautiful people, or that nice girl or boy your age, but all the people everywhere. The clerk in the department store. The rude lady who nearly ran into you at the red light. Everyone includes... everyone.
10. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
    The Lord's works DO praise him... you can't look at a sunset or at a freshly bloomed rose without knowing that this was all created for a purpose, not by some random chance.
11. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
    His Kingdom is glorious! His Power is infinite!
12. To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
    We've gotta spread the word, people. Look at what the Apostle Paul did.... and he didn't even have a phone or computer.
13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
    Everlasting. Neverending. Lasting Forever! Throughout all generations. Your children's children, someday, will belong to his Kingdom.
14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
    He is tender towards the downtrodden. The fallen ones have hope through him! They have a chance to repent and be raised up into the light!
15. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
    We will not go hungry.
16. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
    Every living thing. The animals and the plants are all kept alive by God. That's a big job, if you think about it!
17. The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
    He's perfect. Otherwise it would be impossible to be righteous in ALL his ways.
18. The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
    Think about that! Whenever someone opens their mouth and speaks to the Lord, he is right there, listening to them.
19. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
    He will hear their cry! When you repent and cry out to God and ask to be saved, he saves!


20. The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
    We will be preserved in those last days of turmoil and destruction. HIs children will be safe. Now for the wicked... that's a different story.
21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
    

Amen! Yes I will!

I've realized that this blog is an active outlet for me to reach out. I will, therefore, be posting more scripture in the future. :)

Hope you enjoyed the word.

Julia

Currently I'm feeling... Thoughtful, and Contemplative.

Name in Flowers

ImageChef.com Flower Text

Isn't this cute?

Blesssings!

Julia

Currently I'm feeling... Artistic.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go

Well, a few days ago my family dropped in on some very dear friends of ours after a long day of shopping. Then after a yummy dinner of Pizza Hut pizza, us girls decided to go see the "Dickens Village" being re-enacted at a local church. We dressed up in gorgeous hoop skirts... (I learned the art of sitting down in one of those... quite a feat, I assure you) and then we left.
Yeah... that was fun... squeeeezing into the car! :)
When we got there, we drove right through it! Didn't even bother to get out of the car! There were screaming people dodging out of the way...

Actually, no. (Do you think we would really...?)

There weren't any people dodging, because they weren't there. They'd canceled the Dickens Village that year, unbeknownst to us! Oooops!

So we came back to my friends' house. We felt rather glum.

But then we had fun taking silly pictures. :D

We're probably going to go to the Dickens Village if they do it next year. That would be fun!

Anyway.... hope you enjoyed my ramblings...

Blessings!

Julia

Currently I'm feeling: Amused, Mellow, and Quiet.

Fabulous... Me? Why, Thanks!

I have had this delightful award bestowed upon me by the very fabulous Laney! :) I am so thrilled! Thank you, Laney!

To accept this award, I have to number 5 things I'm addicted to, and then award 5 other deserving, fabulous bloggers. (Only 5? That's all? Hmmm...)
Well, I don't like the term 'addicted' so I'll call this 'things I enjoy'. :)

1. Books!! I love to read. Mostly fiction, but I also enjoy a good biography or a stirring account of ancient history. I also love the DK books.


2. Blogging. I am so thankful that I was introduced to the blogosphere and that I've met so many wonderful young ladies through places like the Kindred Spirit Network and Maidens for Modesty.


3. The Great Outdoors! I love swimming and hiking and just being outside... although with winter closing upon us, it's not very appealing at the moment...


4. Photography. I love taking pictures.... especially of flowers. :)


5. And, last but SO not least, Jewelry design! I really like sitting down at my bead-strewn worktable and creating a tiny masterpiece (or pieces) out of shining or sparkling glass beads. Color is something that fascinates me - so working with colorful beads is the perfect hobby for me. :)

Now for the fun part... I'm awarding:

Joanna, Joanna is truly fabulous! A classy, lovable person who I'm so grateful to know... and her blog is quite insightful and lovely. :)

Jasmine- Jasmine is amazing. That says it all. :) She is very fabulous, and I love reading her blog because I always learn something I needed to. :)

Ella- Ella is a sweetheart! I love reading her blog and I've been blessed by getting to know her. :)

Kaysie- Kaysie is gentle and oh so insightful! Just by skimming through her blog you can't help but be blessed by this wonderful young lady!

Miss Jocelyn- Jocelyn is a very consistent writer who sees her blog as her ministry to others. And it's not so hard to see how she has so many people who read her blog! A Pondering Heart is quite a great blog to read.

There are a lot of other bloggers I'd award as well... but it said 5, so I'm sorry!!

Blessings!

Julia

Currently I'm feeling: Happy, Ecstatic, and Giddy!

My First Giveaway!

Anybody want these?

I'll change the words to say whatever you want, email it to you, and you can use one of the images on your blog! *I will not publish the comment with your email address in it on my blog* :)

Open to whoever wants these - for free!

And if I may make a suggestion, there are some great backgrounds at The Cutest Blog On The Block that might match them.

Blessings!

Julia

Ten Things I do daily

I have been tagged by two sweet maidens over at Young Homemakers! Thanks, Rachel and Jessica!

Since this one only has ten things I must list I think I can give it a go...

Here goes...

Every day, I :

1. Check my email and my blog to see if anyone has commented. I adore comments and I absolutely love hearing from you!
2. Read. I don't feel like my 'lunch break' is complete without a book in my hand. This might cause you to say "well then, how does she eat?" Simple. I hold the book in my left hand and use my right hand to eat.
3. Hmmm... this was harder than it looked... oh well... let's see, I'm always on hand to help my mom make a home-cooked dinner and do half the cleanup and dishes... *Thinks to self: Oh come on! That was unutterably dull...*
4. Make jewelry. It's my little business operation. Especially in the past few weeks... I've been working on listing some jewelry on Etsy, and also I'm planning to put a rack of my jewelry in a florist's shop sometime next week, so I'm creating some new inventory.
5. Laugh. With two very funny brothers in the house there's usually something to crack up about. I can't remember a day when I haven't laughed about something. :)
6. Laundry. There are 5 of us in our family and there's always more laundry to wash. *that was also unutterably dull...sigh*
7. Think, Julia, Think! What else do you do all day?... Well, on weekdays I do my schoolwork. I'm very much looking forward to next spring, when I shall be graduating from the 12th grade (Yeee-Haw!) and will no longer have to put in 180 days of school a year. (Something that's required for homeschoolers in Georgia.)
8. Write. While you can see that I don't manage to do a blog post every day, I almost always write something about the day down in my real-life journal. So far I've been doing it since I was 11 years old, and I have six and a half years of memories recorded to look back on and laugh or cry about, as fits the entry.
9. I used to have to go outside and feed our 15 Rhode Island Red chickens every day, but we've switched that over to being my brothers' job, and they no longer have to do the dishes with Mom. *I'd rather do the dishes anyway!*
10. Pray. While I don't always read my Bible every day - I want to though- I always find time to pray. Usually when I'm by myself somewhere... outside, or in my room... It doesn't have to be long, but it's crucial to my walk with the Lord. Think about it this way... how do you have a relationship with someone you never talk to? You don't! So... I try hard to pray every day.

OK... Now, to be extremely merciful to my fellow bloggers, nobody is officially 'tagged', but you are all warmly encouraged to do this tag.... so let's see which of you really enjoy this! :)

Blessings!

Julia

The Great Shopping Race

Har-har. :)

Today we had to go get groceries. All the places to get groceries in my tiny little town are Wal-Mart and Ingles. (not the best selection, but we make do.)

My dad called just as we were fixing up our list and said he was coming home early - didn't feel very well - and could we be there and take care of him? *Dilemma!* Mama told him we had to get groceries but would be back as soon as possible so that when he got home in an hour we'd make him some herbal tea and wrap him in a blanket. :)

*Lightbulb over head* I had a bright idea!

"Mom," I said as we stood at the kitchen counter together, hastily finishing the grocery list, "Why don't we split up in Wal-Mart? We'll get two shopping carts, and I'll take Mark with me and you can take Steven."

She saw the merit in my plan.
We gave it a go!

We entered Wal-Mart. The plan was to grab our respective food, then meet in the produce section.
Mark and I raced to the back of the food section with our cart and Mama and Steven started about half-way between us and the Produce section, where we were going to all end up.

Mama had divvied up the list so that I had half of the items we needed from Wal-mart. Mark, the faithful beast of burden, pushed the cart while I quickly maneuvered through the aisles, grabbing food, tossing (Ahem - I mean placing) food in the cart and crossing it off my list.

It worked like a charm!!!

Mark and I barely beat Mama and Steven to the produce section, although in all fairness, I must add that Mama and Steven got waylaid for a few minutes by a friend they met in the condiments aisle. Mark and I saw the same friend but talked to him for less time. :)

But the result?

We got our groceries in a quarter of the time it usually takes us!

Plus we got home quickly to take care of Daddy. :)

We plan on using the "Shopping Race" again, as it worked so well. :)

What are some of your strategies for conquering the grocery store?

Julia