Posted by Posted in abortion, Books to Read

Book Review- Unplanned by Abby Johnson

I recently finished the book “Unplanned” by Abby Johnson. The story is about Abby and her journey from one side of the fence to the other. If you don’t understand keep reading and I will explain. 🙂

Rating: ***** 5 stars- as usual with my book reviews!
Age to read: 13 and up – The book did describe the abortion process in the first chapter so that is why I think it should be for mature readers only…

Abby Johnson started volunteering at Planned Parenthood after a volunteer fair at her college. She had a heart for the women coming and wanted to help them. Planned Parenthood fed her lies that by giving abortions they were helping the women. Abby had two abortions herself and moved on to operate the clinic in Bryan, TX. But then, one fateful day she helped with an abortion procedure and her eyes were opened. God had been wooing her over time and this one act was the last straw. She knew now that what she had been doing all along was help support killing babies. Read this incredible book to learn about Abby’s amazing story of walking across the line from Planned Parenthood to Coalition for LIFE!!!

Posted by Posted in I was thinking..., words

Keeping Words of Beauty Beautiful

In this day and age, people use words of beauty flippantly. Lightly. Nonchalantly.

What is a word of beauty?
Words of beauty for me are descriptive words that show your love and pleasure for something. Words like beautiful, pretty, amazing, awesome, wonderful, good and great.

Today though people use these words all the time. We exchange words of beauty for slang terms and make beauty something cheap.

Now we introduce words like ‘hot’ to refer to beauty.

Now I can’t say “I’m so hot!” (hot- weather wise 🙂 )without being misunderstood.

Now people use words like awesome and amazing to refer to things that really aren’t.

We always grew up reserving the word ‘awesome’ for referring to God and the phrase “Only God is awesome” could be heard whenever we used it another way. Our family jokes about our little brother, when having a woman over she used the word ‘awesome’ in another context and young William corrected her “Only God is awesome!”

The story was funny but I can’t help but look deeper and say ‘where did that respect for words go?’

How many of us automatically respond with ‘good’ when asked how we are doing? I too am guilty of this. It is grammatically incorrect for one thing and it is an automatic response that doesn’t show sincerity of heart in our answer.

Lets save words of beauty for the things that truly are beautiful!

Posted by Posted in character, essays, history, holidays, homeschool

A Tribute to Christopher Columbus

Today is Christopher Columbus day for all who didn’t know. 🙂 As a tribute to this great man I am posting my report on him I did in August. Enjoy!

Christopher Columbus was a great man of history and we can learn many lessons from his life.
1. Determination: Christopher went from being the son of a weaver to Admiral of the sea. How did this happen? Chistopher was born to a weaver and when he reached the appropriate age his father started training him to carry on the business. Christopher hated it. His heart longed for the ocean.
He and his brother Bartholemew, started a map making business together and Christopher also joined a few voyages to learn more about sailing. Christopher read many books from Marco Polo and soon came up with the idea of sailing west to get to the East and Cathay (China). He now tried to find someone to sponsor his expedition.
For years he pleaded with kings and queens from Portugal, France, Italy and Spain. Christopher never gave up though and finally his determination was rewarded. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain decided to finance him now that the war with the Moors was over.
Christopher had gone from son of a weaver to Admiral of the ocean sea! Through hard work, determination and endurance, Christopher stuck with his God-given idea and went on to find America! (2 Timothy 4:7-8*)
2. Christ-bearer: Christopher felt his expedition was a God-given task. Christopher mean Christ-bearer and Christopher believed that God had called him to bring the light of the gospel to the Indies. On his second voyage, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sent priests with him to convert the Indians. (Mathew 28:19-20*)
3. Pride: With all the royal titles, riches and attention Christopher was getting, pride started to form in his heart. On one of his voyages back to Spain, there was a great storm. Just like Jonah, Christopher had been running away from God and God was letting him know through a storm.
Still, pride remained. After Christophers first voyage he came back in a parade of pomp and splendor. This made the pride grow. Pride continued to poison Christophers character until later he was humbled and came back to Spain wearig the robe of a monk (more on that later ;)).
We must learn to stay humble before God, even when prosperity comes. We must keep that dangerous pride out of our life. (Proverbs 16:18*)
4. Humility: Christopher struggled with pride but after some events at his colony (Hispaniola), Christopher was unjustly fettered and kept prisoner. Although this was unjust it taught him a lot about himeself and humility. After this humiliation, Christopher didn’t struggle with pride quite as much. (1 Peter 5:6*)
5. Injustice: There were some things that Christopher Columbus did that I do not agree with and I think were unjust. His treatment of the Indians, his haughty leadership, his revenge-filled hate for those who opposed him and his negligence of his wife and children. Christopher Columbus had some struggles especially when governing his lands and although I admire his good qualities I dislike his injustice and harrasment of those around him. (Proverbs 21:15*)
Christopher Columbus was a great man and I learned a lot by looking at his life. Christopher died still thinking that he had discovered the Indies but he actually paved the way for others to follow and settle in the New World- America!

* “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
2 Timothy 4

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Sprit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded and I will be with you until the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20

“Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Proverbs 16:18

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you.”
1 Peter 5:6

“When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but terror to evildoers.”
Proverbs 21:15

**If you want to read more about Christopher Columbus check out “Heroes of History: Christopher Columbus” by Janet and Geoff Benge It is a good book!

Enjoy celebrating this hero!
Priscilla

Posted by Posted in Books to Read, womanhood

5 Books Every Young Woman Needs to Read

So as all of you know I am a big reader and I wanted to share five books I have read that I think all you young women would benefit from. Have at it!

1. Beautiful Girlhood
revised by Karen Andreola
This book is great for a study or for moms to read with your daughters. It talks about blooming like a rose into a woman. Every chapter talks about a different topic, sincerity, modesty, friends, books, public behavior and many more amazing topics. This book is older and holds a lot of wisdom that we don’t have now. Beautiful Girlhood is appropriate to read with younger girls too and I think some eight and nine year olds could benefit from reading this with her mom.

2. Becoming God’s True Woman…while you still have a curfew
by Susan Hunt and Mary Kassian
Becoming Gods True Woman is a devotional which again I think is ideal for moms and daughters to go through together. There are little assignments at the end of each devotional which are fun to do. This book transformed the way I thought about womanhood and the role of a woman. Women are life givers, support pillars and helpers. Very great book. And you girls who are like me and are NOT girly do NOT be fooled by the pink cover and flowery pages. This book was great with a lot of wisdom in it!

3. Let Me Be A Woman
by Elisabeth Elliot
This book is a collection of letters from Elisabeth Elliot to her daughter Valerie before she gets married. Coming from an amazing woman this book is sure to be great. It contains wisdom for the single, married and widowed with the majority of the book on marriage though. I really enjoyed it but I would recommend to maybe thirteen and up because there was a chapter on Godly use of sex. You can just skim over it like I did or read it with a parent if you aren’t comfortable reading about that. But it was excellent and you really should read it.

4. Daughters of Destiny
by Noelle Wheeler
From the daughter of “Little Bear” Wheeler, this book contains much to be praised! A collection of poems and stories of all sorts of women, this book is inspirational and interesting. Many heroines and noble women of history who have been forgotten have their stories told here. The book talks about daughters of virtue, home, strength, service, royalty, stature, liberty, lyrics, purpose and vision. Women like Jenny Lind, Clara Barton, Elizabeth Zane, Mary Slessor, Pocahontas and Betsy Ross have amazing life stories and these women and MANY others have them told in this book. Read it.

5. Before You Meet Prince Charming
by Sarah Mally
“A guide to radiant purity” is the subtitle of this book. True to that this book contains much about purity, keeping yourself until marriage and modesty of spirit. Contains many funny stories from the authors family and some fun activities. My dad went through this book with my sister and me and we all loved it so much. A must read for Christian girls!

Well there you have it ladies! You just added five books to the ever growing reading list. 🙂 Enjoy, benefit and learn from them!

Priscilla

Posted by Posted in Family, Home

Living Like A Pioneer: A Homecooked Meal

So today I made dinner for the family. I was in the kitchen for 2 1/2 hours with my mom helping me. I am glad to say it turned out and was well worth the time and preperation. The menu? Chicken pot pie, scalloped potatoes and apple pie.

Below I have attached the recipe for my pie crust and links to the recipes for chicken pot pie and scalloped potatoes so you can try it yourself.

Pie Crust

2-3 cups flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks of butter (softened)
10 tbl cold water

Mix it all together and enjoy! I made a double batch and I had enough dough for both the chicken pot pie and the apple pie with a little more to spare! Add about 5 diced apples, a generous dash of apple juice, cinamon and sugar to make apple pie! Bake the apple pie for about an hour on 475F.

Here is the links: Thank you allrecipes and food.com!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/26317/chicken-pot-pie-ix/

http://southern.food.com/recipe/scalloped-potatoes-85629

Everything turned out great and I hope you enjoy!

Your little Pioneer,
Priscilla