Posted by Posted in Family, holidays, Home, memorys

Thanksgiving!

First off, I am sorry this is late. I am writing this ater thanksgiving. But hey thats ok. 🙂

Second off, I want to tell you about my thanksgiving. We went to our grandparents house in Asheville NC. We slept in on thanksgiving morning and then watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. Then my mom took our school pictures and we had the big lunch. We had all the classics plus zuchinni casserole (a new menu item).

After the meal we ususally go on a thanksgiving walk and take family pictures. It is such a pretty area! Most of the family watched the Panthers game but I read a book. We served the pie (I made an apple pie) and then played a game of family football. We also shot off the bb gun in there somewhere. We had leftovers for dinner (of course) and all in all we had a great day.

Next I want to tell you five things I am grateful for:
Nature and beautiful weather on Thanksgiving!
I love the beautiful nature God made and it continually shows me the awesome power of God, the Creator!

My amazing family and friends
Celia, Jace and William, you are the best siblings a girl could ask for. Mom and Dad, you guys are the best parents, teachers and friends in this whole wide world. My friends, you know who you are and know that I thank the Lord for our friendships!

Books and stories
You all know I am a book-lover! I am so grateful for the good stories and books out there that enrich my life and give me a window into other worlds.

A Bible
I get updates from Wycliffe Bible translators and every time I see an update I thank the Lord that I have a Bible in my languaage that I have the freedom to read. My faith always grows stronger when I am in the Word!

The Grace of God
I saved the best for last. 🙂 I thank God that I do not wallow in my sin anymore but I am saved by grace and this is not my own work but it is a gift from God.

There you have it! Five things I am grateful for. Comment below with five things you are grateful for!

Lastly I want to give you some ideas for how you can celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving.

1. Make placecards/placemats.
We have a tradition of making the placecards or placemats each year. It is really fun to do fall crafts and you can make simple ones to do with little kids or more complicated ones to do with older kids. Maybe I will post about some ideas later…

2. Study the Pilgrims
So the Pilgrims started the first thanksgiving. They worked really hard to get there though! It is always fun to study the Pilgrims and thier hard journey to that Thanksgiving day. We can learn a lot from those amazing people.

3. Sing a hymn
Sing a hymn around the table. We chose “For the Beauty of the Earth” this year.

4. Start a gratitude journal
Thanksgiving is a great time to start a gratitude journal. Just get a memo book and write down a few things you are grateful for each night. It will help you develop the habit of gratitude. I think it is a great way to really focus on the true meaning of Thanksgiving- giving thanks.

Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving!
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

Posted by Posted in Home

News for You! -my vision for priscillajoy.com

Hello all!
Today I will be giving you an introduction into my vision for priscillajoy.com. I will tell you the things I hope to start writing about and hopefully I will keep up with it! 🙂 So here we go.

Lots of my topics that I will be writing about will be mirroring my loves, passions and interests. So you will be hearing about homesteading/self sufficient living, books, adventures, music, JESUS!, missions and maybe dabbling in things like homeschooling, true womanhood, and movie reveiws. I will break down some of my sepecific ideas below for you to read and get excited about. 🙂

Ok, lets review some of the things already going on here.

1. Army Training
I firmly believe that we are in a war and our greatest weapon is the Bible (Ephesians 6:17) Army training is basically a passage of Scripture to help you fight your battles and strengthen your soul.

2. Journal Entries
These will true to the title, be posts journalling my newest adventures, specifically trips I take. I will be adding a journal entries series in a little bit about our upcoming trip to Texas. So keep updated!

3. Book Reviews
Oh the joy and wonder of books! These posts will be reviews on some books I have been reading. Notice the SOME, if I reviewed all of the books I have read my blog would be SCREAMING at me!

4. NEW THING: Pioneer Living- Homesteading Tips and Tricks
I am very excited about this new thing I am starting. I will be posting recipes, things to make and do as well as tips about things like gardening, chickens, cheesemaking, candlemaking, breadmaking and other things to help you live like a pioneer.

5. NEW THING: Heroes and Heroines of Character
This series was made a little nervously but with lots of passion and inspiration. The lack of good Godly characters to look up to as your hero/heroine in books these days exasperates me! So because I don’t want to write a book at this point I will be posting short stories with boy/girl characters who will come from all different periods in history and all different social classes to teach a certain character quality (bravery, compassion, providence, purity, etc.). These stories will hopefully be FULL of adventure. I haven’t actually written one yet so that is the nervous part but I have a feeling these will be good!

Those are all my series so far but don’t worry! There will be plenty of other topics just in a regular post (not a series). So keep updated about what is going on and pray for me a lot so that I can keep up with my vision and make it reality!

Hopefully you are excited as I am!
Your one and only,
Priscilla

Posted by Posted in adventures, gospel and outreach, Home, journal entries, Living for God, memorys, Mexico, missions, Rancho3M

Journal Entries- Mission Trip to Mexico- Day 8

So here is my last installment of journal entries from Mexico. Hope you enjoy!

Our last day there we had a prolonged devotion at breakast and we sang “10,000 Reasons” as a group.

After our breakfast, we packed up the vans and cleaned the dorms and kitchen.

Some of us ran to the Mexican convenience store and got Mexican coke and authentic Mexican candy. It was spicy, sweet, tangy and sour all in one. How does that happen?

Next, the kids got up and we spent the rest of the morning hanging out with them. I played some last soccer with Chuy, Manuel and Aline.

Soon, the call came to pack up in the vans and then well there was lots of hugs and more hugs and even more hugs and goodbyes. Goodbyes are so hard.

The rest is history, I guess. Drive out of the Ranch trying not to cry. Go to the airport. Unpack the vans and say goodbye to the team you worked alongside all week and split up to get to our flights.

We arrived at our gate, and took a flight to Dallas TX and then after a layover we flew to Charlotte, NC. I am not a city girl, but I must say it was pretty to see all the ligts of Charlotte, since we landed at night.

I said goodbye to the team I had flown with (yeah, this was a day of goodbyes) and went down the escalator to see my family.

I saw William and Dad first, they were at the bottom of the esalator and then farther back there was Mom, Celia, Jace and surprise! my best friend Abigail!

And now there were hello and welcome back hugs for once.

We dropped Abigail back off at her house and went home. To bed.

It was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to do it again! (hopefully)

your one and only,
Priscilla

Posted by Posted in Home, me

Simple!

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Sometimes simple is best. Life can get crazy and we just need to simplify. Sometimes we just need to braid our hair instead of taking hours to curl it and get it just right. Sometimes we need a quiet walk instead of sighing our way through rush hour. Sometimes we need to live in a small cabin instead of a big mansion. Sometimes we need books and not high tech computers. Sometimes we need to go back to the old days. Where things were natural. Simple. My heart longs for simple.

“Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.”

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Have a great and simple day!

Priscilla