Still Praying for Rain

In one of my prior posts I shared how I was praying for rain and someone shared a song with me in regard to that post. I wanted to share that song with you. Here is a link to "Let it Rain" by Michael W. Smith.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttxhgc8d9E
I hope you enjoy.

New Crafting Blog for Young Girls

If any of you have daughters who are into crafting you may want to have them check out a new blog. My 13 year old daughter has created a blog geared towards girls who are into creating and who are crazy about critters. She already has some great tutorials on there and has already taken pictures for more posts. She is very excited about it and would love to have some comments and / or followers. We promise you it will be a safe and wholesome place for your young ladies to visit on the web. Thanks for checking it out for her.
http://www.crittersncrafts.blogspot.com/

Pink Saturday - Valentines Day

Last week, when I was uploading pictures from my camera for Pink Saturday, I came across a photo and knew it had to be the next Pink Saturday picture. This is my daughter at a recent church sledding party. It's funny how on the day of the sledding party, I hadn't even noticed all the pink but when I saw the picture it was all I could see. How's that for Pink, one of my little valentines in all her pretty pink.
Happy Pink Saturday!
Happy Valentines Day!

Let it Rain!!

Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain.

The Lord will make flashing clouds;
He will give them showers of rain,
Grass in the field for everyone.
Zechariah 10:1

I am not sure why but I feel the Lord has asked me to pray for rain. And although I may never totally understand why He wants me to pray for rain, I know I will be blessed by the obedience of doing so. So I am praying. I also have been studying rain as it appears throughout scripture and I thought I would share some of my observations with you.

I see two types of physical rain in scripture. There is the type of rain which can be a scary, flooding, destroying, downpour, an example of which we see in Genesis with the Noah flood. The other type of rain is a sweet rain, a rain which nourishes a dry and thirsty ground, an example of this can be seen in 1 Kings. In Verse 18:1 of 1 Kings it says

"And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth."

Then in verse 41 it says

"Then Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain."

This was the end of a drought. These people were happy to see the rain finally come.
Now, the other type of rain I see in scripture is not physical but is used for the sake of analogy.
We see examples of this many times throughout scripture, here are a few examples:

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow (or unplowed, unproductive) ground
For it is time to seek the Lord,
Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
Hosea 10:12

I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing;
and I will cause showers to come down in their season;
there shall be showers of blessing.
Ezekiel 34:26

There are many more verses where things like righteousness and blessings are said to "shower" down. Now the question which came to my mind while I was studying is this: Why did the Lord use the comparison of rain in these instances? I think it is because He wants us to know that the righteousness and the blessings which He will shower down are going to be abundant. Not only will they be abundant but they are going to be refreshing as well, like rain is to a dry, parched and thirsty ground.

So when storm clouds come, they don't necessarily mean dark days ahead. As the above verse from Zechariah says, flashing clouds, which we often think of as frightening, also come before blessing and refreshment. If there are dark clouds in your life right now, don't despair. Thank the Lord for the clouds and get on your knees and let's pray together for rain.

Pink Saturday

It's that time again, it's Pink Saturday.

I have to tell you how much my girls love Pink Saturday.
So, for this weeks edition of pink, I let them be in control. Actually, my oldest daughter says she always wants to choose the pink. So here's what they chose for this week:
This is a hair clip that my daughter made








And this is a photo of my other daughter in the outfit I put together for her for a Christmas gift. I mentioned this skirt in a prior post, I made it for her from a curtain and a sheet. (I didn't make the top).


If you want to see more lovely pinkness, head on over to How Sweet the Sound to get the links to all those who have participated in this week's Pink Saturday. Thanks Beverly.

Happy Pink Saturday everyone!

2009 Christmas Challenge

Here it is February already, the second month of the 2009 Christmas Challenge. If you haven't yet signed up for the challenge, you can read all about it here. Be sure to leave a comment either here or on the original post if you would like to participate.

The challenge goal for January was to write up your list and get one gift taken care of. How did you all do with January's goal? I have my list done and have made some little items to give to some of the ladies on my list. I would so much like to have started with the gifts for those who are difficult to shop or make for, but I haven't figured out yet what I am doing for them. So until I come up with something, I will work on other things.

Anyone have anything done which they would like to post a link to? Any ideas you'd like to share? I have found some great ideas which I may work into my plans check out some of these:

For those of you who are into jewelry making, here are some great instruction for earrings.

http://jewelrymaking.about.com/od/janeaustenearrings/ss/122407.htm

http://jewelrymaking.about.com/library/bl052400.htm

And this link will bring you to a list of jewelry instruction for everything from bracelets to earrings, to necklaces and on and on.
http://jewelrymaking.about.com/od/jewelrydesigning/u/Projects.htm

And how about some aprons for the cooks on your list? Here is a list of 50 (yes 50) free apron patterns and tutorials.
http://tipnut.com/free-apron-patterns-tutorials/
There are some really pretty aprons on the list, here is a picture of just one of them.

And I think I may make these pretty skirts for my girls. They will love them.
Excellent instruction included.

Well, there's some eye candy to help get your creative juices flowing. Remember, one gift taken care of in February, that's all. You can do it. Come November, you'll be so happy you did.