There are two clubs in our county and each year they compete against each other at the County Fair with some themed booths and homemade items. Usually the exhibits have something to do with the state theme of the year and some of the lessons we learned at our monthly meetings. Last year one of the exhibits was to be a Girlfriends themed party place setting with table decorations, menu, and itinerary. The lady in our group who took on this exhibit came up with the CUTEST idea! This party is special!
I am a member of the Oklahoma Home and Community Education Club in our county. I decided about 15 years ago to join for the sake of learning old-fashioned homemaking skills to teach our older daughters who were 6 and 7 years old at the time. Our local 4-H clubs tend to focus more on livestock and meat judging in our area and it has always been important to me that our girls know Homemaking. While livestock and meat judging could prove useful, I didn't feel it was well rounded enough. What few cooking classes are offered in our area tend to use processed ingredients, rather than cooking from scratch. I was also still having babies at that time, so traveling for competitions wasn't a good option. I really believe our family has benefitted from my membership, though many years of bedrest and teething babies did cause my participation to be sporadic. Our oldest has been a member for a few years now and enjoys the meetings as much as I do. There are two clubs in our county and each year they compete against each other at the County Fair with some themed booths and homemade items. Usually the exhibits have something to do with the state theme of the year and some of the lessons we learned at our monthly meetings. Last year one of the exhibits was to be a Girlfriends themed party place setting with table decorations, menu, and itinerary. The lady in our group who took on this exhibit came up with the CUTEST idea! This party is special!
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I wear skirts. This is NOT a post about modesty. I live in a farming community where women are seldom seen in skirts or dresses. I don't even think most of them wear dresses to church anymore. They wear slacks to church, funerals, weddings, and other special occasions. If they don't wear slacks, they wear jeans with a flowy top and lots of jewelry. If a woman out here is wearing a dress, she is usually pegged and labeled, especially if she happens to have long hair. There are two types of women out here who have long hair and wear dresses. The Mennonites (and very few of them) and the Holiness ladies. I don't really fit into either of those categories because I have bangs (and my hair only grows so far, that's it. period.) and I do wear jeans sometimes. No, even the homeschoolers out here don't wear skirts most of the time. I know of maybe one family in a 200 mile radius... maybe two... So, why do I wear skirts? Many people seem to think it's because I think I'm "holier than thou". LOL, I have to laugh. I was born naked just like the rest of you people and I KNOW it! I'm a midwife and I've never seen a little girl born with a dress on. They are all naked. Why on earth would I think I was "holier than thou"?
When I don't wear skirts:
I purchased the skirts in the scrapbook page above at HannahLise. They are my absolute favorite skirts. They are affordable, practical, and durable. I also wear my hair up with Lilla Rose Flexi-clips. They come in SEVEN different sizes to fit all hair types. A new online friend of mine has started a nifty link-up. Most link-ups I've found have been weekly, and I just can't fit an extra post a week into my routine right now. Some link-ups are occasional, and I have a hard time remembering them until it's too late. Dusty has decided to make this link-up quarterly to go with the seasons. I can do that! Yay! Please pop over and see what other Skirt-wearing gals have to say, and check out some of the fun and beautiful "fashion" ideas they have. Even if you aren't a Skirty-Lady, you might find some fun ideas!
A Mighty Fortress (Hymns of the West) by Faith Blum is a Christian Western novel. I LOVED this book for several reasons.Some links in the post below are “affiliate links.” See our disclosure policy for details.
Faith has done a wonderful job, weaving a realistic story. I was truly picturing the scenes in my mind, running out of breath with the characters as they ran, holding it when they hid, getting upset when they were faced with unfair obstacles. By the end of the book, I was so attached to the characters, it was almost as if they were just neighbors down the road. I am truly looking forward to the next book so I can follow their lives. The synopsis of A Mighty Fortress (Hymns of the West): Joshua and Ruth Brookings are traveling by stagecoach to finally join their parents in Montana. Attacked by murderous outlaws, the teens barely escape with their lives and must survive in the barren Wyoming and Montana territories and escape the man who’s hunting them.Seven years ago, Jed Stuart ran away from home and joined Tom’s gang. Jed is tired of the lawlessness and wants out. The only problem? He is the boss’s right-hand man and will never be able to leave. And what’s one more stagecoach robbery, anyway?Can Joshua lean on God’s strength to keep himself and his sister alive until they find a town? Will Jed be able to face his anger or will it consume him completely? All three are running–the hunter and hunted. What will happen when they meet?
Here are some interview questions Faith was nice enough to answer for me: When and why did you begin writing? I have always loved reading and writing. I think I started writing around age 10 when Mom gave me a book to write about our camping trip. Now I write because I love to create new stories and I want to always point to God with those stories. What inspired you to write A Mighty Fortress (Hymns of the West) ? A picture and a contest. A homeschool magazine we get had a short story contest. I was too old for the contest, but I got inspired to write anyway. The contest was to write a short story based on the picture on the front of the magazine. The picture had a boy and girl hanging from a rope down a cliff with a cougar staring at them. The girl was pointing a pistol at the cougar. My story ended up being much longer than a short story, so it was a good thing I didn’t want to enter it into the contest. Where did you get some of your ideas for a Christian Western? I have always been fascinated by the Old West and what it would have been like to be a Christian during that time. I love reading Louis L’Amour’s books, but there is always an element or more in his books that is not Christian. I have started expanding my Western reading, but most of those books are romance and I really wanted to have some books that the whole family could read and enjoy. The first book in the series is more of a young adult adventure novel, book two is more of a romance, book three is a mail order bride/life change type book, book four will be a mystery. Books five and six are still in the planning stages, but I think they will be (very light) romance and a coming of age, respectively. How many books do you anticipate will be in the Hymns of the West series? Five or six so far. I have ideas for at least four with the possibility of a fifth and sixth bouncing around in my brain at the moment. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? A Mighty Fortress (Hymns of the West) is Christian fiction that does not sugarcoat the Gospel or the evil nature of man. That being said, I think the message is that no one is beyond God’s salvation. Do you work from an outline, or just write? Yes. I typically work from a very loose outline, but I know that sometimes my outline won’t end up fitting the characters as I get to know them better. For example, the original draft and outline of “A Mighty Fortress” had a very different ending than what I ended up publishing. What books have most influenced your life most? The book that has most influenced my life in general is “The Holy Bible” by God. The book that I think has most influenced my writing is “Peter’s Angel” by Aubrey Hansen, Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing? Knowing exactly what phrases and words a person in that time period would use. Also, editing. I have a bit of a natural editor inside me that catches nearly every typo…as long as it isn’t my own writing. It drives me crazy sometimes. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work? Only one? Oh dear! That is hard. I guess I will say Bodie and Brock Thoene. What strikes me about their books is how they insert so many historical facts without you even realizing that is what they are doing. What was the hardest part of writing “A Mighty Fortress”? Keeping the accents to a minimum and staying in the time period when they were talking. Did you learn anything from writing A Mighty Fortress (Hymns of the West) and what was it? Don’t rush the writing and editing process. I did that to push the novel out by the deadline I wanted and I regret that. Warning to those of you who want book 2 like a week ago, but I’m not going to do that this time around. Do you have any advice for other writers? Just keep writing. No matter how bad it seems or how hard it gets, be persistent. Some day you will write that one book that touches your heart and that of someone else and just happens to be a masterpiece. You can purchase A Mighty Fortress (Hymns of the West) from Amazon. You can learn more about Faith Blumm at her Blog, more about her book at her Author site, or follower her on Facebook, Twitter, & Google. I received this product free in exchange for an honest review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. See our disclosure policy for details. |
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