In Honour of Valentine's Day

In honour of the very "red" day tomorrow, I decided to pull out the china I received from my Grandmother. I love it's "vintageness" and am so glad that we are going to use it. Many pieces have been broken over the years, but I love each piece that's left.

Ahhh, lovely. I'm ready to go eat now. :-)

Tiffany

A Brand New Year

"All this time the Lion's song, and his stately prowl, to and fro, backward and forward, was going on...When a line of dark first sprang up on a ridge...[Polly] felt that they were connected with a series of deep, prolonged notes which the Lion had sung a sceond before. And when he burst into a rapid series of lighter notes she was not surprised to see primroses suddenly appearing in every direction. Thus...she felt quite certain that all the things were coming (as she said) 'out of the Lion's head.'"

The Magician's Nephew

C.S. Lewis

This is a new year. I'm oddly excited about this new year. Not that anything particular is going on (well, there is the trip to England, but anyhoo...), I'm just excited at this "new beginning" we've been given.

It's like the beginning of an adventure...I have no idea what's going to happen in it. But the journey of discovering it will be exciting!

Tiffany

Christmas Pics

I'm finally getting around to posting a couple of pictures from Christmas.

We don't usually dress up very much on Christmas day, but we go to the Lessons and Carols service at church and dress up for that.

And I just had to add a picture of my baby. I'm proud to announce that she has gained 2 oz since coming home 2 weeks ago. I've shortened her name to Mrs. Tiggles, or just plain Tiggles. It's much easier to say than Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, although I do still use her full name sometimes.

I hope you all continue to have a blessed "Holy"day!

Tiffany

Happy Christmas!

Enjoy this wonderful time of year!

May the Lord bless you this day.

Tiffany

Better Late Than Never

Well, at least I'm here, even if it is a little late. I still have plenty to be thankful for and didn't want to not write them down.


There are some things that I'm thankful for in different ways.

~My parents. I've talked about them as a group in "family" then I've talked about them individually. But together, I thankful that they had the courage to keep us home and homeschool us. Now if you talked to them about it they would tell you that to them, there had just been no other choice. But I appreciate that they continued through all 12+ years.

~School. I realize I am so blessed to be able to work in a place where I am still working under my father's authority.

~School again. I am thankful for a place that understands that a women's first calling is to be a wife and mother, and they rejoice with those who are. We just found out our P.E. teacher is having a baby in June. That means she'll be about 7 months along by the time we get out of school. Possibly to far along to teach P.E. But the administrators have been nothing but celebratory about the baby. (Now I'm sure they are talking behind closed doors about what to do, but we have heard nothing of it.)

~School again, again. My fellow teachers that I have met and made friends with here. I have met some truly great women of God and am able to be under their tutelege here.

~School again, again, again. The drama department here has been such a blessing. I left college getting ready to teach 3rd grade and thinking I was giving up my desire to be involved in drama. Then the drama director here asked me to help her cast and do the make-up for the play "Alice in Wonderland". What a wonderful (and growing!) experience.

So again, pretend it's last Friday and I have just posted my 5 thankful things in a timely manner. :-D

Tiffany

Let's Pretend.....

.....it's Thanksgiving Day. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, but by the time the guests left, I was exhausted. I went to bed before I posted.

So here are my 5 things for Thursday:

~Going to England: We (Shannon, Mom, and I) are going on a costume tour of London with a few days in Bath for the Jane Austen Festival. I am so excited!

~Tutoring Tobi: I did not agree to this trip without some financial agonizing. I would be able to afford it, but was it a wise thing to do. My parents counseled me to go, that it would be a wonderful thing to do with Mom and Shannon. So I made the decision and decided to go. Then a couple of weeks ago, the headmistress at school talked to me about tutoring one of the students during the regular Latin hour. It is after I usually am done teaching so I will be payed as a tutor and not a teacher. On top of that, this young man was in my 3rd grade class two years ago, so I already know him and his learning type (he's mildly austistic). With this, I will earn enough to cover the main tour! I am so thankful for this provision.

~Enough to eat. We over prepared for Thanksgiving. We have tons of food left over...and that's after sending enough home with our friends for them to get another meal (there are 8 of them) out of. So many people are going hungry today that it makes me grateful to be able to eat.

~The Pilgrims. This is the day we celebrate the feast that the Pilgrims had with the Indians. As grateful as I am for that, I am so much more grateful for their courage to leave their country and their jobs in order to secure a place of religious freedom.

~Our country. I have been reading "The Light and the Glory" and have been struck on almost each page how God has directed our country and given us this wonderful land where we are free to worship Him.

Happy Thanksgiving! (even if it is a little late :-)

Tiffany

The Night before Thanksgiving and All Through the House....

Everyone was stirring, even the mouse!

We are in the full swing of getting ready for our Thanksgiving guests. We are having a family of 8 come over. The perfect thanksgiving size. It is my firm belief that you have to have a big crowd for a proper Thanksgiving Day.

Here is my list for today:

~I know I said my family before, but I want to specify my mom. She is such a sweet, loving, willing to listen Mother. I truly feel like I could go to her with anything and she would be willing to listen and give advice. I treasure my mother.

~Again, singling out my sister. How do you describe someone who understands you perfectly and compliments you so well. I love her with all my heart.

~ My dad. I am so blessed to have a father who is intelligent, witty, a good teacher and who loves the Lord. I am so thankful for his training as I've grown up, particularly as to having a Christian world view.

~ My love for books. Seeing how much I love reading now, it's hard to believe that I didn't start out loving to read. But I didn't fall in love with it until I was eight (don't laugh! In our family that is late. Shannon was reading voraciously by 6.) and read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". I actually just finished putting away the books I got at the library book sale.

~ Acting. I am so thankful that I love acting. This is another thing I almost missed out on, except it was obviously in the Lord's plan. In my junior year in high school, we started attending a homeschool writing club, Awesome Author's Association. They did a play every year. That year they did "The Wind in the Willows." Well, I really wanted to be in it, but rehearsals were pretty far away and we thought it was just a run-of-the-mill homeschool drama group. But we did volunteer to provide the intermission music. So we went to the performance and found out that this was anything but a run-of-the-mill group. They were good! They were really good! So the next year Shannon and I auditioned and were cast in "Cheaper by the Dozen". I played Mother and loved it! I've been in love ever since. I have been in many things, but have never been paid for an acting job. But I have received my first paying acting job and will begin rehearsals in the new year. I am so thankful for this new opportunity to earn money!

Alright, now for the actual Thanksgiving Day! See you then!

Tiffany

Overwhelmingly Thankful

So many more things to be thankful for. I think next year I might have to post 10 things each day.

I thank God for:
~ Parents who were willing to homeschool me all 12/13 years. I know they sacrificed time and energy to make sure that I had the best education, and I appreciate all of it!

~ A church where we are truly a family. Our family has not experienced that before and I am so grateful to have a church that truly demonstrates God's love.

~ All the children He has brought into my life. I have been babysitting/nannying for 13 years now and have loved (almost) every child I've babysat. Even the hard ones have been lovable in some area. One of them I watched grow up. I started nannying her when she was 7 months and she's about to turn 7. What a blessing for me to be able to watch a child grow up and learn things that will be so helpful should the Lord bless me with a husband and family one day. The children at school have also taught me so much. I love each and every one of them and am so thankful they are in my life.

~ For my job. I haven't always wanted to teach, in fact, I used to say I never wanted to teach. Boy has the Lord changed my heart. True, I don't have the freedom that I enjoyed last year. I can't just pick up and go when I see a conference that I want to go to (like this one), but I am learning so much. Just one of the benefits has been to get first hand contact with different curriculum. I have been able to cross some curriculum off my list and add some others. I have learned about different learning styles and teaching styles. I have learned how to teach Austistic children. I have learned how to recognize immediately when I child isn't feeling well, or something isn't right. Now, that's not all I've learned, but it's a good bit of it.

~ The ability to sew. Being 5' tall, short-waisted, and overly hourglass-shaped, I am not usually able to go into a store and pull things off a shelf that fit. Besides that, I don't usually want to pull something off the shelf in a store and put it on...to immodest. :-)


Oops, I put down six. Well, I'll just put that one on the post for tomorrow! ;-)

Tiffany

Here I Raise My Ebeneezer

Five things I'm thankful for:

1) God's love and care. This sounds so trite, but I am constantly amazed at what He has done and continues to do for me.

2) My family. Again, I know this is overused, but it is so true. I love my family and am so glad I was placed into this family.

3) The Word of God. How privileged we are to be able to have the teachings of Jesus in our hands; within reach when we need it. On the other hand, as thankful as I am for it, I do not show my thankfulness by spending enough time in it. I am thankful for the opportunity to correct that.

4) Friends. I am so thankful for the friends that God has given to me. So many of them are scattered all over and we are only able to communicate once in a while through e-mail, or when our parents talk, but I am so grateful to know that they are there.

5) Life. This might sound like another one of my "trite" thank-you's, but it's not. I was adopted, but before I was allowed to be adopted, my birth mother wanted an abortion. Actually she had it all set up and planned out. The whole story is too long to put here, but there are so many "thank you"s to be said, just here: my birth mother's boss, who showed her another way; to "Uncle" Steve and "Aunt" Beth, for their part in my wonderful story; to my parents, who were so willing to unexpectedly take in a baby (I was born 2 weeks before they were told I was due!); and most of all to the Lord Who orchestrated things in such a way that I look back and realized that it was only Him who could have put the right people in the right places for everything to work out so happily.



I could go on and on....Oh, wait, I will. Next 5 tomorrow!

What are you thankful for?

Tiffany

A Challenge

In our economy today (I'm thinking especially US with the upcoming election, but I know a lot of places are having a hard go of it) it is so easy to fall into the pattern of complaining and worrying instead of focusing on all the wonderful things that we do have.

During the week of Thanksgiving, I'm going to post five things a day that I'm grateful for. I think that it is so important for us to remember all that God has blessed us with.

So, I'm issuing a challenge: Will you all join me? If you don't feel like you can commit to five things a day, try at least to do one. I have a feeling that once we start counting our blessings things will come to mind that we hadn't thought of as a blessing before.

You can accept this challenge by commenting on my posts after I post my blessings, or by putting them on your blog.

Let's use this Thanksgiving season to truly remember all that God has done for us- past and present.

Tiffany

Celtic Woman

After two months, we can finally end saying "Merry Chirstmas!"

One of my Christmas presents was a set of four tickets for our family to go see Celtic Woman in concert at our Civic Center. This past Saturday night we went. I love Celtic music and I love singing, so I guess it's only natural that I would be interested in something like this.

The music was amazing. The voices blended so beautifully. The solos were stunning. The violinist was.....um.....crazy? And the showmanship was breathtaking.

I don't know that there is any real way to describe the concert. It was stirring. The women's voices have this quality about them that they reach into your heart and make you want to laugh with them, or cry with them, or just hold your breath and wait for whatever was coming next.

These women are able to do so many different types of music. They had slow songs that were ballads and told a story that broke your heart. They had fast songs that made you want to stand up and dance (only you didn't because no one else around was:-). They had harmony with one voice flowing over or underneath the others like a gentle river. They had tight harmony so that it was hard to tell exactly how many voices were singing.

And then they had the violinist. Hmm, what to say here? She is amazing. I didn't know you could take flying leaps, high kicks, twirls, and dancing all while playing hard, for me anyway, music. Well, she did. Shannon and I thought she was like a Barbie doll, mischievious pixie, and cheerleader all rolled into one. I can gaurantee you that it makes for eye catching song!

How well were we able to see all of this? We were sitting at about the level of the stage in the back. They were incredible seats. My voice teacher recommended them and she was right. We did need to use binoculars, but we didn't get the neck strain, or possible burst ear drums we would have gotten if we sat any closer.

It was an amazing experience! I think it was my favorite Christmas present!

Goodbye 2007

What an incredible year this year has been!

It started off with my second semester of being a third grade/ French teacher. God saw me through my first year teaching. He gave me wisdom for dealing with difficult issues that would come up. And just to prove He actually cares about what you care about He gave me a special blessing.

I love drama. After all I spent three year getting a degree in it, but I thought I was going to have to give drama up entirely because of my teaching schedule. But He allowed me to be the makeup director for the Trinitas School production of "Alice in Wonderland." It is true that I had no idea what I had let myself in for, but I learned face painting (which was the director's vision and which I had never done before) quickly and we ended up with a blessed production. pictures here

But the Lord wasn't finished allowing me to continue with drama. A week and a half after school was let out, I went to the Masterwork Festival as a theatre student. We did the play The Crucible and the Lord used that to bless me and others in the community as well.

Then, if that weren't enough in one year, we (Shannon was a costume intern at MWF and our parents came to pick us up at MWF) left for Philadelphia where we caught a plane to take us on a three week tour of England. We had live there 13 years ago and as a graduation gift for Shannon and I, we were able to go back. I won't bother telling you everywhere we went for the simple reason that Shannon has already put together and amazing traveblog here . But beware, there are over 400 pictures on the site. You have been warned! :-)

But yet again, the Lord wasn't finished blessing me. We came back to the states and I found out I didn't have a job. The Lord used that to give me what I've always wanted: to be at home. I have been able to develope more skills as a homemaker. I have been able to sew more of my clothes. I have been able to practice homeschooling with the family I babysit for. I have been able to practice a little more with tutoring. And I have been able to start a Public Speaking class and train the next generation to be articulate witnesses for Christ. All those blessing came directly from the Lord.

Now this year is closing and I look back at everything the Lord has allowed me and my family to do this year and I think, "Wow, Lord, I think this was the best year of my life!" And I can almost hear Him say, "You think so? Just wait till next year." :-)

Through my whole life He has shown me that He knows exactly what is best for me and when. Each year has been the best year, because God has accomplished His will in it. Even the years that have been hard, have also been the best because of His love, goodness, and mercy (sometimes severe love, severe goodness, and severe mercy, but love, goodness, and mercy just the same.)

I pray that this coming year will be one full of hopes and dreams and growing in grace.

Tiffany

Thanksgiving

We decided to have a quiet Thanksgiving this year at home, just the family. Shannon and I loved this. We planned out the menu (we had forgotten the mashed potatoes and gravy and the sweet potatoes, but Dad reminded us:-) and were ready for the day.

We had decided to have dinner mid-afternoon. So in the morning we (or I should say Dad) did some preliminary Christmas decorating and Shannon and I sewed or knitting while we watched parts of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We then saw part of the dog show before it was time to start dinner. (The turkey had already started roasting.)

My specialty is the Creamed Corn. It is basically a custard with corn kernals in it. So I got started on that. I'm wearing one of my favorite aprons. It's the Sense and Sensibility Edwardian apron pattern here: http://www.sensibility.com/pattern/edwardian.htm

Shannon and I planned a rather unusual appetizer. We saw a recipe for a pumpkin desert in a magazine. We wanted to make it for Thanksgiving, but already had the desert planned. So we changed the pumpkin desert to a pumpkin appetizer. Everyone was satisfied with this arrangement. :-)

Then the feast began. Unfortunately the turkey picture is a little blurry, but trust me, even Dad said it was the prettiest turkey he had ever seen.



The mashed potatoes and gravy.

The baked corn.

The sweet potatoes.

And the biscuits.

Things I'm thankful for:

My Saviour

My Family

My Church

My Friends

So many other things, situations, and people that the Lord has blessed me with.

Tiffany