Sister To Sister Inquest :)

Explanation: This is an sisterly inquest. We two are quizzing each other with previously undisclosed questions. I'll begin interviewing Her.

Me: Where were you on July 24th, 2010?

Rachel: *whispers* (where were we?) Oh yeah! Recovering from heat stroke after dancing in 105 degree weather at our birthday party! ;)

Me: What are all the alias' you've ever had for yourself?

Rachel: Alright! Charlotte Salinya, Lisa Gabachi (long story:), Josephine Ava Inkpen, Frankie Churchill, Ms. Waffle, The Inkpen Authoress

Me: So, what is the worst memory you have of your pets?

Rachel: Um.. Our dog Pepper having seizures on me as a 2 year old. :\

Me: Are you ever nervous while flying in a plane?

Rachel: Only if I think about it, or if the guy beside me sound like he's coughing up a lung-then I'm nervous I'll get sick...

Me: Final query: What's the matter with talking on the phone?

Rachel: I don't like it! I can't see people's faces. And there are long pauses. And I start blushing and repeating myself. It's awful.

Me: Well, thank you for your time-this inquest is completed.

Now I have YOU in MY clutches! ;) This is now Rachel inquiring into Sarah's business! :P

Me: Have you ever ever ever in your long legged life when you saw someone's outfit thought: "I could NEVER carry that off! But they....can?"

Sarah: Yes. Many times *rests chin in hand and drawls answer*

Me: Highly suspicioucious! ;) Let me see....what did you truly think of the Christmas tree we got last year?

Sarah: What?...What was wrong with it?....I don't remember....I.... don't....*sheepishly laughs*

Me: If you had to pick one actress that YOU yourself would replace in a favorite movie, who would it be?

Sarah: Probably Sofia Vassilieva in Eloise..I mean, I liked that roll, I liked her in it too! But I mean....

Me: What were your first and second thoughts when you walked into the study and saw me reading "Gone With The Wind" while you were still working? *dastardly chuckle* ;)

Sarah: Hah! *in a pompous sort of voice* Really? *drawling* (That was the first thought) (Her second thought was out loud and made me laugh!)

Me: If you adopted a baby from another country when you grow up, which country would you pick?

Sarah: Oh that's a hard one! Probably...Korea...or...Russian or German....

Me: Well, thank you Sarah for giving us your time!

We hope you all enjoyed this sister-to-sister post! It's been a long time since we have done something like this! -Rachel and Sarah

Our Accent! :)

We never consider ourselves to have any sort of accent. Of course, to someone from another country, we'd have an "American" accent, but I mean, here. Actually, according to a language test I did, we have a "Midwestern accent, essentially no accent, perfect for t.v., radio, etc." But while at Daughters of Destiny, we kept some of the girls in stitches over how we pronounce some words, so I thought perhaps it might give you all some amusement too. Below are the list of words, with the explanation of why we say them that way! :)

Pecan: "Pi-can" (emphasis on the "can" part- don't know why we say it that way!)
Tour: "Too-er" (Mama has always said it that way... :)
Syrup: "Seer-up" (all right you people who say it with a "u". It has a Y in it! PRONOUNCE it that way! ;)
Which, While, Whale, What, Whether, etc: "WHich, etc" (We pronounce the H in there, because it is spelled that way. Sort of a blowing sound. There are words that are spelled the way many people say these words, such as: Witch, wile, Wales, watt, weather, etc, but they have very different meanings)
Route: "Rowt" (I'm sorry, but a Root is a part of a plant. :)
Kefir: "Keefur" (Yes, we are hillbilly about this one! No "Ki-furrrr" purring thing for us! ;)
Cumin: "Coomin" (I don't like it when people say Q-min! :)
Creek: "Creak" (I never have, and never will call it a "crick"!)

So I hope you don't find our "accent" too strange. I teased two sisters and told them I pronounce "Walnut" "Wall-noot" with the emphasis on the "noot" part, and they believed me for a few seconds! :P See you later! -Rachel

A Dissection of Commenting

Hello! I was racking my brain for any sort of brilliant, clever, comment-raking-in post I could do, and obviously, did not find one. Then I began thinking of what gets some blogs so many comments.......Here I recount my official findings ;)

There are two sorts of blogs: those who have it and those who don't. Ours used to have it. For some reason, it now tends toward the doesn't side of having it. ;) I went on a mental quest to find out just what the it-possessing blogs have that we don't...and here's what I came up with:

• Catchy Blog Names (Our Family View From Us Two is a mouthful ;)
• Wonderful graphics (We are html challenged over here! Besides- our officious filter blocks everything and its brother so we can't usually even see our own background! :P)
• Familiar Blog Administrator names (Who can resist peeking at a blog owned by a person named Jo March?!?! :)
• PICTURES!! (Oh we have the cute kids in our family. We have the wonderful pictures...we just can't post them here unless we go to a closed blog! :)
• Weddings (Um......not seeing that happen anytime soon! :D )
• Blog parties (We host contests, but it doesn't have the pizazz that Scraps, for instance, has!)

I can only come to two conclusions, as I am not a Sherlock Holmes- either we have lost our touch for writing commentable posts, or life is simply busy for our followers too! :)
Sure Blogger added a Stats page, and our stats are passable, but I raked up some statistics myself that only bloggy people could notice:

• Saturday is D-Day (Dead Day) Nobody is on, no one votes on any polls, or comments on any posts. You had better just not post on a Saturday
• Polls don't tell you anything if people don't vote on them! ;)
• People like the weirdest, randomest, strangest things- try to please them, and you don't, post about how you pickled frogs' ears and played the banjo, and they'll leave you 12 comments! ;)

Anyway! This is the bent my blogging mind ran on this morning! Hope you don't mind so very much! :D -Rachel

Book And Character Review On "An Old-Fashioned Girl"

As part of the Fiesta de Octobre, Jo posted some blog post ideas. Now, these particular ones just happened to be the sort of thing I'd love to post about anyway, so I chose to write a Character overview on a character from a book or movie. I chose a book, and the book I am choosing is....An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott. This is one of my favorite of her books, with Eight Cousins a tie. Polly Milton, the character I'm highlighting in this post, is so...easy to relate to. Although "An Old-Fashioned Girl" is one of L. M. Alcott's lesser known books, I find it has just as much truth in it as "Little Women".
As Christians, we girls are all more or less what people would term "An Old-Fashioned Girl"...as one elderly lady Polly knows tells her, "Modesty seems to have gone out of fashion these days". Polly is about 14 years old at the start of the book, and is visiting some wealthy friends in the city. There, she is faced with challenges to her simple upbringing. What I love about Polly Milton is that she does struggle, but at the end of her visit, she not only has withstood temptation, but has changed in some way the family she was visiting merely by her sweet, modest conduct.
Then, half-way through the book, there is a lapse of 6 years, and our Polly is 20 years old. She has returned to the City to be a piano teacher, and help her younger brother through college to be a minister. This season of Polly is my favorite, because I can readily identify with her. Louisa May Alcott perfectly captured a wholesome, sweet, innocent young lady who is still tempted to be discontent at times, wants to see just for a bit what it would be like to be "one of those girls" who her friend Fanny associates with, gets tired of doing her "duty", gives up the love of a good man for a friend who loves and needs him, and generally comes out of all these things a brighter, and stronger woman.
One of my favorite chapters is "Forbidden Fruit" when Polly does give into a small temptation and finds that her conduct has changed some relationships, made her discontent, and generally was not worth the few hours of pleasure it gave her....So true! :)

The end of this book is amazing! I love it. Everything ends just how you'd want it! :D So I guess this was a book review as well as a character over-view! I'm sure you'll love "An Old-Fashioned Girl" so please read it! :)

Over all rating of book: *****
Over all rating of Polly Milton: ***** (I could go on.... ;)
Cautions: There is one chapter with a rather feministic point of view, but that is easily sorted through! ;)

Fiesta de Octobre Blog Party Book and Movie Answers

When I saw this last Fiesta de Octobre contest on Jo's blog, I begged Sarah to let me enter it...literature is right down my alley, and,as anyone who knows me will tell you, I could talk the hind leg off a mule about what books I love, what movie adaptations I thought were good, what characters are my favorites....(smiles at me cousin Matthew :) So, anyhow, she was a model sister and quickly agreed to giving me posting rights for this! So without further ado....

{1} It's nearly impossible to pick a favorite book, so what are your top THREE favorite books ? (other than the Bible :D) Oh dear. Only 3?!?!?...To Have And To Hold, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and...and...well, it is an old favorite, but it has shaped my creativity so, Little Women! :)

{2} Who is your favorite heroine from literature? (if you need to list more than one, that's fine) Yay! No number restriction on this one!!! :D Anne Shirley, Polly Milton (An Old-Fashioned Girl), Esther Summerson (Bleak House), Molly Gibson (Wives and Daughters), Emma Woodhouse, Eleanor Dashwood, Meg and Jo March, and So So So many more! :D

{3} Who is your favorite hero from literature? (see above note) Oh boy. Matthew could recite the list for me, he's heard it so many times! :D Sir Percy Blakeney (Scarlet Pimpernel), Capt. Percy (To Have and To Hold), James Percy (The Inheritance), (Lotsa Percys! :P) Gilbert Blythe, Roger Hamley (Wives and Daughters), Mr. Thornton (North and South), Aslan (Narnia), and TONS more! (Each book I read, I like the hero better than them all! ;)

{4} Who is your favorite author? (see note above) Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Eleanor Estes, Jan Karon, etc.

{5} What is your favorite type of book to read? Classic story...some adventure, some old-fashioned, pure romance, lots of humor, unforgettable characters, etc.

{6} If you could be a character from literature for one day, who would you be? Why? Oh mercy. You had to make me choose?....Emma Woodhouse...what else can I say? Huge old-fashioned house, a British accent, lovely clothes, being beautiful yourself, loving family, Mr. Knightley to scold you... :D

{7} What type of reader would you call yourself? Are you an avid reader, passive reader, or even a non-reader?? AVID READER!!!!

{8} Do you like reading aloud? Yes! To listening group of people. Ignoring listeners get on my nerves!

{9} Do you like mystery stories? Yes! Well, Sherlock Holmes! He never ceases to amaze me! =)

{10}All of us have read a book at some point or another and disliked the way it ended or who married who, etc. What book(s) bother you like that, and what would you change about them? Well....As Jo said, I would rather Jo have married Laurie in Little Women...oh! and in Wives and Daughters, the author, Elizabeth Gaskell, died before she finished the book and it is right at the sweetest part so it is SO frustrating! :( But the movie finished it off in a cute, albeit...interesting way! :D

{11} Just like books, it's *very* hard to pick a favorite movie. What are you top THREE favorite movies? The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Amazing Grace, and....Little Women...but those are equal to many many more!

{12} When it comes to movie adaptions of books, are you a purist or do you not mind changes to the storyline? If the storyline of the movie compromises the book's message, or drastically changes the story, it definitely bothers me!

{13} What is your favorite book-to-movie adaption?...BBC Does a really good job with any book I've seen them adapt...Emma is definitely a good one...Sense and Sensibility...Little Women, Lord of the Rings trilogy (okay, so they changed it a bit! :) Pride and Prejudice...

{14} What is your favorite type of movie to watch? Any well done, adventurous, exciting, and loveable movie with a solid storyline. (I despise twoddle-ly ones! :P)

{15} Do you like to watch movies with the lights off or on? Off!

{16} DVD or VHS? DVD!

{17} When you watch a movie, would you rather watch it straight through or skip around to your favorite scenes? If I have seen it more than 10 times....skipping the more boring scenes

{18} Subtitles? Depends...in North and South, at first I couldn't understand the Northern England accent, so Subtitles definitely helped!

{19} Do you make comments and ask questions during a movie, or sit in complete silence? If I haven't seen the movie, I'm quiet, but if I'm showing it someone else, I talk! :D

{20} If you could be in any movie (whether it's already been made or not) which movie would it be? Who would you want to be and why? O cool! :) Well, if I could look the part....Marguerite Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel! She is beautiful and clever, it is an exciting movie, the setting is so classic, and it would be so much fun! Or any BBC movie if I could look right for the character!

Yay! That was a really fun quiz! Thanks Jo! :)

Times - Tenth Avenue North

Hey Guys! I thought I'd post this song by one of our favorite Christian bands, Tenth Avenue North. This is one of my favorite songs they do! :) I love the lyrics, because it's a great reminder of how God's love is as far as the east is from the west, and it never will end. How encouraging to be reminded of! Here you go!





Did you like it? :) Well, I'll be going! :)
-Sarah

Charlotte Church - The Last Rose Of Summer, Live

Ah...every time I look out the front windows and view our brave little roses still "bloomin' on the thorn", this lovely song comes to mind! Charlotte Church (by far one of our new favorite singers of traditional songs) has the perfect voice for this sweet, mournful Irish song! Enjoy it! :)

Daughters of Destiny! (With Pictures!!! :)

Hi Everyone! I am here to do a post about our wonderful week at Daughters of Destiny! First off, this Daughters of Destiny is most certainly NOT the feminist one that often comes up on search results, so don't worry! :D I will keep this to a more general post about the week, because Sarah is not here, and she and I will probably later on share some thoughts gained from the week or something! :) Anyhow, Sunday morning, we all piled into several cars, and began the long and arduous journey to Pinnacle, NC. From our meeting place, it was about 5 1/2 hours....okay....perhaps that was partly because some of Alaina's younger sisters needed to make pit stops all along the way! :P The GPS gave us quite a few adventures! When our destination was "near", we began to go on un-named gravel roads! The mountains were beautiful, and we arrived at the top of "Dead man's ascent" unscathed! :)

Sarah and I were sent to cabin 5, where we had a lovely group of cabin mates! (Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to post pictures of us with our friends!:( You'll have to be content with scenery and odd-and-ends :)

Home Sweet Home ;)

Ga-Ga....a very interesting, original game that seems to have evolved to quite a sport at this camp! It's fun, it scrapes skin off your knuckles....and the girls still love it! :D This is the Ga-Ga pit! :)

On Monday, classes began...Sarah and I took scrapbooking, cross-stitch, and encouragement/ministry/missions. All three classes were lovely, and I very much enjoyed them! :) The daily schedule was jam-packed and went something like this:
7:30 a.m. : Wake, shower, get dressed, make bed, etc.
8:15: Personal devotion time
8:30: Line up for breakfast, and file into dining room to eat
9:15-9:30: cabin clean up
9:30: Bell rings for morning session
10:30: first class
11:30: free time before lunch (I usually went to the Bible Study held at this time)
12:00: lunch time
1:00: rest time on beds....we memorized verses during this period
2:00: Group rec. usually some large outdoor game like capture the flag, link, volleyball, etc.
3:00-5:30: Two more classes
5:30-6:15: free-time, music-practice time, prayer meeting in dining hall
6:15: line up for dinner, eat dinner, mail-call
7:00: Group rec
8:00: short free time period....shower, change, etc.
8:30: evening session
(after that) return to cabins, get ready for bed, cabin devotion, lights out

As you can see, there was a very tight schedule, but that was great! The cabin inspector was very thorough too! :) We were all overjoyed when we got a 100 score! ;)
Wednesday, we all hiked up the mountain. From up here, there was so much to see and admire! God's handiwork was awesomely present! :)

The Upward Trail....an easy part of it, obviously! :)



The view of Pilot Mountain! :) Lovely view up there!


You can see the drop-off over the edge.....we girls were more daring than you'd think we'd be! Many of us went to the very edgiest edge that we could go....(they blocked off some with a rope)

Thursday night was Talent Night. The King's Daughter and I sang "Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?" and Michelle played guitar for us! :) Bethany, a good friend, gave an extremely touching testimony, and since we were all girls, yes.....we all ended up crying profusely, and having to be quieted down with a bonfire! :)
Friday night was the Banquet! This is one of the most fun parts of the week! Sarah wore a beautiful combination of blues and black that left the impression of royal-blue butterflies! :D Leah wore a gorgeous plum colored silk and mock amethysts, and I wore my Colonial dress that Grandmama made for me! :) One girl dubbed me "Rachel Antoinette", and I suppose I could have looked a tad like that famous queen with one long curl over my shoulder and a red rose in my hair! ;) I love dressing up! Any how! The banquet night also doubled as Sacred Music Night. This event is where all the girls get up use their musical talents for praising the Lord. It was beautiful.

Here is the cake that the cake-decorating class made! :)

We then danced till almost midnight! Thanks SO much Josie! :) (That girl has the patience of a saint! <3 )
The cabin with the highest score (Yay Cabin 6) got an ice cream party afterward, and the rest of us occupied ourselves staying up far too late Christmas caroling to everyone, and having a pillow-fight! :)
Saturday we all went home, thoroughly tired, but blessed. I was challenged in SO many ways throughout the week, as well as refreshed and inspired, but as all that won't fit into this post, I'll say goodbye now! Thanks for reading! :) -Rachel

You're Never A Prophet In Your Own Country! ;)

Sarah has so much faith in my herbal skills and her reaction to my latest suggestion surprised me! It almost moved me to tears. Literally. ;)
The poor dear has had a horrid cough all week. We joked that we had let her out of the t.b. ward only for Dad's birthday party. So this evening in the kitchen, I said, "I found some elderberries growing along the road today! I'll pick them tomorrow and make you something for your cough!"
Sarah stopped sweeping, stared, and interrupted me with her these words, so accurately describing her faith in my remedies: "I'm-not-gonna-let-you-poison-me!!!" So much for healing my family members! ;) I now sympathize with the earliest doctors who tested which plants were good to use and which weren't. :D

Good Bye for a week!!! =)

Exactly 12 hours till we leave for camp!!!!! We thought we'd do a challenge for you guys while we're gone! :) Sound fun?
So.... Here are the rules:

You answer the questions below as accurately as you can.
You get 1 point for each right question, and extra points for participating, if you add our button to your sidebar, enter in the Inkpen Authoress' Autumn Writing Contest, or vote on our poll. Just leave a comment telling what of these you did and with your answers. :)
So here are your questions:

• Which thing is true about our family? We go on a vacation every year, extended family members own a ranch in California, or we've never gone on a family vacation
• What 3 pets do we own? A dog, guinea pig, and cat, or a cockatiel, dog, and rabbit.
  
• Do we like McDonald's?
  
• Did both our parents grow up in VA?
• Have we ever been to NYC?
• Have we seen the movie Titanic?
• Which BBC movie have we seen the most? Wives and Daughters, P&P, S&S, or Emma.
• Do either of us own a iPod or mP3 player?
  

Okay!! I hope when we come back we'll be pleasantly surprised with all of our entries! ;)
-Sarah

Love of Literature Review Series: Passion and Purity

This week's "Love of Literature Review" is the first one in the series! :) I'm excited about doing this, because I love to read, and love to tell people about the things I've read! Mama suggested I do this too, as a way to cement the book in my mind! :) So here is the first review! :)
"Passion and Purity" by Elisabeth Elliot. This book was recommended to me by Meredith over at Striving to Serve at Home.
I had asked her for a list of the "top ten" books she'd recommend I read, and this was one of them!

As I knew Morgan owned the book, I borrowed it from her, and dug my nose into the depths of it! :) I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book, seeing as I have read several books on purity before...how much more could there be to learn about? But this book intrigued me from the start, for it is a book on purity, as well as telling Elisabeth and Jim Elliot's love story. That is what interested me. It was the principles of purity put into action, and retold from a vantage point of 40 years or so that caught my attention. In this beautifully written book, Elisabeth Elliot covers topics such as honor above passion, loneliness, finding contentment in Christ, waiting patiently, bringing your heart and mind under Christ's guidance, and so many more topics! Sometimes I think we can be confused into thinking that passion and purity are opposites. Under Christ's control, they are a beautiful harmony. But without Christ, things quickly go wrong. In Mrs. Elliot's book, she shows an example of how a young man and a young woman, both deeply in love, had an even stronger underlying love for Jesus, and were greatly blessed by Him in their relationship.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"Through affairs of the heart, God uncovers our intentions."

"If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd."

"A man's love for a woman ought to hold her to the highest. Her love for him ought to do the same. I did not want to turn Jim aside from the call of God, to distract his energies, or in any way to stand between him and a thoroughgoing surrender. This is what I understood real love to mean. "And love means following the commands of God. This is the command that was given you from the beginning, to be your rule of life.".....God leads his dear children along different pathways. But he asks the same brand of commitment to all of them. Everybody who wants to follow Him has to: Give up self, take up the cross, follow."

"Let's be candid with ourselves before God. Call a spade a spade or even a muddy shovel. If your passions are aroused, say so-- to yourself and to God, not to the object of your passion. Then turn the reigns over to God. Bring your will to Him. Will to obey Him, ask for His help. He will not do the obeying for you, but He will help you. Don't ask me how. He knows how. You'll see."

There are so many other quotes that I could go on for quite a while! :) But I was blessed and encouraged by the book, and would certainly recommend it for all older girls! :)

Final Score: *****
Age I Recommend "Passion and Purity" For: 18+
Cautions: I would recommend skipping the chapter entitled: "Love Letters"...it's a little...loverish. ahem.

There you have it! Have a great day! :) -Rachel

Balderdash!

Over at Scraps From My Workbasket Miss Jo March is having a Fiesta de octobre blog party. She had a few suggestions for blog posts that we could do as part of the party, and so I thought I choose one! :) But first, one other note of business....beginning this Friday, I will be doing a book review each week. As part of this last stretch of high-school-home-school for me, I will be doing a ton of reading! Which I LOVE! :D So this week I will do a book review, and every week from then on, excepting next week, because I will be at Daughters of Destiny!!! :) Read about last year's trip here: This is the button for the weekly book review post:

It reads: "Love of Literature Review Series" because that is the name I came up with for this series of posts! :P If you will, you can put the button on your blog! :) But to the real subject of this post.... We were commissioned by Miss March to pick one of several topics...I chose to write an advertisement for a favorite game, trying to convince you all why it is the best! :D And this is the one I chose; Ladies and Gents, let me introduce you to: BALDERDASH!!!!

It is a game of bluffing, a game of wits, a game of keeping-a-straight-face-in-the-face-of-accusation....in short...it is a game I find extremely difficult! ;) Nevertheless, it is one of my personal favorite games to play with our family! We are all crazy, and I guess I must be okay at the game, because Sarah spends the whole time shouting out that every strange suggestion is mine! :D This is a game where truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and the very answers you swear cannot be real, are the very ones that are as true as anything! :) So, trying to be authentic to the time period when ads were the most fun, I will make up a little jingle, and entertain you with pictures....
(To be sung to the tune of "Happy Trails" and yes, I know it is a little cheesy. All jingles are.! :P)

Balderda-ash is fun,
We play it quite a lot!
Balderda-ash is fun,
Whether it's cold or hot!
It shakes up all the little grumpy peoples,
Who sit all day and glare through stodgy peep-holes.
Balderda-ash is fun!
So buy this game!
Bal-alderdashhhh iiissss fuunnnn! :D

Now to conclude our little advertisment for this afternoon, I'd like to introduce Mr. Harry Schuyler Grantide. This is he:

This fellow believes he is the best Balderdash player in the world. He has a strategy...takes random letters from the alphabet ( in this case a,b,e, and z, and arranges them so as to Stun and Impress his fellow players. Even if he bluff isn't so great, he thinks he is stunning enough himself to win anyhow. See the little shiny light around his head?...yep. I told you. Vain little man.
These are some rather unfortunate fellows. The moustached one has just lost a game of Balderdash.



As you can see, he is not a good sport! ;) This Ladies and Gents, is the only downside to Balderdash: the losers lose rather badly. ;) Thank you for your time, and tune in next Tuesday at 7:35 p.m. Thank you again."

Anyway, that was just a weak attempt at doing a 40's style advertisement for this most amazingly fun game!! Please play it! :) -Rachel

Rescued From Oil Stains! :P

Generally one worries about a child spilling things your lap. Or, for those of us from large families, you have learned to stop worrying at all, and merely expect the inevitable. But this past Sunday, during the fellowship meal, I was sitting with one woman, and talking with her while eating our lunch. Her husband came up to stand beside her and eat his lunch, and, throughout the whole of the meal, dropped pieces of his salad, dressing and all, onto my skirt. I discreetly ignored them, wondering what sort of dressing he had used, and hoping it would come out! Later on the porch, Sarah informed me that I had an oil stain all over the front of my skirt. It was a new one, (to me) from the thrift-store, and I couldn't afford to trash a new skirt! So I went on a Google mission: to find out how to remove oil from clothing. There were many suggestions, some complicated, some strange, and finally, I found the load-star of them all. Let me introduce the BEST EVER WAY TO REMOVE OIL FROM CLOTHING!!!! Yes, you will want to listen, because this little tip could very well help all you large families from having to retire quantities of clothing from oil stains. The woman who shared this tip, said that she had removed the stain from a whole pound of butter from one skirt with this technique, as well as car oil, and other things. Sounded great! So I carefully followed the directions:

"Do not wet the fabric! Apply shampoo to both sides of material on top of stain, and rub together gently. Rinse in warm water, as both hot and cold water may set the stains instead of removing them. Continue rubbing and rinsing until the stain is gone. Wash as usual."

And so I did. And you know what? The stain is completely gone just like they said! Try it sometime! It really does work! :) -Rachel

Fiesta de Octobre Blog Party Answers!

Hey You Guys! :) Jo March is having a blog party and here are my answers to her questions! :)

{1} What time do you wake up each morning? Usually somewhere around 7:45 ish. :) Why? uh...because I do, that's all! ;)

{2} You've just woken up, and you're thirsty. You fix yourself a glass of....Water.

{3} Where do you go to school? HOME-SCHOOLED!!!What do you like/dislike about it? That I'm always around my family and my teacher seems like she's related to me! ;)

{4} How many siblings do you have? I have 7 siblings. What are their names and ages (if you're allowed to share)? Daniel(191/2) Rachel (18), Leah (13), Anna (11), Benjamin (81/2), Abigail(6), and Grace (4).

{5} What is your favorite game to play with your family? Hm...that's a hard one...probably volleyball, Balderdash, or....Scattergories. :)

{6} What's the silliest thing you've ever done with your siblings, cousins or any other family member? Wow. I can't think of one particular time, cuz we're always goofing off! :PWould you do it again if you could? Yep!

{7} What's your favorite game to play with your friends? Volleyball, rhythm, or um...signs!

{8} If you could meet one person in the whole wide world (who's currently alive), who would it be? Probably....(as long as these people are nice;) Julie Andrews or the Duggars.....um..(this hard! Everybody I'd want to meet is dead already!:P)
Why would you want to meet that person? I just would like to see her in person, see if she's nice like on the movies, and make friends with the Duggar girls. :)
What would you say to them? :\ I don't really know...I'd like to ask the Duggars questions about having such a large family...

{9} If you could meet one person in the whole wide world (from the past), who would it be? Wow. There are soooo many people that I admire....C.S. Lewis, Roy Rogers or Dale Evans, and....maybe
Why would you want to meet that person? I admire C.S. Lewis' walk with the Lord, and Roy Roger and Dale Evans' because they were Christians working in Hollywood.What would you say to them? I'd have to think about that!

{10} What is your favorite way to worship God? Singing, dancing, playing an instrument, praying, fasting? Singing!!!

{11} "God cares about the little things of life." Do you agree? Absolutely!! =)
Can you give specific examples of ways that God has shown Himself in the little things of your life? Yes.....About a week ago, we all were longing for it to rain! :) And throughout this past week, we got probably 8" of rain!!

{12} Is there a particular Bible verse that has stood out to you recently? hm....Oh! =) This morning our family was reading the book of Jonah and in chapter 3.
Which verse and why? 3:6,9 really show how even back then, our human-selves were so pitiful and ungrateful! =)

{13} Your parents are out for the day, leaving you home alone (with your siblings). Then, your grandmother from out of state calls and says she'll be there in fifteen minutes. (She wasn't supposed to come until tomorrow) What do you do? We don't have a grandmother out of the state.......but...I'd probably call Mom and then bust to clean the house! :)

{14} Have you ever traveled out of country? No.
Why did you go? N/A

{15} What sport do you play and what do you enjoy about it? Volleyball!! I love playing with any friends or family, because you can talk and laugh through the whole game! :)

{16} Do you like cats or dogs better? Dogs! If neither, specify: N/A

{17} Country or city? Country to live in.....but I love visiting big cities.
{18} Cowboy hat or prairie bonnet? Cowboy hat!
{19} Flipflops or tennis shoes? Flip- Flops

{20} Do you like Jo's blog? YESSSSS!!!!! =)

Okay. There it is! :)
-Sarah

More is Taught Than Thought! :)

Nearly every evening last week, Dad, Sarah, Leah, Anna, Benjamin, and I went to a Hunter's Education Class in our county. I had not initially had much of an interest in going...10 hours of my evening-time out of the week seemed a lot. But Dad desired me to go, and so I did, wondering what exactly I could get out of the class. It ended up being great for several different reasons, not the least of which was to rumple up my romantic mind to more out-doors-ish, adventurous things! :) I actually grew interested in tracking, archery, muzzle-loading guns, and other things! Who ever would have thought that? ;) It seemed a thing more in Sarah's line of giftings. Believe me. That girl keeps me going! I am the dreamy-eyed, romantic, creative sister, and Sarah's practicality, sensibleness, and common sense, keep my feet on the ground and my head aware of what's going on in the here and now! :) Thanks Ce-Ce! :) Any-whoo! There was one part during the last night of the class that almost made me laugh out loud in pity! That sounds contradictory, but it is not! I promise! You see, it was the section on ethics, and the poor guy up front was making things terribly hard by trying to be politically correct, and stumbling all around the meaning of the word when for me, a Christian, the answer was so easy. The question: "What are ethics?" Here are several of the answers the course came up with:

• "Ethics is a concept that seeks to answer questions about what is good or bad, right or wrong, and what makes up a moral system."
• "An ethic is a body of moral principles or values associated with a particular culture or group."

• "The sum of our individual ideas of what is right equals a code of ethical conduct...."

Really? Oh dear. Then we are all in big trouble! I truly was sitting in my seat struggling not to giggle. All these things explanations dance around the "Big, bad, idea" of right vs. wrong. The last one especially is rather shocking...the sum of our individual ideas of what is right? Mercy on us! As I talked it over with Dad later, we were both shaking our heads. I think even Anna could have given the instructor the bottom line for ethics: For one example, take Deuteronomy 5:32-33:

"Therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord you God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess."

I don't know who you are, but that passage clearly states that God has commanded some things right, and some things wrong. His word is very explicit in telling us His ways. So I can only laugh at how hard some people make it to define "ethics". Jesus came to teach us the Father's ways, and standards, and all someday will answer to those. I think as Christians, we sometimes take for granted how easy some decisions are. We have been told what is right, and what is wrong. The world still struggles, each person on their own, to reinvent the wheel! Basically, that hunter's course was suggesting that ethics are relativism. I recall a friend speaking of a young man she had had a conversation with. This gentleman did not believe that was a real "right and wrong". My friend asked him, okay, so how do you know what to do and not to do? The young man answered, "Well, when I do the right thing, I feel good!" (emphasis added)
One major problem with this fellow's argument- in it, he acknowledged that there was a "right thing". Poor guy! He knows deep down that there is a "right" thing, but he just makes it difficult by ignoring the fact that there is already a written "moral code" in God's word Going back to the hunter's course, another point bothered me: each culture and group has their own ethics? Doubtless they meant well, trying to merely get the idea of hunting-ethics across. But really. If in my culture, I said stealing was okay, then when I went into your culture, and you said it was wrong, you couldn't prosecute me in any way because my idea of wrong was different than yours? Oh boy. That doesn't sound like any form of "correctness". That sounds like anarchy!
So I'm sorry if this turned out to be a bit of a rambling post! I just felt that I ought to share the cool lesson I learned while attending a class that had nothing to do with it! :) -Rachel

Anne of Green Gables - "The Highwayman"

Who can forget Anne Shirley's passionate recital of "The Highway Man" or "The Lady of Shallott"? Oftentimes, I step back, and think of what people did for fun before they had all this technology...the thought intrigues me, and I enjoy thinking of, and doing things that require no further technology than a book, and the brain God has given me. For a long time, my sisters and I would memorize a poem each week, and recite it at every tea-party with our Girl's Gazette. The exercise that it gave our brains was absolutely wonderful! Have we become so content with watching other people act things out for us on the screen that we cannot enjoy good literature, and use our imaginations to convey the wonder and excitement of it to others? In the book of "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne says at one point, "Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back?" It is so true...some poetry just captures your attention...I memorized"Barbara Frietchie" once, and still can quote many of those soaring lines...

"Up from the meadows rich with corn,

Clear in the cool September morn,

The clustered spires of Frederick stand,

Green-walled by the hills of Maryland...

.....And the nobler nature within him stirred

To life at that woman's deed and word.

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head

Dies like a dog! March on!" he said."

Ahh...reading poetry and prose aloud is a great art. I clearly remember a scene in the 1995 Sense and Sensibility when Edward Ferrars is reading aloud to the Dashwoods with very little emotion. Marianne, exasperated, finally stands up, take the book and reads passionately: "Not LIGHT propitious SHONE!" with great dramatic flair. We all cannot have perfect reading aloud..and not everyone we'd wish to read aloud to would care to sit and listen! :) But I do challenge all you fellow writers to take a favorite book, find a sister who would listen, and try to read the book or poem aloud in a way that would do Anne Shirley credit. One of my favorite quotes from poetry is in Sir Walter Scott's "The Lady of The Lake" and depicts a Highland Chieftan's defiant quote at Fitz-James at a crucial moment in the story..

"These are Clan Alpine's warriors true

And Saxon- I am Rhoderick Dhu!"

Those words still give me Anne's crinkly feeling up my back! :) Maybe I just have an uncommon love of literature...it's possible! ;) But I do think that we all can determine to improve our reading-aloud. It is a skill not possessed by most people today, and one that is appreciated for it's very rarity when a solid reader is found. Do it for fun! Take a book out to the woods, stand there, and either read or quote the words with as much drama as you would like to use. You can always tone it down in public, but in the woods, who cares as long as you are having fun! :)

-Rachel