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