Little Girls

I would love feedback on this post.

Maybe I'm a little old fashion, but I want my little girls to look like little girls. I came from a very modest family. I wasn't able to wear a 2-piece bathing suit until I was 16-17 years old. My sister and I were allowed to wear tank tops but nothing that was form fitting or shorter than an inch or 2 above our knee.

I look at little girls today and so often I'm so sad by what I see - a generation of girls who don't know the meaning of the word modesty. I see little girls wearing clothes that grown women wear to look sexy, but for some reason on a child it's overlooked and excused away. I hear so many mom's say "So-and-so looks so grown up!" Well let's not dismiss the fact that you buy that little girl clothes that allows her dress like a teenager or young woman in her 20's. 

I just don't understand how moms can let their 9, 10, 11, 12 year old daughters wear clothes I see on Abercrombie and Fitch advertisements. I want my little girl to stay and look innocent and wholesome for as long as possible. She'll have her whole life to dress like a woman. 



This is the ad for Hollister. Are you okay with your little girl wearing clothes that represent this?

Even more, I want to instill modesty and self-value in her. I want her to understand that she's beautiful inside and out but all of her outside beauty isn't for the whole world to see.

I wasn't even close to being "in style" when I was growing up. I was a homeschooler in a homeschooler community and dressed the part. I don't want to put that on my child. However, if being stylish means letting my little girl (and by this I mean preteen) wear form fitting dresses, halter tops, off the shoulder shirts, mini skirts and daisy dukes then bring on the denim jumpers!

Maybe I'm too judgmental. But when people look at my 8 year old, I want them to see an 8 year old, not a little girl trying to look like a 16 year old. 

Yours, Mine and Ours

Single me with my softball buddies about 2 years before meeting my hubby. Fortunately, these amazing peeps have become "ours."

I had a thought today. When you get married there is a merger of many things, friends included ... or not. 

My thought was, What happens when he has his friends and she has her friends and she doesn't like his and he doesn't like hers? Does everyone give up their friends? Does she only hang out with hers and he only hang out with his? Do they develop "our" friends? Do they compromise and hang out with each others' friends even though they don't want to?

Justin and I had a pretty short relationship before we got married, 14 months all together. We've had a few issues with this but it hasn't seemed to create too much conflict, thank God! 

What is your experience with or thoughts on this? 

An Idea in the Making

Lately, I've been contemplating starting another blog (like I have all the time in the world to blog!). It would be a daily devotional blog. I'm still ironing out the thoughts and ins and outs. But I've been thinking it would be something geared toward moms, women, or wives. I'm thinking about a 365-day blog that would include some scripture and some application with, hopefully, a good deal of interaction and comments. 

When there's a change in the dynamics of my life I always find there's a change in the dynamics of my relationship with the Lord. I've definitely seen that happening lately and I'm trying to be intentional about stoking the flame. 

I would love to hear some feedback about this idea. Any suggestions? 

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Tonight JoJo took Eve to drive around and look at Christmas lights. Eve very generously invited me to tag along. We had too much fun! It made me think how much I can't wait to have 3 chatter boxes in the back seat in complete awe at such Christmas simplicity. 

Ever the unknowing character, I wanted to share a few Eveisms from the drive. 

"Christmas deer!!"

Me: "Eve do you know that angels have jobs? Do you know what their jobs are?"
Eve: "No."
Me: "Their job is to bring good news!"
Eve: "And to bring good food!! When the angels bring me chicken I won't be so sad."

After seeing a Santa with mechanical reindeer:
Me: "Eve where are they going?"
Eve: "To save Mrs. Claus!" 

We ended the drive with a trip to some friends' house who let Eve play with her decorative bird house then gave her an orange. I'd say it was a successful adventure!

A Baking Revelation

We've got a bug going around here and instead of all the girls getting it at one time, they've decided to pass it around and be sick individually. FUN! Thus my lack of recent posts. Fortunately, I haven't gotten sick. Praise God!

I love baking! But what I don't love about baking is having a lot of sweets in the house. Last year, my resolution was to bake a pie a month but I didn't want to be responsible for the consuming of said pies. So every month I made them and gave them to a friend of mine who was eager to help me out. The holidays always awaken my baking bug. I could literally bake something every day (thank you Pinterest)! 

The other day I had some bananas go brown, which I totally take as an excuse to bake. Can't waste them! So I found a recipe for banana bars. For those of you who want to try, I used brown sugar instead of white in the bar recipe and used egg nog instead of milk in the icing. I ended up with a huge pan of them, a mom who is on a juice fast, a dad who "doesn't do banana bread", a toddler who doesn't do cake and me who is trying to not gain 400 pounds this holiday season. So I sent them to work with the hubbers. This completely inspired me to start baking and sending the results with Justin. That way he'll be the popular guy on campus and I'll get to bake! Here are some other recipes I've recently tried and had success with. Enjoy!



Made this cake for Thanksgiving because my sister's new boyfriend doesn't do pie. lol SO glad I did! I quickly dubbed it Chocolate Beer Cake and I think me and Sean ate the whole thing ourselves! I didn't use the icing in this recipe. I used this white chocolate icing instead. 


Lasagna! My husband said this made him like lasagna ... VICTORY! I believe I made this exactly as the recipe says but instead of using the homemade sauce I used a jar of vodka sauce from the store and a little bit of cream.