Finished school, picking strawberries, dress details, & my first bloom!

Busy, busy, busy!
That's why I haven't been very consistent with posting.
But now that I'm finished with 11th grade (!!!!),
the busyness should die down some.
(Although I do hope to start 12th in a month or so!)

Earlier this week, we went strawberry picking.
The weather was beautiful and we had a great time...


My friend and I

Beth and Carolynne

Will

Me

Afterwards we went to our friends' house to jam it.
Well, actually just the moms jammed.
My friend and I were exhausted and decided to rest

and then we sang a while later.
The jam turned out really good...



I was also very excited this week to have my first blossom.
I've never been able to grow things before,
but back in November I decided to try my hand at day lilies

(at least I'm pretty sure they're day lilies).
I've been taking care of them every day since,
and on Wednesday I saw my first bloom!
I was so happy the Lord blessed me with my 1st flower!

It was so pretty and smelled good too!
I'm glad to say that today I found 2 more
and lots more are about to bloom!

Recently, I was asked in a comment

about what dress pattern I use.
I make most of my dresses the same,
using the 'Women's square neck dress'
from Common Sense patterns. It's pattern 416E.
I adjust the neckline and the sleeves to my liking.
Also, I do not use the skirt pattern it gives.
I like my skirts really full! (Mine have a 12 foot hem!)
So I use the 6 panel medieval skirt pattern from NEWLOOK.
It's pattern 6614.
I slightly adjust the top of the skirt to make it wider
for more gathering to my bodice

and I also add on 4 inches in length.
Here's another sample of the dress.
My friend and I just recently made ourselves matching ones...

Well, I hope you all have a great weekend!
I plan to post again soon!


"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation:

the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Matthew 26:41

Kindred Spirits In 2008

Best Friends In 2008
Originally uploaded by hskubes_gal

Here I am 15 and Stephani is 12.
We were sitting on an antique bike in my backyard
wearing our matching blue dresses.
(Click to see a larger view!)

Kindred Spirits in 2007

Best Friends in 2007
Originally uploaded by hskubes_gal

Here I was 14 and Stephani was 11.
We were at Colonial Williamsburg VA
for their Homeschool Week.

(You can click on all these photos
to view them larger.)

Kindred Spirits in 2006

Best Friends in 2006
Originally uploaded by hskubes_gal

Here I was 13 and Stephani was 10.
We were at a park in SC.

Kindred Spirits in 2005

Best Friends in 2005
Originally uploaded by hskubes_gal

Here I was 12 and Stephani was 9.
We were at our favorite beach in SC.

The Past Few Weeks...

WOW! I've been so busy lately,
I haven't found time to get on the computer!
I'm terribly sorry!

I thought I'd post some pictures from the past few
weeks to fill you in some ;)
So feel free to grab a snack and sit back and relax:)

2 Fridays ago, we and our friends went to the beach.
It's actually getting too hot, but we're getting some nice breezes.
That day was one of those days...


My friend, Stephani, my lil' sister, Carolynne, and I


Everyone enjoying the water


My deere friend and I


While we were there, some guys came out to surf!
It was really neat to watch!


Me enjoying watching in the sand


My precious siblings and I

Afterwards, we went to my house.
Stephani and I worked on our schoolwork together...


Sometime last week, my brother and I
enjoyed watching the birds together...


And deere Beth is learning how to read.
I had the pleasure of her reading a BOB book to me ;)


The whole week 2 weeks ago, Stephani and I
worked on a cd of us singing.
We used her sister's cd player to record our singing onto a tape.
Then our pastor was so kind to put the tape to a cd for us!
Though the recording wasn't the best,
it's just fun for us to listen to... ;)

Here we were remembering the words to
"Keep On The Firing Line", which we had lost the music to.
(It's now found again, thankfully;)

Also, I've picked up a new instrument...

It's always fun on park day when my friend and I sing
with the guitar together.
But now we can sing with the banjo!
My pastor is letting me borrow his banjo for a while.
I hope to get one of my own sometime in the future!

Also, I've been busy with photography.
Here are a couple of photos I've taken and edited.
I also ordered them as prints...


My puffy dove! I love these guys!








This one is my personal favorite!
I plan to get a bigger print to frame and hang on my wall.


:0)

Well, that's all for now.
I'll soon be posting some photos that I organized for my friend and I.
They're one photo from each year.
(Only from '05, though... we've been kindred spirits since about '01!)
Have a great weekend!

A Day With Friends...

I am really not the most consistent poster in the blog world.
Mom and I were jesting about how
I should get a 'Bad Blogger Award'. lol

It's been very busy around here.
Yesterday I ended up doing 54 pages
in my Advanced Chemistry!!!!
Oh, I couldn't put it down!
Now that I've learned, as Dr.Wile says,
'all there is to know about equilibrium'(sigh of relief!),
I've finally started enjoying more of my favorite fields:
kinetics and organic chemistry.
(I didn't know I'd like organic chemistry,
but it's pretty much physical chemistry with a lot of 'twists' to it!!!!)

Anyway, today was a nice day
so we decided to go to the beach!
I love the beach and it's been a while since we had gone.
I absolutely adore the cute seagulls and pelicans...


But unfortunately, it was a little crowded,
so we didn't stay long.
But here are 2 of my favorite shots of the moms...



My mama...



Mrs.C...

Notice how similar their face expressions are? LOL
Just goes to show that when you've been best friends
with someone for 7 years, you pick up the others' traits.
Hee hee. I love you guys ;)

We, then, ventured home.
We spent time singing, playing instruments,
relaxing, and having fun with the camera.
Here are a few photos I thought I'd share:
Playing my guitar in a unique way, as we've done before...



(We had done this years ago
and decided to update the pose in our photos ;)

And my 'Mad Scientist' look, as she says...
(since I like to study so much and relate
almost any situation to Chemistry;)


After a while, we made the Friday night pizza...

We had a great time of fellowship (and singing!) in the kitchen.

The children were enjoying their time
dressing up and showing us their costumes...


Cute Carolynne



Butterfly Beth



Roman Will and who knows what his friend is!?!
(some kind of a morphed cow/elephant/cowgirl/queen)

They also had fun on the trampoline in their outfits...


Today was definately a great day of fellowship!
Here are 2 more photos we took...



I hope to post again soon!
Have a great weekend!

He Gives Me What I Need...

Oh, the Lord is so precious to me!
I've been struggling for quite some time
with a particular situation
(which tends to be more pressing at church).
I woke up in the middle of the night last night
and had a whole hour pouring my heart out before the Lord.
I told Him that I was determined that
I was going to do what I knew I needed to do,
and will trust that He'll work everthing out to His will.
I felt such peace after that time with Him!

And this morning when I was having my quiet time,
I flipped my Bible open right to Ecclesiastes.
I saw a couple yellow marks that I made in the past
and decided to look over the verses.
And, oh, did the Lord ever know just what I needed!
The Lord completely guided the pages
so that I could read just what He wanted me to read!
It was so precious and it felt as though
He were talking audibly to me!
(though it really wasn't audible)

Here is what He gave me:

" Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God,
and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools:
for they consider not that they do evil.
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart
be hasty to utter any thing before God:
for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth:
therefore let thy words be few.
For a dream cometh through the multitude of business;
and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it;
for he hath no pleasure in fools:
pay that which thou hast vowed.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow,
than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;
neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error:
wherefore should God be angry at thy voice,
and destroy the work of thine hands?
For in the multitude of dreams and many words
there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God."
Ephesians 5:1-7
(emphasis by me)

This was exactly what I needed!
What a wonderful encouragement!
He was so specific, so personal, so perfect!
I just thought I'd share that.
It meant so much to me, that what I'm going through,
the Lord knows ALL about and cares about it,
and He will help me through it.
Oh, how I love Jesus!

Pardon the "Dust"...

I'll be playing around with Blogger's
new templates/features for a little while,
as well as playing around with the sidebar and such...
I, also, hope to get back to posting soon! ;o)

Bearing Fruit...

(Below is from my notes when listening to sermons by Clarance Sexton)

Fruit is a very important thing mentioned in the Bible.
We as Christians are suppose to have fruit in our lives.
Fruit gives evidence of something deeper.
Barrenness gives evidence of something deeper as well.

In Isaiah 5, we see that the Lord has a vineyard...
"My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof,
and planted it with the choicest vine,
and built a tower in the midst of it,
and also made a winepress therein:
and he looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and it brought forth wild grapes..."

When he saw that it didn't bring forth
what He expected of it, He said...

"What could have been done more to my vineyard,
that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked
that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard:
I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up;
and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down..."

That tree that didn't give fruit was taking the place
of ground where other fruit could grow, so he hewed it down.
As Christians, the Lord has given us everything we
need to bear the fruit He wants from us.
He has been so good to us and has blessed us so greatly
and He has a right to expect us to be fruitful!

There is evidence of life when fruit shows.
We need to be fruit-bearing Christians.
If there is no fruit in a person's life, 1 of 2 things is evident.
As a Christian, they're not abiding in Christ.
Or they are not born-again.
But we so many times place the emphasis on the fruit,
but we need to be focused on the root.

1. We must be right with God.
If we try to produce fruit, we busy ourselves with
things we shouldn't be busied with.
We just need to make sure we're abiding in Christ
and He'll produce the fruit in our lives!
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman...
Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine;
no more can ye, except ye abide in me." John 15:1-5

Unfortunately, it is our natural, sinful human desire
to not want spiritual things.
But Christ separates us to the Lord from the world.
(Ex. 33:12-16)
The struggles we have in this world are not between
us and things, people, etc... it's between us and God.

There's a fruit-bearing work the Holy Spirit does.
The same Holy Spirit that produces fruit,
produces death and withering. (John 15:6)
And He will wither the things that don't belong in our lives.
There are so many things that steal our time that
we should be using for Christ and abiding in Him.

He says right back in Isaiah 5:4,
"What could have been done more to my vineyard,
that I have not done for it...?"
Is there anything more Christ could have done for us? No!
He expects a thing and when He goes
to get it and if it isn't there,
then all He did to care for it He'll remove.
He doesn't forget, but He sets aside.

2. The fruit.
There are many places that talk about the fruit.
Galatians 5:22-23 for example.
And please, do read 2 Peter 1:1-10.
These things are all produced by the Holy Spirit.
We need to be right in order to do right.
If we're not the Christians we're suppose to be,
there will be fruit there that's not suppose to be.
The biggest failures on our lives are when we
succeed in areas that aren't God's will.
We need to spend more time in the Word of God.
We must determine to strengthen ourselves.
We need to die daily.

Now, dying is not supressing.
When we die to ourselves, it brings forth much fruit.
But of course, nothing wants to die, so there's a struggle.
We must not supress our sinful desires,
but rather put those away and use all that energy for the Lord.

3. Bringing glory.
It is all the Lord's victory.
He is glorified through our fruit.
Our biggest goal should be to bring glory to God.
Our desire should be for people to see us not saying,
"What a great person", but rather "What a great Savior".
As long as we desire to glorify Him, then He will bless us
and will give us what we need to bear fruit.


photo courtesy of allposters