Thursday Thirteen #1

I am preparing for birthdays for two of my daughters this weekend. My oldest (17) and youngest (5) have their b-days one week apart. The best way to solve this is to have one large family party to save time and money.

So, my Thursday 13 is my list of what has to be done:

1. Bake cakes and freeze (done)
2. clean up mess from cakes : )
   
3. confirm number of guests (done)
   
4. make frosting
5. clean house
6. clean dog's smudges off back door
   
7. frost cakes
8. decorate
9. buy last minute food
10. Dust
11. set up tables and chairs
12. make sure camera is ready
13. Relax, smile and have fun with family!

Have a wonderful day!

PS - the bullet points were supposed to be numbers, but they turned out to be flowers when I published.

Wordless Wednesday - My favorite picture

Hebrews 11:1

1NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].

Wordless Wednesday

Baking Bread and Little House books

I have been reading The Little House Series with my children as part of our school this year. Wow, what an experience it has been. Right now, we are reading the Long Winter, and Laura Ingalls Wilder is describing the 7 blizzards that have hit their little town of DeSmet, ND. We have lost track of which blizzard has hit as of late, but one thing that has really hit home to us is that they have been living on nothing else than potatoes and brown bread for over a month. They don't have meat and they are running out of wheat berries to grind for bread. They only have a little sugar left to serve with their very weak tea and they are considering killing their cow, Ellen, and her calf to keep from starving to death.

Having grown up watching the Little House on the Prairie on TV I am realizing now how different the books really are. Stepping out of the dramatization of a weekly program all of which shows them hardly ever leaving Walnut Grove, I find myself completely drawn into their lives.

One of our assignments last week was to spend an evening without electricity. Dining by kerosene lantern (we do actually have one), and visiting and playing by candle light. I chose Valentine's Day to do this experiment - how romantic! I even fixed dinner by lantern to get the feel for what Caroline Ingalls had to do day in and day out. What a challenge it was trying to cook by that dim light. I am one that has to have all the lights in the kitchen on when I cook.

Our children loved dining by candlelight and Ariana (my oldest DD) asked if we could make this a yearly Valentine tradition, she loved it so much! I realized that I don't require as much electricity to live by and that I can save us some $$$ if I just did half of what we did that night. My dh is very pleased with that idea. ; ) Now we use the candles and turn out the lights more.

The other thing I have done more of with the Ingalls in mind, is to bake bread. I was taught by my own mom in 5th grade (the one year she homeschooled me) to bake. She taught me how to make it a business and I sold bread to our friends and neighbors. So, I decided to pick it up again (the baking part anyway). Only now I rely on my bread maker. Whenever I bake a loaf, it is gone so fast, I have to make another loaf. So today I made 3 loaves. It has been a great feeling of accomplishment. Here are the loaves on the right (the one on the left is made with different flour than the other two. The one in the middle I let rise too much, and my fav is the one on the right. Also, pictured here is my mom's homemade apple butter spread on one of the slices).

Thanks Tonya!

My dear friend, Tonya nominated me for this Totally Fabulous award. What a sweetie! Thanks again Tonya. Love Jo Ann : )

Make sure you check out her website for photography. She is an amazing photographer.

I nominate my beautiful daughter, Ariana for this award. She is a huge blessing in my life. She and I virtually grew up together. She is a great support in my life and an excellent student.

I Won!

I am so excited that I won Jan Parrish's drawing for Karen Kingsbury's, Just Beyond the Clouds! God is good!

I have also joined Jan's Book Club. We are reading The Bondage Breaker. I am looking forward to the discussions.