Beautiful Weather and a New Name!

Finally, it's lovely today, it's about 75° and gorgeous. Early this morning Ljubica (national pastor's wife) and I went to Slovenia to do a little shopping. We didn't find any great bargains but we had a good time together.

After I got home Johnny and I worked in the yard a bit and something wonderful happened. As we were raking a man came to the gate and said Dobar Dan ( good day). Johnny walked over and immediately said, "Tori, look who it is." I stared a minute and then realized who it was. Anđeljko came to our teen camp years ago, about 6 actually. We haven't seen him in years and now he's all grown up, he has a wife and new baby. Johnny talked with him for a bit and then popped the question, "If you were to die today do you know 100% sure that you would go to heaven?" Anđeljko looked at Johnny and said "no". Johnny proceeded to share the Good News with him and after some time Anđeljko received Jesus as his Savior and a new name is written down in Heaven. We were delighted!! Hey it's great when you don't have to go after them but they come to you.

It's Monday and we have soul-winning today so I better go and get ready. Hoping your Monday is as nice as mine!!!

Rain, Rain Go Away!!

I know how much we need rain for good, healthy crops but I'm so tired of the clouds and rain. It's been so gloomy around here lately and I tend to feel a bit depressed without the sun for several days, kinda how I feel when I try to make it without the Son for a couple days.

We haven't been doing much outside for a few weeks so I've been busy looking for things to do, not like I don't have enough with school and all but still.

Oh yea, yesterday we went to visit the national preacher and his family, they're very special to us. Anyhow as custom in Croatia I needed to take something when we went and so I opened my cook book. You know what I decided to make, Snickerdoodles, the most under-rated cookie in the world. I've seen them many times but they always looked so boring, well I made some and do you know what, they were delicious. The whole family loved them and they were gone before I knew it. Snickerdoodles
INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups of white sugar until smooth. Stir in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each. Combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; stir into the batter until blended.
3. Roll the dough into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll in a mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned, but still soft.

Enjoy!


Hannah and I have been doing some sewing lately. She's getting pretty good at following instructions and sewing so today she made a cute little book bag. I really want her to learn how to be a good homemaker and sewing happens to be one of the skills that will help her.


Oh yea and I did a little sewing too. The national pastor's wife just moved their 4 kids into one big room. She painted the walls a lime green and then the furniture is pink, purple, blue and green. Ljubica, the national's wife was looking for a nice way to dress up the window that was covered with simple lace curtains so today I used this tutorial and made some bunting to go over the window. This picture doesn't really show how cute the bunting is but it's so cute. I used bias tape to sew them to and it turned out really cute.

This bunting is a great way to dress up a child's room. Have fun!

Hope you all have a great Lord's day tomorrow!!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to ME that is!! Yes today is my 35th birthday. I'm closer now to 40 than 30 but that's okay. My family delighted me this morning with several surprises. First I woke this morning @7 to banging and clattering. My Johnny had woken early and put together my birthday present. I have been wanting a cabinet for the living / dining room area and this morning he surprised me. It's lovely too and our LR/DR is all finished. I love it.
Oh yea and my sweet kids presented me with three beautifully wrapped pink packages. The first from Hannah was a new box of paint brushes. Joshua gave me 4 crisp while canvases and Cody gave me an assortment of paints. Just want I wanted! Oh yea and they cleaned the house for me today, wasn't that sweet!!

Oh yea, I made this quilt top from my male family member's old jeans back in July of 06. I stuck it in a bucket and forgot about it since I didn't know how to bind it. Well the other day Johnny was in the office and I wanted to be near him so I got out my quilt top and started playing around till I figured it out. I did figure it out, and you know what I finished and got so much satisfaction from finally finishing it. It now has a special place on the back of our couch and it means a lot to me because I used my husband and boy's jeans.
Oh yea the legs under the quit are the legs of my oldest boy, Thanks Cody!

Gotta run and get ready for church now, have a great prayer meeting!

FaithTunes!

Hey this is so cool. Grace over at LifePerQs posted about this so cool thing! Okay most of us know who Faith Music Missions is, we have bought great, godly music from them for years, well guess what...They now feature Faith Tunes, sorta like i Tunes but good music. Also you can now download whole CDs for a free, like what it would cost for the CD. For missionaries this is a great tool and I'm so excited about it. I get so weary listening to the same music over and over so this really excites me.
Hey check it out!!

Resurrection Day in Croatia

We're having our special Easter service today at church, like everyone has. In Croatia it's a great time to have visitors. Easter is one of the biggest religious holidays in Croatia. It seems like more people come home to Croatia for Easter than at any other time of the year.

On Easter, little ladies start off for the nearest Catholic chapel in Croatia to have their Easter ham and eggs blessed, for a nominal fee of course. It's so interesting to see these ladies lined up in front of their village chapel with their baskets over their arms. In Croatia you can have just about anything blessed for a "nominal" fee. :0) Also Croatians always go to church for the Easter mass.
They have many national traditions, one of those is the Easter bread or Paska. I believe that Paska is the Russian name for this bread but it's still the same.


Paska

 1    Cake or pkg. yeast
   2 c  Lukewarm milk
   9 c  Flour
   1 c  Butter; soft
   1 c  Sugar
   4    Eggs
   1 ts Salt 

  Crumble yeast into bowl; add 1 cup milk and 1 cup flour.  Mix and set aside to rise in warm place.  Cream butter; add sugar and eggs and mix
well.  Add remaining milk.  Knead until dough is smooth and elastic.  Set aside in warm place until double in bulk.  Form into desired shapes.
Allow dough to rise in double buld in pans; bake at 350 F for 30 to 35 minutes.  Halfway through baking, brush top with beaten egg yolk to which
a little milk has been added.

  Tip: If you melt 1 stick butter and knead into dough it will keep paska soft.

If you make this bread, please let me know how it was.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay!

Matthew 28:6 kjv

What a blessed Hope with have. His resurrection and victory over the grave is what gives up hope of one day having victory also. Wow, what a wonderful and powerful God we serve. Our faith doesn't lie in tradition or sacraments but rather in His finished work!!

If you would like to know how to have victory over the grave also, please read: Are you 100% Sure? at the bottom of this page or here.

A very happy Resurrection Day to you all!!

Okay so its not a snowstorm but it was pretty special to us. Our first snow of the year, when we were in the the states it snowed here in Croatia and when we got to Croatia it stopped, so...this is out very special Easter snow. :0)Yesterday while the family watched a movie I made these super cool head bands. I've actually had the tutorial link in my sidebar for a long time but never got around to making them. This is such an easy tutorial, I made 3 in about 40 minutes. They are reversible and so easy. Next time I'll use a thicker interfacing so they aren't so flexible. Anyhoo, check out the tutorial over at foofanagle.

Today Hannah had her little friend over for some Springtime fun. They colored a few eggs, and made and painted sugar cookies, talk about a mess but so much fun. Elvira, a young Gypsy girl is a member of our church here in Croatia. She was saved last year and her and her family attend the church regularly. Elvira and Hannah have become best friends, I'm thankful God sent her to Hannah.

Have a wonderful day!!

Family Grouping!

I had painted a bunch of frames black and was going to make a small grouping but I found these great frames today. Actually they weren't lost, I knew I had them but they had flower prints in them and honestly I'm not such a flowery gal. So I replaced the florals with some family pics and used the vinyl letters to write out Family. I love the look of it, nice and casual, and that's what we are.
Just thought I would share!

Just Life and Stuff

Hey friends, I've been MIA for a little while. We've had a pretty rough week, but praise the Lord it's a new day.

Hey guess what tomorrow is? Yep, your right, the first day of Spring. I can't believe it. Johnny and I were talking last night about how a quarter of 2008 is almost over. I can't believe that the time is flying by so fast. In a way I'm glad, we're waiting for some dear friends to come and join us in the work here in Croatia and we can't wait. On the other hand, the faster the days fly by the faster my kids grow up and leave home and I'm not quite ready for that. My kids are 15, 12 and 10 so that means in 8 years they'll all be gone. Boo hoo hoo, I almost cry when I think about it. Oh well I better learn to enjoy then now, huh?

Oh yea I'm not into all the "Eastery" stuff the world has attached to Resurrection day but this looked like a nice craft to do with small kids or even make for Sunday Schools. I found these cute little baskets over at Better Homes and Gardens and thought I would share.
Oh yea I made this today, it's a cover for a New Testament. I'm going to give it to my best friend, she's very faithful about carrying her NT and passing out tracts all the time. I know it's very simple but it was fun to make and it's pretty. :0)


I keep up with all my blog reads but using Bloglines, I love it and it saves so much time. I know lots of you use Bloglines but for those who don't it's a great way to keep up with your favorite blogs. I just added the super easy to use Blogline's Subscription Button. Just follow the easy steps to add the button and then when your viewing a blog and want to subscribe you just click the Blogline's Subscription Button and it's automatically takes you to the Blogline site and adds the feed, wonderfully easy. Just a tip!!

Oh yea one more little thing, I have a friend, Kate and she has a wonderful blog and such insight to Spiritual things. She posted a great article entitled, Popes’ Quotes on the Subject of Mary. She has dozens of equally great posts worth taking the time to read.

If I'm not back before Sunday, I wish you all a wonderful Resurrection Day. Please remember that Easter is not about bunnies, eggs or even Lilys, it's about Jesus and the victory He provided for us when He conquered the grave. If you don't know about this wonderful provision Jesus offers to us all, please take time to scroll down to the bottom of this page and read, Are you 100% Sure. For all of you who already share in that provision (eternal life through Jesus Christ) have a very blessed Resurrection Day!!

Happy March 15th

Oh why happy March 15th??? Why not, why does it have to be a special day for us to wish each other a happy day? It doesn't, so happy 15th!

Things have been pretty normal here, in normal I mean no great crisis lately. Everyone is healthy, Praise the Lord for that and we're just busy doing school. We are quite a bit behind due to furlough but the kids are doing several lessons extra every day. With all this extra work being done we should finish before the next school year begins. :0) Oh yea and talk about a lot of papers, I'm checking close to 50 every time I grade, wheww.

Spring is on it's way in here in Croatia and non too soon for me. I went out in the yard today and took some photos of some of the bushes planted in the yard. With every bloom I get more excited since when we moved in it was winter and I have no idea what these bushes are, it's like a special surprise when they bloom.I'm so glad this little tree is in our yard, it's a Magnolia. They grow everywhere around here.
Oh yea and I was going to clean out all the grass around the bottom of the trees and I found these sweet little things. Do you think they planted them intentionally? Around the bottom of all the trees there is a perfect circle where the grass has been taken away, very neat but this tree had these little cuties. Oh yea and this little squirly Japanese thinggy. It's interesting.

Oh yea and while the kids were watching a movie, I made this offset square pin cushion. You start off with two squares, it's pretty cool and so easy. You can find the directions for this little cutie, here and Planet June. It took me 20 minutes total to make it, so out with the old and in with the new!!


Oh yea I wanted to let you know about the new missionary wife link I added. Atually I think I've added 3 since the last time. Sandy is a missionary in Nepal, Tammy and her family are in Guatemala and the reason I changed my links from missionary wives to missionary ladies; Amy in S. Africa.

Well hope your March 15th is a very special day!!

Apron Fever

Today I finished another apron, this one a half apron. I have been having so much fun lately with my machine. I don't always wear an apron when I clean and cook but it's my intention to for that habit. I can't tell you how many times I've ruined my clothes cooking or cleaning, yea and you have too, I know.
I'm gonna have to start giving these things away before long, hey how many aprons can one lady have anyhow.


If you'll notice on this apron so sweetly modeled by my Hannah-Girl, you'll notice it has only one pocket and then a button on the other side. Actually I kinda modified the hand towel apron for this one. Instead of sewing the hand towel into the waistband I decided to make it removable.
So the towel has a button hole in it and the apron has a button. So easy hand whipping! :0)
The apron with the towel, I actually had to put the button hole a little lower than I wanted because my machine wouldn't button hole over the bumpy part of the towel so I had to move it down. Also I used bias tape to finish the towel off.
Oh yea and I used the decorative stitch to make the pockets a little more interesting. It's so much fun to discover new things on the machine.

Anyhow, there's apron #2, it was fun to make and who knows what I'll do with it now. Hey maybe I'll do some apron give-a-ways soon. Maybe!!

Mary Engelbreit

Hey gals, did you know that Mary Engelbreit has her own magazine? Really it's called Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion and it looks like a wonderful magazine. The online magazine features a hands on section with tutorials. Ohhh, looks like a wonderful use of high gloss paper.

I found ME magazine while looking at one of my favorite crafty blogs, HELLO my name is Heather.
Heather really is a princess living in wonderland. She has a wonderful blog and please make sure you check out her, my studio link, it's like a dream.

Lately I've really been into all these crafty blogs. Some people are so talented. Another great blog I like to frequent is Today's Creative Blog. I love this blog and she links to tons of top crafting blogs. Anyhoo, I thought I would share this with ya and I'm sure you'll be motivated to get busy and creative!

Time and Money Saving Mixes

Basic Meatloaf and Meatball Mix

1 C milk
3 slices soft bread
1/4 tsp. pepper, dry mustard, sage, celery salt, and garlic salt
1 beaten egg
1 1/2lbs. ground beef
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Pour milk into large mixing bowl. Tear up bread into small pieces and soak in milk. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Freeze individual loaves or make meatballs and freeze on a cookie sheet, after they are frozen place desired amount in freezer containers.


Arlene from Ever Joyful left this great recipe for premade meatballs.

1 lb beef
1/2 c. breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. parsley
2 tsp. seasoned salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 clove garlic
1/4 c. parmesan cheese.
(you might want to adjust the seasonings according to your own tastes)

Roll into balls, pop onto trays and freeze. After they harden, you can just keep these in freezer bags and cook them in your spaghetti sauce. These are the best meatballs I've found and are really good!!!

Hope these mixes help you save time and money!!

Tune in, more to come!

Time Saving Mixes

Cooking ahead and using ready made mixes can save a ton of time and hours of clean up. So I'm going to post a series of Time and Money Saving Mixes.

Here's the first of many Time and Money Saving Recipes and Mixes.

Ground Beef Mix
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 C chopped onlion
1/2 C chopped celery
1/4 C chopped green onion
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

In a skillet cook meat and veggies until meat is cooked and veggies are tender. Drain fat and freeze in 2 or 3 C portions.

This recipe can be used for chili, speghetti, or any recipes calling for browned ground beef.

2500 Inches

That's how many inches my little sewing machine sewed. (is sewed past tense for sew??) I made sheers for the living room and kitchen, the same room and it took forever. Actually I have decided it takes way too long to make something like curtains and next time I'll buy them. This week I'm going to head to the local fabric shop and see what I can find for accent fabric. I'm going to make side panels to go on each window.

I haven't really had motivation lately to finish decorating. I have a photo project I'm going to do. I took all my old colorful frames and sprayed them black and I'm going to make a collection of family pictures on one wall. You wouldn't believe how expensive frames are here, even little 5x5 plastic frames are $8. Is that theft? I think so.


Also I ordered 3 Clover bias tape makers and my friend is mailing them to me. They should be here in 3 weeks so I'm waiting for those to make my green apron.


Oh yea Have you played Twister lately? Tonight we played as a family and we had so much fun. It was a blast and hmmm, I won twice!! I was pretty excited about beating my skinny young-uns.

You know, it's important to play with our kids. When we play we build relationships and friendships. It's a great thing to have kids who actually like their parents, it makes family life that much sweeter. :0)

Certainties

Michael Faraday, the famous chemist and a man of great intellect, was asked as he neared the chilly waters of death this question, "What are your speculations now?"

"Speculations?", he replied, "I have none. I am resting on certainties." He then quoted this verse,

"...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." II Timothy 1:12b

What a wonderful thing that we as born-again Christians can rest in the certainties of Christ and His eminent return.


*Taken from the Baptist Bread devotional booklet.

Vinyl Lettering Done Cheap!

Okay so we've all been oohing and awwing all the photos of lettering on the walls. Actually I don't know if you have but I have. We have actually been using these vinyl letters to decorate our church here in Croatia for about 5 years. I'm kicking myself now since they are selling for like $60 a phrase, why didn't I have the initiative to market them? Oh well, things happen.

Anyhow today I made my own little vinyl phrase for our LR. It's super easy and you can save tons of money doing them yourself.

What you'll need is: a printer, vinyl contact paper, scissors and a pencil. Super easy!

1. Find a great phrase or verse.
2. Play around with your phrase in Word or whatever program you have trying different fonts.
3. Print out the letters in the size you want.
**Make sure to set your printer on draft, that'll save ink or toner.
**Also set your margins to the minimum it will let you to maximize the amount of letters you can fit on each page.
**Remember you only need to print one of each letter, your going to use the letters as templates for tracing onto your vinyl.
4. Cut out each printed letter.
5. Trace around each letter on the paper backing on your vinyl contact paper. Make sure to turn the letters backwards so they will be pointed the right way on the front of the contact paper.
5. Cut the letters out of the contact paper.
6. Place on the wall where you would like them.
7. Pat yourself on the back for saving so much money!!
You can make your phrase as elaborate as you want. Check out these links for some great ideas.
1 2 3

Have fun and make sure to let me know if you make one!

Growing up in the Jungle

No I didn't grow up in the jungle but Rita's family did. Please check out her post: Growing up in the Jungle. I loved it!

Quilter, I don't think so!

It's a rather blustery day today and I'm a little under the weather. The weather changes so drastically from day to day that everyone in Croatia is nursing some kind of sickness. It has been in the mid-70s for the last week and it's freezing again. Oh well, I just hope all the buds that are already blooming, I hope they don't freeze their little petals off. :0)
I've been cleaning out all my stashed material lately and I decided I would use it all to make a quilt. Am I a quilter you ask, well I thought there was a chance that a quilter lived somewhere within me, since I love quilts so much, but after dabbling around a bit I realize something, I'm not a quilter.
Please look very closely at my totally square patches and perfectly symmetrical sides. :0) HA!!


So anyhow I was trying to do this disappearing 9 patch but to no avail. So I'm going to give up on quilting for the time being and concentrate on something else.

Oh please take a look at these totally gorgeous quilts, talk about talent.
Oh make sure to check out Helen's blog, she's a very crafty quilter.

Grocery Shopping in Slovenia

Today the family and I went to Hoffer, it's similar to the Aldi's in the north US. Anyhow, they opened a store not 25 minutes from our house. We used to drive to Austria to go to Hoffer and it took and hour and half to get there but the deals were worth the trip. Now praise the Lord we don't have to drive that far and we saved a boo-koo of money today. Slovenia is the country north of us between Austria and Croatia. They were once part of Yugoslavia and the language is very similar.

Here are some of my special finds today, probably not so special to you but pretty neat to me. °Ü°Tortillas, I know, what's the big deal about tortillas? Well it takes me over and hour to make enough for our family so it's nice to be able to buy them. They have Tortillas in Croatia but they are $6 for 8 and I'm not about to pay that. So I was excited to find these today.
Oh yea and this cute little green pail of 4 leaf clovers. I love 'em. When I was a young teen I had a friend names Brandy. One day while walking by the river together we discovered some 4 leaf clovers and thought it was a sign from God that we would always be friends. Sad to say a week later she stole my boyfriend and we were no longer friends, but 4 leaf clovers still bring back memories for me. Oh yea clothes pins, not just clothes pins but wooden ones. These are almost impossible to find in this part of the world. I was so excited to find them for only 1 €, about $1.50. Oh yea and I thougth you would get a kick out of this. We can't get sliced bread at all in Croatia so it was pretty neat to find sliced bread and cheese but not only bread and cheese but American bread and cheese. I like how they included the Lady too.
I took this picture of the hill in the town we went to. I love the grape vinyards running up that steep hill. If you look really close in the middle of the picture you can see a little black spot, that's a little lady tending her vines.

Funny fact, with all the grapes in the Balkans you can't find grape juice anywhere, funny huh. Their thought, "why waste grape juice on juice when it could be wine."
On the way home I drove Johnny nuts getting him to stop for pictures. This cute little house is actually a very famous restaurant in Croatia called the Mala Hiza, or little house. :0) This place is so famous that the president of Croatia eats here sometimes and it's over an hour away from the capital.

Anyhow friends, I just wanted to let you know what I was up to or where I was off to today.
Off to make burritos for dinner!!