99 Balloons

I don't usually watch videos online, but this video is so worth viewing. It's very sweet, but even more sad. It gives a renewed appreciation for our easy, carefree lives filled with relatively trivial problems. We are so blessed.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

My family loves Cinnamon Raisin Bread toasted for breakfast or just as an afternoon snack.

I've been trying to perfect our Cinnamon Raisin Bread using our whole wheat bread recipe, which can be found here. This is also the recipe I use for dinner rolls, hamburger/BBQ buns, and pizza crusts (although I omit the honey and add garlic powder and Italian seasoning for pizza crusts). For the Cinnamon Raisin Bread, I just spread out the dough and load it down with cinnamon, raisins, and chopped pecans before rolling it up and letting it rise.

Next, I would like to learn how to make sourdough bread! Does anyone have a good recipe?

New Quilt

Earlier this week, I finished a new throw quilt! This is my second quilt (my first was the baby quilt posted here). I made the entire quilt out of old fabric remnants my grandmother and mom gave me, excluding the baby blue floral border (I had to buy this fabric to pull together the other colors). I am so glad to have it finished and am already looking forward to beginning the next one!

Book Review: "Set Apart Femininity" (Reviewed January 2009)

Set Apart Femininity by Leslie Ludy is an excellent book about embracing femininity and choosing to walk a higher path as a set-apart young woman.

This book offers a fresh approach in becoming a young woman who strives to build her life around Christ. I was especially challenged in two areas, prayer and missions.

I was challenged to find new ways to implement prayer into my life. The author exhorts to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and while this phrase taken literally seems like a difficult feat to accomplish, I was encouraged that through Christ's strength in me, as well as the practice of thanking God for the little blessings He gives me throughout each day (even as small as folding a load of laundry quicker than I expected or a smaller than usual amount of dirty jars returned from our milk customers), I can have frequent communication with God throughout the day. The thought of "praying without ceasing" brings to my mind the idea of sitting still in my room and praying all day, but that doesn't have to be the case!

The other area in which I was challenged was missions. I tend to adopt the mindset that as long as I am striving to serve my family than I am doing everything that is expected of me in the realm of "reaching out". However, through this book, I was reminded of the greater scope of things and the need for me to be willing (and eager) to serve others I may come in contact with.

I highly recommend this book, especially for girls in their late teen years and early twenties.

Square Dancing!

We had so much fun at our friend Neil's square dance birthday party today! We hadn't been to a square dance before, so it was a very neat experience. Below are the pictures that best capture the enjoyable afternoon with our friends:

Sullivan and Sheridan...

Elliott...Sullivan, Harrison, and Sheridan...
All of the following pictures include either Oliver (plaid shirt and jeans; the tallest boy in most of the pictures), me (yellow western shirt and denim skirt), or both of us...It was such a fun event and we hope we can go square dancing again soon!

Titus 2 Entries: Thoughts on Weight Loss

I am excited to be sharing this entry as the first of an installment of posts written by my mom to other Christian ladies in the spirit of Titus 2. We felt that the subject of weight loss would be appropriate since losing weight tends to be on a lot of peoples' minds as the holidays are over and the New Year has begun. I hope you are challenged and encouraged by my mom's words!


In 2001, I quit dieting, calorie counting, fat gram watching, and exercising, yet I amazingly got the victory over the war to lose weight. Although I've never struggled with more than 20 excess pounds, the cycle of overeating, followed by dieting, then the battle to keep the pounds off has been a repeated one for me since I was in my late teens.

After following so many paths promising freedom, I was amazed to find my cure in the most over-looked resource ever written regarding the mastery of weight control: the Bible. As I began to simply apply God's word to my struggle, the chains fell off and I found freedom!

I can gladly report that after learning and applying God's principles, I have had the victory over dieting and being consumed with my weight for more than 7 years. I continue to be so grateful to be released from the bondage of calorie counting, fat gram watching, and exercising strictly for weight loss.

Here are the practical steps to my victory:

1) I realized the fact that my stomach is about the size of my fist. That should be a guideline for what my body needs at each meal.

2) God made us in such a way that our stomach will growl when we need food, so I shouldn't eat just because it's noon if I'm still full from breakfast.

3) Eating more food than necessary is like filling our auto gas tank past full and letting the gas run out on the ground. Why would we do that?!

4) It's not WHAT I'm eating that's causing me to gain weight, it's putting in more than the gas tank needs.

5) Eating past full is my way of saying to God, "I'll do what I want with this temple!"

After learning these simple truths and asking God to help me obey His gentle leading in this area, I began to have victory.

Since these are not "dieting" principles, but rather common sense basics about eating, I began them during Harrison's pregnancy (7 years ago) and grew a very healthy 10lb 3oz baby. The much dreaded year following a birth, when I usually try so very hard to lose the baby fat, proved to be an incredible blessing - especially in light of the fact that I gained 45 pounds with Harrison's pregnancy. As I followed the principles of eating when hungry and stopping when full, I lost ALL the baby weight, and at 6 months post partum was the size I always considered my "ideal" weight that I never was able to maintain for more than 6 weeks when dieting frantically. This, in itself, is of great significance to those who have given control of the womb over to the Lord. Without these eating principles, it is frightening to envision the amount of excess weight with which one might conclude her childbearing years if each baby leaves behind an additional five pounds or so!

Now that the Lord has given me this victory, I feel energized to move forward in my walk with Him. He can work on other things now that we've gotten this one under control. After 20 years of intense battle, I'm so thankful to have found the tools to fight successfully. I will be praying for you, my friend, that you might find them too!

More tips and and practical help can be found under "Weight Loss" on the "Inside Scoop" page of our family website.

The Pioneer Challenge

The Alexander family has embarked on a new adventure: The Pioneer Challenge, in which we are trying to see how long we can go without buying groceries! We canned and froze a good amount of produce from the summer so we'll be eating that, along with the "reject" chickens. We are keeping a short list of the few items we may have to purchase throughout the duration of this challenge.

Occasionally, our customers have asked if we only eat food off of the farm. We actually can't afford to eat a lot of our farm products because it is worth so much more to us to sell them to our customers. Often, customers will comment about how wonderful the hams or sausage or other items are, and we are thrilled to know it's delicious because we haven't ever tried it!

We are on Day 3 of this new challenge and, so far, we've actually been eating better than usual! Last night we had baked chickens, butter beans, and buttermilk biscuits, tonight I'm planning to use the leftover chicken in chicken & dumplins and frying some of our okra, and tomorrow I'm hoping to make a brunswick stew. Also, we have french toast, homemade cinnamon raisin bread, and rice pudding for breakfasts, and our wheat bread for lunch. It will be fun to see how long we can continue!

Memorizing Scripture: Matthew 5:3-12

Over the next few weeks, Sullivan, Harrison, and I will be memorizing Matthew 5:3-12 (The Beatitudes). We welcome anyone to join us as we continue to try to memorize Scripture throughout 2009!

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Sheridan's First Apron

A few days ago, I sewed my sweet little helper an apron for when we do our baking together.
She seems very proud of it. :)

Entrepreneurial Endeavors: More Interviews with the Creators of Marie Madeline Studio

I had the pleasure of interviewing Apphia, Achaia, Abigail, and Abiah Long from Marie Madeline Studio last September and learning more about their creative sewing business. If you haven't read the interview or visited their blog or website, I highly recommend it! They are such inspiring and entrepreneurial sisters.

In November, my friend Jasmine from Joyfully at Home interviewed the two eldest Long sisters, Apphia and Achaia, and they discussed many different topics, including (but not limited to!) how to get started sewing, ways to dress femininely, and where to find inexpensive patterns and fabric.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

I hope you are inspired by their creativity and their entrepreneurial spirits!

Blog Changes for 2009

Lately I have been considering the original focus of my blog and evaluating how or if I am accomplishing this. As you may have noticed on my sidebar, "the purpose of my blog is to encourage others, especially younger girls, to be productive, industrious, and entrepreneurial as they cultivate a servant's heart in their homes".

With this in mind, I have decided to make a few changes. First of all, I hope to include "Entrepreneurial Endeavors" posts much more often. I have several posts almost prepared and I look forward to sharing with you new business ideas and interviews with entrepreneurial young ladies very soon.

Also, since I have realized there are several young wives and mothers who frequent this blog, I would like to include a new series of posts written by my mom, in the spirit of Titus 2. I am incredibly blessed to have a wise, godly mama and I know many women have gleaned insight from her words. It is my hope that you will be encouraged and challenged as I share posts she has written on a wide spectrum of topics of value to Christian women.

Last of all, I would really appreciate your feedback. While I do want to share the "life of an at-home-daughter", this blog is not meant to be just about me and "what I did today". I feel that is a waste of time. I really appreciate your comments, as they give me direction in regard to future posts.

Blessings for a productive, challenging, and spiritually enriching 2009!!

Book Review: "Through Gates of Splendor" (Reviewed September 2006)

Through Gates of Splendor recounts my favorite missionary story- the story of the five missionaries who gave their lives to bring the gospel to the fierce Auca Indians of Ecuador. Written by Elisabeth Elliot, the wife of one of the martyrs, this book details the tragic event that God mightily used to motivate young missionaries across the world, and also to save and revolutionize a great deal of the Auca tribe.

Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian, along with their wives, were serving in the Ecuadorian jungles as missionaries. These five, young, American couples had bright futures, but their greatest desire was to share the gospel with this savage tribe. This book conveys how the missionaries attempted to reach the stone-age Aucas and the inspiring story that resulted after the deaths of the missionaries.

This is my favorite missionary story because it proves that God works through great, unthinkable tragedies to bring about His plan. I highly recommend this book.

**Our family has loved this missionary account for many years and studied it during our homeschooling. In 2003, our family attended a Steven Curtis Chapman concert where this story was told and a video was shown of the former Aucas, now known as the Huaorani, and showed the remarkable results of how many of the tribe had come to the Lord through the evangelism efforts following the deaths of the five missionaries. After the video, the son of one of the martyrs, as well as the former savage who murdered his father and has now become a "God-Follower", spoke about how God has amazingly worked through the tragedy.

Congratulations to the Wilson Family!

Our good friends, the Wilsons, are featured in the video below, which was just named The Virginian Pilot's #1 video of 2008!


A much higher quality view of this video can be found at its original location by clicking here.

Happy New Year & Books Read in '08

Our family stayed up late playing "The Farming Game" last night (I won, and I never win anything, so maybe that's a sign of good things to come in 2009?!?) and brought in the new year with the little boys outdoors banging pots and pans and Daddy shooting his guns. We've had a very relaxed New Year's Day, and I was able to sew an apron for Sheridan, bake a chocolate cake, and work on a quilt.

My primary goal (or "resolution") for 2009 is to read more. I used to read so much during my junior and senior years of high school and I benefited greatly from the books I read. However, I have been very slack about reading over the last few months.

The following list is an effort to clean up my sidebar and record the books I read in 2008:

From the Sands of Iwo Jima by William R. Henderson (completed 11/08)

Passion & Purity by Elisabeth Elliot (re-read 09/08)

Debating Calvinism by Dave Hunt and James White (completed 08/08)

Were It Not For Grace by Leslie Montgomery (completed 06/08)

Do Hard Things by Alex & Brett Harris (completed 04/08)

Living the Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney (completed 04/08)

Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham (completed 02/08)

Passionate Housewives: Desperate for God by Stacy McDonald and Jennie Chancey (completed 02/08)

The Brethren by Beverly Lewis (completed 01/08)

How To Be A Lady by Harvey Newcomb (completed 01/08)


I am looking for good non-fiction books to read in 2009 and would love any suggestions! I especially enjoy books about growing closer to God, the biblical family, biblical womanhood, marriage, courtship, homemaking, politics, some theology, biographies, etc.