Coming up: Attitude of Gratitude

I am super excited to announce: Attitude of Gratitude- Always Have A Thankful Heart.  (I came up with the name last year, when I did this on my "fake blog.")  We don't have to wait till November to be thankful, but I thought it would be appropriate if I did the Attitude of Gratitude this coming month. Even though Thanksgiving is in November, and it only comes once a year, our hearts should always be full of thankfulness to God, because He has blessed us with so many things that we take for granted.  So, starting on November 1st, I will be posting 3 things I'm thankful for every day throughout the month of November. (If anyone would like to comment and tell me 3 things they are thankful for, I will write them on my blog. For example: Your name is thankful for the ocean, cookies, and cars. ) 
                                      
This picture reminds me of the Veggie Tale song: The Thankfulness Song.
"I thank God for this day, For the sun in the sky, For my mom and my dad, For my piece of apple pie! For our home on the ground, For His love that's all around. That's why I say thanks every day!

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart! I'm glad for what I have, That's an easy way to start! For the love that He shares, Because He listens to my prayers- That's why I say thanks every day!

Thank you dad for our day, for our trip to the mall, for the time just with me, for my big red bouncy ball! For the fun that we had, I'm so happy you're my dad. That's why I say thanks every day!

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart! I'm glad for what I have, That's an easy way to start! For the love that He shares, Because He listens to my prayers- That's why I say thanks every day!

We thank God for this day, For the sun in the sky. For the friends that we have, for our yummy apple pie. For the love that He shares, because He listens to our prayers. That's why we say thanks every day. 

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart! I'm glad for what I have, That's an easy way to start! For the love that He shares, Because He listens to my prayers- That's why I say thanks every day!"

Random Pictures

Here are a few random pictures from the week.

Warning! Chicken crossing the road! (No, this is not one of our chickens. We would not let it go on the road. :) A couple of times, this chicken and its look-a-like buddy have stood in the middle of the road looking for bugs. They have several acres to peck on and look for bugs, and yet they go on the road. They are coming to our house more often and hanging out with our chickens. :) 

This squirrel is coming down the tree with a nut in its mouth. 

He's looking to make sure Lacy is not around. :)

This is what the moon looked like tonight. (Sorry, this is not the best picture.:) It was really neat because we could see the whole outline of the moon. :)                                                                                        

Saying of the week: 

Bible verse of the week: Romans 3:24-27

"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith."

Have a blessed week, friends. :)

Warmly yours and eternally His, in the unbreakable and glorious bonds of Calvary,

Ashley 

                                                                          

Ladies Fall Fellowship

Yesterday evening, mommy, Sarah and I attended a ladies fall fellowship at our church. A few ladies made soup or chili. Everything was so beautifully decorated and everyone had a sweet time of fellowship. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. :)
                                                          The Decorations

This is the dessert table. 

This wreath was so pretty!

This fall ribbon was woven throughout the wreath. 

Each table had a candle as the centerpiece. 

The decorator said she wanted to see if she could get the kernels underneath the candle popping!

The Food

You can see some pots of soup and chili. There were also 2 salads, and little pinwheel sandwiches. 

These were like smores. They had chocolate, marshmallows on the bottom and graham crackers around the outside with a pretzel to represent the skewers

The Games          

There were 6 tables so there were 6 teams. Each team came up with a name and then 1 person from each table had to go up and do the first activity. Whoever got done first won, and then whoever got done next was the 2nd place winner. Then a different person from each table had to go up and do the next activity. There were 7 different activities: 1. ) You had to put an Oreo on your forehead and try to get the cookie in your mouth without using your hands. 2.) You had to put a stocking on your head which had a ball at the end of it, and knock water bottles down by swinging your head. 3.) You had to pull all the tissues out of the box using only 1 hand. 4.) You had to separate a bunch of skittles according to color. 5.) You had to blow up a balloon and use the air to knock 3 cups off the table. (Yours truly competed in that one. :) 6.) You had to put the end of a spoon in your mouth, (the end you eat off of) and balance 6 candy corns on the other end of it without them falling off. 7.) You had to put both hands in a stocking and try to get the penny, which was at the end of the stocking, without using your hands. So, here are some pictures of the ladies participating in the games. :)

Knocking down water bottles with a ball at the end of a stocking. :)

Separating candy.

Balancing candy corn on the end of the spoon.

The Campfire   

After the games, we all went outside and sat around the campfire and had smores. We all joined in singing while we were gathered around the fire. 

 This is not a very clear picture, but you can see the fire in the middle. 

These poles were placed here and there in a circle.

We ended the night by singing the songs on this paper. We had a very nice time fellowshipping with all the ladies. I hope you enjoyed the pictures! 

Chelsy Bontragger over at  It's a Beautiful Life is having a giveaway! She's giving away this bead hairband! Click here to find out more about it!

Have a blessed weekend, friends! :) 

A Walk...

Today I took a little walk. I saw some pretty flowers and some neat-looking leaves. Enjoy these picture I took on my walk. :)

                         This is what I saw when I came outside this morning. Beautiful sky.

I love these hear-shaped leaves!

And when I returned from my walk, I saw Lacy laying in the driveway. I don't know if you can see her tongue or not, but she was licking her lips when I took the picture. :)

And this is one more beautiful picture of the clouds and trees that I took this afternoon.

Hannah Elise is having a giveaway! She's giving away the items pictured below: Click here to enter her giveaway! 

Have a blessed night!!

Fruit Pizza

Fruit Pizza is one of my favorite desserts, actually, my favorite pizza :) and soooo yummy, I thought I'd share the recipe. :)

Crust:
1/2 cup of butter
3/4 cup of sugar  (Note: I usually use honey instead of sugar. If you do use honey, I would recommend you using 1/2 cup because the honey will be very dominant if you use 3/4 cup. )
1 egg
1 1/4 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Mix in egg. Combine flour, tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into creamed mixture until blended. Press into ungreased pan and bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned.

Frosting:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup of sugar (Note: I use honey for the frosting too. Only use about a 1/2 of the 1/4 cup if you use honey.)
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest (This is totally optional- I never use it.)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a bowl, combine the frosting ingredients with a spatula. (If the cream cheese is to hard, you can use the mixer.) Mix/stir until smooth. Spread the frosting over the cooled crust.

Fruit:
I usually use strawberries, grapes, kiwi, mandarin oranges, bananas and blueberries.
Place the fruit wherever you would like on the pizza.  You can either refrigerate it or eat it!!!

This is what my fruit pizza kind-of looks like. I took a snapshot of the picture on the recipe paper because I couldn't find the picture I took of my own fruit pizza. If you decided to make this recipe, please let me know how it turned out!!!! What's your favorite pizza?

Saying of the week:

 

Bible verse of the week: Romans 3:21-23

"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"

Have a fabulous, good and godly week everyone!!!

     In the Lord's love and mercy and grace,

         Ashley

The Ten-Hearted Fertilizer Factory

Creation Corner
Today's Creation Moment: The Ten-Hearted Fertilizer Factory.
Psalms 22:6 "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people."

The lowly earthworm is one of the most under-appreciated little creatures on Earth. People probably don't appreciate the earthworm because it's not very pretty. Biology textbooks say that the earthworms were among the first simple land creatures to evolve. Well, clearly there hasn't been much evolution since, and they are not that simple. The earthworm has a well-developed nervous system, a brain and ten hearts!

Earthworms tunnel through the soil by literally eating the soil itself. As the worm draws nutrition from organic matter in the soil, its digestive system processes these chemicals to produce excellent natural fertilizers. In one recent test, soil scientists compared earthworms and the best fertilizers you can buy. The earthworms easily won the contest. The ground they fertilized had five times more nitrogen, twice as much calcium, two-and-a-half times more magnesium, and seven times more phosphorus than the best that modern science could produce.

Since earthworms like lots of organic material in the soil, you can encourage earthworms in your garden by digging lawn clippings and most types of tree leaves into your soil this fall rather than throwing them away. One caution, however. Some leaves like red oak are acid and best left out of the soil.

So, while earthworms are not pretty, our Creator has provided them to enrich the soil and help to feed us all.
Copyright © 2014 by Creation Moments, Inc., P.O. Box 893, Foley, MN. 56329
 

Wasp Nest // Fun Biology Class

This morning, Lauren and I knocked down a wasp nest that had many eggs in it. (Last night, daddy sprayed the nest with poison to kill all the wasps.) After the nest fell in a bucket, we took 2 sticks and pulled some eggs out. We opened the eggs and pulled out the larva. Here's what it looked like.

                    I opened another egg and a bigger larva was in it.

                    The larva was more developed in the next egg...

Here's the pupa. It looks kind-of like a wasp, but it still has some growing to do.

Here's the adult. When we pulled it out of the egg, it was still moving it's feet a little bit!

Here's a close up of the adult wasp.

 

And here's all the different stages: larva, pupa, adult.

 Since I talked about these wasps, I thought I'd tell you a story. A couple years ago, Lauren and I found a bee's nest out by the chicken coop. We shooed away the bees and brought the nest inside so we could look at the eggs and larvae under the microscope our grandpa had given us. (Note: we did not kill them. We just took away their nest, chased the bees away and made them mad. ) We put it on a table out in the porch and forgot about it for a couple of days. Then Lauren came out in the porch and saw a few adult bees crawling on the nest! She excitedly told everyone that the bees hatched and were crawling all over the nest!! Well, mommy wanted it to be taken outside as soon as possible, but no one wanted to touch the nest with bees all over it! And mommy didn't want to spray poison in the house and get it on us, so Lauren just ever so slowly, pushed the nest onto a piece of cardboard and started carrying it outside. (We were all walking with her making sure the bees didn't fly away.) When she was just about halfway to the door, they all started flying around and she dropped the nest!! It was a funny scene: mommy trying to smash the bees with something and someone getting very a little upset, :) while we're all trying to shoo them outside and keep track of how many there were. It was chaotic, but finally, we managed to kill some. The rest escaped and flew outside. And that was the end of our little adventure with bees in our house. :)


I had a very fun Biology class today. After we had gone over our lesson, our teacher gave us candy to make a plant cell or an animal cell. I choose to make a plant cell. Here's a picture of my cell.

Sorry about the circles. I created a picture shortcut and was going to write what the candy was supposed to be on one picture and then show the other picture without any circles. Well, it saved the circles on both pictures and I can't take it off. :(
The container is the cell wall. The red string around it is the plasma membrane. For the cytoplasm, we used whip cream. The nerds are the ribosomes. The rainbow strips right in front is the smooth ER. (They don't have any ribosomes on them, but the rough ER does.) The chocolate ball on the left was the nucleolus. The rough ER is the red strips to the right. A sweet tart was the vacuole and the bottle caps represented the Golgi body. (The Golgi body looks kind of like a stack of pancakes.) The yellow sweet tart in the top right corner is the leucoplast. And the yellow jelly beans represented the central vacuole. The chloroplast is represented by the green gummy to the right of the yellow jelly beans. And finally, the rainbow strip to the top right of the chocolate ball is the mitochondrion.
I hope you enjoyed this post! :) Have a fabulous evening!!!
Have you ever made a candy model of something? :)