My Birthday Boy, Michael, 15

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAN OF GOD!

We love you, Michael.  We're proud of you.  You have a wonderful future full of hope and promise.
God bless you as you draw closer and closer to Him.
Happy birthday,
Mom,
Dad,
Matthew,
Emily,
Amy,
Tiger,
and
Penny

A Thrifty Week at Harvest Lane Cottage #27

I'm not sure where this week has gone.  I've been doing something.  I'm sure of it.  Oh well, here's what I remember. ~smile~

~ I used a sweater shaver to remove the pills from one of my husband's sweaters.
~ My thirteen year old had a homemade birthday party with lemonade and cupcakes she made and decorated with her sister. She used some leftover streamers and balloons that she found in our gift wrapping box.
~ We used that yard sale box of wrappings so that we didn't have to buy any.
~ We gave her several small inexpensive gifts.
~ We stayed home and ate homemade sauce from the freezer with spaghetti instead of going out for pizza.

What have you done this week?

Have a thrifty week!
Blessings,
Laura

~~~~~

May I suggest?

A Thrifty Week at Harvest Lane Cottage #14

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Favorite First Lines... A Cast of Stones

"Smells of earth and dung drifted slowly past the fog in Errol’s brain. His skin prickled with cold. Water and ooze soaked his threadbare garments and he shivered. Cruk had thrown him out of the tavern. Again."
 A Cast of Stones by Patrick Carr


Don't you just love it when a book draws you in from the very first lines? That's what Patrick Carr did with A Cast of Stones and countless other authors have done as well.  I had to know what on earth had just happened.  So I read another line and another and another until he had me hook, line, and sinker.

What are some of your favorite first lines?

Blessings,
Laura
Happy at Home

The Lord is My Strength. In Christ Alone I Put My Trust

Healing, Hope, Faith, Trust, Believing

In all these, the Lord is my strength.  In Christ alone, I put my trust.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Too many times, we get our attention focused on the wrong thing. When it comes to healing, we consider our own bodies and the symptoms that try to attack our bodies. That is what we are thinking about and looking at, and the more we look at the symptoms, the worse we get."

   "Center your attention and your mind on what Jesus has done for you and what He is doing for you as your High Priest. Jesus is doing something for you right now. He is seated at the right hand of God right now making intercession for you. (Hebrews 7:25)"

   I'm feeling some symptoms in my body that shouldn't be there.  I read these quotes in Kenneth Hagin's Bible Faith Study Course tonight.  He sights many scriptures about believing not just wishing or hoping.  Believing is faith.  Hoping is wishing.  These are some of the verses I read in the book,

"Jesus said, 'According to your faith be it unto you'" Matthew 9:29

Jesus "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses" Matthew 8:17.

"...the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1.

"Jesus said in Mark 11:24, 'What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.'"

"I believe what the Bible says, not what I see and hear. My faith is not in what I can see and hear.  My faith is based on what God says. You see, when we develop our faith to the place where we believe what the Word says regardless of circumstances and physical symptoms, then we are believing the right thing, and that's what brings results." Kenneth Hagin

I believe that I am walking in divine health and healing.  "In Christ alone, I put my trust."

God bless you all.  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your path." Proverbs 3:5-6

Laura

~~~~~

May I suggest?

Carrying an Atmosphere

~~~~~

Monday
Mom's the Word - Good Morning Monday 
Wednesday 

The Homemaking Party

"What a Man Does When He is Taken Off Guard..."

Make your own at Tagxedo.

“Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is?  Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth?

If there are rats in the cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly.  But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding.

In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.” 
~ C.S. Lewis

There is so much truth in this quote.  Perhaps this is why it's so easy to be nice to strangers and folks we meet in church.  It's much harder to keep that facade up when we're suddenly confronted with a negative word or deed or tone of voice from a family member.

Kara wrote about it over at Time Warp Wife recently.

Father God, please help us to become women of virtue who are steadfast and calm.  I ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Now, go on over and take a look at Kara's post, Blueberries and Rats.

Blessings,
Laura

A Thrifty Week at Harvest Lane Cottage #26

Penny

It's been a little while since I've written A Thrifty Week.  That little pound puppy I got back in the last installment has taken quite a bit of my free time!  Since then, I realized Lucy didn't fit her.  I named her Penny instead.  She's the color of a penny.

I've scored some great bargains at the thrift shop and yard sales this summer.  What I have not done is make jam and jelly like I usually do each summer.  We especially like Harvest Peach.  I do hope I get another chance to find a good deal on some kind of fruit before summer's over.

~ I received a new book in the mail to review for Bethany House.  It's called $10 Great Dates.  As a book reviewer, it was free to me in exchange for a review.

~ I signed up to review a movie called Holy Ghost.   

~ I took a box and a bag of things to the Salvation Army.  I also threw out two bags of stuff that I found while decluttering.  How is that thrifty?  I bought myself about three cubic feet of real estate for the price of some time and decisions!  Just think how much houses cost per square foot!

~ We stopped by a little thrift shop in a nearby town and bought two shirts and a pair of sunglasses for $1.50.

~ We borrowed hundreds of dollars worth of books from the library for free.

~ Family movie night at church.  It was Heaven is for Real. The movie was free.  All five of us ate hot dogs, nachos, and popcorn with M & Ms  for about $15.  Not bad for a night on the town with the family.  Yes, we could have been more frugal, but it's our family's big outing each month.

Well, that's all I can think of.  Yes.  It's a very very very short list.  I hope to get back to sharing each week and recording my frugal feats as I go.  It's great inspiration to be busy about being thrifty.

What have you done this week?  What are your plans for next week?  I'd love to have you "talk back".  I won't tell your momma, I promise!

Blessings,
Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage

Early Little Girl Memories

~ I had a little lamb named Mary Lou when I was a little girl.  I was four.  When we moved to town, my mom talked me into trading her for a turtle!  That's back when little turtles were considered pets and could be bought at the store.  Boy was I gullible.  ~grin~

~ The song Bye Bye Miss American Pie was popular when I was in first grade.  I listened to it on a small transistor radio in my bedroom after school.  I remember humming it at the dinner table. My father told me to stop.  I didn't have the self-control. I soon was humming it very very quietly to myself.  My father responded by sending me to bed without supper.  I was in tears.  My mommy later brought me a little spaghetti in my bed.  It was my favorite, I was hungry, and she had a soft mommy's heart.  I never hummed or sang at the table again.  I don't allow my children to do so either.  No one's missed a meal though.  ~smile~

~ When I was a little girl, I found my baby book.  My mother had written in it that at a certain age my eyes had changed from blue to brown.  I found this most remarkable!

~ My Grandpa and Grandma had airplanes.  He gave flying lessons.  I was in an airplane from the time I was a baby.  I thought everybody had an airplane just like a car.  Not getting my own airplane was one of the biggest disappointments when I grew up.

What little girl memories do you have?


Blessings,
Laura
Remembering

Looking Forward to Some...

Autumn will be here before we know it!

Carpe Diem!

Seize the Day!

Blessings,

Laura