Happy Independence Day!

BOOM CRASH BANG, Today is Independence Day!

Yippee woo hoo! Look at the lights what a wonderful night.

Family and friends meet altogether.

Cooking up treasures of so much fun say it together everyone!

"Independance Day Independance Day, tonight we declare our freedom.

Be joyful, make memories this only comes around each year!

Happy Birthday America,

Everyone cheer!"

Picture and poem by Lady Olivia.

Photo Contest

Hannah at Farmgirl in Flipflops is having a photo contest. Today is the last day to enter. I am kinda last minute, but oh well. Here are my pictures I took...

This one is for the catagory still life.

These two are for the nature catagory.

From the Learning Room

What I am reading: The Swiss Family Robinson


Bible Verses: 1John 4:16, Romans 12:21, Luke 12:24, Psalm 46:1, and, Psalm 37:4


Prayer: For my Grandpa to get better, Miss Wanda, and my mom she has skin cancer.


Cooking: nothing right now


Homesteading: Cleaning up around the house


Pet Chores: Feed and Give the cat and dog water, brush my dog, Zoey and, take her for a walk


A photo I would like to share with you: You can't see me in the picture here, but I was feeding this dolphin at Sea World. I was on a field trip with my shcool. I might post a bout it a little later.

Olymics

The Olympics are here! I am so excited since the last time I saw them I was 8 and what I had seen is hard for me to remember, so it's pretty neat to me. My favorite sports are beach volleyball and gymnastics. Here are some bios and pics of my favorite people just in case you would like to see...

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

It Happend...

Well today we went to what will be our new house and officially bought it. My family and I have to move in tomorrow since the people that bought our house want to be here by the 16th of May. It is really crazy around here. Everyone is scrambling around doing something. Right now we are praying that God would keep us safe and I hope you would pray for us to.

Thanks,

Lady Olivia

Spring

Hey everyone!! I'm so glad spring is here aren't you?
I just designed some buttons so you're welcome to copy them and use them for yourself .
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I hope you liked them!! Have a wonderful day love,

Olivia
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Creativity

The rule was that the artist could use only one sheet of paper.

Do you think this is amazing?

Wait 'til you see what God can do!!

A Map of Your Heart

This is a from Melodoy at Wrapped Emotions.

To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Knowing what you truly love is the key to loving how you live. A simple way to begin to know what you truly love is to gather beautiful images that speak to your soul. So, let's do just that.Gather scissors, glue, your favorite magazines and your art journal. Place them all together in a basket or other container and keep it by your bed. At night after the kids are asleep, the day's responsibilities are (hopefully) taken care of and you can devote a few minutes of relaxed down time (stop laughing), crawl up on your bed and flip through the magazines. When you see a picture you love, cut it out and paste it in your art journal. Spend several quiet moments doing this. When finished, put your journal away for another night.

I realize that night may not be your relaxing time or your bed may not be your comfy contemplative place, adjust accordingly. Find your spot.

Now listen to me because this part is very important. Do not over think your choices. You do not need to have a reason why an image speaks to you...it simply must speak to you. Also, do not plan or fret over the arrangement of the images on the page, just paste them on a page one at a time. Let your collages happen, evolve.

Now listen to me again. If you begin this one night and the love is not flowing, drop it. You will know if you are forcing the process. Also, do not feel like you must work on this every night.

At the end of two weeks, (yes, do this for two weeks) crawl onto your bed, snuggle up with your art journal and look at the pages you have created. I expect that you will find colors, patterns, themes, styles, things...something...which reveals loves, hopes, passions you've never realized. Your collages will give you directions where your heart wants to go...a map of your heart. Try it.

Tell me, where does the map of your heart lead?

Here's the creation I made.

This shows a few things about me like my fav. colors and patterns.

Finding the Good

For this whole week I've been sick and in bed. Drousy, tired, weak...most of those words pretty much explain the way I have been feeling. All though I haven't exactly been my normal self God has always helped me out when I haven't felt good before and I'm pretty sure that He's going to help me out this time.

While I have been home I was reading a couple of books I got for Christmas. It's about ten women who have changed the world and made history. Here are some of the people Elisabeth Elliot, Amy Carmichael, Joni Erickson Tada and a few others. As scanning down the page I saw that Amy C. had got very sick when she was older and was forced to stay in bed for about TWENTY YEARS! Wow I had ony been sick for a few days and look how long she had been sick! This had made me real grateful!

God did a beautiful thing with Mrs. Carmichael. He heard every single prayer she had spoken. God was there with Amy whenever she needed Him and He's going to be there for me just like he was for Amy.

Upcoming Events

These will be some of the upcoming events at Growing in Grace

Kitchen: Mj will be hosting The Creative Kitchen meme where participants may send in their submission to be our featured 'Kitchen Chef'. The selected chef's recipe/tip will be our hostess for that day and everyone else can share their recipe/tip from their site. Recipes should not be taken from another site such Betty Crocker, Kraft, etc. If you have a tip to share that you learned from another site, please give credit to that individual and include the link in your submission.Submissions should be sent to our administrator now through February 15th.
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Photo Contest: Sisterlisa will be hosting a Photo Contest for those aspiring young photographers! A list of themes will be posted on February 15th, so mark your calendars now! Each month one or more winners may be selected. The winning photos will be feautred in an article in Growing in Grace's monthly editions and/or a daily devotion. All winners will receive an award tag for their site and be entered in an additional contest for prizes!Submissions

Guidelines:

All material must be appropriate.

All photos containing your pictures,

under 18, must have parent's permission.