Posts in Category "Notebook"

The Lord’s Provision for the Zimmermans + Giveaway Winner

Praise the Lord, the Zimmerman’s goal was met yesterday evening!
A big “Thank you!” to everyone who entered, donated and spread the word to bless the Zimmermans.

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The Giveaway for Little Tait’s Preemie Fund is now closed, and the winner is . . .
Samantha R.
(Entry #480)!  Thank you so much for entering the giveaway, Samantha!
(I’ve sent you an email with the details!)

“Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!”
—Psalm 98:1a—

New Blog Announcement

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Welcome to my new blog site!  After quite a few years of blogging at A Bowl of Moss and Pebbles, I’ve moved over here to The Breezy Tulip Studio.  If you’ve subscribed via the FeedBurner link in my sidebar, it will automatically switch to the new site. Otherwise, be sure to update your links!

Also, watch for a special announcement here tomorrow.  A dear friend and I have been working on a children’s book over the past few months, and I can’t wait to share the story with you!

Displaying Art Online

Charley Parker of the Lines and Colors blog has some helpful posts on how to display art online. Several people have contacted me asking about our process of how we get our art onto the web. (I should do a post about that sometime, yes?) This is an area we’ve been learning through trial and error, so I’m especially glad to find others who know what they’re doing! I haven’t read these in their entirety yet, but I thought you might find them informative as well:

How Not to Display Your Art on the Web

How to Display Your Art on the Web

Preparing Images for the Web

(Please remember to use discretion when exploring content I don’t directly link to.)

The Little Black Notebook

This is my little black notebook where, every morning or evening, I make a list for the day ahead of me. From my ordinary routine to the special projects and deadlines, it gets written in this notebook. (Not to mention recipes and organization ideas along the way!)

Before I started using it, I was constantly misplacing my to-do lists and felt a general lack of daily accomplishment. I’ve been using it nearly every day for over a year now, and it’s become a part of me. Hardly an inanimate object, the pages practically breathe with the constant writing and turning.

It’s so simple, but keeping daily checklists has helped me in many ways, such as:

1. Look at the things I want to do

2. List the things I need to do

3. Check off the things I actually get done

4. Realistically look at how much time I waste

5. Evaluate and prioritize my time for efficiency

It has become more than a place for check lists: It has shown me the brevity of a day, a year.

I also appreciate the lack of pre-printed dates and check boxes. There’s something tangibly wholesome about writing it all by hand, just the way I need to see it laid out. The one thing this book cannot do is use my time wisely for me. ; )

What are some ways that you use to manage your time? Do you keep a daily planner, or loose sheets of paper? What helps you stay on track?

A Night of Heroism: The Sinking of the Titanic

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

A survivor rescued after the sinking of the Titanic wrote as follows:

“I was beside Henry B. Harris, the theatrical manager, when he bade his wife good-by. Both started toward the side of the boat where a lifeboat was being lowered. Mr. Harris was told it was the rule for women to leave the boat first.

“‘Yes, I know. I will stay,’ Harris said. Shortly after the lifeboats left, a man jumped overboard. Other men followed. It was like sheep following a leader.

“Capt. Smith was washed from the bridge [of the ship] into the ocean. He swam to where a baby was drowning and carried it in his arms while he swam to a lifeboat which was manned by officers of the Titanic. He surrendered the baby and swam back to the steamer.

“About the time Capt. Smith got back there was an explosion. The entire ship trembled. I had secured a life preserver and jumped over. . . .”

From Miss Daisy Minaham: An account of the men’s bravery aboard the Titanic:

“I never saw such composure and cool bravery in my life as the men of the first and second cabins displayed. Colonel Astor seemed to be the controlling figure. He, Major Butt, Mr. Guggenheim, Mr. Widener and Mr. Thayer clustered in a group as if they were holding a quick consultation as to what steps should be taken next.

“Then Col. Astor came forward with the cry, ‘Not a man until every woman and child is safe in the boats.’

“. . . Then, when it was time to go, when the last boat was being lowered to the water line, we were hurried into it by my brother, who bade us good-by and said calmly but with feeling: ‘Be brave; no matter what happens, be brave.’ Then he waved his hand and our boat shot out just in time to escape being borne down by the suction of the Titanic, as it went down.

“. . . I shall never forget the calmness and quiet bravery that the men on board showed as they stood on deck and awaited the inevitable doom.”

 –Selections from Sinking of the Titanic: The World’s
Greatest Sea Disaster, 1912

A few quotes on Work

Vermeer’s Milkmaid

“. . . There is a difference between a hierarchy and an elite. The one is work oriented, the other privilege and leisure oriented. For a people to accept the fact of hierarchy means to accept a given variation of responsibilities in society. Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 12:3-31; he speaks of the body as one with many members or parts, all sharing a common life and purpose in Christ. The unregenerate lack such a oneness except in sin. The redeemed are still given to the divisiveness of sin because of their imperfect sanctification, but they also have the Holy Spirit and His call to unity. Their being thus moves to this unity in Christ, and a recognition of the hierarchy of callings and functions  in Him. . . .

Because the world is God’s creation, it accomplishes God’s purposes. This is also true of the curse. The curse saves God’s eschatological movements in history by destroying man’s efforts to play god and by forcing men to a dependence on Him. . . .

“When work is God-centered, it moves in terms of the premise of Psalm 126:6, namely, that the God given order of creation, as well as the providence of God, works to further all efforts in His name and for His glory. . . . Because God made the world, He made all things good (Gen. 1:31), and all things holy, set apart for Him. Things are profane when men and their motives are profane. The clergy can be and often have been profane, and the same is true of every profession, calling, or variety of work. Work becomes holy when it is governed by God’s law word and eschatology. . . .

“The ecclesia [the church; ‘In Ephesians and Colossians, ecclesia has a cosmic scope.’] can be a small group meeting in a home, and it is also a cosmic power. It is also a family, and the members are brothers and sisters and a kingdom under Christ the Lord.

“All the members have a function, a local function within the house congregation, and a function in the world, wherein they manifest the works of Christ in and through them. The body does not exist for the institution’s sake, but for Christ and His world-wide Kingdom. If the church has a false eschatology, its work will have a false focus. If a church is not governed by the dominion mandate and a call to victory, it will be governed by defeatism.

“Meanwhile, the elite will work for an elitist society in which they are everything, and the people are nothing. The “scientific” interest in cloning is elitist. The dream from Plato’s day has been to command cow-like masses who will serve the purposes of the elite. The dream of cloning is a hope to stamp out docile creatures who will serve the elites as their social slaves. This is a profane eschatology, and a dream of a man-made hell.” [Emphasis mine]

Systematic Theology | Vol. 2, page 1050-53
R.J. Rushdoony

When joy comes

Some days “delighting in the Lord” is easier than other days. But most of the time it’s rather simple.

“Margaret Gretchen Strong” by Frank Weston Benson, 1909

Today could have become one of those “other” days — it’s overcast and nothing exciting is on the schedule. Summer’s ending and it feels like I have done the same thing a hundred times. But as I stood in the kitchen, doing what I’ve done a hundred times and then some, I had a bubbling thought —

There’s so much to adore about the Lord!

Finding Joy can be as simple as accepting His love toward me in spite of myself. I have to take my eyes off all my yuckiness that He’s already begun clearing away, and look up at Him in adoration. (I will often need to ask for His help to even get started.) Why get trapped in all my depressing introspection when there’s all this beauty and wonder and glory and soul-satisfying truth right in front of me?

So I decided to delight myself in the Lord.

That’s when joy comes.

A Day in the Life of a Stay-at-Home Daughter, and Response

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“Many of you are young mothers who one day hope to see your daughters joyfully living the life of a homemaker, even in your own home before they marry. But some of you may be apprehensively wondering, “What will that look like?”

Having a visual of what your daughter could one day be doing takes a lot of the “scariness” out of it. I’d like to give you a peek into my life as a “stay-at-home daughter,” but since I can’t have you in our home, I thought I’d illustrate it for you!”

Continue reading at Raising Homemakers

After I posted “A Day in the Life” at Raising Homemakers, I received a comment, inquisitive about “stay-at-home daughters”. I thought I’d share on my blog my response:

Dear ‘Daughter of the King,’

Thank you for commenting. I’d love to answer your questions, and I’ll start with the last: basically, Do we have any Biblical support for the “stay-at-home daughter” lifestyle? In short, yes, we do. :) You are right in saying that being a wife and mother is [one of] the most important and beautiful jobs. (See Psalm 128, Proverbs 31, Titus 2:3-5)

We would be taking the importance of the family and home far too lightly if we simply assumed that running a household was easy. It’s a gigantic mission to create a nurturing, biblical home, to disciple and educate your children, all the while helping your husband in his vision. Proverbs 31 shows that home life is more than solitary confinement with baking, knitting, and cleaning as the only permissible inmate activities. :) The home can be a beehive of economy, a fortress of the Gospel and Christian culture. Most of the women in the Bible were married and bore children—marriage and motherhood for women is the Biblical norm, and we ought to wisely prepare for this honorable position.

Ask any woman who was not raised to be a homemaker and worked outside the home—it’s not an easy transition from career to homemaker, let alone balancing the two.

“Why can’t they get a college education, a job, a place of their own?” Good question. We certainly believe that a young woman is fully capable of earning —and in some situations may actually need— a college-level education. But that education need not be solely obtained on a campus (a campus that, I believe, isolates people from real life). There are many avenues whereby we can further our education, through apprenticeships, taking online classes, and teaching ourselves. The culture has programmed us to think that a young person must leave their parents to discover themselves, their independent life calling, their freedom, and the world. But as a Christian, we can only find true life, success, and freedom in Christ and the order in which He designed family, church, and state to function for His glory.

In God’s design for the family, the husband is the head of the wife, and therefore the rightful provider and protector for the wife as well as the daughters in that family. If a young woman leaves her family before marriage, she is in an unprotected position. Sometimes this cannot be avoided, but it’s not the Biblical ideal. However, this doesn’t mean a young woman cannot work while she’s also learning to become a homemaker. The home (as well as working under her father) is the best place for a young woman to develop her talents, use her skills, and bless her family, church, and community in countless ways (and earn money, too). :)

If a woman finds herself single, those homemaking skills will still come in handy! God doesn’t leave out any of His children in His tapestry. There are many ways for her to labor beside her family (or church family if she has no family, Psalm 68:6), showing hospitality, helping young mothers, caring for the needy, etc.. We can trust that when we obey His Words, He will fulfill His promise to provide for us. There’s a good article by some friends of mine if you’re interested in learning more about this issue: “But What If…?”

You also mentioned Deborah who was a wise (and married) woman raised up by God for a specific time in Israel’s history. I honestly don’t know enough about the situation to tell you why this was so, but we do know from the rest of Scripture that Deborah’s position is not given as a normative example for women. We have many other examples to look to, like Sarah, Abigail, Rebecca, Naomi, Ruth, and Mary—and Deborah, too, inspiring us in sturdy womanhood.

I hope this has helped you gain a better perspective of what “stay-at-home daughters” are about. Basically, we’re young women dedicated to becoming godly women, preparing ourselves to be well-equipped for whatever God sends our way, His way, even when it’s bizarrely counter-cultural. :) Thank you for asking!

Blessings In Christ,
Breezy Brookshire

Motivation

I often ask myself—when I need clarity, when I need to reevaluate, when I need to once again find that spot on the horizon—I ask, “What do I really want?” or rather, “What does God want?”

What are my motives? Do they honor God? Are they fine things to desire, but not the best? What “best” does God want me to pursue?

Oh, what life. How full, and yet how short. What do I want?

I will shove aside all peripheral desires and point at the One Thing that only matters:

It is the Lord, my Salvation. His glory, to glorify Him. In Him is the fullness we desire. Only He will satisfy the cravings of the empty soul, only He can mend the broken heart, only He can give a reason—the strength—to live. He is the reward for those who love Him and serve Him. And only He could love us so much and be so patient, and slowly woo us as His Bride.

What a glorious God He is! And How I love Him!

It truly amazes me—it baffles and confounds my flesh-bound wisdom—when I think about all the riches we have in Christ, and that He chose us to give them to. What love! Everything I am, everything I have is from Him—and I ought to give to Him!

You may think, “Living and dying for this may be a romantic idea, but what does this look like? Are you going to become a stiff Puritan and become blind to the ‘real life’ outside your imagination?”

My friend, if you think there is anything real outside of the reality God has created, you know not reality. To live is Christ, and to die is gain.

A Poem for the Diligent Daughter

We recently bought a book of poetry called, “It Can Be Done”—a collection of vigorous and empowering verses that inspires men and women to be the sturdy and virtuous people God created us to be.  While many of the verses . . .

Continue reading at Raising Homemakers