Announcing......

Hey everybody! I just wanted to let you all know I opened a new wordpress blog called The ChatterBox. So, be sure and check it out=)

Blessings,

Jade

Time Flies

We've all heard from our parents about how quickly time flies. I've never paid much attention to that statement until recently, time does fly by fast! it seems like just yesterday I was bouncing off the walls in excitement over finally reaching the big "1-0"!! finally hitting the double digits! That was a little over 6 years ago and that may not sound like such a long time but so much has happened in those few years!! so much time was wasted on me! on the things I wanted to do, liked to do, and enjoyed doing. Not that it's wrong to have fun or take care of yourself, we're supposed to take care of this temple, but we cant have this self-centered way of thinking, we are supposed to be servants after all.



We waste so much of this short life on vain pointless things and keep putting off the things that matter!! Like telling our younger brother "no. Maybe some other time" when he asks us to play a boardgame with him that we dont really like, or telling ourselves "I'll do the dishes without being told to help Mom out some other time when i don't have plans.", or telling ourselves "I'll call up my Grandparents sometime when I'm not so busy with other things."



That "some other time" we talk about may not be there later, may not be there tomorrow or the next day! James 4:13&14 says "come now, you who say, 'today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."


Life is short! We don't know how long we to spend time with our siblings, or to try to help ease our Mom's workload by helping her without being told. Job said in Job 7:7 "Oh, remembr that my life is a breath!" Just that quick and we're looking back on 6 years we've wasted, pretty soon those 6 years turn into 10, then 15, then 20 and so on and before we know it's too late.


We should be taking every oppertunity to to serve others especially our family, and make the most of ever bit of time that God gives us.

Blessings,

Jade

Really cool video

The other day our mom showed us this amazing video. And we just had to post it!

Blessings to all of you,

Autumn

You Make My Day Award!

A few weeks ago Courtney from One of the Bunch, gave us the You Make My Day award!
Thank you so much, Courtney. You are truly a beautiful young lady and we love your blog=) and we apologize for taking so long to get this up.

Now we're supposed to pass this award on to 6 other people, but, we're only going to do 4 because some of the ones we wanted to do have already been given this award.
So, here are the ones we are passing this to:


Our Mom. You 'Make our Day' every single day. Your love for God shows everyday and we are so blessed to have you for a mom. You're the best mom in the world! We love you=)

Rebekah from By His Grace and for His Glory, You're blog is an inspiration to us, you are an amazing young woman.

Kaysie from Alabaster Box, We're so challenged and refreshed every time we visit your blog, your love for Christ shows in all that you write.

And Neesie from Take My Life , Your blog is so encouraging and refreshing, you're such a sweet young lady and are beatiful inside and out.



Blessings,
Autumn & Jade

Expelled

We finally went to see this movie last Saturday and it was such an eye opener! Our Mom wrote a review on it that you can read over on her blog Heavenward Bound or you can just go straight to it Here.

Blessings,
Jade

Psalms 119:33-35

"Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of your commandments, For I delight in it."

Happy Sweet16, Jade!!!!!!

Happy birthday, Jade!!

You are a beautiful young woman on the inside and out! I hope your 16th year is full of blessings and growth in your spritual walk. We love you so much!

Love ya,

Autumn

God's Love

First of all I want to apologize for not posting lately. Things have been really busy in the past 3 weeks and we got way behind in a lot of stuff, but things have slowed down a lot so we should be getting back to normal soon;)

Have you ever stopped and just thought about how much God loves us?
I think we've heard it so much that we just don't really fully grasp how great His love is for us, we just have it stored away in our minds and don't ever take it out and realize just how amazing it is! He demonstrated His powerful love for us by sending His one and only Son to die for us sinners! (Romans 5:8). Christ left his throne in heaven to come and be the last and perfect sacrifice for our sins so that one day we might live with Him him heaven. Isn't that an amazing love?

Psalms 139:17 & 18 says "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand." Doesn't that just about leave you speechless?! His thoughts of us are more in number than the sand? He has thought about you and more times than can be counted. He doesn't just think about the big famous people, the ones that win Nobel prizes, the ones that become president, or ones that live in mansions or drive fancy cars but He also thinks of you and me and all the other ordinary everyday people and He loves us just as much.

John 13:34 says "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you" How can we possibly love each with love as great as God loves us with? It's impossible for us to but we have to try and try as hard as we can, and we when we fail we just have try again and try even harder.

If there's ever a time when you feel discouraged or worthless just think of all God has done for you and much He loves you. He has thought of you more time than can be counted.

Blessings,
Jade

Homemakers-in-the-Making Monday

Today for Homemakers-in-the-Making Monday we are going to share some of our emergency ingredient substitutions with you.

Self-rising flour......1 cup

1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda

Whole milk...........1 cup

1/2 cup of evaporated milk, 1/2 cup of water

Sugar...........1 cup

1 cup brown sugar or 2 cups sifted conectioners' sugar

Lemon juice......1 teaspoon

1/4 tsp cider vinegar

Honey............1 cup

1-1/4 cups sugar, 1/4 cup water

Blessings,

Autumn

We've been tagged!!!

We've been tagged by Rebekah from By His Grace and for His Glory

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.



Jade's Facts:


1. I was a gymnast for 4 years

2. The only vegetable I like is corn

3. This is the second time I've had braces

4. Bananas and watermelon make my mouth itch (these are supposed to be random right?)

5. I love mountain dew!!

6. I can't stand diet coke or any other diet drinks

7. I could hum "the barney song" and "Jesus loves me" when I was 6mo

Autumn's Facts:

1. I could walk when I was seven months old

2. I have a terrible habbit of biting my finger nails

3. I have never had a cavity

4. I can't stand wearing hand lotion

5. I learned to read when I was four

6. I'm scared of heights

7. My dream vehicle is a red Jeep wrangle

Now, We're tagging:

Bethany from Bethany's Blog

Kaysie from Alabaster Box

Courtney from One of the Bunch

Emily from Unfurling Flower

Brittney Leigh from Feminine Espresso

Neesie from Take my Life

Amanda from A Touch of Grace

Have fun!! We can't wait to see ya'lls answers.

Homemakers in the Making Monday

Kentucky Butter Cake

For the cake:

2 sticks of butter

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

3 cups of flour (unsifted)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

For the sauce:

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 stick of butter

2 tbs flour

Pre-heat oven to 325. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each egg. Add remainder of ingredients (except butter sauce). Mix until moistened. Then mix at medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour batter into generously greased & floured 9x13 pan.

Bake for about 45 minutes. Then cut into pieces.

On stovetop, place butter, sugar, milk and flour into pan and heat (stirring occasionally) until butter melts (do not boil).
Then pour sauce over each piece.
Enjoy!!!

Jade

Praise Worthy Thoughts

Thinking is a constant part of life. Thousand of thoughts fly through our head everyday and all day. But what are our thoughts about? Are they hateful thoughts when we're angry with our siblings, disrespectful thoughts about our parents, thoughts of complaint when things don't go our way? Or, are they the type of thoughts that Philipians 4:8 says we should have? "whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is an virtue and if there is anything praisworthy-meditate on these things."

The angry and bitter thoughts are the kind of thoughts we should really watch out for because they can easily creep their way into our minds, and once they're there it can be very hard to overcome them. Colossians 3:2 says "Keep your mind on the things of above, not on things on the earth." It's when we're focusing on ourselves and our worldly desires and worries that we have the angry and bitter thoughts which lead to an angry and bitter attitude.

Our thoughts aren't something that is only known by us and who we tell our thoughts to, God knows all of our thoughts and He's going to judge every one of them. Our thoughts can be pleasing to Him or they can dissappoint Him and make Him angry.

A few things we can do to help get our thoughts off ourselves and onto to "praise-worthy things" is to spend time reading and studying God's Word. Psalms 119:97 says "Oh, how I love your law! It is in my meditation all the day." To learn about His law we have study His word, And we can pray. Spend time with God in prayer, praise Him and give thanks to Him. John 16:24 says "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name. Ask and you will recieve, that your joy may be full." So we can ask Him for help and He will give it to us.

Homemakers-in-the-Making Monday

Poppyseed Chicken

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

Mix together

• 7 chicken breasts (cooked & shreaded)
• 2 cans of cream of chicken
• 2 cans of cream of mushroom
• 16oz sour cream
• 2 cups rice
• 1/8 tsp poppyseed

then put into a 9x13 pan.

For the topping

• 2 sleeves of ritz crackers (crushed into bite sized pieces)
• 2 sticks of butter (melted)

mix together and put it on top of the casserole.

Bake for 30 minutes

Homemakers in the Making Monday

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

3 1/4 cups of busquick

1 cup of milk

1/3 cup of margarine

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine the Busquick and milk. Mix them together until you have a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a large sheet of waxed paper. Knead the dough gently for a few seconds. Pat the dough into a rectangular shape. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out so that it's about half an inch thick. Try to keep it in a rectangular shape as you roll it out, this is challenging at first.

Mix the margarine, brown sugar, and cinnamon together and spread it over the dough.

Now here's the tricky part. Lift up one side of the waxed paper and use it to help you roll up the dough like a jelly roll (I found it's easier to do this if you let the dough sit in the freezer for about 10 min.). Pull back the waxed paper as you go so it doesn't get wrapped up in the roll. When the roll is nicely formed, use a sharp knife to cut it into about a 9-11 slices.
Arrange the cinnamon rools in a well-greased 9x13-inch pan. squirt a little pancake syrup in the center of each cinnamon roll for flavor and stickiness.
Bake rolls at 400 for about 20 minutes. and let let them cool for about 25 minutes before icing.

If any of you have any great recipes, cleaning tips, dedorating ideas etc., that you'd like to share you can email us and we'll consider posting it.

Blessings,

Jade

Everybody loves to sit by the fire on a cold day

Ok, so I was sitting by the fireplace, doing something on my sister's laptop when our dog comes inside, walks up up to the fireplace, turns around, and sits down right on the fireplace! Let's just say she found her new favorite spot=)
Here's some pics, enjoy.

Have a Blessed weekend!

Jade

Our First Blog Award!!!

We recieved our very first blog award from Courtney over at One of the Bunch!

Thank you Courtney, you're such an encouragement to us:)

Now we're going to pass this award on to...

1. Stay-At-Home-Daughters
2. By His Grace and for His Glory
3. Feminine Espresso
4. Alabaster Box
5. A Touch of Grace

Now please pass this award on to five blogs.

Blessings to all,

Jade

Our Mom's New Blog

We just want to let you know that our mom has re-opened her blog Heavenward Bound so, check it out.

Blessings,
Jade

Homemakers-in-the-Making Monday

Here at Handmaidens with a mission we are excited to announce that today we are adding a new weekly feature to our blog, Homemakers-in-the-Making Monday, where we will post anything from recipes to house cleaning tips and deccorating.



For our first, Homemakers-in-the Making Monday, we are going to post one of our favorite recipes.



Boiled cookies



2 cups of sugar

1/2 cup of milk

3 tbs. of cocoa

1/2 cup of butter

Put in pan. Let it boil for about a minute and a half. Pour into a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup of peanut butter. 3 cups of oats (uncooked). 1 tsp. of vanilla and mix well.

Drop on wax paper. Let cool for about 20 minutes.

If any of you have recipes, cleaning tips, deccorating tips, ect. that you like us to share please send us an email and we will consider posting it.

Blessings to all,

Autumn

Reading Proverbs

What better way is there to start your day than to spend time reading God's word? I can tell you right now there is NOTHING better.

About a year ago my family and I started reading a proverb every morning before we start our day. What we do is read the chapter of proverbs that matches whatever day of the month it is. For example: today is the twenty-fifth so we would read proverbs 25. Then after we're done reading we write down at least four verses that really stood out to us and want to remember.

The book of Proverbs is full of widom. Every time I read it something different will stand out to me even if I've read the chapter a hundred times! It's like reading a whole new chapter.

This is a wonderful way to start your day and I really encourage you to start doing this yourself. There is so much wisdom in every chapter that we can to carry with us throughout the day; while we're doing school, helping clean the house, making supper, etc., we can try to remember the verses we wrote down that morning and think on them and try to apply them to our lives, and this doesn't just go for reading Proverbs, but wherever we read in the bible we need to try and apply what we learned to our lives and live it, not just read it and be done with it.

I want to apologize for not posting this week. Our Dad came home safely from Taiwan last friday:) so we've been spending time with him, and almost everyone in our family is/has been sick this past week. But, we will try really really hard to post at least 3 times next week.

I hope ya'll have a blessed weekend and I'll see you back here monday!

Jade

It's snowing!!

We're having our first snow in our new house! We're all so excited because we lived in southern Mississippi until this past fall so we hardly ever saw snow.



Can you tell I'm not used to dressing for cold weather?

I hope ya'll have a blessed weekend!

Jade

We made it!!

After lots of prayer and hard work we managed to finish taking the wallpaper down, spackle, and paint before friday.

Last monday Dad went to Taiwan on a business trip, So Jade and I made a goal for ourselves to finish our room before he comes home, so on tuesday when our Aunt e-mailed Mom to let us know that she was coming this weekend, we thought that it would be great if we could get it done before they got here. We decided to try our best to finish the room. So, we imediately started taking down wallpaper. We ended up getting half way around the room. Wednesday we finished taking down the wallpaper and did the spackling. Thursday we sanded the walls and painted.

We want to say "Thank you" to everyone who prayed for us. We appreciate all the prayers!

Here is a picture of what our room looks like now.

Wallpaper Madness!!!

Hey everybody!
Sorry we haven't been posting very much but we do have a reason! We recently moved to a new house and our room had wallpaper, and we haven't had the time or drive to do it until we found out that our Aunt and cousin are coming for a vist to see our new house. So we're on a mad rush to take the wallpaper down, spackle, and paint before friday! we're almost done with the wallpaper so things are looking good:)

Here are a few pics of what we've been doing.



one of the before pictures

Autumn ripping away

Me steamin'

progress......

this is just some of the mess we made

We'll keep y'all updated and let you know if we make it in time!