Lynzie's Turning 19 Tomorrow!! The Homemaking Party

Hello everyone!

This week we're celebrating a very special lady---my oldest daughter, Lynzie, is turning 19 tomorrow!

It's hard to believe at her age I was married and almost expecting her. Time goes by so fast...

Last night I took her out to dinner and to see the new Mary Poppins movie. We loved it! It was just as good as the original. Just fabulous!

Of course, she had to go in costume. This girl is one of a kind, for sure! I sure do love her. If you've got a minute, stop by her blog, Elegant Homemaking, and send her some birthday love!

Happy Birthday Lynzie Mae!

Thanks for stopping by The Homemaking Party! Hope you're having a lovely week!



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An Important Devotional for Women Making Goals

Hello Friends! Welcome to the Homemaking Party!

Wow! I don't know about you but this year seemed to completely fly by for our family! We made lots of great friends and special memories---but there's a big part of me that is saying, slow down! So, New Year Resolution Number One is: stay home more!

Do you make New Year Resolutions? Some years I make an elaborate categorized list of my goals for the upcoming year. Other times, I just pick one thing. However you do it, the important thing is to assess why you feel the need to make a change and then start taking simple, doable steps toward that goal.

I hope you'll check out my devotional for women, Now: Purposeful Steps Toward a More Abundant Life, available in paperback and on Kindle. It's all about taking the steps needed to start living the way you want to and to stop making excuses about why you think you can't. Sound simple? It is! It's a simple little book that you can read through in a day for encouragement or spend time going through it more slowly as a study toward change. It features study questions and prayer topics and is a great gift for yourself or another woman in your life who wants to live a fulfilling life right where she's at!

 Many blessings for your new year! I'm looking forward to great things!



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Finding My Selah -- The Homemaking Party

Selah.

The word Selah is a Hebraic praise term that means, "pause and reflect on God." I first chose that name for our second baby girl when I drove through the town of Selah, Washington one day on my way to Seattle. I remembered my mom telling me they bottled Tree Top Apple Juice there and, as a kid, I always imagined the town smelled like apples (even though it's in a not-so-forested part of the state and actually smells a little sulphuric to me now). Anyway, as I was telling Jamie all this one day and said the name out loud, I realized how pretty it was. In the Pacific Northwest we pronounce it, "see-luh". A pretty name for our new baby---Selah Elizabeth---as Elizabeth is my middle name, too.

Several years later, when we got our baby girl after three boys, I was preparing for her birth and looked into the meaning of her name, Selah Elizabeth. Together the name means, "to pause and reflect on the God of plenty."

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I've spent the last few Christmases redirecting the expectations of my family---and myself. We no longer try to hit every party available, bringing along fancy treats that I skipped making meals to perfect. We no longer lavish each kid with tons of expensive presents that I had to skip paying utility bills to afford. I no longer feel the need to keep up with all the fun and excitement the world wants to inundate me with at Christmas time. All these things are great until they start interfering with my ability to run my home well, stay on budget, or stay sane.

As I've felt a draw to holiness in other areas of my life, I'm feeling a draw to holiness in Christmas. For us, that looks like simplicity. Calm. Thoughtfulness. Focusing on relationships. We want to let God show us who he is in this season, just as we do in every season.

God is not different during Christmas, but sometimes we are different toward him. We make such a big deal about "Keeping Christ in Christmas"---we try to balance that with all the other fun of the season. But if we had been keeping Christ in everything we did the entire year before, that same mindset would carry right into Christmas.

When we have been living in a place of simple calm all year long, it's not hard for that same spirit of peace to translate into our Christmas celebrations. You can't live an overwhelmed, too-busy life all year and expect Christmas time to magically calm down for you.

This morning I sat down in my library to look through yesterday's mail and prepare for today. I sat at my desk and began to get my thoughts together to ask God to direct my day. Before I could say a word, he said to me, "Selah."

Just stop. Just think of me. Pause and reflect. I am the God of Plenty. I have all you need for life and godliness. What do I require of you but to do justly, walk humbly, and love mercy? Just be still and remember me.

Noel, noel, come and see what God has done.

Noel, noel, the story of amazing love. 

The Light of the World, given for us.

Risen for us. We have all we need.

Thanks for linking up at The Homemaking Party. Have a beautiful week!

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Oh My Heartsie Girls