Life in Jerusalem

Remember that raven in The Magician's Nephew? The one who was the first joke in Narnia? It's clear that God wants lots of laughter in the world, because I'm frequently a joke myself. Nearly always to my delight! I'm so thankful that the experience of semi-literacy that comes with learning a language is nearly always a source of lighthearted entertainment, and not frustration. Because the simplest things can be pretty complicated sometimes.

Take buying yeast. I went shopping with Mamma the other day, and that's what she needed. I don't know the word in Hebrew, so I decided to just comb the store for it. That didn't work, so I finally worked up enough courage to approach a guy stocking the produce section. "Excuse me, do you speak English?"

He didn't, but indicated willingness to work with me. So I continued in Hebrew, twenty-questions style: "It's something for bread."

"Flour?" he asked.

"No."

"Shmarim?"

"I don't know." He was walking purposefully across the store while I kept giving him clues. "It's like pickles...no! I mean leaven!" (It's not so crazy in Hebrew, because chamutzim and chametz are related to 'sour' and sound alike!) We soon reached the refrigerated case, where he pulled out a cake of.... yeast. Yes! Shmarim it was. (And no, I still don't know the word: I had to look it up in the dictionary. Maybe I should take it with me when I go shopping).

Maybe, but it might not be half as much fun!

- by Elisabeth Adams

Smiles from my angel baby

Isn't she a doll?

Witty Remarks From Jane: Jane Austen Quotables

There are various times when I find myself in need of a suitable response during conversation. If you, too, find yourself desiring clever, silly, or perhaps somewhat unusual replies, look no further. Jane Austen is your solution. Well-known for her witty novels, she has a wealth of superb utterances from which to draw. I have collected several appropriate remarks from the Jane Austen movie “Emma” and “Pride and Prejudice” for your express benefit. Peruse to your delight and prepare to both captivate and confuse your fellow conversationalists.

At a dance, when a gentleman friend asks with whom you’re going to dance with:
“With you if you’ll ask me. After all, we are not brother and sister.”

When those around you are not speaking:
“I believe we must have some conversation…a very little will suffice.”

When you are asked of your hobbies:
“I take pleasure in many things.”

When someone asks what you think of them:
“I hear such different accounts of you as to puzzle me exceedingly.”

When a friend announces her engagement:
“Strawberries! You must have strawberries at your wedding!”

When someone inquires if you are too hot or too cold:
“I am in the perfect state of…warmness.”

When someone is acting particularly hard to please:
“I wouldn’t be as fastidious as you are for a kingdom.”

When there is an awkward gap in a conversation:
“Allow me to interpret the silence.”

When your advice is sought about a certain action:
“I think it would be a wise and relieving thing to do.”

When you are in want of exercise and there is another near you:
“Do take a turn about the room with me. It is so refreshing.”

When asked what you thought of a phenomenal happening:
“We were quite speechless, I tell you, and we have not stopped talking of it since.”

And finally, it is a truth universally acknowledged that when one is uncertain how to answer a statement, the most convenient response is: “Indeed!”

- by Laura Moninger

And some additions by Lisa!

Don't forget:
When asked your opinion of another person on whom you have not given much thought, "Very elegant."

and when faced with being accused of perfection, being a goodie-two-shoes, or some similar character, "It has been my study to avoid those weaknesses which expose a good understanding to ridicule."

From Sense and Sensibility: when in an especially good mood, "Is there any felicity in the world superior to this?"

Photo copyright BBC Productions

The 'F' in YLCF

I remember when my cousin and I first started the little club "The Purry Kittens" that so many years later is what we know as the YLCF. We asked all our friends to join, in hopes that their friends would join, too, and we'd make some new friends. As I gathered a large collection of pen pals through the years, many of them were either because of or became part of my magazine project. My views were challenged, my world enlarged, through the fellowship with these young women--on paper, through email, on the phone, and in person. I was far from being an un-socialized homeschooler--I had acquaintances throughout the latitudes and longitudes. And many of them are still dear friends today.

I'm a married, expectant mommy now, with no time for the verbose letters I use to write. (Did I really have enough extra time that I advertised for pen pals in those days?) But now I crave a different kind of fellowship. The hugs from those dear little old ladies at church mean more to me now that I'm not in the church I grew up in, with grandmas and aunts all around. It's the highlight of my day when someone really, sincerely asks me how I'm doing, after I've asked dozens of customers the same question all day, expecting nothing but that one-syllable answer. And to have a long talk with someone who not only knows me personally, but has a similar perspective and belief system? Outside of family members, it's becoming rare indeed.

That's why once in a while it's refreshing to have YLCF people literally walk into my life. I may not know them on a personal level, but they feel like they know me. And we're looking at life from the same point of view. Even though we've never met before, we can enjoy sweet though brief fellowship through our common bond in Christ.

When a young lady and her mother walked into our store yesterday and just stared at me, I knew who it was a moment before she said, "I'm Chantel." I had no idea they were coming through our area, but how fun to meet the sweet young woman behind the beautiful poetry we enjoy here on YLCF. For Chantel's mom and my mother-in-law, it was a reunion--they go way back to their first days of homeschooling the first generation of homeschoolers.

Then there was the girl who stared at Merritt and I all through dinner at a local restaurant before coming up and saying, "Hi, I'm Hannah. I read the YLCF website." It's great to run into her around town, and one of these days we're going to get together, if life ever slows down...

I guess the busier life gets, the more I cherish the little bits of fellowship that God sends my way. Whether it's reading your stories here, or having you walk up and say, "You look like I've seen your picture online" (I wish that Sonlight mom would have stayed and introduced herself...), you are a shower of blessing in my life. Thank you, YLCF.

My Balloon Won't Pop!

Whetstone was a rousing success! To read summaries of the days, you can visit Day 1, Day 2, and hopefully sometime they'll get the other summaries and pictures up. For sure they will have some fun info about it all in the next issue of our magazine (for a free subscription just go here).

We want all of our missionaries to remember how very much we value and appreciate them--I pray we met that goal. The afternoon of family games around the campus was great fun. Since I manned one of the 8 game locations, I got to meet and talk to everyone as they came through the route. Heading up one of the games involving water balloons was ideal in the hot weather--I stayed just wet enough to not mind the heat.

During the last few rounds a plan began forming to sneak attack my dad with any remaining water missiles from my station. Two large orange rubbery weapons in hand, I tiptoed up behind dad who was talking to a group of missionaries. Oh fun...I motioned for the ones who saw me not to react...whap!

My balloon didn't break. It beamed dad in the back and rolled off into the grass.

I threw it three times and it never broke. Dad got one and hit me and his didn't break. What kind of water balloons are these anyway?

It was a nice idea. :smile:

Caption: Carson (in red) with four MKs after getting drenched during an outing last week.

Tracing through history

This morning I learned that I am in a direct line of descendents from Charlemagne "Charles the Great" King of Franks, through his son Pepin Carloman and his son Bernard of Italy. Genealogy is fascinating. And addicting. I freely confess to being an avid explorer of my own family history. (It is likely I'm one of few girls my age who would dream about a subscription to Ancestry.com!) Perhaps it is because some of the analysis reminds me of textual criticism and translation variants in Scripture.

On my dad's side, my aunt has done unbelievable amounts of research and compilation; I've spent countless hours looking through the books and photos she's collected and reading the charts. Her work inspired me to begin my own exploration.

I stayed up far too late last night, er, early this morning digging through old Civil War military records, census counts from the 1800's, and immigration papers. An obituary from 1904, written in Swedish on Illinois Freight stationary is now scanned into the computer where I can pull it up at will. Centuries of photos, memorabelia and information digitized might be helpful for tracing ancestry but there is something much more "real" about feeling the chapped leather of the real Swedish Bible or running fingers on the cold gravestones. I finally called it a night when I tapped as far back on one strain of paternal family as I could get: circa 1490. Wow.

My father's lineage is Mansson and Monson. In the early 1900's a Mansson son came to America and changed his surname to Nyquist. And so we've been ever since. My paternal grandmother's side of the family arrived in America nearly a century earlier and took the surname Lofdahl.

Why not keep their native names? I smiled the first time I saw the manner in which surnames were formed back in the mother country. One 3rd great grandfather is named Lars Nilsson. His father is Nils Andersson. His father is Anders I am guessing, but I haven't found that information yet. Lars's mother is Cathrina Nilsdotter. Her father was Nils. So that would make me Natalie Jonsdotter, sharing the same last name as my four-times-great-grandmother, Catharina Jonsdotter born in 1785.

The faded faces on hundred-year-old photographs jump out at me. One of them looks just like my cousin--it's her great, great grandmother. Another is haunting in its solemnity. I wish I could peer through the edges of the frame and jump into their lives. What were they really like? What was life like for my ancestors in Sweden? What did my many-times-great grandfather look like when he was my age?

Born 07 Apr 1807 in Mangstorp, Nyed, Varmland, Sweden. Typing the names and finding the birth records and marriage certificates is like a treasure hunt. It is a satisfying search--unearthing a legacy of family which makes me feel secure. These are my roots. Could my ancestors who immigrated from Sweden have ever pictured the multitude of descendents who would carry their names and bear their image? A hundred years from now, what great-great grandchild might look like me?

I started from scratch with my grandparents on my mom's side of the family. With the help of databases and family trees, as of this morning I've managed to trace a line all the way back to Wildelphe de Sax and Clodius Franks in the late 300's A.D. -- and I'm still digging. My goal is to see if I can find a direct lineage (father of father and so on) to the time of Christ.

When I found the family name that kept going back and back and back through the Middle Ages I could hardly keep from bouncing with excitement. Sometimes when I would be on a really interesting trail I'd forget to sleep or eat til a family member brought me back to reality. But by now I've probably bored any readers still with me. What can I say...I love history, treasure hunts, and my family!

Update: I chose to pursue the line of Clodius Franks and then branched to chase two separate trails. One of them through Clodius's mother's side led to the ancient Roman emperors including Flavius Julius Constantius (317-361). Things got a bit sloppy around 250 AD but finally I made it to some well documented first century forebears. Are there any history buffs out there who would be as excited as I was to find names like Titus Flabius Sabinus and Julia B of Judea in her ancestry?

How about Herod Agrippa? I think that was when my jaw really dropped! I'm related to Agrippa and Herod I of Judea?

Civilized or Socialized?

A homeschooling mom’s bumper-sticker answer to the question “What about socialization?”

Homeschoolers:

Civilized, not Socialized

Dandelion Wishes

Simple joys, richly held. Moments drunk to their fullest. Life tastes good.

This weekend I am babysitting a missionary family's children so they can enjoy a much-deserved getaway. The two girls (8 and 6) and boy (2) are a joy; I do not know which of us wore the other out more. Our first project yesterday was decorating a stepping stone. This intriguing and not-very-intuitive craft involved mixing rock powder with water which hardened into concrete before we were ready. Hopefully the girls will not mind if their little tiles and marbles fall off. We had fun mixing it all up, dusting ourselves with the powder and exclaiming at the feeling of the thick pasty stuff turning rock-solid under our hands.

Before that was fully cleaned up (you know how it is) they were ready to help me make dinner. Once that was in the oven it seemed making chocolate chip cookies was the way to culminate the afternoon. We found (some) of the ingredients, the girls measured (some) sugar and flour into a bowl, their little brother kept asking to taste, and when we were half-way through the ingredients (serves me right for not being more organized in a strange kitchen) the realization struck: we do not have any chocolate chips.

No matter, my charges determined. Peanut butter cookies are just as good. Out came the jar, in went the spoon, and...there goes the mixture into giggling mouths instead of the bowl. I'm looking through a cookbook trying to figure out what changes to make when one is doing peanut butter instead of chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, they seem to call for half as much butter, less sugar, less flour...I was too busy to figure out why. Since the butter, sugar and flour were already in the bowl, it seemed guesswork would be best. The point was the fun anyway, not prize-winning cookies.

The end batter product did not look or taste like any peanut butter cookie dough I've ever made but...the girls were proud. The baked cookies had to be some of the ugliest I've ever had to claim as mine but...they taste good.

After dinner we went to the park to climb, run, roll the soccer ball to little brother, play in the sand and walk by the lake. On a whim I plucked a dandelion already gone to seed and showed it to my buddies. The little boy seemed entranced. Knowing he is great at imitating, I blew hard and then offered it to him. His little cheeks puffed out and his breath ruffled the gray fluff but none flew away. I blew again--he crowed in delight as seeds went soaring on the breeze. Time lost its hold. It was beautiful.

It took us a long time to get back across that meadow. My little man wanted to stop and pick every single dandelion and blow. So did his sisters. One called out, "I wish...I wish Natalie was my big sister!"

Though it can't be all the time, I am happy to play the role when I can. Is it even legal to have this much fun? And I guarantee you that I enjoy my volunteer "big sister" days far more than those I'm hired for. Anything one gets paid to do somehow becomes work. That must be why I enjoy writing only for non-profit ministries. Oops, I think I hear Jaden calling out. Best go make sure he's sleeping before I get some rest myself.

Five Continents in a Day

On Thursday morning we ran out of muesli for breakfast, a catastrophe that sent me to the shuk. By way of the Old City, of course (a very roundabout way). After greeting a couple of old friends at the Christian bookstore inside Jaffa Gate and ascertaining the fact that our favorite gift shop in the Jewish Quarter was hopelessly thronged with tourists, I was off for the shuk in earnest, where I snagged about nine pounds of oatmeal, and sundry other delicacies.

Returning home with my booty, I learned that the usual Thursday evening class was canceled. Unfortunately, not everybody else heard the news. And so, at about six o'clock, who should arrive but our Chinese friend Linda. I delivered the bad news, hastening to add, "But you can sit down and have tea and cookies!" So sit down she did. Douglas had informed us that she was part of a mysterious "Back to Jerusalem" movement in China, and here was my chance to learn more! "Tell me," I said, "how you came to be in Israel."

Everybody in Jerusalem has a story of how they came to be here, and Linda's was typically amazing. It all started when she was in her last year of seminary, praying for God to show her the next step. "It will be someplace very far away," a godly friend told her. But where? On semester breaks, Linda tried out the mission field in Thailand. The missionaries there wanted her to stay, but God showed Linda the image of harvested fields. This area already had all the workers it needed. So she kept praying...and dreaming of visiting Israel as soon as she graduated.

Then someone said, "Why don't you go to Eilat?" Eilat? Where was that? Turned out that it is the southernmost city in Israel. "No!" Linda thought. She wanted to visit Israel, not minister there. But through a friend, someone contacted her about a ministry to the Chinese construction workers in Eilat. And God said, "Go."

Linda's pastor and elders, however, said, "You're fresh out of seminary! You've got to stay home and practice for two or three more years."

"Please God," she prayed. "Change their minds." And He did. Now there was the question of money, but God provided just enough. And then came the bombshell: the Christian workers in Eilat emailed her and said, "The Chinese have stopped coming, and we don't need you anymore."

But Linda knew that God wanted her there, and she replied, "When they know that there's an interpreter again, they'll come back." She was right: forty Chinese are now getting ministry every weekend, when she leaves her busy student life and makes the three or four hour bus trip to Eilat.

As Linda and I were talking, there was a knock at the door, and in came "Ben" and Emmanuel. Again, I delivered the bad news, and again I followed it with an invitation to tea and cookies. That made four of us in the kitchen. Ben is an Arab pastor, and Emmanuel is a pastor from Nigeria. A picture of Emmanuel's wife and four small sons hangs on our bulletin board, and he was all pride as he explained that his wife is studying in a seminary at home. Then, since no lecture was forthcoming, he cheerfully offered us a lecture for free. The subject? Nigeria's Christian history. It goes back to about 1897, when three young men, one from the US, one from Britain, and one from Canada, decided to go to Nigeria as missionaries. "It's a white man's graveyard!" everybody said. The natives, Emmanuel told us, didn't recognize white people as human, and so they ate them.

Ate them? As the only Caucasian in the room, I looked a bit startled. We all shared a laugh as Emmanuel continued his story: those three crazy young men actually went to Nigeria, and sure enough: two of them died of malaria. The third went home, studied tropical medicine, and returned with a brand new team of missionaries. And that's why there's a church in Nigeria today.

Ben, meanwhile, had pulled out his computer and turned on the screen. As soon as Emmanuel was done, he had some questions to ask about the different religions in Nigeria. Emmanuel's parents had converted to Christianity from animism. Emmanuel's wife had been a Muslim. Pulling up some Arabic text on the screen, Ben began reading from the transcript of an interview that had been Al Jhazera, an influential Arab TV station. Back in the year 2000, he told us, the sheik of Libya had made some pretty amazing statements about Christianity in Africa: including the claim that six million Muslims are becoming Christians every year. The few but highly publicized conversions of Christians to Islam, apparently, are mere sedatives to the jealous Muslim people.

Six million. Amazing news, if it is indeed true!

Soon after our guests left, our Aussie chef arrived home from another class, making five continents in my kitchen in one day.

- by Elisabeth Adams

Just for the fun of it

We did not plan on making it...but that's part of what made it so much fun. My friend Amy is home on spring break from Moody and we wanted to get together. With my brother home, friends have been over several nights this week and little sleep has been had by all.

So Amy came over--it was just the girls at home and Mom made a salad. I commented chocolate sounded better. We needed no further encouragement--one tradition the two of us started last year is cooking with whatever ingredients happen to be on hand; no prior planning is allowed. We wanted chocolate so I dug into the pantry to see what might be usable.

Graham cracker for pie crust, chocolate pudding (sugar free, Amy noted), semi-sweet baking chips, whipped cream...apparently we were meant to make a chocolate pie! The filling was fairly straightforward but while the pudding set we began experimenting with a topping. Marshmallow fluff leftover from a fudge attempt at Christmas...the remnants of whipped topping...this isn't enough for a topping. What else can we use?

Meringue became the word of the evening. Amy thought we should make one. Had either of us ever made one before? "I think once, maybe," was the consensus. Out came the cookbook. Can we alter the recipe a bit? What happens if we add the egg whites, cream of tarter (oops--too much--oh well), and sugar (why not try brown instead of white?) in with the whipped mixture? We were giggling too hard to be precise by this point. I tripped and spilled chocolate on the floor. Amy dropped an egg when my mom cracked a joke (no pun intended). Somehow the meringue-want-to-be ended up splattered on all of our shirts instead of in the mixing bowl.

Several hours later, the pie complete with chocolate chip and syrup decorations, we realized that our "meringue" topping morphed into a sticky, glue-like substance which was sickly sweet and would not melt, harden, or even freeze. What had we done? We laughed until we cried. Undeterred, we gathered everyone in the house for a sample. The pie actually tasted fabulous even though it was impossible to cut and all stuck together.

Sometimes you have to do things just for the fun of it.

Cat Quotations

Did you know that the YLCF used to be a little girls' club called "The Purry Kittens"? (Click here to read the entire history.) From the time Gretchen and her cousin Melissa were little, they liked cats, kittens, and everything feline! They cut pictures of cats out of magazines and greeting cards, and put them in a note book. They collected books and sayings about cats. And of course, they had numerous kittens of their own. Here Gretchen shows her continued affinity for things feline with this collection of cat quotes...

Work - other people's work - is an intolerable idea to a cat. Can you picture cats herding sheep or agreeing to pull a cart? They will not inconvenience themselves to the slightest degree.

-Dr. Louis J. Camuti

In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.

-Dereke Bruce

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

-Albert Schweitzer

Time spent with cats is never wasted.

-Collette

"If you want to know the character of a man, find out what his cat thinks of him."

-Anonymous

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through the snow.

-Jeff Valdez

There is no more intrepid explorer than a kitten.

- Jules Champfleury

Cats are a tonic, they are a laugh, they are a cuddle, they are at least pretty just about all of the time and beautiful some of the time.

-Roger Caras

The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it.

-Doug Larson

If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.

-Alfred North Whitehead

"His mind is like a steel trap--full of mice."

-Foghorn Leghorn

"A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the forepart plays. She does not discover that her tail belongs to her until you tread on it."

-Henry David Thoreau

"A cat can maintain a position of curled up somnolence on your knee until you are nearly upright. To the last minute she hopes your conscience will get the better of you and you will settle down again."

-Pam Brown

"A dog is like a liberal, he wants to please everybody. A cat doesn't really need to know that everybody loves him."

-William Kunstler

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

-Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio

"After scolding one's cat one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word. And has filed it for reference."

-Charlotte Gray

No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.

- Leo Dworken

"I called my cat William because no shorter name fits the dignity of his character. Poor old man, he has fits now, so I call him Fitz-William."

- Josh Billings

"When your cat rubs the side of its face along your leg, it's affectionately marking you with its scent, identifying you as its private property, saying, in effect, 'You belong to me'."

-Susan McDonough, D.M.V.

"Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance."

-Dan Greenburg

No one can have experienced to the fullest the true sense of achievement and satisfaction who have never pursued and successfully caught his tail.

-Rosalind Welcher

There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat just lies there, dozing; and the world quietly reshapes itself to suit his comfort and convenience.

-Allen and Ivy Dodd

"I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior."

-Hippolyte Taine

Photo of Nero, one of the Nyquist cats, in his favorite place: Dad's chair

Purry Kittens

A collection of quotes from Gretchen's early days as leader of the Purry Kittens club...

"There are many intelligent species in the universe.
They are all owned by cats." - Anonymous

A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather.
- Judith Merkle Riley

A kitten is chiefly remarkable for rushing about like mad at nothing whatsoever, and generally stopping before it gets there.
-Agnes Repplier

It is a matter to gain the affection of a cat. He is a philosophical animal, tenacious of his own habits, fond of order and neatness, and disinclined to extravagant sentiment. He will be your friend, if he finds you worthy of friendship, but not your slave.
-Theophile Gautier

A cat is there when you call her - if she doesn't have something better to do.
-Bill Adler

The really great thing about cats is their endless variety. One can pick a cat to fit almost any kind of decor, color scheme, income, personality, mood. But under the fur; whatever color it may be, there still lies, essentially unchanged, one of the world's free souls.
-Eric Gurney

It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming.
-Adlai Stevenson

In the middle of a world that has always been a bit mad, the cat walks with confidence.
-Roseanne Anderson

It is remarkable, in cats, that the outer life they reveal to their master is one of perpetual confident boredom. All they betray of the hidden life is by means of symbol; if it were not for the recurring evidence of murder - the disemboweled rabbits, the headless flickers, the torn squirrels - we should forever imagine our cats to be simple pets whose highest ambition is to sleep in the best soft chair, whose worst crime is to sharpen their claws on carpeting
-Robley Wilson, Jr.

There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats.
-Anonymous

The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it.
-Doug Larson

In his castle He is King And I his vassal.
-Mildred R. Howland

There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat just lies there, dozing; and the world quietly reshapes itself to suit his comfort and convenience.
-Allen and Ivy Dodd

No one can have experienced to the fullest the true sense of achievement and satisfaction who have never pursued and successfully caught his tail.
-Rosalind Welcher

Happy Valentine's Day!

In celebration of Valentine's Day I wanted to collect some various articles, poems, and books that we at the YLCF have enjoyed. And yes, the balance between those for singles and those engaged or married is unbalanced because...I'm single and I'm the one writing this! I think that we singles need the resources more anyway--the others are busy today. And off I go...I'm spending the day cleaning bathrooms and doing laundry at Avant's training center.

For Everyone
Lanier's wonderful post from last week on Valentine's Day
The History of Valentine's Day
Created for Relationship on Focus on the Family's website
Sabrina's Wedding: The Calling
Kissing Nonsense Goodbye on Christianity Today's website

I confess that I love him-
I rejoice that I love him-
I thank the maker of Heaven and Earth that gave him me to love-
The exultation floods me.
-Emily Dickinson

For those in Love
Visit the Romance Lover's Nook
Read A Man and His Wife
Strengthen Your Marriage God's Way

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
-Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty

For Singles
Check out the Old Maid Society pages
Read A Valentine just for You!
Gretchen’s article on the Solitaire Blues is worth a read
Explore the Burning Candle - A great encouragement toward purity! This has been life-changing for me and many other young women through the years.
A thought-provoking read, though not entirely helpful to those of us already desiring marriage, is Boundless' article on Getting Serious about Getting Married (I will soon be reviewing this book for the website.)
What Does a Biblical Relationship Look Like? This will make you chuckle and has some great content besides.
The Best Way to Meet Singles article on Crosswalk.com
Are You Really Ready for Love? Part 1 in a series
The Secret to a Great Valentine's Day
Finding a Husband
Believing God For His Best
Another Valentine's Day Alone?
If Only
When Singleness Kicks Into Overdrive
A New Testament Theology of Singleness

Humor
The Bible's Guide on Finding a Wife
Solo Femininity’s Countdown to Singleness Awareness Day
Matchmaking Blues by Josh Carden
Believing in the Dream of Marriage

Beat the Blues
Make this your new desktop background, compliments of A Source of Joy
Do an in-depth study on 1 Corinthians 13
Make Valentines for friends and family
Make Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Paint your toenails
Write a love letter to your future husband
Knit, or if you don't know how, enjoy another handcraft

Some great books to read!
Quest for the High Places: Encouragement for the Waiting Heart
Quest: The Chronicle of My Journey
I Will Follow
Journey of the Heart

Disclaimer: As always, the YLCF cannot endorse everything on the linked websites. We do not agree with every point in every article, however we wanted to share some of the resources that we and others have benefited from.

Cheerful Toenails!

I firmly believe that the color of one’s toenails has a direct affect on the tenor of one’s day. Thus, at Christmastime, I paint my toenails red and green (alternately). In March my toenails will be green for John Deere Day (also known as Saint Patrick’s Day). The summertime finds me breaking out shades of orange, while the fall finds brings chocolate and copper color trends.

But for Valentine’s Day, my toes needed a touch that was extra-special. So in anticipation of my visit to Natalie’s, I packed the pink and red polish in my overnight bag, and added to our to-do list: “paint toenails.”

Today was finally the day in which we accomplished this important task. Carefully, we painted each toe alternately red or pink (the colors were Satin Berry and Cherry Slush, to be exact).

But that was only the first step. We sat back comfortably while our nails dried, and I taught Natalie the relaxing art of knitting. (You should see the cute scarf she is making!)

Then, carefully, ever so carefully, I painted a red heart on my pink big toe, and a pink heart on my red big toe. And despite Natalie’s ticklish feet, I accomplished the same feat on her toes.

Our feet were nearly freezing by the time our toenails had dried. So we quickly put our wool socks and slippers back on.

The snow on the ground outside will prevent us from wearing flip-flops for Valentine’s Day. But the knowledge will remain that underneath our warm socks and sturdy shoes are hidden the most cheery Valentine toes you’ve ever seen.

Good Old-Fashioned Relaxation

Between Natalie’s flu bug and my own sheer enjoyment of the freedom of relaxation I find here, we have been enjoying doing very little and having too much fun doing it!

Last night we finished “Wives and Daughters”, a movie I was heretofore unacquainted with, but found positively delightful.

This morning we opened the windows wide, to let in air that felt like spring.

We finally did some laundry, cleaned up the room a bit (“nesting”, Natalie’s mom calls it), and completed the all-important task of painting our toenails. I also appeased Natalie’s brother Sawyer by making him the cookies he’d been begging for ever since I was here last time. (The promise of said cookies is the only way we can get him to answer the phone when I call!)

Then we got out our yarn and knitting needles and I taught Natalie how to knit. (She catches on very quickly, and has found knitting to be therapeutic. In fact, I personally think she has become addicted. But she claims that she is addicted only to knitting with cute yarn.) I can’t wait to finish the scarf I’m currently working on, in order to begin with the new yarn I found at Natalie’s craft store. It’s such fun to find new brands of yarn from what we have at home! For after all, a girl can never have too many scarves.

We walked toward the stairs to go find out dinner, when we nearly fell over at the sight of… snow! Gone was the warm spring air of this morning. Snowflakes were falling at an alarming rate! Apparently the “late night snow flurries” came sooner than expected. But we didn’t mind the beautiful sight while it lasted.

The rest of the family was gone tonight, so with our assorted dinner of yogurt, enchiladas, sweet potatoes, chicken noodle soup, and stir fried peppers, we settled down on the couch for a fun old flick. We found Fred Astaire’s “You Were Never Lovelier” to be enjoyable, yet it could have been given the award for Scandalous Outfits of the Year for 1941! Though I wouldn’t recommend the movie, I did find a new favorite song: “I’m Old Fashioned” by Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer.

I'm the type that they classify as quaint
I'm old fashioned
I love the moonlight
I love the old fashioned things
The sound of rain
Upon a window pane
The starry song that April sings
This year's fancies
Are passing fancies
But sighing sighs holding hands
These my heart understands
I know I'm old fashioned
But I don't mind it
That's how I want to be
As long as you agree
To stay old fashioned with me

Shopping with my sis!

We had such fun shopping today! The afternoon was spent going from one thrift store to another. We stopped at six stores--one was closed, and we didn't buy anything at another, thus we really didn't spend half as much at the others when it all evened out.

It's a good thing you can check three bags with Southwest, because I'll sure fill my extra suitcase with the 66 books I bought today! Book shopping with Natalie is such fun. She has Sonlight's list nearly memorized, and always spots their books that I don't have. Then I find the old classics (including one from 1853 with lectures on the power and purpose of women!), and the books with quotations about love. And we both spot random favorites, passing them on to the other if we already own them. What fun!

In one thrift shop I fund a treasure trove of greeting cards, cute old-fashioned ones, and new ones too, for only ten cents each. I walked out the door with 71 more cards to send to the special people in my life, and laughed when I saw Hallmark across the way.

After a delicious Mexican dinner, we wandered through Barnes and Noble like it was heaven on earth. We didn't buy any books (why, when we had already found old classics for 99 cents at GoodWill?), but I found a few Valentine cards that needed to be sent to my Valentine.

We came home and showed our purchases to Natalie's mom with much delight. Then she read us Good Dog, Carl (one of my many finds today), so now we can go to sleep.

Tomorrow, we have some more fun stores to explore! The only problem is, my extra suitcase is already full.

P.S. On a technical note (once again), it appears the YLCF site is up and down intermittently tonight. I can get to it more often via ylcf.org than www.ylcf.org, but hopefully all systems will be go soon!

Gretchen is coming!!

This afternoon my best girlfriend and sissy will be stepping off the airplane and smothered in hugs. I can't wait...I have not seen her since July. We are eagerly planning a relaxing visit full of talks, baking, YLCF work, and some extra special girly things.

...and one of my biggest goals is to make sure Gretchen and I get some good old fashioned quality relaxation...

Watch for some joint posts in the next week! I'm off to finish cleaning and piling up all of the magazines, books, movies, pictures, and random things I've been collecting to show/do with her.

What a nice way to bring in the new year...

My brothers and I had more fun than should be legal. While trying to explain the game Set to my grandpa we had tears from laughing so much--our explanations were so confusing and on the 4-6 hours of sleep we were each running on anything is funny.

So now I sit about to read my New Year's letter while savoring a last bite of delectable Pumpkin Pie. Earlier we enjoyed our own traditional eggnog (2 parts eggnog to 1 part ginger ale is the only way to drink it!) and they (the boys) enjoyed my homemade fudge. My parents called; I talked to Gretchen; we banged pots and pans outside and saw nearby fireworks at midnight. All is well.

You are wondering what this New Year's letter is about? Well, last year on December 31 I wrote a letter to my one-year-old self and sealed it to be opened on December 31, 2005. Tomorrow I will write another letter and save it to open a year from now. It is a fun little tradition. I cannot remember anything I wrote or what my purpose was in writing it twelve months ago, so I am very curious to open it. Off I go!

Happy New Year!

Happy Things

• A Christmas package from my man (filled with so many cute presents to open).
• Buying Christmas cards (the mushy ones are the best).
• A Starbucks peppermint mocha (nobody makes a peppermint mocha better than Starbucks).
• Christmas lights up everywhere (even in my bedroom!).
• Getting Christmas cards from friends (even when I don’t recognize the return address with their new last name).
• Sweet Potato French Fries at Burgerville (I need to learn how to make them).
• My big little brother is getting home tonight (I get to cook more now!).
• Mint M&M’s (they should make them all year round, not just at Christmas!).
• I’ll see my man two weeks from tomorrow (and that is the happiest of all).

Continuing our theme of writing

Dad brought home today a little envelope from one of the missionary's 5-year-old girls named Hannah. She wants to be a writer. Hannah drew a picture of herself on the envelope and inside was a story. It said:

one day there was a giraffe
that day she
worea tutu
and she worea
princess/crown
and she got on
a moon it was High
up from home
the end

Isn't that precious?