Have You Ever Seen Polish Pottery?

My friends have a business called Dove’s Nest. They have many, many fine gifts and home decor in their Ebay store.

They have many pieces of Polish Pottery. They are so pretty. Lots of blue in them!

Here are just a few of them.

Here is what they say about the Polish Pottery on their website:

“BOLESLAWIEC Zaklady Polish Pottery: Ceramic. Most of this pottery is made from a potters wheel and hand painted. The workmanship that goes into this pottery is remarkable. Each piece is individually cared for by expert craftsman. This pottery is microwave safe, oven safe, and dishwasher safe. It is cadmium and lead free. We buy first quality.”

I know the pottery is authentic because they took a trip to Poland to get it! They went to Poland to visit Shari’s sister and brother-in-law who were missionaries there.

In their store, John and Shari also carry many items that would make perfect Christmas presents.

From their website:

“Welcome to Doves Nest Gifts & Home Accessories. A place where you can find that unique item for a birthday, wedding, anniversary, graduation or simply a special gift. We carry glassware, figurines, plaques, frames, pictures, Polish pottery, and many other items. We can also dress your house in style!”

John and Shari are friends of mine from college. We met at Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and Shari and I became roommates the semester before she and John got married. We have stayed close all these years and have been through a lot together.

They are very dependable and trustworthy, and I know they would treat you right if you ordered anything from them.

They have 100% positive feedback on Ebay.

They are a homeschooling family with 3 children.

I know it would bless them immensely if some of you would shop their store and see if there are some gifts for that hard-to-buy-for person on your Christmas list.

They carry so many different items, you just have to go to their store page on Ebay and look around. I’m sure you will find something that you just have to have!

These are all high quality, fine products that you would be proud to give to anyone.

They also have fine ornaments for the Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations.

So, please, go check out Dove’s Nest on Ebay. And tell them Penney sent you!

A Day in the Life

This is the life!

I’m just sitting here at my laptop soaking up information and knowledge, and I hear out of the corner of my ear, “Oh, I’m all tangled up in these beads. A little help here?!!!”

I look over and this is what I see.

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Then later this evening, Abby and Emma find rubber gloves in the kitchen. They are instantly transformed into scientists doing experiments. I was making popcorn for them, so their first experiment (which they called experience) was to see what happens when you pop popcorn.

They were so surprised to see this.

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We actually did have a little bit of learning happen. Abby learned how to put gloves on. She was preoccupied the whole time with trying to get her gloves to stay on her hands. I was getting impatient with her for paying so much attention to her floppy gloves while I was trying to take cute pictures of them. When I stopped to examine her gloves, I found that she had them on the wrong hands! We put them on the right hands, and then I instructed her how to put one finger in each hole. She was much happier after that.

Then she made an observation about how solid the butter looked before I put it in the microwave to melt it for their popcorn. So I capitalized on that and said that it wouldn’t look solid for long. Then I showed it to her after it melted and asked her what it looked like now, and she said it looked melted. I gave her the term “liquid”, and she said, “yes, it looks like a liquid”. So we talked about how butter is a solid when it is cold and a liquid when it is hot. Not bad for a totally unplanned Science lesson! And it all started with making popcorn and finding rubber gloves!

Christmas Surprises – Good and Bad

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List of Christmas surprises in the last couple of days:

I got some inspiration from friends on Facebook for hanging the snowflakes.

Kelsey did a lot of decorating on her own.
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We got a real Christmas tree for the first time in 10 years.

We put lights outside for Christmas for the first time ever!

Gary lost his job today.

BUT we know that God has a plan, and we are still walking in His blessing, no matter how it looks. So we are asking for prayer for direction and open doors again.

Thank you for praying with us.

Please pray in faith, not in fear, because we know that whatever comes out of fear is not of faith. And we know that God honors faith-filled prayers. We show Him that we trust Him when we pray with expectancy that He will answer us.

I will let you know so you can rejoice with us in the wonders that God is going to perform for us in the coming weeks.

Merry Christmas!

Gary said that all of the decorations have lifted his heart and given him hope. He is doing very well in spite of the news he got today. Praise the Lord!

I Want to Be So Far Gone in You

I heard this on the radio on the way home from taking Patrick to work this morning. Driving in Houston and its environs can be stressful, and it used to be really hard on me. I’ve been taking Patrick to work for 3 months now, and I’m finally becoming a little less tense in the crazy traffic. Today on the way home, I was able to listen to Air 1 and just enjoy the music.

When this song came on, I just started to worship the Lord. I didn’t care who was around or what was going on around me. It was a beautiful experience.

So I wanted to share it with you. When I looked it up based on the words I could remember, I couldn’t believe it was by Thousand Foot Krutch! I didn’t know they did any songs that sounded like this. I lean to the softer side of Christian Rock. And their album covers have looked kind of scary to me. But this song is a wonderful worship song. And I listened to a few more of their songs that I liked, too. You learn something new every day.

Speaking of Patrick…

Patrick is doing so well at his job at Family Dollar that the district managers were talking about how great he is with customers and how he always shows up on time and works really hard, and his managers told him about the conference call and what the higher-ups were saying about him. It was so encouraging and heartwarming to hear about his success and that he is thought of so highly by the management. They know his name, and they are expecting big things from him. His managers were proud of him, too. I was bursting with pride and thanksgiving to God for giving Patrick such favor with God and man. I pray for him every time I drop him off at work. He felt like he had a rough start, but things are going great now. And he is showing good character and a strong work ethic. He went in to apply as soon as he turned 18. He actually went in on his birthday and told them he was ready to get his job! And he got it! When they talk about how great he is doing, I tell him to make sure they know that he was homeschooled. He said that he always does. He is representing homeschoolers very well. And I’m so pleased.

He has been working there for 3 months now. He is saving up for a car of his own. He has goals and plans and is being very responsible with the money he is making. I am very proud of the way he is making the transition into adulthood and taking care of his own affairs.

On the way home from work today (he only worked until 1:00 today) he felt the sun and the breeze and decided he wanted to do something outside, so he and I got stuff for a picnic and swept everyone off who was well enough to go to the park for a picnic. Several of us got sick the week of Thanksgiving. Some are still recovering. Everybody went on the picnic today except for Gary, Katie and Kelsey.

It is Dec. 3, but it was about 80 degrees this afternoon. We had some problems with bees and mosquitoes, but we still had a good time. The highlight for some of the kids was feeding the ducks. They mainly did it to lead the ducks away from our table so we could eat in peace, but they ended up having fun feeding the ducks.

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So in spite of some sickness, we are blessed and increasing and rejoicing in the Lord.

Thanksgiving Highlights 2013

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Look how much Fiona’s hand has grown in 2 years!

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Her fingers have grown an inch longer since we made our Thanksgiving Tablecloth 2 years ago while living in York, PA.

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Garrett and Fiona make hand turkeys.

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Emma and Abby make hand turkeys.

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Some of our Thanksgiving decorations

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Making turkey cookies

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Leaves for our Thanksgiving Tree

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Garrett writing what he’s thankful for

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Our Thanksgiving Tree – with lights!

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What Garrett is thankful for

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Our Thanksgiving Feast!

Thank you, Lois!!!

And Thank You, Kelsey Lois!!!

Kelsey made 4 pies, a pumpkin roll, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, corn, stuffing, rolls, and gravy. If it hadn’t been for Kelsey, we wouldn’t have had a Thanksgiving meal. I did the rest of the food, but the older girls were both sick. We had several sickies that day, but we praised the Lord and enjoyed His abundant provision and had a good day anyway.

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And that was our Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Throughout November we studied the Pilgrims. We made a lighthearted unit study by reading library books about the Pilgrims and Indians and listening to “The Stories of the Pilgrims” by Jim Hodges. I was on the Launch Team for the audio, so I was blessed to have a copy of it for free. We learned a lot about the Pilgrims through the stories. Each chapter gave historical information in story form and followed the lives of the Pilgrim children from Scrooby, England to the landing in the New World and beyond. It was very interesting and informative.

We watched the Charlie Brown special called “This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers”.

We watched “The Mayflower Mouse”.

We watched “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” on Thanksgiving Day.

We made hand turkeys.

We made turkey cookies.

Most of all, we made memories. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!