Ice Cream and Buttons

Ragan has been bothering asking me to make some homemade ice cream for quite a while now. So we finally did last night.

We had a bit of trouble figuring out some parts of the recipe. I'm sure my mom got tired of hearing her phone say, "Call from Jamie McCann. Call from Jamie McCann." every 10 minutes! But we finally got the recipe figured out and found all the pieces of the ice cream maker... : )

The ice cream got done a lot quicker than we expected! But it's done and in the freezer and tastes very good!! Ragan and I were both pretty proud of ourselves for making our first batch of homemade ice cream! I just wish we had taken a video of the whole process and the mess that it left behind.... : )

Tonight will be pumpkin pie!


Now for the buttons I made yesterday! I think these turned out very cute. They are also part of this word art stuff I've been doing lately. Whatcha think? These would look great on the sidebar of a blog! Let me know if you would like one!

I think today I'll work on some Christmas word art....

Enjoy!!

31 Days of Virtue: Day 27

... to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Titus 2:5

"Be kind" sounds like such a simple command. It's something we tell children, 'Be kind;' 'Be nice.' Yet, here is Paul reminding adults, specifically women, to be kind. It seems so hard sometimes to be kind to those we don't necessarily get along with. But we need to just grit our teeth, smile, and bear it. No one has ever died from being kind. 

Being kind shows we care. And yes, we should care for those whose attitudes rub us the wrong way. We need to set an example for our children and teach them how to be kind. We don't have to gossip about someone and find out the latest details; we don't have to start an argument over petty, non-important things; and we don't have to have the last words with our husbands. 

Being kind sometimes means doing the smallest thing for someone else: a smile and warm hello to a coworker; being patient with a waitress who wrote down the wrong order; or letting someone with few items check out before you even though you are in a hurry to get home as well. 

Being kind isn't hard; it just takes effort.

Archive of 31 Days of Virtue:

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31 Days of Virtue: Day 25

... to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Titus 2:5

I believe in this verse pure refers to sexual purity. In other versions a word often used is chaste which means "refraining from sexual intercourse that is regarded as contrary to morality or religion; virtuous." To be virtuous women, we must be pure; we must be chaste; we must refrain from any immoral sexual relations. These would include premarital sex, polygamy or sexual relations outside of your marriage, homosexuality, and many others. These relationships only lead to harmful consequences. They are dangerous roads which we should not even look down, much less walk down. 

To stay pure we need to keep our eyes on the Lord, not at what looks good in front of us. We need to get this idea of having whatever we want, whenever we want out of our minds. And we must be patient. Anything worth having will take time and effort. Remember you are not alone in this struggle against sin. And because it is a struggle, we need to keep God and His will in the forefront of our minds and nothing else. 

"Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things." Colossians 3:2

Archive of 31 Days of Virtue: 

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31 Days of Virtue: Day 20

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Titus 2:3

According to Dictionary.com, reverent means deeply respectful. Respect is esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person. Sometimes it is hard to be respectful. We've already talked a little bit about respecting our husbands here. But maybe we need a refresher. Respect is a very important part of a marriage. If you haven't read the book Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, I highly recommend it. 

As I was doing a little research for this post, I started reading a few posts on the Love and Respect Blog. In one of the posts, is a story of a woman and her husband who attended a Love & Respect video seminar. The woman and her husband neither thought they needed help in their marriage, but wanted to do a little maintenance. The first night they came away with a feeling like "That's great; but we already knew that." However the second night, they learned something new. 

"Dr. Eggerichs began to describe our spiritual relationship to the letter. Essentially, the wife looks to the husband for leadership, but she is fearful andapprehensive and so she asks questions and looks for reassurance. The husband interprets this as trying to take control and wear the pants of the relationship and so backs off or responds negatively to the wife and a cycle begins."

This woman realized that this is what she was doing, unintentionally of course. After she told this to her husband, he also confessed that he was doing exactly as Dr. Eggerichs said the husbands tend to do - back off. 

I began to wonder, "Am I doing the same thing?" Are you? Are we fearful of something that is causing us to ask questions and look for reassurance?

We need to confess these things to our husbands, and let them know what we are feeling. Don't hold it in. Our husbands might be backing off or responding negatively just as Dr. Eggerichs explained. 

Instead of asking questions, let's try to encourage our husbands. Here are a few ideas from Time-Warp Wife:

1. Listen to what he has to say so that you will recognize what's on his heart.
2. Make an effort to be as cheerful as you were when you were engaged to be married.
3. Ignore his faults and focus on his strong points by taking note of them.
4. Compliment him for the way that he looks and the good things that he does like working hard for the family.
5. See him for who he is, not who you want him to be.
6. Be slow to anger. Relay your frustration with love, respect, and a cool head.

Archive of 31 Days of Virtue:

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31 Days of Virtue: Day 19

I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 
2 Timothy 1:5


Although today's verse doesn't speak directly to or about being a virtuous woman, I think it is an important verse that needs to be included in these 31 days of virtue. We see here that Paul recognizes Timothy's mother and grandmother as key role models in his upbringing. His grandmother Lois had sincere faith which was passed on to her daughter Eunice - Timothy's mother - and then it was passed on to Timothy himself. This is where it starts, ladies. With us, with the parents. 


I feel this is true of my mother and grandma. My grandma had a strong and sincere faith which was passed down to my mother. I pray that when I have children and grandchildren, they will be able to say the same of me. 


As parents, we have an important job. God has entrusted these children to us, and we need to raise them up according to His word. I don't understand why people question the wrong actions of their children when the parents never disciplined them in the beginning. The Bible says "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." - Proverbs 13:24. We must discipline our children; we must correct them when they are wrong. Yes, we want them to make their own decisions, but we must first teach them what the right decisions are; and the right decisions are those that are in line with God's word and His will. 


Children will make mistakes. And as they grow older, they may even become rebellious. But if we "train a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not turn from it." (Proverbs 22:6). This is our responsibility. Not only as virtuous women and mothers, but as parents. Together with our husbands, we are to raise our children to live right. 


Archive of 31 Days of Virtue:

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31 Days of Virtue: Day 17

So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. 1 Timothy 5:14.

Although Paul is talking to widows in this verse, I think we could all benefit from his advice to manage our homes. To manage our homes successfully, we need to be neat and organized. Let me be the first to say that I am not perfect at these characteristics. I try hard, but sometimes my house is a wreck! Here are a few things I do to help me manage my home. Maybe some of these will help you as well.

1. I designate certain areas of the house for certain things. I use one of those clips that are meant to clip chip bags close as a way to keep all our bills together. This clip has a magnet on it so I can stick it to the refrigerator. Right now my husband and I do not have many bills. We have the usual utility bills, cell phone bills, insurance bills, and house note. My husband also has an equipment note, one credit card, and an equipment truck note. All of these will fit onto that clip without being very bulky and in the way. I keep them on the refrigerator because that is a place I see them, and I know what needs to be paid when.

I do the same with our receipts. We keep all of our receipts in a basket on the kitchen counter. Although my husband will sometimes take a handful of receipts out of his wallet as he is going out the door and lay them on the kitchen table or bathroom cabinet, I do try to gather them up every once in a while to keep them in the basket. That way when I get ready to go through them for tax and budgeting purposes, I  know exactly where they are (or at least where they are suppose to be...)

2. I wash everything on the weekend. Because I'm usually busy during the week in the evenings after I get off work, I don't have time to wash any clothes or towels during the week. I will wash a load sometimes, but for the most part everything gets washed on Saturday. However, if we are planning on being out of town for a weekend, I will start washing Wednesday or Thursday and finish the next day. That way I don't have a pile of dirty clothes waiting on me when we get back. The dirty clothes that do pile up during the week stay in a hamper in our bathroom, not all over the floor of the bedroom.

3. I do most of my house cleaning on the weekend as well. How I wish I could stay home to take care of our home! But I can't. Since I'm not able to stay home right now, I do my housecleaning on Saturday. I can wake up early around 7 or 7:30 and get pretty much all the cleaning on want to get done by lunchtime.

I get started on washing my clothes and get my dishwasher going. While they are both going, I start picking up the living room. The reason I start here is because I usually have my dirty clothes separated into piles in my bedroom waiting to be washed. In the living room, I pick up any scraps of paper left from any crafts I had been working on during the week. I fold up any blankets and put them away. I file away any papers or bills that have been left out. I would then vacuum the floor, but our vacuum cleaner is broke right now; so if you know of a good one, let me know!

Whenever the washing machine is finished, I'll get to a stopping point to put those clothes in the dryer and put another load into the washing machine. Then I pick up where I left off.

Once the living room is done, I move to the kitchen. If the dishwasher has finished, I'll unload and reload it if I need to do more dishes. I wipe off all the countertops, wipe off the oven and kitchen table. Then I sweep and mop the floor. In my house you would walk from the living room into the kitchen into a small area to with the washing machine and dryer and then into our bedroom. We have two other bedrooms on the other end of the house. So when I mop the kitchen floor, I make sure to start on the side next to the living room. That way I don't have to walk across a wet clean floor to get to the washing machine, dryer, and my bedroom.

Now that I have clothes in the dryer, when they get done, I fold those and put them away right then. I don't throw them on the bed or the couch to do later. I do it right away. Then I put those in the washer into the dryer and do another load!

After the kitchen is the bedroom. By this time, most of the piles of clothes are gone from the floor. So I pick up anything I need to in the bedroom, change the sheets on the bed, wipe off the countertops and the mirror, clean the toilet, and mop the floor.

If I need to, I'll fold another load of clothes/towels, and put more into the washing machine. Then I'm ready to take a shower. After that I sit down to eat lunch, relax, and watch an episode or two of I Love Lucy or Reba!

4. Another thing I do that helps me manage my home is having a home management notebook, or a family management notebook, or a homemaking notebook, or whatever you want to call it! : ) I'm still thinking of  a good name for my notebook. In this notebook I have my mission statement, calendars, Bible studies, prayer lists, menu planner, project planner, blogging ideas, budgeting planner, wish lists, and to do lists. Below are a few of the sheets that I've made for my notebook. I got some of these from Maximize Your Morning Bible Study and AmyBayliss.com then changed them to fit my own needs; other I created myself. You may use any of these that you like or change them to fit your own needs. This notebook does help me. It keeps me on track with dinner plans, what to blog about, what crafts I would like to do and how much they cost, and it helps me budget our money.

I hope these few things will help you manage your homes! If you have any ideas or if something else works better for you, please share! I would love to hear from you!

Archive of 31 Days of Virtue:

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31 Days of Virtue: Day 16

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:33

Excerpt taken from the Love and Respect Blog:

"Perhaps the major problem that keeps so many couples somewhere between the Crazy Cycle and the Energizing Cycle is the fear that, even though they try to practice the Love and Respect Connection, it won’t work.  Or, that they will be the only one in the marriage trying, and their spouse won’t reciprocate.

To these couples, my advice is always the same:  Don’t give up because it doesn’t seem to be working.  Keep showing your spouse unconditional love and unconditional respect.  Look for even the slightest improvements.  A husband doesn’t bring flowers, but he does fix the leaky faucet.  The wife still has a headache more than you like, but she has toned down the negativity. 

Here’s an example of a wife who felt nothing was happening but later was amazed.  She called her ex-husband and apologized because she hadn’t always respected his position in their home.  (She is a Christian, and he is not.)  There was silence, and then he responded, “Thank you.”  That ended the conversation, but several days later he called back at midnight in tears, wondering why she had made her apology.  She explained she had to ask forgiveness for not being what she should have been as a wife.  Again, the conversation ended abruptly.  Not much seemed to be happening.  Another week passed, and again he called at midnight.  He had been thinking of everything he had done, and he was sorry.  He went on about all of his mistakes – “some of the few kind words he has ever said to me.”

In another situation, a wife moved out and bought another home.  I coached the husband on how to behave toward her in more loving ways.  This went on for some time, and he was seeing little progress.  Then one day she said, “Are you wanting me to beg you to ask me to come back home?”

The above are just a few examples of what can happen.  Don’t give up because weeks or months pass with no response.  Don’t interpret delay as defeat.  Don’t assume that what you are doing is unfruitful.  Most often, love or respect is working on your spouse more than you realize.  Something is transpiring in the soul of that person.  Have confidence that God will work."

Archive of 31 Days of Virtue:

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31 Days of Virtue: Day 15

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the LORD. Ephesians 5:22

Submit. I think we all have a problem with this word sometime or another. It may be that we want to be the head of the family. It may be that our husbands are the head of the family, and we have disagreed with them on a subject and don't want to submit to their decision. However, like with yesterday's verse, we need to look at the entire verse. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the LORD.

Submitting to our husbands doesn't mean that we let them walk all over us. It doesn't mean that we let them abuse us in any way. It means we respect them as the head of our families. We need to submit to our husbands just like we submit to the LORD. When we submit to the LORD, we step back and say 'Okay, LORD, I let go of the reigns. I trust You with my life.' The same could be said to our husbands, 'Okay, dear, I let go of having control in this family. God has put you in the position to be the decision maker. I will trust you and respect your decisions.'

I think some of it, if not a lot of it, has to do with this idea we have that we will be giving up our freedom. But that's not true at all! Don't believe the devil's lies! Giving your life to Christ frees your from the burden of trying to work your way into heaven. We can't be good enough to get into heaven. Eternal life with Christ is a gift that we accept. When we submit to our husbands, we aren't losing our freedom; we are gaining a blessing.

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31 Days of Virtue: Day 14

The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.  1 Corinthians 7:4-5

This can definitely be a sensitive subject and one that I've never touched on before, so I won't be spending too much time on this today. But I think it is something we need to look at if we are to continue on this journey of learning about being a virtuous woman.

First, I would like to point out that it is important, with any verse you read, to read the verses around that particular verse. You must know what context in which the author is writing. That is the same with these verses I am using today. You can't take one without the other.

Paul writes that we are not to deprive each other except by mutual consent. We can't deprive each other because we do not hold the power and authority to our own bodies. Our husband have that authority. I think it is important to point out here that it is not only the wife who does not have power and authority of her own body; it is the same with the husband. When we said "I do", God gave that authority over to our husbands and vise versa.

I chose these verses because I think as virtuous women we need to come to terms with that fact. We aren't giving up a freedom; we are trusting our husbands to care for us and protect us in our sexual relationship. Let me say that again: we are trusting our husbands with our bodies. Not our boyfriends; not our neighbors; not the person we just met. Sex is reserved for those who are in a monogamous marriage. We can still say "Not tonight", but only if our husbands agree.

I urge you to not deprive your husband what is rightly his, and don't threaten to deprive him. That will only hurt the relationship.

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31 Days of Virtue: Day 13

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30

‘A woman who fears the LORD...’ What does that really mean? To fear the LORD means to have reverence for Him, to be in awe of Him, and to obey Him. We must fear the LORD before we can ever become a virtuous woman. We must realize that God alone is God. We are not. Our husbands are not. Our pastors are not. They will let us down; we will let ourselves down, but not God. He is faithful and true and righteous and pure. He will be there until the end; others may not. To fear the LORD we must love, honor, respect, and be submissive to Him. We must lay down our life to the LORD and let Him have control.

Proverbs 1:7, 9:10, and 15:33 all say that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10

“The fear of the LORD is what wisdom teaches, and humility come before honor.” Proverbs 15:33

Do you desire to be a capable wife (Proverbs 31:10)? Do you desire to have strength and honor as your clothing (Proverbs 31:25)? Do you desire to have wisdom and loving instruction (Proverbs 31:26)? Do you desire for your children to call you blessed and for your husband to praise you (Proverbs 31:28)?

Fear the LORD. It’s where we should all begin.

This post was taken from my Project 31: Beauty posts.

Archive of 31 Days of Virtue:

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