Author Archives: Shesourceful

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About Shesourceful

I want to empower women to use our God-given intuition and wisdom to creatively steward our most valuable blessings.

The Armor of God

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We are part of a wonderful homeschool co-op called Classical Conversations.  It involves a lot of memorization of a wide variety of subjects and my 4th grader is particularly thriving at it.  (The Timeline Song is a family favorite!)  One of the passages we are memorizing is Ephesians chapter 6, one verse each week.

We just finished the section involving the armor of God and had a fun time creating armor out of cardboard, duct tape, and a silver bowl most recently used to catch our stomach flu offerings…  ={ Continue reading →

BOOK BITES: The Count of Monte Cristo

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“All human wisdom is contained in these two words:  Wait and Hope.”

– Edmund Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo

After our wonderful experience reading Les Miserables, my lovely book club decided to stick with the French and choose The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas as our bonus read for this last summer.  It had been recommended to me by a number of friends over the years, and this seemed like the right time to tackle its 1100+ pages.

For some reason, I never have the energy to write book reviews or summations (so you can read this summary/review here.)  But I love to underline phrases and passages that moved me and have included them below.  This beautiful story drew me in because of its complex characters, strong messages, and beautiful language.  But it has made my “favorites books of all times” list because of its realistic yet creative acknowledgement of God. Continue reading →

This Year’s Christmas Reflection: REST

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A friend asked me (and three other women) to share for 5 minutes at a local Christmas event on what God was teaching us during this Advent season.  The theme for the evening was Isaiah 9:6 and I chose to talk about Jesus as my “Wonderful Counselor.”  We had the pleasure of sharing in between beautiful worship led by Hilary and Kate.  It was a remarkable evening.

This time last year, I was VERY pregnant with my 4th child who was born December 28th.  We named our Christmas baby Karis Joy.  She is a true delight and we have all enjoyed watching her grow.  But God has been teaching me a lot through her, particularly in the area of REST.

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Have Yourself a Healthy Christmas Goodie

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Too. Many. Cookies. http://www.lifelovebeauty.com

A fellow healthy-oriented mama friend emailed me with her Christmas cookie dilemma – her girls have caught the Christmas baking bug this Advent season, but she wants to keep them from going into insulin shock.  So I sifted through my Safari dessert bookmarks and found a Pinterest-worthy amount of great ideas.  And much like Pinterest, I’ve only actually tried some of them, so let me know what you think!

So what makes a treat HEALTHY, you ask?   Continue reading →

Annual Advent-ures

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Christmas 2012 with our Christmas bun in the oven!

Last year we were awaiting the arrival of Karis Joy, so I shamelessly did close to nothing for Advent (except for my Mary Monologue at a couple of holiday events.  I loved putting myself in her shoes while I was pregnant with my own Christmas baby…)

But it dawned on me a week before Thanksgiving that I was without excuse this year.  Since Advent calendars seem to be narrowing their themes to Santa and chocolate, I dared to go on Pinterest to look for a simple, yet significant way to make an Advent countdown for our family. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Proclamations and Probiotics

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I’m feeling nostalgic for the East Coast during these fall days.  Santa Barbara is undeniably beautiful, but we are longing for the seasons.

Enter Thanksgiving.

Crisp air and colorful leaves (or not), Thanksgiving declares Autumn like nothing else.  Obviously the fall foods play a big role, but it’s more than that.  There is something special about the timing of reminding ourselves to be grateful, just as we head into a season of longer nights, barren landscapes, and dormant life.  (Not to mention all the commercial Christmas nonsense…) Continue reading →

RECIPE: Simple Ice Cream (plus more summer desserts!)

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I make simple desserts.  I like to eat complicated desserts when someone else (like my gourmet sister-in-law) makes them.  (Gluten-free tiramisu for my birthday last year.  Yeah, she’s amazing like that.)  But I try to keep it simple at home.  Despite all the unhealthy additives in the store-bought kind, ice cream was once a simple dessert to make.

As mentioned in my Summer Fun list, we got a new-to-us ice cream maker off of Freecycle and are determined to use it regularly this summer!  So far, we’ve made chocolate with mini chocolate chips, lemon (with fresh zest and juice), and then back to chocolate again, because you can’t go wrong with chocolate. And my son has requested pineapple with mint from our yard for our next experiment.  Creative, no?  We watch a lot of cooking shows…

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I know what we’re doing this summer…

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From miss vu Flickr photostream

(Actually, I don’t.  And I won’t know what we’re doing until we’ve done it, ’cause that’s how Miss Flexy Freestyle rolls.  I also don’t watch horror movies, but I love a good pop culture reference for a blog title.)

As I’ve explained before, I like to make lists.  Because I like to brainstorm, rather than come up with manageable, organized lists (like Kat’s at Inspired to Action), I rarely get everything checked off.  So rather than giving me a sense of accomplishment, it serves more of a “get all these great ideas that keep coming up recorded somewhere or else I may never think of them again” purpose.

About a month ago, I started keeping a list of ideas for how to spend our summer well. Continue reading →

Book Bites: Isaiah

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“This is the one I esteem:  He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”  Isaiah 66:2b
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Women’s Bible Study Group 2012-2013

Along with a group of lovely women, I just completed a year’s study on the book of Isaiah.  (For a summary on this interesting book go here.)

Initially I was both intrigued and anxious about digging into such a deep, complex book of Scripture.  And it has proven to be just that and more.  It is an intense proclamation of judgment on the wicked, and yet full of promises of compassion and joy for the humble and righteous.  And there are SO many reminders of God’s heart of justice for the oppressed and our responsibility to care for them. (1:16b-17, 25:4-5, 58:6-12)

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Frugal Beauty

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Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament.  Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I just went to a women’s spring luncheon (Thank you, Amy!) where the theme was “Beauty.” The fun beauty stations they had set up reminded me of all the inexpensive homemade beauty recipes that I’d been bookmarking over the years.  They include many simple ingredients that most of us probably already have.

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