#77 New Year's Resolutions Edition

The year of 2008 seemed to go by so quickly in everyday tasks, but seemed to drag on through the trails and tribulations I faced. My unofficial motto became “Life is hard. God is good.” This year is going to be better than last. I'm going to strive even more to be better. To be the big person. To take the high road when everyone else seems to take the low one.

The year of 2009 will be remembered as one of the best years the Lord reigned in my life. I'm going to put my talents to more use and to learn some new domestic arts so I can better be a home-manager when I'm grown.

Every year I write out a list of goals I should like to complete before the next end of the year, and shamefully I still have things on my list from last year that were set aside due to situations or other activities. I suppose they weren’t in God’s plan for my life then.

• o Learn to sew well enough to make aprons, skirts, and bags.
• o Use the fabric I bought in 2007 for planned projects.
• o Dip and make candles
• o Master the art of bread-making
• o Master the art of soap making
• o Learn to embroider and crochet
• o Make a new quilt of quality

I know that for many of the above I can head over to HowToMe and learn something of worth. This week she presents How To Make a Bib from a Hand Towel posted at HowToMe.

Belle at Homesteaderbelle's Blog is putting her sewing skills to use. She offers custom-sewn items and is having a Quick-Change Cloth Pad Give Away!

• o Master the art of bread-making
• o Master the art of soap making
• o Grow a big garden and can enough food to feed us over winter

Ah, bread-making. Why do I have such trouble with it? Not sure, but with more practice and tips like Sourdough Basics Part 1 by Susan at Homemade Livin' I might get it sometime soon. You can enter to win a DVD on The Art Of Bread-Making if you're having trouble too.

Rachel has already put the recipes from above mentioned DVD to use. She made delicious Pizza Dough Or Bread Stick last week for lunch! Delish!

Kathi at Homestead Treasures shares some of her beautiful homemade Goat Milk Soaps that are just lovely - I bet they smell excellent too!

"Let Them Eat Pie!" says Miss Hannah as she shares some of her recipes on pies and crusts. Sounds tasty!

Shannon shares some recipes for cookies and fudge in Ornaments, Carols, and Other Traditions posted at Song of My Heart. Sounds yummy to me!

• o Finally complete my Hope Chest. I started building this a year ago and due to time constraints and supplies I wasn’t able to finish it in a timely manner. Winter always stinks too because we have no heated outbuildings I can use.
• o Learn Hebrew and Spanish fluently
• o Learn to play the piano, guitar, and clarinet
• o Rise earlier
• o Exercise daily
• o Grow a big garden and can enough food to feed us over winter

I'd like to think I'm a scheduled person, but a schedule or "get up" "go-bed" isn't exactly the right thing for everyday life. Ruth McLean at But First, We Have Coffee shares the Motivated Moms Scheduler.

Speaking of mothers, what kind of legacy did your mother leave you? Come share your story and enter to win a copy of an audio-workshop on Motherhood: Building A Legacy.

Jacque at Walking Therein shares about a legacy starting and going with her children in What A Beautiful Sight! "I woke up to a beautiful sight of my children learning to knit and crochet with Grandma this morning."

• o Complete my schoolwork, especially my algebra and mathematics.
• o Generate enough business to continue support my single-mom-friends and children.
• o Change the oil on the vehicles
• o Grow a big garden and can enough food to feed us over winter
• o Fence in our property for the goats
• o Own a dachshund
• o Go horse-riding
• o Learn to hunt

Grandma Rosie posts new things everyday and always has something that can help you in your home-management. She posted about Seasoning Cast Iron which I found very good. Nothing like old faithful..."Seasoned Cast Iron can be considered the "grandfather" to today's "nonstick" cookware. Cast Iron Cookware must be seasoned properly and it will last a life time."

Blogs can be a wonderful way to learn many different arts and skills. I find that blogging as been quite beneficial to my life in every aspect, and I plan on using both blogs and websites to help me this year and I complete my resolutions, what about you?!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Miss Jocelyn, founder and publisher of the Feelin’ Feminine site, is a senior homeschool student with a passion for writing truth. She blogs from her heart at A Pondering Heart, designs blogs at A Pondering Heart Boutique, and is also the Sr. Exec. Marketing-Manager for GGMagazine.

THC: The VERY Late Addition!

Oh dear, where has the time gone? My host for LAST week never responded to doing the carnival and with thanksgiving I was unable to focus on finding a new one! My apologies. Here is last week's AND this week's. Please enjoy the links. Sorry, no fancy wording or photos. LOL I was looking through the links, and there are definitely some you will want to check out.

Cory presents Frequent Small Meal Diet posted at Eating Healthy, saying, "Did you know that eating many small meals every day is actually healthier than the traditional 2-3 large meals?"

Belle presents Homemade Laudry Soap: How to make it (tutorial) posted at Homesteaderbelle's Blog, saying, "This post tells and teaches how to make homemade laundry soap. It make five-gallons of soap!"

Condo Blues presents Three Easy, Natural, and Free Fall Centerpieces posted at Condo Blues.

Sahara Reins presents Decorating for Fall and Feeding the WildBirds posted at Fowl Visions.

MoneyNing presents Dependent Day Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) posted at Money Ning, saying, "FSA are one of the few ways of helping us save money on child care that can get very expensive! Remember to take advantage of it for the year of 2009!"

Lauren Rose presents Choosing the Best Plants for your Garden posted at Own Home Style .com, saying, "How to choose the best plants for your garden"

Kathi presents Pie Crust posted at Oak Hill Homestead, saying, "The easy way to make pie crust"

Abi presents lighter side - Broccoli - Green Bean Casserole posted at lighter side, saying, "New twist on your traditional Green Been Casserole"

HappyCampers presents Breakfast For A Crowd: Ham & Eggs On Croissant posted at Reese's View Of The World.

Raymond presents Save Money On Heating Costs - Sacrificing A Bit Of Comfort For Frugality posted at Money Blue Book.

Stephanie presents Winter Comes Too Soon posted at Stop the Ride!.

Stephanie presents Cooking Rabbit posted at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.

Patti presents Upcycled sweater tutorial: posted at Audrey Blissful, saying, "I just love using things I already have around my house to make clothes for my little girl. I thought other homesteaders might want to give it a try."

Amanda Dixon presents Homeschool Memoirs: Award The CATEGORIES! posted at The Daily Planet, saying, "If I could award my family members any awards, these would be the ones I give them!"

Danielle Hull presents Dressing for Spinach Salad & Choc Chip Toffee Bars posted at Teaching, Learning and Encouraging.

Abi presents Kitchen towel hanging posted at lighter side.

Her presents How To Sew a Simple Purse, Tote or Bag posted at HowToMe.

Belle presents Hanging clothes in the House posted at Homesteaderbelle's Blog.

Tomato Lady presents Hand Hemstitched Linen Handkerchiefs posted at Little House in the Suburbs.

Alex presents Free Printable Calendar Selection posted at Home Life Weekly, saying "I have put together a selection of easy to make free printable calendar for you to use help you get organized and plan ahead for the year of 2009."

"I want chickens. There, I said it. I’ve been tossing the idea around in my head for a while but hadn’t put it out there in words yet. For a lot of people it sounds a little … wacky. Chickens, as pets. Crazy. ".... Summer presents The Chicken Story posted at Wired For Noise.

Lady Rachel presents Apple Trees & Big Red Barns posted at Rachel's Reasoning -, sharing photos of "Just some photos of our barn and our crab apple tree in the first snow of the year here in Indiana!"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the homesteading carnival thc using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Also, I am putting together the hosting schedule for the next few months, please let me know if you want to host. As you can see you do the carnival as fancy or plain as you wish. Please EMAIL if you're interested in.

Amanda at the Daily Planet will be hosting next week!

Blessings!

Final Call!

You only have a little while to get your submission in for this week's carnival. I think I will continue the carnival for a little while longer as we seem to be getting more submissions as of late, but I'm still not sure if that means I will continue in definitely. It will help let more know about this carnival if you have the icon on your site and use social networks (like stumbleupon, twitter, etc)!

Here are some links that I wanted to share with you from this week. I hope you will enjoy them!

Home-Educator Appreciation Day via GGMagazine
Respecting Younger Brothers by 17yo via Feelin' Feminine
Join Our Social Groups via Feelin' Feminine
Update on the HSBAwards Almost there… via the HSBA Post
I Remember Being A New Homeschool Mom via Walking Therein

Blessings!

The Annual Blog Awards....

I supposed you’ve all heard, well at least some, that the annual Homeschool Blog Awards are now accepting nominations? I heard I was already nominated for my personal site and I’m honoured, but I can’t go into the polls because I write on the site. I had to pick between helping out the team on HSBA or being in the awards, and I chose to stay on to help. You can help me though by considering nominating these choices. Some of them you may have heard of, but some you may not so have a look and consider nominating them with me. They each need three separate nominations to be entered to go to the actually voting.

1. Best Homeschool Mom Blog - http://www.butfirstwehavecoffee.com
2. Best Homeschool Dad Blog - http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com
3. Best Blog Design - http://dixonhomestead.com/hannah
4. Best Artistic Content Blog - http://homeschoolblogger.com/thedrawingblog
5. Best Crafts, Plans & Projects Blog - http://www.simplyvintagegirl.com
6. Best Family or Group Blog - http://www.growingingraceonline.com
7. Best Encourager - http://www.cindysdesktop.com
8. ‘Live-What-You-Believe’ Homeschool Blog - http://homeschoolblogger.com/drewsfamilytx
9. Best Unschooling or Eclectic Homeschooling Blog - http://homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticeducation
10. Best Geographical Blog - *Mexico http://thecoultfamily.blogspot.com
11. Best Current Events, Opinions or Politics Blog - http://homeschoolbuzz.com/blogwatch.html
12. Best Homemaking or Recipes Blog - http://homesteadblogger.com/texasrose
13. Best Teen Girl Blog - http://dixonhomestead.com/rachel
14. Teen Guy Blog - http://joe.ajwstudios.com
15. Teen Group Blog - http://feelinfeminine.com
16. Funniest Homeschool Blog- http://homeschoolblogger.com/kellieann
17. Best Cyber-Buddy Blogger - http://lightingthedarkenedworld.blogspot.com
18. Best Curriculum or Business Blog - http://www.homeschoolboutique.com
19. Best Variety - http://makeitfromscratch.blogspot.com
20. Best Thrifty Homeschooler - http://homesteadblogger.com/simplefolk
21. Best SUPER-HOMESCHOOLER - http://ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com
22. Best Nitty-Gritty Homeschool Blog - http://heartofwisdom.com/blog
23. Best NEW Homeschool Blog - http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/neveradullmoment
24. *new!* Best Homeschooling Methods Blog - http://higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com

You can nominate blogs by going here: 2008 HOMESCHOOL BLOG AWARDS NOMINATIONS:

Don't forget to send in your submission for the carnival this week... you have until Sunday night at 9!

Blessings!

Reminder!

I just wanted to remind you all to send in your submissions before tomorrow night at 9pm EST. I also wanted to let you know I am hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling on Monday if you care to submit anything to that.

I have really wanted to keep this blog more up to date with different homesteading posts and definitely recipes because everyone can use those! lol But I not only manage this blog but several others. I will just give you a list of the most recent posts I've done on various blogs around the "world".

Decoding The P31W Graphics via A Pondering Heart
Our Great God via A Pondering Heart
Homeschool Memoirs: #5 My Favourite Things - Er - Sites! via The Homeschool Post
Making The Home: KP #2 via GGMagazine
Mother's Memo via GGMagazine
Senior - Miss Nastya via Homeschool Seniors
Miss Serenity via Feelin' Feminine
US Constitution Week Projects via States Exploration

As you can see I do a lot with writing and managing blogs on a regular basis (in one week!). I am also putting the September GGM into PDF magazine version, which has already taken two days to do half, and I am getting all my articles done for the next issue. Let's not forget school and housework... oh and goats - Wilbur is still in the house, btw, but I think he is getting stronger (vocally too! ;-/).

Yes, dolphin lady I'm really only 17. LOL!

There are two things you can all do to make this easier for everyone.... submit an article each week and sign up for the feedburner! I am ready to ditch the manual updates. :P

I hope you have a lovely day. I must leave you now and go fix Wilbur's box.

Blessings!