Living as a Victorious Christian Woman

One of my favorite places to explore is a cemetery. And it's not just because I'm married to a funeral director. The older I get and the more I love history, the more interesting graveyards become. They go from just a yard full of stones to the last stories of a person's life. I was in a local cemetery this week looking for this particular grave. We often share the military history of our county when visitors come to our office, which includes the oldest Civil War soldier and three Medal of Honor winners. Then we learned about this tiny cemetery with a man who had served in the Revolutionary War. Now I want to learn his story and how he found his way to Iowa from North Carolina. One of the other fascinating stones had this poem on it, one that I learned was popular all over the country at this point in time: Remember friends as you pass by As you are now so once was I As I am now so you shall be Prepare for death and follow me. A handshake on a stone can mean several things...

The foundation of any card, scrapbook page, or papercraft of any kind is its background. The possibilities are literally endless, but combining colors, patterns, and techniques will create a one-of-a-kind finished project that you'll be proud to show off. I decided that since my birthday is only 12 days away, I should probably try to finish my birthday scrapbook from last year. That means starting with some backgrounds of my own, and they don't have to be terribly complex. Sometimes a torn-paper border is all you need, especially if the images you're using are full of colors and patterns themselves. Large, bold patterns pair perfectly with more intricate photos. For these pages, all I did was trim the decorator paper down just smaller than the book so there would be a brown border around the page Layering papers also creates a visually attractive background. I'm not a big fan of straight lines layered in top of straight lines and in the same way - I'm just picky tha...

I have wrapped many things into crescent rings over the years - chocolate, sliced meat, cheese, shredded chicken, fruit, the list goes on and on. All you really need are two cans of crescent roll dough and some creativity. My imagination led me to some of our Butcher Box ground beef and that tempting package of bacon that’s been hanging out at our house. I added a little cheese and the pickles that are cut long and flat for sandwiches and the next thing I knew, there was a bacon cheeseburger crescent ring coming out of the oven.  It doesn’t get much better than that! Ingredients: 2 cans crescent roll dough 1lb ground beef 6oz crumbled bacon bits 6 slices of your favorite cheese BBQ sauce Sliced pickles 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 2. Brown ground beef in an iron skillet using your favorite seasonings. 3. On a large baking stone, arrange the crescent roll wedges into a large circle using an upside-down bowl in the middle. 4. Layer ground beef, BBQ sauce, bacon bits, pickles, and ...

Last week I was juggling so many work responsibilities that I just wanted to go home. Summer is a busy time in the tourism world to begin with, but there are also several special projects on my plate as well. I kept thinking that if I could just go home, everything would be ok. Once I got home, it didn't let up. There are so many projects that need to be done, have to get done, and that I'd like to get done. If I could just go to bed and crash, everything would be ok. But once I got to bed, night after night, I couldn't shut my mind off. All those work things and home things flew back and forth through my brain until I was literally exhausted. There was nowhere I could go to find peace and quiet, and I didn't have the strength to do it all anyway. Then we learned on Saturday that Callie has a herniated disc in her back, which is pressing on her spine and blocking the nerves to her back legs. At this moment, she has no feeling from the middle of her back to her back toes...

Most pet owners will tell you that summer, especially July, is a terrible time for nervous dogs. Between dramatic thunderstorms and multiple nights of fireworks, I can be pretty nervous, too. But imagine how much more intense it must be for animals with better hearing than mine. In our house, it's the two older dogs who have loud noise anxiety, not the two younger ones. The five-year-old twins couldn't care less, but Parker and Molly have anxiety to the max. They handle it differently, though. Molly barks back at the rain and thunder, with every single clap, running back and forth between the windows to give them what for. Parker is the exact opposite - he retreats and shakes, soothed only by cuddles and softly spoken words. If your dogs are struggling this summer, too, here are a few things we do to diffuse the situation. Give them a safe place, then let them go there on their own. It would be easy to force Molly to lie down (but not really because she's a 120-pound Great ...