Hi, How'dy, How are ya?

Welcome to "The Country Schoolmarm"! Get yourself a cup of coffee (I take mine strong with vanilla creamer), grab a seat, and chat a while! Isn't that what country friends do? Now, all we need is a porch...

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Giveaways!



     Whew!  I feel like it has been ages since I have posted!  I guess it kind of has.  School has been busy!  Between hurricanes, snow, report cards, and colds, blogging has kind of been put on the back burner!  I have so enjoyed reading your posts and meeting new blogging friends! The only problem is, I have tons of pictures to share!  I am going to try to post this weekend.  AND, if you see that I have posted, you may want to get a BIG cup of coffee. If you have the time. No pressure or anything.  I have school stories, decorating stories, thrift shopping stories... Yup.  Big cup.  Remember that...

    Well, in doing lots of reading of blogs, I have had fun!  I have enjoyed seeing your Thanksgiving celebrations and Christmas decorations!  I have also found lots of giveaways! Well, really, you find one, and that leads you on a breadcrumb trail to another, and then all of the sudden it is 12 am, and you realize that you have to work the next day, and well, it is all of your faults that I am drinking 2 cups of coffee each morning. Just kidding!  Seriously, such generosity!  It is such a bright spot in our weeks, whether we win or get to see our dear friends win!  Thank you!

     So, you will see the Giveaways that I have found so far on my sidebar.  I am also planning on doing a giveaway when I reach 50 followers... I am close! I will post more about that this weekend! But, without further distractions, here are our dear friends that are offering giveaways.  When I spot more, I will add them!  I am so happy and honored to support each of you all in any way I can!


Brenda, Brenda... Isn't he adorable?  Check out her giveaway.  And, while you are visiting, say a prayer for Brenda.  She is pretty "under-the-weather".

A Primitive Place: Is this not so precious? Oh, and check out her Christmas Decor pictures!  Awesome!!!!!


Preferably Prim: You MUST see this giveaway!  Christine's giveaway items are precious!  And, she is teaching all of us how to make great crafts  with burlap.  The picture is her first tutorial for us to make!


Primitives n Stitchin: Is this tree skirt not beautiful! You also need to check out all of the goodies she has gotten recently!  I think there are more of our friends handicrafts that I need to check out!  Maybe I need to bust out the benadryl.


Harvest Moon Prims: Oh. My.  These are sooooooo cute! Check out the Old Farmhouse Gathering goodies while you are there!



So, in summary, IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!!  Wooohooooo!

Blessings and Hugs!
Heather

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Ahhh! I'ma Giving Her All She's Got Capt'n!

     Eeekkk!  I am a terrible blogger!  I am backlogged and am soooo sorry!  I have so enjoyed being a reader more than a writer lately!  But, I need to write too.  I know.  I have tons of pictures and tidbits to share- like pics from Thanksgiving.  Only problem is, I am in the midst of setting up for Christmas!  So my time for writing about Thanksgiving is devoted to taking Thanksgiving down and putting Christmas up! I also need to post my pin cushions. I know.  I am sorry!  I got my good camera working.  Now, to have time to photograph them! Ugh. Maybe tomorrow!

     The students have been, um, great!  Until the 2 days before Thanksgiving.  I think, if you looked at a satellite image of our school at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, there would have been a cloud of dust seen from the teachers and students fleeing from the school property.  I am not kidding. 

     So, I am almost done my break, and I am showing defiance by being way up past my bedtime- 2:00 am.  Ooops. I was putting stuff up on eBay.  I just finished. Okay, so, before I started writing, I was on another blog that uses one of those "Prove You're Not a Robot" thingies.  Now, you all taught me about the difficulty on the eyeballs with reading those things.  It didn't take long before I realized it too.  But, I do understand why people use them.

     With that being said, since I couldn't read one on a blog, I decided to click on the button that lets you LISTEN to the letters and numbers.  I am soooooo sorry that I did. That is the scariest voice ever.  Now, I am even more awake because I am creeped out!!!! Okay, well, now could someone else be brave and listen to it to and tell me whether or not YOU think it is creepy?  Not now, though!  During the middle of the day sometime.  Ugh.  It was really creepy.  Truly. But, I'd rather be creeped out with a friend who can identify with my creepiness shivers right now.

     I will have to tell you all sometime about my issues with the operator and the "Please Stand By" thing on TV. If you think the robot voice is creepy, you will understand my pain with the other two! I'd tell you now, but I don't want to.  You understand, right? I am about a hair away from sleeping with the lights all on and a blanket over my head.  Okay, well, off to bed, I guess.  I have now lost my second wind and the snoring of my husband and dog are making me extra sleepy!  But I am going to do a flying leap into bed so that nothing under the bed can grab me. Ugh. Good night, dear friends.  Thank you for taking the time to stop by!

Blessings and Hugs!
Heather

Okay, so here is what is new on eBay for me right now...













My Dad and I designed these after candle dryers from the 1800's.  The rest I will be selling with my pincushions.  There are different styles- unfinished, stained, painted, handles and without, and ones with more holes.  Very prim.  The camera washes out the warm color and beautiful grain a bit.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

A Proclamation...




 Psalm 105:1-2
"O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works."



Each year, as do many of you, I try to make Thanksgiving a time of remembrance through the reading of scripture.  Last year, I researched the history behind a day set aside for Thanksgiving. Though many presidents have made declarations, and the actual day changed through time, one thing remains, proclamation or not, we have much to be grateful for as a nation.  I am humbled by how much I take for granted in my own life.  "Every good and perfect gift is from above." James 1:17. Shame on me for my lack of gratitude for things like freedom, protection as a country daily provided by our men and women in service, God's daily grace and protection, food, warmth, health, family, friendship, God's mercy, most of all, by providing Salvation through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross.

This proclamation was written and given during the midst of the Civil War.  President Lincoln recognized that there was much to be grateful for, even in the midst of a heart-wrenching and deadly war.  Last Thanksgiving, in addition to reading verses, we read this proclamation.  Like the pilgrims, even in the middle of strife, trouble, and hardships, there was much to remember and praise God for in His abundant mercies. I hope you will be touched by President Lincoln's words as much as I was...
 


A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. 

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. 

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. 

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.  I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State



Psalm 95:1-6
"O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker."

 
Happy Thanksgiving!
Blessings, Dear Friends!
Heather