Do you ever travel outside the region and people inquire where you are from? I have a great amount of pride when I tell everyone I am from Arkansas. I try to explain how beautiful of a state it is and how great the people are, but you really just have to see it to believe it. Arkansas is one of those states that surprises people. It is so beautiful in all four seasons.
Have you noticed lately how many people have Arkansas pride? We have always had Hog pride, but now it is just as trendy to put the great state of Arkansas on a shirt with a big heart. I have even found myself owning two necklaces with the state being center attention.
We have diamonds, technology, industry, enterprise, and entrepreneur spirit like no other. Arkansas has rivers, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, caves, and a ton of wildlife. Also, we have state parks and world-renowned museums that are magical.
I remember when I was little, I would tell my dad how much I loved the beach, and how I thought we should just live there. My dad knew I loved the beach, but he always responded that I would miss those hills and mountains in Arkansas. Now I know what he means each time I come home from a trip, there really is no place like home in Arkansas.
What is your favorite thing about Arkansas?
P.S. I love Arkansas-based companies, which is why I am hosting a Petit Jean Meats (of Morrilton, AR) Peppered Ham giveaway on my blog. Please check it out and enter the giveaway!
Brittany Little, Miss November 2013
So many times, we sit around and think of the things we wish we had or were in life. We wish we had the perfect job, a big house, a nice new car, perfect children, or even were a bit prettier.
It is amazing how the simple act of stating that you are thankful for something can change your outlook and even your day. You begin to see things differently. You begin to act differently. You begin to be happier each day. You see how many more things are blessings to you.
Instead of being bogged down at work, maybe you are thankful that you have such a great job and get to learn so many new things each day. You are thankful for that car you have that gets you to that job each day. You are thankful for that house that might be small, but full of a lot of love.
What if God only gave you tomorrow what you gave him thanks for today? What would you end up with?
I urge you to sit down and write a list of twenty things you are thankful for. It won’t take long, I promise! You could even blog about it and share with us your post in the comments.
Good morning, Arkansas! The weather people are telling me that, along with a little rain, that cool fall weather is finally supposed to start moving in today.
I don’t know about you but when the weather starts to cool I start thinking about chili and cornbread, pumpkin pie and hot apple cider. All those delicious “fall foods”!
I also start to think about all the beautiful colors of fall and I can’t wait to purchase pumpkins and gourds and start decorating up my house.
AND, I love fall fashion. I love long sleeves, scarves, long flowing skirts and cute boots.
So, we have a little fall challenge for you! We are going to do a FALL FAVORITES Roundup!
Here is how it works:
1. Choose a current or previous post on your blog from one (or all) of the following categories:
Fall Recipes
Fall Fashion
Fall Decorating and DIY
2. Email me at julie@arkansaswomenbloggers.com using the following format:
Subject: Category from above
Body of Email:
Title of Blog Post
Link to Blog Post
Attachments: ONE photo from your post (photo must be original!)
Of course we can’t have a blogger challenge without a few rules!
You may submit to all three categories.
Only ONE submission per category. (Multiple submissions will be discarded.)
You MUST be a registered member of ARWB. (You can register here.)
You must get you links to me no later than October 19th.
You must include one photo of your finished product.
Once I have collected all of the links, I will put together a special post with everyones links! I hope this will be a great way for you to share something from your blog or even inspire you to create something new and post about it!
You never know just how much of a responsibility children are until you have them. They are one of the most precious things in this life, and yet, they are also one of the scariest. Before you have any children, you are free to do mostly what you want. If you want to go to Wal-mart to buy the latest Twilight movie that is coming out at midnight, you can. It may be detrimental to your sleep and your spouse might not be very happy, but the point is that you can. When children come into the picture, this is no longer true. For the most part, you don’t let the kids out of your sight, much less run off to Wal-mart at midnight.
When I had my oldest, Susan, I started realizing just how big of a deal it is to raise your children well. After the initial shock of no sleep ever and buying more diapers than I could count, it started dawning on me that I was going to be her first teacher in life. Everything I did she was going to notice. Susan was going to look to me to know what was right and what was wrong. Whatever I did, she was probably going to do too. Small children are like little parrots. They mimic a lot. Naturally, this type of realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. It is a scary thought for many of us after we start thinking about our pasts. So the teaching began. You teach them to pick their toys up, to use the potty, to speak so you can actually understand their gibberish. But one of the most important things you can teach them is to be kind.
I waited tables at a pizza place for several years, and I saw so many people who were having a bad day, or who were just grumpy. I generally don’t let grumpy people bother me. I remind myself that these people might need a little smile, a little cheer. Maybe they just needed a little kindness. And after all of those years doing my best to be kind to people, even though sometimes I was feeling rather mean, it has somehow rubbed off on Susan. She is very kind to everyone around her, and she is very friendly. We were at Wal-mart a few days ago and went through the side door instead of the automatic one. She saw that there was a lady coming and wanted to hold the door open for her, although she was still several feet away. In fact, she ended up holding the door for four or five people. And all I heard were the comments of how nice she was and how you just didn’t see that anymore. It’s a shame too. It’s a very important lesson we could all learn from.
I have a small sign in my kitchen that says “Kindness Matters”. And it really does. It may be such a small thing, but it can make such a big difference.
I live in Arkadelphia, Arkansas with my two wonderful daughters and my loving husband. I love to write and took up blogging this year. It has become my new passion.
From the time I was going into seventh grade until the summer after I finished high school, I went to the same church camp. The camp had different locations around the country. With my youth group, I attended the one in Carlinville, Illinois; in Talladega, Alabama; and in Panama City Beach, Florida. The locations were different, but each year we knew what to expect: the same crazy, spontaneous college-age staff; the same hilarious, talented, juggling emcee; the same anointed and inspiring worship team; and the same fiery, dynamic, cross-shaved-in-his-head minister.
“Wild Week,” as the camp was called, was one of the most defining parts of my teenage years. I think back on those weeks at camp and I have enough memories to fill a book, not a blog post.
Like the crazy, out-of-control water fight we had outside the dorms. The best part of that one was that all our youth leaders were involved, and my dad (who was an adult leader) still tells the story of getting doused by a full trash can by two prank-loving adult women.
Or, the time me and my girlfriends decided to join other youth groups around the cafeteria, each playing their own game of “Pass the Peach.” Except “Pass the Peach” really wasn’t a game at all but an attempt to do the most disgusting, germ-infested thing you’d ever done as a Christian teenage girl. It was where you passed a juicy, canned peach slice from your mouth, directly to your friend’s, who passed it to her friend’s, and so on and so on. We thought we were the biggest dare-devils on Earth, but thinking about it now just makes me gag.
Or, when our circle of friends would pound our fists on the table shouting “WE ARE TABLE ONE, TABLE ONE, TABLE ONE. WE ARE TABLE ONE, WHERE IS TABLE TWO?” And wait for another group across the cafeteria to pound out the next verse.
As good as those memories are and as much as they make me smile, they’re just shadows compared to the real limelight of camp: the church services. It’s amazing how nearly 1,000 high school kids, amped up on Red Bull and classic “youth group adrenaline,” can become as serious and focused as the most mature adult crowd, given the right reason. And these services were it.
The last night of camp always included a communion service, with a more reflective and hushed tone than the rest. As a young teenage girl, I would walk into those services, silent along with hundreds of my peers, and often be moved to tears by the presence of God. The worship team would be playing. A large wooden cross might be displayed at the front. And the prayers lifted up by hundreds of “Wild Week” staffers could be felt impacting us each as we entered.
I, along with so many others, would leave those services changed. I was never a “bad” girl. I didn’t need a dramatic behavior change. What I needed – what I still need today – was for my heart to be drawn near to the Father’s. And on those nights, it was, in a mysterious, indescribable way.
When I think back on my years at camp, I’m thankful God chose to make them part of my faith story. It’s interesting because, as an adult, I now can see imperfections in what I thought – at the time – was the most perfect place on Earth. But what’s clear is that camp was exactly what I needed at that time in my life. It kept me on the “straight and narrow.” It enriched my life during years when most everything else depleted. And in so many ways, it made me who I am today.
Kelcie Huffstickler is a small town mama with a heart for the world. She lives in the same small town where she was born and raised, now with her hubby
and two little girls. They enjoy living blocks away from family members, feeling safe if they forget to lock their doors, and visiting the occasional Friday night catfish buffet. She hopes to instill in her girls a sense of pride about their southern, small town upbringing, while at the same time giving them a Biblical view of the world. To read more about her small town, faith-filled life, visit her blog at thisbeautifulinheritance.com or follow her on Twitter.
If your family is like mine, you have stuff stored all over the place. We are just a family of 2 plus a dog, but our closets are overflowing! We have stuff stashed in the attic, garage, and barn. We haven’t needed to expand to a storage unit (yet!) but I know when kids come along, we will need to.
Well, I don’t put much thought to just throwing stuff into storage. However, I work as a moving specialist for U-Pack, and I’ve learned as our customers store their items, that storing stuff during summer is tricky. If you have stuff in storage, I want to help you keep your stuff safe during this hot Arkansas summer quickly approaching. Summer brings heat and humidity which can wreak havoc on your stuff, so before the heat wave hits, take some time to fool-proof your storage areas.
For starters, humidity can really damage papers. So if you want to store important documents, just don’t. I have heard horror stories of people who stored passports only for the pages to somehow fuse together from the heat and humidity. You don’t want that to happen, so keep that stuff in the house. If you need to store paperwork (maybe old taxes or something), get an airtight box which will help prevent mildew. Then cover the box with a cloth to help keep moisture and dust at bay.
If you have clothing items or quilts, make sure they are clean and extremely dry before storing them. The best way to store fabric is with cotton or muslin in between items. You can buy cheap cotton sheets, spread them out, and lay items all over. Then roll it all up, which will put cotton in-between the clothing. If it is an heirloom quilt or fabric you don’t want to fade, put acid-free tissue between each layer as you fold. Plastic bags are not ideal for storing cloth, as they prevent air movement and lead to mildew. Instead, put clothes in a cardboard box and poke some holes for air flow. Put the boxes on rust-free metal shelves. If you put them on wood, place acid-free tissue between the wood and the box so chemicals don’t transfer.
If you are storing any books or CDs/DVDs, be sure you pack them into boxes with the labels facing up so you can find what you want later. If you are storing books, place a piece of cardboard between the books to keep the fronts from sticking to each other (which can happen when the covers get hot in summertime). Don’t wrap books in newspaper, as the ink can transfer. For CDs/DVDs and other forms of media, airtight containers are best, but honestly, if your storage area gets super hot (like in the sunshine during 115 degree summer), it may not be the ideal place for these things. The heat can warp and damage these delicate items. If you have to store them, keep them away from windows where the sunshine can heat them up even more.
Photographs should be separated with acid-free paper and placed into airtight containers. If you have photo albums, I would also place paper in between the pages. A few weeks back, my dad went to get a photo album from years ago and the pages were stuck together. A little prep work placing some paper in between the pages would keep these albums in prime shape!
Make sure any items with liquid (gas cans, sprayers, vehicles) are not leaking. If you are not using them, you could easily drain all the fluids to be safe. Nothing is worse than having a leak in your storage area. Nothing ruins stuff faster than unwanted liquid.
If bugs are a problem in your storage area, place sticky traps along the doorway or along walls where they are coming in. Cedar balls can also help keep critters at bay.
I know this all seems like a lot of work, and who has time to do all this prep work? Well, if it’s important enough to keep, it’s important enough to store properly! So take a couple hours this weekend and prep all your stored items so that when the temps rise, your stuff stays safe in storage. You’ll thank me later!
Brittney is a moving specialist by day and Zumba instructor by night. As a salsa connoisseur you will often find her trying new Mexican joints. She loves the Razorbacks, her doggy-son, and meeting new people. Stop by and say hi over at Razorback Britt or on Twitter.
This month’s theme is Women Who Inspire Us. As I sat down to write this, I thought, wow, this will be easy, and then as I stare at the blank page, I wonder how I could ever convey the love, admiration, and thankfulness for the women God has put in my path to teach me, guide me, and love me unconditionally.
So, I will just give you a list and why, then I want to hear about the women that have inspired you.
FOUNDATION
My mother: She molded me, sacrificed for me and is always there for me. She even kept a secret from me for 20 years that I found out recently which answered a lot of questions. It is the reason I am who I am today, the woman who God created me to be. Thankful.
FAITH
Lydia: When I moved to a new state park with a two-year-old and pregnant with our second, I received a call from Lydia. She had seen my husband in the paper announcing his new job and that we had a little boy. Her husband was a preacher at a local church and she said she just wanted to call and welcome us to town. We talked for about an hour about our lives. Before we hung up, Lydia said something to me that I can still hear in my head today. She said, “we would love for you guys to come visit the church, but even if you don’t, I would love to be your friend.”
I was a bit skeptical, yet excited. I am happy to say that she is exactly who her words and actions say she is. She does not live in a “Christian Bubble”, she truly lives her life trying to love others, all people, as Jesus does.
GUIDANCE
Penny is an exceptional wife and mother, she homeschooled her three children and they are all exceptional human beings that love the Lord. I knew nothing about homeschooling, not that it even existed before Penny. Her insights guided me through some very turbulent waters. She provided me with child-rearing skills that have worked and not only am I a better mom because of her but my boys are well-adjusted, happy, loving children that are a pleasure to be around.
HOPE
Laura Hyche was my high school English teacher. She was the kind of teacher that inspired you to read a classic that you had no desire to read. She encouraged me to be on the newspaper staff and gave me the confidence to always try, even when I thought I was not good enough. Thank you Hyche, I am enough and I know that now, thank you for putting me on that path.
LOVE
We met Johnnie (aka Nana) and her husband when we lived on a mountain park and we both worked for an international development non-profit. She became my ” Arkansas mom” and our boys’ Nana. Her gentle, kind spirit permeates all things she does.
COMMUNITY
Yes, my Arkansas Women Bloggers gals. Four years ago, as I sat in rural Arkansas in a bit of a “desert”, I formed this little gathering place, a non-judgmental, encouraging place with the desire to help us be better women, wives, moms, friends, and of course, bloggers. I could not have imagined the beautiful souls that would become some of my dearest in real life friends from this online world. If you have not stepped out of your comfort zone to be a part of this community, I urge you to try, you will be rewarded with the most honest, pure kind of friendships with some pretty cool ladies and some awesome bloggity goodness to boot!
Do you have women who have inspired you? Tell me about them! The Park Wife
by Julie Kohl – ARWB Content Cultivator & Calendar Girl
May is a special month for women, especially mothers. In May, we celebrate Mother’s Day and here at Arkansas Women Bloggers we are celebrating the Women Who Inspire Us and the Power of Women’s Voices. Over the next few weeks we will hear from several amazing women that live right here in Arkansas. They will make us laugh and make us cry and will inspire and empower us with their voices.
Having recently experienced one of the most tragic events of my own life, I hope you will not mind that I (Julie) have decided to open this months theme with my own voice. I do not claim to be inspiring or powerful but I hope you will find something of merit in my story.
After many years of trying to conceive, my husband and I lost our first child to miscarriage on March 18th. The days and weeks that followed were tough (still are) and went by in a blur. My body had fought being pregnant but fought being “un-pregnant” even more.
Surgery, multiple rounds of ‘labor inducing’ drugs and weeks of bleeding and my body would not release the pregnancy tissue. In fact, if I were to take a pregnancy test today (45 days later) it would still be positive. How’s that for a slap in the face?
If you have never experienced a miscarriage, I pray you never do. If you have, you know and can sympathize with the fact that it is one of the most confusing, disheartening, and tragic things you will ever experience.
I have spent the last month and a half searching for God, searching for closure, searching for a way to feel right in my own skin again. There’s a feeling of loss but I have nothing to hold onto. No photo, no lock of hair, no tiny clothes that hold my babies scent. All I have is a feeling of emptiness and fullness all at the same time. It’s a feeling I can’t explain and don’t understand. There are so many questions that may never have answers.
So what do you do in a time of tragedy and loss? I write and I paint.
Here is my story in words and in art.
Am I a mother? Written by Julie Kohl Painting by Julie Kohl
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead
From the very first time I visited the Arkansas Women Bloggers site in 2010, I knew there was something special about this little community, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what made it stand out specifically. Yes, it was a pretty and well laid-out site (back then on Blogger!). Yes, it had some nice visuals and content that I enjoyed. Yes, the word on the street about the gals behind the site was that when they held a meet-up, it exuded warmth and openness. However, you could say all of those things about dozens of other blogger communities all over the U.S.
So, as I’ve often shared, in typical Beth-fashion I sent them a note with a harebrained idea for a blog conference – something low key and a little bit different from all the big conferences. Back then, Fawn of Instead of the Dishes was part of the leadership team, and she is still an ex officio member despite deserting Arkansas for Missouri. She drew the short straw and got stuck picking up the phone to call me, and the rest is history. Now, the third annual AWBU (Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged) conference is upon us, and it has developed a delightful cult-like following. (You’ve registered, right? The early bird registration rate ends in 2 days!!)
The point of all that is this: the women of Arkansas Women Bloggers are very different, and that same vibe is spreading across the mid-south as our missionaries spread and take the goodness to other states where it continues to grow (case in point: Oklahoma Women Bloggers, oh and Kansas, Texas, and soon Alabama and Mississippi). I think that all boils down to a clear mission, unwavering focus on the path chosen and doing the right thing, knowing that it always pays off. I think there is another common trait in the really good bloggers:
A certain entrepreneurial spirit, a story they feel obligated from their bones to share, a knack for making deep
and sincere connections with others and a little bit of scrappiness.
As it so happens, the qualities above (mission, focus, doing the right thing) all make up one of our very own Arkansas bloggers, Jenny Marrs. I’ve already dedicated ample blog space to listing all the reasons I adore her personally and telling you about her adoption journey, and many of you may have already grown fond of her yourselves when you met her after she led a photography workshop at last year’s AWBU conference at the Ozark Folk Center. She and her family are on a mission to bring their little girl home, they are unwavering in their focus, and along the way I can assure you they always do the right thing.
As a result, not one but two amazing organizations have approached their family with some incredible opportunities. Give1Save1 is featuring their adoption journey and an amazing video as part of a fundraiser all this week, and Arkansas-grown Pure Charity is using their story to launch an adoption fundraising feature of their website this week at the Summit 9 adoption conference.
In summary: Two national organizations dedicated to adoption and philanthropy. A national conference paying heed to a story linking Bentonville, Arkansas and Africa. Thousands of future U.S. families and orphans from developing nations who will be positively affected and who will ultimately become connected as families thanks to the fundraising and awareness tools provided by these two visionary organizations.
That, dear readers, is the power of bloggers. It’s the power, in my opinion, of Arkansas Women Bloggers. It’s the kind of amazing, can’t-possibly-be-true stories that literally happen all the time because of the deep and lasting impact of the relationships developed when a solitary blogger in Arkansas (like The Park Wife) decides to build a community (like Arkansas Women Bloggers) with a focused mission and a commitment to doing the right thing (Gather, Grow, Connect), and when that community grows into a passionate group of bloggers who have those common traits mentioned above:
A certain entrepreneurial spirit, a story they feel obligated from their bones to share, a knack for making deep and sincere connections with others and a little bit of scrappiness.
Thank you for being part of our community and for always being the ones who lift others up.
If you are like us, Spring Break has suddenly snuck up on us, along with a long to-do list. So today I am going to take the easy way out and share a little bit from my new book A Homemade Year; The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting and Coming Together, with you. The first bit is from the preface, and the last bit is from the chapter on Holy Saturday- the Saturday before Easter. The book is due in stores in just one short week, and I could not be more excited to share a little sneak peek with each of you today.
In my mid-twenties, cut free from the tether of a school calendar year, I found that I was attracted to—craved, even—the rhythm, internal and external, that liturgy seemed to bring to those who leaned in and embraced it. Once I had my own children, like so many other mothers around the world, I thought long and hard about what sort of traditions I wanted our family to have. I love a great celebration. I love party decorations and special menus and taking the time to do things up right. I even love the anticipation. To me, the preparation is half the fun because it is often in the doing and preparing that the best memories are made. So I set out to find a way that would create traditions of faith for our family through the rhythm of the liturgical calendar, using fun, modern, colorful crafts and recipes. In our home I have found that even the most common tactile acts such as kneading bread dough, threading a needle, or gluing paper can be important spiritual practices, especially when paired with intentional conversations and repetition over many years. A Homemade Year is a book written out of this experience…and out of my experiences as a busy, working mother, all too often burning the candle on both ends, and looking for a third .
In a recent post, blogger Penny Carothers wrote, “I’ve always elevated the lives of others above my own spiritual aspirations.…This mistaken belief parallels my long-held view that spirituality has to look a certain way to be legit.” I loved reading those words, because I too have gone through seasons of thinking that legitimate spirituality only fit into one very tight fitting box. My prayer is that A Homemade Year is the kind of book that will free you from just that sort of mistaken belief, from that phantom one-size-fits-all box. Instead I hope that this book inspires you to seek and experience God in a different way at your own pace. This book is meant to act as a guide, to encourage, and to teach—but never to induce guilt, to depress, or to intimidate.
Sailboat Easter Baskets
I am always trying to create new crafts that my boys will enjoy making and playing with as well. I designed these boats with Easter in mind, but they have also played host to Lego and Star Wars characters on the occasional bathtub excursion. When we made these for Easter, we talked about all of Jesus’s friends—the disciples who had been fishermen. Although the Bible gives us some indication of what some of the disciples did on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday, not much is said about their actions on Saturday. I like to think that a few of them went fishing to sort things out. To sit, to pray, to hope, and to wait. I know that is what Sweet Man would have done.
Materials Needed:
Red plaid paper food baskets (you can get these at most restaurant supply stores or online)
Modeling clay (2-inch square)
Bamboo skewer
12 x 12-inch scrapbook paper
Scrapbook paper scraps
Tape
Glue stick
Scissors
Easter grass
Plastic eggs or fuzzy chicks
Directions:
Place your square of clay into your food basket, off to the left side, toward the edge. Press down until the clay is stuck well enough to what is now the sailboat floor. The clay will not adhere permanently.
Print the pattern provided at the Paraclete Website (http://www.paracletepress.com/a-homemade-year.html ) to make your sail. Fold a 12 x 12-inch sheet of paper in half and place pattern (cut out) on the fold. Cut triangle out. To make a second, smaller triangle for a layered effect, reduce the size of the pattern by 1/3 and print and repeat all other steps.
Next, secure your sail to your bamboo skewer. Lay the skewer on the inside of your sail in the center crease, fixing it in place with a small piece of tape.
Using the glue stick, trace the inside edges of your sail. Once all edges have a thick layer of glue, close your sail around your skewer and press flat, smoothing out any wrinkles. This makes a double layer of sail for strength.
Embellish your sail with extra bits of paper, stickers, glitter, ribbon, or other ephemeraFinally, stick the skewer into the clay and voilà! You have a sailboat.
Fill with Easter grass, candies, and Easter eggs or fuzzy chicks.
A Homemade Year is available from all major bookstores online and will be in Barnes and Noble stores nationwide.
For more spring and Easter inspired crafts visit me at http://jerusalemgreer.com and search “Easter” or “Crafting”
