What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Thursday, August 14, 2014

My Favorite Blogs

I feel compelled to say that Corynn hates this picture because she says I look mad in it.  And maybe I do-but I wasn't.  And I have no other unblogged pictures to use- so this will have to do.  (scowl)

I wrote recently about up and deleting almost my entire blog reader.  I kept I got rid of a LOT of fun to read blogs...blogs with gorgeous pictures, blogs with gorgeous writers, blogs of women with gorgeous children/gardens/crafts/recipes/stories and sneak peeks into their beautiful lives.  I kept only a small fraction of the blogs I once read: the most thought-provoking, encouraging or helpful to me blogs I have found...that will actually affect me (and how I live my life) in some way.

And then you said~ "I wonder which blogs they are..."

So here is the list of the ten blogs I keep up with now.  Some of them rarely post anything, some of them post every few days...

Homekeeping/Homesteading

The Prudent Homemaker : This lady is the most inspiring women of frugality that I have ever known.  There are frugal Mama's and there are FRUGAL MAMA'S and she is the latter.  But her frugality does not mean cheapness or sacrifice.  She provides in creative and beautiful ways for her family on very little income- but her family always exudes the abundance and wealth bestowed by our Creator.  This, in my mind, is the most precious and admirable quality about her.  She inspires me in our financial pursuits

Hickery Holler Farm : This blog and the woman behind it has taught me so much about gardening and canning that it is BY FAR my most treasured resource for homesteading.  She and her husband put my gardens and putting up to SHAME.  And she's got 30+ years on me!   I don't like the term self-sufficient (it's a pet peeve) but if there were such a thing, they really would be the most self-sufficient people there ever was.

Reformation Acres : Quinn.  A mother of many, a homeschooling Mama, a gardener and animal tender and food putter-upper just like myself, a Christ-follower.  We are sisters, Quinn and I, we just haven't yet MET.  She is the smarter of the two of us though- so I get to glean a lot of helpful insights from her.  Plus, she had a milk cow first so I have been able to learn from her tricks of the milk trade.  (A siphon cream separator?  Brilliant.)

Home Education~

Mt. Hope Chronicles~ This is one of my favorite home education blogs ever!  She has been the greatest help and resource finder to me in our homeschooling journey than probably anyone else.  She has the greatest book lists and offers plenty of food for thought and home education inspiration. Now that her family is doing mostly Classical Conversations, I can relate a bit less to her homeschool journey- but there is still plenty to learn from that lady!

Art Projects for Kids- this is an art site that has given me plenty of inspiration and instruction on art projects to do with the children throughout the year.

Faith~

Femina : Nancy Wilson and her girls keep up this blog.  Their blog inspires and encourages and reveals biblical truths in loving and, often entertaining, ways.  (They have also written some valuable books too!)

Grantian Florilegium : George Grant, right up there on my list of great people with Doug Wilson and Co., has several blogs that he occasionally updates on current events, historical events and favorite quotes.  He rarely posts but when he does, I make the 'trek' over to his other blogs Eleventary (many a wonderful quote there!) and The Quick and the Dead (his blog devoted to outing Planned Parenthood and Abortion) to see what is new.  I leave his blog(s) and I feel new brain wrinkles being formed.

The Matt Walsh Blog : He is a newbie to me but every article that I have read of his has been spot on.  So I added him to my reader when I was deleting everyone else.  ;-)

For the mere beauty and pleasure of it~
I tried to get rid of personal blogs because I felt as though the visiting of them would not further them OR me but I couldn't give up these two.  I do have three personal blogs of family/friends that I will keep up with by checking in once a month or so because I love them... but the difference is they KNOW I love them and these two people do not know I exist.  :-)

Posie Gets Cozy : Alicia Paulson is so talented and beautiful.  I've been reading her blog since, well, for as long as I have been blogging probably.  I love her style.  If I could emulate anyone's style- it would totally be hers.  The most beautiful things are created from her fingertips and after visiting her blog I always feel, somehow, refreshed.

Small Things : Ginny.  Oh, Ginny.  I found her just a year ago or so and already I feel like we could be friends.  She is an honest soul and complex and beautiful and REAL.  She sees and creates beauty (you should see her hand knits!) even within the madness of a houseful of children and home education.  I love her realness.  She has no pretenses and she does not try to make herself appear to be and do everything perfectly.  I feel a very tender kinship with her- so I don't think I could ever stop visiting her blog.

There you have it.  My ten most favorite, most helpful blog reads.  Because you asked!

9 comments:

Amanda said...

Thanks for sharing. I don't think I could ever purge Posie or Ginny either. :)

I have a few blogs left but I've had to purge the ones that made me angry. I don't have much use for "soapbox" blogs. I just want to see into how other people live their lives, see that life is always beautiful but that doesn't mean you have to have it all together.

Once I read a blog that went on a tirade about how girls shouldn't be raised to do a man's work, specifically mowing the yard. Then my husband had an accident where his foot went under the push mower. When I had made it home from work and fulfilled my womanly role of nursing his wound, he said, Thanks, but I really want you to go finish mowing the grass. It is bothering me that I left if half done. I mowed the grass, then deleted the blog from my list.

I look forward to exploring your list - so many I've never heard of!

Miranda Hupp said...

Great list! Quite a few I have never heard of. I am going to have to check them out. :)

Anonymous said...

Our lives are not similar, but I like a lot of the blogs you do. I debated whether to say this Rebecca because you are someone I like and respect though do not know, but I thought I should let you know just in case you had not heard.
After the whole Doug Phillips scandal I did a bit of reading on Doug Wilson and one of the things that startled me was he presided over the marriage of a known pedophile with a young woman. It is not my place to say anything further, I just want to place this information before you in case you have not heard.
Please forgive me if I have offended or overstepped my bounds.

Patsy

Rebecca said...

Amanda~ a wise woman! No use wasting your time reading blogs which make you feel guilty for doing nothing wrong. Being a helpmeet to your husband looks different for each woman. I do all the finances around here (apparently this is supposedly the man's job) and have gotten some slack about that before. I write soapbox posts from time to time but it is my sincere hope that they come across in love and there is wisdom behind/before/within them and not silly, divisive opinions.

Miranda- hope you like!

Patsy- thanks for that. Your comment was said in such kindness I couldn't possibly be offended. I can not pretend to know the details of the situation you described so I will refrain from making any judgements but I will say, as hard as it is to admit when it comes to such heinous things as pedophilia, etc., that Christ forgives and redeems even THOSE things. I am fully confident that if D.W. presided over a marriage under those circumstances- it was not without absolute assurance that it was an appropriate union-that true repentence had happened and that there was plenty of solid biblical counsel for both parties in the days leading up to and throughout the marriage. I have read too much of Doug Wilson to believe any different.

Mitch H said...

Hickory holler....impressive gardens aren't they and boy CQ certainly does 'put up' a lot of food.
I love reading her blog.

Tracy said...

I've been a Matt Walsh fan myself, but lately he's been a bit harsh? And then I read this: http://tcpca.org/?p=3845&preview=true . So if everything he says is right, but he says it without love,he is wrong. Thought provoking.

Unknown said...

So we have many of the same blogs. I actually STOPPED reading so many of them because for awhile in my own life with unrealistic expectations I felt like I just couldn't keep up with these amazing women haha - over the last few months I've started reading again thinking more to let them be an encouragment to me, not someone I have to actually be to be good. Make sense.
And Tracy, I quit reading the Matt Walsh blog because although he has awesome valid points, I also think he seems harsh and "in your face." Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

Heidi said...

I feel so honored to be in your top ten, Rebecca! Thanks so much for the shout-out. :)

Alisa said...

Yours is consistently on my list-even when I only have time to read one or two!!! Rebecca, you keep it real!! And I love that!!!!!