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You’ve probably seen the lovely women’s dresses from Shabby Apple featured on other blogs (they also make clothes for girls, and maternity) – and now you have a chance to win one right here!

I am excited to announce that I am hosting a giveaway for a BACIAMI! dress in your choice of size.

Although their description is a bit racy, I chose this dress from the giveaway options offered because it was something that could be worn in a classy, modest way. I like the 3/4 length sleeves, too!

Bedecked with a tailored bodice, boat neck and elbow-length sleeves, the empire waisted frock hugs close to the body for a figure conscious shape. The knee-length skirt has just a bit of flare which is accentuated by the variegated bands of the Sarah Hansen-designed fabric. This dress is made from a leightweight, delicate fabric and FITS GENEROUSLY on our fit guide.

Dress made of Cotton Poplin, 97% Cotton and 3% Spandex.

Just use the handy-dandy RaffleCoptor form below, and enter before the end of the year (some entries can be done every day!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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A friend shared this on her Facebook page, and after reading it I decided it was something I needed to do, as well. Click the graphic to read the original post over at Hannah’s Harvest.

This is my modification of the explanation my friend posted:

I have spent an indecent amount of time on Facebook, and other various websites, during 2011. Only a small percentage of that time was truly nourishing to my soul. With the intention of reconnecting to my kids and husband, and to the soul-nourishing activities here in my home, I am going to come online only once a day, for 30 minutes, to check Facebook, email, blogs, etc., from December 20th – 31st.

If you need me, call or text me. I’m not turning off my phone.

I am practically twitching already just making the decision. What will I be like tomorrow?? But I believe that this ‘Reset’ is necessary for me, and will end up feeling very much a gift.

Would you like to join me in this Reset? I double-dog dare you!

Blogging will continue. Although that is technically “online” as well, it is not a significant amount of time, nor is it a mindless waste of my time and energy.

I have made various decisions to “spend less time online” and so forth. But somehow, with no specifics, and no accountability, it has never really taken hold.

Rather than going off Facebook altogether, which I have debated, this seems like a good way to, well, reset my thinking and behavior patterns. And it comes at a perfect time, when we are celebrating the birth of Christ, and enjoying time with family and friends.

Merry Christmas!

I hardly know how to “tag” this post, since I don’t really have a category for “silly, personal stories.” Be that as it may, that’s what you get today.

Wolf turned 50 on Sunday. Quite a milestone!

We’ve talked it up and sung, “Happy Birthday” dozens of times, beginning on Thanksgiving Thursday.

Sunday, his actual birthday, after church, we did our family festivities – Captain America themed decor, a steak dinner, and a Guinness Chocolate Cake (which I must admit tasted better than I’d feared).

But Monday night was the real triumph.

Wolf had mentioned (okay, a lot) that he had “always” envisioned having a party for his 50th birthday. You know, not just a family celebration, but a PARTY.

Unfortunately, our life right now doesn’t really lend itself to that. The house isn’t unpacked and settled in enough to entertain, we don’t have the budget for a big shin-dig, many of our friends and family are geographically remote, and of course – his wife is a bit asocial, and would never, ever dream of trying to throw a party.

And certainly not a surprise party.

Yep.

I did.

We had a Dutch-treat dinner at nearby Logan’s Steakhouse.

I told Wolf that we’d be taking him out for dinner for his birthday, so I could explain my desire to have him dressed up and on a set schedule. He just had no idea that there were friends and decorations there waiting for him!

There are times I thought I would never survive the process – problems with getting in touch with people to invite, problems with the cake order, problems with people cancelling at the last minute, problems with keeping this much secret in a house with little kids…

But somehow, we did it. He says he really, truly had no idea.

Half a Century.

Now he’s officially a wise guy, right?

Happy Birthday, Wolf. We love you more than you can possibly know, and are so grateful that the Lord gave us such an amazing husband and father!

(A follow up to my earlier post, Advent Begins!)

NOTE: If you haven’t started an Advent activity yet, I’d still recommend grabbing a copy of Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands (it’s only $4.99!) — there are a couple of great options for condensed schedules that let you get in all the most important elements.

We are on the full 24 day schedule, although we have fallen a couple of days behind. I am hoping/planning to at least get/stay caught up to within one day, so that we can finish on Christmas.

The kids have had a lot of fun cutting, coloring, gluing, and painting.

Most of the projects have been fairly flat, so it was simple to just glue them onto pages for their Advent Books. Some required a bit of creativity… And tools.

Luckily, I have a handy helper. Wolf took two of the contour clothespins and sliced them down into four flat “person forms” (plus some scrap). These were then gleefully decorated as Mary (Day #5) and Joseph (Day #9).

These turned out to be the kids’ favorite projects so far.

We’re having a great time reading through the story of Christ in child-size bites, and the crafts have been enjoyed by all – even the craft-phobic mama.

I have read and heard a lot lately, among Christian women who consider themselves “modest”, about what that means.

There are the obvious “finer points” debates, about exactly how long a skirt should be, or what the appropriate length is for sleeves.

There are some more significant choices debated, about whether women should wear pants, how to handle swimming suits, etc.

And there are some totally philosophical arguments. One extreme says that “they” are being vain about their appearance and that’s not a modest attitude; while the opposite camp insists that a woman should make herself look good to appreciate the gifts God has given her and to please her husband (among other reasons), and “they” are getting holier-than-thou and being proud of being frumpy. Whew!

One thing that I realized from all this debate is that we are spending a lot of time and energy talking about this, thinking about this, and writing about this.

What if we didn’t have to?

If you’re a “conservative Mennonite” like these ladies, you and your friends don’t have to worry about debating the finer points.

While you may or may not consider the group’s “dress code” to be 100% in line with your deepest personal beliefs, you, and everyone else at your church, have agreed to follow them.

So you know what length your skirt and sleeves should be.

No stress, no debate.

And, obviously, they are modest.

That seems to me like a valuable thing. One less distraction on the path. One less question that the Enemy can use to start a nagging concern in the back of your head, or an afternoon debate over coffee with a friend.

Couldn’t that time and energy be put to better use? Studying Scripture? “Debating” how to implement a new service project? Or playing with your kids?

Me? I’m willing to die to self a little more, for that gain.

I belong to several consumer behavior-tracking panels.

There is an application installed on my computer that prompts us to tell it who logs on each time, that tracks our online usage.

I have a scanner in my house, and we record all our purchases.

Why??

Do I do it for the rewards I earn, or the entries into their big sweepstakes?

Hardly.

I do it as a Christian witness. And a whole foods witness. And a simple living witness.

You get the idea.

Everyone has heard that we can “vote with our pocketbook,” and I am a huge proponent of this. Surely the catchup industry will catch on if enough people only buy the ones with no High Fructose Corn Syrup.

But this is a chance for my “vote” to carry even more weight.

These consumer panels (formerly Neilsen, the name more folks recognize) are one of the main ways the industry measures consumer behavior and opinion.

So I was excited to have the opportunity to “tell” the powers that be that we don’t buy disposable everything, that we don’t buy products with High Fructose Corn Syrup in them, that we don’t bankrupt ourselves buying a mass of consumer goods in November and December – and for that matter that we did not buy anything on “Black Friday.”

Furthermore, I’m excited to have someone tracking my Internet usage. While they will see more time on Facebook than I’m exactly “proud of”, they will also notice that there is not an awful lot of online shopping, and no visits to the entertainment sites, “gossip” news sites, racy clothing stores, bootleg downloads, or crude humor sites.

I certainly have nothing to hide, so I’m grabbing hold of this opportunity to let the Light shine!

If you’re interested, you can sign up at NCP Online, and be placed in a pool from which future panelists are randomly drawn.

(The image is from InterVangelist, a website I know nothing about).

Okay, it’s not so much a review, just a sharing of information (I haven’t read it yet, either!)

If you enjoy Amish fiction, you might want to check out Cindy Woodsmall’s The Christmas Singing. It’s part of the Ada’s House series, which I accidentally picked up in the middle when I received one of the books for review.

Here’s a video “trailer” for the book:

You can even read the first chapter online.

And if you’d like to buy a copy, you can get 30% off and free shipping on The Christmas Singing (and any other title) when you use promo code CHRISTMAS11 at checkout on WaterBrookMultnomah.com. The coupon code expires on December 20th, 2011.

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Today did not start off well.

I had a raging migraine. After two doses of my migraine prescription, and assorted home remedies, I had barely reached the stage where I felt like I wasn’t going to keel over.

The kids were scheduled to go to the Build and Grow clinic at Lowe’s. Normally I would have just cancelled the outing, but during the first three weekends in December they do a three-part train project. So missing today would have meant losing out on that whole series.

Conscripting Nick to drive, we packed up and went.

As always, the kids had a fabulous time building their project. And of course they enjoyed the face-painting and balloon sculptures by the resident clown, Scoops.

Afterwards, we were swinging by WalMart for some glue.

Now, going to WalMart on a Saturday is high on my “forbidden” list. And with a migraine, it was even less appealing. But we needed glue for our Advent projects (yeah, I have some somewhere, but it must still be packed), and I didn’t want to fall three more days behind by waiting until Monday.

As Nick drove past the first set of doors, we noticed the Salvation Army bell-ringer. Since they are so ubiquitous, and I don’t have any particular emotional attachment to the Salvation Army, they are pretty easy to ignore.

The we pulled up towards the second set of doors. We saw two very young Marines, and two equally young Sailors, standing in their dress uniforms.

They are harder to ignore. (See my post about Matt Broehm)

Nick waited in the car as the Littles and I went up to the store. As we approached, one of the Marines was explaining their Toys for Tots collection to a woman who had just come out of WalMart.

I asked him if he would mind explaining it to my kids.

He crouched down to their level, and told them in a simple and caring way that they were collecting toys to give to little boys and girls who didn’t have a mom and dad to get presents for them at Christmas.

As he finished, the other woman turned to me and asked if we were going into the store. When I said that we were, she held out $20, and asked if I would be willing to buy some toys for the collection while we were shopping.

I agreed, and had Jewel take charge of the money.

We had a great time inside, shopping for things that were a good value, so that the needy children could get as much as possible. With the $20 we were able to get two multi-packs of Hot Wheels cars, and a nice set of mini dolls and clothes in a case. The kids were delighted to put the toys in the collection box (and pose with the young military men) as we left.

Personally, I kept getting teary-eyed over the fact that a complete stranger would hand me $20 and a charge like that. Really, at WalMart, do people often hand cash to strangers?

What a blessing!

I’m sure part of her trust was simply the fact that I had two little kids, and we were showing interest in the Toys for Tots. But combined with past experiences, I tend to think that my manner of dress also contributed to her level of comfort.

Our silent witness makes an impact when we least expect it.

Migraine or no, I wouldn’t have missed that experience for the world.

We have been in need of a “button” graphic for the blog for a while now.

I am trying to list As For My House on a few sites that have lists of blogs, so that hopefully more people who might be interested can find us. And many of them require a button.

So, given my lack of inspiration, time (prioritized for this type of time-intensive activity), and graphic design skill, I took the quick route: I cropped the graphic from our header, and scaled it into the proper dimensions.

It’s a button, at least.

But anyone who can do a better job is invited to come up with something!

We are so excited to be doing an Advent devotional this year! I’ve been trying to get my act together enough to do this for a couple of years now.

I was delighted to find a friend’s recommendation on Facebook, and I eagerly purchased (inexpensively!) Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands.

The book has an easily broken-down shopping list of supplies – most of which are things you’re likely to have around the house anyway (or can substitute for such things).

Each day has a Scripture reading, tagged to a “clue” that the kids find in their Advent Calendar (several options for how to do that).

Then there’s a fun craft project for the kids to do, along with some other discussion ideas for you to use (or not, or as you see fit).

The projects are set up to be done as a series of Christmas Tree ornaments, but for a variety of reasons, we’ve decided not to go that route.

We’re going to “flatten” everything, and mount each artwork on a sheet of paper. Then each of the kids is going to assemble their 24 projects into an Advent Book (in a 3-ring binder, to give it some protection), which can be stored away in their memory box, or enjoyed again next year, or whatever other use we can think up!

The photo is the Littles at work on Day 1 – a candle, for Jesus, the Light of the World.

I’m not going to post our project each day, partially out of respect for the book’s copyright (go buy one, I tell you!). I’ll post perhaps weekly or so, with the highlights.

Who else is doing something special for Advent?