Calli at the Cross

     Hello! Sorry it's been so long since I've done a post. I have gotten so caught up in packing season!!! God has been providing for us and multiplying our efforts more than I could have imagined this year! I can't wait to tell you all about it! But, that's going to have to wait until after packing season.      If you're looking for a quick last minute craft to add to your boxes, I have a crochet pattern for you. This quick and easy baby doll hat will fit the $1 Tree baby dolls, and only takes about a half hour to make. Are you ready? Let's get started! $1 Tree Baby Doll Hat Pattern Row 1: ch 3 sc 7 in first ch, sl st. to join. Row 2: ch 2, 2 sc in each stitch around, join. Row 3: ch 2, 2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next repeat around, join. Row 4: ch 2, 2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 2 stitches repeat around, join. Row 5: ch 2, 2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 3 stitches repeat around, join. Row 6: ch 3, dc in each stitch around, join...

Back in the swing of school with summer clearance nearing an end. This is the perfect time of year to catch rock bottom prices for all things box-y! You can find a lot of clothes, shoes, toys, and accessories WAY cheaper than you could find them otherwise. I got a pretty good haul this month, it evens out last months pathetic pile. So, here's what I got. Most of what I got this month came from Family Dollar. I heard from  Clip With a Purpose's Facebook Page  (My absolute favorite Operation Christmas Child site!), that Family Dollar was having a 75% off Clearance event, so I went to my local Family Dollar and found a lot of great deals! While I was checking out the cashier asked what I was getting it all for, so I told her. She asked if she could call me when they had a whole bunch of clearance they needed to get rid of. I was astonished! That was definitely something God had orchestrated! I have never shopped much at Family Dollar, but now I'll definitely be shopping...

Before you can drive it's hard to find ministry opportunities, yet that's a perfect time to do them. As young ladies we don't have THAT many responsibilities, we have a lot of free time compared to our parents or the adults around us. This is the perfect time to be serving the Lord with our time and talents, here are five ideas to get you started. Prayer      First and Foremost the most important ministry we can have is prayer. Prayer is SO important. God works through prayer, more abundantly than we can ever imagine! In our country today there is so much to pray about! Our youth, our government, our culture, our society as a whole needs Christ so badly. Not to mention outside of our country, the missionaries and persecuted Christians around the world who need prayer warriors here at home fighting, and interceding for them daily. This is a crucial ministry that you can partake in at any age.  Voice of the Martyrs  has an excellent site with specific prayer...

None is righteous, no not one,   Rom. 3:10 Save God’s own sweet, and perfect son, The wages of sin is death and pain, Rom. 6:23 To live is Christ, to die is gain. Phil. 1:21 But God so loved, even me, John 3:16 He sent his son to Calvary He took the burden, bore my pain, To live is Christ, to die is gain. Phil. 1:21 Christ Jesus is the one who died. Rom. 8:34 The crowds all called out “Crucify”. Mark 15:13 The power to leave, yet there he stayed. To live is Christ to die is gain. Phil. 1:21 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just, To forgive our sins, if we only trust. 1 John 1:9 Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, Acts 16:31 To live is Christ and to die is gain. Phil. 1:21 Whoever believes has eternal life, John 6:47 Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17 Through Summer, Winter, sun or rain, Gen. 8:22 To live is Christ to die is gain. Phil. 1:21 Now I dare not waste my life, Knowing full the ...

Our society as a whole has made a shift towards thinking that college is some form of necessary add on to the required k-12 education. But is it really essential for a successful life? The question all recent graduates, or high school students hear from every direction is “Where are you going to college?” Like it’s some sort of precedent that you would go to college, something simply answered, like “Where do you live?” Planning to graduate this year, it is a question I get asked frequently as well. The difference is, I believe that College is only a necessary investment of time and money if it is needed to accomplish the goals you have set for yourself. So, what are the factors that help you decide whether college is a wise choice for you? Goals Everyone has a differing goal for their own life. Two people may have the same career choice, or want to live in the same place, but there are as many individual complete life plans as there are individuals. Some life goals do ...

Hanging Clothes On the Line       According to my research it costs $0.50 to run the average dryer. Let's say we run 2 loads of laundry a day, that would save $30 a month! That would be $360 a year! That's a big chunk of change! Summary Month: $30 Year: $360 Washing Freezer Bags,      Ok, this sounds a little weird, but hear me out. For the Great Value Cheapo Walmart Brand Bags it costs $5 a box. If we by 3 boxes a month between quart and gallon,. that's $15 a month, $180 a year! We wash our freezer bags, and a wonderful friend of mine showed me to hang them on a refrigerator magnet to dry. (Thanks Sarah!) Quick and easy, with a significant savings!   Summary Month: $15 Year: $180 Couponing      I got REALLY into couponing a few years ago, and do you know what I found out? More often than not I ended up spending more money than I did without the coupons. Seeing good coupon deals made me buy things tha...

Hamburger is getting expensive now days! With our family of 7 we are constantly trying to find ways to cut down on our hamburger usage. These are my top 10 favorite ways to stretch hamburger. Beans Beans are one of my favorite things to use to make hamburger stretch. They taste similar, and they even look similar, the kids will never know. Whahahahaha! Rice We use rice a lot when it's going into burritos, or casseroles, it's a little more visible than beans, but it cuts in nicely. Onions Onions are nice because if you cut them up small they get translucent and you can hardly see them. Tomato Paste I know this sounds weird, but we put an 8 oz can of tomato paste in our taco meat the other night, it was wonderful! Bread Crumbs I'm not as fond of this one, and I only use it in a few recipes, but it is valuable in the ones I use it in. Barley I haven't tried this one yet, but I can't wait to try it. I love barley to start with, so this is going to b...

Recently some good friends of ours moved and left us a bunch of their herbs. (Thanks guys, you know who you are!) Among them we found powdered comfrey root powder and comfrey leaf powder. So, knowing that our friends must have had it for some reason we looked it up online and found out we had hit the jackpot, woo hoo!!! Comfrey is a wonderful healing herb. It helps heal everything from broken bones, to scabs and blemishes. With our little boys, one of which has been to the ER 4 times in the last year, we have been using it a LOT! Being the teenage girl I am I immediately thought to put it in a face cream to help get rid of blemishes on your face. So I looked it up online and couldn't find any recipes that didn't take olive oil, or somethings else to cause it to clog your pores. So mom and I made up our own recipe with a coconut oil base so it doesn't make you brake out. The best part is, insert drumroll, it actually works! I would be careful however not to ingest comf...

Since 9th grade I have been planning on graduating early. Well... I've been working on it since the end of 10th grade. Somehow going into 11th, this math didn't work out too well. So, this summer I hit it hard and tried to get my school work done. I had it figured out that in order to graduate early over this summer I had to do an extra 1/2 credit of History and an extra credit of Literature. I figured it wouldn't be to hard to get those done. What I forgot to figure in is that I would be gone for over 4 weeks this summer. Yeah, being gone for 1/3 of the time you have to get a lot done, doesn't work too well. Now starting my official junior year, and my hopeful senior year I have to buckle down and get my stuff done. Over the summer I was supposed to complete Bob Jones (BJU) 11th grade Literature and BJU American Government, which is a half credit book that according to the BJU curriculum you are supposed to do in 12th grade. Over the summer I DID complete all but ...

I am absolutely obsessed with Operation Christmas Child! I love the idea of being able to fulfill the great commission right from home! I've decided to do a monthly Operation Christmas Child Roundup to show you all the deals I found over the month for OCC (Operation Christmas Child), and hopefully give you some ideas for your own boxes! As the leaves start turning brown and cardboard school buses start lining the center aisle at Walmart, the time comes once more for back to school sales. This is when I like getting any pens, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, or anything school related for my boxes. This is when school and office supplies hit their rock bottom prices for the year, with a few rare exceptions. I haven't been able to take too much advantage of it yet this year, but I'm hoping to get in there early September. Actually, I don't think I've been to the store all month. Hence the really small roundup, sorry about that! This is also the time of year when t...

Use me up, pour me out! Clear away, my every doubt. As to who you are, as to what you’ve done. Use my hands, to spread your grace. Use my voice, to sing your praise. Praise of who you are, Praise of what you’ve done. Use my feet, to go your way. Use my mouth, for what you’d say. Words of who you are, words of what you’ve done. Use my life, to shine your light. To show the world, your mercy and might. The light of who you are, the light of what you’ve done. When my life, comes to a close. My days are all but gone. Allow me Lord, as you hold me close to forever sing your song.

You’ve taken my burden, from my shoulders. Taken the burden, of sin and shame. Enslaved to my sin, it was my master. Bound by my fault, unable to leave. My burden was heavy, my chains were weighty. My master unruly, my strength was scarce. You came to my aid, and gave me your power. Replaced my chains, with your grace. Now I bear, a different burden. A weight no lighter, than before. The difference now, I choose to carry. To take my cross, and follow you, Lord. I ask you now, for this load, and for the opportunity. To see the burden, of this world. To see the sin, and misery. To help where I can, and to pray where I can’t. To love with your heart, and to serve with your hands.

Life's like a pile of kinky yarn, I spend my life trying to crochet something beautiful. I try to make up a perfect pattern, but in the end I end up with a pile of kinky yarn and a bunch of knots. The more I try to fix my problems, un-tangle my pile and make something beautiful, all I turn out with is more knots, the more I try the more knotted it is. The good news is, there is someone who comes along and untangles my little pile of string. There is someone who comes up beside me and sorts out the meaningless mass of knots that I have made. When anyone else would have walked away, when anyone else would have thrown my yarn heap in the trash can, or burned it, for all the trouble it had caused. When I have thrown their hands in the air and admitted that I can’t do it, when I have humbled myself to the point of asking for help, then, and only then does He step in. He knew that I needed help all along, but He waited until I knew, so that I could see how much I truly did need H...