The Giveaway Winner!

Here's a big thank you to everyone who participated in this month's giveaway! The lucky winner is Lydia Peña.

Lydia is a young woman who considers herself blessed to live in beautiful New Hampshire with her parents and four sisters. She is a homeschool graduate and stay-at-home daughter who continues to pursue her education in various ways.

While I don’t intend to become a world famous classical pianist, and I don’t expect any accolades on my latest best seller, I AM striving for a goal. My utmost ambition is to brighten the corner where the Lord has placed me. One day I want to hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” So whether I fly far, and accomplish great things in this world, or stay close and shine on those I come in contact with, I pray that my life reflects “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” 

Some of her interests include playing piano, quilts, making messes in the kitchen, nieces and nephews, sewing, biking, books, horticulture, splashing in puddles, family, study of worldviews, laughing, and doing out-of-the-ordinary things. You can connect with her on her blog, Grace and Glory.

...THE LORD WILL GIVE GRACE AND GLORY: NO GOOD THING WILL HE WITHHOLD FROM THEM THAT WALK UPRIGHTLY. 

- PSALM 84.11

December 2012 Featured Girl: Julia Erickson

It's that time of month again! Time for us girls to get to know each other a little better by highlighting a great member of our community. December's featured girl is Julia Erickson, a homeschool graduate, writer, and jewelry maker. 

Stay tuned after the interview for an exciting giveaway from Julia!
This giveaway has now ended.

Altogether Separate: For starters, tell us a bit about yourself. Where do you live? How big is your family?

Julia: Hi! I'm Julia... an artist, writer, dreamer, dancer, and a girl who enjoys finding sparkle in every day. :)
I live in rural Georgia in a log home on a hill in the woods, although I grew up in Naples, Florida fifteen minutes away from the beach. :D Our family is the five of us - my wonderful parents, my two brilliant younger brothers ages 18 and 17, and myself, age 21. :)

Tell us something really unique about you. 

Well...my hair is so long, it nearly reaches my knees. That's pretty unique. ;) I often get stopped in stores by people exclaiming "Your hair is sooooo long!" and my favorite reply is "Yes, and I grew it myself!" Haha!

Now that you have graduated from high school, what do you think about your homeschool education?

I am extremely grateful that my mother chose to homeschool me and my brothers even though she struggled with severe arthritis. She is an amazing woman of God and I have learned so much from her and my wise father. I wouldn't have chosen any other way to go, education-wise! I dearly hope to homeschool my own children someday and instill the same values and beliefs my parents trained up in me. :)

What was your funniest homeschooler moment?

Hmmm... Well, when I was a little girl of ten or so, I read tons of books. TONS. I always had a book in my hand. Thus, you could often find me rollerblading, unloading the dishwasher, or riding my bike WHILE reading a book. :D And... when exiting the library, I was always carrying a stack of books that stretched from my waist to my chin. :D I must have appeared rather comical doing that!

If you had the chance to tell your 14 year old self one thing, what would it be?

Wow. Great question. We moved to Georgia when I was 14, and soon after that began a very difficult period in my life where I didn't 'fit in' with the teens at my church. I would give my 14-year-old self a warm hug and say "Honey, you need to cling tight to God right now. Dig deep into that pink Bible of yours and read it every day, because a time is coming when you're going to need to stand on the solid rock, or your heart will crumble. Lean on the strong, experienced shoulders of your parents, because they know what's best for you, even if you can't understand their decisions right now. You will be so happy later that you listened to them. Cherish your time with your brothers and work hard on your friendship with them, because while friends may come and go,they will always be there for you. But above all, stand strong and hold fast to what you know is right, and don't let anybody else's opinion matter more that God's."

What projects are you working on right now?

I'm working on many projects! :D I have a jewelry business and sell jewelry in a local consignment shop, I sell ebooks that I wrote on how to make jewelry, I'm currently writing my fourth novel, crocheting now and then on an afghan in brown and ivory yarn, and practicing a myriad of homemaking skills! My cooking has really improved lately... sewing is next! :D

Thoughts about the future?

When I think about the future, I smile. I have no idea what lies ahead of me around the bend in the road, but my heavenly Father does, and whatever his plan is, it's going to be beautiful. My dream and desire is to be found by a godly young man and become his wife and helpmeet, raising 9 or 10 children, and furthering my husband's vision, whatever that may be. I don't want a 'career' besides being a keeper of the home, creating jewelry and crocheted crafts, and writing. :)

Now for a really serious question: what super power would you like to have?

:D Serious indeed! I know it's typical, but I would love to be able to fly. :D Think about how amazing it would be if one could actually just lift off the ground... and soar. So amazing. That, or I would love to be able to look at someone and know exactly what they were thinking - it would certainly be interesting!

Julia blogs at jewelsbyjulia-lauren.blogspot.com.

OK, here's the exciting part. Julia's shop at jewelsbyjuliashop.com is going to give away all three of her beautiful jewelry making ebooks:

Each of these books costs $7.95, but one lucky girl is going to get all of them for free!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One Thousand Gifts Giveaway

Sorry, this giveaway is now closed!

Hello! This is Abigail, speaking for the bloggirls, and we've got something very special for you today: we're giving away 1,000 gifts, all bundled up in one gorgeous hardback book!


One Thousand Gifts is a New York Times Bestselling book written by Ann Voskamp. Its purpose? Daring you to live fully right where you are by giving thanks in all things. It's something that every Christian should be doing, but how often do we forget to be filled with the joy of the Lord?

“I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, in all the days before I die, the moments before I sleep.”

Ann is really a poet masquerading as a prose-writer. Her words sing off the page as she carries the reader through a journey from brokenness to absolute joy! Ann's search for beauty is not the result of a perfect life that's brought her breakfast in bed from the day she was born; it's a search that was bled out of a horrific wound—many wounds—some that I can't imagine, and some that I can identify with perfectly.  


Her challenge to herself was to find 1,000 gifts in the world around her. They weren't the kind of gifts that we usually thank God for, they were bubbles, and warm sunlight, and weathered wood, and the curl of a child's hair, and her little boy's injured hand, and tulips in a bucket with wooden candlesticks, and her scarred past, and a white fleece shirt, and what the scale read. Ann says, “How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates. I can only do so with thanksgiving. If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can't I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, I can enter the gates to glory. Living in His presence is fullness of joy—and seeing shows the way in.” This book is where Ann shows us the key to entering those gates to glory.



I know that this is a powerful book, even though I have yet to finish reading it myself. I joined Ann on her quest to find 1,000 gifts in a year (you can read some of the gifts I've tallied on my personal blog), and it's changing the way I see the world.

So, about that giveaway. If you want to be part of this amazing experience as well, then we want to send you a free copy of One Thousand Gifts! Here are the rules:

1. This contest has 1 winner, who will be chosen at random.
2. The contest will end at 11:59 PM (CST), on Saturday March 3, 2012. 
3. Due to shipping costs, all entrants must live within the contiguous (48) states of America. 
4. For every entry you must post 1 comment in the comment section of this post. For example, if you followed the blog and registered for the discussion forum then you would post 2 separate comments.
5. Be sure to leave contact information in the form of an email address or blog URL so that we can tell you if you won!
6. You can have up to 6 different entries (If you've already done some of these things, just mention it in your comments):

• Follow the blog via Google Friend Connect 
• Join the Facebook group
• Register for and post something in the discussion forum
• Post about this giveaway on your own blog
• Tweet about it
• Share this post on Facebook

Spread the word! We want to see many more homeschool girls joining this community, getting active in the discussions, sharing their hopes, dreams, reviews, fears, recipes, joys, struggles, prayers and everything in-between.


P.S. Since writing this post we bloggirls have come across some controversy regarding One Thousand Gifts. Please check out this blog post for more information.