Chronicles of the Willi

Hello folks! Happy Independence Day!

I thought I share with you what I’ve been doing in my spare time (besides picking blackberries;-))

I call it an “everyday colonial dress”.

It wasn’t at all planned on my sewing schedule. It wasn’t even extensively labeled and packed with appropriate trims and notions, like my other future projects. I just discovered some colonial-looking striped fabric while sorting through our bins last month. A large sky blue piece (also from a fabric bin) made a perfect match.

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I still have to hem the sleeves and bottom, sew a hook or two, and somehow resew the zipper so it doesn’t bulge and wrinkle. But it shant be long before it proudly hangs in the costume closet.

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Filed under: sewing on July 4th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

It’s blackberry season in Tennessee, and much to our family’s delight, we’ve discovered that our property (and the adjoining ones for sale) is scattered with many thickets of wild blackberry bushes!

Before now, I had never gone blackberry picking in my life. In New York the fruit season consisted of strawberries in June (only the first two weeks), blueberries all throughout July and part of August, and lastly, we had apples in the Fall. I remember blackberries being expensive and somewhat rare in the grocery stores, but here they seem to grow wild all over the place!

Two days ago, with a little bit of help, we picked about a gallon of these berries - we’re going to fill up our freezer pretty soon!

Oh yes! Here I must pause with my ramblings on blackberries to congratulate our friends on being our second visitors thus far (Aunt Frances beat them to it), and our first visitors from Virginia! You may remember our friends from the pictures at Appomattox Courthouse. We invited them on many occasions for them to come pay us a visit once we had a house, and we’re so glad they took us up on that offer! It was only a short stay, just one night, but we had a lovely time together all the same.

Unfortunately it did rain most of the time, but we plunged bravely through the scattered showers together in order to give our guests a tour of the land. We had a lot fun along the way (getting caught in the rain is always an adventure!), and we brought deli buckets with us and picked many, many blackberries!

…Which brings me back to where I left off; blackberries. They are very juicy, black, sweet at the first taste, and slightly bitter at the end. The thorns and brier patches surrounding every bush are painful; we can all testify to that, and you could see for yourself if you ever examined our hands at this point.

Right now I’m thinking about pie; blackberry pie for our future guests, parties and special occasions. (yummm!) Do any of our readers have recipes they’re willing to share? We’re definitely going to try a few this summer, and depending on how long the blackberries last, in the Fall too. (we’ll have to see about that…)

That’s all for now folks. God bless your day! And huzzah for my first post in TN! (I’m so glad we have internet again!)

-Kasie

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Filed under: Family News, Odds and Ends on July 2nd, 2008 | 7 Comments »

And the winner of the reclaiming the culture giveaway is:

EliasBoudinotismyfriend!

It appears that for the 2nd time in a row, this lady (who apparently wishes to remain anonymous), has won a contest here on TheWilli.com! As a prize, she gets to choose any one of the Reclaiming the Culture DVDs from Vision Forum.

Thank you everyone who participated! We’ve greatly enjoyed reading all your thoughtful, and sometimes even challenging comments on how we can reclaim the culture. So now, by the grace of God, let’s DO IT!

For the glory of God,
The Willi

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Filed under: Odds and Ends, fun on July 1st, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Well everyone, I know that we promised a “fresh contest” for you all, but sometimes God has other plans. Being “offline” for the past month, we’ve been unable to plan out anything exciting. But we’re still not about to let a contest opportunity (be it ever so commonplace) go to waste!

So, without further ado, we’d like to introduce to y’all the Reclaiming the Culture DVD series! (Did you catch that “y’all”? I’ll be a Suth’ner yet…)

I’ve noticed that when it comes to culture, Christians usually fall into 3 basic camps. First, there are those who allow themselves to be transformed by the world’s culture. Second, there are those who (for lack of a better term), “run away and hide” from the culture, and live in isolation with no influence on society. And then, finally, there are those who make it their business to neither hide from the world nor compromise the scriptures - but to instead reclaim the culture.

Our family strives to be in that latter category. The question then is, “how”? “Where do we start?”

That’s what the Reclaiming the Culture DVD series from Vision Forum is all about. It’s sort of a compilation of some of the best teachings available at Vision Forum - teachings that can transform your family. Although we haven’t watched these DVDs yet, we’ve listened to half of the talks via audio CDs - and they are of the highest quality. We were actually there LIVE in Jamestown when the Providential Nexus of Jamestown and Plymouth was filmed!

So, where’s the contest, you ask? Well, here it is. Leave us a comment, and in the comment, put a practical way we can all help reclaim the culture for Christ. The names of everyone who leaves a culture changing suggestion will be entered into a hat, and then a winner will be randomly chosen. The winner gets to choose any one of the DVDs of the entire collection!

Go ahead, browse through the titles - they’re good. We just listened to The Promise the other day. It was excellent!

To start us off in the comments, I’ll leave a small, practical way we can change the culture - Hospitality. Specifically, inviting people that might even be near strangers to you for dinner and such. Let them see in your family the difference of the Biblical family, and let God have the glory!

Oh, by the way, I am obliged by Vision Forum to end this giveaway no later than June 30th - so you better get your comment in before the end of Monday!

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Filed under: God, blog, fun on June 28th, 2008 | 17 Comments »

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The last 3 C’s of History are Christ, Cross, and Consummation. These were explained in an amazing video production called “The Last Adam”. It was the perfect evangelistic ending to our walk through history!

And here we have some odds and ends pictures that I didn’t know where to put… So here they are!

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I am absolutely positive that the green screen picture will come in handy in the future! Thank you so much Aunt Frances for all the photographs - and “other things”….

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Filed under: Family News, Photos, fun on June 27th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

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Filed under: Photos, history on June 26th, 2008 | 7 Comments »

Congratulations to Aunt Frances to being the very first guest at our new house! May there be many more. (hint hint :D) Our days together were full fun as we explored the area, visited the sights, and took loads of pictures!

One weekend, we drove up to Roan Mt. to see the acclaimed rhododendrons growing on the mountainside. “Gardens” of rhododendrons grow wild on the slopes of Roan Mt. and draw visitors from all over the country. I could understand why after seeing all the gorgeous blooms for myself!

We stopped at a lake in Cherokee national forest, and a visitor center and nature trails along the way, and then finally drove up our destination. It was well worth the windy drive, even though we got wet through in the pelting rain (TN weather for you).

Enjoy the pictures! (And thank you Aunt Frances for many of them!)

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Filed under: Photos on June 24th, 2008 | 5 Comments »

Here it is, folks! Through the miracle of scheduled posting, I can broadcast this video automatically. By the time you watch the movie, we’ll be exploring the Creation Museum with Aunt Frances!

What is Aunt Frances doing with us? Well, that’s a long story for another time. For now, just enjoy the show! (I don’t have time to upload this to youtube right now, so this is as good as it gets!)

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

High quality .wmv video - be forewarned, it is a very large file.

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Filed under: Video, humor on June 21st, 2008 | 9 Comments »

In an attempt to not burden those with slower computers, I won’t show the “cool flash thingee” on the front page. Instead, to view the flower photos, click the “more” link!

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Filed under: Photos on June 19th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Here are some pictures of our first few days at Providence Glen. Sorry there aren’t any captions - but I’m sure you smart people can figure out what’s going on!

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Filed under: Moving, Photos on June 17th, 2008 | 10 Comments »