Sunday, March 31, 2013

Wisdom of a gramma

I found this story on FB and had to share it!


Grandmother Says... Carrots, Eggs, or Coffee; "Which are you?"

A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She ...was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.


Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, "Tell me what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft.She then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The granddaughter then asked. "What's the point,grandmother?"

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity--boiling water--but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her granddaughter.

"When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?

Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?


---AUTHOR UNKNOWN



I love that! I wish I knew who wrote it :)
Hope you enjoyed!!!

Happy Easter!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Good-bye Orlando :)

We left the Orlando TT yesterday morning,:(
It was sad having to leave all those wonderful families; after two weeks of non-stop fun :)

One night a few of the teens got together to play guitars, ukuleles...
...and Wii
Marisa and I were the only girls there, but we didn't mind, we liked watching everyone else goof around :)
(ya, we goofed off a little too!)
It got really funny when we started playing Lets Dance on the Wii :)
 Of course we played water volleyball. We tried to play every morning, but sometimes it got too cold.
                                      We had about 10 kids each time and had a BLAST!!!!
 
 
 
We all really like the little store at the rec center, and we would go up almost every day to get lunch or a soda.  A couple of friends and I loved going up and having some "girl time" over our favorite hand scooped ice cream! (my fav was Blueberry Pomegranate)
 
 
We were SOOOOO excited when we heard that the Weaver Family Band was going to play at the RV park on Saturday!!!!! They are such a wonderful family, we loved hanging out with them :)
Here are the boys setting up.
I guess Stevie (neon shirt on stage) was supervisor LOL! 
Michael...
Steve,  Mrs. Weaver, Anna and Michelle.
We really enjoyed seeing them in concert.
 We had heard a lot about their family and ministry, so we were REALLY excited when we got to see them live :) They are an extremely talented family; their kids never had a music lesson in their life!!!!
 
 My new friend Marisa and I were trying to think of something to dress-up for... We had not done anything really "girly" all week.  So we decided to do it for the Weaver concert :) So we took over one of the bath houses and Marisa's older sister did our hair and make-up. It took about two hours (Thank you, Katelyn!!)
   
The show ended about 9:30 ish, afterwords we helped them pack up their equipment, and talked for a few hours!LOL! 
Here we are saying good-bye at about 11pm after the concert.(missing a few kids)
We really enjoyed hanging out with so many awesome new friends.  ( we love you guys and I'm looking forward to seeing you all down the road!)  
Michel, Sam, Johnathan, Katelyn, Alivia, Lucas, Sevie, Jake, Brennan, Eli, Sarah, Me, Marisa!!!
http://weaverbeliever.com/

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Free Shipping!

For the next few days, Lilla Rose is offering free shipping on orders $20 or more!!! Free shipping goes through the 23rd.

The Flexi of the Month is now back in stock in limited quantities!!!! Now is your chance to get one of these beautiful clips for you or a friend!



Also, this clip is going to be on sale in three different sizes through June 1st!!!


                                                      sale  retail
4-2156 mini Dreamcatcher$11$15
6-2157 extra small Dreamcatcher$13$19
4-2160 large Dreamcatcher$16$22

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Easter and summer are coming!

Easter is getting close, and so is summer.  Lilla Rose has a huge variety of gorgeous and stylish hair items that look great in any color hair.
These beautiful hair jewelry are great for special occasions, church, or every day wear, and make great gifts! Another great thing about the Flexi-Clip is it will work in fine and thick hair, my little sisters all have very fine hair and it will hold up their hair all day!
From Flexi-Clips...





To Hair Sticks...


To Bobby pins...


You Pins...


And so much more!!



There is something for everyone! Please check out my website if you are interested.
http://www.lillarose.biz/medievalmaidenhairwear/?id=6IMvg6NT

If you want more pictures, check out my "What I do" page. There are pic's of the clips in my and my little sisters' hair.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Renaissance Festival!!!!

The day before yesterday we went to the Florida Ren Fest!  http://www.ren-fest.com/
I had been searching online for awhile trying to find a good faire to go to this year. I think we got spoiled with the one in AZ because it is one of the nicest ones in the nation! 
When I found this one I thought it looked fun, so I asked Mom about it, and she thought it sounded fun too!

Dad, Eli, Thomas, Daniel and myself were the only ones that wanted to go.
It was about a two and a half hour drive from the campground we were staying at in Big Cypress; the festival is north of Miami.  I was glad we went on a Sunday - traffic was not too bad.
We arrived early and got a good parking spot, and thankfully the ticket line was not too long :)
 
.
Once we got inside the village (aka The Shire), Eli and I began looking for a weapons shop; we both love medieval weapons.  There were a couple of interesting shops, but my favorite was the Hollow Earth Swordworks!!  Their craftsmanship was amazing - their swords were $30-$300!!!
Their solid wood swords and daggers were guaranteed not to break against any other wood sword, bone, or flesh.  If by chance it did break, they did they would fix it or replace it with a new one absolutely free!
 
At the beginning of the day one of the street-side vendors asked me if I would like to have my portrait sketched for free!! (to help bring in a crowd)
He was actually very talented and did great job!!  I was happy not to pay $25 to have it done either :)

I think that the boys' favorite part of the festival was the trebusheas!!!

 Daniel was pretty excited when he got to shoot one off!
They had a much bigger one that just the reenactors got to shoot, and then the smaller one which Daniel got to fire. The one we got to fire would shoot an 8lb concrete ball about 75-80 yards out in to a lake, but the bigger one would go almost twice that!!!

The reenactors were getting ready to fire the big one... They had a live demonstration a few times a day.  It took four full grown men to hold it down while they got ready to load it!
 
Everyone thought it was pretty cool!
 
We went to the joust that afternoon and ended up sitting on the side of evil.
There were 5 knights in all, three good and two bad.  We were surprised to find that one of our evil knights, was the same actor as one of the good knights we had seen at the festival we usually go to in AZ!!!
How cool is that!
http://ticknortribe.com/2012/02/az-ren-fest.html
 
This is our knight, Sir Rolen getting ready for the joust.
 
Here are all 5 of the Knights.
The jousts only lasts about 45 min each; there are three different shows each day.
  We only went to the last two.
 
This is our arrogant knight being carried off the field after the French Knight killed him.
(he so deserved it) LOL!!
A little kid that was cheering in his stands, actually started crying after our knight got his throat slit, he really thought the knight died!
Afterwards, our knight explained to the little boy that it was just a show, and he really didn't die.  I don't know if that kid was totally convinced.  :)

The day ended way to quickly, and we all had a blast!
I hope we can go do another one soon.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Dr. Seuss Day -

I am a total fan of Dr Seuss, but I forgot that it is Dr Seuss day today!!! (some fan, huh?)
I absolutely love his writings; I still enjoy reading his books to the little kids :)

Here are some quotes by him:
#1
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

This one is my favorite!
#2
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

#3
“It has often been said
there’s so much to be read,
you never can cram
all those words in your head.

So the writer who breeds
more words than he needs
is making a chore
for the reader who reads.

That's why my belief is
the briefer the brief is,
the greater the sigh
of the reader's relief is.

And that's why your books
have such power and strength.
You publish with shorth!
(Shorth is better than length.)”


#4
“You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”

#5
“To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.”

Imagine life without his writings.
Think of a life without as much laughter, life would surely be so much sadder,
He has brought us so much joy, happiness and pleasure, he is a man we'll remember forever!

An encouraging word...

A rainy day in the Everglades; I had nothing to do so I thought that I would get a few of the encouraging and very true sayings that I have heard, and share them with you:

#1
If you are always looking behind, you'll never see what lays ahead.

#2
Sin always temps us with pleasure, but always leaves us with regret.

#3
“A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.”
~Unknown~

#4
"What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it." - C.S. Lewis

#5
 “You can make anything by writing.”  - C.S Lewis



#6
“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”  C.S. Lewis

#7
It is not about what you get in life, but who you become.


#8
“Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.”
~Les Brown~

#9
“It’s better to start over than to give up entirely.”
~Kevin Ngo~

#10
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”
~John Holmes~

#11
“The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do, is who you become.”
- Heraclitus


I hope I'm not boring you!
There are so many wonderful quotes by many people.  Reading these quotes and others have really encouraged me, and I hope they have done the same for you.