Jessie Robinson: Auteur de Invite'

Today we have an Auteur de Invite' (guest writer). This beautiful young lady is as amazing on the inside as she is on the out. Her call and stand for homemaking at such a young age is a testimony to Christ. There is a great need for leaders for our daughters. Thank you Jessica for sharing your love testimony and your heart with us!! I know God will use this to touch someone's heart!

The Love Testimony

Hello from Kingsport, Tennessee- “The Model City”. I’m Jessica Robinson and I live here with my husband of two years, Andraé. We met 7 years ago when I began attending his church. It was love at first sight for me. It was took 2 years and many prayers, but in the end he fell in love with me too! You see, I’m 9 years younger than Andraé and it was rather unimaginable on his part that he might fall in love with a 15 year old, but fall in love he did. We chose the route of a non-traditional courtship and sought our parent’s blessing as we moved through the many wonderful stages of our relationship. We wanted to become best friends before we became lovers. From first-dates and through heart-aches, in the happy times and in the hard times, God has blessed our marriage and our friendship immensely. I am married to the man God designed for me, and there’s nothing so wonderful or that brings more contentment than to know you have God’s blessing.

A Call To Women Everywhere

I live in the “Model City”, I have the “model husband”, I lived the “model love story”, but am I the “model” wife? The “model Christian?"

Do I do anything that would make others want to be like me?

I have no desire to be on a pedestal, but as a Christian my life is supposed to represent Christ.

I am plagued with these thoughts daily. I’m torn. The Bible shows us that as omen we have such an amazing opportunity to minister in our homes. But we’re constantly being pulled by the suffocating pressure to follow the world’s models of womanhood.

I want to stand up and tell the world, “NO!! It’s not working!” The very sad reality is that the world replies, “Ok…then show us how!”

It’s at that point I look around and see that there are very few true Christian models of womanhood to look up to. No wonder our young girls are as hopeless as they are, they have no one to look to. Christians have followed the world’s models for far too long, someday someone is going to have to change that.

I think that someday is now. I want to devote my life to being that Christian woman that younger ladies can look up to. I want to show them that there’s more to life than boy syndrome. I want to give inspiration…homemaking can be a blast…..I love it!

So pull your courage out of the old, dusty cabinet and join me, Ashley and our families in this journey to find out what God’s models are and to bring happiness and joy back into our homes.

My Valentine's Wish

I want to be alone with Mr. Fowler

...........all day............alone...

I want to see him smile at me

I want to hear him laugh

I want to kiss him

I want to talk and to listen

I want to dress pretty

I want to smell nice

and then......................

........................I want to blog about it....:)

The Modest List

For some reason these days, I find myself on the blogs of the most fabulous mommies!

This is a link I found on one of their sites and I just could not keep this quiet!!

For all my Pentecostal fashionistas out there, this links for you....(my meg especially)(and J.R. too!)

www.themodestlist.com

This is a site with links to retailers that provide ultra hip modest clothing for a fabulous price!!!

Happy Shopping!

Self Discovery

At some point today between.....

....................breastfeeding.................homeschooling............changing some cloth diapers....................wearing my 5-month old in a sling........................reading recipes on making your own baby food.......and sleeping with 4 of my children *my husband was in there too, somewhere)...........

.....................................................I came to the realization

I am a hippie A.K.A - a Crunchy mom (see definition to follow)

Here are a list of qualifications for "crunchiness""

extended breastfeeding (beyond a year) (working on it)

cloth diapers (trying it)

homeschooling (working towards it)

drug-free births (probably wont do it - but never say never)

baby wearing (do it)

adoptive breastfeeding (would totally do it)

co-sleeping or family beds (do it)

full-time parenting (do it)

Now according to the definition I found, you can deem yourself semi-crunchy, full crunchy, or not crunchy at all......................

. Feel free to comment and tell the world your crunch factor!

The Cloth

I woke up a couple of days ago and decided to go green. We have switched our paper napkins for cloth napkins and our disposable training pants for cloth training pants.

I have been feverishly sewing the CUTEST training pants for my dear W#1. This is the explanation for the crick in my neck and the hunch in my back. (I will not go as far as to tell you that I am also switching out W#2's disposables for cloth as well, you may think I have lost my mind)

Here is a picture of my W#1's first pair of homemade cloth training pants - as modeled by him!

And a view from the back

And here we decided that worst case scenario, W#2 could wear it as a winter hat

Tribute to the Dishtowel

(Borrowed this pics offline..flickr)

I have recently discovered a love for dishtowels. They have truly aided me in keeping a clean kitchen. I thought I would pass along my system:



#1 Buy some pretty dishtowels - A dear Mrs. S bought me a pack of yellow ones

#2 Make a dirty dishtowel disposal - I use a little basket in my laundry room

#3 You will use 1 dishtowel for each meal/meal cleanup

#4 Lightly wet the towel with warm/hot soapy water and wipe the counters,high chairs & stove.

#5 Put the soiled dishtowel in its disposal

#6 Pull out a clean towel and place on the counter for the next meal (use this same towel for light cleanups before your next meal)

#7 I wash a load of dishtowels either with my towels or alone every couple of days

Seriously this has made my kitchen cleaning SO much easier. If there is any type of a mess, I just take the dishtowel that is on my counter, wipe up the mess, and set the towel back.

This cuts down on trash & expenses!!

No paper towels to throw away or buy!

Somewhere there is this sweet old grandma rocking in her rocker smiling, thinking "It took you 5 years of marriage to figure that out?"

My Husband

Billy is an amazing man.

He makes me coffee on Saturday AND Sunday and lets me drink it in bed.



He tells me I looks nice.



He slow dances with our girls.



He plays GI Joe's with our boys.



He secretly loves to clean our floors.



If he is playing a game, he wants me to play too.



He gets up with our kids at night so I can sleep - almost EVERY time



He is H-O-T hot.



He is a good kisser.



He takes care of me.



He lets me stay home.



He loves to fry and grill food...and it is the BOMB!



He helps me with the dishes before he goes and turns on ESPN.



He drove my dark pink car with no heater the first winter we were married so I could drive his NEW trailblazer (with heater).



He lets me cut his hair.



He made my little girl his own.



I love you Robert William Fowler and I am eternally yours, and proud of it!



Your Bride,



Ashley Marie Fowler

Two of my babies

Ode to Joy

Have you ever thought of what it takes for an orchestra to produce such an amazing piece of music? There are different instruments that are being played, playing at different octaves to produce harmony. When you think about it, it is many different sounds that are being put together to produce one beautiful, unified sound.

As the co-conductor of our own little orchestra, what sound are we producing? Is it a unified, harmonious music that represents all of our different interests & loves? Or does it sound like William just crashed into his cymbals?

There are definately a few notes off key like today when I was trying to take time to sew (this was not on the schedule) while William and Hannah were chasing each other around with small building blocks flying between them. Sometimes I wish God would just give me the sheet music already and just let me play; but I really dont think that is what it is all about. This is an oppotunity for me to write my own concierto.

What kind of music do I want us to make.....................

My Stud Muffin

Look Ladies, He is not Available and NEVER will be!! He is Mommy's Man!!

Christmas Morning 2008

This year was the first year that we actually put Christ back in Christmas. We avoided the commercialization of the season by only buying what the children needed and Santa brought everyone a musical instrument for the kids to play on music night

Here are 3 of my babies on Christmas Morning -

Notice Hannah's "Christmas Hat." It is actually was the only things she asked Santa for. (She later added a request for a guitar) -------->

Oh yeah - this is my man getting excited about his socks!! (above) Oh and our puppy got a keyboard! (below)

Then Daddy saved the best for last and sent Mommy (ME) on a scavenger hunt looking for clues to find her new wedding band!!! My original one has diamonds (I shouldn't be complaining right) and it always scratches my babies, so he bought me a beautiful smooth titanium band. GO DAD!!!

I hate to say it but I was ready to put up the tree this year. New Year Here I Come!

Twister

"Elf on the Shelf" brought Twister to the kids a couple of days before Christmas and we ALL played, even Mom and Dad and Houston!! What fun! Of course this could only be played with family IN the privacy of your own home!! HAHA!