About Barbara Harper

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Works-For-Me Wednesday: Online shopping edition

Posted on February 6, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The first WFMW of the month is often a themed one, and this time Shannon has asked for our favorite online shops.

I love online shopping! I probably did at least half of my Christmas shopping online.

Probably everyone knows about Amazon.com. I buy a lot of books and DVDs there, and I’ve rejoiced to find used out-of-print books there, too. But I have also bought a tent and toys and I don’t know what all else.

I buy many Christian books at my local Christian bookstore — I do want to support the local economy — but what I can’t find there I look for at Christianbook.com. I’ve also bought some nice plaques there.

If you love crafts, the place to go is Etsy, where individual crafters sell their handmade items in a wide variety of categories.

I buy most of my clothes online through Woman Within (formerly the Lane Bryant catalog), Roaman’s, Just My Size, and Jessica London (all of those are plus-size stores) as well as Blair and Bedford Fair. I also occasionally buy clothes at Coldwater Creek and Silhouettes, but generally they are beyond what I like to spend. Many department stores also have online shops.

Here is a listing of other frequented places:

Current: stationery, gifts.

Oriental Trading Company: Birthday party items, also good for classrooms and VBS.

ThinkGeek: all sorts of nerdy t-shirts and gadgets like USB “toys” (like this rocket launcher).

Fabric.com: I found the Waverly fabric I wanted for my family room curtains for less, plus I found the perfect shade, which local stores didn’t carry. For many, if not all, of their fabrics, you can order a swatch first to see how you like it.

Terry’s Village: cute home decor stuff.

Lillian Vernon: I’ve bought storage-related things that that I couldn’t find locally, but they have gift items, home decor, toys, personalized items, and a number of other things.

Domestications: sheets, bedspreads and comforters, table linens.

Nanalulu’s Linen Closet: Beautiful tables linens and handkerchiefs.

Graphics for my blog or ladies’ ministry newsletter: CLM Graphics and Graphic Garden (both of these sites do have a few free graphic downloads as well).

That’s all I can think of for the moment! I did want to add, though, that many of these stores can be reached through Igive.com, which is an organization that coordinates charitable giving with shopping: a portion of each sale goes to the charity of your choice. I try to remember to start any online shopping there (they have an a-z listing of the stores who work with them as well as a “mall” where you can peruse by the type of shop you are looking for). If you don’t have a charity of choice that you support, may I suggest the Transverse Myelitis Association.

Check our more of the best of online shopping at Rocks In My Dryer.

Time Travel Tuesday: Answered prayer edition

Posted on February 5, 2008 by Barbara Harper

My Life as Annie’s weekly Time Travel Tuesday asks this week:

Today we are traveling back to a time that a prayer was answered. I have had so many prayers answered and usually in a way that is totally unpredictable and not exactly how I imagined, but BETTER! So, let’s pick one and travel back to that prayer and tell about how God worked it out or answered it for you.

It was hard to narrow this down to just one! But I think the Lord would have me share this one.

I told this story in more detail here, but to condense it a little, my family is mostly unsaved. I became a Christian when I was about 17, and since then, of course, my major concern has been my family’s salvation, though verbal witnessing has been my major failing. I have prayed and I have written to family members about salvation many times, but speaking to them about it is very hard. To me the hardest one of all — both the hardest to speak to and the hardest to the gospel — was my dad. He was an alcoholic, not the most reasonable of men, and had a very bad, very short temper. My mom’s watchword was “Stay out of his way,” so staying “under the radar,” especially if he was in a bad mood, became second nature.

My parents divorced when I was 15 and my mom took the five of us kids and moved several hours away from my dad to Houston. A few years later he moved up to Houston, but an hour away on the other side. It wasn’t long after I was saved that I went to college in South Carolina. When I wrote to my dad, sometimes I wrote out the full plan of salvation, sometimes I just wrote out a salvation verse at the end of my letter, but he never commented on any of it. I figured he just ignored or skimmed over that part.

To fast forward several years, after my husband and I were married and had my oldest two boys, my dad came to SC to visit for the first time. We asked him if he would attend church with us, and at first he said no, but later he agreed to. Then he got sick. He had just gotten out of the hospital with pneumonia not long before he came, and we figured he was just doing to much too soon. We had pinned all our hopes for his salvation on his attending that service and we were greatly disappointed when he couldn’t attend that Sunday: we couldn’t understand why the Lord would allow him to be sick after he agreed to come.

The following Monday he was considerably worse, and we took him to our doctor, who sent him by ambulance to ICU with some kind of deep-seated infection. I think it was the second or third night he was in the hospital that he almost died. When they let us in to see him, he said, “When I get home, me and the Lord and Pastor Hodges (my former pastor in Texas) are going to have to have a long talk.” He had never said anything like that before, never indicated any interest. We asked him if he would like for our pastor here to visit him, and he said yes.

So our pastor came to see him for a few minutes at a time as much as ICU would allow for several days. The first night after my dad was moved to a private room, when we came in to see him, he told us he had accepted the Lord that day when Pastor Minnick came to see him. We were bowled over!

Pastor Minnick told me later that my dad had told him that he used to read the verses I wrote about salvation. I was amazed and so thankful that the Lord worked through those, and I want to encourage those of you with lost loved ones that often the Lord is working in someone’s heart through His Word even when we can’t see any outward signs of it. Keep praying; keep sharing!

To quote from my previous post:

To share with you “the rest of the story” — my dad ended up being in SC for six weeks instead of one. When he went home, I excitedly thought this would be the catalyst to reach the rest of my family. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way. Though there were small, discernible changes, there was no big, dramatic, obvious change. My pastor here said that when someone has lived “on the other side” for so many years (Dad was 61 at this point), sometimes the changes take place more slowly. Plus he wasn’t in church being taught and being around other believers, so I am sure that hindered his spiritual growth. He did, however, love to read, and would devour Christian books I sent him. I remember one phone call when we discussed one of the books I had sent about Soviet Christians who had been imprisoned for their faith, marveling at all they had gone through and God’s grace in sustaining them. When I got off the phone, I just sat for a moment, marveling that I had just had a conversation with my father about the Lord.

He passed away at the age of 67 and I have no doubt he is with the Lord now.

Odds and Ends…

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Barbara Harper

My leg is doing better — I think we’ve turned a corner.

Super what? Am I the only person in the country totally uninterested in football? I’ve never understood it, but I have never wanted to. It doesn’t make sense to me that big burly guys are paid mega-bucks to knock down other guys, take their ball, and run away with it — when I would punish my pre-schooler for doing that. 😛

Free lovelies. I have been a fan of Karla Dornacher since I first saw her work. She has some free downloads at her blog for Girlfriend Gatherings: candy wrapper, place cards, name tags, a devotional. etc. They are available through the month of February. She also has free stationery downloads and coloring book pages at her website.

Awards. Some sweet blog friends have been very generous to me with awards recently. I’m embarrassed it has taken me so long to acknowledge some of them! My apologies!

Carolyn at Talk…to…Grams is a sweetheart whose blog name just fits: she seems like the type of person I could easily have a chat with over a cup of coffee. She passed on to me the Spread the Love award:

Cindy at Kaleidoscope has passed on to me the Excellent Award:

I’ll pass this on to:

Barb at A Chelsea Morning.
Elle at A Complete Thought.
Lizzie at A Dusty Frame.
Laurel at Laurel Wreath’s Reflections.
Kelli at There is no place like home.
Dawn at 4:53 am.
Sentiments by Denise.
Anita at My Country Cottage Garden.

Bloggy friend Jen has passed on to me the Spreader of Love award and the Forever Friends award:

I’ll pass this to:

Alice at Hello, My Name is Alice.
Barb at A Chelsea Morning.
Diane at Tomato Soup Cake.

And the:

I will pass this to:

Hello, My Name is Alice
Mama Bear at Bear In Exile.
Susan at ByGrace.
Barb at A Chelsea Morning.
Bet at Dappled Things.
Jewel at Down In My Little Valley.
Ann at From Sinking Sand.
Rita at The Jungle Hut.
Laurel at Laurel Wreath’s Reflections.
Kim at Life in the 10/40 Window.
Susanne at Living to tell the Story.
Jen at My 3 boys and I.
Carolyn at Talk…to…Grams!.
Diane at Tomato Soup Cake.
Janeen at Our Story.

And Bloggy friend Alice has given me the You Cheer Me Up award:

I’ll pass this one on to:

Melli at Insanity Prevails.
Linda at 2nd cup of coffee.
Carolyn at Talk…to…Grams!.
Kelli at There is no place like home.
Diane at Tomato Soup Cake.
Dawn at 4:53 am.
Anita at My Country Cottage Garden.

Thanks so much to each of you! I am always honored when anyone thinks of me in this way. The hardest part is passing them on because I could literally pass each one on to all of you! But I tried to narrow it down a bit.

Hope you all have a good Monday!

Catching up

Posted on February 2, 2008 by Barbara Harper

It’s funny, I felt like I had been away from my blog for several days — I was surprised to see it had only been since Thursday! I did miss out on a couple of my favorite weekly memes.

I had our ladies’ ministry newsletter due out this week plus our church has had revival meetings all week. The special meetings were great, but the combination of a busy week and being out several nights in a row left me feeling like I could sleep for a week. I just feel really tired today. Sleeping in til 8 felt like pure luxury.

The cellulitis I mentioned earlier is still there. Sometimes it looks better; sometimes it looks worse, so I am not really sure how it is doing. The doctor told me to keep my leg elevated, which has been a little hard to do with everything else going on. She didn’t say to go on bedrest, so I haven’t been sure just how much I needed to keep it up. I brought a chair next to the computer to prop it up in, but because of the angles of everything it just isn’t comfortable for very long.

So, to try to get this thing in hand I plan to pretty much take today “off” and keep my leg propped up. I have some laundry to do, but that’s about it. My dear, kind husband took care of the dishes and is making a grocery store run for me, and we’re planning on take-out pizza tonight. Thankfully last weekend I went on a cleaning frenzy, so things are in fair shape in that department. I am heading off to the couch with a book and the TV remote. Sounds like a lovely way to spend a Saturday!

I wanted to mention also that the little baby girl I asked you to pray for is doing really well, though she had some major scares along the way. She’s off the ECMO machine and ventilator and is getting some oxygen through a nasal cannula though her lungs still aren’t at full capacity yet. I think the next big hurdle is eating: she’s been fed through a tube so far while they worked on the breathing situation, so they will start trying regular feeding some time soon to see if she can learn how to suck. She’s still in the hospital but was moved to one closer to home, which is a tremendous help to the family.

Thanks to those who prayed for her! If you feel led, please continue to pray for her progress — and for healing for my leg. 🙂

A winner!

Posted on February 2, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I used the Random.Org Integer Generator to determine the winner of my Bloggy Carnival Giveaway of the book The Greatest Love Stories Ever Told. The number that came up was 41:

Jennifer of On the Path to Glory.

Congratulations, Jennifer! I’ll be contacting you in just a moment to find out where to send the book. I hope you have some quiet moments to curl up with it.

Thanks to all who participated!

The fame of godliness

Posted on January 30, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Have you ever, during or after doing something right or something for the Lord, become conscious of a desire to be thought well of or noticed or acclaimed for what you were doing?

I’m ashamed to say I have. It’s something I battle all too often.

That’s why a quote from Puritan preacher Richard Baxter recorded in the September/October 2007 issue of Frontline magazine arrested me. I searched online to try to find out where this quote was from, and found it was from a book titled The Reformed Pastor by Baxter. It’s words are true for anyone.

Truly, brethren, a man may as certainly, and more slyly, make haste to hell, in the way of earnest preaching of the gospel, and seeming zeal for a holy life, as in a way of drunkeness and filthiness. For what is holiness, but a devotedness to God and a living to him? And what is a damnable state, but a devotedness to carnal self and a living to ourselves? And doth any one live more to himself, or less to God, than the proud man? And may not pride make a preacher study for himself and pray and preach, and live to himself, even when he seemeth to surpass others in the work? It is not the work without the right principle and end that will prove us upright. The work may be God’s, and yet we may do it, not for God, but for ourselves.

But woe to him that takes up the fame of godliness instead of godliness! ‘Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.’ When the times were all for learning and empty formalities, the temptation of the proud did lie that way. But now, when, through the unspeakable mercy of God, the most lively practical preaching is in credit, and godliness itself is in credit, the temptation of the proud is to pretend to be zealous preachers and godly men. Oh, what a fine thing is it to have the people crowding to hear us, and affected with what we say, and yielding up to us their judgments and affections! What a taking thing is it to be cried up as the ablest and godliest man in the country, to be famed through the land for the highest spiritual excellencies!

Oh, therefore, be jealous of yourselves, and, amidst all your studies, be sure to study humility. ‘He that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.’

I never did like bright red as a color…

Posted on January 29, 2008 by Barbara Harper

A week ago I banged my shin on a shelf, leaving a dime-sized wound, which I thought was no big deal and would go away shortly.

Sunday night the area around and several inches below that wound was bright red — not a good sign! It looked a lot better Monday morning but was still reddish, so I called the doctor after lunch. She couldn’t see me til this morning and could only try to work me in as she had no openings.

Funny thing was, I was prepared to spend the better part of the morning there with a book, but I was in and out in an hour — that’s never happened even when I had a scheduled appointment. But I’m not complaining!

I do have cellulitis (my spell check is trying to change that to cellulites. Well, I have that, too…) It must not be too severe, because I am not having any of the other symptoms listed and it doesn’t look as bad as the pictures. But it’s nothing to play around with. I am on an oral and a topical antibiotic and am supposed to keep my foot up (I did have it up while typing til just now, but the angle at which I have to sit and type like that is awkward and not very comfortable).

The doctor also said to wrap my lower leg in an ace bandage because my ankles tend to swell and the return blood flow isn’t very good. But when I took the bandage off to put the antibiotic on, the area was bright, bright red again and felt very irritated. Sunday night when it was so red I had had knee-high nylons on at church, and I had wondered if something against the skin just irritated it. So now I don’t know whether to put the bandage back on or not. She did say I didn’t have to have it on while my foot was up, only when I was walking around.

I have a lot I need to do at the computer this week — maybe someone else in the house will let me borrow their laptop. 😀 But I’m just hoping and praying this goes away soon.

By the way, I’ve been blessed by a few blogger friends with some awards over the last several days. I wanted to let you know I appreciate them and I am not ignoring them — I will post about them later this week. 🙂

Time Travel Tuesday: Before your time edition

Posted on January 29, 2008 by Barbara Harper

My Life as Annie’s weekly Time Travel Tuesday asks this week:

For this week’s time travel we will be traveling back really really far! Travel back to the oldEN days… how did your parents meet?

Well, my dad used to ride in rodeos. I don’t know what events for sure, but one day he was riding a bull that threw him: he sailed through the air, and as he came down, the bull’s horn ripped his pants leg. My mom was a teen-ager and thought the bull had ripped into his leg. She dashed into the eating area to tell her parents all about the guy whose leg had been slashed by a bull, when in he walked with nothing worse than a ripped pants leg. That’s all I can remember of the story — I imagine she was embarrassed. I don’t know if they continued to see each other there before he asked her out or if he asked her out right away. He was seven years older than she was.

The plan was for my mom to work two years after graduating from high school, and then they would get married, but my father’s father had cancer and said if they wanted him to be at their wedding they should probably move it up. So they got married in June not long after my mom graduated. I was born two years later; my grandfather did pass away before I was born..

Sadly, they divorced after eighteen years and five children. My mom said if they had waited the two years, they likely would not have gotten married. But then I wouldn’t be here, so I have mixed emotions about that. 🙂 They were not Christians at the time, and I believe they both did come to know the Lord, my dad about six years before he died at the age of 68, and my mom in her later years. Though I wish they had both believed sooner, I am glad I have the hope of seeing them again.

Bloggy Giveaway Carnival

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Comments are now closed. I will be drawing a winner in moments.

Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer and Bloggy Giveaway fame is hosting another Bloggy Giveaway Carnival like the Fall Y’all and Dog Days of Summer giveaways she hosted previously. You can read her guidelines here and the list of links of participants for this giveaway is here.

With Valentine’s Day coming up soon, I wanted to give something that would fit in with that holiday. For your inspiration I’m giving away a copy of this book:

The Greatest Love Stories of All Time published by Standard Publishing.

From the Introduction:

“The Greatest Love Stories of All Time was compiled to celebrate God’s gift of romantic love. It contains stories of love won and lost lost, love cherished and love scorned, love that brings new life and love that gives is life for the object of its affection.”

There are 31 excerpts from classics like Jane Eyre, Cyrano de Bergerac, A Man Called Peter, and Through the Shadowlands or poems from Anne Bradstreet and Robert Louis Stevenson.

If you’d like to be entered in the drawing for this book, leave a comment on this post. I will close the comments at noon EST on Saturday, Feb. 2, and choose a name with the help of a random number generator. Please enter just one comment per person. This contest is open to international as well as US participants.

I have another idea of two that I might post for a second giveaway later this week if I can make it come together. In the meantime, enjoy perusing all the great giveaways this week via Bloggy Giveaways!

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Old-fashioned

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Barbara Harper

PhotoHunt

Theme: Old-fashioned | Become a Photo Hunter

This theme reminds me of a song on a Mandy Patinkin CD that I have which has the line, “I’m old-fashioned, but I don’t mind it.” 🙂 I tend to be old-fashioned in a lot of my tastes and views. The only things I’m terribly modern about are my appliances and technology.

I thought of using my show and tell post from yesterday about an old raisin rack and a cross-stitched sampler as double duty today since they’re very old-fashioned. But I decided to go with something different, though this picture also did appear on a previous show and tell post.

I love old-fashioned looking jewelry, and these are a few of my favorites. None was very expensive; all but two were gifts. But I just love how they look.