Being Thankful in Hard Times (and good!)

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I wanted to share with you all the post I wrote today on MOHL (Meditations of His Love). :) It's all about being thankful in hardship, and ways we can be thankful and have a thankful spirit, even if we don't "feel" like it. :) My family has had lot's of experience with this in the past and I hope this post will be an encouragement to you all! Even if you are not experiencing any hardship right now, check it out any way. ;)

Oh, and today is Veteran's Day! Be sure to thank the Lord for our med/women in arms who are protecting us. :) And for all those who have done so in the past too! If you know someone who was in the armed forces, be sure to thank them...send them a card, or bake them something special too if you'd like! :)

Blessings to you all!
~Rachel~

Vote for Feelin' Feminine & A Pondering Heart! :D

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Feelin' Feminine is in the "Best Teen Group Blog Award" in the 2009 Home School Blog Awards! Yeah! :D FF has really picked up this year and there are 100 people on the blog roll and over 5oo subscribers! Jessica and I have really enjoyed being a part of the FF writing team the past few months! :) If you have enjoyed Feelin' Feminine, please go and vote! ;) You can show your support by grabbing the blog button here and following the other directions. :)

Jocelyn's personal blog, A Pondering Heart is also in the Awards under "Best Teen Gals Award"! :D She really writes straight from her heart and digs into the Word to find what God really has to say about controversial issues. :) I have so enjoyed getting to know Jocelyn better and reading her articles on her blog. :) Now, be sure to go and vote for her! ;D

Thanks you and have a Blessed Day!
~Rachel~

And the Winner is....

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...Maria Smith!!!!!! :D
Congratulations Maria! We hope this dvd will be a great encouragement to you on your Christian walk! :) We will be getting your dvd to you soon. Please leave us a comment (will not be published) or an email at younghomemakers@inbox.com with your address so we can mail it out to you (do so as soon as possible please)! :D

We'd like to thank all of you so much for your participation in our giveaway! It was our biggest so far with 25 people entering! :D This has been so much fun! And we really appreciate all your kind and thoughtful comments too! ;)

God Bless and have a great weekend!
~Rachel & Jessica~

p.s. - we used random.org random generator to pick the winner. ;)

Last Day of "Return of the Daughter's" Giveaway!!!

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It's the last day of our giveaway! If you haven't had a chance to get entered you still have time! :D Our giveaway ends TONIGHT at 12:00 pm. EST! Hurry and enter! ;)

We'd like to send a BIG THANK YOU to all those who have entered already! :D This is the most people we have had to enter one of our giveaways so far! :) This has been so much fun! I can't wait to get to know all our new followers better! :) We have so enjoyed everyones comments and it will help us to improve our blog and make it even better! ;) We'll try to announce the winner as soon as possible for you all so you don't have to wait long. ;D

Blessings to you all Dear Sister's in Christ!
~Rachel and Jessica~

My First Baked Cheesecake! :D

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I have never attempted a baked cheesecake before. :) There, I said it. ;) Lol!

I have always made our family's favorite no bake cheesecake, which is easy and delicious, but not quite the same thing. Plus, it doesn't have that sense of accomplishment along with it. ;) I had wanted to try a baked one before this, but for many various reasons, I just never have. :) Until now! I wanted to celebrate my feeling better and the good report from my Dr. :) And, I just "happened" to have all the ingredients! So, Cheesecake here I come! ;D Lol!

I did my research first.

Water bath...check.
Room temperature ingredients...check.
Don't over-mix...check. :)

Recipe for the BEST New York Style Cheesecake...check! ;D

I didn't have any trouble at all with this, it turned out almost perfect. :) Just a bit more of the sour cream topping spread more evenly would have been nice, but I'll work on that. ;) Just be sure to mix together slowly, and do just what the recipe says. :)

The Results.....

A perfect cheesecake with no cracks! ;D Woohoo! Well, almost perfect. That spot at the top is driving me nuts without hardly any topping on it. :P And then there's that glob on the bottom....Oh, well. ;) You won't be able to tell when it has cherry topping on it. :D *licks lips in anticipation* ;D

My tips:
1. Use a flat object like a cup or a measuring cup to flatten out the crust crumbs in the pan. This helped me a lot, it wouldn't flatten with just my hands very well and wasn't very even.

2. I filled a casserole dish (an oven safe bowl or anything like that would work) about a little less than half way with hot water and placed it on the rack under the cheesecake.

3. I also put a cookie/baking sheet underneath the spring-form pan with the cheesecake in case it dripped out some (which it didn't). Another site said you could line the pan with foil, but I didn't want to do that.

4. Have the ingredients at room temperature before mixing. A site I looked at recommended 1/2 hour. One reason cracks form is because they are too cold when put in the oven. ;)

5. Mix together ingredients SLOWLY!!! You don't want to mix in too much air. That is part of the reason the cracks form in a cheesecake. And be sure your cream cheese is soft first, before adding other ingredients to it, that way you don't get lumps in your batter. You can microwave the cream cheese if you need to for a bit. Try it on 15 min for each bar of cream cheese, and then just add another 15 min. at a time until you can kind of stir it around and it's softer, but not melted. ;) Lol!


Have you signed up for our giveaway yet? :) You only have until tomorrow night to enter! ;D

Have a Blessed Afternoon! :D
~Rachel~