The Challenge- Day 2

Outfit Specifics:

Shirt- Another $5 Savers find

Skirt- I made two years ago (same as yesterday)

Thank you Pierce for taking the photo!

Lauren

The Challenge-Day 1

Thank you Pierce for taking the photo!

Outfit specifics:
Shirts- $5 tee from Old Navy and $5 shirt from Savers
Skirt- I made two years ago
Shoes- flip flops from WalMart
Hat- from my Grandma

I know that there is not an official Feelin' Feminine all-skirts challenge this month, but I am doing it anyway. I hope this will encourage you to honor your earthly father and heavenly Father by dressing modestly in a feminine way.

"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you." Exodus 20:12

Lauren Ashley

You Must Be a Home Educator If...

Lucas and Stephen holding our TEA Party signs

You live in a one-house schoolroom.

You know what math manipulatives are.

You have mold growing in your fridge... on purpose.

You've mastered the fine art of vacuuming a floor without sucking up a Lego or K'nex piece.

Your students have to clear the breakfast bowls off the table before sitting down to do their school work.

Your house is mess, but your kids are happy.

You shop for birthday presents at educational stores.

All you want for Christmas is a Barnes & Noble gift certificate.

You'd rather buy books than clothes.

Your friends don't want to help you move because you have so many books.

You get nervous about what people will say when you take your kids to Wal-Mart in the middle of the day.

When you see a parking lot full of 15 seater vans you wonder if there's a homeschooling conference.

You take a suitcase full of books along on your family vacation.
You're willing to drop what you're doing at a moment's notice to go look something up in a dictionary or encyclopedia.

You don't get fired for teaching your students about God.

Some days you learn as much as your students.

Lauren Ashley

Move Update

Every other time we have moved, people have said, "We will miss you." but this time almost everyone has immediately said, "Can we come with you?" or "I would love to come!" Many of our friends are seriously thinking about moving to the Austin/San Antonio area in the next couple years.

For those of you who thought we were already on our way to TX: My family is staying one more week in CA. We were planning to leave yesterday, but it worked out to be easier (and cheaper) to stay here longer. Why? It looked like the closing date for the house would get pushed off a week, when Dad called U-haul about a moving truck and found out that he could save $1000 by waiting a week before renting the truck (so many people are moving out of CA that they had a shortage of trucks). Not only that, but Dad's business trips also needed to be changed to different days, which fit in perfectly with us waiting one week before moving.

One of our friends told Mom about a map online showing migration within the US, county by county, in 2008 (the patterns have not changed much since then). Here is the exact link. I combined the maps of several San Jose-San Francisco counties to make one map and several Austin-San Antonio counties to make another. The red lines represent outward migration, and the black lines represent inward migration. It seems odd to apply the term migration to humans, but it describes the way we move perfectly. Go to the link and click on any major city and you will see that large amounts of people move in/out depending on whether they are liberal/conservative, concentrating in certain areas.

OUT

IN

I can't wait until we are done with the leaving and packing, and are on our way to TX.

Lauren Ashley

Feelin' Feminine Challenge

(Note: I just looked at Feelin' Feminine and this month they are not doing the normal all-skirts challenge, but instead doing a challenge to use all-natural ingredients instead of chemical shampoo. I will be doing the all-skirts challenge anyway in hope that you will join me next month.)

Through Feminine Farmgirl (a blog I follow) I found out about the Feelin' Feminine Challenge. The challenge is to wear only skirts/dresses for an entire week. I will be joining the challenge in August and will be posting pictures of what I wear every day here. I know that some of you do not have blogs, but you can still join the challenge anyway (please leave a comment to this post that you are doing so). If you do not have a blog, you are welcome to post comments about what you think of the Challenge.

Below I have copied information about the Challenge and Mission from the Feelin' Feminine website.

 Our Mission:

To encourage, inspire, and challenge young ladies to rediscover the treasure of dressing in a feminine manner. So we may be an example in a world where true beauty has been lost – in a world where beauty is defined by the culture. We hope to convey a message that true beauty is an inward appearance of the heart and spirit that is shown outwardly in dressing in a manner that is and directs all radiance and honour to our Maker, and not one for self-gain.

The Challenge

The challenge is to wear only skirts/dresses for an entire week of seven days, and then post a photo of your outfits (head to toe) on your blog. If you don’t have exactly seven different skirts, that’s alright. Mix and match with different shirts. We can be not only feminine and modest, but frugal too!

What is on the inside will show on the outside so dressing in a feminine manner in this way shows what we desire and strive for at  heart. Why dresses and skirts, you ask? Read through the website. Dressing in a feminine manner doesn’t mean you must lose your respectability. It means you value your respectability and wish to honour to the Father and to yourself more than the whims of society.

If you want to “personalize” your outfit a bit more you can add a hat, a scarf, a headband, a matching purse  – whatever you like! You can also style your hair in different ways each day. We do want to encourage you to remember our focus is not to be fashionable or blend in with the world, but to be set apart in our dress.

While there are no outfit ‘requirements’, we do ask, for the sake of our mission, writers, and readers please make sure that your dresses and skirts are at least knee length and that none of your shirts are sleeveless. Show us pictures of daily activities of you in your skirts.

I’ve heard a lot of ladies tell me that they don’t like wearing skirts because they can’t be active in them. I very much so disagree. I’ve worn skirts everyday since 2005 and they haven’t stifled my activity in the least. I still do all the things I used to do, but in a more mindful and ladylike way. Try it.

Already Wear Skirts?

If you already wear skirts on a regular basis, please don’t let that stop you. Participate anyway! This is for all ladies – ask your mother, sisters, grandmas, aunts, and girlfriends to do it with you! Post a flier at your church – email us, we will send you one to print out!

The Goal Of The Challenge:

As our Mission Statement says we want to encourage, inspire, and challenging young ladies to rediscover the treasure of dressing in a feminine manner. Do some evaluating of yourself at the end of the week and compare it to your regular way of dress. These questions should help you along:

How was the experience for you?

Any particular stories?

Did wearing skirts rather than pants affect the way you felt?

The way you felt about yourself?

The way you acted?

The way you carried yourself?

Were you able to go about everyday activity as freely as pants?

How did people respond?

After the challenge do you desire to keep wearing skirts more regularly, or were you desperate to wear pants again?

If you’d like to have your answers to the above questions share on the site, please gohere to do so. We’d love to hear them.

The Challenge usually “officially” takes place at the beginning of each month for a week. We will post an article with a link to the host-blog so you can join in with other participants. This certainly does not mean we only want you to actually do the challenge then or don’t do it because you missed the first day. We always want to see photos and always want you to join us, no matter how late in the week!

I hope you join me!


Lauren Ashley