This is the finished product.

Here is what you need:
Two pop cans
Tin snips
A metal file
Gasket glue
A pair of needle nose pliers
A punch and small hammer 
A sharpie
1 penny
a small handful of attic insulation

Draw a level line around both pop cans, one should be slightly higher than the other, the higher one will be the top of your stove.

Cut about an inch above the line on both cans.
This gets the can out of the way so you can cut on the line.

After cuting, file the sharp points off.

With your penny mark where it will sit in the center of the larger can.
Within the penny's cirle punch 5 small holes.

mark 16 dots around the edge,
then punch holes carefully.

Push the cans together leaving about a 1/4 " showrng on the smaller can.
File off sharp edges.

Glue all the way around the place where the cans meet. This is to make a seal.

Fill with denatured alcohol through the center fill holes.
Light and slide the penny over the fill holes in
the center.

I like my short one better.

Be safe!

                                       
                                                               Clayton

The winner is Kelsey Bryant!
Thank you to all who participated in our very first giveaway. Kelsey, we will mail the book to you tomorrow.
We also have some exciting new posts planned for July.
Blessings,
Naomi

I was so excited when the Potts asked me to make a guest post for their blog! So, this my everyday perspective from a sister that has THREE brothers and NO sisters! Did I mention that two of those three are identical twins!?! OY!

First, the bad news:
1. They find the most creative ways to annoy me. Like during school, the twins (one on each side of me), would make their art erasers climb “Mt. Eden” (that’s me) to “conquer” it. Of course, they’ve never conquered  Mt. Eden, because I always flick them off before they reach the peak (the top of my head!).
2. If I don’t hide when they play army, I become the target of their manhunt. So, no matter what I am doing, I must stop and hide when I hear them playing army. My favorite hiding spot recently (shhhh, don’t tell them!) is under our air hockey table in an old toy box.
3. They find all kinds of ways to distract me from what I’m doing … Elijah just LOVES to show me any and every thing he’s learning in school … even though I’m trying to get school done too! I mean, I don’t show HIM everything I’m learning – he’d go NUTS!
4. I’m always being tricked or scared by someone… Just the other day, I was working on my Bible narration when Jonah sneaked up behind me and I about jumped all the way TO the Holy Land!
5. They seem to do whatever they want no matter what I say … I’ve asked them (okay, yes, I’ve even yelled at them –nicely, of course!) not to mess with my toy sheep (Sheepy), but they just think it’s a big joke – APPARENTLY. On top of that, every time we go to see my grandparents, they bring along my special Lego dinosaur so that they can hide it and make me think it’s going to get lost … EVERY time we go!!! 

Okay, I could keep going, but I think you probably get the point. Besides, I really do think that the good outnumbers the bad… 

Now for the good news:
1. They’re my best friends…and my mom keeps telling me to hang in there when it’s rough sometimes (like the days I think  Sheepy is my only friend) because they’ll always be there for me in the long run.
2. There’s always someone around to be my hero. I can’t count how many times one (or all) of my brothers have come to my rescue or stood up for me.
3. I actually kind of like all the rough-housing, playing outside, racing our bikes and all that stuff … besides, I get stronger when I wrestle them … and I’m still trying to figure out  a way to get faster at running than Jonathon (he’s really fast!).
4. Since they tend to play in pairs, there’s always one of them around for me to play with and that gives me the chance to get to know them personally. I love that time. 
5.  I love that my little brother just LOVES me to read to him. Even though I get kind of tired of reading out loud to him sometimes, I love that he wants me to so badly. It makes me feel pretty special…and I feel really bad when I don’t have the time to read out loud to him.
6. I don’t have to mow the lawn, weed-eat or do other things of that nature. With three brothers and a very hard-working dad, there’s always a “man” around to take care of those sorts of things, which frees up my time to be able to do some of my favorite things, like help my mom in the kitchen, pick strawberries from our strawberry patch and work on my knitting (I’m making a scarf right now & working on a blanket for my brother).
7. There is always someone around doing SOMETHING to make me laugh…always! And they don’t even have to try!

Sometimes things happen in life- maybe a death, or hard day,  and we forget to be thankful and count our blessings.

There are so many blessings that if you started to count them it would take a long time to end!  

It's amazing how much we really take for granted, such as flushing toilets, bags to carry things in, or that we are able to read and write!

If we couldn't read you wouldn't be reading this right now and I wouldn't be able to write this. Here's a great blessing, have you ever thought about your great, great, great, great grand parents?
Well just think if they didn't get married... you wouldn't be here (not to mention your parents and grandparents...).

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to not have any arms? If you have broken your arm before, you don't
know how much you use your arm and how helpful it is to you until you can't use it.

Just think how wonderful it is to have siblings (if you do) some people are the only child in the house.
I am glad to have brothers and sisters to talk and play with all the time.

Remember YHWH is in control and there are blessings when we obey Him.

Blessings, Blessings, Blessings and more BLESSINGS! Everywhere I turn my head there's a blessing YHWH has
given me!

Things I am blessed with:
-To know Yahweh
-To have His word
-My family
-My friends
-Food and Shelter
-Faith, hope and Love

Not for any instant is this all my blessings. Blessings can also come in an unseen way, maybe you're' running late for going to a party of some sort, but you were late for a reason. Your driving to the party and you see a car accident that you could have been in if you weren't late. Then your thankful that somebody had to use the restroom, or forgot there phone or wallet and made you late.

So if your feeling down today then just remember, count your blessings!
                                        
                                                               Blessings to all,
                                                                           Lydia
  

(This giveaway is now  closed)
Hi! Welcome to our very first giveaway post! This year we had the pleasure of meeting Melanie Ellison, author of "Chucking College", at Family Week. We bought an author signed copy of "Chucking College"  with the intention of using it in a giveaway for our readers, and Melanie agreed to share a guest post with us.
   Here is how you can enter to win.
1. Leave a comment telling us one way you strive to live everyday set-apart
2. Share the giveaway on Facebook, or your blog and then comment telling us you did.
3. Tell someone in person about the giveaway, and ask them to comment that you referred them.
So there are three possible entries per person. The giveaway will end Tuesday, June 18th, at 12pm and we will be announcing the winner that afternoon.
 If you would like to purchase your own copy of "Chucking College" it is available at: http://chuckingcollege.com/Home.html
We hope you enjoy the following guest post by Melanie Ellison.
Blessings,
                                                                Naomi

What will it profit a girl if she gains the whole world but loses her soul, her lifetime financial freedom, her purity, her love of reading, her unique individuality, her entrepreneurial momentum, and four peak years of her life?
A college degree may no longer be worth the world to us when we see what we have to surrender for it.
The costs for that piece of paper—financial, emotional, spiritual, and temporal—rise higher with every graduation.


When we really think it over, a degree may not be necessary to equip us for each of our life purposes as Christian women. Having to spend all one’s time jumping through an institution’s contemporarily-hip course hoops makes it very difficult to find the time to master domestic skills we will need in our future homes. If a young woman spends four to eight years debating worldly philosophy and studying for a career, she is simply not going to possess as much competence in running a home and living a life of self-sacrifice for her man and her babies as the young woman who has been practicing those skills daily. College saps valuable time from preparing for the life many of us hope to live someday—that of a wife and mother.


Admittedly, college does have attractive benefits, but not without costs that most often far outweigh them. When family and friends say, “You’re strong enough to keep your faith through college!  You won’t become one of the 50-80% who lose their faith at college!” how do you know? Satan fell from heaven and Eve fell from the Garden of Eden!  Our hearts are deceitful, and they seek excuses to sin. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall,” warns 1 Corinthians 10:12.

 Proverbs 16:17 declares, “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he who keeps his way preserves his soul.” Therefore, according to Scripture, the descriptive characteristic of the righteous is that they are set-apart and holy—not loitering and trying to survive in the midst of those who habitually practice sin.

If we truly believe that college is often a type of Sodom, then longing for it could be as deadly for us as it was for Lot’s wife, when she looked back. Sodom, her home, was similar to college with all its attractions, stimulations, and ventures into the thrills of the world. She must have despised what was ahead of her by comparison—life in a cave. It was when she doubted the value of her forthcoming life of hardship that she longed for the familiarity she had with the worldliness of Sodom—"the treasures of Egypt,” so to speak. She looked back when she stopped looking ahead to her reward.

The enemy desperately wants to get us young ladies out from the protection of our fathers’ homes. That is why we sometimes feel the draw to think that anywhere else would be more productive than being at home. He wants to destroy us, and cannot access us as easily while we remain under authority. Realizing this can help us feel validated at home, and help us move on to be productive (have entrepreneurial businesses and ministries, and exercise hospitality) from the hub of our home.

Skipping college does not imply that we are to also give up on advanced education or perfecting our talents. Skills are vitally important to bring glory to the Name of God. Excellence is a work’s glory. So we must look for unique ways to develop skills without necessarily conforming to the college cookie-cutter pattern. 

  ***
 Melanie Ellison (22) is the author of Chucking College: Achieving Success Without Corruption. 
Her book reveals the way to obtain an advanced education without having to endure dorm immorality,
exorbitant tuition costs, and spiritual assault. Go to www.chuckingcollege.com to discover how skipping college may be the best educational decision you ever make. Or purchase the book by mailing $14.95 + $2.99 S/H to:
Melanie Ellison, 190 Vista Linda Ave, Durango CO 81303.

During Passover this year, I knew I would most likely be getting married sometime this year, so I bought several headcoverings in the MarketPlace (at Family Week). At this time, I do not believe it is commanded in Scripture for a woman to cover her hair, but I do believe it is a way to show honor and respect to my husband as the head of our family.

This is the first head covering I wore, and also my favorite. My mother-in-law gave it to me on the morning of the Betrothal. :) 

An interesting note, this week when I applied for a drivers license in my  
married name, they did not make me take off my head covering!  Several months ago when my mom renewed her license, they made her take her scarf off for 'facial recognition'.

The next two I bought because they have many colors that I normally wear, so they go well with a lot of my solid color shirts.
It's easy to just pick out a color from the scarf to wear that color of shirt.
This scarf has yellow, red, green, and blue.

This one has orange, red, greenish blue, and purple.
Having some clips in the front really helps hold the whole thing on my head, and having my hair in a bun helps keep the scarf from sliding up.

I like this flowered one, it has one of my favorite colors, green. As you can see, using two scarves is an easy way to accent a color I want to emphasize.

All of these head coverings were tied pretty much the same way.
Hopefully, I will be posting more articles sharing how-to tie and why I wear head coverings.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of my first week of wearing a head covering,




Blessings,
Naomi

Some great resources about covering your hair;
http://wrapunzel.wordpress.com/
http://followingtheancientpaths.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/headcovering-my-story/
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheStyleUnderground