Favorite Things
Here you will find my recommendations for things I love to use in my writing life and beyond!
To learn more about each of my favorite things, or to purchase them, click on the image.
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Favorite Inspiring Faith-Based Movies
This inspiring movie will help you look how to access the power of it in a whole new way.
How can we strengthen and engage the younger generation? Just watch!
An inspiring and insightful video course on becoming more than just a patriot.
Living by our principles as directed by the Spirit can make a huge difference.
Sportsmanship is one thing. Turning the other cheek and then seeing the results is another.
See for yourself how involved in providing miracles God was then in this true story of severe trial.
Softening the hearts of enemies can be quite a challenge. This true story provides the answer.
A true story of one Latter-day Saint missionary rescuing many others from Nazi Germany.
Favorite Uplifting Movies
Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel will touch your heart in many ways. (This is my childhood fav.)
Sometimes you have to go to great lengths to find yourself before finding your true love.
It is possible to discover a new talent during mid-life crisis — AND save your marriage too.
Somewhere out there are the answers to life’s deepest questions if we just keep looking.
Favorite Writing Helps
Engage in everything from workshops to a semester-based academy with other writers who write for AND with God.
Free online workshops prepare you to be either an oral storyteller or one who writes down your stories (or both!)
Allen is the mentor who has made the most difference for me – teaching me to write WITH God. Get his books, coaching, and newsletter!
DVD of an amazing story-crafting retreat led by master storyteller Donald Davis. You’ll never look at storytelling the same way again!
This ingenious laptop case functions as a full office with compartments for everything and even a white-board and a light!
Favorite Sewing Supplies
A great basic serger for beginners. I’ve been serging with it for years, and it’s still going strong!
This mending kit is a DREAM. Needles, scissors, seam rippers, thread, thimbles, needle threaders and a tape measure in a great little case!
If you have never tried a rotary cutter and self-healing mat before, I urge you to get one and see how much easier cutting straight lines can be!
This ingenious tool allows you to use the large (and less expensive) huge spools of serger thread with your regular sewing machine! Simply place it behind your machine and then lead the thread through the upper loop of the tool and then thread your machine. What a money-saver!
This unique sewing machine foot allows you to take a doubled (or hemmed) strip of fabric, and as you do a standard straight stitch on your sewing machine, it ruffles the fabric! Great for anytime you need to add a ruffle to something!
Favorite Gardening Supplies
Sturdy duck fabric apron holds harvested produce or gardening supplies and then lets you empty them easily by letting down the roomy “pocket.” (I use this for working with my chickens too!)
If you have long hair and you like to garden, this wonderful hat protects your face and neck from the sun AND holds your hair back!
Harvesting potatoes has never been easier! After the plant dies back, simply unstick the “door” which has been held in place with Velcro, and then pull the potatoes out!
This sturdy gardening cart makes it easy to organize and tote around the supplies you need so you don’t have to make multiple trips!
This amazing little garden bench can also be turned over to provide you with a kneeling surface if you have a ground-level garden or low-height raised beds. Folds flat for storage.
Favorite Food Preservation Supplies
I love this 20qt canner which can be used for water-bath or steam canning. Comes with all the tools you need if you’re just getting started canning.
I love the simplicity of a weighted gauge pressure canner. This one allows me to can two layers of pint jars or a layer of quarts and a layer of pints.
With the heating element and fan in the lid, this dehydrator is much more consistent in drying than those with the element at the bottom where the heat rises. Temperature control dial makes it easy to choose the right heat level.
Using tested recipes is a must for safety when you’re canning. Ball is the leader in canning jars and in providing test-kitchened recipes. This book is a gold-mine of not only recipes, but instructions to make sure you’re canning safely.
This ultra sharp coring tool is ideal for coring pears (which in my opinion are the hardest fruit to prepare for canning). I gave up canning pears until a friend told me about this time-saving tool.
Favorite Emergency Preparedness Supplies
y NOAA programmable weather radio has been the source of a lot less anxiety while living in tornado alley. This radio warns you of all kinds of weather events and lets you program these alerts to come in from your own, and surrounding counties for maximum safety and advance warning.
This stunning and helpful book is the life work of my friend (and preparedness guru mentor) Rebecca Woods. She taught me and others many of these skills over the years she hosted annual preparedness campouts at her farm. Although the campouts are no longer being held, this book will allow anyone to learn these essential skills from Rebecca.
In this day of threatened nuclear attacks, please consider obtaining this book. I had the privilege of learning from one of the contributors to this work while attending Rebecca’s campouts. If you’re fearing the future, and are concerned about how nuclear attacks might affect you this book will arm you with the information you will need to know the possible impacts to you (depending on where you live) so you can safeguard your home and family.
If you have ever slept on a thin air mattress on the ground, you’ll be grateful for the comfort of another foot of air between you and the pebbles. As an older couple, we decided thicker air mattresses were essential to our well-being should we have to shelter outside our home during an emergency. And these mattresses have done more than that. I took mine to the hospital when Craig was in there so I didn’t have to sleep in a recliner. Yay for preparedness!
Because of being older, we can’t carry our 72 hour kits in backpacks anymore. So we packed them in rolling suitcases and then master packed the suitcases, first aid kit, sleeping bags and air mattresses onto one of these wagons. Now if we have to get out of dodge on foot, we know we can without over-exerting, losing our balance and falling, or having to leave crucial things behind. The wagon is huge, has wide all-terrain wheels and holds up to 330 pounds! Woohoo!