Miss Jessica, Seasons of a Heart

by Miss Jocelyn

I was so pleased to interview Miss Jessica. I have known Jessica only a short while but I can see the passion she has in her heart to serve the Lord and her family. She is a wonderful encouragement and friend to me, and I hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as I have.

GGM: You just turned eighteen a few months ago and you're getting ready to graduate this year, what are some things you feel the LORD leading you towards?

Miss Jessica: The main thing I am working toward is being a passionate daughter and helping my father in whatever he needs done. This hasn’t always been my goal, but over the past year I have begun to better understand how vital this is for a family and I have tried not only to apply this to my own life, but to help other young ladies realize how important this is. As far as schooling after high school, I would like to further some of my studies in finances, prenatal care, music theory, photography, and business management. I few years ago I started the process to get a few of my sewing patterns published, but due to traveling, etc. I had to set it aside, so I would like to get back to work on them, refine my process of “pattern making” and then maybe start my own pattern business. I would also like to begin teaching harp soon. Those are the main things, but I am a rather adventurous person with a touch of impromptu, so I have a knack for starting way too many projects and running down too many rabbit trails with my ideas! However, I am trying to overcome this and be more focused on the things that need done.

GGM: Growing up what did a typical day look like and what does it now?

Miss Jessica: Well, I’m not sure we had a typical day growing up! My Father used to remodel houses to rent or sell and when I was younger all of us went to work together helping him, so each day varied as to what we did. When we didn’t have a house to work on we spent the day at home together doing school and other things around the house. As we got older we were given the option to go if we wanted or to stay home – it greatly depended on the work being done on the house at the time as to whether I went or not! However, for the past 3 or 4 years we have stopped doing houses and have concentrated on our business, the Solar Pathfinder, which we manufacture at home.

Right now my typical day looks something like this:

5:00- Rise. Bible study, internet, corresponding and sewing till breakfast

7:15- Breakfast. Family time (bible study as a family) & chores.

9:00- School and Harp practice. I’ve now graduated to the role of teacher, so I teach my two youngest brothers reading, writing and math. Harp practice is normally about 45 minutes.

12:00- Lunch & chores (Bekah and I are generally in charge of preparing lunch and supper)

1:00- Early afternoon is left for our own personal projects. Later afternoon we work for Dad either doing things like bookwork or manufacturing.

5:30- Supper, chores and family projects/activities till bed.

9:00- Bedtime.

GGM: I've seen you, your sisters and friends several times in reenactment clothes, what would you consider your favourite era based on customs and fashion? Do you sew and make any of your clothes?

Miss Jessica: Oh dear. That is a very hard question! I am an avid seamstress and historical clothes and their history is probably my forte! My family currently does Revolutionary War reenacting, and in the past we did a little Civil War reenacting as well. Each era has its own special part that I love – the only time frame I can’t find something I like is in the 1910-1920’s and then after 1950! With the revolutionary war the manners and customs still have a very English tone about them, which is very beautiful and the clothes for the Ladies I would say are much more freeing than most of the later eras.

However, I think that my favorite era is Edwardian (1900-1909). The Edwardian era unlike most of the other more popular era’s is not based around a war – it’s the height of the great expansion and incredible inventions. People were exploring places and their clothes mirror that. The styles are varying from the long trained skirts to the tailor-made walking suits; from the fine lace evening shirts to the outdoors vest and shirt. The men’s clothes are equally as interesting, especially since I enjoy western style clothes, as they can be mixed easily without looking out of place.

GGM: Share with us what you call home. Have you always lived in Tennessee?

Miss Jessica: No, I have not always lived in Tennessee. I was born in Florida, but we moved up to Indiana shortly after I was born and lived there about 7 years before moving to where we are now in Tennessee. Our home here is very unique and I totally love it! When we moved to Tennessee 10 years ago we purchased 15 acres to build on with the original intent of building a barn/workshop and living in that for 2 years while we built a log cabin home from timber off the land – it was a noble plan, but it has never come to fruition as the “barn” has been more than sufficient for us! We call it the barn because it was built look like a barn from the outside and inside we have it decorated with old antiques and country furnishings. Since then we have built a workshop (which also houses my sewing room!) and a small log cabin for our guests, so we have no need or desire to move out.

GGM: What's your favourite breakfast meal? What are some of the "stranger" meals you've have (breakfast, lunch, or dinner)?

Miss Jessica: Homemade yogurt topped with granola and a cup of coffee to top it off! A close rival to that would be creamed egg gravy over toast.

Since we travel a lot (both across the US and other countries) we have learned to make a lot of international food and we love having company over to either feed them food or have them teach us how to make new meals, so I have eaten quite a variety of things. Probably one of the strangest things I’ve had is Asian rice called sticky rice. It is high in gluten and so the rice when cooked sticks together, but it doesn’t stick to you. You can take a handful and roll it into a tight ball or any other shape you’d like! It can be eaten lots of different ways, like with chicken sauce (a hot and sweet Asian sauce) or with coconut milk and mangoes for dessert. It is a great favorite of ours! We’ve learned that it’s even great for breakfast if you have some sort of gravy for it.

GGM: I know you enjoy photography, do you do it just for fun or as a business?

Miss Jessica: I mainly do it for our family, but I have also done work for other people when requested. Photography is one of those new things for me as I’ve only been in it about 2 years, and it has been a blast! It has been especially nice since it goes so well with traveling. I like to shoot lots of different things, but I think my favorite thing to do is portraits.

GGM: Not too many people would consider taking up playing the harp as a first thought so what prompted you to learn? Is the harp the only instrument you know how to play?

Miss Jessica: I started harp probably 7 years ago and to be quite honest, I don’t even remember why I started! I do know that several girls that I knew had just started, so I’m sure that helped peak my interest. I have always had a bit of music around me – when I was quite young my Mom taught me how to play the recorder, and then I taught picked up a little guitar, but harp was the first thing I ever took lessons on. Harp has been a very unique opportunity for me as I live close to a major harp teaching center and have been able to use a lot of resources that others do not have and I absolutely love playing it! A few years ago we purchased a piano and since harp and piano are quite similar in lots of ways I have been able to transfer quite a bit from harp, but I would not consider myself a piano player though I do enjoy it.

GGM: Your family travels a lot, where are some of the places have you traveled and what has been your favourite trip so far?

Miss Jessica: Well let’s see, stateside I’ve been to nearly every state west of Tennessee except North Dakota, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona. On our east I’ve never been up in most of the northern New England states, but I’ve been to all the southern and Midwestern states. I’ve never been to Hawaii or Alaska. Outside of the states I’ve been to Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. My favorite place? There are lots of places I like, but all for different reasons and it’s hard comparing them together! I loved Wyoming and Yellowstone for the scenery, Texas just because it’s Texas (did I mention I like western things?) and Brazil for the people (and the food *grin*).

GGM: What does "silverbeam dreams" mean and how did you come up with that?

Miss Jessica: I am an animal person – if we didn’t travel so much I would have a small farm just for the personal enjoyment. My Dad knows this and a couple years ago he told me that I could get some dogs to breed. To say that I was excited is an understatement! I love research and so for the next few weeks and months I carefully studied out exactly what I was looking for as well as the pro’s and con’s of breeding. I settled on a breed – the English Cocker Spaniel. It is a protected breed that is not as popular as its sister the American Cocker Spaniel, so there aren’t as many hereditary breeding problems plus when looking at it from Dad’s point of view, it has a higher profit margin. I found a breeder in my area and we met a few times to answer a few questions I had before I laid out my entire “game” plan before Dad to get his final approval. Toward the end of my research I began seeing it entailed a lot more that what Dad originally thought and I began having doubts as to whether it would work for us. Meanwhile I had gone ahead and picked a kennel name: Silverbeam English Cocker Spaniel . I don’t really know where I got it, but I liked it, so after consulting my sister Rebekah, I settled on it. Finally after about four months of research, I got everything together and explained all that I knew for Dad. Much to my deep disappointment he said what I was afraid of… It wasn’t going to work. So that was the end of that. But Silverbeam still lives on – it’s just a dream right now. Who knows, someday I might actually have a kennel!

GGM: What have you most enjoyed about being online, blogging?

Miss Jessica: I’ve never been very good at corresponding with friends so I love the fact that I can write about life and they can write about theirs and we can keep in contact…. It has also been a wonderful way for me to learn about photography as nearly every photographer has a blog and I can learn from their pictures. The most recent thing though that I have come to realize is that it’s not just a convenient toy to keep up with friends on, but it’s a wonderful tool that I can use to encourage other young ladies on. When I was younger I had this mental thing that I didn’t like writing and wasn’t good at it – well, I’ve learned that it’s not all that bad and that I do enjoy it! The thing I need to be careful with now is not going overboard with the whole thing…

GGM: I love the sweet but firm attitude you have about sharing the Gospel with us and your willingness to give everything to the LORD. Who would you say was always there, throughout your life, encouraging you in the faith?

Miss Jessica: My Dad. I’m sure nearly everybody would give this answer, but it’s the truth! He has always had a vision for family centered worship, dominion oriented masculinity and femininity, biblical entrepreneurialism and a mirage of other things ever since I can remember! He was constantly teaching us even when others were telling him “that’s not the way we do things anymore” and before we had ever heard of Biblical-minded ministries. He has always taken the time to correct and challenge me to better things in life. Most certainly he has made an eternal difference in me and it will affect every generation after me, from my children to great-great-great-grandchildren.

Thank you Jessica for visiting with us at GGMagazine. I know I have been blessed by you and I'm sure our readers have been too! You can visit her blog here: Seasons of a Heart

Jessica and a few of her family members will be traveling once again this week and I'm sure they would appreciate any prayers for safe travel and a pleasant visit.

Blessings!

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