Secret Keeper Girl

Posted by Jacqueline Gardner, SKG Cast, Last year, our ministry team fasted along with thousands of other ministries and churches as we started the new year. We asked the Lord to heal one of the students from our sister ministry Grace Prep high school…and He did! We asked Him to provide financially for our ministry…and He did! We asked Him to draw near…and He did. Several individuals also petitioned God for personal issues and saw Him miraculously answer their requests. It was such a blessing to us, so we’re doing it again and hope you join us! We’re joining with tens of thousands of other Christians to start the year with the Lord!

This might even be a unique opportunity to introduce your daughter to the topics of prayer and fasting. She may be little, but she is more than capable of digging deeply into relationship with God! Teach her the reasons why we fast and perhaps see if she’d like to participate (with you, of course!). Ask her what she could give up for twenty-one days. Facebook? Sweets? TV? Then help her come up with prayer requests both for herself and for the people around her. Walk through the fast together!

We recommend www.awake21.org as a great means of training, encouragement, and support. We’ll start January 10th and end on January 31st!

Cookie artist and mom extraordinaire Anne Yorks teamed up with her Secret Keeper girl Grace to bring you this sweet and simple Christmas cookie recipe, perfect for last-minute gifts! Plus, you get a mother/daughter baking bonanza date out of the deal. Have fun!

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Hi! My name is Anne Yorks and I am so excited to be guest blogging with Secret Keeper Girl today! I LOVE to bake and decorate cookies and blog, too. I have an online cookie company that I operate from my home in Bellefonte, PA. That’s right…I’m a work-from-home mom! I don’t just love cookies; I actually get a little crazy about cookies. You can check out the craziness at my blog!

The Christmas story is one of my favorites from the Bible. It’s a story of love, faith and miracles! As a newer Christian, it’s a story of God’s love that I can easily share with friends and my children. One of my favorite things about the Christmas Story is the angels. It was an angel that visited Mary and Joseph to foretell the birth. It was a host of angels that visited the shepherds in the field proclaiming Jesus’ birth, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14.

Today, I want to share with you a lovely angel cookie project you can do with your children using a ‘no chill’ roll-out sugar cookie recipe. Plus, I include a few tips for decorating with kids. Using this no-chill recipe definitely saves some time, but I recommend planning for at least two hours to bake and decorate your cookies. Don’t be afraid to pick up a ready to roll package of dough at the grocery store. Busy moms shouldn’t have to miss out on baking with their children!

The recipe I used for this project is from Wilton (www.wilton.com). **It is important not to soften your butter before mixing. Using it straight out of the refrigerator will keep your dough cooler and allow you to roll dough without chilling it first!

You’ll need:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
First, find a super cute helper…

Meet my little helper, Grace. She is four and a pro in the kitchen.

Next, turn on Christmas music : )

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Grace is in charge of adding ALL the ingredients. I help her with the measuring.

In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg and vanilla. Grace loves to crack eggs…but I do check for shells.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition.

Do not chill dough.

Divide dough into two balls.

On a floured surface roll each ball into a circle approximately 12″ wide and 1/8″ thick.

Dip cookie cutter in flour and cut out cookies. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 6 - 7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. It helps to line pans with parchment paper for easy cookie removal.

While the cookies cool, we mixed our icing. I use royal icing on my cookies. Here is the recipe:
¼ cup meringue powder (you can also use eggs whites or an egg white substitute)
6 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 lb powdered sugar (approx. 4 cups)

Blend ingredients together in mixer for 5-7 minutes. It will be thick like toothpaste.

Using food coloring, I made three colors: white, pink, and yellow. If you’re new to cookie decorating, don’t try to mix too many colors. Simple is better.

Using a spoon or spatula, put the icing in piping bags with a #2 or #3 icing tip. Don’t overfill your bags…it’s easier for little hands to squeeze a smaller bag. The bigger the tip number, the bigger the opening – this also makes it easier for children to squeeze the icing onto the cookie. If you don’t have icing bags or tips, a Ziploc bag also works great…just load your icing in the bag and trim off the corner so you can squeeze your icing out. Close your icing bag with a rubber band or a twist tie. Otherwise, the icing will squeeze up and out of the bag while decorating.

I like to sketch my cookie designs ahead of time. It helps me to think about how I want to decorate the cookies. When decorating with kids, keep it simple. Lines, dots and swirls are fun and easy to do. I have an angel cookie cutter, but if you don’t, just get a little creative. You can use a snowman, a tree, or a gingerbread man or woman.

We made white, pink and yellow icing for our angels.

Plus, don’t forget to add some sprinkles to your cookies!!

I stuck to my decorating plan.

And, Grace stuck to hers. She giggled the whole time. She especially loved to use a flower/star tip with tons of sprinkles!

Royal icing will dry hard like candy. So if you let your cookies dry for a few hours, you can package them up and use them as gifts! Grace is giving a cookie to each of her friends at her preschool. Cute, huh?

When I was a little girl, my mom and I always baked and decorated cut-out sugar cookies. Now that I’m a mother, there is no greater joy than sharing time with my daughter in the kitchen! I think it is these precious memories with my mom that set the foundation for my passion for baking and running my own little cookie shop on the web at www.flourboxbakery.com.

P.S. Check it out. Anne even makes Secret Keeper Girl cookies!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and our team members always get excited about celebrating their favorite Christmas traditions with family. Check out what they are, embarrassing pictures and all!

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Dannah Gresh, Bestselling Author and Creator of Secret Keeper Girl says: Our family tradition always includes conquering the forest! No pre-lit artificial tree in the Gresh house, we hit the forest to find the perfect tree. Even at the ages of 21, 18, and 17…our kids love this tradition. We start with a big family breakfast certain to include Peppermint Bark Pancakes—just chop up peppermint bark and add it to your pancake batter for a delightful treat—and a lot of laughter. What memories! There was the year that Robby split his pants straining to saw a tree down. And then this year…the tree that looks so good in the forest but it was surely a candidate to star as Charlie Brown’s tree once we shook it out at home! (Peacock feathers to the rescue as fillers!) No matter what tree tradition you may have, be sure to add in the Peppermint Bark Pancakes at some point this year!

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Erin Davis, Author and National Speaker, including our Secret Keeper Girl Live events AND our Pure Freedom teen events says: We started a new Christmas tradition at our house this year. On the night we decorated our Christmas tree, I made Chicago style deep dish pizza. Yum! We all got to munch while we trimmed the tree without the need for a big, fancy meal that requires a lot of effort and cleanup. And my sons, Eli and Noble, loved getting to put the toppings on their own pizza pie. We will definitely be decorating and eating Chicago-style for many years to come! We don’t have a picture, but just imagine those two adorable boys enjoying a big slice! (pssst, we’ve even included the “Erin original” recipe so you can make your own deep dish pizza! Here it is: deep-dish-pizza.doc)

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Suzy Weibel, Author and Secret Keeper Girl First Lead Teacher says: Our favorite Weibel family tradition is taking a hit minus one person this Christmas. =( That’s because one of our traditions is to receive a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve, and my oldest daughter is not only out on her own as of this year, but will also be in Florida on Christmas Eve! But we will boldly carry on the tradition without her. Sometimes the PJs are warm and toasty, sometimes they are soft and silky. There have been robes and slippers involved as well. This feels like a soft and silky Christmas to me… but don’t tell my family! They’ll just have to be surprised… or catch up with the Secret Keeper Girl blog if they want a spoiler. Our tree tradition is fun, too. We decorate the tree with white lights and a slew of antique ornaments collected over the years. We especially LOVE tall trees! This year ours is 11 feet! We finish the decor with Christmas postcards from the 1800s that actually have readable letters and postmarks on the back. Most were received by my great grandparents when they were children. Check out the picture of Marie on the ladder for comparison!

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Jacqueline Gardner, Secret Keeper Girl Lead Teacher says: Growing up, one of my favorite family traditions was going to the Milwaukee Zoo! I know, I know, most normal people go to the zoo in the summertime. Not us! Each December the zoo jazzed up their animal exhibits with bunches of twinkling lights and Christmas decorations. Some of the inside exhibits even had craft stations where you could make ornaments or Christmas gifts. We’d bundle up in our snowsuits and boots and head out to watch the polar bears (they were pretty much the only animals still outside in December). Then we’d ride the zoo train (yup, a train that takes you around the park!) and sip lots of yummy hot cocoa with marshmallows. Our noses were red but it was worth it. This picture is from way back when…I’m the one in the middle with the big pink headband. Pretty trendy, I know. Not sure who’s in the deer costume…

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Laura Bryan, Secret Keeper Girl Cast Member says: We love to play in the snow! Across the street from my house in Pfeffelbach, Germany is a farm, and the farmers always use their tractors to clear the streets of the snow and ice. Well that snow has to go somewhere…and it goes in a mountain of a pile right across the street! Every year we play on it or in it. One year my siblings and I made a huge igloo inside of it, we could fit at least five people! AND it wasn’t like a can of sardines, we could all sit up inside of it! Since we don’t spend as much time in the snow as we did when we were younger, we now just play “King of the Hill” on the snow bank. Unfortunately, my dog Cleo won this year. This picture shows all of the contenders from the “2010 King of the Hill: Pfeffelbach Edition.”

 This contest is closed.

Thank you all for your sweet, kind entries! Our team was touched as we read through them. We wish we could send all of them a gift basket! The randomly selected single mom winners were:

Mary (nominated by Lori)
Victoria (nominated by Rebecca)
Madeline (nominated by Denise)

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Posted by Jacqueline Gardner, SKG Team Member, In between tree-trimming, Christmas-caroling, and gift-wrapping, it’s easy to forget that for some, the holiday season is an especially difficult time of year. Single moms usually have their hands full–going to work every day, chauffeuring the kids’ from school to sports to activities, putting food on the table and keeping the bills paid. And they do it without a whole lot of help or support!

This Christmas, we’d really like to bless some of those moms. We’re giving away three (3) Secret Keeper Girl gift baskets just for single moms! The basket includes a copy of Six Ways to Keep the Little in Your Girl, all four of our Secret Keeper Girl fiction books, and the 8 Great Dates for Moms and Daughters kit.

We need you to nominate the most deserving single mom you know. In 300 words or less, leave a comment telling us about her and letting us know why she should win! All stories will be individually evaluated and qualified by our team. On December 20th, we’ll randomly select three winners out of all the qualified entries!

Posted by Jacqueline Gardner, SKG Staff, We’ve been getting really excited about the new release, Six Ways to Keep the Good in Your Boy, and we know you have, too! Although we can’t ship for regular orders until January 2nd, we do have a few dozen advance copies currently in house. Want one early? Here’s the deal.

It’s simple. Like a gift exchange. Donate at least $100 to Pure Freedom, and we ship you an early bird copy of Six Ways to Keep the Good in Your Boy. You give to us, and we give to you.

See, in case you didn’t know already, we actually ended our year with a $40,000 deficit. Although we’ve grown leaps and bounds in terms of our base of support, our off-road months and some unexpected SKG tour expenses (our trailer and show laptop both needed to be replaced this fall!) has left us with a big need. Quite frankly, we need $40,000 and we need it by December 31st.

We so love what God has called us to do and it is thrilling to watch as hundreds of thousands of lives are stamped with His truth about beauty and sexual purity each year, but such good fruit is only made possible by a lot of hard work and sweat from a sacrificial team, and generous contributions from you. Would you consider partnering with us? Help us nail some truth to the wall of this world? Consider writing your biggest end-of-year tax deductible gift to Pure Freedom and begin partnering with us month? If you decide to become a monthly donor for 2012, you’ll get a free book too as long as give at least $100 by the end of the year.

We love you all so much. Thanks for helping us spread Truth!

Posted by Jacqueline Gardner, SKG Cast, Wow, what a year! Our Secret Keeper Girl team has traveled far and wide to bring the Pajama Party insanity to tween girls across America…and even to Canada, eh! What a journey it has been.

Traversing mountains ranges, desert plains, and even frozen lakes, we’ve braved the elements to bring Secret Keeper Girl LIVE, complete with giant slingshots, gameshows, and good times, to screaming tween girls everywhere. We’ve seen giggles, tears, and lots of hugs as labels come off and God’s Truth goes on. We’ve also been able to watch moms and daughters connect with each other in new ways…sometimes even for the very first time.

As you might already know, our Secret Keeper Girl touring team isn’t all that great at math, but there are certain kinds of numbers they just love. Like these ones! In 2011, the SKG Team…

• Visited at least 64 different cities (that’s a lot of driving…)
• Blew up more than 25,600 balloons (that’s a lot of air!)
• Pajama-partied it up with 33,000 moms, daughters, aunts, grandmas, sisters, cousins, and friends! (whew, that’s a lot of estrogen).
• Used the giant slingshot 448 times (we’re getting pretty good…except we still need to work on not hitting our sound guy with the t-shirts…)
• Signed approximately 3,572 autographs (whew, that’s a lot of writing)
• Sponsored 818 children through Holt International (that’s awesome!)
• Welcomed just over 600 new princesses to the Kingdom! (that is incredible.)

We couldn’t have done it without YOU! Thank you ladies, for a fantabulous season. We can’t wait to do it again! Remember, God made you beautiful and He loves you very much. (And we do, too!)

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Keep watching the tour schedule to find a tour stop near you in 2012!

Were you at a Secret Keeper Girl stop this spring? What was your favorite part?? 

Dear Secret Keeper Girls,

We have been so blessed to meet all of you this season! In between the laughter, the balloons, the giant slingshot, the crazy props, the insanely hip fashion show and the midnight madness, the BEST part of the pajama party tour has been YOU. We love being your tour guides through Secret Keeper Girl land, but nothing compares to how we feel when you rip off your labels, reconnect with your mom, and become a true princess.

Tonight’s show in Tupelo was a blast! Unfortunately, our photographer had to leave in the middle of the show, so we don’t have any pictures! Did you take any? If so, post ‘em on the Secret Keeper Girl facebook page!

This season has been stupendous. We’ve laughed. We’ve cried. We’ve embraced our royalty as daughters of the King! Could there be anything better?

Well, we really do like chocolate…

But no! Nothing could compare! We love you girls.

Forever yours,
Laura and Jacqueline, SKG Cast

 THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. THE WINNER WAS KRYSTAL STACE!

FOR ANOTHER CHANCE TO BE A FINALIST IN OUR DOLL GIVEAWAY, KEEP AN EYE ON OUR FACEBOOK SITE AND THIS BLOG!

Posted by Jacqueline Gardner, SKG Team Member, Ready or not, Christmas is coming and your Secret Keeper Girl will soon be begging you for presents and toys and dolls galore! As you shop, keep in mind that the type of dolls your little girl plays with will play a critical role in the development of her executive function and self control. Role playing with dolls now is simply practice for how she’ll live when she grows up later. So the question to ask when you’re perusing the toy shelves this year is: what do you want her to practice?

The fish-net-stockined, made-up, pouty-lipped Monster High and Bratz dolls teach girls to model what psychologists call “seduce the boy,” not something appropriate for Secret Keeper Girl to be practicing since that type of play leads almost exclusively to early sexualization.

Our Secret Keeper Girl fiction dolls each come with an adorable outfit, their corresponding character-comedy fiction book, a doll-sized Bible and a bunch of love and prayers. But that’s it. The rest is up to your daughter’s creativity!

We’re giving away a FREE Danika Doll this Christmas (simple, right!) and this is your last and final chance to enter! We’ve already selected three finalists…could you be number four? If you are, you’ll win a free set of our four fiction books and become a finalist to win Danika! So here’s your challenge, should you chose to accept it:

• STEP ONE: It can be difficult to wade through the toy store shelves, so we’d like to help you strengthen your shopping skills. We’ve hidden a picture of our Danika doll  somewhere on one of our website pages at www.PureFreedom.org. Can you find her? (Here’s a little hint: You won’t find it in our bookstore or bios. Start at the home page and think global!) When you stumble across the right page, she has a special question to ask you! THIS is the picture you’re looking for:

• STEP TWO: Post your answer here. Don’t give away the question…gotta make the other moms do a little searching of their own! The last and final finalist will be randomly selected on December 2nd. Happy searching!

Posted by SKG Intern, Laura Bryan  As girls, we all love a romantic story. Well, I am allowed to tell you a love story every night at SKG Events around the country! You know the one… where the very ROYAL Prince leaves His castle to be near the poor and simple Maiden. That Prince is Jesus and He left His home in Heaven to be near us, the beautiful Maiden. He loves us, and He wants us to love Him back. He came all the way to earth as a human just to woo us! The question is, how does the story end? Do we give our love back to Jesus, or do we ignore His affections for us? I gave my love back to Jesus when I was just five years old. And tonight, four girls decided to start their love story with Jesus! What a beautiful ending to the best love story of all.