Another Birthday

It's happened again. As it does every year. I had another birthday. Now I have to go through all my bios and change my age. Again.
Honestly though, I really don't mind. I love turning a year older, and I've been looking forward to it ever since I turned sixteen last year. ;)
But I also know that every year I get older, I will begin to get less excited about my birthday...and I'm not looking forward to that. So, while I can, I'm going to continue to be excited about getting older and, hopefully, more mature.

Here are a few things I look forward to doing during my seventeenth year:

1: Finishing school once and for all
2: Graduating
3: Making new friends
4: Getting to know my old friends better
5: Hopefully gaining wisdom
6: Getting better at driving
7: Finishing several of my books and self-publishing them

Those are only a few, but enough to give you a picture of what this year holds for me.

For fun, here is the definition of 17, the age I'm turning, as well as some random facts:

17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number.
In spoken English, the numbers 17 and 70 are sometimes confused because they sound similar. When carefully enunciated, they differ in which syllable is stressed: 17 /sɛvɨnˈtiːn/ vs 70 /ˈsɛvɨnti/. However, in dates such as 1789 or when contrasting numbers in the teens, such as 16, 17, 18, the stress shifts to the first syllable: 17 /ˈsɛvɨntiːn/.
The number 17 has wide significance in pure mathematics, as well as in applied sciences, law, music, religion, sports, and other cultural phenomena.

Random facts on the number 17:

1. Seventeen is the number you’re most likely to pick if you’re asked to choose one at random.

2. Seventeen is the atomic number of chlorine.

3. Stegosaurus had 17 bony plates on its back.

4. The minimum possible number of givens for a Sudoku puzzle with a unique solution is 17.

5. The okapi is the only mammal that can clear its own ears with its tongue, which can grow to 17 inches (about 43 centimetres) long.

6. The middle verse in the New Testament is Acts 17:17.

7. The Smashing Pumpkins realeased a song called 17 that is 17 seconds long with no vocals. It comes with a poem and if you read this at a standard speed, you will finish at the end of the song.

8. At 17 weeks pregnant, if you were to hold your baby, she would fit snugly in the palm of your hand.

 9. Seventeen is the number of syllables in a haiku.

10. To call the police in France, you dial 17.

11. There are 17 different ways that a wallpaper design can repeat.

12. A cow's saliva increases by 17% while grazing.

13. Seventeen steps lead up to Sherlock Holmes' house at 221B Baker Street.

14. A wild goose will accept as its parent whatever creature it sees within its first 17 hours of life.


I'm going to finish this post with a song I wrote. The name of the song is "Lead Me Lord" and I hope you enjoy it:

Lead Me Lord:

 

Lead me Lord as I walk through this life,

Keep me pure in this world of strife.

 

Guide me Jesus I pray,

You are the only way.

 

Lead me Lord as I follow you,

I want to praise you with all that I do.

 

Guide me Jesus I pray,

You are the only way.

 

Show me Lord how to do Your will,

I need to learn to be patient and still.

 

When, one day, Your face I will see,

I know I'll live for eternity.

 

Lead me Lord.

 

And this is my prayer. For this year, and every year after. I need God's guidance with my life, as we all do. I rest in the assurance that He will always be by my side. No matter what I'm going through, He knows all my troubles and will take care of me no matter what.

 

God bless you all! Have a wonderful week! 



Guest Post

I'm putting this in italics because this post is really not supposed to be by me. My older sister Margaret (see the "My Family" link) is a very funny person. And that is somewhat an understatement. If you ever have met her or ever meet her, you'll understand why I say this. B-) But anyways, to get back to the point, Margaret is nineteen, and she noticed that a lot of Christian girls her age were writing about how they thought courting and dating were different, and which they thought was the better way to get to know someone as a possible spouse. Not to be beaten by them, she wrote her own views on the matter. I read them, and I asked her if it would be alright if I posted them. She said I could, and here they are in her own words:

From what I have observed, all homeschooled girl bloggers either write a blog post on this subject sometime in their mid teen years, or, once they get into their later teen years, are (presumably) given no peace until they do so. Though this has not been true in my case (I cannot see why), I turned nineteen last week, so I thought for once: why not fall into the homeschooled young lady stereotype of my own accord? Why not be the one to write the bazillionth article saying pretty much the same thing, in pretty much the same words about the necessity of defining one's terms, and which of those clearly defined terms I prefer but am not going to force on everyone else, etc., etc.?And so, like bloggers have from the beginning of time, I sat down at my computer, completely unresearched, with no sources but my own experience and (mostly unfounded) opinion, and set about broadcasting my knowledge and lack thereof on the internet. This was the result. I hope —but do not expect— that you find it helpful and enlightening:
In my mind, the differences between Dating and Courtship are quite simple and obvious. Granted, there is more than one definition of each. Still, I thought, if you only saw the definitions written down you would see how they simply cannot be confused. They are entirely different things however one looks at it.
Here are the definitions as outlined by M. C. Eddy, Defining Courtship and Dating, 2015:

Courtship: 

1. A ship that is employed by the court. 

2. A ship the carries around the court. (i.e. When the viking kings would go to battle the king and his court would all be in one ship so that they could confer more conveniently. More often, however, this is called the "Kingship".)

3. Ships used by individual court members to attend court when the actual court consisted entirely of water. This particular kind of court was mostly limited to the Renessaince era in Venice and similar parts of Italy. Its general impracticality, and the ease of "accidentally" dispensing of opposing members of the court by toppling them out of their boat overrode the aesthetic appeal as soon as reason once more reigned in Europe.

Dating:

1. The process of making historical dates. This is most commonly employed by historians and archaeologists, but is very easy to do by anyone. The preferred process is to find something (in the ground or otherwise) and make up a time period for it. Using as many zeros as possible is encouraged.

2. The process of making a certain food like substance called dates. We seem to recall that drying them is necessary at some point in the process. We are not completely sure what they were before becoming dates. It is commonly believed that dates were figs, or some other kind of fruit, before becoming distorted and altered in taste, texture, and appearance. The personal theory of the author is that they were at one time the heads of very large caterpillars.

What did I say? Dating and Courtship are very different things. I, personally, prefer courtship, as I do not find even the mental picture of caterpillar heads very appetizing. However, if you do, I will try not to judge you, though I doubt that I will succeed. 

This has been Margaret Eddy: bringing clarity where there was confusion.

What's Been Keeping Me Busy...

A lot of things. Yes, that's an understatement. ;) Let me fill you in with some pictures.

*First, my family and I went on a trip to Mount Rainier to celebrate my second to youngest brother William's birthday with my dad's parents. It was fun, and God blessed us with fantastic weather the whole time we were there. :)

This was where I slept. My "bedroom" was a great place to relax and work on my new story which y'all will here about on my other blog soonish.

This is a cute puppy we saw when we went to the coffee shop. Our best friend on any vacation. (The coffee shop, not the puppy... :P)

Family photo opp. in front of the already mentioned coffee shop.

Birthday Boy!!! :D

Crossing a river in a hike. The rocks were very slippery, and I had boots on...not the best grip in the world.

Mount Rainier. There is not a lot of snow up there because of the crazy, dry weather we've been having in our part of Washington. Very unusual, but the mountain is still magnificent.

Closer to the mountain...

Closer...

...And the closest. Not everyone made it. Including me. *gives a sheepish grin*

Narada Falls.

A Photo with everyone!! :D
We had a fantastic time!

*Secondly, the day after we got back from our vacation, I was finally, FINALLY able to meet a pen pal of mine from Kansas...
Anyone want to take a guess at who THAT was??
Anyone??
Yup, Jesseca Dawn from "A Kansas Wind" and "Whimsical Writings". I was blessed to meet her AND her whole family! We had a wonderful time of Christian fellowship!

The normal photo.
(minus our moms...they were taking the picture)

...And the silly one.
Well, we had just finished a dart gun fight.
We were still in a silly mood. :P

Jesseca and I, along with my two older sisters, got up bright and early to walk "the loop" which goes down to, and along, the Puget Sound before eventually landing us back at our house for breakfast.

 *Thirdly, we had a few childhood friends come and stay at our house over that weekend as well. An old babysitter of us older kids when we were littler, her two girls, and two godly young ladies from Virginia. We also had a wonderful time with them. Sorry I have no pictures of them. :(



Well, that about wraps it up... sorry for not posting about this sooner... but as you can read from the above post, my life has finally slowed back down to its normal pace and now I'll try to be better about posting. :)

God bless you all! :D

The Sisterhood Again

Not that I mind...answering questions is ALWAYS fun... :) So a big thank you to Rishona for her giving me this award. Her blog is private, so I won't give a link to it out of consideration for her privacy. :) Sorry Rishona for taking an embarrassingly long time with getting this posted... :(

->Ok, as a refresher, here are the rules:

-Thank the blogger who nominated you, linking back to their site.
-Put the award logo on your blog.
-Answer the ten questions sent to you
-Make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.
-Nominate ten blogs.

-> Here are the questions Rishona gave me:

1. What was your favorite thing about this summer?
Having my pen pal, Jesseca, come over to Washington and meet me face to face!! (Don't worry, you'll hear the whole story very soon... I've got a couple posts to catch up on, but this is one of them. :)

2. Would you rather get up early or stay up late?
Stay up late. I'm a Night Owl. ;)

3. Would you rather be able to speak fluently every language in the world or be the best in the world at something of your choosing?
I would love to be the best in the world at something...but that will definitely never happen. *sigh*

4. Most hysterical memory you have?
I've got so many that I'm not even going to try to pick.

5. Favorite Bible Verse?
Job 39:19-25. Yes, It's a passage, but it is my favorite. Look it up and you'll see why. :P

6. Would you rather eat only junk food or vegetables/fruits?
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In other words, my taste buds would prefer junk food, but my mind would prefer vegetables and fruits. :)

7. Would you rather live one life that lasts 1,000 years or live 10 lives that last 100 years each?
10 lives that last 100 each.

8.Would you rather be able to read or be able to read minds (but be illiterate)?
Read AND read minds. Oh, wait. That wasn't an option was it. Drat. Just read then.

9. Favorite Song?
You did NOT just ask me that. WHAT??? There is NO WAY I'm going to be able to choose!  

10.If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
THE BRITISH ISLES!!!! :) You were gonna guess that, right? :P

I'm going to do ten questions, but everyone I "know" in the blogging world has already done this Award, so I won't nominate anyone. Still... if you're interested, feel free to answer the questions! :)

-> Here are my questions:
What are you looking forward to most in the upcoming school year?
What is your favorite book in the Bible?
Favorite color?
Horses or dogs?
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Snow or sunshine?
What is your favorite season?
Christmas or Easter?
Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day?
Fir trees or palm trees?

Have fun answering, those of you who are... :)

I'll be back soon with another post letting you all know where I've been for the last week, and what I've been doing! :) Hope you look forward to it! :D

My Bookshelf

I saw Emily do this on her blog, and I thought it looked like a lot of fun. I love my bookshelf(s), and I'd love to give you a sneak peek into my collection. :) So, without further ado, here are Emily's questions and my answers!


Describe your bookshelf (or wherever it is you keep your books- it doesn’t have to be a shelf) and where you got it from:
I had a special shelf given to me, but I now have too many books to squeeze in there, and I now have an overlap shelf that I hope to fill up eventually. :) So many books... so little space. *sigh*
Here's my first shelf (the bottom shelf is mine):

And here's the overlap shelf:

Do you have any special or different way of organizing your books?

I organize them by height. Why? Dunno. Easier to find books that way... besides, it looks cool that way. :)

What's the thickest (most amount of pages) book on your shelf?

That guy there: Folk Tales from Great Britain-Legends III. A whooping 1,751 pages.

What's the thinnest (least amount of pages) book on your shelf?

"Grace Raymond". This little one has a total of 62 pages. That's a 1,689 page difference with the thickest book. Here's a picture of the two, right next to each other... just for fun. ;)

 

 

Is there a book you received as a birthday gift?

A couple actually. "The Black Stallion" and "The Black Stallion Returns" from my Aunty Sarah, and "The Little Princess" from my dad. That one especially is a special book to me, because it was the first book I could actually call my own. Here's a picture of the front:

 

What's the smallest (height and width wise) book on your shelf?
"The Story of Miss Moppet" by Beatrix Potter. It's only five inches high, and about 3 1/2 inches wide. But a really cute story. :)

 

 

What's the biggest (height and width wise) book on your shelf?

Well, actually, my tallest books are a series, but they're really skinny. However, here's a picture of the beginning of my bookshelf, the tall end. :)

Is there a book from a friend on your shelf?

Oh my... where do I begin? About half my books were  given to me by either parents or other family, and the other half I bought myself. Here's a picture of the ones people gave me.

Most expensive book?

Without question... The complete set of "Folk Tales of Britain" (both Legends and Narratives) by Kathrine M. Briggs. They cost about $100 for the whole thing. Yeah, it was a set I wanted though. :) Fantastic reading if you want my opinion. I gleaned a lot of information by reading them.

 

 

The last book you read on your shelf?

"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. However, not a book I would recommend. I actually liked the movie better. In the book there was a lot of rude humor, which I hate. :( It was an interesting book, but I wish that they could have cut out all the unnecessary rudeness.

Of all the books on your shelf, which was the first you read?
"A Little Princess". And I've read it over and over and over after that. :)

Do you have more than one copy of a book?

Nope. (That was easy. :P)

Do you have the complete series of any book series?

Yes. I actually have several complete series. Here they are:

What's the newest addition to your shelf?
Again, "Ender's Game". I got it at our library for reading ten hours this summer. A ridiculously easy feat for me, an avid reader. But hey, you get a free book! That's pretty awesome, right?

What book has been on your shelf FOREVER?

"A Little Princess". Like I said, it was the first book I owned, and therefore the first to make it onto my shelf. :)

What's the most recently published book on your shelf?

"The Book of Medieval Puzzles". It was published in 2013. (I'm not counting my own book, "The Silver Flower" which was just published this year. :)

 

The oldest book on your shelf (as in, the actual copy is old)?

"All About Horses" by Margarite Henry. It was published in 1962.

A book you won?

I won "Circle C Stories" by getting second place in a contest, and then the other books in the picture below by reading ten hours each summer and getting a free book from our library. (A huge score for me!) :P

A book you'd hate to let out of your sight (aka a book you never let someone borrow)?

"A Little Princess". That book's specialness to me knows no bounds. :)

Most beat up book?

My "Oliver Twist" copy. I bought it at a thrift store, so even though I have only read it once, it was already beat up. But it only cost like 50 cents or something like that.

Most pristine book?
"A Book of Medieval Puzzles". I bought it brand new at Barnes & Noble, and it has stayed in perfect condition since. :)


A book from your childhood?
"A Little Princess" and "Beautiful Girlhood" as well as the series of tracking books. All given to me on my tenth birthday. :)

A book that's not actually your book?

All my books on my shelf are mine. :) And yes, I'm kind of proud about that... ;P

A book with a special/different cover (e.g. leather bound, soft fuzzy cover etc.)?

"Folk Tales of Britain" and "A Little Princess" are clothbound books.

A book that is your favorite color?

One of my more boring books, "Making Music & Enriching Lives" is a guidebook for music teachers. And since I have a few music students, mom thought it would be best for me to read about how to teach properly. However, the cover is a really awesome color of blue and a smidge of purple. Both favorite colors of mine. :)

Book that's been on your shelf the longest that you STILL haven't read?

"Beautiful Girlhood". Mom gave this book to me when I turned 10... but I still haven't read it. *gives a sheepish grin* I probably should...

Any signed books?

The "Circle C Adventures" and "Circle C Stories" by Mrs. Marlow. Sadly, I wasn't there to watch her sign them. :( But, on a brighter note, I hope to see her soon! :)

 



 

So, I hope you enjoyed that look into my bookshelf. If you would like to do this as well, go ahead and answer the questions I answered. I'll have fun seeing your books as well! :D
God bless! :)

Word Dream #21, #22, & #23

You get three this time... (aren't I always full of surprises! :P) Choose your favorite... for the last time! *sobs uncontrollably*. Oh, but only until I make more. }:-) You thought I was done forever, but NO! Mwahahahahahahaha! *rubs hands together in ecstatic anticipation*.
However, I am done for now. Thank you for your kind patience in putting up with these pictures. :)

God Bless! :D

Word Dream #19 & #20

Can you believe it? I'm almost out of Word Dream pictures! This post, and one more is all I have left! What will you do without these invigorating posts?? :( But *clears throat* to get back to the subject. I assume you know the drill... choose you favorite of the two. :)

God bless!