Happy happy new year to you!

I really loved 2012. There were so many good things in it. It was a friend. The Lord blessed me so, so much during the year. I think that's a reason to celebrate. So let's hear it for 2013! May the Lord bless you and your families this year! Whoo hoo!


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Abby :D

Caught Up

This year, the Christmas season has been busy. What with parties and presents and going ice skating and winter birthdays, I just haven't had time to blog. I hope you don't mind. After all, I think everyone's busy this time of year; busy with their own families and friends, just enjoying their busyness and the festivities. I'm caught up in all the blessings of this month. I really, really like this season. It's one of my favorites. May God bless you and your families as you celebrate God's love and our Savior's birth. Make sure you take some time to remember the greatest Gift of all.

Oh, and I'm going to keep blogging, if rather sporadically. Have the best of holidays! :)

Your busy blogger,

Abby :D

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I know I'm three days late. But we should always be thankful, right? Every day should be Thanksgiving. Thankfulness to God for the country we live in. Thankfulness for friends and family. Thankfulness for plenty of food to eat and homes to live in. And, hey, who wouldn't want to eat turkey every day? I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving day, but even more I hope that we all keep being thankful for all of our blessings. I think we could all use a little more thankfulness.

Grace (and thankfulness) be with you,

Abby :D

Those Days...

You know those days. Everyone has them. The days when everything has gone wrong.

Sarah dragged herself out of bed. It was a gray cloudy day, just the kind that made her feel drowsy and irritable. She threw open her closet and grabbed any old outfit. It didn't matter to her which outfit she wore. On this kind of day, everything made her feel ugly. Sarah stomped downstairs, noting that her mother was making oatmeal, her least favorite breakfast. She pushed her little sister, who was riding around on her tricycle, out of her way. Her sister began to cry. "Mom, oatmeal? Why do we have to eat oatmeal? I just hate it!" Sarah wanted her mother to know how grumpy she felt
 "Just think of the poor people in other countries," her mother scolded, "this would be a treat to them." Great, thought Sarah, now I'm feeling grumpy and selfish.
The day wore on, and things still didn't get any better. She couldn't concentrate on her school work, because her brother kept playing noisy music. At lunch, she spilled leftover chili on the dress she was wearing. The song she was practicing on the piano just didn't sound right. Her friends wanted her to come out and play, but she had to stay inside and babysit her siblings while her mother made dinner. The movie that her mom and older siblings were watching was her least favorite movie. Everything was going wrong! Sarah stomped upstairs and wrote an angry entry in her journal about how unfair her life was. So many bad things were happening to her! She wished she lived in a different family! She wished she had never been born!

Maybe your bad days are not quite as extreme as Sarah's.


(actually, this is how my bad days are. Yes, I'm quite the drama queen. However, I'm working on it)


But still, no matter what your bad days are like, they leave you feeling miserable, unloved, friendless. (Or maybe that's just me?)
These are a few verses I've found that are encouraging to me on a bad day.


... the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Deuteronomy 31:6


Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
1 Chronicles 16:34


But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
John 3:16

What could be more cheering than knowing that the One who made you sent his son to die for you? His son was willing to die for you. He died for everyone that believes in Him, but He also died for you, specifically. Isn't that amazing? He loves you.

It's enough to snap anyone out of a bad mood. 

Fall...

 [insert a beautiful picture of leaves and a bright blue sky]


... Actually, I prefer Autumn. Fall is so undescriptive, or maybe too descriptive. Fall is when all the leaves fall, and when all the crops fall from the plants. Everything is falling. I like Autumn better. This is autumn, red and gold and purple and orange, leaves blowing around you, pumpkins and acorns. Autumn is my favorite season.
The only thing is... it's not cool enough. This is the time when I want to wear sweaters and skirt, knitted hats and boots. All in fall- I mean, autumn- colors. But it's not cool yet! It's still summer!

At least the leaves are changing colors.

Hmmm... have I been busy this week? It's actually kind of hard to tell. We didn't do school the past couple of days, because it's just been too crazy. But the week and a half before was normal. I'm doing writing class once a week, and I'm re-discovering how much I love writing fiction instead of non-fiction. This week we are working on job stuff (resumes, job interviews, and the like).

Here are a few very promising story starters/story ideas that I have come to a total dead end with.

“You don’t like hats?” the tied-up girl asked incredulously, “Whyever not?” The villain shuddered. “I don’t know. Now be quiet. You’re a prisoner, and I was just getting to the best part in my speech.”

“That’s just weird,” the girl mumbled, but she said nothing else out loud.

Once upon a time, there was an ordinary girl named Gloria. At least, she looked ordinary at first glance. But when you looked deeper, she was very un-ordinary indeed. 

I’ve always been the villain type. Not a villain with any kind of big plans for world domination. At least, not at first. 

I really like them, but I'm at a dead end! I have a hard time finishing stories most of the time. Well, anyways, I must fly. I've got things to do, people to see, places to go. I hope you enjoyed hearing from me. I'm afraid that my posts will be like this until I get back into the blogging habit. 

Grace be with you,

Abby :D 

I am horrible. *sob*

I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for not posting so frequently, and I will be getting some real posts up soon. Ugh. I've been really busy, especially on weekends, and there's no time to get pictures for posts either. But I promise to do some real blogging, soon.

Grace be with you,

Abby :D

whoa... it's a pitcher plant... (plus i'm back)

sorry for the blurry. this is from pinterest and i had to enlarge.

It has been a while, hasn't it? A little more than 2 months, to be exact. I feel rather refreshed. I hope y'all haven't missed me too much. Here are some things that have happened while I was gone.

• Write, write, write ~ I started a writing class, along with my sisters. It's fun. So far, we've been writing essays and some business letters.
• Fun in the sun ~ We went on vacation! This was in September. We went to the beach and had a blast playing in the water and riding our bikes. Not to mention eating Oreos and watching TV late at night. :)
• Of course ~ I started back to school. Eleventh grade, people! This year I'm working on lots of fun stuff, including Botany, Health, and Everyday Math. Delightful, do you not agree?

What have you been doing lately?
So my new expectations for blogging. I hope to blog more, 'bout lots of stuff that's going on. Pinterest has taken up most of my internet time. I'm sure you can relate. I think I'll stop looking on Pinterest, and start blogging. And I'm not going to be on here just because I'm bored. I'll come here when I have something to say. Hopefully, there will be some interesting, informational stuff on here more often. So what do you think? Is there anything you'd like me to post about? Are you overjoyed to see me back on? Of course you are. :)

Grace be with you,

Abby :D


Looooong Fun fact for the day (from Botany):

Pitcher plants are tall, vase-like plants that hold a sweet-smelling cup of nectar. When an insect tries to eat the nectar, it loses its balance and slides down the slippery sides of the 'vase' and gets stuck. Why can't it climb up? There are little prickles on the inside of the 'vase' that point downward. The prickles poke the insect every time it tries to climb up. In addition, at the bottom of the vase there is a pool of rainwater. Within minutes, the insect drowns in the water, and is digested by the pitcher plant, leaving only the exoskeleton.                   

*evil laugh*

"Why?" you sob, "Why do these cruel plants destroy the innocents bugs so mercilessly?!" Well, the answer is simple. Plants need nitrogen. Usually they get it from the soil, but pitcher plants (along with any other kind of carnivorous plant) are able to live where the soil is not so good, all because they can get their nitrogen from insects. Pretty neat, eh? God sure made some amazing creatures!

(this link is from wikipedia if you wanted to know more about Pitcher plants. Sorry for the evolutionary influence. :P)

On Hold

Ahem... well... I'm so not winning the Blogger of the Year award.

I'm sorry, everyone. But you know, it's summer, and I'm busy. And to tell the truth...

I'm not sure if I want to blog anymore.

There, I said it. I just don't feel inspired. I'm not sure why, but it's really hard to put a post together. I don't like finding pictures for posts, or trying to put together clever sentences so that people will read my blog and follow it. I'm just tired of the popularity contest, the constant thought, "Hey, I should blog this!" and then not feeling like it, and the comment war. I'm just tired of blogging.

Maybe I'll come back someday. But for now, for the rest of this summer, I'm putting it on hold.

Grace be with you, and have a great week,

Abby :D

Announcement

*Ahem*


Hello everyone. This is a short message to say...




I AM OFFICIALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL UNTIL SEPTEMBER 1ST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


WHOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







That is all. :)

Blogging? What's that again?

Knock, knock.

"Oh, hi! It's so nice to see you!"

"Definitely. We haven't seen you in forever, Abby."

"Oops. Sorry. I've been kind of busy, finishing school, and finishing school. You know."

"Of course. No apology necessary. So how was Independence Day?"

"Great, we saw some fireworks, even though it was raining, and we went to a friend's house and we ate some food, and we almost swam in the pool, but it was raining again, so we didn't get to."

"Cool."

"Yep, it was fun."

"Mmm-hmm. And how many days until summer break for you?"

"A few more, I think about four. We're done with Latin, finally, and I'm almost done reading the curriculum books. I'm almost finished with my math book, too."

"Okay, Abby. This is boring. You can't just post about what you're doing."

"Well, what do you want to hear?"

"I don't know, maybe, uh... your life experiences or something."

"Um... I saw a lizard today. It was striped."

"Oh, how interesting. Can't you think of anything better than that?!"

"Not really. I don't have a very interesting life."

"I'm sure there's enough."

"Uh... my sisters and I learned Dixie on our instruments, and played it for our friends on the 4th of July."

"Right. You play Manolind or something?"

"Mandolin. Haven't you ever read my posts?"

"Sort of. Kind of. But not that well. And you really don't post that often."

"Well, excuse me. I'm trying to change that."

"Get to work then. You don't keep up a blog by lying around."

"I know that."

"Well, I've got to go now. It's been nice talking to you... sort of."

"Goodbye, then."

Slam! 




How was your Independence Day?

Grace be with you,
Abby :D

Please read this, even though there aren't any pictures!

 This entry was written in my art journal less than a week ago:

"It has been rather a sunny, hot, lazy sort of day in which I have felt neither productive nor energetic. The former I have unfortunately not felt in a while, whereas the latter has only recently been escaping me. Perhaps the secret to the qualities I lack lies in a few well-written to-do lists? They never helped in the past, however I shall try again and make the best of the results..."

Truly, these feelings are still with me at this present date. Why they do not cease to exist is beyond my feeble imaginings, but I have not yet tried the merits of that reputable thing known as the to-do list. Perhaps that will help. Have any of you tried it yet? And what thing do you use to get rid of the well-known unproductive blahs?

Anyhow, you're prob`ly wondering what provoked the peculiar language up there. Well, you wouldn't if you knew how many classics we've been reading for school: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist, etc. It was quite unavoidable, and plus I love talking that way. :) School for us is still in full swing, but when you're home schooled it's easy to take a small, teensy break to go outside and breath in the hot, muggy air. Ah, the smell of ambrosia and nectar that is Summer! Do you realize that in all my sixteen years of summer, I have never once had a bee sting, or even a wasp one? They are quite abundant in this realm, but Providence has shielded me. Whew. :)
A girl I know got stung by a bee once, and she went ahead and did a whole swim meet after the fact. Some persons have a hardy constitution.
We are planning a baby shower for my aunt. She's having a girl, and I can't wait to see her! It will be my only girl cousin on my mother's side, the side on which I already have five boy cousins. Family reunions are always fun, do not you agree? The theme for the shower is pink and yellow, with lots of pinwheels. It's adorable!! I dare not post pictures, just in case my aunt looks at my blog. (that's a nice phrase. 'Dare not'. Heh heh.)
What are your summer plans? You know, summer only started three days ago (tho' mentally, 'twas two months back). I have not many plans for the summer, except to finish school, a worthy goal, agreed? After I graduate, I believe that I will be a hairdresser. It sounds fun, and I can do it from home. I can cut my children's hair, or get my own salon and go to people's houses to cut their hair, or do it for a favor, etc., etc., the possibilities are endless! You have to be seventeen to get into the school I'm interested in, so it'll still take a while. What is your career choice? Actually, my first one is to be a mother, but I sort of consider that mandatory. I think adopted children are also mandatory. :) I just LOVE children. :)
So if you haven't noticed, I've been talking to you sort of conversationally. What do you think of that style?

Our church is doing a mission trip to Honduras, and the team leaves today. Please pray that they'll have safe travel and that they'll reach as many people as is God's will. Thanks!

Have a wonderful week!

Grace be with you,
Abby :D

Thoughts {the boringest title}

 













 ..."Because, my young friends," the man muttered sourly, "what could be more important than doing unimportant things? If you stopped to do enough of them, you'll never get to where you're going." He punctuated his last remark with a villainous laugh. "Then you must-" gasped Milo. 
"Quite correct!" he shrieked triumphantly. "I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit." The Humbug dropped his needle and stared in disbelief while Milo and Tock began to back away slowly. "Don't try to leave," he ordered, with a menacing sweep of his arm, "for there's so very much to do, and you still have over eight hundred years to go on the first job."

"But why do only unimportant things?" asked Milo, who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them. "Think of all the trouble it saves," the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin- if he could grin at all. "If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing..."
~The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

 Norton Juster sure got it right there. I think we all have trouble with this very topic: doing only the easy and useless jobs. 
"Well, as soon as I get finished looking at Facebook, I'll go read those 50 pages of Latin." 
It's very easy to get stuck in a treadmill of the easy, pointless jobs, like going on every website on the computer or lying lazily on the couch (guilty am I) instead of the harder, important ones, such as spending time in the Word or helping with dinner. Just a thought.

So, it's June...
Today was a perfect day for drinking pink lemonade (which tastes a lot better than normal lemonade, by the way) and just being outside in the beautiful sun. What is your summer break looking like? We're still deep in the clutches of school. I'm doing personal finance and business math. Fun stuff, right? I haven't gone swimming as of yet this season, because we have no pool.  We ate a watermelon, and I made a bracelet out of the seeds. It was hard, on account o' having to poke holes in all those seeds. What have you been doing this season? Swimming, biking, running, eating? Tell me, I want to know. :)


Grace be with you,

Abby :D

Summer! How nice to see you!

{taken by my sister, Leah}

The season's thoughts turn to summer. The sun gets hotter and clouds of mosquitoes appear. The nice spring flowers shrivel up and die, followed by delicious vegetables. School books are closed for months. Lemonade, ice cream, and popsicles can be found in the fridge, and t-shirts and shorts in the closet. Swim suits come out for an outing in the pool. 

{I love the summer season.}

Even though it gets hot and sunny, and my face gets pink with sunburn, my legs covered with itchy bites, I love everything that spells summer. Catching lightning bugs and eating out on the porch, having water balloon fights and spraying each other with the hose, sweet and fruity treats like popsicles or smoothies, smearing on bug repellent and sunscreen, going to the park and the pool, it's all been a part of summer in Georgia. It's practically the biggest part of the year here. Summer is getting hot and cooling off. Summer is eating watermelon. Summer is a million different things. What is summer to you?

Scriptures

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil.
Hebrews 6:19

It's wonderful to be able to think of the hope of Christ to be like an anchor. It really is. 

  According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:10-15

 Every man's work will be revealed by fire. No matter what your work is, if you don't build it on the foundation of Christ, you will suffer loss. Very thought-provoking. What are you building with?


What have you learned from the Scripture you have read? 




Grace be with you,


Abby :D

Busy with everything but blogging...

{via Miss Raquel}

1.The rain. It's been raining all day. Everything is wet and soggy. And I love it. :)

2. Writing. I've gotten stuck at a certain point in my novel (if you can call it that) and I'm going to have to do a complete re-write. I need to give my characters more definition, methinks.

3. Reading. We've been reading a lot of classics in school. Like Jane Eyre, Treasure Island, and Oliver Twist.

4. Party. We went to a birthday party on Friday, ate cake and ice-cream and pizza, and played games: Capture-the-Flag (♥), Ghost in the Graveyard, and Killer. Those last two are sort of grisly names for such fun games.

5. Recital. Piano recital is next week. I'm doing The Swan (or Le Cygne, I believe is its name), All I Ask Of You, which is a song from Phantom of the Opera, and Irish Air, a duet with my sister. I might be doing El Risoluto, as well.

6. Bible reading. Last night, it was Philemon and 1 Peter. What have you been reading?

7. Hats. I really like redecorating them and wearing them, even though I don't do it often.

8. This blogger. I wish my writing was like hers. 


And with that, I bid you adieu. Adieu!

Hopeful of a better blog post next time,

Abby :D

The Treadmill

When doing school, or something that you do every day, it is easy to get discouraged. 

“What’s the point of my doing this well, or even at all? I only have to do it again tomorrow.”

Your life gets stuck in an endless whirlpool of meaninglessness. You feel as if there’s nothing to life, like it’s a treadmill that you are chained to or a hamster wheel that you’re trapped inside of.

But then you think.

“Wait a second, I should be doing everything for the glory of God.”

And then you look.

“Wow, I could do so much better than this! If I’m doing it for God’s glory, then there is a point to life: to please God, and glorify Him forever.” 

Then you look at the world around you, and see so much more than you saw at first glance. Look what God has given you, the One who made you. The One who loves you. The One who had no obligation to you at all. He made you, He can destroy you, He can just snuff you out like a candle. And since He is just, that’s what you and I deserve. What we should get.

But instead… He died for you. 

He DIED for YOU. 

 And that's something worth celebrating, every day! Here are some nice things God gave me today.

Some absolutely delicious cookie dough stuff for dessert//Liking the outfit + hairstyle I had on today//Having fun playing mandolin//Playing tennis out-of-doors//Treasure Island (for school, but it's a really good book)//Getting all my school done relatively early//Making blue cheese salad dressing//Eating dinner salad with said dressing//Playing Trust and Obey on the piano for family worship//

What are some things that you are celebrating today?

Grace be with you, 

Abby :D

Occupatus sum...

You know, I'm tired of the word 'busy'. Why don't we find some other words for it?

How about...
...industrious...diligent...employed...engaged...engrossed...persevering...hustling...studious...active...?

Whatever the word, that's sure what I've felt like these past few weeks. This has been our usual week.
Monday: Handbells, mandolin and guitar lessons
Tuesday: Tennis
Wednesday: Violin lessons
 Thursday: Piano
Friday: Whew! Nothing, finally.

Add school and some distractions to that formula and voila! A recipe for... well, all those words up there. :)

Tennis is fun*. I didn't know anything about tennis before (I mean, besides that you have to hit the ball), but now I know a moderate amount. Enough to play mediocre-ly, which is not a word, by the way. Does anyone out there play tennis? Any other sport?

And I'm still learning mandolin. It's real fun (ha) too. But eighth notes are hard, and so are scales. I wonder if I'll ever become a famous mandolinist bluegrass player (my dream :)

And without further ado: pictures.

*clap, clap, clap, clap* 

Me playing the mandolin.

I've been reading Acts lately. You?

I'm also learning to crochet. So much easier than knitting!

I FINISHED ALGEBRA 1!!! Now I'm working on All The Math You'll Ever Need. Good book.

Metal stamping.

 So that's what I've been up to. What has filled your life with pizazz lately?

Grace be with you,

Abby :D






*a rather over-used word around these premises

Stamp! Stamp! Stamp!

Hey everyone! I haven't posted in-- what? Fifteen days? Now I know why you guys aren't keeping up with me. Ugh.
Anyway, it's been too long.
I've been feeling pretty busy lately, but this week I was able to do some metal stamping. I got the stamps from beaducation.com at Christmas time.

 I finished a project on Friday: making napkin rings for a certain family I know. :) My mom really wanted napkin rings that were pretty and that wouldn't get squished easily. So she set me to work on making some out of thick-ish wire and stamped charms. How do you like them?

Here are all the stamped charms. As you can see, I *ahem* made a little mistake on one of the names. I was doing so well, too! Can you find it?

Here are some finished ones.

On a napkin.

And here are some necklaces I've made.                                        

This one is interesting, because I accidentally used the Qs instead of Os.
So it says, "FAITH HQPE LQVE" Whoops. 

What are your hobbies?

Grace be with you,

Abby :D