Voting Time!

Time for a vote. For those of you who read my emails in your inbox and not on the actual blog page, could you please check out the blog and give me your input on the layout, font, etc? I'm hoping to change the layout four times a year—once for each season, so the next time would be December 21. The input that I am asking for, is for you to rate how you like the layout, font, background, etc. by a 1-5. The one would be like a "I love it; you shouldn't change anything about it!" and a five would be more along the lines of, "I hate it! Change it, quick or I'll have to unsubscribe!" Lol. So, hopefully there will be no fives. But please give your honest input because I really want you all to enjoy it. Points that you could "grade" it on would include: How easily can it be read? Do the colors go well together? Is the theme good? etc. Thank you all very much for your input, the poll will be on the sidebar. It closes at noon on the 21st, so hurry! I should have done this much earlier but we were super busy with Christmas preparations and visiting relatives. When I change it, I will again be asking for your input on the new one. Merry Christmas and thanks!

Caption #6!

Although all of your suggestions were super, Faith Potts took the cake! Carla Martinez, Jesseca Dawn, and Rishona Raub were also super. Thanks, all!

I hope the camera is ready! I can't wait any longer!!

Thanksgiving

If you're anything like myself, then you already feel like Thanksgiving was ages ago but before we all get too far removed from it, I would like to share a Thanksgiving poem I wrote, and a little about my Thanksgiving.

To start, here is the poem.

If a basket were filled

With all the things I'm thankful for

My basket would be overflowing

And spilling out upon the floor

I'm thankful for a God

Who loves me more than I could know

And a family who loves me

Helping me to spiritually grow

The freedom in my nation

Allows me to worship without fear

And I am deeply grateful to those

Who for it paid a cost so dear

I'm thankful for my country home

Far from noise and city lights

Where day or night I'm never far

From amazing God-breathed sights

I love my precious pets

Which turn our land into a zoo

They make me laugh and smile

They who cluck, baa, meow, and moo

I'm thankful for our little horse

Oh so majestic, tender, and sweet

And when I ride her through the fields

It is always such a treat

Without my family I'd be nothing

They never fail to bring me cheer

Even in the hardest of moments

My family shares in every tear

So as you can see my basket is full

Full of thanks for God, family, and living

May you now go out and count your blessings

Wishing all a happy Thanksgiving

Now for a bit about my Thanksgiving:

Our Praise Jar

For the last few years, my family has been celebrating our Thanksgiving the day before, and on the actual day of Thanksgiving, we deliver meals to shut-ins through a program our nearby town does. After that we go to my grandparents and put up my Grandma's tree the day after Thanksgiving. On our Thanksgiving, well, let's just say that it was fun and interesting. Before I actually go into our day, I should first explain our Thanksgiving tradition. We call it, the Praise Jar. Throughout the year, whenever we see a moment in our life where it was so obvious that God protected, provided, and was with us, we write it down and put it in the jar. So, to start our day, we made hot drinks and sat by the fire while the turkey was in the oven and began reading aloud our praises. It was amazing to see all the times when we thought, “I'll never forget that time” and.

. . we do. This is such an encouraging reminder to observe all the ways that God's hand was watching over us. Once we were done, we took a walk with Dream (our horse) and enjoyed the fresh air. When we returned. . . back to the kitchen! Here is where the first interesting thing occurred. Dad felt like he should check our mail. (Remember, it was the day before Thanksgiving so mail would still come.) When he went to turn on our van, the battery was dead! (Ok, ok. I must admit it was my fault. I left the light on above my seat. Oops!) Since he couldn't use the van yet, he checked the mail with the truck while the van was charging. When he got back, he decided to take the van for a longer drive to make sure that it would hold the charge for the trips we had planned for the following day. Interesting thing number two. Just a few minutes after he left, he returned. “Our sheep is in the road!” (For those of you who don't know, several years back a sheep hopped into our field and has stayed ever since. We had tried to find its owner but never did.) So, just as dinner was about ready, we hopped in the cars and drove down to our lower property to chase the lone sheep into our field while keeping our two cows in! When we got down there, the sheep was back in the field! By this time it was nearly dark. Dad and I walked the fence and repaired the place where she could have gotten out. Oh my, what an afternoon! Once we got back we had a cold Thanksgiving meal but we already had our first praise for the next year as we saw how God was at work and uses even things that could have turned out bad for good.

The next day we went into town and delivered the meals. It was neat to see these people and hear their stories. One senior we had met two years ago while delivering meals and we were able to chat and spend some time with him which was fun. Then we went to my grandparents along the coast and had another Thanksgiving meal with them. Thankfully, this one was much more relaxing than the day before! The day after, we set up Grandma's tree and went to an Italian coffee shop for our traditional, three-generation family picture.

Thanks for reading! How was your Thanksgiving? Do you have any traditions? Did anything exciting happen on your Thanksgiving? I'd love to hear about it!

Pose, Goose!

This is a Canada Goose.

I just wanted to share a photo taken by a loyal blog reader, Amy. To me this is an amazing photo that really captures God's creativity and beauty that we might just pass right by. This goose is really not unlike all the others, but this picture shows its detail. Anyways, I just thought it was a neat picture and wanted to share it with you all! Thanks so much, Amy for letting me share this!

Caption This #6!

You're all going to have fun with this next picture to caption! Hope your enjoying this! Bet none of you have ever felt this way as is portrayed! LOL!

Riddle!

I'm going to try something today that I really could use some feedback on. I'm going to do two posts and if you will, those who are subscribed, please let me know in a comment if you get one email containing both posts, or if you get two separate ones.  Thank you!

Some of you may remember the post several months back about the Liebster Award. Well, in my answer to the question of "What is your favorite riddle?" I answered with the riddle. . . but not the answer to the riddle. I said that I would later post the answer but completely forgot about it! I was recently reminded about this promise so I'll post it now. Here is the riddle, complete with the answer!

Q: A woman lives on the seventh floor of an apartment building. Every morning she gets in the elevators and goes to the level one, goes to work, but when she comes home, she presses the button for the fifth floor, and then walks up the rest of the stairs to her room. Why doesn't she just hit the seventh story button when she is going home?

A: She is a midget so she can't reach the button for the seventh story in the elevator! 

Sorry about that, Faith! Thanks for reminding me!

Caption #5

Wow! I got so many cute comments on this one! Thank you all for your guesses but the one by Erick Reinstedt was too cute to pass up! Calamity Rene, Amy, and Rebekah R. yours were super cute too!

Real chickens always ride bareback!

Choosing the Best.

Lately at the youth group that my dad teaches, he has discussed several topics that I found interesting and useful. The first is about being inspired versus inspiring. In this case being the one inspired could be good or bad. Are you setting a good example and inspiring others for the work of the Lord, or are you being the one who is inspired, looking up to people who are perhaps not a good influence? Being able to recognize which category that you fall into is valuable to see whether you are either being a good example and influence for others or making sure that you are only being inspired by good and Godly examples. It's not bad to be influenced but you need to make sure that if you are, you are by Godly people such as a pastor, youth leader, Children's Church teacher, or Godly parents, friends, or even older siblings who are following Christ. Ever since Dad talked about this I have been noticing a lot more, who is influencing and who is influenced.

The other topic my dad pointed out which I found interesting was that we can never outgive God. I have seen this even in my life. Maybe I will donate a few dollars toward this or that, and a few days or weeks later I will get a few extra dollars than I earned working for a friend. Instances such as this has occurred time and time again in my life and in others' lives around me. Maybe I will simply give some of my time to help someone move, and then when I need help, they will help me. Or I might volunteer my time at a rescue horse sanctuary and then when I need wisdom with my family's horse, someone knowledgeable will be willing to check on her and help us out. Other instances could even be as simple as someone getting us something at a grocery store and not allowing us to pay them back. So remember that God will honor a Godly and giving heart. A line that I really like in the movie, God's NOT Dead, says, “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!”

Take a look at your life. Are you the influenced or the one influencing or both? Do you need to change who you are inspired by? Also, remember that you can never ever outgive God. He loves you and wants the best for you.

Caption This #5!

Here you go...your next caption this picture! The chickens name is Teeters by the way, she is a several month old chick.

Sheer Joy!

As most of you are aware, last November our horse got an injury that eventually made her lame. Long story short, my sister and I could walk and canter (lope) her but we were unable to canter because we had to pass through the trot to get to the canter. The trot was what would have made it worse and become dangerous to us as the rider. So we were stuck with a walk. Of course, I was glad for a walk rather than nothing but it was hard since we got her mostly to really ride. Anyways, we had the vet come out to give Dream her annual shots. When he did, he also looked at her leg. He clarified for us that her injury is just like arthritis; sometimes she'll be a little stiff and limping, other times she'll be right as rain and on those days we could go through the trot to the canter. He briefly lunged her and told us that on this particular day she looked “right as rain”. So, later that day, my sister and I saddled her and then worked toward a canter. After several tries I was able to get her to a canter on my cue. My sister also had several good canters. 

Now, this wasn't even the best part! Well, I guess that the best part was that we can now canter her, but my post title is actually based on an event that happened the following day. Up until this point, I had both walked and trotted bareback but cantered only in a saddle. I had been thinking about trying to canter bareback since in all your movies and books they do canter bareback. (Yes, I know that they are not always the most reliable sources but I know that people do.) After making sure that this was one of her “right as rain” days, my sister and I worked her a bit and then rode bareback. Once again, after several tries, I was cantering bareback! When I came back I was absolutely speechless. It was an AMAZING feeling. I was flying! Sheer joy. That's just about the best way to describe it. Both my sister and I had several more bareback canters and we both agreed that, that . . . I don't even know how to describe it! It was wonderful. As I said, sheer joy!

Sorry, but I was unable to find any pictures or video of cantering bareback so this one picture will have to do! (A BIG thanks to my sister for capturing this beautiful moment on camera!)

Caption #4!

So sorry that I haven't been very consistent lately. I have been very busy with lots of things—mostly school. I have a list of about 12 posts to do so I'm hoping to become more consistent or most of it will be outdated! Thanks for your patience! And now, without further ado, onto the caption winner!

This was a lot of fun for me to see your captions for such a crazy picture! After some thought and debating between the winning one and the caption by Amy, I decided on the suggestion by Jesseca Dawn!

Dog: It's alright. I'll always be here for you.
Girl: aww your so sweet!

Caption This #4!

Alrighty! Hope you all enjoy this one too! No, this photo has not been edited. The dog is my friend's Giant Schnauzer! Thanks for playing, all!

Canyon Trip

2.8 mile hike to the bristlecone pines at Great Basin.

Grand Canyon.

About two weeks ago my family and I returned from a twelve-day trip in the western United States. As a family we dubbed this trip our “CT2” or “Canyon Trip.” It's CT2 since last year we visited Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and studied evidence for the flood and creation and called that our “Creation Trip” or “CT” so we just had to start a tradition. LOL.
   On this year's trip we visited Great Basin National Park in Nevada, Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, and Zion Canyon National Park back in Utah again. We camped in a tent every night except for three, when we stayed in hotels. We had some real quality time as a family. I especially enjoyed all the time around the campfire talking. We covered about 2,325 miles in all. The new states for me that we went through were Utah and Arizona. Here are a few pictures to introduce you to our trip but I will try to post more in future posts about our trip!

Bryce Canyon National Park.

Beautiful Bryce Canyon!

Zion Canyon National Park in the Narrows.

Biography of Pete Fleming.

Here is biography number two! Enjoy!

Pete Fleming

Pete Fleming was originally from Washington state. Over time, Fleming became friends with Jim Elliot. Together, the two men traveled to Ecuador along with some others to get training for missionary work. God removed every obstacle out of their path. They were dropped off in Ecuador on August 29, 1952. While training to be a doctor, Pete and his friends lived like the people of Ecuador that they might be better equipped to help them. Together they built an airstrip and a school for boys. While Jim was good at nearly everything, Pete struggled against many illnesses as well as in physical jobs. One time Pete was sick with malaria and went to the nearest hospital. Here he met with God and was strengthened in his spiritual life. A time when they questioned their work in Ecuador was when floods washed away their house, clinic, and school. Trusting in the Lord, they re-built. Many people were saved and many baptisms were held. Through all this, the Lord was burning a desire into their hearts to bring the gospel to the dangerous Auca Indians. Finally they located a Auca village that was know to be particularly violent. Regularly they would fly over the village and lower gifts from the airplane to earn their trust. Soon, they began to receive gifts back. After much time of doing this, they landed not far from the village and stayed hoping for a friendly visit from the Aucas. Soon their patience was rewarded by some of the Aucas coming to “check them out.” Shortly thereafter, the Aucas returned, this time not so friendly. Every one of the missionaries, although they could have defended themselves, didn't and were killed. Through their brave deaths, word was spread throughout the world. Many people became missionaries encouraged by these people's faith. Both Jim Elliot's and Pete Fleming's wives later returned as missionaries to the same tribe who had killed their husbands.

Although I had personally heard this story many times before, I was inspired by their love for these Indians, their love for God, and their bravery. If this biography also brings you inspiration, you can read a good biography series published by YWAM that includes at least four of the people involved in this event: Jim Elliot and his wife Elisabeth, and Nate Saint, the pilot, and his sister Rachel Saint. This series, Christian Heroes: Then and Now, was written by Janet and Geoff Benge. Have you ever faced a time when you needed to trust God, really, really trust Him? Have you ever faced a situation where you had to stand up for God and bear His name?

Caption #3!

This was a really hard decision for me. Every single suggestion was wonderful but after much consideration I chose Amy's caption. Great job, Amy! I especially enjoyed reading Jesseca Dawn's, Calamity Rene's, Grandma's, and “Bethany's Little Sister.” Thanks to all who played and I hope that you have been enjoying these and will continue to! Sometime in the near future I will post your new picture. God bless you all!

"Who turned off the gravity?!?"

Biography of Dwight L. Moody

Here is the first biography from LIFE Camp that I will post. May you all be inspired!

Dwight L. Moody

• He was born in Massachusetts in 1837
• At the age of four his father died leaving a wife, seven kids and twins in the womb.
• The children had to work on farms to earn their living and support their large family. They worked Monday to Saturday weekly.
• Moody worked for his uncle in Boston.
• His uncle's requirement was that Moody went to church with him. Eventually Moody became willing and often read his Bible.
• He accepted Christ through a Mr. Gemble who (I think) was a Sunday school teacher.
• From then on Moody fervently spread the gospel.
• Then he moved to Chicago.
• His two life goals were to make $100,000 (which was back then A LOT of money) and to preach.
• In Chicago, he reached out to the street children. He rented a pew in his church and brought random street kids.
• Eventually he was paying for four pews a Sunday.
• He reached out to 12 year old girls and brought them to Christ.
• Moody gave up his goal of making $100,000.
• At the age of 23 he left his job in 1860.
• He worked for YMCA (while it was actually Young Men's Christian Association and lived up to its name) and became a missionary.
• Traveled to England.
• His home was a victim of the Chicago fire in addition to his church.
• He built another church, but yet another fire destroyed it too.
• At the age of 54 Moody developed a terrible cough.
• He had been preaching three times a day but four times on Sunday.
• The doctor said that he needed to slow down or he'd die.
• On the way back from a trip to England, his ship began to sink with both Moody and his son aboard in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. At this point Moody had been considering what the doctor had said and thinking about minimizing his preachings.
• While aboard the sinking ship, Moody realized that God did not want him to slow down. So Moody trusted God to get him through his sinking ship and simply went to bed. Some time later his son awoke him to say that they had been rescued by another passing ship.
• Moody continued to work hard trusting in the Lord for seven more years. Then at the age of 63 Moody died.
• During his lifetime he had brought hundreds of people to Christ, started numerous Bible schools, etc.
• Most of all, Moody is a great example of trusting in God even in very hard times when your life is at stake.

I hope that you all were inspired by the brief explanation of Dwight L. Moody's life. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Caption This #3

Ready for another “caption this” contest? I hope that you all have been enjoying this as much as I have! I'm going to give you all a little longer than usual to put your captions in to hopefully get more entries. Here you go...may the contest begin in: 3...2...1...GO!

 

Yes, that weird flying girl is me a few years back—I do have that strange side to me you know....

Caption #2

Alrighty. After some thought I came up with a winner. Congratulations Grandma! Thanks for playing everyone! Here is the picture and caption. I will soon post your next picture to put your caption in!

I said, "Eat that hay and eat it now!"

 

LIFE Camp 2014!

Well, even though LIFE Camp was a ways back I am still doing a post about it. I have been blessed to attend this camp for four years now. This year, as I said in an earlier post, the theme was about the Armor of God. It was very thought provoking as a new Bible teacher took one part of the armor a day and spoke about it. Also, the people in biography as well as our chapel speaker each night spoke of the same part of the armor. I would like to share each of the biographies that we learned over the next few weeks by posting about one person at a time. We studied D.L. Moody, Charlotte Diggs Moon, William Tyndale, and Pete Flemming. Also each day we learned one hymn and a brief biography about its author. Some examples are I Surrender All, Take My Life and Let it Be, and A Mighty Fortress is our God. Perhaps I will also do a weekly post for five weeks each with a hymn. I would love your input as to if you would enjoy this or not. Here is a brief explanation of what a day at camp would consist of:

We wake up at seven. (Or at least that's the set time...) A few minutes to 8:00 we raise the flag to several patriotic songs and prayer and then march on to breakfast. After that there are three classes: Biography, Bible, and a new class dubbed Discussion. (More on that in a minute.) Then there is lunch which includes mail delivery, camp and cabin cleanup, swimming, and field games. Verse memorization, snack, and two hours of free time are next. Directly after free time, we lower the flag, eat dinner, and then rush over to chapel. To end the day there are night field games, snack, and devotions. And then, one of my favorite parts of the day, lights out! (Zzzzzz)

Although we are busy, it is a good busy. Most years instead of discussion we have missionary class but I think that I enjoyed discussion better. During this time, the entire camp (boys and girls) are divided up into several small groups. We talked about the part of the armor that we studied that day in more depth depending on your age category. Biography was my personal favorite class. I enjoy learning about such influential people in the Christian faith. Studying them helps to encourage me to follow their examples and being more open to God's plan for my life.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and thoughts. I felt like I was encouraged in my walk. I had a super cabin and superb counselor. As a cabin we got into great discussions and truly had a blast. Sorry that I don't have any pictures but again thank you all very much!

Caption This #2

Ok, so here is your next picture to caption. The man in the picture is our family friend who gave us our horse and taught us a lot about horsemanship. Hope you guys have fun. At the end of this week I will post my favorite. God bless you all!

Caption #1

While, it was a very hard decision to pick which caption would win for "Caption This #1" I finally decided on  the following. All of your captions were great, however congratulations Calamity Rene! In the next few days I will try to post picture #2. Thank you all who participated and I hope that you enjoy the pictures to come! God bless you all!

Dream: Oh, yeah, like I really care if you have the Carrot Stick in your hand. Nope, not gonna back up.
Sister: Awww come on! Parelli said this should work!!!

In the Sight of the Lord

Today my dad did a blog post that challenged me and could effect every reader. It is really thought provoking if you take your time reading it.

Who is your audience? In other words, who are you seeking affirmation from, acknowledgment, or to please? Is what you are doing "pleasing in the sight of the Lord"? May you all be blessed!

Click HERE to visit the post.

Caption This #1!

Hi Everyone!
Recently a blog that I really enjoy has started something that called "Caption This". I asked if I could use the idea and she said yes. It works like this: every other week (maybe a little sooner or later) I post a picture and in the comments, you put what you would caption it! It could be funny, serious, just whatever you want! Then at the end of one week (on average), I will pick my favorite caption and post it with the picture. Then the following week, I will post a different picture. And so on and so forth. I hope that you guys have fun! Just post your caption in the comments and sometime this week I will pick my favorite one!

Here is the first "Caption This" picture!

What is Dream and my sister thinking?

The Leibster Award

I have been awarded the Leibster Award! A big thank you to Jesseca Dawn (www.akansaswind.blogspot.com) and Calamity Rene (http://wildinwashington.blogspot.com/)! 

Here are the rules to the "game":

a. Acknowledge the blog that nominated you: Alrighty. Check.

b. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger created: Done.

Here are the questions from Jesseca, followed by the answers (I'll answer Calamity's at the end):

1. What is your favorite season?

Winter for sure!

2. What do you enjoy doing most during that season?

Well, my birthday, and Christmas, and being with my family while it's cool and we can have our wood stove burning.

3.Do you play any instruments? If so, which ones?

No, but I am learning keyboard.

4. What is your favorite style of music?

I enjoy contemporary Christian.

5.Who is your favorite author?

My Grandpa—Randall Reinstedt

and Susan Marlow

or Lauraine Snelling

or Martha Finley

or Jerry Jenkins and Chris Fabry

or Dandi Dally Mackall

6.If you could do anything you wanted, what would you choose to do?

Hmm, probably go on a back-country trip on some horses.

7. What is your favorite animal?

HORSES!

8. What is your favorite thing to do around a campfire?

I'm not sure. I guess just hang out with my family.

9.Who do you most enjoy spending time with?

My family for sure.

10.What is your favorite riddle?

I don't really have one. But IF I had to pick one, I would say this: A woman lives on the seventh floor of an apartment building. Every morning she gets in the elevators and goes to the level one, goes to work, but when she comes home, she presses the button for the fifth floor, and then walks up the rest of the stairs to her room. Why doesn't she just hit the seventh story button when she is going home?

(You guys can guess and I will post the answer later. )

11. What is your favorite radio drama? (If you listen to any)

Jonathan Park, or Adventures in Oddysey.

These questions were from Jesseca Dawn. At the end of this post I will answers the other questions form Calamity Rene.

List 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers that deserve some recognition. Here it goes:

Calamity Rene: wildinwashington.blogspot.com

Jesseca Dawn: akansaswind.blogspot.com

Erick Reinstedt: erickreinstedt.blogspot.com

I can't come up with any more. Sorry!

Write 11 questions for them to answer.

1. What do you like to do most?

2. How many siblings do you have?

3. What pets do you have?

4. What church do you attend?

5. How many followers do you have?

6. What is your favorite color?

7. What is your favorite joke?

8. What is your favorite animal?

9. What is your dream profession?

10. Where is your dream to live?

11. If you could go to any time period, when would it be?

Notify them they've been nominated. I will do that right now. If any of you want to, I'd love for you to answer these questions as well!

The qustions from Calamity Rene:

1. You just got awarded a million dollars. What are you going to do with it?

Good question. Well some I would tithe, some of it would go to missionaries, etc, some of it would be to travel, part of it for a horse ranch and lots of horses, and some just for whatever.

2. What time period would you travel to if you could?

I'm not sure. Probably the time of Jesus.

3. If you had to pick one, who would you pick as your favorite fictional character of all time?

Eeeeek! I can't pick! Well, I would have to think about that!

4. Who is your favorite Bible character?

You sure pick good questions! Mmmmm, Jesus of course. But other than him, I really like David.

5. What's your favorite book series?

Another hard one! Most likely Circle C Adventures and the High Hurdles or Winnie the Horse Gentler.

6. Who's your favorite author?

See Jesseca's questions

7. Do you have a favorite movie?

Not yet. But some I like are “Healed by Grace”, “Secretariat”, and the Narnia and Star Wars

8. What's your favorite past time?

I SUPPOSE riding!!!

9. What do you want to do when you get older?

Ooooooo. Someone who works with horses and kids. Also a mom and wife.

10. What's your favorite wild animal?

I like polar bears, wild horses (hehehe. Does that count? :-D), and dolphins.

11. If you could ask God one question, what would it be?

Yet another difficult one. The hardest of all...probably something about the end times. But I'm not sure.

Jesseca Dawn and Calamity Rene: Thank you. If you could, just even in a comment answer the questions I asked, I would love to get to know you more. If you want to do it in a post that is fine too!

The New Testament!

Hallelujah! I'm so excited! About a year and a half ago, I started reading through the New Testament. I slowly chugged along for about a year until Christmastime when I really buckled down. At that time I was in the Gospel of John. Just this morning, I finished Revelation! Reading through the gospels, I was blessed to learn more detail about the life of Jesus and how much he endured on the cross to save us from our sin. It was truly amazing to read through what Paul was writing to all the churches while he was in prison and how he persevered. Revelation was a bit confusing. It was a bit foreign to me but at the same time it was amazing to read about the end times and the future. This left such a confused impression on me that I had a weird dream last night about the end times.

This morning I had six chapters left and I was planning on reading three this morning and two tomorrow but when I was done with the first three I was so excited for finishing that I just read the remaining three chapters. I want to encourage everyone who is reading this to read the Bible, or even just the New Testament at first, all the way. It is really worth it and it can be done no matter your age.

Old Testament and rereading the New Testament, here I come!

Prayers for Camp

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting consistently, but since summer vacation (when we visited our relatives), starting school, etc. I have just been too busy. I still have many posts that I wish to do, such as on our first day of school and camp next week, so hopefully I will be able to find some time to do some more posts. I really appreciate comments, they help me feel like someone is still reading my blog even though I don't post consistently so if you have time, they would be greatly appreciated. Thank you to those who do comment!

Here is a short post just asking for your prayers. Next week my sister and I are going to a camp by Lake Lopez that is all week long. It's the same camp that I posted about last year, (see Off to Camp!) called LIFE Camp. The LIFE stands for Living In Faith Effectively. This will be my fourth year at this particular camp but each year they have a different theme. This year it will be the armor of God. I would be ever so grateful for each and every one of your prayers not just for my sister and me but for all the other children as well. Please pray for safety, fun, and for growing closer to God. Specific prayers for me would be that I don't get nervous answering questions or speaking up because of what people may think of me. So if you could pray for me then THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

God bless you all!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth everyone! I hope that you all have a wonderful day focused on why we are free—because Jesus died for us and set us free from sin. One of my favorite shirts has a cross on it and says, “This shirt is illegal in 53 countries.” Pray for those who are not free this day and may you praise the One who set you free from eternal death.

My short story: Aunt Rebecca Moves In

At the end of last year I entered a short story writing contest through an author I really like, Susan Marlow, using the characters from her stories. I didn't win but I would like to share my story with you all. Visit this link to read it and I would love to hear what you think in the comments on my blog!

For those of you not familiar with Susan's stories, I really like all of her books and would highly recommend them. They are a Christian series based in the 1800s for teens. The main character, Andrea Carter, who prefers to be called "Andi" as she is just a tomboy on her family's ranch, doesn't get along with her proper city aunt, Aunt Rebecca.

If you have any questions just ask away!

To Ponder and Share.

Recently I studied Blaise Pascal in history and there were a few thing he said that I thought were good. I've listed them here for you to also ponder and reflect on. Feel free to share this with others!

– If I wager that there is a God, and I'm right, then I gain eternity for having believed in Him.

– If I wager that there is a God, and I'm wrong, then I lose nothing for having believed in Him.

– If I wager that there is no God, and I'm right, then I lose nothing for having not believed in Him.

– If I wager that there is no God, and I'm wrong, then I lose eternity for having not believed in Him.

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you think about these in the comments! God bless!

Bethany

Are you a writer. . .?

Here's a fun quiz that I used with permission. Have fun!

You know you're a writer when...

1You see someone on TV who you think looks just like one of your characters.
2 You read a book and are certain that writer ripped you off, somehow.
3 You think of your characters as your friends.
4 You reenact a scene from your story and do the dialogue for all the characters.
5 You watch a movie with your friends and you can't stop saying, "I'm totally using that line in my book."
6 Your mood depends on what's going on in your book.
7 You'd rather write than watch TV.
8You cry while you write a sad scene in your story.
9 You get mad when someone says they think you should make your favorite character die.
10 You get so excited when you're assigned a two week research paper.
11 You dream about your story/stories.
12 You dream about your bad guy character trying to kill you.
13 The kids of your mom's friend go home and ask their mom to rent the movie you were telling them about, when in reality you were just telling them a story.
14 You do hands-on research to figure out how it would feel to be your character in whatever situation you're researching.
15 You model your child character after the kid you babysit.
16 You get mad when your character makes the wrong decision.
17 You can't stand the naughty kids in the books you read, but you love writing those kids to torment your characters.
18 You play your stories.
19You wish you could live in the imaginary world sometimes.
20 When people ask you what your favorite book character is you tell them the one from your own book.
21 You have actually emailed the FBI to ask them questions for your story.
22 You get really excited about research.
23 You borrow tons of books from the library to get inspiration or ideas for scenes in your stories.
24 You rewrite movies/books/TV shows to the way you like them.
25 You sometimes wonder if your characters are controlling the stories, not you. 
26 You own an outfit just like the one your character wears.
27 You write your own commercials for your stories.
28 You find that you can't remember what was from your stories and what was real when you're recalling life events.
29 You actually can't stand to let your favorite bad guy die and you bring him back again...and again and again and again formany sequels.
30 Your friends think you're talking about real people when you're actually talking about your characters.
Grade yourself!
1-5: You like to make up stories a lot but find that it's hard to actually finish something and often you find yourself having to push yourself to sit down and write.
5-10: You enjoy writing and do it in your spare time, though during school you don't usually find the inspiration to write and would rather be doing something else.

10-15: You love to write and try to do it as much as you can, though many times you take several week breaks. When Writer's Block hits you're really stuck.

15-20: You love to write and often start many, many stories that you can't possibly finish, thus frustrating yourself and never actually getting things done except those stories you really put a lot of effort into.

 20-25: You really love writing and just can't get enough of it- you write something every single day and eighty percent of the time finish what you write, though you do have a lot of abandoned stories or just ideas that someday you may or may not write. You rarely get Writer's Block and have over ten stories finished.
25-29: You LOVE writing so much and are constantly typing up a new idea or story or something and can't stop creating new things. You finish most of what you write and then start something new, often tackling three part series in a matter of weeks. Your biggest problem is jumping from story to story to story, though you do finish most of what you write you often reread what you wrote a month before and then rewrite the whole story.
All 30: You're hooked. You think, breathe and live your stories. Often you have to take a break from writing so you don't mix reality with the imaginary, but your mind is always returning to that one scene or story you were going to write. You are constantly seeing people in stores that look like your characters and suspiciously considering that perhaps they escaped your book.

Comment in the comments and let me know what category you fall into.

P.S.

Jesseca Dawn and Susan Marlow, thanks for allowing me to use this.

Fool or Wise?

Thursday evenings my dad teaches youth group at my church. At the last youth group Dad gave out a questionnaire worksheet with five questions:

1. If someone asked you what a fool was (what makes someone a fool) what would you answer?
2. If someone asked you what makes a person wise what would you answer?
3. Is it possible for someone to be very smart but not very wise? Explain.
4. Who is wise— the one who is wise in the world's eyes and a fool in God's eyes, or the one who is a fool in the world's eyes and wise in God's eyes?
5. Which are you?

I challenge you to answer these questions. Only share the answers in a comment if you want to. Get out a piece of paper and answer them on there or copy the questions into a document and answer them there. Write them out, reflect on them. Do you want to be a fool in the world's eyes and wise in God's eyes or wise in the world's eyes and a fool in God's eyes?

Also I want to encourage my readers to see a movie that came out in theaters not that long ago called God's Not Dead. It is a wonderful movie. I would personally see it in theaters so that the entertainment industry will continue to make faith-based Christian movies as the movies that do the best in theaters will continue to be made.

A Magical Moment

Our cow Freckles touching noses with Dream.

A few weeks ago I enjoyed a small adventure on our property. Since I live on 40 acres, own two cows, one sheep, four chickens, four cats, and a horse, with practically no neighbors on our street, I get the full country life. So anyway, I saddled up Dream with my sister and parents and we rode Dream in our lower 20 acres. It was really fun as this was her first time in the “lowland” as we refer to it. She had only met our cows over the fence so she was as excited as could be to meet the cows face to face. As I rode her toward the cows and sheep, her whole body began to vibrate violently. At the time I thought it meant that she was scared but have since learned that that means that they are excited. I turned her around and began to walk away and as I did the cows and sheep began to come toward us. I have to admit that I was pretty nervous as I was on her and didn't know how she would respond and also, there are a lot of gopher holes in the lowland that I was afraid if she started to run she might step in and break a leg. However, after the cows and sheep followed us, I decided to let them meet. I once again turned her around and after a while, our youngest cow stepped forward and reached out her neck as far as she could. It was sort of like, “Hey! I want to meet you but am just a bit afraid. But my curiosity is getting the better of me. I'll just keep my distance.” I can understand why the cows would be a bit afraid because I'd never realized just the size of the cows until I was up on Dream's back. Even though Dream is considered a “pony” she is still a good size. I was looking down on the cows instead of up to them. It was practically magical to watch as they touched noses. I can tell you that I let out a sigh of relief as I realized just how relaxed Dream was since she was eating grass as she approached the cows!!! :P

A girl and her horse. . . and two cows and a sheep.

I just wanted to share this special part of my life with you all. Thanks for reading!

Winter Camp!

Sorry I haven 't posted in a while. I've been super busy. Enjoy this post!

Thanks for reading!

Ice skating with two of my buddies.

Broom Hockey. (I'm in green)

From January 31 to February 2 I went on a trip to a winter camp with my church's youth group. Hume Lake Christian Camps, is located in the southern area of the Sierrra Nevada Range. This was my second time going with the youth group. About 17 middle schoolers went and of those two accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Your prayers would be coveted for all the youth, that they would not stray from the Lord due to their home life, pressure at school, etc.

Among my favorite activities at Hume were ice skating, tubing, broom-hockey, and the “Boxsled Blitz”. The “Boxsled Blitz” is a competition between the churches that go up there. The rules are that you have to make a sled out of ONLY cardboard and duct tape. Then, when the tube run is iced over at about ten at night, two to ten people get in the sled and go down the hill and over a jump directly in front of the judges. This year our youth group made by far the most beautiful sled; it was a red and black locomotive complete with a bell and smokestack. We probably won creativity wise but, being the first sled down the hill, we only hit about eighteen mph and I think that judges were giving out lower scores at first, saving the better scores for if there was a better sled. :( Also, Hume has another tournament called broom-hockey, which is very similar to hockey. That was a lot of fun to participate in although we didn't win. I went ice skating twice and taught two people to ice skate. For not being on the ice in almost a year I feel I did fairly well. :P

The speaker was very funny.

Another of my favorite parts was chapel. There are two chapel sessions every day where there is a live band and speaker. This year the band was “For All Seasons,” formerly “Reveal”. The speaker was very funny. At one point he duct-taped a kid to his back to demonstrate carrying unnecessary burdens. He also told a lot of stories. The theme this year was “bear” fruit. If you're not bearing fruit then maybe you aren't connected to Jesus, the vine. They talked a lot about being grafted into the vine and such.

The band leader, Emily.

Even with all the awesome activities, chapel was my favorite part. I love the worship and the atmosphere where you don't feel ashamed to lift your hands in worship. I can't wait for next year's trip!!!