A Year in Review: 2017

These last few months have been hectic, as I'm sure you can guess based on my absence from the blogging universe. Between Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, taking trips, Christmas, school, friends, and my birthday, life has been quite the busy adventure. Am I the only one having trouble believing 2018 is already upon us? Please note, this post has a large amount of photos. :) What's a year recap without pictures?

I know it's already halfway through January, but allow me to recap my year, if for no other reason than for the sake of my own sanity to bring closure to 2017.

One of my favorite Princess Bride quotes. :)

In some ways, 2017 was a far better year than 2016, but in other areas it was just as hard—or harder. There have been some amazing highlights to my year, but also quite a bit of difficulties regarding the health of family members. I've made some fabulous friends, but also lost some other close friendships. I've received good grades in tough classes, but also struggled through certain areas of my schooling. I can think of several words to summarize 2017: challenging, surprising, full of change, but if I had only one word to describe it, I'd say it was a year of growth. Spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I faced several new experiences, some good and some . . . not-so-good.

Growth; Spiritually
I am confident this last year has grown me stronger in my walk with God. I've made many mistakes (thank you, Jesus, for your grace and mercy!), but each time I came out stronger. I found myself placed in situations where I had to make the choice to put God as more of a priority in my life. Throughout the year, God also placed me in circumstances where I could help and give advice to others. This gave me a chance to answer some questions for myself and learn how I can share with others. I've become more firm in my convictions, and closer to more fully trusting God. Each different environment I found myself in was an opportunity to shine more brightly for Christ. Every person I had contact with was a chance for me to act like "God's Billboard". All the situations I faced were ways to test me and my commitments to people and God. Not that I was ever ashamed of what I believe, but now I'm a little more willing to speak up about it and for what I know is right without cowering. As you can probably tell based on the added dimension of seriousness my posts have had, I've been viewing things in a deeper level, and I've found myself eager to share the things God points out to me. I'm still learning how to find and follow God's plans for my life, but through everything I experienced in 2017, I've come to trust God more and be more willing to be His hands and feet.

Growth; Mentally
My sophomore and junior years of high school have been tough. Really, really, difficult. By noon on some days, I can practically feel my mind expanding. :) Don't ever believe that all homeschoolers have it easy. ;) As my family and friends can attest to, I've had a heavy schedule and extremely challenging courses. For the first time, I tried having a double (i.e. college) schedule with a few of my subjects. Last semester I did a full year of Physics and PreCalculus, so that I don't have either science or math this semester and can double up on some other subjects. Some of my favorites of the past year are my Apologetics (defending the Christian faith), Worldviews and World Religions (studying six major worldviews of modern day), and Constitutional Literacy (learning the original intent of the Constitution in relation to where America stands today). All these classes have changed my outlook at the world and the people in it. Now I have a better understanding of why people view things the way they do, and I'm better equipped to talk with them. My other courses have also been readying me for adulthood. While the schedule has been challenging, I've truly enjoyed studying more about the world in which I live.

Growth; Emotionally
Between friends and family having some major health crisis and looking ahead thinking about my future, it's been a pretty emotional year. Unfortunately, it has become far too easy for my emotions to wear me down and lead toward depression. Thanks to my wonderful family, friends, and God, I made it through the year. I'm still drained emotionally, but trying to keep my focus on God rather than everything the world throws at me helps.

Life hasn't been easy, but God has been good. He's blessed me and my family beyond measure. I've found one of the keys that's guided me through 2017 has been a continuous gratitude. Thanking God for all the blessings, big and small. "Thank you, Lord, for the beautiful weather!" "Thanks for amazing friends!" "Thank you that I have food to eat and clean water to drink." "Thanks for allowing me to have another day on this earth!" "Thank you for helping me do well on this test/in my job." There are so many things to be grateful for. " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above . . ." (James 1:17) Concentrating on the blessings rather than the difficulty has been a key step for me this year.

Now, for the lighthearted part of my 2017 journey.

~Blog Stats~

Total Blog Posts: 172 (including this post)
Number of 2017 Posts: 28
Most Popular Posts of 2017:

• Dear God, Where Have You Been?
• 8 Reasons Why Summer Isn't My Favorite Season
• Tag Time
• Urgent: Prayer Request
• #RebelliousWriting
• Writing Accomplishment!

 Personal Post Favorites From 2017:

• The "Highlights" posts: January, February, March, April, Summer
• "Tu" v. "Usted"
• The Blades of Acktar: Deliver (Plus Author Interview)
• #RebelliousWriting
• Dear God, Where Have You Been?
• God's Billboard
• God's Plans

I'm up to 49 Google followers and 52 email subscribers. (Some of those are overlaps.) Nine email subscribers were added in 2017.
My blog has now had almost 33,600 pageviews over its history. Almost 20,000 of those are from the United States, but apparently I have nearly 9,000 views from Russia. There's also a substantial amount from France and Canada.
I only changed my blog layout twice.

~Writing Stats~

As seems to always be the case, I didn't do nearly as much writing this year as I'd hoped. But considering all my other varied experiences, I'm okay with that.
Words on Arkinland Chronicles (formerly Dragon Chronicles): 14,700+
Words on other projects: 13,000+
Grand Total: Almost 30K

~Reading Stats~

I'll wait on this and am planning a separate post for just my reading in 2017. Stay tuned!

~Firsts~

Here are a few of my new experiences in 2017 with no particular order.
I spent an afternoon whitewater rafting on the Kern River! I've dreamed of river rafting for years, so to finally be able to was thrilling.

Early in the year, I got my amateur radio technician license! Having the option to use the radio for communication has been extremely freeing for my family.

I learned to play both the board games of Catan and Risk. Since playing them for the first time, they've become among my favorite games. (I'm currently the Catan champion in the family.)

In March, I had the excitement of watching myself on a big screen in Bakersfield for the Christian Youth Film Society's annual film festival. For those of you who recall from November 2016 when I participated in the film camp, the short film I acted in was entered into the Film Festival. It was extremely fun to hear the crowd laughing at all the humorous scenes. :)

Beginning of December, I volunteered at a Christmas party for foster children where I worked at a cookie decorating table.

My sister and I rode our horses over to a neighbor's property for the first time and were able to work in an arena.

I filmed a funny short movie (mostly) on my own, for a homeschool project on Newton's Laws of Motion.

A still from the film: a fig newton bar being chased by a star destroyer.

My sister and I performed a scene from the Princess Bride for the Life Camp talent show. (It was our first act together in the talent show.)

I acted in front of a green screen.

Flying a drone for the first time was exhilarating!

In June, my family and I returned to Lone Pine for vacation and worked on a lavender farm for a few days. My sister and I also were able to help with the horses on the farm. This was the first time in months I'd had a chance to relax and read, both of which I did in some unusual places (like up in a tree over a river).

Reading in the middle of a high mountain meadow.

I finally was able to travel to the beach with a group of friends as part of high school Life Camp. We had a wonderful time, and even had "chapel" on the beach.

I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo for the first time. (It's a virtual writer's camp.)

During the solar eclipse, I watched it from the 70% zone.

This was my first full year as the church librarian. (That's still the best job out there when you love reading!)

I finally drove my dad's tractor for the first time as part of filming another family movie. :)

While on a trip to Hume Lake for my sister's birthday, we helped the staff build the set in the chapel for their summer camps. The castle design was extremely intricate!

I went on the ocean for a whale watching expedition!

~Other Highlights~

Counseling for the second time at Camp Good News for a week of the summer was a marvelous experience. My group of girls tested me but were all so sweet, and I loved being there to pour into their lives and teach them about Christ for a week.

Last winter was a record for rainfall with a total of 42"! Gratefully, the rain came over a long enough time period where we didn't have mudslides from the fire a few months previous.

My family and grandparents took our tenth annual family picture at a coffee shop in Carmel, CA. We're so blessed to have had those ten years of good health and great memories.

Over the course of the year, my family and I took trips to Pacific Grove and Monterey, Los Angeles, Kernville, Lone Pine, Shaver Lake (where we went skiing again!), Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park.

Skiing at Shaver Lake

Relaxing by the Kern River

Taking pictures of the Kern River

I had a doctor dig around in my finger because I accidentally stuck a pencil in it. Long story. Don't worry, I won't post pictures of that. :)

We filmed another short family movie over the summer and fall. It's best described as an Indiana Jones parody with lots of fossils included. :) We consider this to be the height of our production quality thus far, by expanding our limits to working with a green screen, "blowing things up" for the sake of the film (don't worry, not really), and creating a "behind the scenes."

This was our "explosion"

Even the horses got in the film!

My family and I started a hunt for all 50 license plates. So far we have 42.

I actually dressed up for my church's Light the Night festival. I didn't think I was going to but then I decided, "why not?" My outfit was technically Cleopatra, though I'd rather not be associated with her. Instead, I'm just saying that I was an Egyptian queen. :)

My family's Christmas picture this year expanded to include our horses, Dream and Baylie.

~Favorite Pictures I Took~

I've posted a few of these at some point during the year, but they're still my favorites. Enjoy!

Monterey Bay. Everyone says this could be a postcard photo.

I really like this one. :)

Ocean sunsets are among my favorite pictures to take.

This was on the whale watching trip.

This is probably my favorite from the whole year.

~Bible Verses and Quotes~

A Bible verse I often referred to during 2017 was my current "theme verse", 1 Timothy 4:12. "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity."

One of my favorite quotes I heard last year is: "Life isn't how many breaths you take, but it's the moments that take your breath away."

With that, I'll wrap up my 2017 recap. I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse into my year! May 2018 be a blessed year for every one of you! Thank you for reading. :)

Note: All images used in this post are not to be duplicated or used in any format without express permission by the photographer.

April Highlights 2017

I'm back again with yet another monthly highlight post. April slowed down a bit, but not by much! I can't believe we are a third of the way through 2017! Where is it going?

~Summary~

Our "new" suburban.

As some of you are aware, about six months ago our car started to need significant mechanical attention. As bills continued to build up and the main apparent problem still wasn't fixed, we started hunting for a new used car. After multiple disappointments, we finally found and bought a Chevy Suburban that will be great for all my family's trips, etc. I'm looking forward to creating more memories in this car as we did in our previous van. Thank you to everyone who loaned us cars during this time and to all who prayed for us.

The rest of the month went by in a blur of days spent fixing fences, clearing up our property on burn days, and a trip to each of my grandparent's houses in Los Angeles and Pacific Grove.

One of my friends played the Mad Hatter!

I also got to go with my dad and a friend to watch an "Alice in Wonderland" play some friends starred in. (Great job, you guys!) Easter was a good day, starting out by celebrating our risen Savior at our church service, but turned out rather unusual since it rained and we were out fixing a fence in it! :) That was fun. I ended the month by serving at a local community fundraiser.

April was also a rather difficult month, in that there was quite a bit of stress trying to find our new car so we'd have a reliable vehicle, and several of our friends spent the majority of the month in the hospital.

In general, it was a good month even through the difficulties.

~Reading~

This month was a bit of a slower month as far as books goes, but once again, those I did read were very enjoyable! I'm in the middle of two other books that will get added into May's list. For April, my total pages is 1,283.

1. Ranger's Apprentice: The Icebound Land, John Flanagan (266 pages)
2. Red Rock Mysteries: Hidden Riches, Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry (249 pages)
3. Red Rock Mysteries: Dead End, Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry (235 pages)
4. The Blades of Acktar: Deliver, Tricia Mingerink (239 pages)
5. Ranger's Apprentice: The Battle for Skandia, John Flanagan (294 pages)

Without a doubt, my favorite book out of that list is Deliver. I wrote a post on its release day that you can read by clicking HERE.

Also, I finally finished reading the Red Rock Mysteries series. I was a little disappointed with the ending of the last book, but overall it was a great series and I spent many pleasant hours reading it.

~Writing~

I participated in Camp NaNo, a virtual writing camp, and had a wonderful time. Even though I didn't begin to approach my goal, I enjoyed getting to know everyone in my wonderful cabin. It was an experience worthwhile, even if I only made 8,600 words. But as a friend reminded me, every word you write is a word you didn't have before. :) In that case, I'm content with my word count for this month. The best part of writing was the friends I made through Camp, and the satisfaction of pushing through some difficult spots in my story.

Also, another thrilling side of writing through April was when I managed to make my current WIP my longest story yet! It's now sitting at around 26K. :) Click HERE to read my post about that, and at the top of my blog I have added a page about the Arkinland Chronicles with stats, the summary, and a few exerts. Check it out!

~Photography~

Rather than post multitudes of pictures here as I've done in the past, I'll only post a few since I already shared most of my good photos for April in a previous post, called Springtime Photos.

At the beach in Pacific Grove.

~Great Quotes~

This month, I've been keeping my eyes out for good quotes to share with you, and I've discovered quite a few that I love!

This has become one of my all-time favorite quotes!

~Blog Posts~

It seems that I've already linked to most of my more popular posts of the month, so if you missed any of those, you can find them above. My personal favorite was the post about Deliver, since I love sharing about my favorite books. (I couldn't call myself a book lover if I didn't!) Besides, I got to do an author interview with Tricia Mingerink, and that doubled the fun!

A great blog post that I read this month was done by Jonathan at Fishing For Ideas. Here's the LINK to his post about putting your faith into your writing.

~

That's all folks! Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear about your April highlights!

Writing Accomplishment!

I know this isn't much compared to many of my writer friends out there, but I wished to celebrate this moment with you. A few days ago, I reached the most words I've ever written in a story! While it is only 21,200 words that I passed, it is still a great accomplishment for me, and I'm still going strong!

It was about a year ago that I started the historical fiction story that held my record until a few days ago. That was A Pirate's Tale, the biggest writing project I'd attempted. Several months after starting it, however, I began to see how cliche it was and how many plot holes there were. So I stopped.

That was when I began my current work, Dragon Chronicles, that I'm leaning toward calling the Arkinland Chronicles. It's a very new experience for me to be writing this for several reasons.

1. It's the first fantasy I've written.
2. It's the first major story I've written with a male main character.
3. It's one of my first attempts writing in first person.

Despite all the "firsts," I think it's coming along well and I hope to continue strong. My biggest writing issue in the past has been having too many ideas and not enough perseverance to push through the difficulties in the writing process. So I would greatly appreciate all your prayers as I continue to embark on this journey! Thank you for sharing with me in this exciting moment!

March Highlights 2017

Yet another month in 2017 has come and gone. So much has occurred this March, so bear with me as I try to summarize. :)

~Summary~

Within the first few days of March, my mom began getting her dental work done, and while it will take several months yet to complete it, she is no longer in as bad of pain as she had been. Thank you for all the prayers!

Besides this, March started off with a friend coming to stay and watch our house while we took a trip to Shaver Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The first day of the trip, however, my family and I spent in Bakersfield for the Christian Youth Film Society's 23rd Film Festival. This organization is the one that hosted the camp I attended last November and that has inspired me to begin my own movie-making journey with my youth group, some other friends, and family. It was a very formal event with a dinner and then the evening showing of the short movies that had entered the contest. I enjoyed my time and especially was glad to get to see some of my friends that I hadn't seen since the camp. Additionally, the couple who opened their home to us that night were involved in the festival and movie industry. (One was a judge of the movies, a producer, and an author!) Both were very sweet, and I loved spending time with them.

The following morning we headed up the mountain to Shaver, where we found several inches of snow that had fallen the previous day. It's a running joke with us and our friends up there that whenever my family comes—it snows. :) We spent the next few days sledding, cross-country skiing, and (in my case) catching up on some schoolwork.

Life slowed down a bit after the Shaver Lake trip, but was still busy as usual with youth groups, school, and other day-to-day events—not to mention the difficulties that daylight savings brings! During this time, I was also introduced to a book series, the Ranger's Apprentice, which I have really been enjoying. My church also had a breakfast last Sunday that was very fun, and I was thrilled to have one of my friends from another church visit with his family. Also, now that my family is all official HAM radio operators we have been building an antennae with one of the teachers of our class who also attends our church. In addition, one day this month my grandparents came down for a much-enjoyed visit. I've also gone on several fun horseback rides this month now that the ground is drying up a bit.

This last week has also been filled with birthdays every-other day. Literally! Last Sunday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday had a combined five birthdays of people I know, one of which was my sister. So, happy birthday to Samuel, Abigail, Cheyene, Nichole, and Ruben! I hope you all had wonderfully special days.

For my sister's birthday, my family returned to Hume Lake for the youth pastor's retreat. It was so different than when I went earlier in the year with my youth group and the campus was swarming with high schoolers! This time, there were very few people, no snow, and no structured "activities" per se. As a family we hiked, explored, took pictures, helped work on building the summer camp set, relaxed, played games, and did a hidden-transmitter hunt. I was excited to get lots of reading done as well. Of course, I have to mention that we played Apples to Apples—probably one of my favorite games. :) The weather went from clear and sunny to foggy, cloudy, rainy, and finally hail as we were leaving and visiting Sequoia National Park and the General Grant tree.

To top off my month, I was able to go to a friend's birthday party. I had a wonderful time hanging out with everyone there and I was glad to get to know some more people better. It was a party I won't soon forget! (All for good reasons. :D) Thanks for inviting me, Samuel!

~Reading~

March was a very successful month in terms of books. I'd recommend all of them. My total number of books? Nine. Total pages? 2,633. Not bad if I do say so myself. :)

1. Out of Time: A Time to Die, Nadine Brandes (389 pages)
2. Circle C Milestones: Courageous Love, Susan K. Marlow (186 pages)
3. A Seven Wonders Novel: Shadow of Colossus, T. L. Higley (384 pages)
4. Left to Die, Ivy Rose (116 pages)
5. Martin Generations: Martin Hospitality, Abigayle Claire (386 pages)
6. Circle C Adventures: Andrea Carter and the Long Ride Home (expanded edition), Susan K. Marlow (195 pages)
7. Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan, John Flanagan (249 pages)
8. Ranger's Apprentice: The Burning Bridge, John Flanagan (262 pages)
9. Ilyon Chronicles: Samara's Peril, Jaye L. Knight (464 pages)

Every single book on this list was wonderful! However, I would like to specifically mention a few.

I have been waiting for months to read A Time to Die, and it did not disappoint me. It was a different style than I'm used to, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the plot.

Courageous Love is likely my second favorite book out of the Circle C Milestones series, and while some spots broke my heart (and there was certainly a major aspect to it that I wasn't expecting), it was a wonderful book!

Abigayle Claire did a delightful job on her new novel, Martin Hospitality, and I had a hard time putting down the book! It was well written and I found myself in love with the characters and plot.

Thank you so much to Alex and Samuel for encouraging me to read the Ranger's Apprentice series and for loaning me the books! I'm loving it so far!

And last but not least, I have to mention Samara's Peril. How could I not? It was just as wonderful as the previous books in the series and I love the new twists!

~Writing~

Again, another slow month in terms of writing. I got less than 1000 words done on my Dragon Chronicles, but did accomplish some writing on other projects. I would have certainly liked to write more, but hopefully April will prove to be more profiting with Camp NaNo and such. (Any other campers out there?)

~Photography~

With all of the trips this month, I've had plenty of opportunity to get some cool photos. I'll limit them all to a few.

This is where we stayed at Shaver Lake.

The flags hanging over the ice skating rink at Hume Lake.

My sister at Hume Lake.

At Hume Lake.

The Bakersfield orchards.

This is where we skied at Tamarack Ridge.

Hume Lake

Some of the giant Sequoia trees.

On a ride. :)

~Great Quotes~

"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see." -Winston Churchill

 "Church isn't a museum for good people, it's a hospital for the broken." -Jefferson Bethke

"Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they're big, flashing signs that something needs to change" -Gretchen Rubin

~Blog Posts~

To visit any of my posts in March that you might have missed, here are the links:

February Highlights 2017
"Tu" v. "Usted"
Dear Readers . . . .

I also got several more followers in March, so I'm really excited about that. Welcome and thank you for joining my little community!

Another thing I wanted to point out is the poll that I ran for a week toward the end of this month. I asked what sorts of posts I did that were your favorites, and the order of which you said you enjoyed them are as follows:

1. Life Updates
2. A tie between Photos and Writing
3. A tie between Reading, Books, and God
4. Blog Tags
5. Writing Challenges

Thank you to everyone who voted. I appreciate your feedback!

Unfortunately I haven't found much time in March to read many other blog posts, but I'd like to let you know about a cool challenge that was posted on Andi's Blog by Libby to help grow your spiritual walk. Also, since the beginning of the year I've found and enjoyed reading multiple new blogs. Give the authors a hearty welcome to the blogosphere! You know who you are. ;)

Alas, we have come to the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed hearing about my month. Now it's your turn—tell me about yours!