My Life: An Update

Happy New Year! It has been awhile since I last posted. Sorry about that! However, as I'm sure you all understand, life gets very busy for me around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then my birthday. :-) So I'll give you a brief update.

Before I do, I suppose that I should let you know that this is my 100th post over the course of about three years! This will be my fourth year of blogging! I am so pleased that I have been able to keep this running for this long with every intention of keeping on. Thank you for staying with me so faithfully! And now for the update.

We had a relaxing Thanksgiving. I helped my mom make the meal and as a family we read praises that we had collected over the year. We celebrated our Thanksgiving on the day before the actual Thanksgiving. The next day we went into our local town and delivered meals to seniors before heading up to my grandparents house where we enjoyed another Thanksgiving meal!

Two weeks after we came home, we traveled to visit my other grandma, aunt, uncles, and cousins. While there, we finished up our school semester.

Next thing I knew, we were at the Christmas Eve service and it was Christmas the next day! I was so blessed by all the love shown to my family by friends in our fellowship. Two days later my grandparents came and we celebrated Christmas and my fifteenth birthday together.

On my actual birthday, my family and I went to see the new Star Wars movie. I had been counting down to this for a long time. Though I personally feel that numbers 1,2,4,5, and 6 (chronologically) were better, I really enjoyed it. The day was special and once more, I was so blessed by the love shown to me by family and friends.

We didn't do much on either New Year's Eve or New Year's Day except spending good time together.  However, we watched the first Lord of the Rings movie on New Year's Eve and the second on New Year's Day. Yesterday we finished the final one of this series that quickly climbed to among my top favorites. I love that non-stop action found in movies such as this, the Hobbit, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. Which of these movie series are your favorite?

This next weekend I will be going to Hume Lake. I would really appreciate your prayers for me as well as all the other youth, and the counselors. 

And that brings you up-to-date on my recent life. Hopefully you can understand why I have been so absent online recently. ;-) However, I hope to do some more posts soon. Also, I have a question for you:

Because I didn't get any entries last time for my writing challenge, I'm not sure if you are still interested, or were just too busy like I was. Please let me know if you would be interested in entering my previous one, or if I should even do another. Also, check out my new wintery blog look and let me know your thoughts! Thank you and have a blessed New Year!

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!

An Update . . .

I just wanted to do a quick post to let all my readers in on an update about Dream's leg. Sorry I didn't earlier. It is healing up well and she is at the point where we could start to ride again. (Yeah!!!) She is really feeling her oats. We have been working her more to get her ready for us to ride again. We took her for a walk (I know that sounds crazy but. . . ) on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and that was great except that it was a windy day and she spooked a bit. So I hope that fills you all in!!! By the way, if you are a horse owner, could you let me know in a comment so I know who to ask for tips? I hope to post new pictures soon! God bless you all! Thanks for all you prayers and concern!