Help Wanted!

Hiya! Next week is my final creative writing class! For my final homework assignment, I need YOUR help!

In our lesson, we discussed using "passwords" to help come up with writing ideas. This password can any word that you can think of. My teacher used "green", "cows", "candle", "hammer", "stream", "french fries", anything that could invoke a memory from our past that could inspire us to write something.

So my homework assignment is to come up with a password, then ask a bunch of my family, friends, church family, neighbors, and online friends (that's you :P) to give me a memory that they think of, when they think of my specific password. Then, I have to take those memories and take bits and pieces from each one and combine them all into a little story!

The password I came up with is: ROAD TRIP!

Most everyone has been on road trips long or short with their family and/or friends. I practically go on a road trip every Sunday to church :P I think some of you do too ;)

If you have a road trip memory that you'd be willing to share with me, I'd be thrilled if you'd comment below! It will help me out a lot too!

P.S. I will be posting more on other things I've learned in Creative Writing once I have time to organize everything. Thanks for understanding :D

April!

I looooooooove this month so much. There are a few reasons why and I will explain in this post. But first:
-Mr. McFluffernutter HAS BEEN FOUND! Woop woop! *dances around room* What happened is, I have a loft bed. One side of the bed is a desk and the other side is a bookshelf. The bookshelf side is pushed up against the wall so I can only access the bookshelf from beneath my bed but currently, there is a bed frame and mattress under my bed so I can only access the top two shelves. Mr. McFluffernutter somehow ended up on the bottomshelf and because I couldn't get to it, I couldn't see him hiding there :P

-Thank-you for your prayers concerning the passing of my neighbor. His wife is planning on selling/finding homes for most of the animals. I have been feeding their "horses" (one horse, one pony, one donkey, and one mule) since January with my lil brother and although it was a mundane chore at times, I'm really going to miss those horses and miss having excuses to barge in on my neighbors :P

-Liebster Award post coming soon! O'Neal Story posts are being put on hold until further notice. I need to do some brief editing still and I really need to focus on school instead of writing right now.

And now, Why I Love April!

• SPRING
  During April is when the weather starts warming up, the grass gets green again, the trees begin budding, flowers are blooming. It's just great!
  
• Mid-State Choir!
  This was my second time joining the Mid-State Choir Festival. About half a dozen church choirs get together on a Saturday and we sing a number of songs together. We then perform a mini concert that evening to whomever wishes to come and listen. A full day of singing? Count me in! The songs this year were INCREDIBLE. Here's a link to my favorite, Holy is He :D And this one: Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal. My church choir is not nearly as gifted as the acapella choir in the video :P Those guys are incredible!
  
• Bible Quizzing
  I'm on a Bible Quizzing team at church where we meet with other churches once a month and quiz on a book of the Bible. This year we quizzed on Ephesians. Quizzing started in January and ends in April. I enjoy Bible Quizzing and it's tons of fun but it's also a relief when it's over and you aren't studying like mad or stressing about doing well :D
  
• Missions Conference!
  At the end of April, my church has Missions Conference where three missionary couples/families come to our church and talk about their ministries. We have services Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then Sunday. Wednesday thru Friday all the ladies (and sometimes men :P) make food and desserts and whoever wants to come can come for dinner with the missionaries. It's a great opportunity to get to know the missionaries better. Sunday we have lunch with the missionaries but only special people get invited to that. Since my dad is a deacon, my family gets invited :D (Perks of being a deacons kid :P)
  On Sunday then, we have a Parade of Nations where we recognize all the missionaries our church supports. We support over fifty missionaries so it takes some time to recognize ALL of them. We have these little signs/banners and the children and teens (and a few times we've had the young married couples, much to their dismay lol) carry the banners down the aisle and stand up front and then we sing a song. It's kinda nerve wracking when you're little but now that I'm seventeen, it's just become a part of my childhood.
  
• MY BIRTHDAY!
  Okay, this is a very selfish reason, but I was born in the month of April so of course that has to be a reason why I love April :P

What is your favorite month and the reasoning behind it?

The Last Ride

I hate to admit this but it has been a really, really long time since I've fully read an entire book.
I've read paragraphs or chapters of some books for my Creative Writing class but not the full book front to back.

Ugh, I feel terrible to admit it but I haven't got my hands on a good book in forever and I spend all my extra time writing, recording, or some other time wasting hobby :P

That being said, on Monday I downloaded the free Kindle version of The Last Ride by Susan Marlow. I finished it on Tuesday :D I read about five or six chapters on Monday and today I read the rest. This afternoon I took a break in my school work to read a chapter or two...which turned into three or four...which ended up being sixteen chapters!

I cannot tell you the last time I read a book that I simply could not put down! This year, I was in an Old Testament Survey college class and I was required to read about 60% of the Old Testament so that took up most of my reading time. My Momma gave me some books to read for school but they were boring and I had to force myself to read them haha.

I love the Andrea Carter books. A couple years ago, my Momma came home from the homeschool convention with these books and she told me she thought I would like these books so she bought the entire series for me. I was hooked after the first book and it didn't take me long to read through the series. Andi is responsible for leading me to you! After finishing the books, I looked up Andi's Blog and from there, I "met" most of you!! And then I made this blog public and...here we are!

Anyways, I just felt like talking about The Last Ride. I even cried a little while reading. It's pathetic but I am such an emotional person. I can cry at the drop of a hat. You'd be shocked to hear some of the things I've cried over. :P

I loved the book and I realized how much I've missed reading about Andi and her family. I was actually disappointed when I reached the end of the book and I had to leave the Carter Ranch and return to reality. Someone needs to create a time machine that transports you to the venue of your favorite book or movie or TV show...I would give anything to visit my favorite book or movie characters.

So, I want to hear from you guys!
What was the last book you read that you couldn't put down?
If you could go visit a book, TV, or Movie character(s), who would you visit?

Snow Day!

What to do when it's snowing like there's no tomorrow and you already have about two feet of snow? For me, it's movie time! Last night I watched "Love's Abiding Joy", one of my favorites from the Love Comes Softly series. Today I hope to watch another...if I can convince my family to let me pick the movie :D

How about you guys? How's the snow where you live? What are you planning to do today and tomorrow?

1 Samuel 12:24

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a great time with my family.

Today I just wanted to share a few thoughts on a Bible verse.
1 Samuel 12:24
I first heard this verse in 2014 during a missions conference at my church. One of the missionaries taught from 1 Samuel and briefly mentioned this verse during his message. I barely noticed the verse at first but later that night, a lady from church reminded me of that verse.
I had been struggling that year with some things that had happened. I sometimes spoke to this lady about my struggle and she often sent me verses of encouragement.
The verse reads: "Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you."
My struggle wasn't a huge struggle, but it was something that often got me down in the dumps about life. This verse is an encouragement that no matter what is going on, just keep serving God with all your heart. He has done great things for us and will continue to do so. God knows our futures and if we stay yielded to Him, He will guide and direct our paths. This is especially dear to me right now as I'm in my senior year. God has a plan for me—for all of us—and He will make it known to us at the appointed time as long as we keep walking with Him.

In My Heart There Rings a Melody!

For my daily devotions, I have been using a book entitled, "Amazing Grace. 366 Inspiring Hymn stories for Daily Devotions" by Kenneth W. Osbeck. I love music so reading about hymns each day is enjoyable for me.

Today, my hymn was "In My Heart There Rings a Melody."
"I have a song that Jesus gave me, it was sent from Heav'n above; there never was a sweeter Melody, 'tis the Melody of love.
I love the Christ Who died on Calv'ry, for He washed my sins away; He put within my heart a Melody, and I know it's there to stay.
'Twill be my endless theme in glory, with the angels I will sing; 'Twill be a song with glorious harmony, when the courts of Heaven ring.
In my heart there Rings a melody, there Rings a melody with Heaven's harmony; in my heart there rings a melody; there Rings a melody of love."

The devotional spoke about how Christians should have a joyful song in their lives. If we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we have so much to be joyful about! And that joy should reflect in our daily lives and our conduct. Others who see us should be able to see a difference in our lives; the difference of Christ!

I felt like sharing that thought with you all. Have a good week, my friends!

What I've Been Up To

Hey everyone! I've been really busy the last two weeks and I just now have time to sit down and write a post.
   This past week was VBS for my church. My church does a site based VBS. For those of you unfamiliar with a site based VBS, I'll try to explain it. A site based VBS is where the kids travel to a different site each night. That site is responsible for the Bible story, the craft, and game. The theme for our VBS was The Ultimate Adventure. We had five sites: Mountain Biking at Discovery Desert, Mountain Climbing at Trusty Mountain, Snowshoeing at Follower's Forest, Windsurfing at Boundless Beach, and White Water Rafting at Reality Rapids. I helped teach at Reality Rapids.

At my site, we had a Rafting Shop. The two head teachers there were a husband and wife and their pretend names for the week were "Will E. Sink" and "Shirley U. Swim". I was the helper and my name was "Misty Rapids". We made a raft shop and borrowed a canoe and kayak, had lots of life jackets and paddles, and "Will E" even made a raft out of bamboo for the kids to look at.

Also at the site, our Bible story was about the four friends who let down their paralyzed friend through the roof. So "Will E" hung up a pulley system and built a little pallet to show the kids what it would've looked like. "Shirley" found a doll to represent the paralyzed man. Sadly,  I forgot to take a picture of the paralyzed man so I can't show you what it looked like.


Also at our VBS we do a penny offering to collect money for our missionaries we support. The penny offering is boys versus girls so that's always a lot of fun. However, the boys ended up winning this year. :-( Disappointing but despite being a small country church, the kids (and their parents + church members) brought in around $3,000 I think. (I missed the final offering count.)

VBS is a lot of fun for me because even though it's a lot of hard work, it's so much fun to see the kids having a good time! Plus it's a great time to fellowship with my church family and my best friends.

Here are a couple pictures from the week:

The sign "Will E. Sink" made for our site

The shop! "Will E" used a tent, then made a bamboo wall
and made a "roof" out of the bamboo leaves

"Will E" put a bamboo cross on the top of our site.
"Shirley" asked me to take a picture of the cross with the sun behind it.
I thought it turned out pretty good!

My Mom was in charge of this site.

She made the cactus herself and used vines to make tumbleweed

My sister helped out at "Trusty Mountain"
The teachers here made a "mountain" and then had a zip line for the kids to ride

Here is another site "Follower's Forest". This is a look at "Snowshoe Mountain"

Sunday night the sky looked really pretty so I snapped a picture.

Memorial Weekend

Hey everyone! Hope you guys are having a good memorial weekend! My weekend has been busy but lots of fun. Saturday I was at a graduation party most of the day. In the evening I had to feed my neighbors' animals. My neighbor has chickens, ducks, goats, cats, a miniature horse, a cow, a pony, a miniature donkey, miniature mule, and a horse. When they go camping, they ask me to take care of their animals. I'll have to take some pictures and post them sometime...

Then Sunday at my church, we had a missionary come and he did chalk talks. For those of you unfamiliar with a chalk talk, a chalk talk is when someone tells a Bible story or gives a sermon, while illustrating the story or sermon with chalk drawings. It's really cool! He did three chalk talks yesterday and they were all really good. After church we had a picnic and the youth group played volleyball.

Today my grandparents are coming up for the afternoon. I'm looking forward to a fun day :D

Hope you all have a good Memorial Day!! Don't forget about our soldiers and all the sacrifices they make.