The Best Five Years

This is my kitten, Moses. She is named after the children's story by James Herriott.

"Your pain has changed me Your dreams inspire Your face a memory Your hope a fire Your courage asks me what I'm afraid of And what I know of love" -Sara Groves A short note on things I've been thinking about lately. A lot has changed in the past year, and it has not been easy. I have definitely experienced pain and grief on several levels, and I just wanted to share a quick note on the insight that I am discovering.  My pain is unique, but that does not make it any more devastating than somebody else's, and the more I look around, the more I realize that everybody is struggling in their own individual ways.  It was just something that I realized. I am not the only one going through something, and that as much as it pains me to write this, life is simply hard, and it will not ever be perfect or calm, for this earth is fallen, and until Yeshua's return, our calling is not to live easy and frivolous lives but to live for Him and do the things he ca...

"The noblest art is that of making people happy." - P. T. Barnum A lot has been going on recently. School is almost over, and all of my stressful/exciting events have already happened. It was a hurricane last week, and this week it is only a misty breeze(well, except that it's like a thousand degrees outside). I joined a choir called Encore, and that has been great. We sang songs from The Greatest Showman, which I LOVE, Dear Evan Hansen, and a medley of Irving Berlin's songs as well. It was really neat to be a part of show choir because there was just so many talented people that we had an amazing time just singing and dancing. I will never forget it! School is all done except for Chemistry, which I am still finishing up, and I look forward to a full summer of excitement. It's hard to believe, but it has almost been a whole year since I started this blog! One of the five years down, four to go! Hooray! Plus, when I am sixteen, I will have my driver's lic...

"One of the poets, whose name I cannot recall, has a passage, which I am at this moment unable to remember, in one of his works, which for the time being has slipped my mind, which hits off admirably this age old situation." -P.G. Wodehouse That's about how I feel about the quote I am looking for right now... It was something like "In times like these, one has only oneself to..." and then it ends, and my mind is singing opera and laughing hysterically whenever I ask it anything serious. So much for sense.  We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz! (Well, actually, we're off to see Texas, but wherein lies the flaw in this minor difference of word choice?) This has been a pretty crazy week(month, really, since I haven't posted) because we are all doing school, there events such as soccer, running, prom planning meetings, and piano, and mom is trying to finish up two weeks of school so that next week we can pack. Along with that, ...

"Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use." -Unknown Hmm. Where to begin. I have not posted recently and must make an amendment to my original claim of writing one post per week, though it pains me to do so. It is simply too much, and I do not have time. Instead, I will try to afford monthly editions with lots of pictures and stories. The start of the new year has provided a surprising lack of interest. Our Winter Break was a smooth quiet one, and since then, we have been reassuming schedule and order. One thing of great excitement did occur, and it was easily the best day of the new year so far. We went to a bookstore that was going out of business! Every book was ten cents! I got 60. They are amazing. I just finished Drivers Ed, so that's new! Oh, and the 22 Father Daughter Ball was last night! On the right is a picture that I took, completely unaltered. Pretty! :)...

"I believe that the nicest and sweetest of days are not those which anything very splendid or wonderful happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls falling off a string." -L. M. Montgomery    For the last three weeks, my schedule has been less than normal. That is to say; I have been doing delightful(if simple) things nonstop. Thanksgiving I went up to my Grandparent's house and nine family members who had previously not met Penka, Petra, Ivan, and Donka, met them. We had a lovely, relaxed and tasty Thanksgiving Dinner, and many things proved memorable.    A favorite family (extended I mean) game of ours' is called Pictionary. It goes by several names. Each person has a stack of note cards and writes a sentence. Then you pass your pile to the person on your left, and the person on your right gives you their stack. You then draw a picture of their sentence. This process continues until the stack has been p...

"For what do we live but to make sport of our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?" -Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice         Sunday morning we had our first snow in the Tri-Cities Cities! Of course, it did not last for more than an hour, as the first snow of our deserty town never does, but it was a highly pleasurable thing to wake up and see frosty flakes wisping around in the chilly air. I took Petra and Ellisa out to the mall for their birthdays, and we had a good time.  She bought little Paris earrings and a heart necklace, but her favourite gift was (surprisingly to me) a balloon horse that was on a leash. It was pretty cute.      On an entirely different note, we moved the Monday following the Sunday outing to the mall! We only decided Monday morning that we were going to move, so it has been a crazy week. Now our family has moved back into a house that we owned, and were renting out. All the kids are super happy about it. ...