Music Monday

This is Your Life, by Switchfoot

Bible Blurb

I Corinthians 1:8

He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

North! Or Be Eaten

Ooooh, don't I wish I could just ramble on and on about this novel!

I read it while on vacation last week, sitting for hours at a time...

The adventure, the suspense, the plot twists, the plot, the characters, the lessons... I am bursting to tell you all about this book, but you have to wait.

Come back August 20th-22nd for a book tour of Andrew Peterson's novel 'North! Or Be Eaten' hosted by kidzbookbuzz.com.

The Library

The Library

Barbara A. Huff

It looks like any building

When you pass it on the street,

Made of stone and glass and marble,

Made of iron and concrete.

But once inside you can ride

A camel or a train,

Visit Rom, Siam, or Nome

Feel a hurricane,

Meet a king, learn to sing,

How to bake a pie,

Go to sea, plant a tree,

Find how airplanes fly,

Train a horse, and of course,

Have all the dogs you'd like,

See the moon, a sandy dune,

Or catch a whopping pike.

Everything that books can bring

You'll find inside those walls.

A world is there for you to share

When adventure calls.

You cannot tell its magic

By the way the building looks,

But there's wonderment within it,

The wonderment of books.

Bible Blurb

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - andthis not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works so that no one can boast.

Stories, Pictures, and Sketches Oh My!

Ahhh... home sweet home. I DID try to find Internet while gone on vacation, but I couldn't find ANY. But I am here now, ready to share:

It was a very cold, rainy week. It was raining when we got there, again when we left today, and one of the days during the week. You can't let a good rain go to waste, so my sister and I took the paddle boat out to the raft. We sang 'singing in the rain' for a few seconds, and then gave up:) We did have a lot of fun there, though. Maggie wasn't happy that we were getting our picture taken...

Speaking of the raft... hahahaha I took my 8 y/o cousin out there the day before this picture was taken. She had to wear a life jacket, but , being 18, I didn't have to. We got on the raft and just had a good time. We danced, and made waves by jumping on the corners of the raft, and gathered sea weed (or sea flower, as I now refer to it...) for her younger sister. I looked up and screamed.

The paddle boat was floating away. I hadn't tied it to the raft properly, and it just slipped away... my sister Hannah saved the day. She got another paddle boat, and went after ours. I had thought about jumping in and swimming for it, but I didn't have a life jacket, and the sea flower reached to just inches from the water surface. I can swim just fine, very well, actually, but I HATE sea flower when it touches my leg...

Any way, my sister eventually made it to us, and saved us. It took a while, though, because the rudder in the paddle boat she was in has a tenancy to get stuck... our neighbors happened to be driving by in their boat about five minuets into our catastrophe and the girl (10 y/0) jumped into the run away paddle boat and paddled it to safety. I don't know what we would have done if they hadn't stopped to help... but I think it would have ended up with me getting wet...

Since then, I have taken a life jacket with me to the raft. And tied the paddle boat VERY tightly.




My dad, uncle, and I tubing. This was the first ride this tube went on... one of our tubes sprung a leak. Actually, three leaks. Then we gave up on it. We would patch one, fill it with air again, take it around the lake, it would be deflated, and we'd find another leak. Anyway, we got this one to replace that one. This tube was great! It was so much fun, and yet I almost regret going on it, because now I am so sore... my neck, arms, back... oh well. The above picture was taken right before the one below... my dad fell off, and if you look close you can see that I must have thought it was quite funny.





He had it coming. Just a little bit after we started, he pushed my uncle off. They went back and forth pushing each other off until one of my sisters in the boat pointed out that I hadn't wiped out yet (the perks of riding in the middle) so they pushed me off... the water was so warm from a summer of sun heating it, but the air was VERY chilly.








Okay, those waves coming up were huge. I had a right to let a scream out... Once, a year or two ago, after bouncing over some monster waves, I flew out of that tube a couple feet into the air, and when I hit the water the wind was knocked out of me. But this time my dad and I landed right as rain :)



These are the lake we stayed at. First was a picture of it, and then a sketch I did one morning. I've posted a few of my sketches because some of them really turned out. This one was colored pencil and pen.

This is of the moon. Its orange partly because that is what color the moon looked, and because I was outside, drawing in the dark. This was done in drawing chalk.

This was done right after the moon. We were roasting marshmallows over the fire in the grill. Again, the colors are a lil more bold than I usually draw in because its dark out and I can't really see what I'm doing.

Inspired by a sailboat that was on the lake. The swirls were added by request of my 6y/o cousin. This is marker and colored pencil.

I did this one last night. I have to say this is my favorite. And that I'm disappointed to not be able to figure out how to rotate it... just, tilt your head to the left, if you could... good. Every year I end up drawing the dock and the scene beyond... every year my most recent one is my favorite :) This one is marker, pen, and colored pencil.

Do YOU have any vacation stories? Do share!

So, I'm leaving Again...

This time its a family vacation, and the lake we are staying at has NO internet. Or so I'm told. No internet means no blog, so you won't be hearing from me for around a week. As my dear friend tigger would say, TTFN!

Preferences...

Found this over at Library Hospital...

Preferences, what do I prefer?

Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? hmmm... serious....

Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? paperbacks :)

Fiction? Or Nonfiction? Both.

fine, I'll choose. Fiction. Sometimes nonfiction just makes me think too much...

Poetry? Or Prose? have I ever mentioned I very much dislike make choices and desisions? I think prose beats poetry by a very slight margin...

Biographies? Or Autobiographies? An autobiography, if its available. I think it would be interesting to see what that person thought was important in their life.

History? Or Historical Fiction? historical fiction! Its just a bit educational, very much 'real life', yet it never really happened. I love historical fiction... I havn't read any in a while, have I...

Series? Or Stand-alones? stand alones. though I don't mind a series as long as I know its a series before I start it. I don't like finding out once I get to the last page that the story is only a third or so over....

Classics? Or best-sellers? Classics. Dont even get me started about 'best-sellers'

Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? ug. do I have to decide??? Really, I think it depends on the story, the plot, the characters... it has to make sense all together, am *I* making sense?

Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? I much prefer a plot. I've only read one stream-of-consciousness, and thoroughly disliked the book.

Long books? Or Short? sigh. this really isn't fair. I am so indecisive!!! I choose short. long books sometimes end up being l.o.n.g.

Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? non

Borrowed? Or Owned? Borrowed. I love the library :) I will buy a few books if I truly enjoyed them, and know I will read and re-read...

New? Or Used? New! Although it is hard to read them at first with the pages being so stiff, I much prefer that to old paper that makes my hands feel dry.

I challenge YOU to go through this list, post your own, and leave a comment with a link. I can't wait to read your answers, and hopefully you will be able to make decisions a bit easier than I did... :)