Final Day!!

 Well, the 365 Day Photo Challenge (which ended up being a 366 Day Photo Challenge ;)) has ended! Can you believe it? One whole year has gone by since I first started! How time flies!

Thank you for the encouragement I got from all of you! It really helped me keep going throughout the year :D 

February Highlights

Happy Monday everyone! It's February 29th, a day that comes only once every 4 years. (Do you know anyone who has a birthday on this day? ;) 

Bethany from A Great God and Good Cocoa shared this awesome idea with me earlier this month. Basically, I'll be sharing highlights from each month with you :) Lord willing, this will be an every month sort of thing, but, we'll have to see! :D 

So anyway, on to my February highlights! 

One big thing that happened: I turned sixteen ;) 

I love reading, and to be perfectly honest, I haven't had a nice long read for a long time. Like months! But this month, well, let's just say my school load lightened a bit and I took advantage of it by reading. A LOT!! :D 

In February, I read:

1. Drummer Boy at Bull Run - Gilbert Morris - 174
2. Yankee Belles in Dixie - 153
3. The Secret of Richmond Manor - 145
4. The Soldier Boys Discovery - 158
5. Blockade Runner - 139
6. The Gallant Boys of Gettysburg - 157
7. The Battle of Lookout Mountain - 156
8. Encounter at Cold Harbour - 145
9. Fire Over Atlanta - 153
10. Bring the Boys Home - 118
11. Huntress of Thornbeck Forest - Melanie Dickerson - 310
12. The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie - 381 
13. Young Pioneers - Rose Wilder Lane- 118
14. The King’s Daughter - Suzanne Martel- 211
15. Five Little Peppers and How They Grew - Margaret Sidney - 320
16. The Importance of Being Earnest -Oscar Wilde 54
17. The Canterville Ghost - Oscar Wilde 69 
18. Urchin and the Rage Tide - M. A. McAllister - 268
19. Urchin and the Raven War - M.A. McAllister - 284
20. Mara Daughter of the Nile - Eloise Jarvis McGraw - 279
21. Nobody Said It Would Be Easy - Marilyn Halvorson- 194
22. Through Gates of Splendour - Elisabeth Elliot - 268
23. Acts (second half of the book)
24. Romans
25. Bible Devotional (it's a 365 day devotional, so one page a day) - 28

That makes 25 books and over 4282 pages! I love reading ;) 

Some more exciting things that have been going on this month...

Toblerone started skiing for the first time ever! And boy, was he good at it! :D We're all so proud of him! 

 I started working on the Driver's Handbook. Hopefully I can take the test for it soon! :)

One of my dear friends turned 13!! 

 And... I made churros for the first time. Didn't turn out too bad!

And of course, throughout the whole month, the unending school! :) This month actually wasn't SO bad, compared to December and January (exam months). So long as I took care to get everything done on time and didn't procrastinate too much, I was okay. There's this way with school where, if you take your time with it and procrastinate, it just creeps up on you until you find yourself staring at a massive amount of stuff to do. *shudders* I really dislike it when that happens! 

Right now, math is my main problem. I'm not a math type of person, and imaginary numbers, synthetic division of polynomials, and graphing polynomials of degree 3, 4, or 5 are beyond me. But I'm plodding my way through ;) It will be so nice when I'm done with math! :D 

Literary analysis is my new best friend. I'm enjoying writing essays, and now that I've finally got the basic idea of what essays are (supporting opinions, etc), they're not so hard anymore. They're actually quite fun! :)

Oh yes, and I grew bacteria for biology. I think I ended up with around 15, 000 bacteria colonies. 

I've probably mentioned this a lot already, but the weather has been C.R.A.Z.Y!! Snow, then rain, then snow again and so on. The temperatures are going up and down and. . . yep :P Pretty crazy. My absolute favourite day was the time the everything was covered in ice, and the sun was shining, and the ice in the trees were tinkling like little glass bells, and everything was absolutely beautiful. 

A few of my favourite things from this February:

Favourite Bible Verses from Bible reading and memory work: 

- For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ~ Romans 3: 23-24

- For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace ~ Romans 8: 5-6

Favourite songs (aka most listened to ;) 

- Slow Me Down

- The Promise 

- Before the Throne of God Above

- Sadie

- City Down Below

- Grandpa's Waltz

- Into the Sun 

Favourite Band

The Willis Clan ;) Tiger Lily gave me their country and folk album Boots for a birthday present and I've loved every single song on there! 

Well, that about wraps up February! I hope you enjoyed this post! :) 

What are some of your February highlights? Let me know in the comments box! :D 

Have a blessed March, everyone! :) 

Day #357 - #365

Saturday, February 20: Weird Brother ;) 

 Sunday, February 21: Water and Food Colouring 

 Monday, February 22: Breakfast 

Tuesday, February 23: Lamplighter Novels 

Great treasures in these books! :) 

 Wednesday, February 24: Iced Branch

 Thursday, February 25: Snow Covered Branches 

 Friday, February 26: Winter Wonderland

Sunday, February 28: HOPE

Was frantically looking around for something to take a picture of. My eyes
fell on this Boogie Board and I decided to write the main theme of the sermon today :) 

Also, technically, today is the LAST day of my 365 day photo challenge! But, since it's a leap year, I'm going to make tomorrow the last day ;)

Winter Wonderland

Waking up to a beautiful sight like this is just breathtaking! God is a wonderful Creator!!

Let me start from the beginning of the crazy weather that's been happening around here lately. So, on February 23rd, there was lots and lots of mud. Just mud, mud, and more mud. 

On the morning of the 24th, it was a very cloudy day. I went out to give the chickens their water and heard ice tinkling in the treetops. Apparently, it had rained last night, and then frozen over. Everything was covered in ice. 

Later on the day, it snowed and rained. But I guess it snowed more, since next morning everything had a nice coat of snow!

And then today, I woke up to a breathtaking sight. You know that time in the morning where the sun is a deep golden? Well, I saw that gorgeous light reflect off the ice drops covering the tree branches. It  looked like someone had draped a million lights over the trees and then turned them on. It was so beautiful! 

After the sun rose higher, its colour turned a bright white, and so did the trees. It was .... a winter wonderland. 

Thank you God for such beautiful mornings! :) 

Counting Our Blessings // Heidi Peterson

Here is the first guest post on Counting Our Blessings! (If you would like to know a bit more about this or would like to join, you can click here :) 

This month features Miss Heidi Peterson! 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Thank you so much, Blessing, for inviting me to share in your Blessings Week! It’s an honor.

First for a brief self-introduction… Ransomed by Christ, I’m a daughter and sister living at home with my family; and I love to write and revel in good, deep stories. Beyond that, I have lots of other interests, ranging from history and child education to traveling and exploring whenever and wherever I can. I blog at Along the Brandywine and Sharing the Journey, where you’re always most warmly welcome to come and visit!

And now for my two particularly highlighted blessings:

#1: I’m very very thankful at the moment for the means of long distance communication -- for letters and packages, for email, for the tried-and-true, absolutely wonderful telephone, for blogging. I’ve been able to meet so many wonderful friends and been able to keep in touch with other dear friends I’ve known a long time, but whom I no longer live close to. God has worked incredibly through all those means and each one is a rich blessing.

#2: In my room this morning (and trying to figure out what to pick for my second point), my eye fell on my stack of current research materials for my novel-in-progress -- namely, my Yellowstone road map (laminated/converted to a poster) and two books on Yellowstone that I discovered while road tripping last fall and then received for Christmas! The first book is a collection of traveler’s tales and anecdotes, most from right around the era of my story (mid to late 19^th century) and the second is a collection of old pictures taken at various places throughout the park, each one juxtaposed with a recent photo generally taken from the almost exact same spot. It’s thrilling to look through.

(Fascinating, isn’t it??)

Thank you so much again for having me, Blessing! :)

The Spectacular Book Tag

Rebekah Ashleigh  tagged me for the Spectacular Book Tag! Thanks, Rebekah! 

The rules: 

1. Answer the questions

2. Tag 3-5 bloggers

Here we go! 

1. What are your favorite book covers?

Well, I have a lot of favorite covers, but here are some of them: 

2. What are your favorite book titles?
Calico Captive, An Old-Fashioned Girl, and The King's Daughter are some of my favourites. 

3. Have you read a book and didn't know why they named it that and what was the title?

No, but I have read a book and wondered why the book cover has nothing at all to do with the story itself. 

4. Have you read a book with a character that made you mad?

Oh yes! I think the first book I ever read that had a rather maddening character was the Laura Ingalls books. You know...Nellie Olsen! ;) 

5. Is there someone or something from a book you would never want to come across?

Umm...not that I can think of. Most of the books I read aren't that "scary", and I like most of the characters I read about! 

6. If you could meet a character in person from a book who would it be?

Is this a non fiction person or a fictional? (I misread Jessica's question from the Infinity Dream Award tag and thought she had asked what my favourite fictional historical character was...so now I'm trying to keep my fiction and non-fiction people apart :P ) 

Let's just go with fictional for now :) Jo March, Anne Shirley (Blythe), and Polly Milton are on the top of my list. 

7. What book are you currently reading?

Well, I just finished reading The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest, by Melanie Dickerson. 

8. Have you read a book that made you cry?

Oh, definitely! There are plenty of books that have made me cry, either because it's so sweet or terribly, heart-achingly sad. One such book that I recently read that makes me cry every time I read it is Urchin and the Rage Tide. So, it might sound silly, but the Mistmantle Chronicles are about...animals. Talking squirrels and otters and moles and hedgehogs. But I just love this series! You would have to read the whole series to understand the fifth book, where Crispin, the king, dies, because that's what makes it so sad. (And I know that it's very sad because Tiger Lily cried when she read it. I have to put that in italics because she has never cried over books or movies. Never. Ever. We used to joke that she had a heart of stone. And I kept giving her books that I thought were sad, to see if she would cry, but she never did. Until I gave her Mistmantle Chronicles. Then she cried! :) So yes, Urchin and the Rage Tide...very sad book. Definitely made me cry! 

Another would be Rilla of Ingleside. When Walter dies...I was bawling my eyes out, as Tiger Lily sooo flatteringly puts it :P

9. What is the weirdest book you read? 

Umm...weirdest? Probably any sic-fi books that I've ever read. Like A Wrinkle in Time (does that count as sic-fi?) and it's sequels. 

10. What is the worst book/series you ever read?

The Princess Diaries. Horrible book, really. The movie is better. The book is full of really bad language and topics that well...yeah, I didn't need to read about it. And that was only in the beginning of the book. I threw it out (literally) after that first bit. 

11. If you could only read one more book the entire year what would it be?

The Bible! :) 


I tag: 
Addyson
Jesseca
Shai

Here are the questions to make it easier to copy :) 

1. What are your favorite book covers?2. What are your favorite book titles?3. Have you read a book and didn't know why they named it that and what was the title?4. Have you read a book with a character that made you mad?5. Is there someone or something from a book you would never want to come across?6. If you could meet a character in person from a book who would it be?7. What book are you currently reading?8. Have you read a book that made you cry?9. What is the weirdest book you read? 10. What is the worst book/series you ever read?11. If you could only read one more book the entire year what would it be?


Thanks again for the tag, Rebekah! Have a wonderful day everyone! :) 

Days #346 - #356

Here are the pictures from the past two weeks. Hope you enjoy! :) 

Tuesday, February 9: Mini Chocolate Cookies 

Wednesday, February 10: Microwaved Pancake

Experimenting to try and find easier ways to make pancakes without frying ;)
This actually turned out better than expected. The only thing missing is the
fried part :P Imagine eating just the inside of a pancake, no brown part. That's what
micro-waved pancake tastes like :D 

Thursday, February 11: The Driver's Handbook

Want to guess who's reading it? ;) 

Friday, February 12: Birthday Present

Thank you so much, Mom and Dad!

 Saturday, February 13: Teddy Bear

Sunday, February 14: Aspiring Cook

Monday, February 15: Latin Flashcards

Tuesday, February 16: The Pantry

After grocery shopping, our shelves usually start to look like the store itself ;) 

Wednesday, February 17: Bacteria Experiment

Thursday, February 18: Homemade Backed Churros

 Friday, February 19: Bacteria again! 

If I had only thought ahead of time, I would not have rubbed my fingers over the
whole dish. Because guess what? I have to count all the bacteria colonies. And in case you're
wondering what the bacteria colonies are....they're the teensy weeny dots all over the agar. After about 4-5000
I had to stop since my eyes were feeling very strained :P But yeah. Lesson learned. Read ALL the instructions
BEFORE you do the experiment!!