March Highlights

Goodbye March, helloooo April! 

How has your March gone? What kind of memories did you make this month? :) 

Here are some of the highlights from my month! 

Picture taken from Google

For Biology, I had to do this Kingdom Project where my nature pictures finally got put to use :) But since I hadn't taken any pictures on fungus, I had to go out into the forest and find some.

And then that led to a nature walk which led to a visit to the pond...

Which led to someone falling into the pond. Yep! :D 

There have also been quite a few rainstorms lately. After one really dark, cloudy day I went outside and found everything sparkling. It was so pretty! 

Ah yes! And Mr. Robin decided to show up! When I first saw him, I said "Yes! Spring is finally coming!!" 

But then two days later, this happened: 

The day after the ice storm, the sun came out and melted away all the ice. But I could hear what sounded like glass shattering all day!

Picture taken from Google

I actually did a lot more baking this month than I usually do! But I do love baking - and watching people eat my baking :) Anyway, here are the results of those ventures! 

Making these cream puffs is so much fun! And filling them up with cream...ahhh, it was just SO fun! Watching the cream puff grow while piping cream into it was so mesmerizing, but I got a little carried away and put too much inside. There were a few people who bit into it and had cream exploding in their face :P 

Two toned cupcakes! Technique taken from that handy-dandy site called Youtube. 

Tiger Lily entered a Pi Baking contest and made these yummy looking cupcakes. Buttercream frosting and piped melted chocolate, mmm!

For Easter, we had our family over for dinner. Tiger Lily and I decided to make bread rolls instead of buying them and I'm so glad we did! The recipe came out better than expected and we made another batch today! :) The bread is really light and fluffy and oh-so-good!

I like birthdays, it gives me an excuse to bake something ;) Tiger Lily and I were trying to find a new chocolate cake recipe. So after looking through AllRecipes, we found this recipe called Perfect Chocolate Cake. Let me say now, we don't judge on the title of the recipe! ;) Do you know how many "Perfect", "World Famous", "Greatest", "Best", "Most Wonderful" chocolate cakes there are?!?! The way I usually try to judge whether the recipe is good is by visualizing the directions in my head. And also looking at photos of the results if there are any. What is your method of testing recipes? 

Anyway, we decided on this "Perfect Chocolate Cake" recipe and it turned out really well. The cake was really rich and moist and I'm definitely keeping the recipe! You can find the recipe here: Perfect Chocolate Cake. 

Tiger Lily and I were a little worried over having enough whipped cream in the middle since a few cakes ago, the filling was barely visible. But I think we got a substantial amount of whipped cream, don't you?  

Picture taken from Google

School has been going pretty well lately. We just finished our Easter/March break last week and getting back into the swing of things. Been a little bit more busy juggling lots of stuff, but we're all getting through :) 

In Biology, I've been studying Kingdom Plantae. My second favourite kingdom. My absolute favourite is Kingdom Animalia because it's so diverse and I love animals! What is your favourite kingdom? 

The two major projects that I did for Kingdom Plantae was dissecting a flower and growing lima beans. Both of which were really fun! 

It's so cool watching the beans grow. God is such an amazing Creator!! 

My Kingdom Project

Picture taken from Google

You all probably know this already, but... Tiger Lily got the highest score in her vocal class! :) She was super happy, but to be honest, I think I was happier than her for some reason :P 

And a SUPER special event; Spiderman turned 12! Happy, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :D 

We learned something really exciting this month. I'm really eager to share it with you, but right now it's being kept under wraps. I sort of feel like this emoticon here:

Picture taken from Google

Keeping it zipped but really ready to burst! :P But it's really, really exciting and I can't wait until I can tell you all what it is! 

Picture taken from Google

The books I read this month are:

1. White Fang - Jack London
2. The Call of the Wild - Jack London
3. The Sea of Adventure - Enid Blyton
4. The Hydrofoil Mystery - Eric Walters 
5. 39 Clues Book 2 - Jude Watson
6. 39 Clues Book 5 - Patrick Carman
7. 39 Clues Book 6 - Jude Watson
8. An Old Fashioned Girl - Louisa May Alcott
9. The Last Ride - Susan K. Marlow
10. The Princess Spy - Melanie Dickerson
11. The Golden Braid - Melanie Dickerson
12. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare
13. Treasures from Grandma’s Attic - Arleta Richardson
14. Spy in the Shadows - Barbara Greenwood
15. Shiloh - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 
16. Galatians 
17. Ephesians 

My favourite from this list would have to be The Last Ride. I read it in one night and it. was. amazing! I've been bugging Tiger Lily to read it and she's finally given in. She's reading it right now while I'm typing, I do believe ;) 

While looking on Google, I found this:

Picture taken from Google

But really, do you ever have this problem? I do! Facing a bookshelf crammed with books and sometimes spending more than 15 minutes trying to find one to read! 

And that about wraps up the month of March! 

What did you enjoy reading the most? 
What are some of the highlights in your month? 

Happy Easter!

Praise the Lord! Christ is Risen!
Happy Easter everyone! :)

Randomness

Hello all! Goodness, I haven't posted in awhile! :) But I'm finally on March Break! Or Easter break.  The thing about taking online courses from the US? Our March break ends up being a week after Canada's March break ;) Strange enough, it's still pretty busy here. Cleaning up the house, taking care of the younger ones, and well, some other stuff that I'm hoping to be able to tell you all soon! :D It's pretty exciting! 

Last week, I did a flower dissection, using a carnation that a very nice lady from our town village gave to me for that purpose. That's what I really like about our little village. Everyone is sooo friendly! :) 

On one of my less busy days, I got to play with Toblerone and DareDevil, and "a little play time" ended up lasting for pretty much the whole morning :P What can I say? They were eager to show me their somersaults and even how many stairs they could jump down from. But we had to stop that after  DareDevil jumped down 4 stairs all at once and Toblerone was determined to not be outdone. Friendly brotherly competition, but just the same, I'm not exactly looking forward to broken limbs ;)

Instead, I got some of our old flannel blankets and Toblerone reluctantly submitted himself to be "dressed up". It was hilarious. There was nothing to tie the blankets on with, so I just wrapped them really tightly around him. He couldn't walk, but he could waddle. Almost the way a minion or Ewok would walk :P

The "blanket dress" lasted for about 5 minutes. Then it got used as a swing!

Oh yes. A little while ago, Tiger Lily and I went out to check the pond and see if there was still ice on it. Our mini waterfall was running! There are stones in it that almost form a staircase and then you just climb up with water running over and under your boots. It's so much fun!! 

Soooo....there was ice on the pond. Actually, pretty much the whole pond was covered in a thick layer of ice. Which I found surprising since it had been so warm. But since the ice was so thick, Tiger Lily ventured out, determined to get to the other side. I followed her for awhile, but I was very nervous about it, probably because of last year. You see, last year when we had gone to the pond, we had found big ice chunks in it, big enough to try floating on. And yeah, Tiger Lily and I tried floating on them. But there was one time when I had tried to get farther out into the pond, and then the ice all of a sudden slipped under my feet and my foot splashed into the water. Thankfully, there was a log half submerged under the water, so I was able to walk on that back to the bank. But my boot was absolutely full of freezing cold water and I had to pour it out. It was funny, but pretty miserable walking back home. All that squishing :/ Anyway, this time I was being super cautious, so after I had gotten about 3/4 of the way across the pond, I decided to turn back, just in case. Tiger Lily....well, she still wanted to reach the other side, so she went on. I had just reached the bank when I heard her scream and turned around and saw her standing knee deep in water. Both feet in the water. It was just too funny! And she had been the one to warn me not to fall in again :P 

Yep, the adventures that we have! :D 

So yeah, just a few things that's happened in the past couple of weeks! 

How has your week been? Busy, fun, exciting, "ordinary"? :D 

The Get To Know Me Tag

Jesseca and Lauren F. tagged me for the Get-To-Know-Me Tag :) Thank you both so much! :D 
Let's get started!  

Vital Stats 

Name: Oooohhhh....yeah, okay. Sooo.....sort of against the rules right now to say what my name actually is. Sorry. But I'm known as Blessing Counter here ;) 

Nicknames: Same as first question, sincere apologies. But I'm breathing a sigh of relief as well 'cause now you won't have to know some of the truly awful nicknames that I have :P 

Place of Birth: Good, plain Earth, third planet from the sun in our solar system (the one with the Milky Way, just in case you were wondering ;)) To be more specific, Canada, but that's about as specific as I can get :D 

Firsts
Best Friends: Do siblings count? Because if they do, then my first ever best friend is Tiger Lily. We've done pretty much everything together. We still do, actually! We've been Mary and Laura Ingalls. We've been Anne and Diana. We're singing partners. Seriously, it's really weird how the singing goes. It's almost like we have a sister telepathy going on. I'll be humming a random song and then I hear this pretty harmony join in. She harmonizes with everything, even if it's a song that I'm making up and she's never heard it before! It's really cool. Best friends for life! :) 

Award: To be honest, I really am not sure when my first award was. But the earliest I can remember is the first place award I won in the baking section at the country fair 6-7 years ago. 

Sport: Baseball! I used to play with Dad and Tiger Lily at our old semi. I used to be really good at it, now I'm sorta scared of the ball being thrown at me :P And we don't play as often since the boys got too good at it and we kept losing balls in the forest. I prefer archery now :) 

Real Holiday: What's a real holiday? Is it the first holiday that you actually remember? I'm not sure if birthdays count as holidays, but I do vaguely remember the mini birthday party that I shared with my cousin who is 11 days older than me. I don't remember how old we were turning, but I do remember the brownies with coloured star sprinkles on them! :D 

Concert: Do you mean an "actual" concert or the hundreds of concerts Tiger Lily and I had together? ;) My first piano recital was 6-7 years ago, when I first started officially playing piano. And Tiger Lily and I went with Dad to see Handel's Messiah when I was 10. As for those other concerts Tiger Lily and I did, well, those started ever since we found out that the electronic piano had built-in songs in it  :P 

Favorites

Film: Really? Oh boy, these next few questions are going to be hard! I'll try to keep the lists small ;) 
Ever After
Anne of Green Gables
Courageous
Mom's Night Out
Yours, Mine, and Ours
Cinderella 

TV Shows: 
Little House on the Prairie (that's pretty much the only TV show that I watched. And it wasn't even on cable :P)

Color: 
The whole spectrum. Can't leave any of them out!!

Song:
Well, the one album that I've been listening to recently is Chapter Two: Boots by the Willis Clan.

Restaurant: Uhhh....no favourites. Sorry. 

Books: 

Bible

Lucy Winchester

Mara Daughter of the Nile

Anne of Green Gables (pretty much the whole series)
Bonnets and Bugles
Light From Heaven
Little Women
The King's Daughter
Unbroken

Currently

Feeling: Well, with the knowledge that I finished my NLE, the character analysis essay, the math test, Latin quiz, biology homework, and a 4 page letter, as well as listening to some awesome music, you could say I'm happy. Aka joyful. Aka delighted. Aka lighthearted. Aka ebullient. 

Single or Taken: Considering that I'm a 16 year old Christian girl who is homeschooled and lives in the country and most times does not see people except for at church....I think you can guess the answer ;) 

Eating: Nothing. Just finished dinner though! 

Watching: Words appear on the screen as I type. I've tried multi-tasking and watching Studio C or something like that while putting together blog posts, but it's never worked.

Wearing: A blue plaid shirt with a brown braided belt and jeans. And I did have socks on this morning, but sometime in the day, they .... fell off ;) 

Future

Want children: If God wills it, yes! 

Want to be married: I really liked Rebekah's answer to this. This question should come before the "want children" question. Because yeah, I'm not having children unless I'm married! And again, it's if God wills it. 

Careers in Mind: A dream career would be singing. Probably not going to happen though. So either baking, English teacher, music teacher (or some kind of teacher, not too sure on the topic right now) or midwife. 

Where you want to live: I'd love to just stay where I am and never go anywhere. But things, both good and bad, aren't going to happen if nothing ever changes. I don't have a specific place where I'd like to live other than where I am right now, but I'll leave it up to God to lead me in the right direction at the right time 

Do You Believe in

God: Definitely! 

Miracles: Yes! 

Love at first sight: No. I guess it's possible but the relationship just wouldn't be stable, I don't think. My answer may or may not have to do with finishing an analysis on Romeo and Juliet, but really, look at how they ended up! Love based only on sight is fickle. I would prefer love based on character. 

Ghosts: 
Other than the Holy Ghost? Nope. 

Aliens: 
No. 

Soul Mates: 

To be honest, I wasn't too sure what soul mates were to begin with. I googled it. :P  So apparently soul mates are two souls joining together to perfect each other? Interesting... umm...yeah, anyway. Okay...well it's hard to believe in something you just found out two minutes ago! So I can't say that I believe in them. What do I think about them? Well, they're possible, I just think that it can be more than just one person who can be your soul mate. 

Heaven: 
Yes.

Hell: 
Also yes. 

Kissing on the first date: 
NO!! No kissing on any dates, if you please! Only at the altar :) 

Yourself: Most times. Trying to be careful around being too believing, because there have been occasions where I thought I could do anything on my own strength and well, you know how that turns out! It has to be on God's strength. Because without God, it's hard! 

Well, that's the end of the tag. That was a lot of fun, thank you for tagging me, Jesseca and Lauren! 

I tag:
Olivia from 9 Kids plus 2
Lea from God and Miracles
Shai from Thinking About...

Cupcake Experiments // Reading

Don't you just love it when you experiment with something for the first time and it comes out really well? :) 

Saw this baking video with this really cool technique in making two-toned flowers. Although really, once you know the technique, you can make two-toned anything! 

 And Tiger Lily entered a Pi Day Baking contest that is being held in her logic class. (it's virtual, so they judge by creativity)

I was enlisted to help ;) 20 cupcakes, half a batch of buttercream frosting, and lots of melted chocolate (that would't harden when we piped them on wax paper, so it ended up being piped directly on the cupcake)

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Reading If You Give A Mouse A Cookie to Dare Devil and Toblerone

Toblerone: MOUSE!!!!
Me: Shhh....You don't have to shout. We have to be quiet when we're reading
Flip the page
Toblerone (in a whispered shout): Mouse!!

Got to give him credit, he did try to be quieter :P

Counting Our Blessings // Olivia N.

Here is the next guest post for the blog series, Counting Our Blessings! The lovely Olivia N. has agreed to do a post for us, thank you SO much, Olivia!! :D 

Olivia blogs at 9 Kids Plus 2 and I would really suggest you check it out! Her stories are pretty awesome! ;) Not to mention the recipes and devotionals and - well, you'll have to go to her blog to find out what other amazing stuff she does :) 

And now without further ado, Olivia's blessings!
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Thank you very much, Blessing, for asking me to do this post! 

A short introduction, I am a Christian girl who homeschools, likes reading, organizing, and card making, and I live with my family at home. 

Two things that I am thankful for are:

In case you can’t see the text, I’m thankful to God for sending Jesus to die on the cross for sinners like me. ☺ 

I’m also thankful for my parents. I’ll just put D and J for my parents, but I’m thankful that God has given me the parents I have.  I have a hard-working Dad, who has taught us and raised us, and I have a Mom who I can talk to and share my problems and worries and things, and she always seems to have answers! Thank God I have parents like these!

Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations to my dear sister, Tiger Lily! Today, she got a letter from her vocal teacher saying that she had gotten the highest grade in the course!!!!! 

We were so happy! And, okay, I admit I did squeal and jump up and down when I found out :P But I was am SOOOO proud of her!

Wonderful, fantastic, absolutely AMAZING job, Tiger Lily!!!!! :D 

Baking...Again ;)

Well, I did say that I was going to try making cream puffs next ;) Here they are! :)