Book Release!

Let the fun begin!!!! Yes I am finally publishing the book I have been working on for nearly 2 years! (And yes, the picture above will be the cover! I just haven't smashed it through my Photoshop. )It has been a wonderful challenge and fun adventure. I never thought I would ever go on to publish my book, but here I am! I have a totally new appreciation for every book I read. (Especially mysteries such as The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie.) The release date is July 3rd 2016!! Yes I'm scared/excited/wondering if I'm making a mistake/can't wait to publish it, and every other mixed up/messed up emotion in between!!!
( Now, whether this will be the official synopsis, I haven't figured out. Who knows, it might be. ;)

 The Wings

of 

Antheon

The memory of the Great Battle against the Antheons is a story of long ago, now buried within the pages of history. Until one boy learns the truth: the Antheons live!

Peter, an Antheon living among humans, has a necklace, a secret, and the Duke he calls friend. But when he discovers that the Duke has been hiding his dark history, Peter's only choice is to leave or face death. As he runs, doubts begin to set heavily about whether he can ever trust anyone again. His answer: he refuses to trust.
Forced to flee for his life, Peter embarks on a quest to find the lost Antheons - a quest where danger and adventure never seem to be more than a step away. But will Peter be able to overcome his own dark history and doubts before everything changes...again. 

I was never into long synopsis that give the story away. (Does that drive anybody else crazy besides me?) So I tried to keep it short. 

My friend Hannah (check out her blog Here She will also be publishing her second book! She has more info on her blog! If you are writing or enjoy writing and want to be better, this is a great blog to follow.) had the fabulous idea of posting pictures of her characters and writing, kind of an introduction, to each of them. I wanted to do that super bad, but I'm a sot on the computer and could not, for the life of me, find any picture that satisfied my minds-eye picture of my characters. So, unfortunately, I shall leave you to your own imagination.

In the meantime, I found some more funnies! (Somehow I'm good at finding those. And yes they are all about books! How did you guess?)

 

Please answer the question in the comments!!!!!

 

 

File #2 Siblings

Ahhh, the joy of reading a wonderful book in peace and quiet. Until the sounds of, "STOP THAT!!!!! GIVE THAT BACK, IT'S MINE!!!! MOOOOOOOM!!!!!!"

If you have siblings, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The series of calls and requests that are ever-present. For years I would find my peace and sanity in the safe confines of my bedroom. My siblings called me the Hermit because I stayed in there all the time. I just didn't want to be around my siblings because they were (still are) ridiculously loud. Sometimes I would walk out of my room, stand in the doorway, give this face And return to my sanctuary.

Now, not all the times with my siblings were bad. I have hours of wonderful memories behind me of playing toys with my brother, outside, in the winter, when ice is covering the ground, playing in the wheelbarrow, which was filled with ice.
But as I got older things started to change. I didn't want to play toys anymore. (trust me I tried.) Not that my imagination left me. (Trust me that's still there.) I simply...didn't want to. I would rather stay in my room doing school, reading, working on guitar or other projects. My mom would have to call me out of my room and ban me from it in order to keep me out.
That's not how I am now. I spend nearly my entire day with my siblings and only enter my room when I need to have silence for school, writing, or guitar practicing. My days are productive and filled with laughter and joy. (Not to mention all the trials I've overcome.

So what changed?

Answer #1: My mindset.
You can't accomplish anything if you don't put your mind to is. "Where there's a will there's a way." But that saying can be reversed. With no will there is no Way. I really wanted to have a strong relationship with my siblings that would last us the rest of our lives. I don't want to be the big sister that doesn't know what the rest of the family is doing half the day. I had the Will, now I needed the Way. And that Way was getting out of my room.
When I first started my transition, it was terrible! There seemed to be nothing to do out in the rest of the house! All my things were in my room! I would work around the house to fill my spare time. But now that the sun is out more and more me and the siblings migrated to the trampoline where me and my brother perfected out back flips, front flips, front handsprings, and my brother is the only one that can do the back handspring. (I landed on my neck and haven't worked up the guts to try again.)
Consequently I don't get done many of the things I wish I could. The book I'm near to publishing is taking a soar long time. (A post on that later)

Answer #2: Cutting down my computer time.
I would go on the computer and just drift around or be "busy" (I don't think looking on Pinterest merits the title of anything.) I was amazed at how much more time I had during the day and get things done. I also found that using the computer for worthless things left me feeling slightly irritable. Now, don't go thinking I'm never on the computer. Obviously I have to be in order to be a blogger! But I try and really limit the computer time.

 Now, this all doesn't change the, seemingly constant, yelling and requests. They are still there. So I had to change another thing.

Answer #3: I've focused on changing how I deal with the things that annoy me.
Honestly if you just suck up and help them out things go a lot smoother. And if there is something you want to do, make sure you've spent at least as much time with your siblings as you will be spending doing your project. 


Siblings are truly a blessing. Your family is the only thing you can take to heaven with you. I've always had this thought at the back of my mind. What if I were to die tomorrow? How would me family remember me? Would I be the sibling they would remember as the one that spent way too much time in her room? Or would I be the sibling that read books to them, jumped on the trampoline with them, took them on bike rides, and sword fought?

Here's a list of fun things that my siblings enjoy.

• Reading books. (Some ideas are Indian in the Cupboard, Narnia, and Anne of Green Gables.) 
• Making obstacle courses
• Making a home movie
• Baking cookies
• Go on a special bike ride
• Making spider webs on the ground. (Make sure you ask your mom about this because by the time you're finished the land will look like Shelobs layer.) You just take a ball of yard and wrap it around chair legs, furniture, pianos, anything!
• If your siblings have friends that come over, get up and play a good game of Tag of Cops and Robbers. It's amazing how much fun they'll think it is if you just play with them.
• If you play an instrument, try teaching your sibling a song. I play guitar and I've been teaching my brother. Or just playing for the whole family. The younger kids love the song Days of Elijah and will sing that with such gusto I can't sing because I'm laughing at how cute they are.

But remember. If there's a Will there's a Way!
Also! If you want to check out a really great christian website full of encouragement and biblical wisdom, look at http://www.aheartdevoted.com/



Yes more random funny things!

Meet my Friend!

Ok, I'm hoping everybody knows who this gentlemen is! Yes, William Shakespeare! The most astound play writer I know!

Now, I understand there are *ahem* some people who do not appreciate his work. And you know what, that's OK. Believe it or not, I  Hated Shakespeare when I was younger. I couldn't get over how Doom-and-Gloom this guy was! That is, until I listened to a single tape.


That's right. The Comedy of Errors. (Sorry for how weird the pictures pop up. :/ I still haven't figured out my own computer.)
The funny part of the whole experience is kind of a long story. My mom was trying to download a new Audio player to our computer. Unfortunately the computer decided to make a fuss and mom went through several calls to the managers to figure out what was wrong! The made so many errors is was comic! (Pun intended, though not a very good one.)
In the end we figured it all out and my mom began playing it for all to hear. I was completely annoyed because at the age of 15 I still hated Shakespeare, and I thought it was all a silly waste of time. I was busy doing laundry, which is in hearing range of the computer from whence the tape was playing, when there commenced the loudest series of Bangs and Gongs, followed by the agonizing groans of some poor soul and the angered scolding of a most upset women. It honestly sounded like a women screeching like a chicken and banging a man over the head with a frying pan! (Is this Disney's Tangled or Shakespeare?) Quite forgetting my prejudice against the tales I stopped to listen and found myself intrigued. Nobody else was interested beside my brother, so we took the laptop and went into my room for silence. Long story short, I loved it! I started laughing so hard at times I thought my sides would split! I fell in love with the beauty of the form of speech and their quick wit and the hilarious mocking criticism was  priceless.
 

 I went on to listen to many others, but Hamlet will always be most dear. The characters were noble and the story was tragic. When me and my brother finished we dashed into the living room and began fencing and repeating the whole scene, dragging our bewildered neighbor girl into it. (She had no idea what Hamlet was.) I still enjoy that play to this day! Hamlet was noble and trying to please his ghostly father. The end for him is tragic and he completes his horrid deed of murder after he himself is poisoned by a sword! His two friends betray him and attempt upon his life, until he turns the tables and it is they who deliver the forfeiture of their own heads - without knowing. He forgives the very man that poisoned him and died in his beloved friends arms. It was absolutely beautiful! I was immensely pleased to receive the Oxford collection of his plays as a gift from my mom! I promise that book weighs twenty pounds! And I enjoy ever ounce of it!
Shakespeare had the most beautiful way of putting into words the thoughts that are the most illusive to the human mind. His long speeches create the Word Pictures that I have never thought of and yet are true! He possessed an incredible amount of skill to become the greatest play writer of all time! And created a world to be desired. (I wish some of the boys I know could take a few lessons in nobility from him.) There is much to be sought after and learned from his works. (Even if there are some that are really weird. ;)


Do you love Shakespeare? Please share your favorite play and why!





P.S This is a wonderfully done play of Hamlet! Yes it's ridiculously long! And yes! I loved every minute. (Which means I watched it all!) It's SO funny in parts that I could NOT stop laughing even as I watched it again and again!

God's not Dead

 I must say, this was my ALL time favorite movie. And I'm not just saying that because of the great acting. I'm saying it because of amazingly it represents what we should be doing in our lives.

As a christian I want to completely live my life for Christ! I've stood up for Him, even though it has cost me. So when I watched this movie, when it first came out, I was astonished and encouraged. (Although the multiple story line beginning left me spinning until I sorted it all out.)
It inspired me to really know what I believe in.
1 Peter 3;15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

Let me ask you a question. Can you say with assurance that God is not dead? I'm sure nearly everybody would say "yes of course God isn't dead." But what if I asked you, "how do you know that? What proof do you have?" How would you stand then?

I don't want to let God down. I want to be ready to give an answer no matter what the question is. I've studied evolution for some time. My reason? Well how can you debate about a topic you know nothing about? See, not only do you need to be on top of knowing what you stand for, you need to know what the other person stands for.
That's what I loved about this movie. It provided amazing evidence for the Creator! And it posed some incredibly hard truths. Especially death. It's right around the corner for any of us. The question, "Are you ready?" is a tricky one.

Then the second one came out!!! And yes I loved it!!!!! The first one focused on proving God's existence from a factual point of view through the evidence of creation and other things. The second focused on proving God through history and moral questions.
So if anybody hasn't seen it, I say it's a MUST!!

P.S Stay till the very end of the credits for the second. There's a clip you need to see!! ;)



Have you seen it? Share your thoughts? Have amazing evidence for Christ? Share too! Have a question? Just ask!

File #1 Arguing

For me, there is nothing more peaceful than a shelf full of books. I love the smell of an old library with books stuffed with ancient information. What is the opposite of peace?
Strife, which can be classified in categories such as anger, trouble and arguing.

Arguing is a fairly common occurrence at our home. It's not that we don't like each other, we all have extremely strong relationships. But with so many people in one family there are many different opinions and tempers are near snapping many times throughout the week.
I admit that I have a quick temper that, *ahem*, doesn't really show too much. But there are times when it gets the better of me and flashes up. I start saying things I wouldn't and making rash decisions. If you've ever had an argument you know what I'm talking about.
What is at the heart of every argument? Why do we begin doing things we never would when our temper was normal?
In order to understand we need to organize the 3 stages of talking.
Conversation: This is the kind of talk you have with your friend over the phone, or at a family get-together. It's when you are sharing ideas, events and jokes. It's warm and friendly, able to include everybody or meant only for one individual.
Debating: This is what one watches on television when two scientists share opposing opinions. It is carried out civilly and everybody keeps their shirts on. There is a certain amount of tension since opposing ideas are being presented, but they are talking about their ideas and trying to come to an understanding.
Arguing: Tempers are off and civility is thrown out the window. You are out prove your way is better than the others and is the only way to do something. Anger is at an all-time high!

It's obvious to see which of the three is bad. Arguing corrupts families and destroys relationships. But what's at the heart? Why do you insist upon your way of cooking potatoes being better and the only way of cooking them? (Maybe a bad analogy but that's what came off the top of my head.)
From all I've ever discovered, Pride is the chief trouble.
That is what's behind all the trouble. Hard to understand? Not really. Simply put: we want out way because we want it. Our Pride wont have it any other way. When I am arguing about the best way to cook potatoes, I'm only insisting because I think my way is the best. Pride.
Once we take the time to realize our own Pride we can stop, turn around, and begin going the right way. C. S Lewis says, "Sometimes turning a clock backwards is the only way to fix it."
Now I'm not saying that lightly. Pride is not an easy foe to conquer. I certainly have not mastered it. But once we give into the fact (let go of our Pride) we can recognize when Pride is beginning to effect out actions. It takes Humility, which is the opposite of Pride. Jesus calls us to be servants. Servants were in the most humble positions. Washing the feet of travelers who came to their masters house. Back in that day everybody wore sandals on dry, dusty, dirty roads. Can you imagine how filthy their feet would be after a mile of walking?
Once you feel the beginning of your temper slipping out of control, take a deep breath, lower your voice and try again. Even if the other person continues to yell, you can rest assure that you are doing your part. 10 to 1 the other person will probably realize you've changed and will also lower their voice. Returning the Argument to a Debate, which can be civilly solved.
I will part with this last tip that I have discovered through painful experience. Calling attention to the other persons raised voice will only cause more anger. Allow that person to realize on their own.
And when you feel that nothing will get the other person to stop yelling you have one remarkable ally. Silence. Politely tell the individual that you need to take a break. Be extremely polite. And walk away. I grab a book and go read. It helps to sooth me. What's your peace resort? A cup of tea, taking a walk, drawing? Find something and take a break. Once you've both had time to cool off, try approaching the tense topic calmly.

Do you have tips of how to solve/prevent arguments? Please share in the comments!!

Faun Hooves

Honestly, this guy was my favorite character next to Edmund and Alsan. Mr. Tumnus was so kind towards Lucy after his *ahem* mistake. I mean, is that not the cutest pic!!
Anyway, I found the idea for faun hooves and thought, "Hey! That would be a really fun idea! I need a good project to work on." And then never started.
Well, I've sat on that project idea for 3 months now and have finally decided to do it! They went together easier than I ever thought they would so I decided to share and maybe you can make your own! I love projects that actually work don't you?
Step 1 The Things You Need.
The things I needed to buy where,

• a pair of high heels
• 3 pairs of trouser socks
• pool noodle
• Yarn

The rest was stuff I had like,

• Low temperature hot-glue gun.
• Jig-saw
• scrap wood
• power drill
• screws
• thick fabric
• a whole lot of improvising.

Now let's get started. The first thing is you need to analyze your high heels. Here are the ones I used.
 
 The must-have criteria on these things are the covered toe, ankle strap, and heel cover. Those are a must and you will see why later.

Step 2 Get rid of that heel
 The heel on these puppies need to go! So take that jig-saw and get going! Here's how much I hacked mine.


 Step 3 Padding
 You don't want that curve on the bottom of the shoe. So I cut some strips of fabric and padded it up. 
 You can see that the curve is gone. On to the next step!

Step 4 Give it a lift
As you can see, a faun's heel is much higher than any high heel will be. His heel is quiet up there. Now, that's CG but you can get pretty close by cutting out some wooden lifts.


 I traced the flat toe of the high heel on a plank of wood, then cut them out. They're pretty thick as you can see here.                                                               

 Step 5 Attachment
This step can be pretty hard. You have to drill through the shoe and into the wood below, making sure that they are lined up. In hindsight I would probably have cut away a bit of the top. As it is I shredded the screws, which ended up sticking into my feet. I padded those up later and am none the worse for it. But I want to save you the trouble of all that.














Step 6 First layer of trouser socks
I had the hardest time finding a pair of cheap trouser socks. Finally did at Target! YAY! But they came in three different colors. Nude, Brown and Black. Do Nude first. Make sure you cut the toe open so you can hot glue the sock in the slit where the shoe meets the wood.

(Trying to take a picture of my own leg. Not an easy task.)

Step 7 More padding!
You need to give your foot a fauny appearance. So get ride of that dainty toe with layers of more felt.

On this project you really need to feel out what works for you. But you should defidently pad the toe and ankles.
I also padded the heel to make it come to a sharper point. (You can't see it because I didn't figure it out till later and didn't bother taking another pic.)

Step 8 Getting messy with the pool noodle.
This part was a bit of a challenge and took a lot of patience. You need to cut and glue little bits of noodle to create the cloven faun hoof. You need to make it really smooth because it will stand out after the paint job.

The great thing about pool noodle is that it melts with the hot glue, fusing is together.

Step 9 More trouser socks
 Next layer is black. That way the last layer, brown, shows distinctly. Be generous with the hot glue. You don't want these socks detaching while you're wearing them.



Step 10   Painting and more!
Now comes the fun part! You take the hot glue gun and swipe it over the surface. This creates a rough surface and smalls grooves. I broke up the solid brown by adding a tanish color. Make sure you avoid those small silky threads that trail on the end. It looks odd if you have them. I also painted a little black on the inside of the clove to hide the place where the pool noodle meets the wooden block.

 Pointer!! If you are wanting to wear these outside you need to use waterproof paint. I did not and the paint began washing off when I wore them outside.

Step 11 Final sock layer and hair
Add the final layer of socks and glue on. Now comes another tedious part. You are going to add hair to the edge, where the sock meets the hoof. That will hide the seam.
I used this kind of yarn.                                             
You take the end and shred it with a brush.

 This part takes a long time because you don't want the entire hoof to be covered by hair, but you want it to cover some. So you are snipping little pieces and gluing them to the seam all around the hoof. I went longer in the back so it covered almost all of it.

Voila! You now have an amazing pair of faun hooves!


 I debated whether or not to glue hair up the bottom to the heel and up the back of the leg. I decided not too because I want to buy some furry fabric and make pants.

If you ever try this or have tried it please comment! I would love to hear how you did it or how it goes!!
 

Do Something

I wasn't exactly the normal girl growing up. Wait, take that back. I'm still not a normal girl and I'm a teen now. There are the girls that bought Barbies, baby dolls, play make up and that stuff. I can be summed up pretty good by the picture above. I was usually off doing something odd. It could be anything from making a centuar body out of cardboard boxes to sitting on a pile of dirt and seeing just how dirty I could get!
Now, I'm not doing that kind of stuff now. I've changed it to different things. Like river swimming and bow hunting. But I notice that I was having a big problem. I was getting sucked into the "teen" category. That may sound really weird, but it has a big meaning behind it.
What do you think of when you think of a Teen. (If you're a teen I'm still asking you to be honest) Maybe things such as,

• Parties
• Video Games and computers
• High School.
• Hanging out with friend 
• And then there are the bad things that teens do. (I needs to list those)

Do any of those apply to you? I didn't want to be one of those. Honestly, a teen is usually associated with...well...nothing. (And by nothing I mean nothing truly useful.) The teen years are meant to be a time of fun right? Not work or chores. Now, what if I told you that, right now - this very instant, you are an adult? Would that change the way you acted and the decisions you made? Why is that? Why is there such a huge difference between an adult and a teen? Maybe things such as,

• Work
• Responsibility
• Bills
• Lack of spare time
• And the millions of other things adults do.

Just take a moment and compare those two lists. Which one looks better? Duh, the teen one. Ah, but which one accomplishes more? Erg, the adult one.
A lot of this has to do with the laws. A teen can't really get a full time job at 13. At least, not by the world's standard.(More on that another time) So what does that leave teens with? A whole lot of extra time to goof off and do...well...nothing. Teens have hours and hours when they don't have anything to do.
Stay with me now and picture this. Stop squirming because it's only going to get more uncomfortable. What if every teen took that extra time to do something? They took the extra, say, 4-5 hours to develop a skill instead of playing a video game or watching TV. What would happen? You would get a lot of teens that have great skills and know how to use their time effectively. Then once they get to college, they know what they want to do with their life.
At our house there are two words you don't EVER say. "I'm bored." As soon as those words are out of your mouth a mom or dad will pop out of nowhere and begin dishing out jobs. After that you will be doing something for the rest of the day. When I was younger I just hated that. I didn't want to work! I wanted to do something fun! But it's helped change me. Now that I'm a teen when I'm bored, I look for a job to do. 1: Because I know it helps the family. 2: What else am I going to do? At least I'm doing something. I'm living by Chokmah because I'm not just wasting the time God's given me. (See http://chokmahkishron.blogspot.com/2016/01/having-successful-life.html)
Now does it have to always be work? Not always. I said I didn't want to get sucked into the "teen" category. So I had to run and get out of it. That doesn't come naturally. You have to focus and work on it. I started learning Spanish. (Don't ask me to try and speak yet though) I'm using the extra time I have to learn and grow. I take more time to study the bible and learn about our amazing God. I started by really working hard to be good in school. Not being satisfied with "good enough"
I started teaching myself guitar a year ago. No particular reason for that one. I love music but I couldn't bring myself to play piano. I took lessons for a year and decided the piano just wasn't something I enjoyed. My mom has always had her guitar in the corner and nobody knew how to play. So I picked it up and started hammering Google. At first I was satisfied with "good enough" playing - like I was with school. But I realized it wasn't helping me. Sure I could play a good celtic jig, but I would hit a few stale notes and I didn't mind doing that. At first
I started to push myself and actually Work (Yes work) on being really good. Amazing guitar players don't get good by just diddlying around on the strings. I played a song over and over until the notes were clear. I worked my hands to be stronger. I had to push myself to go beyond what was comfortable. You'll never learn new things if you don't move from the subjects you know. I'll never grow stronger if you don't push your body to do more. Now I can play a really good celtic jig, faster, better and it's more fun. I finish playing with a feeling of accomplishment - knowing that I've done something.
Don't stay in the teenager mindset. You can always do something!

What are you doing now? Are you pursuing college? Great! Now focus on what you hope to accomplish! Don't do it just because. Are you applying for jobs? Cool! Now focus on what skills you hope to gain by that. Skills that will affect you down the road. Still in High School? Two positive thumbs up! You have SO much time on your hands to develop skills that God has given you!   
1 Corinthians 12: 7-11 says. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,^[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.^{[b] 11} All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.


The most important thing though, is to stay tuned with God. He has a plan for you and wants to help you. God holds that stars in place and sets the galaxies spinning. He knew who you were before you were born. He can see things down the road that you can't. Trust Him. He's the guide with the lantern and you need to hold his hand or you will fall in the dark.
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future."

P.S If you have never read the book Do Hard Things - by Alex and Bret Harris. I highly suggest you give it a try.