I'm Still Alive!

I’ve been absent for quite some time. I honestly did not mean for that to happen. Time ebbs away too easily it seems. Especially the older you get. At least that’s what it feels like. Truth be told, every time I have tried to write a blog post I get caught up in socializing with other people, searching other things, and forgetting that I needed to write a blog post. Honestly, I didn’t feel inspired. I generally don’t write unless I feel a desire to do so. 

Nevertheless, I have been going through quite a bit. There are certain areas of my life that I would like to share with you. Hopefully when you read the different posts you will be encouraged and maybe even convicted. If I haven’t made this clear enough already, my goal for this blog is to encourage and bless any and everyone who reads it. I see this blog as a journal of sorts. I’m documenting my spiritual journey, (though sometimes the posts don’t always follow that guideline).

What I will do is give you an overview of what I have been up to. Then I’ll go into detail in a few of the areas that God has been working heavily in my life. It may take some time to get this all written, but that’s OK.

The last post that I wrote was on my graduation party. What have I done since? Anything and everything! Or…so it seems. 

I have fifteen piano students. I divided it up to where I teach them on three different days of the week. That takes up quite a bit of time. Plus I’m getting sewing lessons in exchange for teaching piano. Absolutely love exchanging trades.

I have been writing as often as I can. By writing I mean working on my novels. I have three in the works. The main one I am working on is the second rough draft of my World War Two novel. I am really trying to get that one finished. My hope and prayer is to get it published someday soon. I’m still praying about which publishing house I want to go with, and how to find a literary agent. That is one scary thought. I have no idea how it will all work out so I am simply leaving it up to God to provide me with one.

My family has been busy with singing engagements and different functions. Corrie’s baptism/our fall party is this Sunday. We have preparation for that to work on.

I have been continuing with my own piano lessons. God worked it out to where I would be able to further my piano education. That was truly amazing how the Lord opened the door for that one. I am still awed at how He made that happen.

I have a new sister! Sabrina Lynn. Beautiful six year old. She is actually our second cousin, but the Lord allowed us to obtain guardianship of her. She is such a blessing. I am planning on doing an entire post on that one. You’ll get all of the details on that situation, most of them anyway.

That’s about all of the major things happening in my life. There are little things in between the cracks of these main things that I will share with you. I know God wants me to share them with you all. He has laid it on my heart to do so.

Stay tuned for the next few blog posts that are certain to follow.

God bless you!

My Graduation!

I keep meaning to write a post on my graduation which happened June 22nd. It's almost, but not quite, a month later. I am so sorry that I have not posted anything! Life has been extremely crazy busy with my graduation and all of that preparation, the Barnards staying for eight days. (That was beyond imaginable fun. It was totally awesome, epic, wonderful, and more!) Then Grandparents from Florida came, then the Barnards returned for a day and a half, and then the crazy mad dash of getting 4-H projects completed in one week began. :)

Oh, and might I add, the Freetown Festival, singing at a fish fry Sunday night, singing at the prejudging of the Jackson County 4-H Talent Show on Monday.....such is the life of a Long kid. Never gets boring.

Needless to say....this is why I have not posted anything since May 29th. Oh boy...that's like almost two months ago. Shameful!

So! I digress and move on to my graduation party....

My party really began with the prep work. Honestly, with all of the help and fun we had...the preparation was a party in itself! Oh, and the play practice the night before and the morning of my party.

Anyway, amidst the prep work the Barnards arrived. We all felt terrible that all they received in the way of greeting was a quick hug and a joy-filled hello. They unpacked and got their things settled in while the rest of us were still running around like chickens with no heads.

While David was checking the sound system, Daniel, his brother, was telling a couple of the kids a story. He had music and voice effects. It was quite hilarious!
After that we had a quick play practice and then we finished preparations.

Here are pictures of what all our hard work resulted into.

The cupcake stand.

The card box

My display table. These are different things that are major parts in my life. My mom did an awesome job, did she not?

At 1:00 people began to arrive. Because I was the graduate I had to greet everyone and thank them for coming. I'm a people person. I really am, but greeting all of those people? Just a tiny bit daunting and intimidating.

One of the first people to arrive was a pen pal and one of my best friends whom I had not seen since last May. Kylen Burns.

Kylen and I

Here are a few of the many people who came:

Our dear adopted Grandma Felda

Some of the Smith family. It was delightful having them there! :) And we are still holding your volleyball net hostage! :)

Daddy's sister, Aunt Tanya

My darling niece, Jade

And here is my other beautiful niece, Mila.

That's just a few of the people who came. 

We ate and then I played the Maple Leaf Rag to gain everyone's attention. Once I had it, I played Debussy Arabesque no.1 

Then....the speeches. 

Dad and Mom spoke first.

The wonderful audience. :)

Stephanie spoke next.

Then Emily

Older brother Josh spoke

And last but not least of all, I spoke.

I cannot remember what all I said. I had written out a rough draft, but I didn't end up using it. I remembered all of the main points, but there were some things that I wanted to share from my heart. So I did. :)

After the torturous speeches, I dislike public speaking, Daniel Johnson did a comedy routine.   

Daniel Johnson giving his comedy routine..

When he was finished us girls sang. 

I sang two songs that I wrote and then we sang This is Freedom and How Great Thou Art. Two of my favorite songs we do.

Us girls singing. You'll never find a flattering picture of anyone singing. :P

While all of the play actors went down to the house and got into costume, the Bell family sang. 

The Bell family.

The next thing we did was perform The Princess and the Kiss play. I regret to say that there are no pictures of the play whatsoever. Here's what happened:

When we began performing it was already sprinkling. I believe the camera got put away at that time. We were almost finished with the first act when it began to down pour. That stopped everything. People rushed to put the sound system and the piano on the stage. Lots of people gathered on the stage. Others left, and still more sought shelter underneath the tree house, and in the actual house. 

I got stuck on the stage in my costume along with the three princes. Josh, Isaac, Emily, and Corrie changed out of their costumes and played in the rain and cleaned up the food and such. When the rain finally stopped, the men put away the sound system. We gathered the remaining faithful guests and performed the play a capella. Basically we had no microphones and no sound effects or music. This was a real bummer to all, but I was still glad that we were able to perform it. 

After we had taken our last bow all of us changed out of costume. Quite a number of us ended up playing Ultimate Frisbee in the Soccer, a.k.a septic field, in the pouring rain. It felt good to get wet after all of the humid heat. We ended up having the hot dog roast and finished out the party at 10:30. 

Thank you to those who helped with the preparations. That was a huge help and we were blessed by your willingness to serve. 

Thank you play actors for being willing to perform even without the sound system. :)

Thank you to all of my guests for coming and especially for those of you who stuck around even after it started raining. 

My graduation party was a ton of fun! 

Doubly Awarded!

I was doubly awarded by my dearest friend, Ellie, over at Aquamarine Dreams. And Jonny over at Scrinium et Suggestum

The German word liebster means dearest. It is awarded to those who have under 200 followers on their blog.
Once you have been awarded, you have to share 11 random facts about yourself. Next you must answer the 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you. Lastly nominate 11 other bloggers (who have under 200 followers) and ask them 11 questions. Don't forget to notify them that they have been awarded.

I must begin with 11 random facts about myself. Oh, dear...

1. I am a Christian (that's not really random actually)
2. I am a homeschool graduate.
3. I am not going to college.
4. I write songs and novels.
5. I hate driving in the city.
6. Pistachios are one of my favorite snacks.
7. I am a patriot.
8. I stand with Israel.
9. I don't have a Facebook.
10. I love toast.
11. I prefer being barefoot.

OK, now to answer the 11 questions posed by Ellie!

1. Why did you start your blog?
I started my blog because I wanted to reach out to people whom I can't see or touch. Through the words that the Lord gives me I can encourage and hopefully bless those unseen faces.

2. Why did you name it what it is?
My middle name is Rose. Naturally I wanted a spin off of my middle name. The phrase, 'stop and smell the roses' kept coming to my mind so I went with it.

3. Where do you find inspiration for your blog?
The Lord, and life lessons.

4. Is your blog for you, or for your readers?
It is for my readers.

5. What was your favorite birthday gift?
Uh...I have quite a few birthday gifts. I loved many of them so I will pick one of them which would be the Bible that my parents got for me on my 13th birthday I think it was?

6. What song always makes you cry?
Never Give Up on Me by Josh Bates.

7. What movie puts you to sleep?
 Hm...probably one of the Ken Ham movies we own. No offense here. :P

8. What is something you wanted to show someone, but didn't dare?
Getting personal now are we? LOL! Let's see, there was a time I wanted to show a whole lot of people just how hurt I felt. I didn't though because I wanted them to see the love of God. Not my pain.

9. Which personality type do you find more approachable, quiet or talkative? 
Talkative. :)

10. May it be, or Into the West 
      Into the West.
11. Which smiley do you use most?
:P

Since I was doubly awarded I must answer Jonny's questions too. Which, they prove to be quite interesting. :P

1. What's your favorite book/passage/verse of the Bible, and why?
Good one!
Well...my favorite book of the Bible, well I don't just have one, I have several. But to pinpoint just one I would say the book of Psalms. Why? Whenever I am going through a rough time I can open to any psalm and find comfort through David's words. Plus a lot of the psalms are praising the Lord. David was a songwriter. I am one as well. Both of us have the same goals. Praising the Lord.
My favorite passage is Proverbs 31:10-31. My Good Morning Girls group and I are getting ready to study that! :) And why? um..The Proverbs 31 woman is my role model. She is what I am aiming to be like.
Favorite verse is 1 Corinthians 10:31.
Why? It's my life verse. 'nough said. :)

2. Who's your favorite non-biblical historical figure?
Two come off the top of my head. Eric Liddel and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

3. Excluding Jesus and the Apostles, which New-Testament person would you want to talk to, and why?
One of Jesus' brothers or His earthly parents. I would like to know what He was like growing up.

4. Which Old-Testament person would you want to talk to, and why?
Esther and Jeremiah. Esther, well I want to know what it was like facing danger like that. Her bravery and loyalty to her people and the Lord is awe-inspiring.
Jeremiah. He was the weeping prophet. I want to know how he felt when he was rejected and everything. Get the inside story. :)

5. Which of the following soundtracks do you think is more sad-sounding, and why: The Jedi Purge (Star Wars), Gandalf has Fallen (Lord of the Rings), or Never Forget (Halo 4)? I recommend listening to them while you fill out the rest of the questions to save time (all three combined should take less than 12 minutes). ;-)
Gandalf has Fallen. That one sounds the saddest. Why? I don't really know why! It just does! :P

6. If  you had the choice to be involved in any historical event, which event would you choose, what part would you play in it, and why?
World War Two would be my event. I would like to play the part as a spy (double agent for the U.S.) in Germany. Why? I have always dreamed of doing something like that. Since I can't do it myself I have written a book about it. :P

7. If you had the choice to play a part in any fictional event, which event would you choose, how would you want to be involved in it, and why?
OK. I think I understand this question correctly. My fictional event would take place in the book series, The John Bennet and Erin McCoy series, by Joel C. Rosenberg. I would like to play the part as Erin McCoy. Why? She's awesome! :P

8. If for some reason you weren't a Christian, what belief system do you think you would be most likely to follow? 
I would probably be an agnostic

9. Do you have any combat/self-defense/shooting skills/training? If so, name them. If not, name some you would want!
I have zilch! I would like to learn some sort of self-defense training...maybe knife throwing, or scalping, and maybe...no I'm just kidding.
I would like to learn some kind of self-defense training though.

10. Do you agree or disagree that flying is for Droids?
Uhh...I disagree...flying is for any flying device that can stay in the air. I don't know! :P

11. Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon? 
Dijon mustard? Oh yeah! Bring it on! :P

Wow...now after that crazy round of questions.....I hope you all are still interested in this crazy ride! :)


OK! Now I must award eleven people who have under 200 followers

Olivia at Epiphanies
Haley at Remake of a Girl
Leah at My Journey
Gabrielle at The Ink Stained Parchment
Lauren at Virtuous Daughter
Sophia at Simple Delights
Katie at Writer's Ramblings
Anna at Shine
Rachel at Of Love and Beauty
Cindy at Life as a Young Christian



And their eleven questions are:

1. Why did you start your blog?
2. Where do you hope to find yourself in five years?
3. If you could place yourself in any book, which book would it be, what character would you want to be, and why?
4. What are you currently reading?
5. What is your personality type: quiet or more outgoing?
6. What is your biggest goal?
7. Do you prefer an action-packed film, or a romantic one?
8. Jane Austen or Charles Dickens?
9. Do you laugh a lot?
10. Do you read political thrillers?
11. Are you interested in eschatology?

Have fun you Liebster friends. :)

Rewarding Hard Work

I have been teaching four of my younger siblings for two years now. I will admit that teaching my siblings is harder than teaching someone else's child. The natural tendency to get impatient often arises when I'm teaching them.

After two years of teaching them I finally figured out how to get them to practice regularly. You would think that I would have already discovered that, but alas I had not.

I told them that starting in June we would begin a rewards system. Each of them will get their own calendar for the month. They have to practice ten minutes a day, four days a week. At the end of the month they bring me their calendar and if it meets the requirements that I set, then they get a prize.

Each child I explained that to, their eyes lit up when I got to the end of my explanation.

I remember when my older sister's best friend, Elizabeth was teaching me. She did something similar, and it made me want to practice even more because I knew I was going to get a prize for it.

When lessons were over and I was fixing dinner I got to thinking about my whole rewards system. I realized that God does the same thing with us in His own way.

(Don't you just love it when you have an epiphany?)

In Psalm 37:3-5 it says, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass."

In every one of those verses there is a reward for doing something for the Lord. Trust in the Lord, and do good and you shall be fed. Delight in Him and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto Him, trust in Him, and He shall make your desires happen!

There are many other references in Scripture that illustrate this. God made us and He knows how we work. He offers rewards to His children when they obey Him.

He rewards us with eternal life if we will only repent of our sins and ask Him into our hearts.

This principle of rewarding works for personal goals as well. I find that when I have a daunting task, such as cleaning my disaster of a room, I don't have the motivation to do so. But if I set a reward for myself when the job is finished I have a lot more energy. Usually.

Maybe there is something that you need to get done that isn't happening because of a lack of motivation? Try setting a good reward at the end of the task.

God uses it so it has to work. :)

Crossing Over the Threshold

I've been absent for an entire month. At least in my posting. I apologize, but life has been crazy here lately, and the lack of Internet has prevented me from updating my posts.

   If you read my post, Don't Worry About It, then you will remember me mentioning that I would be taking the  GED test. Which I take next week.

Before I did so I had to finish quite a few math lessons. I wanted to finish them, but at the same time I was hesitant to do so. I couldn't figure out why.
Why would I be so hesitant to finish school and move on into adulthood? Isn't that what most kids dream to achieve? To make it to adulthood (finally)?

After giving it some serious thought I discovered the reasoning behind my hesitation.

By finishing school I was, in my mind, closing the door to my childhood completely. That's a rather sad thought, in my opinion.

I'm reminded of the verse in 1 Corinthians 13, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." 

Putting away childish things. OK, I don't believe that necessarily means packing away the baby dolls, Lincoln Logs, train tracks, and forsaking all fort building in the woods.
I believe that's part of it, but I think it is more of putting away childish thinking, behavior, and immaturity.
I have, I think, put all of those away. (Haha)

I am hesitant to leave my childhood because that's all I have ever known. Stepping into adulthood scares me. I have no idea what lies ahead. I don't know what roads I will take. All I can do is simply trust that the Lord will guide me in this new way of life.

So as I step over the threshold of adulthood, I will take my Savior's hand and trust Him to lead me wherever He wills.

Breakthrough!

No, it's nothing major in science like how to live on Mars or anything. Nor is it how to lose fifty pounds in one week. Nothing like that.

But don't get discouraged! Please, keep reading...

Since December 5th I've been having problems with being able to eat food and not feel sick. We had no idea what the problem was for over three months. When a new doctor put me on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet I began to feel a whole lot better. In the past two weeks I've started to add a little bit of dairy back into my diet. It didn't do anything to me so I kept eating it.

But I did not want to try the gluten yet.

Yesterday while out and about with my family we had bean burritos from Taco Bell. I didn't even think about the tortilla shell being gluten...I was simply too hungry. So I ate it. I started to feel sick maybe thirty minutes after I had eaten it.

This morning when I got up, it was about 3:30, I realized just how sick I felt. All of the pain and queasy feelings that I had endured for over three months were plaguing my body something awful. I almost could not get out of bed I was in so much pain. That's when I figured out that gluten is my enemy.

Now what is gluten?

The word 'gluten' comes from the Latin word, "glue."
Gluten is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat, and related grains, including barley and rye. Gluten is what makes your dough stretchy.

Almost all of my family has a gluten allergy. Right down to three-year-old Michael. I didn't think I had it. I refused to think I was allergic to gluten. Come on! Who wants to give up tasty donuts, or delicious homemade bread, or toast (I love toast!), or cake, or...yeah. The list could go on. I didn't want to give any of it up. I didn't want to admit that I had problems with it.


And isn't that so true with some of the things in life? We don't want to give something up, so God takes us through a situation so that we will? We could have simply given it up early on and spared ourselves, and other people, so many problems and heartache, and whatnot. We would much rather hang on to our junk than give it up and let God give us something better.

If we could simply learn to let go and let God. It's not easy though. We are like children who don't want to go to Disneyland because we are having too much fun making mud pies in the back yard.
 Look what God offers in exchange for our junk though! Blessings, and so much more...



I could have easily averted so many of the problems I went through if I had listen to the advice of some friends of ours. They suggested that I go off gluten and see what happened. Stubborn me told them that toast was the only thing that didn't make me hurt...Ha! Ha! Oh, if only I had realized.

But aside from that, God did teach me a boatload of things while I was 'down'. I wouldn't trade my exhausting three months of hardship for anything because of the valuable lessons I learned.

Isn't Romans 8:28 so true?
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to the them who are the called according to His purpose." 

God takes our mistakes and turns them into blessings for us. He is amazing and more.

This morning, I told my mother that gluten would never again enter my mouth. I will live without all of those tasty treats mentioned above. I do not want to feel sick anymore. I am tired of feeling lazy and useless.
So! I will live gluten-free and be extremely happy with it. :)

Two questions for you, dear reader, before you click off:

1. Could you possibly have an intolerance to gluten and don't even realize it?

2. Is there something in your life that you need to let go of?

Don't Worry About It...

photo credit: Morguefile

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" ~Matthew 6:34

Worry. Anxiousness. Fretting. Panic. Fear.

We all have those feelings. We all wonder what will happen today, or what will happen tomorrow. Will we get sick and die in the blink of an eye? We can't stop whatever's coming. So we panic.  

Why? 

We are human. And we listen to the thoughts of fear and doubt that Satan presents to us. It is so very easy to believe the lies of the Devil. He is very crafty and masks his lies with a sliver of truth. 

We must remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
By realizing this we can combat the lies with truth. The only way to fight the devil, besides resisting, is to fire Scripture back at him. It's truth and he knows it. 

I would like to share a little testimony of mine centering in on this area. 

As most of you probably know, I am graduating this spring. The question that weighs heavily on a high school senior's mind is, "What am I going to do after I graduate?" 
Every one stresses and frets about this. I had several ideas floating around in my head last year. Maybe I would take the SAT just in case I had the opportunity to go to college to study music. Maybe I would just write novels and teach piano. I really didn't have any sense of direction. I felt like a lost kid in an unknown building looking for someone to point me in the right direction to the exit. 

Most logical thing for me to do was to seek God's will and pray about it. So I spent another year in school preparing to take the SAT and praying for God to show me what I was supposed to do. 
As the time neared for me to take the SAT test I got to talking to my mom about when I would actually take it. She gave me a few reasons why it wasn't really necessary for me to take the SAT test. She thought I should take the GED test. I really didn't care which one I took, I just needed to know which test I was taking. I was prepared for both so it didn't really matter. We decided on the GED for a couple of different reasons. 

What really blew me away was when my mom told me that a couple of families were already asking when I was going to start teaching piano. I had no idea people were asking. 
I've always wanted to teach piano and I've been teaching four of my siblings for a year and a half now. 
Another door opened for a tutoring job. 

As I thought about both of these 'job' opportunities, if you will, I was amazed at how the Lord was working it all out. 
Here I was just moseying through my senior year not really worried about what I would do after I graduated; doesn't mean I didn't think about it often,
I did. And when I did I would panic. But the Lord really dropped it all in my lap. There was no need for me to worry at all. The Lord knew what was going to happen. He knows what is going to happen for the rest of my life. My life is in good hands. 

And the same goes for you. You don't need to worry about what is around the next corner. It's enough that God knows. Whatever is ahead, He will take care of it. Don't let the weight of fear and worry pull you down. Give that burden to God. He is more than capable of handling all of your problems. 

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

He even promises that He will take your burdens and give you rest. Give Him your burden and take His yoke upon you. He says that it is easy and light. 

Give your life to God, and rest easy in His wisdom