What have I been doing lately?

I have recently re-discovered......

 

 

 

WAFFLES.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 and my OLD Wishbone books!

I practically have all of them. I'm only missing about 10 from my collection!

 

 

I've been working on my Crochet afghan, only 6 more skeins to go and it's done!

 

 

 

 

I found a very old picture of me and did some editing to add my "present" face next to it.

(Yay for awkward selfies!)

 

 

But goodness, I haven't changed much at all!

 

AND lastly, I've been wanting to read this book.

I wonder if I'll finish it or not....

 

 

 

Also, we just got a HUGE snow storm this week!

It's beautiful.

And the temperatures haven't passed 32 degrees for over a week now!

It's chilly here, but we have our wonderful woodstove keeping the house warm and cozy.

 

-Stephanie

 

 

 

 

I made supper!!

Tuesday:

We had our first Mops of 2014 today! We got a handful of new kids in our group. So it was a little more chaotic than usual, but the kids are great.

 

So it's Tuesday, right? And tomorrow is Wednesday.

I still have a bunch of homework to finish for CBA on Thursday and I can't work on it on Wednesday because I have to study for my quiz then.

So, I get home, Britney makes us cauliflower pizza sticks that we dip in pizza sauce.

The texture was...interesting to say the least.

Then, mom and I work side by side the rest of the day struggling to get my homework done.

It was around 6pm when I had finally finished.

Mom and Britney left to clean the church office and I stayed home to fix supper.

They weren't really expecting anything special...

but I got a maxi skirt on and a nice white shirt and lit beeswax candles and cut salad, a cucumber, poured water in our fancy glasses and set Lord of the Rings music on my computer for us to enjoy while we ate by candlelight.

 

 

(We joined a fast at our church happening for 10 days, it's amazing how healthy we've been eating!)

 

Mom and Britney were very pleased with their salad and how everything got so fancy.

Though at one point I said, "I think I may have cut too much salad."

And both mom and Britney said in unison that what I gave them was a perfect amount.

I shrugged and figured that if they could finish it, so could I.

Now....this wasn't a very good idea.

Because after I had downed by whole salad I casually asked them,

"So...what do you do when you feel a wave a nausea?"

Yes....it was just....awful.

I prepared such an elegant supper for them, just so I could loose it afterwards.

That ruins my 5 year strike of not throwing up.

*sigh*

 

I took another painting class!

I was really happy the way the wave turned out!

 

 

I've been sketching more lately.

And I've really been wanting to add more color to my art.

I usually just do line art, but color in itself is quite an art, there's so many different ways to do it.

 

I've been wanting to learn how to do pottery lately.

There's a place near us that offers beginner pottery lessons.

Hoping to maybe take some this summer....along with *shutter* drivers ed.

 

-Stephanie

 

 

 

The Sound of Music Live (and why I loved it)

My family and I hardly ever turn on the TV to watch regular television, but during the Thanksgiving Day Parade (which we watch every year) I saw commercials for The Sound of Music Live and decided that I would like to watch it.

 

I forget where we went that evening, but it was getting very close to 8pm on the ride home and I was worried we were going to miss the show. Thankfully, when I turned the TV on, Maria was only half way through singing "The Hills Are Alive"

 

I sat back, completely thrilled with it all, and turned up the volume.

 

Somewhere in the world, Carrie Underwood was singing it, live. And it was on my TV.

It was kind of crazy to wrap my head around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next two pictures are so fun to look at.

It's the actors, in simple clothes, practicing for the big day, and the second photo is them in character that aired live.

 

 

After the Sound of Music  Live was over I got on facebook and all my friends were making very negative statuses about The Sound of Music Live.

 

I noticed that everyone was comparing it very harshly to the original Sound of Music with Julie Andrews.

 

I think my friends weren't able to see what the Sound of Music Live was truly all about.

It was never intended to be greater than the original Sound of Music, it was nearly a play, that was put on live on the television and brought the theater live right into your home. 

 

The sets were exquisite, the outfits were charming, and I loved how it made me feel like I was sitting in the theater, watching this all take place on stage.

 

I think if people had that perspective on it, maybe they would have liked it better.

I don't know, but I thought it was wonderful, and I enjoyed every second of it.

 

I'm absolutely in love with the play, and I'm sure I'll be purchasing the dvd when it comes out.

 

Stephanie

 

 

In a hole in the ground....

My mom and dad got me a beginner's calligraphy set for Christmas, so a few days afterwards, I tried it for the first time, but I didn't do calligraphy, I guess. I thought I would get familiar to the pen first by going back to Bilbo's handwriting.

 

Also, I found my dad's old version of the hobbit that he had when he was younger and found a sketch of Smug in the back on a map, maybe drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien himself?

Anyway, I decided to sketch it out with pen, which is very difficult, since it can't be erased once you make a mark on the paper like you can with pencil.

 

 

But it turned out looking very much like his sketch.

 

Today I made room for all my new things. My faithful bookshelf now bares the weight of 52 books and four dvds!

(Now including: The Door Within Trilogy, A Pearl Among Princes,  The Kingdom Series, The Hobbit,and The Lord of the Rings. And Tangled...but that's a dvd)

 

I also did some maintenance on my aquariums, (water syphoning and new filter cartridges) but that's not very exciting.

 

I listened to the Magician's Nephew while crocheting this morning,

 

 

We got the audiobooks years ago, but I've never listened to them.

I enjoy Adventures in Odyssey (A Christian Radio Drama), and these audiobooks were done by the same company, Focus on the Family, so I like it so far!

 

I'm crocheting an afghan by the way, I've toyed with the idea of making my own blanket by crochet for a couple months now, and I decided to turn it into a New Year Resolution. So far, I'm doing pretty good with it! It's going to be stripped, with Woodland Heather and Off White colors.

 

I only had four New Year Resolutions this year,

1. Crochet an afghan before the end of this year.

2. Get in a routine of yoga or exercise.

3. Less computer.

4. More drawing.

 

In regarding Resolution number two, it's not that I don't exercise  it's just that I don't tend to do it in a routine, so I'm going to try and get better at that.

 

2014 is going to be a very exciting year. I'm going to be turning 16 in February, and during the summertime, I'm positive dad is going to sign me up for driver's ed. That doesn't exactly mean I'll be getting my license in 2014, but I definitely could, I suppose.

All regarding if I get 60 hours of driving in or not.

 

 

But I don't know. The age 16 makes me feel like I want to do more or I should be doing more with my life.

As I would rarely ever admit, the computer is a horribly terrible, yet wondrous trap that I get to get sucked into.

It's really only been in the last three years because before then we didn't have internet on our laptop, the only reason I would get on the computer was to play computer games, and even then it wouldn't be for very long.

But recently I've been annoying myself by realizing how much I've been on the computer.

Thankfully with it being December and holiday time, I pushed myself off the internet for most of the month.

And I'm going to force myself to only be on the computer for an hour a day.

Half hour in the morning, half hour in the evening.

 

I'm going to go read now!

 

Oh! My library is going to be closing for an entire month to do some renovating.

I'm not very excited for that.

I have 12 books out that I really want to read.

Now I have to return them!

So sad!!

 

Stephanie