I’m really sleepy, so this entry might not be as coherent as usual. Last night, I finished the story I was writing for Clean Place’s current “Extra Credit Project”, Adopt-a-Plot. I’m not entirely pleased with the ending, but I like the story overall.

I went to JoAnn on Tuesday and Wal-Mart yesterday and got more fabric at both places. I had a 50% off coupon for JoAnn, so of course I had to use it! I bought 6 yards of dark brown cotton to make a dress. I’ve washed and ironed the fabric, cut the pieces out, and pinned some of them together. I’m not sure how it will turn out, since instead of doing princess seams, I laid some of the pattern pieces next to each other and cut a couple of things out as one piece instead of two. At Wal-Mart, I got some dark blue fabric for a skirt, green with a scroll pattern for a shirt, and some red stuff that reminds me of suede for a tunic. I was just going to get the blue, but the other fabric begged me to take it home.

The weather has been so rainy lately. I like some rain and storms, but I also like to see the sun. I am happy that everything is turning green. I think spring is my favorite season, aside from the humidity. Yesterday, with the sun breaking through the clouds, the light pink petals floating down from the trees, and the green buds everywhere, I was reminded of Narnia.

I’m still reading The Watchers, though not verra frequently. It’s rather odd.

Here’s a picture (it’s my picture of the day. See my Project 365 blog [the link is in the sidebar] for pictures from other days).

Well, that was pretty coherent, I think. Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

I was reading the blog of a Clean Place member, “Anywhere”, who’s staying with some other Clean Place members who live in Texas. Her descriptions remind me of the Moot (the annual gathering of Clean Place members, held in Colorado, to hang out, write, get to know each other, etc.). I’m feeling rather nostalgic now. I miss hanging out with CPeeps. They’re such fun, kind people. I wish I could go to the Moot again this year, but it’s too expensive. I’d need about $800.

Here’s a quote from Anywhere’s blog that I really like and certainly applies to the Moot (a term taken from Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” books, where it means “a gathering of Ents”): “Measuring things in goodbyes is not a good habit.”

I washed some fabric yesterday to make a new skirt. I think I overdid it. It’s a bit rough now. Oh well. It’ll still work. I need to exercise some discipline and not buy any more fabric for a while after I use my 50% off coupon for JoAnn’s.

I have some dark blue cotton fabric that I’m trying to decide what to use it for. I originally bought it for an Eowyn-inspired dress (inspired by her blue funeral gown, more specifically). I’m not sure if I’ll use it for that, or for a cloak, or for something else. The fabric I buy rarely ends up being made into the item of its original purpose.

I may have mentioned that I started reading “Patrick” by Stephen Lawhead. Now I’m putting it off to read “The Watchers” by Mark Andrew Olsen, because Patrick is not a very engaging read so far. It’s written in first person, and I’ve never much liked reading books in first person.

I think I might change my blog layout/look soon.

Edit: Changed it.

Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

Mom rented “The List” and I watched it on Sunday. It’s based on a book. I imagine the book is far better than the movie, though I haven’t read it. The plot was good, but seemed poorly executed by the filmmakers. I understand the gist of it, but there were some confusing and unexplained scenes. I don’t think I’ll watch it again. But it did nicely emphasize the power of prayer.

I also watched the movie “Kidnapped”, the version done by MasterPiece Theatre based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s book by the same name. I really enjoyed it. The main character is an upright young man of high character and morals, which I found a refreshing change from today’s norm. It’s a long movie, but worth the watch, to me, at least. It’s set in Scotland and the music is lovely, which helps

Speaking of Scotland, yesterday and today I read Wings of Morning, one of the books I checked out at the library. I’ll post my review below, as it’s a bit lengthy. I also finished reading Blessed Child, which is very good. The writing isn’t as good as some of Dekker’s other books, but the story is great. I recommend it.

We went to Borders today because their movies and CDs are all 50% right now (at the location near us. I dinna ken if they are at others). I was going to blog about how good I was, not spending any money…but now I can’t, because I did. I bought Josh Groban’s newest CD, “Awake”, and a CD called “The Music of Japan”, which was only $4…I downloaded some free (and legal) Asian music a few weeks ago and burnt it to a CD, but the CD is crazy and doesn’t play them right, so…*innocent look*

Here’s my review of “Wings of Morning”.

I generally avoid books that look like they’re primarily romances (I like some romance in a book, but not as the main focus), but I hoped the fact that this is set in 16th-century Scotland would redeem it, as well as the fact that it’s Christian fiction (I don’t read romances that aren’t, in hopes that I will avoid unpleasant content).

It didn’t start out promising. I skimmed and skipped in the first chapter (more on that later). But it got better from there. The plot is interesting and the main character is believable (I’m not so sure about the man she falls in love with), if a bit aggravating at times (to draw out the suspense). The writing isn’t very good, but that fact faded into the background as the story drew me in, except for the occasional lifting of the suspension of disbelief.

The bad things happening to the main character began to grow wearying after a point where I just wanted things to be settled. But I finally reached the happy ending (“finally” being the day after I started it, because I actually found it hard to put down).

The reason I skipped parts of the first chapter and parts later on in the book is because of suggestive content. I don’t recommend the book for younger readers.

I’m not sure that, all things considered, I really recommend it to anyone, at least not silly girls like me who are prone to let the romance business (the hurt girl and the near-perfect man falling madly in love and living happily ever after…okay, it never says happily ever after and there are plenty of reasons to believe they had trouble in the future due to the plot, but you get the picture) go to our heads, but if you take the book as entertainment and don’t waste your time getting all day-dreamy and distracted about that, it’s okay. Pardon my cynicism in that area.

There are good parts about trusting and loving God and seeking out and submitting to His will for your life, so you if you read it, you can take that from the story.

It’s the second in a series, but I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t seen it on the side cover. It stands alone fine.

Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

I had a rather busy weekend. A friend turned 18 on Saturday, and I went to her birthday party Friday night and spent the night at her house with some other girls. I wanted to make her a dress she can wear to the Renaissance faire if she ends up going with us, because going in garb is much more fun than going in “mundanes”. I procrastinated and ended up cutting the fabric out Wednesday and sewing it together Thursday and Friday. I had to put the eyelets in while in the car and while I was there, but I got it finished. I’ll probably post pictures on my costume blog (see links in the sidebar) before long. For now, there are some on Facebook.

We went to the creek near her house on Saturday and spent a while playing fetch with Kiwi and enjoying the scenery.

And then on Sunday, it snowed! That’s a rare occurrence in Georgia. The snow didn’t stick much, which is a shame, because we would have had quite a bit on the ground if it did. But it looked pretty, regardless.

There’s a picture of a cardinal in the snow on my Project 365 blog.

Hobby Lobby finally put McCall’s patterns on sale for 99 cents each again, so I went with Mom and Laura yesterday when Mom took Laura to art class. Mother and I went the library while she was in class. I checked out three books. The first is called Wings of Morning and is by Kathleen Morgan. I went over to the computer and typed “Scotland” in the subject box. There were hundreds of results and no descriptions of the content, so I gave up on that. I went over to the bookshelves. The first book I pulled off was Wings of Morning, and happens to be set in Scotland! It does look like it’s primarily a romance, but it mentions God on the back and is set in Scotland, so it will hopefully be interesting. I like some [clean] romance in books, but not when it’s the primary focus. It’s like a casserole – it would be disgusting if salt were the main ingredient, but the right amount of salt makes it taste better.

The second book is called The Watchers and is by Mark Andrew Olsen. I’ve seen it somewhere before, I think in a Christian Book Distributors catalog. From what I read on the back cover, it appears to be about spiritual warfare (but is fiction). The other book is Patrick by Stephen Lawhead. It appears to be a (most likely highly fictionalized) telling of St. Patrick. I /think/ Stephen Lawhead is a Christian author. I also found a couple of movies that look interesting – The Pickwick Papers, based on a Charles Dickens novel, and Kidnapped.

We picked Laura up after her class and went to Petsmart to get gerbil bedding. Then on to Hobby Lobby, where I bought around eight patterns, some cord, and some jewelry-making supplies. Then to Sam’s Club. I sat in the car reading the book I borrowed from a friend, Blessed Child by Ted Dekker (which is very good so far). Laura came out and informed me that the animated Disney version of Robin Hood (where’s a fox) was down to $14 from $20. The movie is my favorite of the old Disney ones and I’d wanted to get it for a while. I was out of money, but Mom ended up buying it for me I’m looking forward to watching it.

We had some time to kill before heading to a Mary Kay party for a friend of ours that started selling their products, so we ate dinner out and headed to Borders. If I had any money when I went in there, I probably wouldn’t have when I left. I mean, who doesn’t need an English-to-Irish dictionary? There are other books there I’m interested in, too, but Borders is one of the more expensive bookstores (though have good prices on some things), so I’ll probably look for them elsewhere.

I had a good time at the Mary Kay party – mostly standing to the side thinking about books while people tested beauty products. I also talked with friends, which I really enjoyed, because I don’t get to hang out with them very often these days.

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM

There’s a note going around Facebook where you make something for the first five people that respond. Fun! I might post it more than once, after I make things for the first five.

Dritz sewing notions are 50% at Hobby Lobby this week, so I went today and got some eyelets and needles. The power cord to my sewing machine came yesterday, so I tried it out. The top thread breaks when I sew too fast. It might just be when I’m doing a fancy stitch, though. The bobbin thread got pretty jammed up, but I set the tension on “Auto”, and whatdaya know, it stopped jamming. The stitches look nice. I had fun trying out the decorative ones, especially the penguin. Who thought to include a penguin stitch? There’s also a duck and what looks like an alligator. I’m not sure I’ll find a reason to use those. The machine is quieter than my other one and seems to sew quite nicely. I was afraid at first that the screen didn’t work, but I just needed to adjust the brightness. It’s a lot heavier than my other machine, too. Which doesn’t mean anything to me, just thought I’d comment…*stops rambling*

Now that I’ve finished reading How Sleep the Brave, I’m back to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I’m enjoying the humor, and the rest of it.

I thought of something to write about, didn’t hold onto the thought, and lost it when I was rereading my last two sentences.

Oh! My new story. The current “Extra Credit” project on Clean Place is Adopt-a-Plot 2 (because we’ve done it once before). Everyone that wants to participate submits two plot ideas and chooses one submitted by another person to base their story on. The one I picked is, “[Write] A story about a bounty hunter. But he/she’s not just any bounty hunter.” We have to write the story in 6,000 words or less. This might sound like a lot if you don’t have anything to compare it to. It’s not. For example, 50,000 words is on the short side for the average novel. I’m trying to fit as much character development in as possible while still moving the plot along to a satisfactory conclusion, and it’s rather difficult, but I’m enjoying the project overall. I’m posting it on Facebook as I write and get feedback for them, if you want to read it.

I need to go to sleep. Goodnight.

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM

Firstly, here’s a website: Pendragon: Sword of His Father.

Second, I need to stop injuring myself :p I’ve acquired various cuts over the past few days (and don’t remember how I got any. I think one was from something that had to do with sewing) and I burnt my arm on the iron.

Third, is this not the saddest picture you have ever seen?

Okay, maybe not /the/ saddest, but it makes me feel pretty bad. I mean, if a kitten came up to me like that and I asked if I eated its cookie, I might cry.

On a more serious note…I will hopefully be graduating in the spring (but the amount of school I have to get done to accomplish that is overwhelming, so I might save myself some stress and go through the summer). So I need to figure out what God wants me to do. I personally want to stay home and read and write and sew costumes, but I kinda figure He has something else in mind that will get me out of my rut. I also need to drive a lot more (like, 27 hours) so I can get my license so I can get a job and go to college or whatever. And yikes, I just used “like” and “whatever” in the same sentence. I must need to get more sleep or something.

I’m reading “How Sleep the Brave” by James H. Hunter. It’s very interesting so far. There are some annoying parts, such as: The breakage of writing rules has bothered me some (back story, passive voice, and the like). The omniscient point of view is annoying at times because the author doesn’t stay in the main character’s head and let you know what he’s thinking and I’d like to. But the story is engrossing enough to get over those things. The skipping of several years that sounded interesting bothered me even more, but it turned out well enough that I quickly got over that too. The author is good at securing your sympathy for the characters and building suspense.

I babysit tonight, as usual. It’s my weekly, two-hour character-building session. Most of the children are generally well-behaved, but there are three boys…well, two are brothers. They tend to be wild and disrespectful. The third boy is pretty good when the other two aren’t there, but when they are there, he’s worse than both of them and stirs them up so /they’re/ worse, too.

God is doing some things in my youth group that make me very happy. We (the youth group in general) used to be more involved in each others’ lives and we’d get together and hang out and talk about what God was giving us (which more often than not turned out to be the exact same thing everyone else was getting from God, down to the very same scriptures). Granted, I never talked much and still don’t, but just hanging out with them was great. Then those who were the unspoken leaders started college and other jobs, and while others stepped in to an extent to take those roles, we haven’t been as close since. My social life pretty much died and I felt guilty for wanting to just talk (or in my case listen) and hang out more than we did at the youth meetings, selfish for wanting to be known. But God is reminding use of the importance of being involved in each others’ lives, of getting to know each other and be unified with each other as well as with Him. I’ve wanted this for a long time.

There have also been some changes at Clean Place lately geared toward bringing us closer together, so that’s neat that God is doing the similar things in both of my circles of friends.

And now I have to end this so I can eat dinner and go build character for two hours kid-watching. ;p

Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

Hobby Lobby has Simplicity sewing patterns on sale this week for ninety-nine cents each, so I accompanied my mother and younger sister yesterday and Mom and I went there while Laura was at art class. I got four costume patterns and found some ribbon suitable for costumes that was in the Christmas section for 80% off.

We went to the bookstore Borders afterwards. I got Ivanhoe, which we have, but I wanted my own copy. I also got two books that were 50% off – Lord Hornblower, one of the Horatio Hornblower books that the TV series is based on, and C. S. Lewis and Narnia for Dummies. I’ve started school back and it’s seriously shortened my pleasure reading time, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to read them, along with all the other books I want to read.

Other than that, not much has been going to blog about. I’m struggling with a lot of things so if you’re reading this, please pray for me.

Have an amazing rest of your life!

- WM

Mom, Laura and I met friends for lunch and then went to Books-a-Million with them. I bought three books and Mom bought two on my behalf – The Shadowmancer Returns (G. P. Taylor), Wormwood (G. P. Taylor), The Illuminator (Brenda Rickman Vantrease – I’ve never heard of her but it looks interesting), a book with all of Jane Austen’s novels in it, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Cour (Mark Twain), which I started reading.

I also started another blog. Yep. This one is for Project 365. Check it out here.

I also joined GoodReads.com to keep track of books I read in 2009, since we aren’t doing that on Clean Place this year. I joined as Manwariel.

Have an amazing rest of your life!

- WM

I’ll try to be good about blogging again.

Laura is moving into Matthew’s old room. We bought curtains, sheets, and a bedspread yesterday, and paint today. We’ll probably get it all painted today, and she’ll probably move in in the next couple of days when the paint smell fades. She’s painting it a light silverish tealish color. She and I have never had our own rooms, so I’m looking forward to it, although I will miss chatting late at night.

When we went to Wal-Mart yesterday, I found a pair of plier things made for inserting eyelets and snaps. I’m happy I spent hours outside on the concrete patio pounding eyelets into the bodice and skirt that I made Laura for Christmas because the table doesn’t work very well. This will hopefully make inserting eyelets a lot easier. I haven’t tried it out yet, but since I have some eyelets to insert in a dress pretty soon, it won’t be unused for long.

I’ve almost finished reading Black by Ted Dekker for the second time. Then I want to read Red and White again, and then Chaos, Infidel, Chosen, and Renegade by the same author. I got the latter four for my birthday, but I haven’t read them yet because they have a lot to do with The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White) and it’s been a year since I read that. I also put a book on hold at the library this morning (online) – How Sleep the Brave by J. H. Hunter. Someone recommended it to me. It sounds very interesting. Not that I should be adding more books to read. *Whistles innocently*

Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM

Hancock Fabrics has Butterick sewing patterns on sale for 99 cents through the 17 of August, so Mom took me there today since she needed to go out and do grocery shopping. I bought three patterns - a shirt that looks similar to the one Prince Caspian wears throughout most of the movie, a Robin Hood spin-off that I got for the trousers, and a cloak (the one Legossi makes her lined cloaks from) – along with some boning and bias tape. I discovered it’s cheaper to buy boning online (after I looked at the receipt. Mother payed for said items).

We went to Zaxby’s for lunch, and then on to Wal-Mart. I found some multi-purpose shorts that go down to my knees, some earrings to replace the ones I lost, and some sewing pins to add to my blunt, almost-ancient collection.

My sisters and I have been staying up late to watch Olympic gymnastics. We watched Americans Nastia Liukin and Sean Johnson win the gold and silver medals, respectively, for the women’s all around last night. The American women’s team placed second in the team all-around, and the American men’s team recieved bronze medals for the men’s version the night before last and the one before that (but not respectively; switch it around).

Yesterday, Mom made a list of the schoolwork I need to get done this year to graduate. I have to finish French I, geometry, history, and vocabulary from 11 grade (I slacked off while taking a chemistry class taught by another homeschooling mom who gave us, in my humble opinion, way too much homework). And for 12 grade, I have algebra II, astronomy, French II, history, vocabulary, and literature. I think that’s all.

“That’s all” is actually more than I would prefer, but that’s okay. It does mean I’ll probably end up putting aside the reading of fiction almost completely, so I’m not sure when I’ll finish A Tale of Two Cities. I read a little in the car today.

Speaking of things I need to do, house-cleaning is one of them.

Have an amazing rest of your life!

- WM