It's so fluffy...

Hiya. Crazy weekend. Double sleepover. Watched Despicable Me for the second time. Wandered around the park and snapped a million photos of each other. And yeah. I'll post something a little more coherent later but it's early in the morning and I'm off to paint the cry room in the church... I'll leave you with this picture.

PLEASE HELP!

Hey blog readers - there's a little girl in the Ukraine who needs your help badly.

Her name is Yulia. She lives in a orphanage in VERY, VERY poor conditions and she is not cared for properly. She has a rare disease that is wasting away her tiny body and if she is not helped soon, she could die. PLEASE, if you can give any money to help raise a money so that she can possibly be adopted, donate HERE. Spread the word and help find her a family. You can read more about Yulia at the link, too. A Ukraine adoption is about $25,000. That's a lot of money, you might think. But God can do it! He knows your heart, and if all you can afford is 5 dollars, it helps.

Do it! Help rescue Yulia.

Pray.

Today I read several blogs about families adopting young children from China, Ethiopia, and the Ukraine. The Lord has moved me through the words I read about the conditions in which these orphans live … I grieve for them and can only imagine how the Lord aches for them too. This is now my desktop background, so that I won’t forget what I have read today, and so that I will remember to pray every day for each and every child who does not have a family yet. I know that God has a plan for me, and maybe this has had such an impact on me because it’s part of His plan for my future. I don’t know. But I will hope and pray and trust in the Lord, because he has a plan for ALL his children.

It's him!

I'm just absolutely over the moon right now, because some lovely young man on NaNoWriMo offered to draw my character for me! And it's brilliant! So here he is, with his Victorian clothes and his shy stance and his awkward smile, the protagonist of Eloquence, Christian Rheese!

Yay! It's so epic. I'm so happy right now. Thank you, Buster Brown! I can't wait to see the other drawings he does for people....

Boxes of Joy

The boxes I ordered from Operation Christmas Child came today! :)

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Operation Christmas Child is an event run by Samaritan's Purse. Last year OCC sent shoeboxes full of gifts to 8 million children in different countries all over the world who might not have ever received a gift before. 1 million children heard of Jesus through this ministry.

My church is participating this year and we're going to try to fill 10-12 shoeboxes for children with stuffed animals, games, school supplies, hygiene products and other toys, and send them off with Samaritan's Purse, where they will bring a very joyous smile to a little girl or boy's face.

I have a few extra boxes, so if you're interested in going on an early Christmas shopping trip, let me know and I will give you a box. I seriously encourage you to get involved, it's SO much fun, I know you can afford it, and really, why wouldn't you want to be part of this? Watch the video below, it's total worth the 27 seconds you will spend viewing it. 

 

BOOK REVIEW: Water for Elephants

Huzzah! As the title stays, I finally have a review for you, seeing as I haven't done one since 9, The Island and and Julie and Julie. Bad! So, here I am with a beautiful, beautiful book to tell you about - Water for Elephants.

Sara Gruen is the author, and her first draft of the book was completed through NaNoWriMo, extra coolness! This historical novel is meticulously plotted and researched, with a wonderfully rich, old fashioned writing style, providing smooth sailing for the reader through its 300+ pages.

In the middle of The Depression, Ivy League student Jacob Jankowski's life is turned upside down when his parents are killed in an automobile accident. Unable to take over his father's veterinarian practice as he had always intended, Jacob starts running without knowing where he's going, and ends up on a train ... but it's not just any train. It's The Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

After reading this, I am absolutely in love with the circus. This novel captures you from page one and reaches all five sense; while you're reading it, you're in America in the 1930's, standing on the parched grass as striped canvas tents are hauled into the air, heavy with the smell of popcorn, cotton candy, grease, grain, hay and exotic animals. You'll see the vibrant flashing lights lining the midway, the sequined dresses of the performers; you'll taste the sweet victory of celebrating with alcohol smuggled all the way from Canada in the camels' compartment on the train; hear the deep voice of Uncle Al inviting the crowd to cheer for the elephant, and you'll feel the audience's thunderous response as the Rosie bows towards the stands.

It's a thrilling, romantic story and your heart is sure to be captured by Jacob and the majestic heroine, Rosie the Elephant.

Whoa! Things look different!

Yes, they do!

I decided to freshen my blog style by playing around with the new design stuff. I also REALLY need to get back into doing reviews, because that's sort of why I started this blog in the first place ... so, stay tuned - I have some book reviews coming!

NaNoWriMo!

Hello!

Now, I know I've been away for a long time. And I'm sorry. But I've had zero motivation for decent blog posts lately so all my stuff has been going on Picture Poetry and my tumblr. But I'm back here now, to tell you how excited I am for NaNoWriMo 2010!

I failed miserably last year with only 4,000 words, but I'm hoping I'll do a lot better this year. I already have my story idea, my title AND my book cover, which I made today on Photoshop. Thought I'd show it to you on this public blog seeing as I can claim no copyright to any of the images anyway:

Huzzah! It's about a girl and her siblings setting out on a road trip across Australia to find their long-lost Dad. I think it will be fun to write. I recycled some of the characters from a story I started writing about a year ago, so the character development I already have should give me a jumpstart, seeing as the biggest cause of failure last year was the lack of character development.

So yeah anyway. Hopefully this is the nudge back into proper blogging, so ta ta for now fellow unschoolers (as you're probably the only people who will read this)!