March Highlights

Hello everyone! It's nice to be back! March was a hectic month, full of ups and downs. I also flew halfway across the country to spend a week with friends in Georgia. 

My babysitting job at the church is over for the season. It was a good semester, and I can't wait till my job comes back in the fall. <3

I finished designing the new blog. I'm almost ready to switch over!

I went to Whataburger with Rebekkah for breakfast one day. We listened to Bible and colored together. It was awesome.  

Flying back home

It also got warm enough that we were able to take a lot of walks! 

I got a haircut. So now it's back up the length it was last July. 

We got a tiny little puppy, Belle. We don't quite know what breed she is, but we're thinking Mini Aussie, with maybe a bit of Border Collie in her. 

My sister was in a wreck. The car was totaled, but praise be to God, neither of my sisters in the car were hurt. 

Toccoa Falls

Out kayaking 

Julia, me, and Jessica

I went on my Georgia trip.

Some trip highlights include: 

1. Spending six hours of travel time in the air, at airports, and getting my last Whataburger before I left Texas. 

2. Going to dinner with the lovely Hailey Hudson. (She is awesome) 

3. Getting adopted by my friend's cat (She took a lot of naps with me) 

4. Finally getting to see Toccoa Falls college.

5. Kayaking for the very first time (I loved it!!)

6. Hiking Tallulah Gorge. 1000+ stairs and worth every one of them. 

7. Little Ceasers pizza and Hallmark movies. 

8. Metting up with my friend Aubri (And staying at her house for the last two days of my trip) 

9. Getting to see Red Pandas again (Three of them!!) 

10. Flying out in the early morning. Which was nothing short of magical. 

11. Being met by my family, figuring out my sister had taken off work so she could come greet me, and being taken to Whataburger to celebrate being home. 

The trip wasn't perfect, it had some hard points, but it was good. It was a very mixed month for a lot of reasons, but I was insanely blessed to be able to do the things I did

I had a lot of time to read this month because of my trip. So my favorite (aside from Dear Mr. Knightly which was my sixth re-read) was Kiera. This was my first time reading the corrected version and it was beautiful! I pretty much liked everything I read this month!

Still I Grow on Sunshine and Joy

Weathered Wood A Farm Girls Life

Time Management Stories by Firefly 

I Forgot How to Write Elizabeth Anne

Jack and Other Pictures I've Promised Once upon the Ordinary

Big changes coming

I started this blog almost six years ago. Back when I started, I wanted to have a place to share my pictures and tell people about my life. Fast forward a couple years, and I decided the name I had chosen was too childish. So I changed it from The Bubblegum Ballerina to Ordinary Girl, Extraordinary Father and I started sharing a lot more of my writing. Fast forward to last January where I became very dissatisfied with my blog. I began to pray about why I felt so unsettled about it. I really feel that God told me I had the wrong mindset about my blog. It was all "me" focused, and not outward focused. So I worked on it and finally came to a decision.

To really have a blog outward focused, I want to start over. 

I have loved this corner of the internet for six years, and it was a hard decision to decide to move. It's scary for me to think of completely starting over with followers and a new type of content. But I know it's the right thing for me to do. 

So what will this new blog be like? 

Well, for one, it's named after me. Yup, I went all boring and just slapped my name on it. Not only is that good for simplicity's sake (No getting tired of the name), but also it will give me a base if I decided to be a professional and want a website.

My goal for the blog was to be a comfortable space where people would feel like they didn't have to  'clean up' to leave a comment. So yeah, it's got the ".blogspot.com" part at the end of my URL. It's not a professional design. The photos on my "About me" pages were taken by me. Because I'm a messy person, I don't want to feel like I have to be all formal with y'all on that blog. It makes me so happy because it's purple, grey and white. It's got flowers and swirly fonts. All things that just make me happy.

The content of that blog is going to be different, but not completely. I'm going to be focusing more on diving into discussions on my faith, and my actual writing process. I will be slowing way down on how many blog tours I am part of, and "filler" posts like tags and the like. Also, I have made the decision to slow down how much I post my poetry.

So yeah, that was a huge info dump. I'm still setting up the blog, so I'm not quite ready to give y'all the link, but it will be coming soon! 

This was my six hundred'th blog post, and it feels fitting that it would be the beginning of saying goodbye to this blogspot.

So what are y'all's thoughts on this?

February Highlights

Well, February was not an amazing month. It had some super awesome times in it, but also some really hard ones. 

I got a sprocket! It's a tiny photo printer you hook up to your phone via Bluetooth. It's kind of like having a Polaroid camera. I have been using that a ton and I love it. 

So I did a bit more baking this month by trying my hand at lemon bars and cupcakes made from scratch. I was pleasantly surprised that both turned out pretty good! Though the icing on the cupcakes was a bit

I got to skype with my friend Kate for the first time. <3

I went to see the Lego Movie 2 in theaters with my siblings. I don't go to the theater very often, so that was a treat, and the movie was super fun. Not as good as the first, but good. Then later in the month, my sister Sarah took me again. =)

I babysat some super awesome kids, which was definitely a highlight of the month.



One of the most exciting things I did this month was buying plane tickets!! One of my dearest friends and I split the cost of a ticket, and I'm heading to Georgia near the end of this month!

Texas had fun with the weather (as it always does). It was 87 degrees on the fifteenth, and two weeks later it barely got above freezing one day.

I got sick for a solid week and had a fever for most of that, so I spent my time catching up on my reading and some Mission Impossible (old series). It was actually a good break, despite not feeling well. I am very grateful to be better now and diving back into work.

Ascari

Our dog Ascari died. It's been sad not to have him around anymore.

Also, our fridge went out for a whole week. That was... a learning experience.

I was struck with inspiration the other day and pulled a lot of books off my bookshelf that I just like, but didn't love. So I had about 25 books I got rid of. I never thought I would toss that many books at once, but it felt really good. Then I rearranged my bookcases and got them to fit better then they have in a long time.  

My favorite was The Protector by Dee Henderson. My least favorite was You're the Cream in my Coffee.

An Adventure Stories by Firefly

Levi + Elenor Sunshine and Scribbles

What I Wish I'd Known Inspiring Writes

January Video The Introverted Extrovert

Make Your Own Sunshine A Farm Girls Life

If Riley Poole were a Writer A Storynerds Life

One Long Week

Well, guys, it's been a long week. I've had a cold with a fever for almost a week now, and I failed at every single goal I made for February. Earlier last week I went through a couple days where God asked me to trust Him with something that I really didn't want to trust Him with. That's been an interesting lesson in trust, and not questioning decisions that have been made.

On Saturday my family went to a wedding, and on Saturday night we buried our dog Ascari who had been run over by a car. It was hard to let go of the little guy, and I miss his presence around the land. 

On Sunday I learned that a family friend is not doing very well. Even though they've been in a nursing home for months, it's hard to hear that. It's been a tough week. I miss my dog, and I miss my comfort a lot. It would also be nice to be able to breathe through both sides of my nose, but the cold is keeping that from happening anytime soon. 

But as I got to thinking about all of that, I realized just how attached to comfort I was. I hadn't trained with Ascari for two months because it was so cold. I didn't want him to die because it hurt. I didn't want to trust God because that meant discomfort for me. I am so ready to be over my cold, cause I want to be comfortable again. 

Living comfortably was never something I was supposed to aim for. I knew that in my heart, but I still aimed for it in my life. This week I've noticed just how much I aim for it in all the things I do. And I don't have any great answers here. I'm just taking this a day at a time, asking God to show me how to focus on serving Him, not myself. I've just acted on instinct more then I care to admit. The call for comfort is strong and it's fighting an upward battle with myself to not give into the selfish wish to always do what I want. But God keeps giving me bits of rest in listening to Bible, in arranging flowers and making plans with friends. 

This is a good life, y'all. It's been a long week. A really long week, but Good is good, and He's teaching me through the long days. 

December Highlights

I'm planning a super epic review of the year, including my top ten books, and highlights of the whole year. But today, I've got my December Highlights.

My sister Grace and I decided we wanted to do a hot dog roast (These are becoming quite regular around here), so we did a spontaneous trip to town to get the stuff for it. 

I got to go to the Zoo with a lot of fellow Texan writers and friends. It was a blast hanging out with them. 

I had Cedar allergies most of the month. Thankfully except for a few days, it wasn't too bad. it just gave me a phantom fever and made my nose stuffy. 

Our table for the Christmas party

We had our annual Christmas cookie party, and we made so. many. cookies. Seriously, I'm kind of sick of cookies. But it was fun! =D

My siblings and I played a lot of games this month. Mostly Forbidden Island, but we threw in some Monopoly in there. 

Two of my sisters and I decorated trees in the woods!

Me in the entrance to Longhorn Cavern (Photo taken by Rebekkah)

We went to Lornhorn state park, got to see a cave entrance, and amazing views. Then we went to a lake and walked around a pretty incredible light display! 

The floor in our storage shed started to give out, so we spent all of one day carting the boxes full of stuff to a different location. Exhausting, but it was good to get the stuff safe! 

We celebrated Christmas a little early because of my brother's work schedule, which was fun. We all got up at six and spent a very leisurely morning slowly opening presents. It took us until noon because we kept stopping to get food, and at one point to play with a game! We went for a family walk, then had a beautiful candlelight service. This Christmas was just about the best. 

All of us (Except me) on Christmas

I undecorated my room for the first time ever by myself. But Rebekkah (Whom I share the room with) was busy helping my mom, and so I did it. It took a lot longer (surprise), but I got my books really well organized. ;) 

We had a girls shopping day on the 26'th. We got a very early start, hit a lot of good deals, and had an awesome time. I didn't get a lot, but I did get a couple of fun things, like sticker packs, and a little-stuffed elephant.

We went up to Dallas to see my Grandparents and went to the biggest Half Priced Books ever. Seriously, that place is heaven for bookworms. 

Monster (Which is not nearly as creepy as it looks) was my favorite of the month. (I'm excluding my re-read of Radialloy, and It's Not About Me) 

It Turned into Narnia Aria 

Hike Four Dancing in the Rain

You Have a Purpose Chosen Vessels 

December 26 The Introverted Extrovert 

A Poem and a Bit of a Quizzie Brin Lael 

2018 Goal Progress The Left-handed Typist 

I Don't Understand this Love A Storynerds Life

Subplots & Storylines and How Beautiful on the Moutain Tracey Dyck 

See y'all next year! I've got some pretty big plans, I'm really excited to share them with y'all! 

How was your December? and your Christmas?

November Highlights

So this month was awesome and busy, and yeah, I loved it so much!

My parents, my sister, and I got to go to a southern gospel concert which was just amazing! There was Legacy Five, Ernie Haase and Signature Sound, and the Martins. They had a Catherdals reunion which was my favorite show because I grew up on their videos. Getting to meet all of those people and hearing them play was a huge blessing.

Rebekkah, me, Scott Fowler (From Legacy Five), and my dad. =D

So, yeah NaNoWriMo happened. This year was good. So good. I had so many days where I had no idea what to write, but I had some awesome cheerleaders. My awesome sister Grace and I wrote together a lot and even went to Whataburger once (that's where I met the UPS guy). I sprinted so much with an awesome group of writers and had a lot of sleep shortage due to writing. But, I loved getting Battle for Kelar onto the page, and I'm super excited to dive into editing next month. =D

Some of my sisters and I went to a Fall Festival, which was a blast. We got lost in a corn maze (though not as lost as we wanted), played in hamster wheels, took pictures in the pumpkin patch and rode on kiddie trains. It was a blast!

Rebekkah, me, and Grace at the end of the corn maze!

I ate alone at Cracker Barrel for the first time. I even wrote while I was there and it was so fun. =)

One evening I got to just sit with my dog, Luke, and watch a huge bonfire burn till it was just embers. It was so peaceful and fun.

I figured out that my wisdom teeth need to come out. I'm not thrilled about the news, but I am really happy because I don't have to do it until spring! So I've got time to plan out all the books and movies I want to get through while recovering. =)

My mom and I at an awesome light display. =D

I had an awesome Thanksgiving with my family. My brother wasn't able to come, due to work, which we were all sad about. But I spent most of the evening relaxing with a book.

One night I got caffeine jitters and was up till 1AM. I felt very antsy and my awesome friend Micaiah texted me until I could finally go to sleep. <3

We decorated for Christmas!!

I was so excited to buddy read Things I Never Told You with Kate Willis but A Song Unheard ended up being my favorite book of the month. 

I Choose She Dances in the Rain

Do We Actually Listen Julia Ryan

I Don't Need You to Love Me Brin Lael 

I'm Doing NaNo Sunshine and Scribbles 

Thankfulness Thursday III Totally Graced

Excerpt Time, Yay! Once Upon an Ordinary 

How to be a Consistent Blogger The Left-Handed Typist 

Why YA Characters are Missing the Mark Writing is Life

Five Bookish Troops that Should Jump off a Cliff Stories by Firefly

Overall it was a bursting at the seems, awesome, busy month. 

NaNoWriMo Excerpt

Hey everyone! I'm a bit buried under NaNo (surprise surprise) so here are some little tidbits from my work in progress! These are unedited, so they're probably messy. =) 

Some names have been changed to protect spoilers. ;) Also, Conner is my main characters (Kate) brother.

The field was filled with screams. So many people hurt. So many people dying. The massacre happening faster then any of us expected. The platform, I was laying out on it. Colby screaming from the other side. Zoe was in front of me, he dad dying. His last breath. In, out, nothing. I couldn't rip my eyes away from him. Dead. So many people dead. I couldn't move. I couldn't help anyway.

Someone was pulling me up. I scrunched up my face. The pain. Everywhere. It was all over me.
They were holding me. I was safe. I felt the beating of their heart against my cheek. I became aware of my own ragged breathing. My face was wet.
I gripped their back and slowly realized I was in my room. It was as dark as the mines. Conner's familiar breathing was over me. He didn't say anything. I didn't care.
I cried into his shoulder. Sobs came up harder than they ever had since the attack. I shivered as I could still feel the dark feeling that was over that field.
Conner held onto me and ever so lightly ran his thumb back and forth over my back.
The phantom pain faded and I took slow breaths into the dark, attempting to calm my racing heart.
I listened to his steady heart, letting it calm my own. We were home. The battlefield was all the way back on earth. I was safe.

My breaths came in ragged breaths as I sank down against the wall. I should go home. I should be with my family. They would help this hollow feeling inside. This sinking feeling that we were never going to be at peace. I took in quick breaths as I watched the medics and security swarm over the area. Was the man I had helped okay? Was anyone okay after this? 

Something twisted in my stomach. Something heavier than when earth had attacked us. That had been people who didn't know us. Who didn't care. But we had just attacked ourselves. Sideners, Kelarians, we were all the same, no matter how much hatred ran in our veins. 

I hugged my knees to me, everything beginning to feel numb. I was alone. So alone. 

The wind started up, pushing my hair back from my face and sending ash right into me. 

I coughed into my arm, squeezing my eyes shut as they burned from the ash. 

I had to get away. Stumbling to my feet I pushed away from the wall and hurried forward. Ignoring all pain, I squeezed through the people coming and going. I had to get away. 

A special thank you to my real life Kate for helping me decide what to post tonight and making the process more fun. <3

September and October Highlights

Somehow I missed two months worth of highlights. *Crickets* yeah, so this is super late, but if you want a really condensed version of what happened in my September and October, here it is.



September 

My sister and I babysat some really awesome kids and we made toy parachutes for them out of kleenex, sting, and lego people. It was a blast!

My mom, sister,  and I spent a few days with my aunt who was having surgery. It went really well, and on the way home, my three other sisters met us at the zoo. It started pouring rain on us, but we had a blast walking in the zoo, getting dripping wet. ;D

I drove in rain so bad that you couldn't see the lines on the road. That kind of freaked me out. Also, one day I drove so terribly that by the time I arrived at our destination I was in tears. I called my best friend, and she made things better. <3





We had a hot dog and s'mores roast. It was just our family, sitting around a fire, and seriously, we had so. much. fun!

We got our puppy, Ascari. He's an adorable handful. ;)

One night, the stars were bright enough that we could see the Milky Way. That isn't super uncommon, but it is always a treat.

October

Some of my family and I took the month off movies and computer games. It was refreshing.

My computer came!! I could not be more pleased with my computer. *grin*

I celebrated 11 years of knowing God!!! =D





My siblings and I had a retreat. It was the best weekend I've had in a long time. We did madlibs, played tons of board games, stayed up late talking, took tons of goofy photos, ate to much pizza, and did an escape room. Seriously, I wasn't sure what I was going to think of an escape room since I don't really love puzzles, but it was great, and we got out with 16 seconds to spare! The whole weekend was amazing!!

One of the kids I babysit saw me putting on my chapstick and just looked at me very seriously and told me (In three-year-old lisp) to make sure and buy more. And to make sure and wear my jacket on the way out because it was cold. I just about melted.

I voted for the first time. =D

I got the meet Gray Marie from Writing is Life. Seriously, her blog is awesome. If you haven't checked out her blog, you should, it's awesome, and she is amazing.

Beta read "Live Without You" by Sarah Grace. I'm really excited because it's coming out in January!



September                                                                  October 

My favorite from September was The Coronation and Kates Conundrum.
From October, Live Without You.

16 Expressions Writing is Life
Sweet Dreams Dancing in the Rain

The Fire of Contentment Apples of Gold

Let There be Light A Purpose and a Promise

A Daily Reminder: Its all Him Lauren Elizabeth 

House Sitting and a Book Fair Stories by Firefly

Writers: How to Engage the Five Senses Adventure Awaits

What No One Told Me About Writing || Farris's Birthday The Left-Handed Typest 

So there you are. Two months worth of updates!