tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62025103746551317332024-03-18T21:37:33.543-07:00I Like ThatUsing our likes, gifts, and talents for God's glory.Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-57307420692360269912020-12-31T19:58:00.006-08:002021-01-01T11:27:00.486-08:00The Fourth Man // Short Story <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7k0AdqmhzcbsVMLKGfGhGNqk7g4njmZ-Kuup2ujeMIwdv0B8f5SqMUjIgA1QHpbSkBdePNz9rdRz2PLOVCj1QOUZBda464iyTbXFYiVSGz5OFwyDUs7tOCF5bDBWXNcHIGSQVdCEclPvn/s1200/The+Fourth+Man+flash+fiction+story+blog+post+graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7k0AdqmhzcbsVMLKGfGhGNqk7g4njmZ-Kuup2ujeMIwdv0B8f5SqMUjIgA1QHpbSkBdePNz9rdRz2PLOVCj1QOUZBda464iyTbXFYiVSGz5OFwyDUs7tOCF5bDBWXNcHIGSQVdCEclPvn/w640-h426/The+Fourth+Man+flash+fiction+story+blog+post+graphic.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>"God will protect you. You will see, Amalie."</b></i></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>"I wish I could believe that, Mother.</b>"</i></div><div>
<i><br /></i> A rough hand ripped the blindfold off my face. I blinked, taking in the beauty of sight once again. I noted four men at the campsite: The two who held up the stagecoach and captured me; a chunky, older-looking one; and one lone man crouched down by the campfire. The chunky man, apparently the outfit's leader, looked me over with a crooked grin.<br />
"Good work, gentleman. I'm sure your uncle will be more than happy to pay for your safe return, Miss De Bois. Tie her up."<br />
"My <i>uncle</i>?" The two stage robbers grabbed my arms. "B-but," I managed. "My name is Amalie <i>Mundy</i>, not <i>De Bois</i>. I've only traveled out here to teach school in Manitou..."<br />
"<i>Teach School!</i>" The leader guffawed, along with his two partners who were now tying my hands and waist around a nearby tree. Their leader turned toward the campfire. "Ya hear that, Big Mike? <i>Everett Debois, </i>richest man this side of the Rockies... his niece is a little ol' schoolteacher!"<br />
The fourth man crouched by the fire now stood up slowly, his height exceeding the chunky man's by at least a foot. His mouth stayed in a steady line.<br />
"Oh, well, Mike," the chunky man said, laughter still lingering in his voice. He turned back toward me. "I reckon you can't expect a man to obtain our sense of humor in just two days. You'll get used to our work soon enough."<br />
Big Mike rested both hands on the end of his rifle. "I don't plan to get used to it."<br />
The chunky man turned back around. "Oh, now, Big Mike, what are you talking abo..."<br />
My eyes widened. Big Mike now had the rifle pointed right at his leader.<br />
"Untie her."<br />
A few moments later, I found myself being hoisted up onto Big Mike's horse, and the three outlaws tied in my place. "I know'd we shouldn't a trusted 'im!" was the last thing I heard of the rogues as we rode toward town.<br />
Big Mike let me down beside the main road at the edge of the town of Manitou. He stayed seated on his horse.<br />
"You can inform the sheriff about the outlaws," he said. "I have other business to attend to."<br />
All this time, I hadn't found any words to say. But now, I finally found my voice. "Oh, yes, I will. Thank you... <i>very</i> much, Mr. Mike, I... I don't know how I can ever repay you."<br />
"You don't have to."<br />
"But... I owe you my life."<br />
He smiled slightly, shaking his head. "You only owe God that."<br />
I looked carefully into his face. "Why should I owe <i>God</i> that? <i>You</i> were the one who saved me from those outlaws. I don't see what you mean." Just then, a wagon rushed by, and I turned to look.<br />
<i>"You will see, Amalie."</i><br />
I swirled back around at the familiar words. He was gone.<br />
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<br />Hello again, guys! I've missed you all and this blog so much! I wasn't exactly sure how to go about re-entering the blogging world after my unexpected year-long hiatus... so, I thought, why not just throw one of my short stories out there? So, here we are!</div><div><br /></div><div>I wrote this piece last year for <a href="http://bensshowersofblessings.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Brooklyne's</a> flash fiction story contest that she hosted last fall on her blog. My story actually ended up winning, which was, of course, quite exciting! But then, just recently, I realized that I never did post that story here on my blog... So, here it is, finally! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. :) </div><div><br /></div><div>The challenge of telling a story in so little words was actually a lot more fun and interesting than I thought it would be. It reminded me again of the power of words -- and how much one little word or sentence can tell. Reading through this story once again also reminded me of the Lord's protection He surrounds us with when we trust in Him, and even through the prayers of others in our life, and how much the Lord works for us behind the scenes. And sometimes we don't even realize or think about it until we're out of the trouble.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I look back on this past year, 2020, there have been a lot of negative points to which I could focus on, as I'm sure all of us could do with this year -- or any year really. But then, I remember how much the Lord has brought me through and out of, how He has always been by my side, how He has protected me at every turn. The fact that you and I are still alive today in the midst of everything, is a miracle in and of itself. The Lord has likely even protected us from things we won't ever know about until we go to be with Him in Heaven. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, as we look back on 2020, let's remember the good things the Lord has done for us. Even through all the trials, the hardships, the heartaches... the Lord has delivered us -- and is continuing to deliver us -- out of them ALL.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguI4_XzoIlY9Dci9TmDt1GP8dbcQsO2oW3GWCsB1bYR-jHkO4KKydKkrt68gYtfY7tigSbNec0oGdYax83hZ6UPlqpkOwwHpj43MWwA2JMuDGYE8cPOZfK3Hu_KuJ6pCgZF6lyFYAu_wCZ/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguI4_XzoIlY9Dci9TmDt1GP8dbcQsO2oW3GWCsB1bYR-jHkO4KKydKkrt68gYtfY7tigSbNec0oGdYax83hZ6UPlqpkOwwHpj43MWwA2JMuDGYE8cPOZfK3Hu_KuJ6pCgZF6lyFYAu_wCZ/w400-h400/image.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div>Praying that all of you have a very blessed New Year! God bless, and I'll write to ya again -- hopefully sooner than later! :)</div></div><div>~Faith</div>Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-2405699143607451102019-12-24T04:00:00.000-08:002019-12-24T08:41:23.669-08:00Just for a laugh... Christmas 2019 Edition!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLWClbEVwKR3hoqREkrm_TK01LiAbmJ8QneZxZN48Mb4argOIjvbCrvsZ25S1NQxAdT8Uz8VR_LndkkmhQcPOtXLNH53e6GaiM9AOqMA6Sh2Z7WavNS_wxFZo2anJS8L0XbqiiHsp1WFby/s1600/Just+for+a+Laugh+Christmas+Edition+2019+graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLWClbEVwKR3hoqREkrm_TK01LiAbmJ8QneZxZN48Mb4argOIjvbCrvsZ25S1NQxAdT8Uz8VR_LndkkmhQcPOtXLNH53e6GaiM9AOqMA6Sh2Z7WavNS_wxFZo2anJS8L0XbqiiHsp1WFby/s640/Just+for+a+Laugh+Christmas+Edition+2019+graphic.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Hello again, friends! Merry Christmas!! How on earth is it already Christmas time again?! And... it's already<b> CHRISTMAS EVE!!!</b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for chitty chitty bang bang movie gif baroness" src="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/evilbabes/images/6/61/Anna_Quayle_Chitty_surprise.gif/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20160923072346" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">*Super excited yet slightly overwhelmed at the<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">prospect </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">of Christmas already being tomorrow*</span></td></tr>
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Even though I'm feeling a bit unprepared for it to already be Christmas once again, I'm still of course very EXCITED for Christmas!!! And I'm even more thrilled because I'm participating once again in Faith Potts' annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Party this year! :)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsyNWhFxh00edWaGNZgeyhSNpJYmF_QzSXiPo1w6voiY7WeqVZeaor7DRvxNkfb1Ffgcxn-R6-ewq_lbpPd1Sjat2qqvagNzhzZKjydj6UbLNwKpPefiEwqoy0ADAWXhVA4_WFJWMKnRGm/s1600/12+Days+of+Christmas+Blog+Party+2019+graphic.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="850" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsyNWhFxh00edWaGNZgeyhSNpJYmF_QzSXiPo1w6voiY7WeqVZeaor7DRvxNkfb1Ffgcxn-R6-ewq_lbpPd1Sjat2qqvagNzhzZKjydj6UbLNwKpPefiEwqoy0ADAWXhVA4_WFJWMKnRGm/s400/12+Days+of+Christmas+Blog+Party+2019+graphic.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click <a href="https://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/">HERE</a> to go to Faith's blog and find the rest of the<br />
participants posts, an awesome giveaway, and other Christmasy excitement! :D</td></tr>
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I was planning to do a lot more posts for this blog party, but the busyness of this Christmas season and life in general recently has gotten me rather behind on my Christmas blogging game unfortunately. But, I wanted to AT LEAST make time to put together another Christmas edition of "Just for a laugh" this year for the party! I've done these kinds of posts on different occasions, and for the past two years I've done a Christmas-themed one -- so I thought, why stop this fun tradition now? <span style="text-align: center;">Sometimes it's nice to just take a little break from all the Christmas rush and sit back and have a good laugh... so let's do, shall we? :D</span><br />
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Here we go! Just for a laugh... Christmas 2019 Edition! Enjoy!</div>
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Anyone relate to this? (I don't live quite this far south, but it's still rather hilarious. xD)<br />
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<img alt="The 10 best Christmas puns you will see and hear this year | Christian Funny Pictures - A time to laugh" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7b/33/b5/7b33b5c69614758e06639921d1c61fec.jpg" width="226" /><br />
Can't forget the myrrh.</div>
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<img alt="36 Funny Memes Of The Day - Funny Memes - Daily LOL Pics" height="299" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/12/17/82/1217825711a17c06a9282d93a21585f9.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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"YAY, ALRIGHT! Wait... ehhh... hey, kids, why don't we just put up like one string of lights around the door this year or something maybe...?"</div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><img alt="Christmas FAIL List | Expectation Versus Reality on Xmas" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3b/1d/90/3b1d90392aead82a6d638bd3ee51780f.jpg" width="300" /></div>
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Come on, Fido, get it together!<br />
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<img alt="Funny Christmas Card idea" height="285" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/75/73/88/75738874cd7725fd6815ea5860b3b463.jpg" width="400" /><br />
Well... here's one idea for a Christmas card.<br />
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<img alt="25 creative Elf on the Shelf ideas for a busy mom - Page 4" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/48/22/04/482204ded3dccf05f29ab8cc7a4e06f6.jpg" width="282" /><br />
"Ummm... honey, did you invite the elf over that's on our sofa watching Hallmark Christmas movies?"<br />
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I TOTALLY want this recipe!!!<br />
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And to wrap up all this holiday fun, here's a couple comedic Christmas-themed videos!<br />
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I hope you all liked that! Be sure to check out all the rest of the Christmasy blog party fun over at <a href="https://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/">Faith's blog</a>! I hope that you all have a joyful Christmas with your family and friends, and remember JESUS -- the greatest gift of all, and the reason why we celebrate this most wonderful time of the year!!! <3<br />
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Write to ya later, God bless, and <b>Merry Christmas!!!</b><br />
~Faith</div>
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<i style="background-color: #e9edec; font-family: Cardo; font-size: 17.388px; text-align: start;">**Pictures/videos not my own; all images/videos are from Pinterest and YouTube**</i></div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-23944817373457576152019-11-05T19:38:00.009-08:002021-03-25T13:00:02.562-07:00The Grand 3rd/4th Year Blogiversary Q&A Post!!!<div style="text-align: center;">
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Hello again! How are you all? It's so good to get back to blogging again!</div>
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So, guys... Guess what day it is?</div>
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<b>It's my blog's 4th birthday!!! </b>And that means of course, much excitement abounds!!!</div>
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However... it also means that it's been <i>a whole year</i> now since I first asked for questions for that special 3rd year blogiversary Q&A I was going to do. And, as you can clearly see, I never did actually post that Q&A last year (or by July 31st like I said I was going to in another more recent post... D:).<br />
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So, of course, I have been quite disappointed with myself over this. I feel bad for being lazy and not sticking with the plan and working harder to keep my word in posting this for my 3rd blogiversary last year like I said I was going to. So, I wanted to apologize to you all. I will try much harder in the future to post what I say I'm going to post in a much more timely fashion. I truly am sorry, guys.<br />
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But, I suppose...... the phrase "better late than never" could be applied quite well in this situation, right? At least I finally AM posting it, even if it is quite late.<br />
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Also, before I start with the questions, I wanted to give more of an actual reason of why it's taken me so long to answer these questions, besides using the excuse of just plain laziness...<br />
So, one thing that actually held me up on this Q&A were honestly the questions about what the future of this blog was to be, or what I wanted it to be. And the thing is... I wasn't exactly sure (and I'm STILL not exactly sure at this very moment) what all I want to happen with this blog in the future or where I see it going (but I definitely do have ideas, some in which I will tell about in my answers). So, I guess since I didn't feel like I had a very good answer for those questions, I kind of just skipped over them, answering the rest first. And then, when I came back around to those more thoughtful questions about the future, it seemed like I was never able to put down a satisfactory answer to them. But... NO MORE. Even if I don't know everything, I shall answer these questions as best I can. :)<br />
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Thank you SO MUCH to <a href="http://bensshowersofblessings.blogspot.com/">Brooklyne</a>, <a href="http://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/">Faith</a>, and <a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/">Olivia</a> for all the questions you all asked me last year for this special Q&A! And now... to <i><b>FINALLY</b></i> get to answering them!<br />
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Welcome to The Grand 3rd/4th Year Blogiversary Q&A, everyone!! Let's gooooo!!!</div>
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<u><b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Brooklyne's questions:</span></b></u><br />
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<b style="font-size: 16.56px; font-style: italic; text-align: justify;">What has been the biggest thing you have learned from your blogging experience? </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">I think one of the biggest things I've learned is to not be so concerned with how many or few followers I have. To think more about quality than quantity. And another big thing I've been learning through blogging, too, is to not second guess myself so much by worrying about my writing not being good enough to share with others.</span><div><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #444444;"><div><b><i>Where do you see your blog in the next three years? </i></b></div><div>Okay. So. Here we go... XD</div><div><br /></div><div>One main dream and goal that I've always had is to write books. So, as I write those books and get them published, I see myself using this blog as one way to help share some of those stories with you guys. In the next three years, I see it as more of a place where I'm sharing more of my stories and testimonies, a place where people continue to be encouraged and reminded of who they are in Christ and how to use their own gifts and talents for the glory of God especially, and a place where I can provide more helps in those areas through my writing, as well as through videos/vlogs, and maybe even graphic design. Also, creating and selling Christian t-shirts is also an idea that my brother and I are thinking and working on right now, so that might become a thing I do here as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>So yeah, I'm still just figuring it all out. But that's kind of a general idea of the direction I'd like to head.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>If you were to give a friend wanting to start a blog a tip about blog design, what would it be?</i></b></div><div>Hmm, well, one tip I'd give is to not have too many clashing patterns or colors. If you have a header like my current one with a picture with more patterns and things going on in it, you usually don't want to have a really patterny background. I have a basic white, shimmering lights-looking background on mine right now that doesn't clash much with the look of the header but instead (hopefully) compliments it.</div><div><br /></div><div><i><b>What has been the hardest part about blogging? </b></i></div><div>Keeping up with it mainly, and posting regularly... as you could probably tell by now! :P Real life has tended to get in the way of this blog many times (which I suppose isn't always a bad thing necessarily as it is more important to focus on our "real life" more than our internet/social media life overall).</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>What has been the best thing about blogging?</i></b></div><div>One of the best things has been getting to meet and know so many other Christian bloggers here in the "blogosphere"! :) I had no idea before I started blogging just how many other Christian bloggers were out there writing great, God-honoring things! It's really encouraging to see so many people of this generation out there spreading the good news through the internet.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>What made you want to start a blog?</i></b></div><div>Reading other blogs, my love for writing, and my mom's encouragement were the main reason I started a blog. I had secretly wanted to start one for some time before I actually did, but I hadn't really said anything to my parents about it since I was so busy (and a little behind) with school and other things at the time. So, because of that, I thought they might not think it would be the best idea for me to spend so much time keeping up with a silly little blog. But then one day, my mom and I were talking about blogs and she mentioned to me that I should start one and could put my writing and photography and other things like that on there. So, I gladly told her that I'd very much like that, and got right on it! :)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Dogs or cats?</i></b> </div><div>Cats. :) (We have kittens right now and THEY ARE ADORABLE!)</div><div><br /></div></span>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Behold the cuteness! XD)</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div><div><b><i>Sweet or savory? </i></b></div><div>Hmmm... It really just depends on what I'm in the mood for at the time. Sometimes I'm just in a mood for sweet things, and then other times I really crave something savory. But if I HAD to choose? Ohhhh..... I guess I'd probably pick sweet... No, savory. Well, again, it just really depends. xD</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Winter or summer?</i></b> </div><div>Can I say both? No? Well, alright. I'll pick summer because of the longer daylight and not having to take time to bundle up before going outside. I enjoy being outside a lot, so summer is a nice time of year. (But I really enjoy winter as well because snow, and Christmas, and sledding, and hot chocolate, and fireplaces, and crisp cool air, etc. xD There's just something great about every season I think. :) ) </div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Hot chocolate or coffee...or ice cream?</i></b></div><div>Oooohhhh. Well, I'm not a coffee person, but I really enjoy hot chocolate and ice cream. Hmm... I'll choose ice cream!</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Audio book or paperback?</i></b></div><div>Paperback. I actually haven't listened to a whole lot of audio books, to be honest... I feel like if I did listen to an audio book though, I'd want to be reading along in the book as I'm listening... which I guess kind of defeats the purpose of an audio book? xD I should probably take time to listen to more audio books though so I can actually have a better opinion of them. :P</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Favorite music?</i></b></div><div>I like lots of different kinds of music! I mainly listen to either Christian or instrumental music. But as for what genre of music... it just really depends on what I'm in the mood for. During Christmas time, it's Christmas music, of course! (And it's almost that time of year again! HOW??) On occasion I like old-timey sounding music (like from the 40s and 50s), especially with Christmas songs. </div><div><br /></div><div>I usually enjoy variety in music and not listening to the same sounding songs all the time. But there's always kind of those "phases" that I sometimes go through with listening to certain songs and/or a certain genre/sound (if that made any sense what I just said. xD). Anyway, so a few favorite artists of mine are Carman, Jamie Grace, The Lads, and Steven Curtis Chapman. And a few favorite songs of mine right now are Glorious Unfolding by Steven Curtis Chapman, Five Sparrows by God Rocks, and So Will I by Hillsong.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Please do yourself a favor and watch and listen to this amazingly beautiful lyric video and song all the way through. </span><span style="font-size: small;"> <3</span></div>
</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Favorite movie (or TV show)?</i></b></div><div>I have many favorite movies! Once again... it just really just depends on what I'm in the mood for. (Can you tell yet that I sometimes have trouble picking favorites? :P) But okay okay... one favorite of mine is Beyond the Mask.</div><div><br /></div>
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And as for a TV show, a have quite a few favorites of those as well. But, as of right now, I think my favorite would either be <i><a href="http://faithygirly.blogspot.com/2019/07/wanted-dead-or-alive-review-of-sorts.html">Wanted: Dead or Alive</a> </i>or<i> Daniel Boone.</i> A lot of times older shows tend to have better moral value to them than many shows nowadays, which causes me to generally lean toward liking older shows better. (Not that I don't like some newer ones, too, but older shows will always hold a special place in my heart. <3)</div>
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<img alt=""Daniel Boone" Fess Parker, Ed Ames. Fess Elisha Parker, Jr. (August 16, 1924 â March 18, 2010)[1] was an American film and television actor best known for his portrayals of Davy Crockett in the Walt Disney 1955â1956 TV mini-series and as Daniel Boone in a television series from 1964 to 1970.[2][3] He was also known as a wine maker and resort owner-operator. Born in Ft. Worth, Tx." height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/71/c4/28/71c42885fbc01af321a9d23b29ac4123.jpg" width="271" /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><i>Favorite holiday?</i></b> </div><div>Christmas has always been one of my favorites!</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Favorite color? </i></b></div><div>Pink! (Of course, I enjoy many other colors as well, but ever since I was little, pink just continues to be at the top of the list for some reason. xD)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Favorite book? </i></b></div><div>Well, my favorite book would definitely be the Bible. :) But I'm assuming you're meaning a favorite fictional one, so... that's a bit of a tougher choice. Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher and By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman have been a couple favorites recently.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Favorite author?</i></b> </div><div>I don't think I really have a favorite author. I have favorite books... but, hmm... Maybe Sid Fleischman? I especially enjoy his different writing styles and characters in the books that I've read by him so far.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Favorite fall/winter activity?</i></b></div><div>I always like doing things outside (unless it's super cold). One thing I've always really enjoyed doing is sledding and/or playing out in the snow with my siblings. As we've gotten older, we haven't done that as much of course, but I really enjoy it when we do have time to all go and have fun out in the snow together. :)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Favorite hobby?</i></b></div><div>Writing and coming up with stories has always been a favorite hobby of mine (that I really hope to turn into more than a hobby someday!).</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>If you could plan a perfect vacation, what would it look like?</i></b> </div><div>Alright. SO. I would make a basic schedule, especially if I was vacationing somewhere where there are a lot of historic sights and/or places to go see. I would write it down, which thing to see which day, and try to follow it as best I could. On the first day, I might sleep in more, but most the rest of the days, I would try hard to get up earlier in the morning so that I could get out and do as many things as possible and stay on schedule. Now, I wouldn't have a super strict schedule; there would still be some leg room in there to do random stuff and such that comes up, so yeah. It would still be super fun and we would get to see and do lots of fun things!! ;)</div><div><br /></div><div>So, that's for the basic schedule... but maybe you were meaning more of the kind of vacation place that I think would be "perfect." :P Well, since flying out to Colorado for the first time last summer and staying in a nice cabin out there with my family, I think something like that would be a great vacation! :) Staying in a nicely furnished cabin/house like the one we stayed in with all the lovely pine and aspen trees surrounding it was great fun! The only things that could have been enhanced to make it more "perfect" I suppose would be if it had more of a view of the mountains from the cabin, didn't have other houses so close to it, and had a pool and/or hot tub. I think that would be just about perfect! ;D</div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(From our trip! It was so purty out there!)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">But, you know, there's also a lot more details and such and other locations (like the Swiss Alps, for example) that I'd like to go to as well, but I won't get into all that right now as it would probably take me much too long. :P</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b><i>If you suddenly received your dream car, what would it be?</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I honestly don't really have a "dream car" that I've always wanted. My mom has a Mercury that's quite nice that I drive sometimes. I like how easy it is to handle and the spaciousness of it. I think I would like a car that's similar to that one in a white, light blue, or burgundy red. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b><i>What is one of your goals for this coming year, 2019?</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">One of my goals that I made at the beginning of this year was to finish and publish one of my stories. *Glances back at how that's coming along* Soooo, yeah... most of this year hasn't seen much progress with that. But I still have like, two more months right? I set myself a sort of unofficial NaNoWriMo goal to get my "Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" story at least halfway finished by the end of the month. So, hopefully I can get at least the first draft of that story done by the end of the year... We'll see how that goes though. :P</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">But now, as for THIS coming year, 2020, I have the same goal again as I had this year: To actually finish and publish one of my stories. (Especially since, at this point in the year now, I don't think that getting a full-length story actually all edited and published by the end of this year is going to be a very realistic goal for me with school, church, work, and everything else going on in my life right now.)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b><i>What does a typical day look like for you?</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Well, it really kind of varies. But most days, I get up and read my Bible and/or pray some in the morning (Though, sometimes I don't always honestly do the best on that and need to work on doing that better...); eat breakfast; do school; do church work (working on our church's website, sending out church calendars/letters, making event graphics, etc.); do some chores and work around the house; usually help with making supper; hang out with my family in the evening (sometimes playing a game on the computer with my younger brother, or watching a movie/show with my family); and, at the end of the day when I go to bed, I've gotten in the habit of writing something good that happened that day or something I'm thankful for down in my journal. :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Of course though, there are usually always other extra things that get thrown in different days along with these main things; like sometimes I go to an event or a friend's house, or do other work around the house like mowing or gardening, etc. And sometimes, like today, I even find time to actually write or blog! XD</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b><i>Do you have any siblings?</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Yes, I have three great brothers. :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i><b>Do you live in the city or county? </b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">In the country, and I wouldn't want it any other way! We don't live on a farm (YET... we've been looking around), but we currently live around a few farms.</div></span></div></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(View from our backyard last winter! *heart eyes*)</td></tr>
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<b><u><br />Faith's questions:</u></b><br /><br /><div><b><i>What inspired you to start a blog?</i></b></div><div>*Points up to Brooklyne's sixth question* XD</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>What's your favorite thing about blogging?</i></b></div><div>I kind of already answered this with Brooklyne's question as well, but again, my favorite thing I think is just being able to meet other Christian bloggers through it!</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Do you have a vision/projection for this blog one year from now? </i></b></div><div>Well, now being a year since this question was originally asked, I certainly didn't envision this blog to be at pretty much the same place as it was last year... which is basically what has happened.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">*re-evaluating my blogging life*</td></tr>
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</div><div><div><br /></div><div>But anyway. What's done is done. As for a year from NOW though... here it is:</div><div><br /></div><div>So, not too long ago, I got more of a vision for this blog that I was really excited about at the time. Part of that vision was for it to become more of a place to help encourage and equip others to use their gifts, the things that they "like", for the glory of God. (Because it's called "I Like That"... get it? Well, maybe it sounded more clever at the time I first thought of it... xD ) But then, a little bit went by, and I didn't do much about this new idea, and then later I was second guessing it and everything... But now, as I'm thinking about it again, I believe that's still part of the direction I'd like to head with this blog, along with sharing more of my stories here, like I said in Brooklyne's question up there.</div><div><br /></div><div>So yeah, I haven't really taken a lot of time to actually just sit down and lay out a solid plan, but that's a little bit of insight into what I think will be part of my plan for this blog within this next year. In short, my main goal and vision for this blog is simply this: To continue to glorify God and bring others closer to Him. <3</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Are you a homeschool grad?</i></b></div><div>Yes, I am! I feel so blessed that my mom took so much of her precious time to homeschool my siblings and me; it was a wonderful experience. <3</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Favorite candy?</i></b></div><div>Kit-Kats and Twix! Actually, it's funny, I was just talking to one of my cousins not too long ago about favorite candies and he agreed that Kit-Kats and Twix are one of the best, and I was all like...</div>
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<span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><img alt="Related image" src="https://media0.giphy.com/media/3ov9jMQ5Sqg6HEimLS/giphy.gif" /></span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><div>But I definitely won't turn down other kinds of candy though, especially if they're chocolate-related. ;)</div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b><u>Olivia's Questions:</u></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><i>Have you watched any "newer" musicals, like Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables or anything like that?</i></b></div><div>No, I haven't watched those, but I have seen Mary Poppins Returns and The Greatest Showman, which I suppose are kind of more "newer" musicals. :)</div></span><div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="Related image" height="252" src="https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buckslocalnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/90/590d7489-f6fc-5e44-9b24-268d5554a84e/5a3ab35b70c11.image.jpg" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><i>What is your favorite thing about each season?</i></b></div><div>AHHHH, there are so many things I enjoy about the different seasons! But I'll try to actually answer the question right and just say ONE favorite thing I like about each:</div><div><br /></div><div>-In the Winter, I enjoy the snow, and the colder weather, and the coziness of being inside a warm house in front of a fire, and sweaters and fuzzy blankets and warm drinks (hot chocolate especially) and...... (Alright, I'm sorry, I'm already breaking the rules and saying more than one thing... :P)</div><div>-In the Spring, I enjoy the freshness in the air, and the newness about everything as things begin to grow and the weather becomes warmer.</div><div>-In the Summer, I like being able to go out without having to bundle up warm first, and the longer days, and fireflies, and summer evenings, and picnics, and.... (Oops, sorry there I go again...)</div><div>-In the Fall, I like how the weather becomes cooler, the smell and sound of crispy fallen leaves, and the nostalgic feeling of how it's soon going to be Thanksgiving and Christmas once again. :)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Do you ever dream about what your wedding (especially your wedding dress) might look like? ;)</i></b></div><div>Yes! I mean really, what girl doesn't? ;) (Well, maybe there actually are some girls out there who don't dream about stuff like that, but... well, the majority of girls I think do. xD) Anyway. YES. I do dream about that many times.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've gone back and forth between whether I'd want pink to be the main wedding color. Pink, as I said before, is one of my favorite colors. ;) I think light pink bridesmaid dresses would be lovely, but I personally wouldn't prefer the groom and groomsmen to have pink ties or bows.... so.... (yeah, I maybe have thought about this some. :P)</div><div><br /></div><div>And as for wedding dresses... these are some styles that I like a lot:</div></div>
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<span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><img alt="A stunning illusion lace neckline takes center stage in this ball gown wedding dress, with enchanting lace bodice and flowing tulle skirt. A breathtaking illusion lace keyhole back adds a dose of drama. Finished with dainty cap-sleeves and zipper closure." height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f8/18/06/f81806d65e3f2481a3b9a9e2ceeccd5f.jpg" width="279" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><img alt="2017 Online Lace Wedding Dress,Dresses For Brides,Bridal Gown" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/16/07/fe/1607fe121ce11b388b350bbe1db4ed73.jpg" width="282" /></span></div>
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ALL THE BEAUTIFUL LACE.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>But, of course, as I've gotten older I've realized that as much as I want a perfectly lovely wedding and beautiful wedding dress, the true, bigger importance and desire of mine would be to just get to be with the man I love and who God's called me to be with, even if the wedding wasn't everything I initially dreamed it to be. :)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Do you like Disney movies?</i></b></div><div>I'm not a die-hard fan of them by any means, but I do enjoy some. It just really depends on the movie. Cinderella and Christopher Robin are a couple newer-ish Disney movies that I liked a lot.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">~~~~~~~~~~~</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">YES! I did it! I FINALLY finished and posted this Q & A!!!</div></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="font-size: 16.56px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="font-size: 16.56px;"><img alt="Image result for hallmark gif danica" height="225" src="https://media2.giphy.com/media/55rK2oOcmkRTZY3Lvg/giphy.gif" width="400" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="background-color: #ecffe9; color: #505050; font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="font-family: "im fell dw pica"; font-size: 16.56px;"><span style="font-size: 16.56px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #ecffe9; text-align: justify;"><span><span style="background-color: #ecffe9; text-align: justify;"><span><span><span style="font-family: im fell dw pica; font-size: 16.56px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Thank you so much, ladies for all these lovely questions!! Again, I apologize for how extremely long it's taken me to get to actually doing and posting this. But, I FINALLY got it done...YAY!! And if you took the time to actually read through all of it... CONGRATS! You win a virtual plate of chocolate chip cookies! *Gives out special blogiversary chocolate chip cookies* xD So, thanks so much for reading, guys! I hope you all enjoyed it. :)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, I do hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week! Write to ya later, and God bless!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">~Faith</div></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-50117931371450381552019-07-28T19:28:00.000-07:002019-07-28T20:11:44.116-07:00Wanted: Dead or Alive // A Review of Sorts (Legends of Western Cinema Week)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This week has just gone by in a flash, hasn't it? How could we be at the end of Legends of Western Cinema Week already?! With life and everything else going on, I unfortunately didn't end up having enough time to write up all of the wonderful ideas for posts that I had for this blog party. D:<br />
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But, after reading <a href="https://ramblings-of-a-red-head-girl.blogspot.com/2019/07/legends-of-western-cinema-week-wanted.html">this post of Natalie's</a>, I was especially determined that I just couldn't let this western-themed blog party go by without at least posting <i>something</i> about one of my favorite westerns right now, even if I am a day late.<br />
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What show is this? It's<i> Wanted: Dead or Alive!</i><br />
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<i>*Belts out show's opening music* DUN DUNN! ...DUN DUNN! ...Dun. Dun. DUN. dun DUUUUNN DUN DUN DUN dun....."</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Okay, Faith, we get it. You're super excited about this.</td></tr>
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Ahem. Okay, so, as in the words of Josh Randall himself, "<b><i>let's gooo" </i></b>ahead and get into this, shall we? xD</div>
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In a nutshell, <i>Wanted: Dead or Alive</i> is about bounty hunter, Josh Randall, a man who rides throughout the wild west, seeking to bring about justice and protect the innocent -- all while being as cool, calm, and collected as he possibly can.<br />
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<img alt="Image result for wanted dead or alive tv show josh randall" height="400" src="https://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server4900/364bb/products/148265/images/107596/198017__78111.1342531610.380.500.jpg?c=2" width="320" /><br />
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Josh does his job for the money, of course, to make a living; and he values money quite highly. But you can also see that deep down, his main goal many times through his work is to see true justice be done. You can see this in the way he does his job and treats his prisoners. He takes the phrase "innocent until proven guilty" to heart. And when he knows someone is innocent, he does all he can to help fight for them.<br />
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He respects human life. He doesn't just kill for the thrill. Even though the poster says, "Wanted: <i><b>Dead</b> </i>or Alive" he tries hard to give all of the people he tracks down a chance to come back alive, and be able to have a fair trial. However, if they don't take the chances Josh gives them though, well, he's not afraid to use his handy sawed-off shotgun when he needs to.<br />
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<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgroKnNEHl0IJqD9iuBgfhmN7ADf6tWQlda_A75-GN3YfTW6OhZDefw8e5sahVGTvnc6BAssbwvxbt6hRQii8dLxahX6LP0vs3nPNPiKYDG05Cg0r7fnEJlmNK8Uo7ikck4f7nc4ncZ1lg/s400/McQueen+Wanted+Dead+or+Alive.jpg" /><br />
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Despite his profession that is looked down upon by many people he comes across, Josh stays strong in his determination to see justice be brought about in each situation he finds himself in.<br />
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Josh is just an overall likable character. And that's quite an important thing, too since he's the only consistent character throughout the whole series (except for Jason who becomes his partner for a while in season two). The moral code Josh has, his stance on justice, and his willingness to protect the innocent are some things about him that causes admiration. He doesn't seem to care about what others think of him, and is willing to go against the masses to stand with what he believes is true.<br />
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And don't get me started on how fun it is to see him with the cute kiddos that occasionally appear on the show. There's just this soft, understanding side that comes out of Josh whenever he's around and/or talking with a little kid that we don't always see in him. For example, there's one episode where this little boy wants to hire Josh to find Santa Claus, and all the other men around him are just laughing at the little squirt about it. But Josh just listens, takes him seriously, and cares about his feelings; and that's one thing I really love about his character toward kids, especially in that episode. :)<br />
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<img height="400" src="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LO0AAOSw7PpcdXgS/s-l300.jpg" width="309" /></div>
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So, Josh is a great guy, no mistake there. However, all of this great moral character of his though doesn't mean that he doesn't have his flaws. He does drink, gamble, and can't seem to help himself from flirting with certain beautiful women he runs into -- who usually happen to be saloon gals. But, despite those cringe-worthy, flirtatious moments when he tries to be romantic, he does show a respect for women overall, which is, of course, always a noteworthy attribute.<br />
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One thing that I think would have been a great addition to this series is if there was actually a good, moral lady that Josh liked who continually showed up throughout different episodes, and whom he ends up marrying in the end. But alas... The very few girls that I think would be right for Josh only really show up for one episode, and then move on and never show themselves again.</div>
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<img alt="Au nom de la loi (Wanted : Dead or Alive) | Josh Randall | Steve McQueen | ©CBS. Première diffusion : à partir du 25 mai 1963." height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/49/ce/58/49ce58c994359b6a312ad133b6941c4b.jpg" width="311" /></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"> (I actually don't remember who this lady was... but it's such a sweet picture though, don'tchya think? :) )</span><br />
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Oh, but anyway. So, there's not a certain fabulous "ship" that I've found for Josh in the series yet, but oh well. :P<br />
So, even with his and the show's occasional little quirks, it's still very enjoyable to watch, and I'm so glad my family and I came across it! We first discovered <i>Wanted: Dead or Alive</i> last year on MeTV. We somehow got quite into it and liked Steve Mcqueen's character a lot, and so decided to look the cool dude up to find out more about him. Well, when we first looked up Steve McQueen on Wikipedia, it was a little saddening to read about his rough childhood and and untimely death at fifty years old.<br />
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But then, one night <strike>when I was supposed to be asleep,</strike> I was on my phone while sitting in bed and noticed that I still had the Wikipedia page for him up. That's when I scrolled past something it said about him becoming a Christian toward the end of his life. I immediately looked into this further, read some articles and such about it (like <a href="https://billygraham.org/story/moment-steve-mcqueens-life-changed/">this one</a>), and found out that this really was true! I also discovered that there's even a documentary film all about how he came to Christ (which I still need and very much want to see). And so, of course, I WAS SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS I JUST could have ran around our house a dozen times or something. xD Now, whenever I watch <i>Wanted </i>(or anything else with Steve Mcqueen in it... which isn't really a lot of other things, but anywho), it adds that extra happiness to it just knowing that in his real life he finally found true life and peace in Jesus.<br />
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So yes. Much happiness. :)<br />
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Now, back to the show... ;D<br />
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I suppose I should also say a little something about Jason as well. Even though he only becomes Josh's partner for a little while during the second season, he's still a character to be noted. He's not the most iconic or perfect sidekick ever. He, too has his flaws, and at times is irritatingly naive, but most of the time, he's a pretty good partner to have along. He helps out Josh a lot in several episodes, and learns much from him about bounty hunting... and maybe even teaches Josh a few things in the process as well.<br />
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<a href="https://metvcdn.metv.com/acVru-1543940176-embed-wright_king_wanted_dead_or_alive_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for wanted dead or alive tv show josh randall" border="0" height="209" src="https://metvcdn.metv.com/acVru-1543940176-embed-wright_king_wanted_dead_or_alive_3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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(Addionally, Jason has a look that could perhaps remind one of Woody from Toy Story... hmm.) <span style="font-size: xx-small;">*thinks up some highly unlikely conspiracy theory of how Jason was actually Pixar's true inspiration for the character of Woody* XD</span><br />
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So yep. <i>Wanted: Dead or Alive </i>is just a good, fun, likable show. It gives ya all the western vibes. (I mean, obviously, pfft... that's a pretty redundant statement for a clearly <i><b>western</b></i> show. :P) Anyway. I do enjoy that there's a mix of both the serious and humorous throughout the series. Some episodes are more on a serious level, while there are a few that are just downright hilarious. There are some episodes, however, that don't have much of an ending at all or just leave you a bit befuddled at the end of it; or those few times when the writers push Josh out of his normal, smart character. (Like when he starts to fall in love with this lady prisoner, and just... like, WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING. JOSH. STOP. WHAT DID THOSE WRITERS DO TO YOU.)<br />
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<img alt="Related image" height="213" src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/dfe4dfb9ada9624288d11bdf848b8aa5/tumblr_mh3lalj8Et1rneiz7o6_250.gif" width="320" /><br />
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But then there are a lot of really great episodes as well with clever plots. So, you sometimes get a bit of a mixed bag as far as the stories go. But overall, it's really just a good show with some good stories and good characters. I believe it's definitely worth a watch... especially if you're a fan of classic westerns and/or Steve McQueen!<br />
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So there ya go! There's a bit about <i>Wanted: Dead or Alive</i>, and a few thoughts/rambles of mine about it! I could probably go on for a lot longer about this show, but I'll stop there for now. I'm sorry if this was a bit more of a ramble than a review, but whatever it was, I hope that perhaps it made you interested in checking this show out, or, if you've already seen it, made you <strike>fangirl</strike> smile a little at least. :)<br />
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<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/0a/ee/5c/0aee5c8af1fc5ea63091c0b68faefa7b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Steve McQueen | Wanted: Dead or Alive | 1958 | as Josh Randall" border="0" height="358" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/0a/ee/5c/0aee5c8af1fc5ea63091c0b68faefa7b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Well, thanks so much for reading, y'all! This week sure has been a heap o' fun! I'm looking forward to going back and reading through some of the other western-y posts from this week! And you can check out all these other great posts as well that everyone else contributed <a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/2019/07/legends-of-western-cinema-week-so-long.html">here</a>!<br />
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Thanks so much to <a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/">Olivia</a>, <a href="http://ladyofanorien.blogspot.com/">Heidi</a>, and <a href="https://hamlette.blogspot.com/">Hamlette</a> for hosting this rip-roarin' party! I'm so happy that Legends of Western Cinema Week happened once again, and hopefully it will be a thing next year as well! ;D<br />
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Have an awesome week, everyone! Write to ya later, and God bless! *Waves cowboy hat in farewell*<br />
~Faith<br />
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<b><i>P.S. Have you ever seen Wanted: Dead or Alive? What did you think of it? Tell me your thoughts!</i></b></div>
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<b>Howdy, friends!</b></div>
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I'm thrilled to be participating in this week's blog party, Legends of Western Cinema Week hosted by <a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/">Olivia</a>, <a href="http://ladyofanorien.blogspot.com/">Heidi</a>, and <a href="https://hamlette.blogspot.com/">Hamlette</a>!<br />
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I thought it'd be fun to do another edition of my "Just for a laugh" series. And this time -- to commemorate this momentous blog party occasion -- we have a western-themed one! So, pull up a chair, sit back, and go ahead and have a good laugh! :D (Oh, but before you sit back, make sure your seat has a back to it first...)<br />
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<img alt="one of my fav moments" height="180" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bb/7a/7d/bb7a7d1d5e65d302ea6c4da7adfbdcff.gif" width="400" /></div>
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xD Alrighty, let's get into this, shall we?</div>
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<b>~~~~~</b><br />
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<b>Person: "Old westerns are boring."</b><br />
<b style="text-align: left;">Me and my classic western-loving friends:</b><br />
<img alt="Image result for magnificent seven steve mcqueen gif" height="216" src="https://media2.giphy.com/media/4PeRdlePCFXi0/giphy.gif" width="400" /><br />
Tsk tsk.....<br />
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<img alt="10 Daily Funny Photos for Your Saturday" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/8a/91/1f/8a911f4c9a5774c0aec098f3e68972a3.jpg" width="307" /><br />
WHY IS THIS SO TRUE IN EVERY WESTERN??<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(And I know, I know, I stole this one from <a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/2019/07/legends-of-western-cinema-week-kick-off.html">Olivia</a>.... but it was just too good to pass up... ;) )</span><br />
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Hush up and give Mr. Eastwood his coffee!<br />
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<b>When you ask a quiet person what they're thinking...</b></div>
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<img alt="Little Joe is smitten with the daughter of a confederate sympathizer, and Adam disapproves, which Joe senses. From The War Comes to Washoe (Bonanza)" height="640" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/00/b6/3a/00b63af455699209078b8a2af6c5f340.jpg" width="433" /><br />
Indeed.....<br />
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Oh NO you don't!<br />
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<img alt="Related image" height="243" src="https://i.imgflip.com/29p7zt.jpg" width="400" /><br />
Hmm... I guess whoever was coming up with the name must have thought it sounded cooler than "The Ranger and Tonto". xD<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaK3AXccUykxN9DHAHcH3kzhn7qPgK_c0u6BCpcuZUFTRn2LOdD77fdhQ4XkEwt1NycFBMSeLqD6yAOZd0Hs6nE6FR7rriKaLZVRtbwvZ5roWpq_BB0TVin7Qh9SIi4hkO5lnrBuFJnke7/s1600/apple+dumpling+gang+meme.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="480" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaK3AXccUykxN9DHAHcH3kzhn7qPgK_c0u6BCpcuZUFTRn2LOdD77fdhQ4XkEwt1NycFBMSeLqD6yAOZd0Hs6nE6FR7rriKaLZVRtbwvZ5roWpq_BB0TVin7Qh9SIi4hkO5lnrBuFJnke7/s400/apple+dumpling+gang+meme.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
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What world do you live in??</div>
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No way!</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Hopes all my Shakiest Gun in the West peeps get this meme* :P</span></div>
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<b>"And how many cookies did you <i>really </i>have?"</b></div>
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So, the truth comes out!</div>
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And now, to wrap up all this wild west fun, here's a few funny western-themed skits for y'all! Enjoy! :D</div>
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Well, that sure was fun! I hope y'all had a good laugh there, and had as much fun as I did with putting all these memes/videos together! Be sure to check out all the rest of the blog party excitement over at Olivia, Heidi, and Hamlette's blogs!</div>
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Write to ya later, and God bless!</div>
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~Faith</div>
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<b><i>P.S. Which was your favorite meme and/or video? Do you like westerns? Which western is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!</i></b></div>
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Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-50110753828091640382019-07-19T12:57:00.001-07:002019-07-19T19:25:44.204-07:00Another Update of Sorts + The #AwesomeBloggerAward!<div style="color: #4a4a4a; text-align: justify;">
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*Suddenly noticing my blog and how neglected it's been lately*</div>
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Oh... well, hello again!<br />
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I greatly apologize for my absence lately. Again. Yes, I've been busy with school and church and life and everything else...... But I don't want this just to be another update post on why I'm not posting regularly (especially since it's basically for the same reasons as I said last time), so I'll just provide you with some quick updates, and then get into a fun award that I was recently tagged for -- how about that? :)<br />
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Firstly, not too long ago I completed an online college course that had tight deadlines. These deadlines, while they were sometimes quite inconvenient and annoying, were actually very helpful for me, especially since I haven't in the past always been the best with time management. So anyway, this got me to thinking about my 3rd year blogiversary Q&A post that I was supposed to do *cough*abouteightmonthsago*cough*. (I know, this sounds like I'm totally going off topic, but just stay with me...) So, I put these two things together in my mind and realized that in order to truly get this Q&A post finished and posted, I probably need to make some sort of deadline for myself in order to truly get this accomplished.<br />
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So... That's why I'm letting you guys know that I will be posting my answers to y'all's Q&A questions that you asked me back at my 3rd year blogiversary <b>by July 31st! </b>(I guess it's now more like my 3rd and a half year blogiversary... but it will still be fun. :) )<br />
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"But, Faith, why not post it just next week??"</div>
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Well, that's the another thing I was going to tell you guys about...</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">You see, there's something very exciting happening this coming week! No, it's not as exciting of a thing as someone getting married or having a baby or something like that. Definitely not. But in the blogosphere world, it's quite a fun thing... to anyone who likes westerns anyway. XD</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Okay okay, I'll stop beating around the bush...</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">I'm going to be participating in a fun blog party, the </span><a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/2019/06/an-exciting-announcement.html" style="text-align: justify;">Legends of Western Cinema Week</a><span style="text-align: justify;">!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo574-sPz5tFMlSPnqpnvKnHIE3x5Bbe4zsWPmcjPiT7NPB4F87MWvswFtkXsZEQzf503t67vE8p7ybm38lLPET9khMqeshng4tSwI2OMMPHPycaYV9ljVSV_a5vyBrfRVW-EHfE0of-xG/s1600/Western+blog+button+6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo574-sPz5tFMlSPnqpnvKnHIE3x5Bbe4zsWPmcjPiT7NPB4F87MWvswFtkXsZEQzf503t67vE8p7ybm38lLPET9khMqeshng4tSwI2OMMPHPycaYV9ljVSV_a5vyBrfRVW-EHfE0of-xG/s400/Western+blog+button+6.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">My good blogging friend, Olivia over at her blog, </span><a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/" style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile in Rivendell</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> shall be hosting it along with Heidi of </span><a href="http://ladyofanorien.blogspot.com/" style="text-align: justify;">Along the Brandywine</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> and Hamlette of </span><a href="https://hamlette.blogspot.com/" style="text-align: justify;">Hamlette's Soliliquy</a><span style="text-align: justify;">. I participated in this blog party a couple years ago, writing </span><a href="https://faithygirly.blogspot.com/2016/08/my-top-five-favorite-westerns-legends.html" style="text-align: justify;">one post</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> for it, so I'm excited to be able to be apart of it again! I'm rather looking forward to this, I must say. xD (And if you'd like to participate as well, I'm sure you can! Just let one of the hostesses know you'll be posting something for the blog party!)</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Alrighty! Now, I think that's all the updates I have for the moment. Let's get o</span><span style="text-align: justify;">n with the tag! :)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Kaitlyn over at her blog, </span><a href="https://akansasfarmersdaughter.blogspot.com/2019/05/tagged-twice-awesomeblogger-award.html">Twin Thoughts</a><span style="background-color: white;"> tagged me for the #Awesome Blogger Award! Thank you so much for tagging me, Kaitlyn!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Here are the officially official rules for this awesome tag:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>-Tag your post with #awesome blogger award</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>-Answer all the questions given to you</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>-Nominate at least 5 bloggers and inform them of their nomination</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>-Give them 10 new questions to answer</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sounds reasonable enough. Alright, let's get started! :D</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>1. What is one thing that make you sparkle? (Something that you get excited about)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are a lot of things. XD One thing I always get excited about is hearing people's testimonies of either how they came to know Christ or how He has healed or helped them in some way, etc. I get so excited on the inside when I hear testimonies like that, especially someone's journey of how they found Jesus!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>2. What is your favorite musical instrument?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The piano's probably my favorite (since it's the one I can play best), but I really enjoy hearing people play the violin and guitar, and would really like to learn how to play them someday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>3. If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">AHH, there are so many places I'd like to visit! I'd especially enjoy visiting some place in Europe, like maybe Switzerland, and see the Alps!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>4. What is your 'theme song'? (This could be an all-time favorite, or a song that describes your situation)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hmmmm... <i>Sunday School Rock</i> by Carman has always been a favorite of mine. I grew up with the song, and it's always kinda been my jam. ;)</span></span><br />
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But, as for more of a "theme song", like one that describes my situation or one that's really touched me... I'd have to say <i>Good Good Father</i> by Chris Tomlin. I had heard this song for a while, but then, one Sunday a while back at church when we were singing it, one of the lines just really struck a chord in me. Now whenever I hear that song it just really resonates with me. God's such a good GOOD Father!!</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>5. What's your favorite thing about blogging?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">One of my favorite things has been being able to get to know other Christian bloggers through my blog!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>6. Of all of your hobbies, what is your favorite and how did you get started on it?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Writing and coming up with stories has always been a favorite hobby of mine (that hopefully I can turn into more than a hobby someday!) I'm not sure how exactly I got started with writing stories as I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. Some of the earliest stories I wrote were written on several folded pieces of paper stapled together, made to look like a book. And, when I was younger, I'd like going out in our yard and come up with pretend scenarios for movies or tv shows that I would then act out to myself. :P</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>7. Who is your favorite author, and which of their books is your favorite?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I honestly don't know who my favorite author is... there are so many good ones! One of my favorite books right now though is Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. I enjoyed her writing style a lot in this one, and hope to look into some of her other books.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>8. Which is your favorite book of the Bible, and why?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I'd probably pick John right now. (But again, like authors, there are so many good ones!) I love reading about Jesus and what He did and taught while He was here on the earth. I want to learn to follow Jesus as best as I can, and one of the best ways to do that I think is to read and learn about Him, Who He is, and what He did while on the earth in the Gospels. :)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>9. Which of the four seasons best describes your personality?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ooh, hmm... Maybe Spring? I get excited and happy over little things, want to make others happy and feel appreciated (I <i>hope</i> I do that), I always like to laugh, always enjoy a happy ending, and like brighter and pastel colors. You will rarely see me wear black unless I'm wearing it with another </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">color. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I guess though I don't always show my excitement or "springyness" like that ^^ xD on the outside as much as I want to sometimes. If I'm really happy about something, it seems like I tend to hide my full excitement on the inside because I'm concerned about what other people will think of me. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">But that's one thing that God's been dealing with me about lately -- to not care so much about what others think, and just encourage people and say what the Holy Spirit is leading me to say or do without concerning myself with what others will think.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>10. What is one thing that God has taught you recently?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, I suppose what I said up there for one thing, hehe. But along with that, another thing that God's taught me recently is that <i>He lives inside me.</i> I know it sounds simple, and I've known all of my life that when I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior that His Spirit came and now lives on the inside of me. But recently, God has just been making that more real to me. I've been learning to not put faith in just my own faith or what <i>I</i> can do, but put faith in <i>God,</i> and focus on<i> Him, </i>because <i>He </i>is going<i> </i>to do the work He wants done through me, not<i> me</i>. I just have to obey and trust. That's it. I don't have to do what God wants me to do all on my own. I just need to listen and do what He's telling me to do, and let HIM do the healing, the restoring, and the transforming!</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Hmm, that was maybe more than <b>one thing</b>, but oh well. xD)</span></span><br />
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That was fun! I tag.......</div>
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<a href="http://cnc4him.blogspot.com/">Christina @ Light Unto My Path</a></div>
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<a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/">Olivia @ Meanwhile in Rivendell</a></div>
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<a href="https://majesticadventures.wordpress.com/">Emma @ A Bookworm's Majestic Adventures</a></div>
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<a href="http://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/">Faith @ Stories by Firefly!</a><br />
<a href="http://novelsdragonsandwardrobedoors.blogspot.com/">Abby @ Novels, Dragons, and Wardrobe Doors</a><br />
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And here are <i>your</i> questions, ladies!<br />
<b>1. What is one thing that makes you sparkle? (Something that you get excited about)</b><br />
<b>2. What is your favorite color to wear?</b><br />
<b>3. What is your favorite song right now?</b><br />
<b>4. What is a favorite Bible verse of yours at the moment, and why does it resonate with you right now? </b><br />
<b>5. What is a book (besides the Bible) that you would always recommend to someone?</b><br />
<b>6. What is a movie and/or book that you've wanted to watch/read for a long time, but haven't gotten around to it yet?</b><br />
<b>7. What is one thing that not a lot of people know about you?</b><br />
<b>8. How did you come up with your blog name? </b><br />
<b>9. Which of the four seasons best describes your personality?</b><br />
<b>10. What is one thing that God has taught you recently?</b><br />
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I look forward to reading all you awesome bloggers' answers to these questions! (Of course, though if you'd rather not do this tag, that's completely fine, too!)</div>
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Okay, well I think that about wraps it up for today! It's so great to finally be back to blogging again after my rather long, unexpected hiatus I took there. I hope you enjoyed this post, and hope you're having a wonderful day!<br />
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Write to ya later, and God bless!</div>
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~Faith</div>
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Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-18326703114947043622019-02-17T18:25:00.000-08:002019-02-17T18:31:40.689-08:00Happy New Year + Happy Valentine's Day + An update of sorts<div style="text-align: center;">
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Happy New Year! Happy Valentine's Day!</div>
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Hello hello.</div>
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How has y'all's New Year been going so far? How was your Valentine's Day? I hope all of you wonderful people have been doing well! :)</div>
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So... I've been rather absent here since Christmas, haven't I? Except for that last Super Bowl/sports post thing, I haven't done any real blogging since last year...<br />
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So, what's been going on? Where have I been? What have I been up to? Am I ever going to start blogging consistently? .(..And whatever happened to that Q&A post I was supposed to be doing for my 3rd year blogiversary back in November?? Heh heh...)<br />
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Well, friends, let me tell ya.<br />
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First off, yes, I WANT to start blogging more consistently. But then the answers to these other questions above have been kind of keeping me from being able to do that. Where have I been? What have I been up to? What's been going on?<br />
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Well, mainly right now for me it's been... College. Yes, indeed, college.<br />
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I've been mainly studying for CLEP exams, which has been going pretty good! (What are CLEP exams, you ask? In a nutshell they're basically exams you can take to get out of taking a regular one semester college class, and by passing the exam, you earn the same college credit you would in that class. They can save you a lot of time and money! I would definitely recommend looking into them, fellow college friends! Make sure to check out the official <a href="https://clep.collegeboard.org/">CLEP website</a> to find out more about it. It's definitely worth looking into!)<br />
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So anywho, yeah, that's what I've been doing a lot of recently. But besides that, a few other random things I've been doing with my year so far has been... keeping the score book at my brother's basketball games, winning a free Dominoes pizza (two different times) from a halftime 3-point shot competition thing at two of said basketball games, seeing and hanging out with friends at basketball games... yeah, a lot of basketball games. xD Especially last month anyway. But besides that, there's been church, Bible studies, sending out church letters and calendars, taking care of adorable, yet mischievous kitties, tidying up around the house, trying to ACTUALLY write and work on my stories, <strike>finally</strike> getting my driver's license, celebrating my birthday.... and now trying to get back into blogging!<br />
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Alright. But what about that other question... the Q&A? Whatever happened to that???<br />
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Okay.<br />
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So.<br />
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This Q&A WILL happen.<br />
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Eventually.<br />
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IT WILL.<br />
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Just be patient with me, guys. :P</div>
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So, as I'm trying to get back into blogging more, one other thing that I thought would be fun, and hopefully motivating for me, would be to blog about my college adventures I'm now up to! I've been on the college road since September of last year, but it seems like I'm just now really picking up on it, and I'd like to share some of the things I'm doing for college, helpful programs/websites/etc. I've found, and just share my learning experience with you all so that maybe you can learn something about how to do college better, too! And I also would like to share more of my story writing projects that I've been working on some as well. So... we'll see how that goes! ;)<br />
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Anywho, that's all for now. I just wanted to come say "hi" again, and give you all an update of sorts. I really do hope to be able to do more with this blog this year!<br />
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I hope you're having a lovely evening, and I'll write to ya later! God bless! :D<br />
~FaithFaith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-74646263033893465292019-02-03T19:38:00.001-08:002019-02-03T19:51:11.325-08:00Dedication // God vs. The Super BowlHappy New Year! How has your all's year been going so far? :)<br />
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So yes, I realize that I should probably have done some sort of New Years thing for my first post of the year, but this is just something I've been thinking about today and thought it just needed to be said, so... here ya go!</div>
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So. Today is the day. The BIG day. The day that all the frenzied football fanatics everywhere gather together with friends and family around their TVs to watch -- yes, my friends -- none other than the great Super Bowl.</div>
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I'm not much into watching football or the Super Bowl myself. So of course, because of this, I'm not very dedicated to watching this big game and all that. I mean, if I go to a Super Bowl party (which is a rather rare occasion), I'd honestly just mainly be there for the socialization and snacks. Pretty much.</div>
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So yeah, basically my not caring so much for the game makes me to look at some of the super dedicated fans of it in a bit of awe. It's so interesting to see how pumped and excited people can be for something..... something as seemingly simple as a man throwing a leather ball to another guy who runs as fast as he can while the other team tries to clobber him. Thrilling, eh? I mean I get it, it is rather impressive the length that those guys can throw the ball, and how fast they can run, etc. But... well yeah, you get what I'm saying. At least I think you do... Do you?</div>
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BASICALLY WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY IS that I've been thinking a lot about this today... that is, how people get so excited and pumped and dedicated to the Super Bowl, and football in general really. It's incredible. And as I've watched this phenomenon more and more, over time, I got to thinking about it in a different way than I had before.<br />
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Recently, there was a football game on TV that either my dad or one of my brothers were flipping past one day. I wasn't really involved in watching it; I was just passing through the room when I saw people and players running out on the field at the end of the game, jumping, shouting, and SO EXCITED. Then I stopped. I watched all these joyful, excited, exuberant people. They were so excited, I suddenly thought with an internal chuckle, "Did someone just get saved? You would think so..." Then it hit me. If these people can be so excited about winning a temporary football game... Christians should go WILD when someone accepts Jesus as their Lord, and is saved from eternal torment!<i> How EXCITING is that?!?! </i>I thought.<i> Christians should be SO MUCH MORE excited about this, right?! Why aren't more excited when someone gets saved?! Why haven't...</i> I<i> been more excited....?</i><br />
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So, I started thinking more about this lately. And especially today with the Super Bowl happening and all, I've begun to wonder...</div>
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<b>What if Christians were as dedicated and excited and pumped about <i>God</i> and what He's done like people are about <i>sports</i>?</b></div>
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<b>What if we treated God and His Word like so many do football and the Super Bowl? </b>What if we spent hundreds, or even thousands of dollars to be able to get a seat in an outdoor arena in the cold of winter to be able to hear God's Word preached and taught to us, to be able to praise and worship and go wild about Jesus with other like-minded believers, and to be able to see God work miracles in people's lives?</div>
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WHAT IF WE SO ESTEEMED GOD AND HIS WORD LIKE THAT? Like all these other dedicated people, who paint their faces and cheer and shout, excited, exhilarated, invigorated -- all in hope of a football player catching a ball and running down a field across a line in order to make a touchdown to outscore the other team. What if we were as excited as they are about what <i>God</i> did and is doing??</div>
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GUYS. We have SUCH a greater hope, SUCH greater news than a certain football team winning a game that will be soon forgotten in years to come. We have an ETERNAL, LASTING hope! An ETERNAL, LASTING destination with God in Heaven! Jesus scored the ultimate touchdown -- He loved us so much, so he decided that he would <i>touch down</i> to earth to come and save us from all our sin! The God who created this whole universe -- who created YOU -- KNOWS you and LOVES you and CARES about you SO MUCH! WHAT AWESOME NEWS THIS IS!!!</div>
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So guys...</div>
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Seriously.<br />
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Let's get more excited about God!!!!! If people in this world can be so excited like they are about a football game that will only last for one day -- HOW MUCH MORE excited should we be about this amazing hope that we have in our Lord Jesus, and in His grace and mercy toward us that will last <b>FOREVER AND EVER</b>!!! WE SHOULD BE SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!</div>
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Oh come on, y'all, it's okay! You can get excited for things like this... we were <b><i>created</i> </b>for it!!! Let's not hold back our excitement and joy for our Great God and in what He's done for us!!!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">"Make </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;">a </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>joyful shout</b></span><span style="font-size: large;"> to the</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> </span><span class="small-caps divine-name" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">all you lands! </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">Serve the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> </span><span class="small-caps divine-name" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">with </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">gladness</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">. </span><span class="text Ps-100-2" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; position: relative;">Come before His presence with </span><span class="text Ps-100-2" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">singing</span></span><span class="text Ps-100-2" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; position: relative;">. </span><span class="text Ps-100-3" id="en-NKJV-15512" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; position: relative;">Know that the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span>, </span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">He <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</span> God</span></span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; position: relative;">; i</span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; position: relative;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">t is</span> </span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">He </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large;">who</span><span style="font-size: large;"> has </span></span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">made us</span></span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; position: relative;">, and not we ourselves; </span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; position: relative;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">We are</span> </span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">His people</span></span><span class="text Ps-100-3" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: large; position: relative;"> and the sheep of His pasture. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Enter into His gates with </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">thanksgiving</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">, a</span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">nd</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">into His courts with </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">praise</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">. </span><span class="text Ps-100-4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; position: relative;">Be thankful to Him, <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">and</span> </span><span class="text Ps-100-4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">bless</span></span><span class="text Ps-100-4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; position: relative;"> </span><span class="text Ps-100-4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">His name</span></span><span class="text Ps-100-4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; position: relative;">. </span><br />
<span class="text Ps-100-5" id="en-NKJV-15514" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; position: relative;">For the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</span> </span><span class="text Ps-100-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">good</span></span><span class="text Ps-100-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; position: relative;">; </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">His </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">mercy</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">everlasting</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">, a</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">nd His truth</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">endures</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">to </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">all generations</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">~Psalm 100</span></div>
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Don't ever forget how loved you are by your Heavenly Father, and never be afraid to show your excitement for Him! :) Of course, we don't HAVE to take time to praise and worship and show excitement for God -- He will of course still love us just the same! But He's been so good and done so much for us... why don't we do something for <i>Him</i> for a change<i>?</i> He <i><b>deserves</b></i> and is <i><b>worthy</b></i> of our praise!</div>
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I hope all of you have a great rest of your evening, and I'll write to ya later! God bless!</div>
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~Faith</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><i><b>P.S. If you like football and watching the Super Bowl, please don't think that I'm trying to say that that's a bad thing -- I'm just trying to say that we need to keep our priorities straight. Watching and playing sports is fine, but as God's Children, our relationship with our Father should come FIRST and should be placed ABOVE all these other things. So, please don't let me spoil your Super Bowl/ football fun... just always remember to keep God FIRST in everything you watch and do! :)</b></i></span></div>
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So, with Christmas flying by so quickly I didn't get to post all the things I had wanted to for the <a href="http://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/2018/12/12-days-of-christmas-merry-christmas.html">12 Days of Christmas blog party</a> I participated in this year. I was happy that I was at least able to do two posts, but there was especially this one that I had pretty much finished that I was planning to post Christmas Eve... but unfortunately, I never actually got around to it. But instead of waiting another whole year, I decided, why not just share this post now and have a little after-Christmas party? So... here it is! :)<br />
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Growing up, our parents never did the whole Santa thing with my siblings and me. We've joked around about Santa Claus sometimes, and even usually leave cookies and milk for "Santa" -- but we were always told and knew that it was really Mommy and Daddy leaving us presents, and that the jolly old bearded man who is said to live in the freezing North Pole with his happy little elves, making toys for good children and mining coal for the bad ones, was all just make believe. So, of course, when my parents told me he wasn't real, I believed them. I trusted them, not giving it a second thought.<br />
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But when I was around five or six years old, my trust was put to the test. One evening (I think it was Christmas Eve) me and some of the other kids at our church were standing outside on the church porch after a service, probably getting ready to leave to go back home.<br />
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So we were out there chattering and such when one of the older girls pointed up suddenly and said to me, "Look! It's Santa's sleigh! There!"<br />
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I jerked my head up and searched the night sky for a second. "Aw, you missed it," she said.<br />
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And then our conversation continued something like this...<br />
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"You were just joking," I said back to her.<br />
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"No! I really saw it; Santa's sleigh was really there."<br />
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I stared up at the moon bright in the sky that night, searching deep into my thoughts for some explanation. And then the thought hit me...<i> IS Santa actually real? Is she kidding? But why would she lie to me? She keeps saying it's true... Maybe it... IS true...</i><br />
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This older girl kept insisting it was indeed true, that his sleigh really was just in the sky. I can just imagine now the mischievous fun she must of had messing with my innocent little five or six year old mind.<br />
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It wasn't too awfully long before I came to myself, however. Daddy and Mommy told me Santa wasn't real. They wouldn't lie to me. I knew that. So, I chose to believe them instead of this girl. I put what my parents said above what she had said.<br />
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Most of us would probably say that we trust our parents more than other people we don't know as well. Especially when we were little, and didn't know doubt like we do now, we would believe and trust anything our parents told us was true because we trusted them.<br />
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So, I was thinking...<b> How much more then should we trust and believe our <i>Heavenly </i>Daddy and in what He tells us is true above what others say?</b><br />
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Even if our parents are the best parents in the world, God is still a much better Father to us than they could ever be. Like Jesus says in Matthew 7:11, <span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"<span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">If you then,</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NKJV-23328J" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NKJV-23328J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, <b>how much more</b> will your Father who is in heaven give <b>good </b>things to those who ask Him!"</span></i></span><br />
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If we've had good, loving, caring parents all our lives, we've built a trust in them. We know we can trust them because we know their character. But sadly, a lot of people, even confessing Christians, don't seem to know much about <i>God's</i> character -- so because of this, they don't fully trust Him. They think He's the one causing all their problems and is out to get them; they think they can never know what God will do. They think He is breaking and hurting them.<br />
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<b>But this isn't what God is like at all!</b> God is a trustworthy Father. He is faithful. He is love. God doesn't give us problems -- He gives us answers! I think there are actually many times when we forget that there's a devil in this world, too. God isn't the bad guy. The <i>devil</i> is the one who's doing the killing, stealing, and destroying here on this earth and in our lives -- not God! God is working to<i> help</i> us out of those messes the devil tries sending our way. And He sent Jesus to this earth to give us <i>life</i> -- and not only that -- but life <i>more abundantly</i>! (John 10:10)<br />
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If we knew just how good our Heavenly Father is to us, more than even our earthly parents, then how easy it should be to trust in Him and what He says! When we know we can trust God, we can, much easier, be able to take Him at His word. When the devil tries to play with our head and throw a lie in our face, we can think back to what our Daddy told us is really true. When the enemy tells us the lie that we can't do something, we remember the truth that our Daddy said we could do <i>all things</i> through Him. (Phil. 4:13) When the enemy tells us that we're all alone, we remember the truth that Daddy said He would <i>never</i> leave us or forsake us. (Heb. 13:5) When the enemy tells us we're a loser, we remember the truth that Daddy said that we're <i>more than conquerors</i> through Him who loved us. (Rom. 8:37)<br />
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We can be like Jesus when the devil tried to tempt Him in the wilderness. (Matt. 4:1-11) When the devil throws a temptation or lie our way, we should be saying right back to him, like Jesus said, "'<i>It is written</i>!' What my Father says is the truth of the matter, and I choose to believe and trust <i>Him -- </i>not you."<br />
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God really is <i>good</i>. He loves us so much. And one big way you can especially see His love is through the Christmas story -- when he sent His only Son, Jesus into the world to die for us and pay for our sins. He did all that so we could have relationship with Him, have an abundant life here, and be able to be with Him for all eternity.<br />
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When you grow up a Christian your whole life, I think it can sometimes be easy to become passive about the whole Christmas story and Jesus' resurrection. But maybe we should think about it in this way... <b>God didn't <i>have</i> to send Jesus for us.</b> I'm sure God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and all the angels up there could have just stayed right where they were and had a fine time up in Heaven without giving another thought to all of us down here after Adam disobeyed in the very beginning. God didn't <i>have </i>to make the extra effort for us by sending us His Son to save us... but He <i>did</i>. He <i>chose</i> to. Why? Because of how much He <i>loves </i>us!<br />
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John 3:16 makes it very clear just how much God loves all of us -- he "SO loved the world"! He didn't <i>just</i> love us -- He<i> SO</i> loved us! And that is why that first Christmas happened. Because of God's great love for every person here on this earth. There would be no Christmas if God hadn't "so loved the world". But He <i>did </i>so love us. That's why we celebrate Christmas.<br />
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And that's why we truly can <i><b>trust</b></i> our Daddy and in what He tells us is true. <3<br />
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I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas, and I pray that you will have a fresh revelation of God's Love this New Year's Eve and throughout the coming year! Happy 2019 to each and every one of you, and God bless!! Write to ya next year! :D<br />
~FaithFaith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-88518246280877613432018-12-19T20:49:00.000-08:002018-12-19T20:54:46.615-08:00Christmas movies I want to watch // 12 Days of Christmas Blog Party<div>
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Ahh, Christmas movies. I feel like I've been watching quite a few of them lately, but there are still those ones that I've thought and thought about watching, but just haven't gotten around to yet. Are there movies like that for you? Ones that you've thought for a long time, "I should watch that sometime", but have never taken the time to actually either get the movie from the library, or find it on Amazon/Netflix/etc., and so they just keep lingering on your "to be watched" list for days... and months... and years? Oh come on, I know I'm not the only one who does this... am I?<br />
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Well anywho, I thought I'd share some Christmas movies that I've been wanting to watch for a while now. (Maybe it will help motivate me to actually get to watching them, who knows. :P)</div>
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<b>The Nativity Story</b></div>
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I've heard many good things about this movie from several friends now, and I think it's high time that I got to watching this! It looks like it would be a beautiful retelling of the first Christmas.</div>
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<b>It's a Wonderful Life</b></div>
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I KNOW. It's probably some sort of crime that I've never actually seen this classic film, but I'd really like to right this "wrong" this Christmas season.</div>
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<b>Miracle on 34th Street</b><br />
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Yes, again, another classic Christmas movie that I still haven't seen yet! What is the world coming to?! But I'd really like to see this one sometime and experience this "classic-ness" that I've missed all these years. ;)<br />
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<b>The Man Who Invented Christmas</b></div>
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My mom and I have seen several previews for this one, and it looks like it would be a rather fun, interesting watch! (Of course though, it would have been nice if they had come up with a different title for this -- obviously Charles Dickens or his book, <i>A Christmas Carol</i> did not<i> </i>invent<i> </i>Christmas... <i>JESUS</i> DID, PEOPLE. ;) )</div>
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<b>Elf</b></div>
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I've heard and seen things around about this movie for quite sometime now, and it looks like it might be a fun one... I kinda want to give it a try. xD</div>
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<b>Christmas Oranges</b></div>
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I remember seeing a preview for this on Amazon last Christmas, and it appealed to me quite a bit, but for some reason I never got around to actually watching it. Hopefully this year!</div>
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<b>Christmas for a Dollar</b></div>
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Yet another one that I've seen around the Christmas-movie-watching sphere but have never gotten around to watching yet. I just saw the other day another fellow blogger's post about how this was one of her favorite Christmas movies, and it made me want to watch it even more!</div>
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Hmmm.... *suddenly ponders* Well... maybe I should stop working on this post then and actually get to watching these movies instead of just<i> talking</i> about them... That's a thought. ;)</div>
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Oh, but before I go I must ask you guys -- <b>Have you seen any of these movies? How did you like them? Which one would you especially recommend? Or is there one that you think I shouldn't waste my time on? :P I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have on these!</b></div>
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Also, don't forget to head on over to <a href="http://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/">Stories by Firefly</a> for more Christmas fun with the 12 Days of Christmas blog party going on!</div>
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Write to ya later! God bless!</div>
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~Faith</div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-1855351142952849032018-12-16T20:55:00.001-08:002018-12-16T21:06:42.606-08:00Just for a laugh... Christmas 2018 Edition! // 12 Days of Christmas Blog Party<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, here it is again... just a little over a week until CHRISTMAS!!!!!</div>
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Instead of asking the same age-old question nearly every person asks every time Christmas rolls around -- which is, "HOW is it almost Christmas <i>again</i>?" -- I'll just skip over that never-ending, unanswered question, and just get to celebrating this wonderful time of year with you guys with some joy and laughter! How about it? :D</div>
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This year I'm participating in the <a href="http://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/2018/12/12-days-of-christmas-intro.html">12 Days of Christmas blog party</a> hosted by the lovely Faith Potts over at her blog, Stories by Firefly! I thought I'd kick off my first post for the party with some festive fun -- so let's go and get on right into it!</div>
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<img alt="Mary and the little drummer boy | Christian Funny Pictures - A time to laugh" height="399" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/86/38/5d/86385dcdaa7794a34dd68e52ade4d5ea.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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"No 'pa-rum-pum-pum-pum-ing' right now, dear..."</div>
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This is ridiculously creative, I must say.</div>
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<img alt="Exercising Frosty Snowman Funny Card" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/da/00/c6/da00c6b58b029e13e52832cefde23b15.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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"Hey, man, have you tried the sun ray diet?"</div>
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YES! IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL WHEN THAT HAPPENS. It makes wrapping Christmas presents so much more lovely!</div>
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Ohhhh ho ho, good one, Daddy. xD</div>
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"That must have been quite a traumatic experience for you..."</div>
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When all else fails... GET 'EM A CANDLE!</div>
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Life could be so much simpler then!</div>
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Oh, and speaking of Hallmark Christmas movies.....</div>
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Who needs a whole two hours to learn about the spirit of Christmas and true love when you can just watch this (almost) equally satisfying <i>three minute</i> Hallmark Christmas movie!?</div>
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And we'll end our Christmas-y fun for now with this retelling of the Christmas story... as told by kids! Enjoy! :)</div>
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Well, that was fun! I hope you guys liked that! Which was your favorite meme/video? What's the best Christmas joke you've ever heard? Do you like watching Hallmark Christmas movies? How did you enjoy those cute kids' version of the Christmas story? ^_^</div>
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Be sure to hop on over to <a href="http://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/">Faith's blog</a> to catch all the rest of the 12 Days of Christmas blog party fun!! :D I hope you and your families are having a wonderful Christmas season so far! </div>
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Write to ya later, and God bless!</div>
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~Faith</div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-62668631658409043392018-12-01T17:46:00.004-08:002018-12-01T17:46:24.569-08:00For all you NaNoWriMo-ers out there...Well, National Novel Writing Month has officially come to a close.<br />
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Did I participate in NaNoWriMo? Well... no. But I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate all my dear friends who did. Even if you didn't<i> </i>get to finishing that <i>entire</i> 50,000-some-word novel, still -- good for you. You gave it your all. At least, I'm assuming you did... Maybe you actually didn't give it your all...</div>
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But anyway, you <i>tried</i> at least, which is more than this girl can say, because she didn't end up doing NaNoWriMo, or really much writing at all this past month.... (mostly because of life, school, etc.) So, I just wanted to say..... GOOD JOB, PEOPLES!!!</div>
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And just one more thing before I take my leave of this post. There's this YouTube video that I first saw several years ago by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDt1bhROj7A5v3eDKhO7gg">Broken Lens Productions</a> that I've always thought would be fun to share with NaNoWriMo/writery people; So... here 'tis, NaNoWriMo/writery people! It's a humorous vlog proposing a new novel writing challenge... a 72 hour one! I hope you enjoy! ;)</div>
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Would <i>you </i>ever try this 3 day novel writing contest, or know of someone who would? XD Do you think it would even be possible?? (I might go for a short story in 72 hours, but yeah, I think that's about it. :P)</div>
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Again, congratulations to all of you who completed, or at least attempted in writing a novel for National Novel Writing Month!! I hope that this video amused you guys, and that you're having a wonderful start to your December! (IT'S OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS TIME!!! YAAAAYYY!!! :D)<br />
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Write to ya later, and God bless!</div>
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~Faith</div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-19574766328535470652018-11-21T10:23:00.001-08:002018-11-21T10:23:57.836-08:00Thankful Every Day // A Thanksgiving Challenge!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Thanksgiving is <i>TOMORROW, guys</i>!!! How did this happen???</div>
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It's kind of interesting, because I feel like back around September, I was really excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up this year, complete with all the "holiday vibes", ya know? But now it's like they have suddenly just snuck up on me... has this happened to you?</div>
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Well anywho, basically, I feel like I'm once again not quite prepared for the upcoming holidays that are going to be upon us, and even now are. However, me not being ready for them won't stop them from coming, so I'd better start getting prepared, "holiday vibes" or no.<br />
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So, again... Thanksgiving is TOMORROW! But how to get in a true "Thanksgiving mood"? Hmmm.... OH! Maybe by dishing out a little <i>Thanksgiving</i> challenge to you all!! How about it? :D<br />
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Some of you may remember the <a href="https://faithygirly.blogspot.com/search/label/Thankful%20Thursdays">Thankful Thursday posts</a> I did around Thanksgiving last fall. I challenged myself, starting around the middle of October to the end of November, to write down at least one thing to be thankful for every day. So, I followed through on this challenge and posted the things I wrote down here on my blog on the Thankful Thursdays posts. (It was really quite fun! :) )<br />
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So then, November 30th was over. I looked over the things I had written down in my notebook the past how-many-ever-days I ended up doing it for, and was quite proud of myself, to be honest. I challenged myself to do a thing, and I stuck with it. Good job, Faith. But then on the first day of December, I wondered... <i>Should I stop writing things down every day? Or should I keep going with this for a little while longer? </i>It had started becoming a habit -- a good habit -- so I ended up deciding... <i>How about we just keep going for now! </i>So, I kept on writing down in my notebook at least one thing to be thankful for every day.<br />
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And you know what the best part is? I haven't stopped yet!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Though I have missed a few days here and there writing something down, it really hasn't been many, and I've actually kept up with it pretty consistently which I'm quite happy about :) )</span><br />
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Now it's been over a year since I started doing this, and it's been amazing how many things I've discovered that I can be grateful for! Of course, I'm sure I've repeated writing down the same things several times on different days, but it's been quite interesting to challenge myself to try to think of new things to be thankful for that God has blessed me with that I may have not even thought much about before.<br />
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I also usually write down something at the end of the day right before going to bed, so no matter if it was a fabulous or terrible day, it helps me to look back at the good parts of the day instead of the bad, and gets me into a more grateful attitude before going to sleep, which is always a good thing. :)<br />
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<b>So now... I'm challenging YOU! </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Write down in a notebook, journal, on slips of paper to put in a jar, or whatever place you would like </i><span style="font-weight: bold;">at least </span><b>one thing</b><i style="font-weight: bold;"> that you can be thankful for every day for 30 days.</i> And then afterwards, examine yourself... You might just find yourself in a more grateful and pleasant mood, looking more for the good in situations, and maybe even a little less complaining about things -- who knows! ;) These are a few things that I've personally found that have changed some in my attitude since I started writing these things down. Of course, doing this hasn't magically transformed everything about my life, but I <i>have</i> discovered that I've started being more aware of and grateful for the little things in life, as well as the big ones. So, for me it's been a great habit to form, especially in this season of my life right now.<br />
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<img alt="We are blessed. John 1:16" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/47/27/a8/4727a8b9fad822bce0abc1c4ce780000.jpg" width="266" /></div>
SO... will you be trying this challenge?? Let me know in the comments if you are! (But you don't even have to do it for 30 days; you can do it for less, or more like I did, or whatever you'd like!)<br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: large;">I hope all of you have an absolutely wonderful Thanksgi</span><span style="font-size: large;">ving!! </span></b></i><br />
God bless! I'll write to ya later!<br />
~Faith<br />
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<i>P.S. Also, just a quick reminder about the Q&A I'll be doing this month to celebrate my blog's 3rd year blogiversary -- If any of you still have any questions that you would like me to answer, be sure to head on over to <a href="https://faithygirly.blogspot.com/2018/11/3rd-blogiversary-q-a.html">this post</a>, and ask away in the comments! It's gonna be a fun time! :)</i></div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-41631873725516314022018-11-08T12:00:00.001-08:002018-11-08T12:06:13.902-08:00Reams of Rereads Blog Event // How did I do?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, my friends, the <a href="https://classicsandcraziness.wordpress.com/2018/08/31/announcing-the-reams-of-rereads-blog-event-october-2018/comment-page-1/#comment-6052">Reams of Rereads blog event</a> has come to a close. How did I do on my reading? Well, here was my original list:<br />
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- <i>Understood Betsy</i> by Dorothy Canfield Fisher<br />
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- <i>Pollyanna</i> by Eleanor H. Porter<br />
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- <i>By the Great Horn Spoon!</i> by Sid Fleishman<br />
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- <i>Heidi</i> by Johanna Spyri<br />
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- <i>Toliver's Secret</i> by Esther Wood Brady<br />
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- <i>Because of Winn-Dixie</i> by Kate Dicamillo<br />
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- <i>Anne of Green Gables</i> by L.M. Montgomery<br />
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- <i>The American Girl Kirsten book series</i> by Janet Shaw<br />
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- <i>Nim's Island</i> by Wendy Orr<br />
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- <i>12 Empowerment Truths about Two Sons in Want</i> by Terry Tripp<br />
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<i>- More Than Conquerors by Terry Mize</i><br />
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So.<br />
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Out of all of these wonderful books, how many of them did I actually end up reading?<br />
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Yep. Just two. Well... okay so, I guess if you want to be really<i> technical</i> about it, it was more like I read <i><b>part </b></i>of two books....<br />
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Sooo..... I actually didn't end up reading all the way through <i>any</i> of the books listed above. I reread part of <i>Understood Betsy </i>and <i>Nim's Island</i>, and that's all I got to. (Oh yeah, and I just remembered that I did read a little bit of <i>More Than Conquerors</i> one day as well, so I guess that's technically three that I read some of.) But yeah, I know. It's kinda sad.<br />
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HOWEVER, there actually was one reread that I <i>did </i>read all of again this month though (so I didn't entirely fail, you see!) I reread the classic, <i>The Boxcar Children</i> by Gertrude Chandler Warner which was fun. :) (But.... that wasn't even one of the ones I had on my list up there, so I guess that didn't really even count...)<br />
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So, in short... I didn't do so well.</div>
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I suppose I could make up a bunch of excuses as to why I didn't get very far into this list. Like life happening and stuff. But, I actually don't have a very valid excuse honestly. It's true, I've been pretty busy this past month, but I've also had quite a bit of free time as well. The problem was that I ended up using that free time doing other things besides rereading the books on this list. I didn't make reading them a priority.<br />
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And isn't it like that with so many other things in life? Take spending time reading the Bible and praying, for instance.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(So apparently I just decided now that I'm going to turn this over into a spiritual lesson, how about it?? ;D)</span><br />
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I'm sure all of us at one point or another have tried to make excuses for not spending enough time with God, listening to what He has to say to us and wants us to do. We look back over the past week or month or however long it's been and realize how much we haven't spent time in God's Word and with Him. We scrounge for excuses like, "Well, I was just so busy with work/school/everything..." "I was too tired..." "I just haven't been 'feeling' God lately..." and on and on we go, trying to justify ourselves for putting off doing the right thing.<br />
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But instead of making excuses, why don't we just fess up? We messed up. It wasn't anyone else's fault but ours that we didn't get to spend more time with God. The reason we didn't get to it wasn't because of all this other stuff going on in our life... it's because we didn't make spending time with God a priority. We didn't make time for it.<br />
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We need to look back, realize what we've done wrong, and ask God to forgive us. Then we need to move on and make a better effort. We shouldn't go back and wallow in our past mistakes, regretting not doing better at life before. Trust me, it isn't worth it. I've done this WAY too many times. Like I said a while back in my <a href="http://faithygirly.blogspot.com/2018/05/no-condemnation-bible-study-blog-party.html">No Condemnation post</a>, we need to let ourselves be <i>convicted</i>, but not <i>condemned</i>. We need to <i>learn</i> from our past mistakes, but not <i>focus</i> on them. Learn from them and then use that knowledge to make better choices in the future.<br />
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We make time for a lot of things. We make time for reading, watching movies and shows, sports, birthday parties, hanging out with friends, etc. etc... So this really goes to show that we indeed CAN make time for things. We DO<i> </i>have extra time. Or if we don't, we MAKE extra time to do these things, because they're important to us. We don't want to miss out on doing them.<br />
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<b>Well then, as <i>God's very own children,</i> we don't want to miss out spending time with our loving Father, do we??</b><br />
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<b>If you really want to do something, you've got to make it a priority.</b> It needs to be <i>first</i> above other things in life. And that's how our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be. He needs to be <b style="font-style: italic;">number one</b> in our lives. We need to make our relationship with Him our very, very top priority! Think about it... God has done SO MUCH for us. He's the very one who created us and the entire world, and is the <i>very reason</i> why we're living and breathing right here and now!!! We have SUCH a privilege -- we can come BOLDLY to the Creator of the universe's throne of grace to talk to our Father and receive help ANYTIME we want or need to! (Hebrews 4:16) How amazing is that?! How terrible would it be to ignore such a privilege? To put off spending time with such an amazingly loving Father as we have?<br />
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I challenge you, as well as myself today to take special time out to express to your Daddy how much you love and appreciate Him and His goodness toward you!<br />
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So, there you go. There was my little spiritual turn-around to that reading predicament I had up there. ;) I basically didn't get to reading very much of the books on my list because I didn't make reading them a priority.<br />
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But, on another note, <span style="font-size: x-small;">*enter Faith's ramble about reading*</span> even if I DID make reading them a priority, I'm not really sure that I actually could have gotten to reading <i>every</i> book on my list. Maybe if I was some sort of reading ninja I could have. But I've heard that many people have indeed read that many books and more in a month, so... I guess there are a lot of reading ninjas out there.<br />
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I'd like to think of myself as a bookish person, but to be honest, I've gone back and forth between reading lows and highs many times. One month I'll be all like, "AWW YEAH LET'S READ ALL THE BOOKS!" and then the next month like, "Yeah....... I have time to read that, buuut... I'd rather do this other thing right now." But even in my times of reading like the wind, I might read only about five books in a month or something. That's what really amazes me. You reading ninjas. How all you other bookish people out there can read so many books at one time. I applaud you. For instance, I just recently saw that my blogging friend, <a href="http://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/2018/10/homemade-gravestone-cover-reveal.html">Faith</a> read fifteen books this past October... and that's not counting the six short stories she also read......<br />
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HOW.<br />
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HOW DOES ONE DO THIS?<br />
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I need to up my game, I guess.<br />
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But really, depending on the story, I usually don't <i>want</i> to finish a book in just a couple days. I guess I like to drag it out more and be able to spend more time in the story and with the characters.<br />
<i><br /></i><i>"When she finished [the book], she felt happy and sad at the same time, because the ending was warm and smiley but she didn't want to say good-bye to the people in the book." ~Nim's Island</i><br />
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^^ Yep. :)<br />
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But then, of course, there are those long drawn out stories that you just want to be able to get through and finish as quickly as possible before you get to the point where you're just like...<br />
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Anywho. Sorry, now I'm just rambling.<br />
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I think that's really all for now. Wow, this post was all over the place... :P Did it even make sense all together? Well, however it turned out, I hope it wasn't <i>too</i> rambly and that you enjoyed it and all the random gifs and such anyway! ;)<br />
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<b>Did you participate in the Reams of Rereads event? If so, how did you do? Did anyone out there <i>not</i> get to reading any of the books on their list either? Did you read ALL the ones on your list? What do you plan on reading <i>this</i> month? I'd love to hear how your reading has gone and is going lately! :D</b><br />
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I hope all of you are having a lovely day! Write to ya later, and God bless! :)<br />
~Faith</div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-73541426609125965532018-11-05T20:58:00.001-08:002018-11-05T22:32:38.708-08:003rd Blogiversary!!! // Q & A?!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>On this day, three years ago... <i>I started this blog!!!!!!</i></b></div>
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It's just amazing. How did it get to be <i><b>three</b> years</i> already?!? I was just doing a post for my<i> 2nd</i> blogiversary, wasn't I?<br />
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Getting to meet and talk with so many of you lovely people has been one of the biggest blessings of blogging. Thank you all SO MUCH for reading and following this here blog of mine! You all are awesome, you really are. :) I want you to know how much I love and appreciate each and every one of you guys! And more importantly, never forget how much <i>God</i> loves and appreciates you, too!! It's been such a fun journey so far, and I look forward to what God has in store for me and this blog in the next year!<br />
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So. I think that's all I wanted to say...<br />
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...........<br />
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I <i>think</i>....<br />
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Alright, well................<br />
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So, I have been trying to figure out something special to do for this here blogiversary. I mean, it's a special one; three is an important number! I wanted to post SOMETHING on my actual blogiversary day though, so... this is what I finally came up with.<br />
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I've thought and thought and thought about doing this, and so....... I just decided this very moment I'm typing this right now that.... why not just go for it??<br />
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*Cue epic drumroll*<br />
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I'm going to do a what bloggery people call... a<i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i><span style="font-weight: bold;">Q & A</span>!<br />
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In a special post I shall answer any questions you guys may have about me and/or my blog here! (Well, except for really personal questions like my full name or what street I live on or something equally creepy... :P). <b>So, if you have any questions you would like to ask me, ask them in the comments below of THIS POST, and sometime (hopefully) this month I'll get to answering them! </b><br />
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(And no, of course I didn't steal this Q&A idea from anywhere.... especially not from <a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/2018/10/ask-me-anything-answer-videos-pt-1-my.html">Olivia</a> or anything......... Where would you get such a thought.......?? :P)<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Thanks so much, Olivia for inspiring me with this idea. ^_^</span><br />
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Well, I believe that's all I have to say for now. I hope all of you have an absolutely wonderful week, and I'll write to ya later! God bless you guys!! :)<br />
~Faith<br />
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<b>P.S.</b><br />
Soooooo.... I was checking back to make sure that the day I actually started my blog was indeed today, November 5th. Well, it turns out that last year I posted on November 5th, but somewhere on my blog thing it says I joined November 6th....... so. I'm honestly not exactly sure. Maybe I messed up last year with the date. Oh well. It's somewhere around November 5th, so we're just going to go with it. ;P<br />
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**The picture used in the graphic at the beginning of the post is my own**Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-38604922577057370682018-10-15T19:18:00.004-07:002018-10-15T19:28:01.922-07:0015 Autumny Things To Do in the Fall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ahh, fall. It's snuck up on us again, hasn't it?<br />
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You know, I was thinking... there are always a lot of Autumny type things that I think about doing during this lovely season, but don't always get around to actually doing them. And I think part of the reason that I don't always get around to doing them is because I forget that I thought about doing them in the first place. So, I decided I should make a list of some things that I'm sure we all dream of doing during the fall that we don't want to forget to do. Of course, we'll probably not get around to <i>all</i> of these things, but we should at least <i>try</i>, right? ;) So... here we go!<br />
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<b>1. Rake and jump in a pile of leaves.</b> Preferably a <i>giant </i>pile of leaves if possible. :D It's a wonderfully fun fall thing to do that I believe everyone should experience the joy of when this lovely season rolls around.<br />
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<b>2. Go on a hike. </b>A fun way to get out and see God's beautiful creation while getting in some good exercise!<br />
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<b>3. Do a fall family photo shoot.</b> This of course requires cooperation with the rest of your family, but it probably shouldn't be too hard to convince them...<br />
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<b>4. Take a picture each day or pretty regularly of a tree(s) during the fall so that afterward, you can put all the photos together and show how the leaves changed over the season. </b>This would be really neat to do!<br />
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<b>5. Knit/crochet a scarf and/or hat to wear yourself or to give someone else (maybe for Christmas). </b>It's always so much fun to wear or give someone something you made yourself! :)<br />
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<b><b><br /></b>6. Wear Autumny outfits. </b>Because... why not??<b> </b>It's Autumn after all! Fall outfits are always fun. :D<br />
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<b>7. Go shopping for Autumny outfits if you don't have any. </b>I do have quite a few fall outfit things right now, so I probably won't need to do this much, but... you can never have too many clothes... okay, okay, yes you can... you <i>definitely</i> can. :P</div>
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<b>8. Drink a cup of hot chocolate or tea whilst reading a book by a window or outside on a bench. </b>Or just reading a book without a beverage (or vice versa) would be just as lovely I'm sure.<br />
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<img alt="@aidensworld21 for more Autumn Aesthetic inspiration." height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/84/1b/cd/841bcd0c869ba55d5a2364d8449e243a.jpg" width="318" /></div>
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<b>9. Read a fall-themed book.</b> <i>Cranberry Thanksgiving</i>! That's actually the only fall-themed book I can think of at the moment. D: Don't worry, more will come to me, I'm sure.<br />
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<img alt="I am so excited to be joining the Enchanted Homeschooling Mom and many other wonderful bloggers in the 2014-2015 Poppins Book Nook! The Poppins Book Nook is a monthly themed virtual book club for kids ages preschool and up. Each month participants will read a book based on that month’s theme and share..." height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/91/05/14/910514947dbcd6baea9b8edce1e438ca.jpg" width="285" /></div>
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<b>10. Watch a fall-themed movie and/or show.</b> I actually didn't think too much of this until one time (I think it was actually last fall) when I read someone else's blog post about movies/shows to watch in the fall time. I actually don't recall a lot of movies or shows that I've watched that have been exclusively set in autumn, but one that comes to mind is <i>The Spy Next Door. </i>This movie is set around/during Halloween. It's a sweet, funny, and overall clean movie. While our family doesn't celebrate Halloween as the holiday encourages fear, the movie's not totally centered around it; it's mostly just that the holiday is going on in the midst of the story. Anywho, to get to the point, it seems like just the right movie for this time of year, especially if you're in the mood for action, comedy, and Jackie Chan. ;)<br />
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But if you're in the mood for more of a classic, <i>The Beverly Hillbillies: Turkey Day</i> episode would also be a perfect one to watch in the fall, especially around Thanksgiving! You can't hardly go wrong with <i>The Beverly Hillbillies, </i>or almost any old classic show really. ;)<br />
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<b>11. Make a pumpkin and/or apple pie.</b> I really want to make one or the other this year for Thanksgiving... hopefully that will actually happen. :P<br />
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<b>12. Make a new autumny dish/dessert. </b>It's always fun to try out something new! (These apple snickerdoodle muffins look amazing... =O )</div>
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<b>13. Visit a pumpkin patch. </b>Because pumpkins + patch = fall in a nutshell.<br />
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<b>14. Go on a hayride.</b> I know, you could go on a hayride any other time of year as well, but there's just something so fall-like about hayrides it seems.<br />
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<b>15. Do a corn maze.</b> Mazes are always fun! If you can find one to do in your area, I'd totally recommend it. :D<br />
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Well, that's it for now! Are there any other autumny things that you like to do that I missed? What's your favorite(s) out of the ones I listed?<br />
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I hope all of you are having a fabulous fall so far! Write to ya later, and God bless! :)<br />
~Faith</div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-60262534280188291472018-09-27T20:07:00.002-07:002018-09-27T20:26:05.851-07:00Reams of Rereads Blog Event // My list of books to read again!GUYS, I found out about this neat blog event that will be going on this October -- it's called the Reams of Rereads blog event, and will be hosted over at <a href="https://classicsandcraziness.wordpress.com/2018/08/31/announcing-the-reams-of-rereads-blog-event-october-2018/comment-page-1/#comment-6052" style="background-color: white; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 16.5px;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Coffee, Classics, and Craziness</span></a>!<br />
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But what IS the Reams of Rereads blog event, you may ask? Good question. I had that same question before I discovered the answer. So since I know the answer now, allow me to enlighten you. ;)</div>
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The basic idea of this event is to help encourage us bookish people to make some time to get to those wonderful books we enjoy so much that we've wanted to reread for so long, but just never have because of work/school/and just busyness in general. So, that's what the Reams of Rereads event is for -- to help motivate us to catch up on all these lovely books we want so much to visit again! :)</div>
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<b>To read the official rules and find out more about this event, head on over to <a href="https://classicsandcraziness.wordpress.com/2018/08/31/announcing-the-reams-of-rereads-blog-event-october-2018/"><span style="color: #b45f06;">this post</span></a> on Eva's blog!</b> Eva is the lovely lady who will be hosting Reams of Rereads. :D Thank you so much, Eva for coming up with this fabulous idea!<br />
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So -- as you probably have guessed -- I'm planning to participate in this! :) I'm sure I definitely won't get to everything on my list, but it will be fun anyway seeing how many I <i>can </i>read through in one month!<br />
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Here's my own list of books that I'd like to reread!<br />
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- <i>Understood Betsy</i> by Dorothy Canfield Fisher<br />
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- <i>Pollyanna</i> by Eleanor H. Porter<br />
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- <i>By the Great Horn Spoon!</i> by Sid Fleishman<br />
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- <i>Heidi</i> by Johanna Spyri<br />
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- <i>Toliver's Secret</i> by Esther Wood Brady<br />
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- <i>Because of Winn-Dixie</i> by Kate Dicamillo<br />
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- <i>Anne of Green Gables</i> by L.M. Montgomery<br />
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- <i>The American Girl Kirsten book series</i> by Janet Shaw<br />
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- <i>Nim's Island</i> by Wendy Orr<br />
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- <i>12 Empowerment Truths about Two Sons in Want</i> by Terry Tripp<br />
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- <i>More Than Conquerors</i> by Terry Mize (So <i>technically</i> I hadn't fully finished this book, but I read through almost all of it at one point (I'm not sure why I never got to finishing it D: ...probably because of "Lack of Reading Time" as Eva puts it...) ... So anywho, I guess since I'll need to reread through the first part again since it's been so long, it can count as a reread? Yes, let's say it does. ;) )<br />
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I hope you'll consider participating in this blog event as well! It shall be lots of fun, I do believe. :)<br />
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God bless you all! Write to ya later!<br />
~Faith</div>
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Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-77503145630656980162018-09-24T20:20:00.001-07:002018-09-25T10:59:58.505-07:00Hello September Tag<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You know what I need to do better at? Keeping up with tags for one thing. There are several different ones that I've been tagged for that I've copied and pasted the questions/rules for in drafts in my blogger post editing thingy that have just been sitting there, collecting proverbial dust for months... or even as much as a year. So, I think it's about time I get down to business and catch up on all these lovely tags that you guys have so graciously awarded me with. But I've come to the conclusion that I probably shouldn't go about doing them all in <i>one</i> post... If I did, that post I'm sure would be so dreadfully long that the person who would actually read the entire thing in one sitting without obligation should be given a standing ovation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But anywho.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I probably won't be posting a bunch of tags in a row, but I hope to get to doing most of the ones I've been tagged for this fall/winter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So to start off with, I'm doing this fun fall tag that t</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">he lovely Brooklyne tagged me for over at her blog, </span><a href="http://bensshowersofblessings.blogspot.com/p/tags.html" style="font-family: inherit;">Showers of Blessings</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">! :) And since it's called "Hello September" I figured that I'd better get to doing this before September flies by! So -- here we go!</span></div>
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<img height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicuAIC0I3dJ0j9N9urhqY3NkX6zStEzyWLZqJ1vyPaNxf7g8bubgxkmKIbOYCzSWI3MBCW0F565gxtoXHW-SRjEkZlOEB1X2ywxJ6ZksthDj9lJeZgXPdfWqT4vAiV7eVsLapqq7SmyZ8/s640/Blog+tag.jpg" width="640" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>The tag rules:</b></i></span></div>
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<ol>
<li>Please copy these questions (below), answer them, and then write out new questions (or just copy these) for the people you nominate below your answered questions.</li>
<li>Please nominate at least 3 bloggers, but try to avoid ones that you know have already been nominated. </li>
<li>Lastly, include these guidelines in your post, and use the tag picture (above)! </li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Alright, let's answer some questions!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>Windy or rainy autumn?</b></span></div>
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While I like a rainy day here and there, I think I'd much rather have a more windy autumn. I really enjoy sunny, windy days. :)<br />
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<img alt="anyone who thinks leaves are dead - Google Search" height="353" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a5/c3/4f/a5c34f51d0ed50851fd948ffa0e1ca17.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>Do you like chai tea?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;">I don't believe I've ever tried it. So, I'm not sure!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, or apple cider?</b></span></div>
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Well, I actually don't think I've ever had apple cider before, and I'm not really a coffee person. (<i>"</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><i>Yes, I can still be a writer even if I don’t drink coffee. I’ve tried it, I just don’t see what’s so good about it. *runs from all the coffee loving authors*" ~Brooklyne </i>:P)<i> </i></span>So, I'd have to go with either hot chocolate or tea, depending on the mood. :) If I had to pick just one, probably hot chocolate. Chocolate's my fav! :D I actually am not a super-fan of hot tea honestly. I like a couple flavors, but I guess I just don't drink it that often. Now, ice tea... yes! I like the flavor of the ice tea we get (which I guess is technically just black tea) and sometimes I'll heat that kind up, and I like it a lot that way, too. I don't think that it's really the tea being hot that I don't like, maybe it's just most of the flavors of hot tea that I've had I don't like as much? Anyway, sorry, I'll stop rambling about my deal with tea and move on now... :P<br />
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<img alt="coffee in the evening light" height="267" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/33/66/42/336642c98c891256665dadfd2457c7ff.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>If you could go to one state in the U.S.A just for the autumn scenery, where would you go?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ooh, well, since traveling out to Colorado this summer, I think that it would be a lovely place to go for autumn scenery, with all the trees and mountains. So I'd probably choose Colorado! (Well, either there, or some state in New England... like maybe Vermont. :) )</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>Do you like soup in the autumn? If so, what kind is your favorite?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;">I do like soup! (especially my mom's! :) ) I don't know if I particularly have a favorite kind though. I like a lot of different ones! But if I had to choose... maybe vegetable... or potato... or chili... one of those! ;)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>What color of leaves do you like best? </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I like them all really! But I especially enjoy orange and red leaves. Bright orange leaves are so pretty to me!</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" " height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/82/dc/13/82dc13fd1942bbdbc36412affe663af1.jpg" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="266" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Okay, so I suppose one could argue that these are more yellow than orange... but they're still pretty, so. ;D</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>If you could go to another country just for autumn scenery, where would you go?</b></span><br />
OH MY. So many choices! Well, (as Brooklyne said in her post) I'd want to go somewhere with a lot of trees with changing leaves of course. Probably a country in Europe... Maybe Switzerland! I'd really like to visit Europe some day, and I think Autumn would probably be a nice season to go. :)<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>Sweater or hoodie?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;">Can I say both? :P It really depends! I like sweaters... but hoodies are really nice, too, and they have convenient pockets as well, so... Both. Yeah, both.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>A hazelnut or apple cinnamon candle?</b></span><br />
Hmm... I'd probably go for an apple cinnamon candle. :)<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>Cookies, brownies, or both?</b></span><br />
BOTH! But if I had to choose between the two, I might pick brownies over cookies. (I'm a chocolatey girl, what can I say? *makes note to self to not go overboard on chocolate this fall* :P) But I absolutely positively enjoy cookies as well! So yeah... since I can, I'd definitely choose both!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Pumpkin Swirl Brownies are the Perfect Fall Treat! Such a delicious brownie recipe for this time of year! Uncommon Designs" height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/6c/e5/18/6ce5183467cfe8e010d94f812ad19388.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So apparently this picture I found on Pinterest is of "pumpkin cheesecake swirled brownies"! :O <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I think I shall have to try this sometime!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none;"><b>What's your favorite fall activity? (Like a fall photo shoot, knitting, crocheting, baking, reading, etc...)</b></span><br />
Oh, there's so many fun ones! I really enjoy doing things with family and friends, like going to pumpkin patches, doing corn mazes, hayrides, picnics, hiking, and things like that! :)<br />
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This was a lot of fun! Thank you so much, Brooklyne for tagging me! :) I'm so excited that fall is now officially here! Though I'm kind of sad summer is over, autumn is such a lovely season as well, and I'm glad for it to be here again!<br />
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<b><i>Now, I'll tag...</i></b><br />
Christina @ <a href="http://cnc4him.blogspot.com/">Light Unto My Path</a><br />
Olivia @ <a href="http://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/">Meanwhile in Rivendell</a> or <a href="http://indecisiveandpalpitatingstars.blogspot.com/">Towards Indecisive and Palpitating Stars</a><br />
Abby <a href="https://novelsdragonsandwardrobedoors.blogspot.com/">@ Novels, Dragons, and Wardrobe Doors</a><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And here are your questions!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Windy or rainy autumn?</b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Do you like chai tea? </b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, or apple cider? </b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>If you could go to one state in the U.S.A just for the autumn scenery, where would you go? </b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Do you like soup in the autumn? If so, what kind is your favorite?</b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What color of leaves do you like best? </b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>If your could go to another country just for autumn scenery, where would you go?</b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Sweater or hoodie? </b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>A hazelnut or apple cinnamon candle?</b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Cookies, brownies, or both?</b></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What's your favorite fall activity? (Like a fall photo shoot, knitting, crocheting, baking, reading, etc...)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Bonus questions!</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Pumpkin or apple pie?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Have you ever had a pumpkin spice latte? If not, do you think you would like it/want to try one?</b></span></span><br />
<b>Would you rather go on a hayride or do a corn maze?</b></div>
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Have fun, gals! But if you'd rather not do this tag, than please don't feel obligated! It's totally up to you. :) And also, I realize that it's already nearing the end of September, so <strike>even though I'm pretty sure this is maybe possibly probably breaking the rules, I just made up a new rule that states </strike> you can still fill out this tag after September if you can't get to it before then.<br />
And ALSO -- if you are either wearing a sweater or drinking a hot beverage whilst reading this right now... then consider yourself tagged, too! ;D<br />
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I hope all of you are having a wonderful September! God bless, and I'll write to y'all later!<br />
~Faith</div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-8223711087665242902018-09-08T17:02:00.002-07:002018-09-08T17:03:21.496-07:00Shout-outs and the likeI've been meaning to do this for a long time, and I'm FINALLY getting around to it! I wanted to give some family and friends' blogs and YouTube channels a shout-out because they're all such awesome people and have some great content! So, without further delay, here they are!<br />
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<ul>
<li>First of all, my dear friends, Christina and Olivia! Christina started a blog a while back called, <a href="https://cnc4him.blogspot.com/">Light Unto My Path</a>, which is a very encouraging, fun blog that you should definitely go read! And Olivia's blog, <a href="https://meanwhileinrivendell.blogspot.com/">Meanwhile in Rivendell...</a>, and her more recent second blog, <a href="http://indecisiveandpalpitatingstars.blogspot.com/">Towards Indecisive and Palpitating Stars</a> are wonderful as well! She does movie/book reviews, posts about life, and all sorts of great things over there! Get yourself on over there and give them a read!</li>
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<ul>
<li>Now nextly, <span style="font-size: x-small;">(I don't think that's actually a word, but... *looks up "nextly"* Oh. Okay, so that actually <i>is</i> a real word... Anywho, moving on...)</span> I must mention the lovely Faith over at <a href="https://chosenbythepotter.blogspot.com/">Chosen Vessels</a> and <a href="http://fireflysstoryspace.blogspot.com/">Stories by Firefly</a>! Last November, Faith was so kind as to invite me for a "Sisters in Christ chat" over at her blog (which I failed to mention anything about before unfortunately... *facepalm*) It was a lot of fun, and I just want to say thank you to her again for having me! You can read that conversation we had by clicking the picture below!</li>
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<a href="http://chosenbythepotter.blogspot.com/2017/11/sisters-in-christ-faith-november-2017.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANq6LuZAYajFeTfielo_vTbY2sDJdYXY0sRXuWqAGHo5qoSj_ugvhKq5rjYfjWCH_jxdjbOpoWpl1-3m4L8DPysTYkcYyhdXAVSNzz1ANlsKrUr68PrOTngWp4_br_21xSsTcidG3jIQ/s640/blogger-image-951723619.jpg" /></a></div>
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<li>Next, a little while back, I helped my lovely mother start her own blog! It's called <a href="http://thesogoodlife.blogspot.com/">So Good</a>. She's still just getting started with it and doesn't have a lot up yet, but please go check it out and give her a follow! :)</li>
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And now, the bros!<br />
<ul>
<li>My oldest brother, Nathanael has a YouTube channel called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1gEyQOw6tjRMa90K1tIqsA">ChickenTractorGuy</a>, which --especially if you're into farming/chickens -- you should definitely go check out! (I actually helped him film/edit a couple of his videos, which was fun!)</li>
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<li>My other brother, Caleb also has a YouTube channel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFM-I0x6yfKpiwjAr14DvyQ/featured">It's The Real Deal</a>! He makes encouraging videos focusing on the truth and integrity of God's Word! They're really good! He also has a blog that he puts his videos on as well that you can check out <a href="http://caleb4him.blogspot.com/">here</a>.</li>
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<li>And last, but definitely not least -- my younger brother's channel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_H6LeNObUbpzb6Q3sjTlvQ">Zippy Productions!</a> He does videos mostly on gaming and sometimes instruction-type videos. In his latest video he gave a shout-out to my blog here, so I thought I should return the favor! He does a lot of videos on the game Roblox, which I also play occasionally, so he took some clips of my game character (gloriousglittergirl9) and her misadventures and put them in this video of his down here. :P Hope you enjoy! ;)</li>
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So, I think that's all for now... I hope I got everyone I was thinking of. All these people are so awesome and I would totally recommend that you go and check out their blogs/channels and follow/subscribe to them!!<br />
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There are of course many more blogs and channels that I could mention as well, and I apologize to all the people around here who's blogs I haven't been catching up with and commenting on recently. I'm trying to do better on catching back up.<br />
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~~~~~</div>
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I've also had the idea in my head for a while now to maybe start my own YouTube channel sometime...... Especially seeing as how my brothers have their own channels now, of course I don't want to be left out! ;) Life's pretty busy right now though, and I don't think I could exactly work doing YouTube videos into my schedule yet, but it's something to think about for the future anyway. It would probably be a little bit of everything I'd guess, but maybe mostly vlogs?... Or skits maybe, who knows!? I'm not sure right now, but we'll see what happens. :)<br />
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I hope all of you are having a fabulous weekend! God bless!<br />
~FaithFaith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-91671445010250461282018-08-25T20:14:00.000-07:002018-08-25T20:17:12.945-07:00A much belated Bible Study Blog Party wrap-up post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Hello once again, friends!<br />
<br />
So... WHERE HAVE I BEEN???<br />
<br />
Well, first off, I was a very unmotivated person a month or so ago. (Not that that's an acceptable excuse for my lack of blogging) But this honestly is most of the reason why I didn't do a Bible Study Blog Party wrap-up post before when I was supposed to. (A sad reason, I know..... I'm really sorry about that, you guys... D: Please forgive me.)<br />
<br />
Whenever I thought I was going to sit down and write that post, I'd get restless, and just couldn't seem to come up with anything to write. I felt unmotivated and just... blah...<br />
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<img alt="Image result for i love lucy gif blah" src="http://31.media.tumblr.com/0042f5d4e0a11d8aaf1010d9de967708/tumblr_mgpr3qM3bK1s3sfumo1_400.gif" /></div>
I kind of knew what I wanted to write, but I just didn't seem to have the attention span to think hard and long enough about how to write what I wanted to write. I realize now that it wasn't so much of a writer's block problem as a focusing problem. It was hard to just focus on writing. And it turned out to not only be with writing, but in other areas of my life as well, especially in spending time with God and reading my Bible. It was so hard to just be still and focus on Him.<br />
<br />
One big reason I believe I got so unfocused was because I started filling up my life with other things. I let myself get distracted with earthly things that my flesh was pulling so hard on me to focus on. I was filling up my schedule and brain power with things that weren't necessarily bad, but just... temporal. I wasn't "fixing my eyes on eternal things" like Paul says in 2 Corinthians.<br />
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<img height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBOw5WmD2HyuONwAAWmOkUsbrOHkithtu-BhyjvhRQQWDm7OhasConfGR1EsTTB-3nDmUnB29Fcqw4QsrJvGrAgCBL8lrCEIlgApQ5ySvcoGTHOveAwV3QfMzn7simRs9Ijp-QZrY_egA/s320/blogger-image-671885245.jpg" width="260" /></div>
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So that's what basically happened with the Bible Study Blog Party -- I didn't take the time to get myself to really focus on it after writing that first post for it. I'd just groan within myself, hiding under a shell of irresponsibility, declaring that I would get to it some other time when I actually felt like writing it. But that time when I actually felt like writing that blog post never seemed to come. So I just keep putting it off and off.... and off...... Yeah. Not a good life motto.<br />
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The part of Romans 8 that I really wanted to talk about during the blog party was in verses 9-12. And basically, these were the exact verses that I needed during that time of unfocused blahness. But instead of truly focusing and letting God speak to me through them and taking the time to write a post about them, I gave into my flesh and didn't really let these words sink in. Recently though, they've been making their way back into my heart.<br />
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Here's what these verses say:<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Rom-8-9" id="en-NKJV-28126" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">"But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. </span><span class="text Rom-8-10" id="en-NKJV-28127" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">And if Christ <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</span> in you, the body <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</span> dead because of sin, but the Spirit <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</span> life because of righteousness. </span><span class="text Rom-8-11" id="en-NKJV-28128" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">But if the Spirit of <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NKJV-28128M" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NKJV-28128M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NKJV-28128N" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NKJV-28128N" title="See cross-reference N">N</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. </span></span><b style="font-family: inherit;">Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span><b style="font-family: inherit;"> </b><span style="font-family: inherit;">~Romans 8:9-12</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That last part there has really stuck with me recently. We're not debtors to our flesh. We don't owe our flesh -- ourselves and our feelings -- anything. Sometimes we say things like, "Well, I owe it to myself" or "I just can't help doing that", and we use this as an excuse for not doing the right thing or putting things off. The thing is though, if we have Christ living in us, we don't "owe it to <i>ourselves</i>" -- we owe ourselves to <i>Christ</i>. You CAN help doing certain things. How? THROUGH CHRIST living in you! You CAN do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens you! (Phil. 4:13) </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is what the Lord has really been working to get across to me recently. I have the Spirit of Christ dwelling on the inside of me. So now with Christ living in me, I can overcome my flesh and what it wants to do. With Christ in me, I can overcome my feelings and emotions. Feelings and emotions are very real, but the reality of them can't ever supersede the reality of what God says about our situations. He says that we are more than conquerors through Him! (Romans 8:37)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt=" " height="400" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ff/cc/8d/ffcc8df6a17ee00df9477cb71bb6c239.jpg" width="320" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">So that's just one of the things that the Lord has been teaching me in that passage recently. There is of course a whole lot more to get out of all of those verses. Hopefully I'll get into more of it in another post sometime soon. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But for now, let me FINALLY get to wrapping up this Bible Study Blog Party!</span><br />
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Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who read and participated in this -- you all are wonderful!! Be sure to go over and read <a href="http://bensshowersofblessings.blogspot.com/2018/05/bible-study-blog-party.html">Brooklyn's post</a> and <a href="https://majesticadventures.wordpress.com/2018/06/08/the-love-of-god/">Emma's post</a> that they did for the Bible Study Blog Party! They did such a great job, and it's so exciting to read what God put on their hearts to write! If you wrote a post for this that I missed, please link back to it in the comments! I would love to read it!<br />
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Again I greatly apologize for my laziness and extreme lateness with finishing up this wonderful study. I will probably end up doing another Bible Study Blog Party again sometime in the near future (and do a much better job at keeping up with it ;) ).<br />
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I hope all of you have a wonderful week! God bless!<br />
~Faith<br />
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<b>P.S.</b><br />
It is true that most of the reason for my absence in the blogosphere here has been because of my lack of motivation... but for the past two weeks the main reason has been because I was away on vacation with my family. It was a grand twelve day Colorado adventure, in fact! I will most definitely elaborate on my adventures there in another post very soon, so be on the lookout for that! :D</div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-3243109107628718552018-05-28T20:59:00.007-07:002018-08-25T20:17:45.051-07:00NO Condemnation // Bible Study Blog PartyHey there! Welcome, everyone to the Bible Study Blog Party!<br />
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LET'S GET THIS STUDY PARTY STARTED!!<br />
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From today, May 28th, to June 9th we're going to be reading and blogging about <b>Romans 8</b>! Anyone can participate, and if you would like to find out exactly how this all works and want to join in, look back at my <a href="http://faithygirly.blogspot.com/2018/05/bible-study-blog-party-introduction.html">original post</a> about this.<br />
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Romans 8 is such an awesome chapter. As I was reading through it again last night, I started getting so excited -- I was so glad I chose this chapter for the Bible study! One thing is that a lot of it seems to be telling of the benefits of being in Christ. It's a great reminder of who we are and what we have in Him! Take the very first verse for instance:<br />
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<b><i>There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."</i></b><br />
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You may have read this verse before and have been like, "Okay, yeah. That's cool. No condemnation, nice." But seriously, think about that. That's GREAT news! We don't have to be or feel condemned if we have Christ living in us!<br />
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But then, why do we as Christians still feel condemned sometimes?<br />
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I think so many times we equate our worth with what we do or have done in this life. And when we haven't done enough or have messed up, we personally start beating ourselves up about it. We unknowingly crack the door open for the enemy to slip a little condemnation through into us. It's not God who's condemning us when we're doing these wrong things, it's the devil. It says right there in that verse that there's "NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."<br />
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Of course, God will <i>convict</i> us when we're doing wrong, but condemnation and conviction are two different things. <b><i>Condemnation</i> </b>causes our focus to be on ourselves, on our failures, and on how bad we are. <b><i>Conviction</i></b> causes us to focus on doing better, on improving ourselves, and on going up higher in what we think and do.<br />
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We need to get our focus off of ourselves, our performance, and our works. Who we are and how much God loves us isn't affected by what we've done. Like it says in 2 Timothy 1:9, "<b><i>[God] has saved us and called us with a holy calling, </i><u>not according to our works</u><i>, </i><u>but according to His own purpose and grace</u><i> which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began..."</i></b><br />
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You are saved and called by <i><b>God's grace</b></i>! And because of that, those who are "in Christ Jesus", who have accepted them as their Lord and Savior, don't need to be condemned about anything! We need to and will be convicted by the Holy Spirit at times, but we need to take the focus off of ourselves and accept that conviction without mixing in the enemy's condemnation with it. We're free from ALL condemnation in Jesus! What WONDERFUL news!!!<br />
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So, those were just a few things God has showed me from Romans 8:1. I've personally felt quite a lot of condemnation from the enemy in my life before, so this verse has really spoken to me a lot. Knowing that God loves me for just me, not for my accomplishments or what I've done is such an amazingly freeing feeling! And then, when I realize God's love for me and what He's done, trusting and focusing fully on Him, it causes me, in turn, to be convicted by the Spirit to do the right things and do good works for Him as well!<br />
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What about you? What did you get out of this verse? What has God taught you through this verse? Share in the comments below!<br />
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The party is just beginning, and I'm excited for what's to come! If you're participating, be sure to put the link to any posts you may do in the comments of the <a href="https://faithygirly.blogspot.com/2018/05/bible-study-blog-party-introduction.html">Bible Study Blog Party introduction post</a>.<br />
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Hope all of you are having a fabulous start to your week! God bless! :)<br />
~FaithFaith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-38361172276542771612018-05-17T10:19:00.002-07:002018-08-25T20:18:12.584-07:00Bible Study Blog Party Introduction<div>
I've had this idea for a little while now, but I thought that it was about time that I should just go ahead and strike out on it. So, here it is...<br />
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A Bible Study Blog Party!</div>
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"Now what in the world would a Bible Study Blog Party be?" you may ask.<br />
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Well, it would basically be a sort of combination of a Bible study and blog party -- hence the name. It's like a blog party in that there's a theme, and then those who want to participate write posts on their blog(s) centering around that theme. Well, with this, those who want to participate would all read through the same chapter/passage (say John 1 for example) and then post on their blogs and/or comment on other participating blogs sharing their thoughts and what they learned in John 1, kind of like in a Bible study. You can do various types of posts for this as well, even sharing a song or story, as long as it's centered around the highlighted chapter or verse for that Bible Study Blog Party.</div>
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I thought this might be a good and fun way to study the Word of God together, and to see a same passage of scripture from different angles and perspectives.<br />
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I said at the beginning that I've had this idea for a while now. But I've honestly been sort of hesitant about doing it for some reason or another. Well, so, this past weekend my family and I were at a Christian conference, and the speakers' messages connected really well with each other and they taught from a lot of the sames scriptures without even really planning to do so. While saying something about this, the host of the conference said that maybe they ought to have a conference where all the speakers just preach on one verse or passage, and and teach it from different angles. When he said that, immediately the idea I had had for the Bible study blog party came to my mind. "Hey," I thought. "that's basically just what I was trying to do with the blog bible study thing!" So, turning this idea over in my mind again with fresh motivation, I decided to just go ahead and do this -- so here we are! :)<br />
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<b>I'll be hosting this first Bible Study Blog Party from May 28th-June 9th! The chapter we will be reading and studying is </b><b>Romans 8!</b> I believe God is going to teach us all some great things through this chapter, guys! I'm so excited!! :D<br />
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<i><b>How to participate in the Bible Study Blog Party:</b></i><br />
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<li>Before reading or writing or anything, ask God to help you to understand what you read and to teach you through His Word and in other participants posts you read as well.</li>
<li>Read the assigned chapter(s)/verse(s).</li>
<li>While reading, remember to not just read the chapter/passage looking for things you can blog about. Look for what you yourself can learn from this, whether you end up writing a blog post about it or not. And don't try and rush through reading it. Take your time, listen to the Holy Spirit, and dig in. If one particular verse just sticks out at you, stick with it! Take your time -- we need to not just read to read, we should be reading to learn from God! (That's something I really didn't want to do with this... I didn't want us all to just rush through reading the chapter and write up something just because we have to for the Bible study. I definitely want to encourage everyone, including myself, to take time to read in order to learn more from and about our Heavenly Father!)</li>
<li>On your blog or through comments on other participants blogs, share your thoughts on the chapter/passage, what stuck out to you, favorite verses, etc., and like I said before, you could share a song or story or something like that centered around the highlighted passage as well. It's a wonderful thing to encourage and share what God's teaching us with each other! </li>
<li><b>Make sure to link the post(s) you do on your blog for the Bible Study Blog Party down below in the comments on this post so others participating can read what you wrote and also so I can easily be able to find them all to list in my closing post at the end of the study party. </b>(Hehe, 'study party'... you never thought you'd see those two words together, did you? xD)</li>
<li>And of course... <i><b>Have fun!</b></i> :D</li>
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So, does all of that make sense? If not, let me know and I'll try to clarify as best as I can. Any suggestions on what chapter/book/verse might be good to read, study, and discuss together in future "study parties"?</div>
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I'm SO excited, you guys!! Please spread the word around the blogosphere about this and let others know if they'd also like to participate! But whether a bunch of you all join in on this or just a couple, I believe we're still going to have a great time in God's Word either way!<br />
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Here's also a couple of buttons you can use to spread the word around about the party! :D<br />
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Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Write to you later!<br />
~Faith</div>
Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-2632135440215989482018-05-03T19:36:00.000-07:002018-05-03T20:30:23.330-07:006 Distractions Bloggers Can Probably Relate ToAh, blogging. What a fun life we bloggers lead. I mean, it's so easy to come up with and write posts and put them up regularly and all that, you know? Such a breeze. AM I RIGHT OR WHAT??<br />
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Okay... so no, not really (as I'm sure you could tell by the plethora of blogging I've gotten done this year... heh :P) It seems hard to not get distracted whilst trying to craft the perfect blog post and trying to keep up with your blog. So here's a list of six things I've found to be pretty big distractions for the average teen/early 20s blogger person.<br />
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<b>1. Pinterest</b><br />
Pinterest is amazing, don't get me wrong. And it's a wonderful tool, especially for bloggers. But -- as we all know -- there is SO MUCH to find on this site that it can be a two-edged sword at times. You might just be getting on to find one nice sunset picture to go along with some blog post you're writing, and then suddenly find yourself looking at a pin of how to do your hair up to make it look like a bow.<br />
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<b>2. Social Media</b><br />
Other social media platforms can be just as distracting as Pinterest, maybe even more at times. Or maybe not. Or maybe so. Who knows. All I know is that it's quite a big distraction.<br />
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<b><br /></b><b>3. Food</b><br />
Sometimes food can be a motivator, but then other times it seems like it's just an excuse to take a break and slack off. When you're mind goes blank with what to write, you might say to yourself, "Well... maybe I can get those creative juices flowing by just taking a little break... in the kitchen..."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This might just be one of the cutest gifs I've ever seen... =D</td></tr>
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<b><br />4. Other People</b><br />
People are wonderful, they're absolutely wonderful! But when you're trying to focus on writing or doing something with you're blog, and someone interrupts you to ask you about something... or they need to get on the computer you're on...<br />
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<b>5. GIFs</b><br />
So maybe not <i>every</i> blogger gets distracted with trying to find the perfect gifs for their posts... but...... I probably know of at least one who does..... heh.<br />
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<b>6. Real Life</b><br />
Of course, we bloggers always have high hopes of posting regularly, maybe on a certain day each week or something like that. But then it suddenly hits us that we actually have real lives in the real world and things don't always go as smoothly in real life as we plan them to. And we can't usually be working on or writing something for our blog at a certain time each day right when we want to and have this meticulously perfect plan of how we keep up our blog (unless blogging is your actual job and it's the main thing you do in life).<br />
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So, our real lives often get in the way of our blogging lives. But you know what... that's actually not really a bad thing. I think a lot of times we put social media/blogging/computer things higher on our priority list than just living life and spending valuable time we won't get back with family and friends in the real world without really meaning to. (I've caught myself doing this too many times unfortunately...)<br />
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We've been given this amazing life, the chance to make a real difference in this world. I keep needing to remind myself not to waste it all on earthly things that won't last. It's of course not bad to spend time on social media and the like occasionally, but I realize that I need to watch myself that I don't let it dominate my life and I start becoming obsessed with it.<br />
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In fact, I've discovered one easy way to tell if you're addicted or obsessed with something: <b style="font-style: italic;">If you're constantly or regularly thinking about that thing. </b><br />
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I found this out one night a while back. My younger brother had gotten the game Minecraft. Well, so I decided one day that I would try it out and play a little bit. Needless to say, I got a little too into it. But for a little while I didn't even really realize how engrossed I had become in the game. One night, however, I finally came to reason. As I was lying in bed getting ready to go to sleep, I suddenly caught myself thinking hard about how I should construct some part of the house I was building in the game and anticipating waking up the next day to work on it. A jerking thought came to me: <i>MineCraft is one of the only and biggest things that has been on my mind these past few days...</i><br />
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And so that's when I realized -- I had become addicted with this game. Once I realized that, I tried hard to stay away from it for a while and focus more on truly important things. It wasn't easy of course, but I asked God to help me with this obsession, and He did. And now, I actually hardly ever play MineCraft at all.<br />
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So basically what I'm trying to say in all this is that we all really need to take a good look at our lives and where our priorities lie. I'm definitely not trying to say that Minecraft or any other games, or even blogging for that matter are bad, but the problem begins when we start <i>obsessing</i> over them, or any other temporary natural thing. If we find that our priorities aren't where they should be, then we need to step back, and fix and reassess them. That's much easier said than done of course, but we CAN do it -- not alone, but with our Heavenly Father working in us and helping us along the way. <i>Nothing</i> is impossible with God! And if we just pray and ask Him to help us with keeping our priorities straight and put Him FIRST in everything, He WILL help us!<br />
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So guys, let's do our best to put God first in everything we do and make Him our very top priority -- even above blogging -- praying and asking Him for His help in doing so.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"<b>Watch and pray</b> so that you will not fall into temptation. <b>The spirit is indeed willing</b>, but the flesh is weak." </i></span><i style="font-size: x-large;">~Mark 14:38</i><br />
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Well, that's all for today! I hope this could be of some encouragement to all you fellow bloggers out there. :)<br />
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Have a fabulous rest of the week, everyone! Happy blogging!<br />
~Faith<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">P.S. Are there any other distractions that you as a blogger face that I missed? </span><span style="font-size: medium;">How do you keep from getting distracted whilst blogging? </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Any tips for us fellow bloggers who get distracted easily?</span>
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Hello again, my friends! A Happy belated Easter you! Jesus is ALIVE!! That's so awesome, isn't it?! :D<br />
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So, in other news... where have I been? Well, life's been a little crazy recently, trying to figure out life, college, work, etc. etc... And of course, with all this, I haven't had a lot of time to blog. But then it seemed like whenever I'd have time to work on it and I'd start writing on some post, I'd get some sort of writer's block one way or another.<br />
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But recently, I got an idea of something to share with you guys. Another thing I've been busy with lately is writing on different stories and projects. I've started to realize that I actually haven't shared so much of my stories and writing life here as of yet... so, I suppose I'd better change that now, shouldn't I?<br />
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I've always liked stories. And writing. Growing up, I always wanted to write stories. Children's stories especially. It was always my dream. I was planning to grow up and becoming an author, and that's what I always told people if they ever asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up -- "Write children's books," I'd answer decidedly.<br />
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<i>"What do you want to do when you grow up?"</i><br />
<i>"Write children's books."</i><br />
<i>"Oh! What kind of books?"</i><br />
<i>"Uh, well, </i>Children's<i> books."</i><br />
<i>"...Oh."</i><br />
(Something close to this conversation actually happened one time... :P)<br />
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When I was younger I would take several pieces of paper, fold them over, and then staple them together to make it look like a book. I thought it was brilliant. And then the stories... OH HO HO, THE STORIES.<br />
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I'd write stories in those "books." All kinds of stories. Funny stories mainly. I liked making people laugh. (I still do :D) Whatever my mind could come up with. Not usually fairy tale type stories though... more realistic ones... well, sort of. Maybe not really. But stories about real people in the real world... that kind of realistic I guess. Most of the time anyway. Well, sometimes about animals, too (like that one story I wrote about a horse who talked and liked poking things with a stick and ended up poking the police and getting sent to jail... ahem... yeah, nevermind... :P) I adored coming up with stories and different scenarios and characters and everything. And then I'd always excitedly try to get my brothers or parents to read the wonderful stories I wrote. It was one of my favorite pastimes as a child. I'd also like to frolic about in our yard, coming up with pretend "tv shows" and "movies" in my head and acting them out to myself.<br />
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Ahh... those good ol' days. I always did like coming up with a good story. I still do.<br />
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SO...<br />
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I thought it was about time I shared more about this part of my life here (especially since that was one of the main things I had planned on posting about here when I first started this blog...).</div>
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I have so many stories rolling around in my head right now, but for the ones I'm actually working on currently, well... here we go!<br />
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<li>I've been working on a story for some time now about "The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe." It's supposed to be based off of that nursery rhyme of course; but it's a full account of what all really happened -- who this "old lady" was, why she has so many children, why she lives in a "shoe", etc. etc. It's set in the early 1900s and is supposed to be a funny kind of story of course. This is probably going to end up being a children's chapter book/juvenile fiction type of story, and it's one I've actually been pretty passionate about, interestingly enough. I think I just especially love all the characters in it and have been discovering recently just how much of myself I'm actually putting into a lot of them. It's interesting...</li>
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Here's more of an actual synopsis/summary of what I have right now for it:<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Opal Dullen lives a simple life, trying not to get in anyone else's way or let anyone else get in her's, especially the pleasantly irritating Richard Cobbler. But when she receives an unexpected letter that her brother-in-law has died and left his ten children in her care, her entire world is turned upside down and inside out. Not knowing what else to do, she reluctantly accepts Mr. Cobbler's offer of his vacant inn as a place for the children to stay -- an inn made to look like a shoe of all things!</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Regrets and past hurts try reclaiming their place in Opal's mind anew when the children come to live with her in their new home, but she soon begins to discover and learn about the beauty of second chances... and perhaps even rekindle a relationship that was thought to be lost forever.</span></i><br />
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I'm considering whether or not to change it to seven children instead of ten...?? I'm not sure about that yet. I'll try to keep you guys informed on this story as much as may be. ;) I think telling you guys about it here will also help keep me more accountable to this story, so that would definitely be a good thing.<br />
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<li>I'm also currently working on two different short stories, both historical fiction, for two different short story contests going on this month... but we'll see if that actually happens (most likely not, I'd guess, as it's getting pretty close to the deadline and I have tons of other things I should be doing besides...). Whether I actually submit them in the contests or not, I'm still planning to finish them of course, and might even possibly end up posting them on here when I get them finished.</li>
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And I have so many other starts to stories written down different places, and ones that have only been written up in my head up until now, but those are the ones that are mainly going on right now. I'll have to share more stories and ideas in another post. SO MANY STORIES, SO LITTLE TIME. </div>
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So yeah, hope you enjoyed this different kind of post and hearing about a couple of writing projects I've been working on lately. Do you have any 'works in progress' going on right now? I'd love to hear about them! :D<br />
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I hope all of you are having an awesome week! Write to you later! God bless! :)</div>
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~Faith</div>
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Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202510374655131733.post-651376552406220202018-02-06T13:07:00.001-08:002018-02-06T13:07:04.039-08:00A TODAY MentalityHappy 2018, everyone! It's hard to believe that a whole month of this year has already flown past us! How could this have happened??? But let's not be discouraged! We still have 11 months left of this thing. We're far from over with 2018. We're still just getting started!<br />
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Maybe you didn't get much done in January. To be honest, I myself didn't get a whole lot done of what I wanted to do. I didn't start out this year with that big bang I was hoping for. For one thing, I was planning to post a lot more and do more with this blog at the beginning of the year. Did that happen? Well as you can see... no, it didn't. This is actually the first thing I've posted this year, so...<br />
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It's easy to get discouraged when you don't start out the New Year the way you hoped. When time seems to just keep flying by, not stopping long enough for you to catch up, it's easy to just give up on the things you had first planned and set out to do. But let me encourage you guys (and I'm talking to myself here as well) that it's a new day every day -- it's never too late to get started on goals or projects you may have for this year. You still have time!<br />
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BUT REMEMBER, don't take that as an excuse -- an excuse to not get things done. And maybe it's not like this with everyone, but I know that with myself, I've done this way too many times. "Faith, what <i>are</i> you talking about?" Okay sorry, let me back up. When you're at this age, teenage/early twenties, you have many people tell you things like, "You're so young, you have plenty of time to do that!" "Don't worry about that, you have plenty of time to get that done!"<br />
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Now, I'm definitely not saying that that's wrong to say to someone. That can be a very encouraging thing to say. I know it's been encouraging to me when I've been feeling like I've wasted a lot of time already, and it helps remind me that my life is far from over yet and that I still have plenty of time ahead of me to get the things done that I want and need to do. But... I think sometimes we take this "plenty of time" thing the wrong way. I think we do this without even realizing it. When we get it into our minds that we have "plenty of time", for some of us (not all of us, but probably quite a few) it gives us an excuse to not do anything right now. Because we tell ourselves, "Well, I have plenty of time to get that done, so I'll just put that off for now... I'll do that later... <i>I have<b> plenty of time</b>.</i>.."<br />
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And, YES, we have a lot of time. We have our whole lives ahead of us. And NO, we shouldn't just rush into things because we need to hurry up and get 'er done! We need to seek God's will and not bolt into something just because everyone else is doing it or others are telling you that you need to do a certain thing.<br />
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BUT we also need to not always be putting things off for tomorrow, for next week, for next month. We don't have an unlimited amount of time here on this earth. We're all going to move on from this life eventually. Even if we live to be 120, we still need to use our time wisely here and not just sit around, waiting for that sudden burst of motivation to rise up in our veins every now and then to get us going out and doing something. We can't always do everything right away, and sometimes we have to be patient and not rush into everything right now; sometimes we need to wait until tomorrow to do the thing. But there's always SOMETHING that can be done <i>today</i>. Maybe you can't do the whole job today, but you can do a <i>step</i>. That's how we ultimately get things done, right? <i>One step at a time.</i><br />
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God has a plan for your life. A GOOD one. He has things for you to do. But it's up to you if you want to follow that plan, and do the things He has for you to do. He usually doesn't give you His whole plan and a bunch of things you need to do all at once. He guides us in<i> steps</i>. <i>One step at a time. </i>We can walk in His plan for us if we'll only listen and take the steps He tells us to take. What step is God guiding you to take TODAY? What He's telling you to do might make no sense to your head right now... But if you're faithful to do that one thing, He'll give you another thing -- another step -- to do, and little by little, it will suddenly all start to make sense. God would never lead us down a path that doesn't go anywhere, or down one that leads to destruction or confusion. He only has GOOD planned for us. So let's not be afraid to follow Him, to do what He's instructing us to do, and to take the steps He's wanting us to take with Him.<br />
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So, let me ask you... What's you're goal? What's that thing that's been pressing on your heart that you know God's been leading you to start? Maybe it's just a small personal thing that you've been desiring to accomplish, like eating healthier. What can you do TODAY towards reaching that goal?<br />
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I challenge you, as well as myself, to have a <b>today mentality</b>. What can be done<i> today</i>? A lot of times I find myself always thinking to tomorrow, to the next thing that needs to be done, and not the thing that needs to be done right now, that needs to be done TODAY. But, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that you should never make a plan for things ahead. Plans are very important! Getting a plan together is one step in getting things done. But if we're <i>only</i> focused on our plans for the <i>future</i> and never on the here and now, we'll miss out on a lot and never actually get much of anything really done.<br />
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Psalm 118:24 says,<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">"This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."</span> </i><br />
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<b>This</b> is the day. <b>Today. </b>Right now. We're not talking about tomorrow... <b>THIS</b> day -- <b>TODAY</b> -- is the day the <b><i>LORD</i> <i>has made</i></b>! So come on, guys, let's go out and do something with<b><i> <span>this </span><span>day</span></i></b><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>the LORD has given us!<br />
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~Faith<br />
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<i>What are the goals you want to accomplish this year? Share them down in the comments if you'd like! :)</i>Faith G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10726331360848513450noreply@blogger.com12