Book Review: Twice Bought, a Tale of the Oregon Gold Fields, by R. M. Ballantyne

Twice Bought: A Tale of the Oregon Gold Fields, by R. M. Ballantyne

Book Review: Michael Strogoff, Courier of the Czar, by Jules Verne

Book Review: Michael Strogoff, by Jules Verne

A Birthday Tea...

     Yesterday was my cousin Sophia's birthday, so Farrah and I put our heads together and planned a little surprise.

First I tidied and decorated the room, while Farrah did some cooking...

My First Short Story: Vision Forum Essay Contest: "Fight Hard and Hold Fast!"

     This is the story I sent in to Vision Forum for their  catalog front-cover essay contest in 2011.  The theme was "Fight Hard and Hold Fast".  The original version was much more rough and full of problems than this one, and, needless to say, it didn't place.  I was going to enter the contest last year too (2012), but completely forgot to send in my story.  Grrr....  Oh well, maybe the Lord just wanted my siblings and friends to be the only ones to read it.  :)
I was hunting all over the internet today looking for the original picture that the story was built around, but could not find it anywhere.  I have no idea why it has been apparently deleted from the web, but it is.  So... I have put in the photo which they replaced the old one with, and will have to leave the additional details in the original to the imagination of my readers.
      I know this story isn't the best, but I hope you all enjoy it, and will try to finish/ think up some new ones later on.  Next week I will be posting my first book review, so "stay tuned"!

(Quick note:  if there is anything said in this story that appears offensive against a nation or class of people, please forgive it, as it is purely the expression of the character(s), and I do not think so myself, though it may have been true at the time, and it was added solely to give more reality to the story.)

What We've Been Up To...

I know it's been a while since I've posted... Once more I have to apologize for not being more consistent with this poor little blog.  We have been very busy (when are we not!) and have made quite a bit of progress.  We are fully moved into our new house now!

Here are a few pictures that Savana took, showing some of our recent activities.

This was a great accomplishment for Bo- chopping down a tree, by himself, with his ax!

He and William cut it up with some help from Colin, a friend from Canada who's down for the winter with his family (they go to our church when they are down here).

Blog Poll Results

Well, the results are in- what is the favorite topic for me to post about?

First, I want to say thank you for voting!  It has encouraged me that there really are more things that I can post about which will be interesting to you.  Thank you for the encouragement!

And now- the results....

What Would You Like to See Me Posting About?

Family Life

Book Reviews

Short Stories

Essays/ Articles

22% voted for Family Life,

22% voted for Book Reviews,

44% voted for Short Stories,

and apparently I must have worn out everyone's patience with my Creation vs. Evolution posts, because 0% voted for Essays/ Articles (if it had been up to me though, I would have voted for one of the others too!)

So, thank you so much for voting!  I will be posting (more frequently I hope) about all the above topics which were voted on.  I think the first post will fall into the "Family Life" category, as I'm planning to do one about moving into our new home.  After that, we'll see what I feel most inspired to post about.  :)  So please, be patient, and I'll try to do a better job keeping up with this blog!   And thank you all for voting!

2012

     I know this post is a bit late, but better late than never.

     As R. M. Ballantyne says, "life is checkered".  This past year has been filled with blessings, surprises, sorrows, joys, disappointments, dreams, and plans.  There have been some big changes too.  I'll just briefly cover a few of the things that have happened, or are soon to happen.

Blog Poll

So, what would you like to see me posting on my blog? (Sorry I post so infrequently.)  I've put a poll down at the bottom of this page, and would really appreciate it if you would take a few seconds to vote.  Part of the reason I haven't been posting much is because I feel that I just don't have a whole lot to post on here about.  That's why I put up all those Creation Debate posts.  Anyway, please let me know what you'd like to see on here!  You could also leave a comment (after voting) to tell me why you voted what you did.  I would love to hear from you!
I'm working on a very belated New Year's/ catch-up post, so that should be coming along soon.  Thank you for having patience with me!

Creation vs. Evolution: Part 6- So How Old is the Earth?- Conclusion

Creation vs. Evolution: Part 5- "Bones of Contention"

(Taken from the AiG website...)

Z: Fossils and common descent. This is one of the most controversial topics, whether they prove or disprove evolution. “When objections are raised about ‘evolution,’ the object of concern is nearly always the concept of common descent. Common descent is the proposal that all organisms, living and extinct, are connected by an unbroken series of ancestor-descendent relationships to a single ancestral life form by a process of descent with modification. 

Creation vs. Evolution: Part 4- Survival of the Fittest and Sin

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Z: Survival of the Fittest. One of the basic terms in the evolutionary process. Basically meaning, “Whoever was the fittest survived.” (Not hard to understand, is it?) My question to you is, why, if God knew that different species would fail to survive and become extinct, why did he even create them in the beginning? If, like the dodo, animals would die and never be seen again, why did God even let those animals come into existence? “Extinction—the complete dying out of a species—is a normal occurrence in nature. Most species that have ever existed are now extinct.” (Encyclopedia of Animals, p. 22) Why did God allow those animals even to survive? Unless he, in evolution, just let some parts of it go wherever it took those animals, perhaps God changed it a little bit to make it better, but then left that family of animals to then die out? If we take the literal view of creation, why did God create those

animals that had no chance to survive?

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Creation vs. Evolution: Part 3- The Dinosaur Debate

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Z: In these next four paragraphs I will cover topics that have everything to do with how the world was created and the aftermath.

Dinosaurs:

     Some of the most interesting animals to ever walk the earth—for about perhaps 2,000 years, if you believe what the Bible says literally. God created all reptiles on the fifth “day” then he killed them off in the flood, many literal creationists say. But, in the encyclopedia, it says that they ruled the earth for about 140 million years.

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