It’s National Novel Writing Month! (Or NaNoWriMo) There are a couple of websites where you can attempt to write a novel in just 30 days… or, seeing that I’m so tardy in telling you about this, in 24 days. I’m going to http://ywp.nanowrimo.org to write my story & you can find my profile and some information on my book by looking up ramblinrose506 on that site. Please drop by if you care to and maybe even give it a go yourself! I have two buddies so far, and I’d love to have more!

Towards the end of August, there was a post on The Rebelution titled “35 Reasons Not to Sin.” I ended up taking enough of those reasons off so that they’d all fit on a single piece of paper, which I posted on my bulletin board. I find that sometimes I want to ignore this little piece of paper. I’m sure my readers are all smart enough to figure out why. Here’s the complete list, which I took from the Rebelution website, which they took from someone else’s blog…. I’ll go see if I can find the link. [Edit: I found the link, and I posted it 'cause I believe in giving credit where credit is due, but it appears that this person isn't the original author, either. LOL]

35 REASONS NOT TO SIN

 

• Because a little sin leads to more sin.
• Because my sin invites the discipline of God.
• Because the time spent in sin is forever wasted.
• Because my sin never pleases but always grieves God who loves me.
• Because my sin places a greater burden on my spiritual leaders.
• Because in time my sin always brings heaviness to my heart.
• Because I am doing what I do not have to do.
• Because my sin always makes me less than what I could be.
• Because others, including my family, suffer consequences due to my sin.
• Because my sin saddens the godly.
• Because my sin makes the enemies of God rejoice.
• Because sin deceives me into believing I have gained when in reality I have lost.
• Because sin may keep me from qualifying for spiritual leadership.
• Because the supposed benefits of my sin will never outweigh the consequences of disobedience.
• Because repenting of my sin is such a painful process, yet I must repent.
• Because sin is a very brief pleasure for an eternal loss.
• Because my sin may influence others to sin.
• Because my sin may keep others from knowing Christ.
• Because sin makes light of the cross, upon which Christ died for the very purpose of taking away my sin.
• Because it is impossible to sin and follow the Spirit at the same time.
• Because God chooses not to respect the prayers of those who cherish their sin.
• Because sin steals my reputation and robs me of my testimony.
• Because others once more earnest than I have been destroyed by just such sins.
• Because the inhabitants of heaven and hell would all testify to the foolishness of this sin.
• Because sin and guilt may harm both mind and body.
• Because sins mixed with service make the things of God tasteless.
• Because suffering for sin has no joy or reward, though suffering for righteousness has both.
• Because my sin is adultery with the world.
• Because, though forgiven, I will review this very sin at the Judgment Seat where loss and gain of eternal rewards are applied.
• Because I can never really know ahead of time just how severe the discipline for my sin might be.
• Because my sin may be an indication of a lost condition.
• Because to sin is not to love Christ.
• Because my unwillingness to reject this sin now grants it an authority over me greater than I wish to believe.
• Because sin glorifies God only in His judgment of it and His turning of it to good use, never because it is worth anything on it’s own.
• Because I promised God he would be Lord of my life.

Here is a favorite youtube video of mine made from two very similar scenes in Little Women and Anne of Avonlea. Enjoy!

A very dear friend of mine has just started a blog about books, and I would encourage you to drop by and follow her! I’m hoping to do a guest post (or two or three) over the life of the blog… we’ll see how that goes. Anyhow, please leave her a comment and don’t forget to visit again!

This is a song that I first heard at camp and I have been thinking about it a lot. It was written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. I don’t agree with their music standards, but many of their lyrics are powerful. Here is Every Promise (also known as From the Breaking of the Dawn):

From the breaking of the dawn

to the setting of the sun

I will stand on every promise of Your word

Words of power, strong to save,

that will never pass away;

I will stand of every promise of Your word

For Your covenant is sure

and on this I am secure

I can stand on every promise of Your word

When I stumble and I sin, condemnation pressing in,

I will stand on every promise of Your word

You are faithful to forgive,

that in freedom I might live

So I stand on every promise of Your word

Guilt to innocence restored;

You remember sins no more

So I’ll stand on every promise of Your word

When I’m faced with anguished choice,

I will listen for Your voice

and I’ll stand on every promise of Your Word

Through this dark and troubled land,

You will guide me with Your hand

as I stand on every promise of Your Word.

And You’ve promised to complete every work begun in me.

So I’ll stand on every promise of Your word

Hope that lifts me from despair; Love that casts out every fear

as I stand on every promise of Your word.

Not forsaken, not alone

for the Comforter has come;

And I stand on every promise of Your word.

Grace sufficient, grace for me;

Grace for all who will believe.

We will stand on every promise of Your word.

Hey, ya’ll! I’m still blogging! Hurrah! =D We’ll see if I can keep up this good streak, huh? Thanks so much to those of you who have been leaving me comments. I appreciate it so much! I think that comments always make people happy. Here are a couple of questions for you to answer in the event that you don’t have a comment to leave after reading my post:

• What are your plans for this weekend, if any?
• What do you love about fall?

My answers to these questions are: For this weekend I’m hoping to be able to hang out with my good friend Erin. She lives about an hour away from me, but there’s a family who goes to our church that live out near her. So what I’m hoping will work out is this: There’s a youth activity tomorrow night and the M’s are planning on coming. So I’ll ride home with them, spend the weekend with Erin, then get a ride with the M’s back to church on Sunday morning. The only thing that might ruin my beautiful plan is the weather… We’ll see how it goes.

My favorite part of fall is pretty much everything, but especially the weather. And leaves crunching under my feet. I love the colors all around and the crisp air. I love drinking hot tea or apple cider on a fall morning. Fall is just my favorite season! I just now realized that I keep saying ‘fall’ in spite of the fact that I think the word autumn is much nicer… Anyhow, on Monday I posted and mentioned to ya’ll what a gorgeous autumn we’re having. I don’t recall whether or not I actually said this, but it was inspiring weather. The type that makes me want to go outside and write poems or stories. As I hadn’t taken any pictures yet, I determined that I would post later in the week with pictures of our lovely fall. Here is a sample of what procrastination does to such a post:

I had wanted to get some pictures of the trees and snowdrifts in our back yard, but our back door was frozen closed… so I went around to go through the gate, but this is what I saw:

The ice didn’t show up too well in the picture, but the gate is pretty stuck, too.

Not the most flattering picture I’ve taken of myself, but here is yours truly, blogger (on occasion lol) and photographer. =D

What’s still visible of our raspberry bushes. I guess we won’t have fresh raspberries ’til next summer. =(

The next part of my morning was to warm up -

So… Happy Fall, everyone! =D

Nothing. LOL Okay, I got a lot done, but not really all the stuff I WANTED to get done. I’m not quite finished with Hope Rising, but I did get closer. I did clean my bedroom and bathroom, but it didn’t last long. And I did finish my history book. Memorizing? Let’s not go there for now and nobody will get hurt. LOL I’m kidding, of course. It just didn’t go too well.

I have to head to bed, but I think I’ll do an autumny-type post this week. Today was just gorgeous!

Bye for now!

Perhaps no one is really interested, but I thought I’d do a post on my goals for the week. On Saturday I’ll try to do a post on my success!

• Finish my first history book
• Memorize one chapter of 2 Timothy
• Clean my bedroom and bathroom
• Finish reading Hope Rising

It doesn’t look like much, does it? It might be harder than it looks, though.

Anyhow… I hope ya’ll have a great week! See you around!

I have always been a readaholic, reading and rereading books until I’d memorized some passages. Although reading is a good thing, my Mom recognized that I was taking it to an unhealthy level. Mystery was my obsession, and I was caught reading the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew when I should be doing school. Secret of the Golden Cowrie was confiscated when I failed to set the table for supper. Mystery of the Missing Stamp had to be given up for a week because I was found with a flashlight under my blanket, reading into the wee hours of the morning. And the American Adventure series? I dove into those so whole-heartedly that my Mom put a restriction on me: I was only allowed to read for 1 hour every day. TORTURE! At another time, I had to take all of my books into my mom’s room so that she knew what I was reading and when I was reading it. I’d trek in early in the morning and ask for Twig the Collie, read a few chapters, and return it to her before breakfast. So went my early life.

When I turned 13, however, Mom came up with a new idea. I must say it was rather brilliant, though I did NOT think so at the time. She told me that for one whole long month, I could not read any fiction. Her goal in doing this (I think) was to have my “must-be-reading” nature turn me towards biographies and autobiographies of missionaries and other more worthy heroes. I imagine that she didn’t want me trying to turn into a Nancy Drew, getting kidnapped every few months and being incommunicado for days on end during a case. (LOL Like that would ever happen!) Anyhow… I didn’t see the sense of her idea, so I resolved that if I couldn’t read fiction, I wouldn’t read anything. I lasted for THREE DAYS, people. Yeah. It’s an obsession. The first thing I picked up was a biography about Jim Elliot. I don’t remember which one it was, but I do remember reading it and thinking, “You know, this is kinda cool.” And then someone suggested that I read about Anne Frank. I wish I knew who it was who gave me this suggestion, because they opened a new chapter in my life. You see, my library didn’t have any books about Anne Frank that weren’t checked out. But they DID have dozens of other World War Two and Holocaust books. Memoirs, autobiographies, timelines, histories. I checked out a few in desperation: I felt that I just had to be reading! As I read, I started wanting more. These were REAL people, things that REALLY happened! I read about concentration camps and battlefields, then one memoir mentioned a pilot… so I read about him, then I had to read about airplanes. Planes can take off from onboard ships, so then I read about ships. Then I checked out books on secret codes. And the process just went on and on. It was at this time that I discovered the classics, as well. In one of the many biographies I read, I found that a girl loved Jane Austen and George Eliot. So when my month was up, I read Jane Austen. And George Eliot. Charles Dickens. Elizabeth Gaskell. Arthur Conan Doyle. Lloyd Douglas. Alexander Dumas. etc etc etc. My fiction addiction leveled off a bit, but my obsession with the written word reached a feverish all-time high. I decided to break my mystery habit in my own writing and wrote my first historical fiction. I don’t know if I’ll ever love any of my writings as much as I love that book. The story takes place during the Holocaust, and it involves finding new life at the end of tragedy. I had found a new life for myself in the world of the past. The things that really happened are often just as (or more) exciting than what authors come up with.

So here’s the thing about history: It opens your eyes. I found links from the past that explain some of my world today. I discovered just how amazing things are – things that I just take for granted. What went into the radio? The light bulb? Airplanes and cars? The people who invented these things are honored in our society today, but in their own world, they were thought of as total jerks. I’ve just written about 750 words to say something that could be said in a mere five words: “Don’t be afraid to expand” Try something new! As unwilling as I was to enter the “real world” of non-fiction, I found it to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Don’t get stuck in your little corner, ’cause another thing about history is this: people who stay in their own cozy little corners don’t make a difference.

A lot of people… okay, three people… that I’m subscribed to have been posting youtube videos rather frequently with either a favorite song, movie scene, or just something funny. So since I’m TRYING to get back into blogging, and I’m tired of just staring at this blank white space… I think I’ll join the crowd (or shall I say group?) and just post a video. Don’t worry, though! I won’t make youtube the majority of my posts. I don’t think. =D

It seems as though this one has been full circle, but I never know what my readers may or may not have seen, so here’s a little humor for the day: