Books, books, books

I have been tagged by the Servens to post about books. So here goes.

1. One book that changed your life. Inside the New Age Nightmare by Randall N. Baer. I have never read this book, but my parents read it and were saved right afterward. They had been into some new age ideas and this book really opened their eyes to the truth. If they had not read this book I am sure my life would have been very different. Also the Bible, the Word of God. The Bible continues to change me as I read it more and more.

2. One book that you've read more than once. I have read many books more than once. When I was younger I read many books by Marguerite Henry more than several times.

3. One book that you would want on a desert island. The Bible. I would need this book more than any other book.

4. One book that made you laugh. All the Anne of Green Gables series. Anne was always getting into the most awkward scrapes. Also Nicholas Nickleby and others by Charles Dickens.

5. One book that made you cry. A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I really, really enjoyed this book.

6. One book that you wish had been written. I can't think of any right now.

7. One book that you wish had never been written. I am not sure about this one either. There are many books that it would probably have been better if they had never been written.

8. One book that you are currently reading. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I am enjoying it so far. I will know for sure if I like it when I finish it.

9. One book that you are meaning to read. Well there is a whole list of those:) I just bought some used classics that I will read soon. I always enjoy getting suggestions.

10. Now tag four people. I don't know very many people with blogs so I will only tag Mandy. If you don't have time to do this don't worry about it.

Glorious

The sunset this evening was glorious. It always amazes me how beautiful and unique each sunset is. They are like paintings done by God who is the true artist.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works.

Psalm 19:1 & Psalm 145:5

He Who Keeps You Will Not Slumber

Psalm 121
A Song of Ascents.

I will lift up my eyes to the hills—

From whence comes my help?

My help comes from the LORD,

Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved;

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel

Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;

The LORD is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,

Nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;

He shall preserve your soul.

The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in

From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Fun at the Beach

Yesterday we were able to go to the beach for the afternoon with the Keulens and several friends from out of state. We spent our time climbing rocks and trees, taking pictures, looking at tide pools, getting very dirty and just generally having fun. We were planning to watch the sunset but it was too foggy to see it.
Afterwards we all went to the Keulens' house for homemade pizza and more fun. Soon we had the instruments out for jamming and singing. We were all having such a great time that before we knew it was almost 11 and time to go home an get some sleep!
Thank you, Keulens for inviting us, we had a wonderful time!

The tree we climbed into




Out on the rocks

Looking at the pet crab

Who had the dirtiest feet at the end of the day?

Having a Ball!

Last Friday evening my whole family attended a civil war ball. Our friend Sharon came over before to get dressed for the ball and rode with us. It took us a little longer than we expected so we were russhing out the door when we should have been arriving. It is ridiculous trying to get three girls in hoop skirts into the back seat of a van! We all had an enjoyable time.

When we got home at 11 p.m. the three of us girls started watching Wives and Daughters, a four part movie. We only made it through 2 episodes before going to bed at 3 a.m. It was a terrible place to stop but we were all so tired.

All dressed up

Dancing

Signs of Fall

Fall is coming! It is starting to feel more like fall; the weather was cooler today and the leaves are just starting to turn color. I am looking forward to fall. I love the cooler weather, the fall colors, wearing sweaters, the smell of apple crisp baking. I enjoy all the different seasons but I think fall is my favorite.

Another Trip

Well we made it back from Oregon. We got home around eight last night after a late start and a long drive.

We had an enjoyable and busy trip. We packed a lot into only six days. The first two nights we spent with our grandparents up in the Bay Area. Grandpa has a couple old Oldsmobile "muscle" cars and he likes to take them out to "exercise" them. So Dad, Jonathan, and I went for a ride with Grandpa in his black and gold hotrod car. He likes to drive really fast; way over the speed limit!

On Sunday afternoon there was a birthday party for Grandma at my cousin's house. All our relatives on my mom's side were there. It was good to see everyone.

Grandma opening her gifts

Monday morning we packed up and headed for Southern Oregon. We spent the night at the state park along the Rogue River in a yurt. A yurt is a round tentlike shelter. It was actually very comfortable.

The next morning we picked wild berries along the river and had them for breakfast. They were delicious! We spent the day mostly driving around the area. We saw some very pretty areas around Ashland, Grants Pass, Cave Junction, and the Applegate Valley. We drove by some properties that we had looked up before we left. We are not planning to move but just like to look, we didn't really like anything we saw anyway. We also ate lunch and walked around in Jacksonville which is a fun historical town.

Mom and Melissa in front of the yurt.

Wild blackberries


On Wednesday we took a tour of the Oregon Caves outside Cave Junction. It was very interesting despite the evolutionary ideas our tour guide threw in. The tour lasted for about an hour and a half and it was quite cold down there. It is so amazing to see all the formations that are under the ground. It just makes me realize what a creative God we have. Then after a picnic by the creek we went to the Rogue River to try some fishing. We had a good time fishing but didn't catch anything that we kept. Melissa and I did catch a lot of very small fish though. The weather and scenery was beautiful and it was very relaxing.

Rock formation in the caves.

Melissa fishing in the Rogue River



Thursday was an especially fun day. We took a two hour drive up to visit some friends. We visited the Boohers and also Jenny and Julie K. who are up there staying with them. It was a good time of visiting. That night we went to see a Shakespeare play in Ashland. We had never done anything like that before and it was a lot of fun. The play was pretty good but it seemed like it had been changed some and "modernized". We were not allowed to take pictures in the theater so I don't have any.

Visiting with friends

An almost full moon



We were supposed to get an early start on Friday morning to head home, but... well we didn't. We went out to breakfast which of course takes a while. It was very good though. Next we were going to walk around Ashland quickly but that turned out to be not so quick. There were some fun shops to go in and a lot of sidewalk sales. Then we found a music store! It had all sorts of instruments; old violins, banjos, guitars, upright bass. It was so fun just to look. I found a book of Early Dance Music for the Mandolin. It looked interesting and came with a CD (now that I play more by ear it a CD really helps) so I bought it. I guess I need to start practicing more now! Well we finally got in the car and headed off toward home.

When we got home we had to take care of our animals and milk the the neighbors goats. They took care of our animals while we were gone and we are taking care of theirs while they are gone. It just worked out that we got home the same day they left.

I had a fun time on the trip but am happy to be home.

Random Ramblings

Well I am actually going to post again!! This is going to be rather random I think :)

The past few weeks have been fairly busy so I will just give a brief overview of what we have been doing.

Melissa and I have spent several days over at a lady's house helping clean, organize, and do paper work. She and her husband are the administrators of our local home school group so with the school year starting, her grandchildren visiting, and work being done on their house she had too much to do. We also spent two days helping an older lady who is moving sort her books. She had many very old books which was fun because I love looking through old books!

We are also working on a shed for the goat/horses. It has been a long project, mostly just because we don't often work on it. This week we have done as much as we can and now we need to buy more materials.

One very fun thing we did recently was go boogie boarding with some friends for the first time. It was a blast! Our friends were very helpful in teaching us how to catch waves. And pretty soon I was actually catching some. We spent all afternoon at the beach then we all came to our house for dinner and a movie. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post. :(

Two nights ago we had a good friend over that lives just across the road but we hadn't seen since before music camp. She went away for the two weeks after we got home and then she was busy and we were busy. It was so good to finally spend some time with her.

This weekend we are going on a trip to see our grandparents in the Bay Area and then up to southern Oregon to do some fishing. I will probably post again when I get home.
I really need to get off now. I have a whole pile of ironing, my room desperately needs to be cleaned and I really should get some packing done.

Music Camp Pictures

Well here are the pictures of music camp.

Friends at camp

Getting some extra fiddle practice

My fiddle class

Band scramble night!



Dancing the Virginia Reel



Late night hymn sing

Music Camp!

Well I started this blog and then haven't really posted anything! So now I am going to post my first real post. I will try to continue posting whenever I think about it.


A few weeks ago we all headed up to Sisters, Oregon for the Booher Family Music Camp. We had an amazing time! We left home at 11:30 Saturday night with another family from our area and drove all night. By the next morning everyone was very tired and rather goofy. Anyway, we arrived in Sisters sometime around noon and ate lunch in the park. Some people took naps and some of us walked around town before heading over to the camp.
Music classes started at 9 Monday morning. I was in fiddle 3, my sister Melissa was in piano 2, and my brother Jonathan in guitar 2. The first thing we had to do in my class was each of us play a song by ourself. Now, I don't really like playing solos and of course my mind went blank as soon as it was my turn to play. I couldn't remember any songs that I knew! I finally did manage to play a very simple waltz. Once that was past I really enjoyed the classes. The different teachers rotated from class to class, so we got to learn many different songs and styles. I especially enjoyed the Scottish fiddle style that one teacher taught. The classes were very intensive and sometimes just a little bit overwhelming, but I learned so much the whole week.
One of the best parts of camp was meeting so many wonderful people! I am not generally a very outgoing person so meeting a lot of new people can be challenging, but I enjoyed it so much. Everyone was so friendly. I was so encouraged to see so many sweet families.
There was something going on every evening; jamming, concerts, singing, dancing. The band scramble concert was my favorite. All the students were assigned to a group of all different levels and instruments. We had half the morning and all afternoon to choose and practice a song for the evening performance. It was a lot of fun to see what all the groups came up with. They all sounded so good!
I feel so blessed and am very grateful to God that we were able to go to music camp this year.

Well I was going to post some pictures, but it doesn't seem to be working right now. Maybe tomorrow!