On Christmas Eve we made some Snicker doodles which turned out very delicious and allowed the house to have a lovely aroma for the rest of the day.

Here is the finished product:

We also each had our own little Cornish Hens.

The entire dinner was : eggnog, a sprite/pineapple drink that I love, cheesy potatoes (another favourite dish), Cornish hens, green beans, and crescent rolls. We had candles lit and our new homemade napkins, with some Christmas music playing in the background.

This was probably my favourite Christmas Eve dinner of all! What did you have for your Christmas Eve dinner?

Day Three of Reading: Upon reaching more describable places in England, Miss Smith regains the feeling of Jane Austen and the writing focuses more on what I expected of it. Travels in Kent which are somewhat torture for our traveler due to the inexperience of the art of hitch-hiking. Winchester, Lyme, and Bath are also regions that she visits. Sharing her views, she cannot grow to love Lyme for all of the fresh air, and instead strengthens her love for Bath. Traveling also to Exeter where Marianne wanted to gallop over the Downs, but our traveler had grown to not recognize any features of land different from rolling hills in England and was not impressed. *I would absolutely love to travel across England and become tired of seeing the rolling hills, however since there is only one hill in our town, I don’t think I could ever be tired of seeing them.*

A few bits and pieces are inserted about her longing for this Jack character, but not nearly as much as before, thank goodness. I must say my favourite part was when Jack left the scene.

Then, she goes into how fast the relationships were in those days. Mr. Collins’s speedy declaration, Willoughby’s expected proposal after only a few months, and so on. She then wrote about the long years of dating and realized that the men were never able to commit to a “long term relationship” such as marriage, and yet she continues to date. But she did sort of sum up that she wants a man that is masculine, has respect for marriage, and is commitment material. However, while reading the passage, It seemed a little awkward at how she described the dating process in her own life. Something was a little off in my view.

Then, she spoke of how she wanted to remain pure and such, and her thoughts would go back to this Jack guy, and that’s where I read a little quicker to pass the part that had absolutely nothing to do with Jane Austen’s travels. In a way it could be a good witness for a unbelieving Jane Austen fan who is not sure about purity before marriage, but for me, I would rather get back to the travels. Miss Smith also travels to Lyme Park where Pemberely was situated, oh to be in the land of Darcy.

I must say that I found it humorous when she explained how many hours she was watching British television and REAL BBC broadcasts that the voice in her head had a British accent. I would love to have a British accent in my head…for I am extremely giddy around people in real life, not just in the television, who have REAL, ERROR-LESS British accents!

Day Four or Five of Reading: After a good couple of chapters on Austen nostalgia as she wraps up her journey, Miss Smith throws in the mentioning of Jack after receiving an e-mail from him, which she finds disappointingly formal. Then she converses with her friend about how Christian men are weird, and she is  beginning to believe that they would have to go outside the church to find normal, committed men.   May I bring to mind the verse 2 Corinthians 6:14?

Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

I must also add that she entered a minuscule thought about finishing her Harry Potter book. I am sorry, but I probably don’t want to be reading a book of someone’s who enjoys Harry Potter.

She continues throughout the last pages with her life a year afterward with her illness and romantic attachment with Jack (which never amounted to anything for they never were together due to his new girlfriend, leaving Miss Smith to “try again” at finding a husband). Bringing into her own life the fact that however large and big Jane Austen’s name became, she was a simple woman, pleased with her family and the life she lived. Miss Smith desired what Jane Austen had found in life; peace and happiness.

Overall Review: I did not excessively enjoy this book, partly because I am an old fashioned girl. This book had a modern feel to it…not my forte. She included some good thoughts on her struggles in her Christian walk which was honest of her, but then again some thoughts were not my beliefs, such as “dating” guys on her travels, her reasons for liking Jack, and her reading material-H.P. I am strongly convicted on those subjects.

I would  probably not recommend the entire book to any die hard Jane Austen fans…original, old fashioned, Jane Austen fans that are interested in her, her life, family, and books only. Miss Smith has more of her own thoughts and life incorporated into the book which is alright considering the fact that it is “Her walk with Jane Austen”, however I still was expecting perhaps a more descriptive landscape and travel views for those J.A. fans who couldn’t travel to England. Anyway these are entirely my opinions, if you feel like you want to read the book, carry on. There are still some good paragraphs about Jane Austen’s life. You can find this book in some Christian bookstores.

You can read part 1 here.

Day One of Reading: My first impression is eagerness, for I have seen this book on a few Jane Austen fan blogs, however, after a few chapters, it seems I am a little disappointed. I thought it would be a sensible tour of the countryside that Jane Austen described in her novels, and yet it is more personal in regards to the author. It is her views, her experiences that actually involve meeting a guy but things do not get out of hand, and only makes small references to the countryside and compares her situation with Jane Austen’s. The most comparison is in the fact that she is on the wrong side of thirty and still single, and therefore compares her life to the great authoress’s.

She also makes references to her faith in God, confesses her “conflicted semi feminist” worldview,  how she has been through countless relationships, been in a Christian college, and what I find somewhat silly- references to her clothing on certain days like her “pink capris, flowery top that wasn’t too unconventional for the outing” etc. (my example,  similar to her’s but in less detail)

And one particular aspect that is somewhat tiresome. A few times, more than necessary, she bursts into 3 or 4 pages of just her own thoughts going on in her head about her attachments, her little dates with a guy named Jack who “is not the fundamental Christian guy”, and her inability to sleep due to a previous mono like virus that she had in her throat. I really wish that she would stick to the roads that she is traveling, give more information about Jane Austen in those particular regions, and discuss her romantic attachment less…even better…not at all. But for the sake of this review, I will continue reading, to see if this book will redeem itself.

Miss Lori Smith

Day Two of Reading: It seems Miss Smith knew what was coming in her review and quickly added more Jane Austen references and traveling descriptions, mostly because “Jack” went his separate way and we had to hear a few more lonesome lines of hope.

In her travels, she reaches Jane’s home town, where she lived with her family, received great inspirations, and also lived to see herself never find the happiness that her heroines possessed. But we then go into, very abruptly, on how she struggles with trusting God’s ability for beautiful and harsh events. She compares her lack of understanding in the “harshness of God” to Cassandra after she lost her fiance in the West Indies.

And surprisingly, half of chapter eight is about the Austen family and where they were situated in the countryside. And through chapters nine and ten she bounces between the friends she is meeting and a connection into Jane Austen’s life. Until my favourite part comes into play. She visits the British Library! Here she can not put too much of her own details into  it for it is fact and she must go along with it.

Miss Smith also discusses beauty, and how it is said that Jane Austen would’ve looked…not sure what this has to do with traveling, but there were a few good quotes that I will put in, just to get off the subject also.

“I don’t believe in plastic surgery. For one thing, it is far easier to learn to be content with your body than to have someone knock you out, cut you open, and suck things out, or stuff foreign objects inside you. Maybe I’ve got this wrong. Maybe surgery is easier than contentment. But I think contentment is healthier and more admirable and in some ways more attractive.” (I like that quote)

Then we pop back into travels and Jane Austen by visiting Kent. I will have Part 2 up shortly.

You can read some other reviews here and here.

My review, part two, is here.

Remember my doll, whom I decided to give a scarf, hat, and some new hair? Well, after Mom made my pantaloons for me for Christmas, I used maybe five inches that was left of the lace to make my dear girl some pantaloons also, matching and much smaller.

I just sewed them to her legs, so whenever she dresses, they will always be sticking out from underneath her skirts and dresses.

Also, since it is 3 degrees here and the wind chill makes it negative 20 degrees, and on Sundays we walk across the lot to church, I have finally made some changes in my attire. I have incorporated my boots into my regular line up of shoes. I actually wore them with my skirt in church this morning, and no one minded…that’s what I call a church family.

I swiped this tag/list from my dear friend Bluejane…I hope you learn a little more about my writing…

Do you prefer handwriting or typing furiously? I used to type because it was faster, but now I used ink and a dipping pen

How often do you get inspiration? Constantly

Do you get inspiration more in the early morning or late at night? Usually in the evenings, mornings I am too busy

Do certain movies/books/music inspire you? Absolutely

How do you incorporate God into your stories? I try to show my respect for my faith in my stories

Do you kill off your villains or make them repent? I try to make them see their wrong in some light, but occasionally a uncouth man will see his fate by the end of chapter 28

Is the majority of your characters magical beings, humans or halflings? Or something else? My characters are humans on a place called Earth, heard of it?

What genre of writing are you most comfortable in? If you were to step out of your comfort zone? I write life stories. I add romance, wit, drama, denial, betrayal, and many other genres into a plot

Do you work better alone or with someone else? By myself, I tried writing a story with my cou-sins, however I realized I am an independent writer

Do your stories make sense, or do they ramble wildly? I try with all of my pen to make them see reason, but occasionally my characters go off on their own and ruin the plot

Are your characters mostly Renegades, Peacekeepers or a mish-mash? all of the above

Are you a sucker for good grammar? I have to admit yes, but I am all for olde English

How is your handwriting? It is not that bad, I can read it

How evil are your villains? I do not make them demon possessed but sometimes the immorality of their sin nature will cause some destruction amongst their acquaintances

Are you long-winded or succinct? succinct in ordinary life, but long winded when speaking with my pen

Do you have typical writer traits such as ink stains on your fingers or a pencil behind your ear? right now I have ink stains on my fingers…look…

(It is usually a lot worse)

Do you write mostly poetry, stories, novels or a mixture? I have been getting better at poetry, I occasionally write little stories, and I am an avid novelist

Do your characters vary in accents, appearance and attitude or are they mostly the same? I enjoy English characters with good English accents, and adding some foreigners (to them) like Bohemians, Americans, Egyptians, etc.

Do real people and/or places inspire your writing? I base character qualities and faults that I see in others into my own creations. And if I see a nice picture of an English country garden or an ivy covered cottage I whip out my pen and ink and start scribbling

What is your favorite character? Or do you choose to remain unbiased in case of a revolt? Character, as in a book? I would have to say…Judah Ben Hur, but from one of my own stories…I would have to go with my dear Ada Livingston, an English lady who is blind and talented, and being blind she is able to see people by who they really are…through their speech and tone, and not have to worry about their dress or physical features

Do you talk to your characters? I will occasionally speak as if I was in my story, just to get a feel for the scene

Are you more comfortable with girl or boy main characters? I like women characters, and yet the male characters are not that difficult to write into the story

Do you follow basic overused plot lines with new twists thrown in or do you depart from the norm all the time? I use the plot lines that I like - from my own imagination, and if it so happens to be from Austen, Dickens, Stevenson, or Gaskell…so be it…they just used it a couple hundred years earlier than I

Do you feel God has called you to be a writer/poet? I believe that God has given me a natural DESIRE to write, but as far as a GIFT, I am not sure. I usually end up explaining twice what is going on to my family…but I just keeping saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

On the night of the 16th, a young lady, one who is often described as “quiet, shy, and awkward” prepared to play her piece of music in front of a small assembly of people. Not knowing how the night would continue, she prayed for her fingers to oscillate perfectly, and not bring shame to her unconventional playing. She dressed, fixed her hair, hastily played through the less confidant areas, and walked out the door, ready for what the night would bring.

She arrived, her book in her quivering hand and walked into the familiar home of her piano teacher, Mrs. J. Greeted by faces she knew would be watching her later on, she smiled nervously and instinctively stood in the corner and chatted with her cousin, Miss Emily Rose, who was sipping some punch, non alcoholic.

A few more families stumbled in from the blistery and icy winds outside, adding to the number of the audience. She gripped her music tighter and imagined the horrors of what would befall her if she created an error in her song.

She then heard clapping. Some one else had been victorious in their task of playing, and another minute passed that brought her doom closer. Suddenly her confidant and ‘always at ease’ cousin Breezy the Victorious took out her music and sashayed towards the Baby Grand Piano. I watched, secretly hoping that she would not outshine everyone, sorry Bre, and after two lovely pieces of Christmas music, she walked away glowing in the fact that she was again victorious after battling the infamous ivory.

The little shy girl now waited for what she believed was the ‘opportune moment’ when everyone would get up to go forage for some more delicious snacks, and as much as she thought that wouldn’t happen…it did. God asked everyone to the dining room for some more dessert and they went! Being soft footed she crept to the piano and tinkered on the piano keys until she had finished her song of Mary Did You Know?.

Soon the night was over, and after the colour left her flaming face, she realized it was not that bad. Although a little swig of Pepto Bismal wasn’t entirely needed, it helped out a lot. So there was the story of the little shy girl who, with the peace given from God, got past the night of her Christmas Recital. (And yes this story was based off of true life scenarios from my actual recital)

Here is myself at the piano performing for the 6 people in the room, two being my Mom and Dad.

(I look really goofy, and must I add…look at the mop of horse’s hair!)

Recently at our Wednesday night Bible studies the conversation came up about Anna in Luke chapter 2, and how she served as a prophetess. Well, after a small road of twists and turns we ended up discussing the concept of woman in the roles of men. Some were for the feministic ideals and others against, with a number of other ideas that dodged the text God had given us.

This is how the conversation went:

“How do we know that God doesn’t want women doing anything in the church?” Person 1

“God did not say that they could not minister, but not be the spiritual head of the body, or be in authority in teaching over men. That is not a Biblical concept.” Person 2

“Well, God wrote this for the women of that age! This does not apply to us today!”(1 Timothy 3:16) Person 1

” I don’t believe any of the commands given to us from God are dated. This is the infallible word of God that can’t be picked apart to satisfy one’s own desires. When we start arguing over what station God has given us, that is where we go wrong. We start to accept the ideas of the world in where God has favoured man, therefore he has the commanding authority over the woman. That is not how it works. Both genders are children of God, given different positions in growing the church. The concept of favour originated from the world, not from the Bible.” Person 2

Sadly, we left it at “We can agree to disagree” as if there were two alternatives. But I came right home and dug into my So Much More by the Botkin sisters and I thought I would post this excerpt that I found very wise and helpful. Pg. 118

“Can I serve God as a woman pastor? We wish it could be said that any girl with a Bible will know the answer to this question, because the answer is so painfully clear. The Bible is sufficient to provide the answer. But because woman “Bible teachers” and women pastors have been playing fast and loose with the texts, it is important for us to say, “You need your Bible to answer this question, and you also need a willing heart to obey what you read in the Bible“

On Sunday, my dear friend Steve who is one of the nicest gentleman I know, decided to bless me with giving me a  Hohner guitar that he had found. I have always liked the simple melody of the guitar around a campfire, so now I hope I can at least strum out one tune. I have already found the melody for Scarborough Fair and Greensleeves on my own! Since we name everything I have been wanting to give it a name…but I do not have an idea just yet.

Isn’t it cute?

I was also tagged by my dear cousin, so I will add that in here.I am just going to do the tag, and not tag another, but if you want it, go right ahead.

This tag’s rules are as follows:

• Post the six to ten things that you do on a daily basis
• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Tag five (or so) other people
• Leave a comment on the blog of the person that tagged you letting them know that have posted this to your blog.

1. I always try to read my Bible everyday, whether it be at night, during school, in the early morning. Right now in my personal study I am in Hosea chapter 12. Or when we read the Bible as a family…I suppose that counts.

2. I do crossword puzzles from the newspaper. I just started doing them about a couple months ago, and I am at least three times a week asking Mom if she knows an answer.

3. I think up new stories. Constantly. When I am having a long algebra lesson, I start to think up a story. All over my algebra notebook, there is little bits like “The wind whispered to her the tune of the rise of the battle. It swept the battle cry across the plains, through the ear of every soldier…“

4. I do some sort of outside work. Birds. Recycling. Garbage. Getting the mail through the GIANT snowdrift that lays on our driveway.

5. Clean. I am a cleaner. Neat Freak. Organized “teenager” which all of the adults can not fathom!

6. I listen to music. During school, while I am at the computer, while I am drawing, etc. Usually it is classical Vivaldi or Tchaikovsky, or orchestrated Hans Zimmer.

7. I play the piano. I cannot stay away…unless they are songs that I do not care for at all. I enjoy waltzes, minor pieces, classic songs, and a little highlander sounding.

8. I snuggle with my dog and kitten. I only pat the dog on the head…for she does tend to get quite stinky, but my kitten Oliver, I could squeeze his little soft body all day.

9. I laugh my head off with my fun loving Mom. We giggle at anything, especially during Latin or Geography. Those are the snicker prone areas because everything reminds us of something totally irrelevant.

10. I overcome myself. When I don’t want to do the dishes or wash off the dog or get off of the computer to go fold the laundry…I often want to sigh and trudge unhappily towards the object of my loathing, but God gives me the remembrance of a servant’s heart.

For years we have had trouble finding a place to put our dozens of Christmas cards that come flooding in from December the 1st. A couple of years we stuck them on the side of our windows, another year we placed them on top of the piano, but I was never truly satisfied on how we displayed them…me being the neat freak of the family. So when my aunt sent us a link to this we decided to give this new way of displaying C.C.’s  a try.

So we gathered a few small twiggish branches from our treeline (which had some natural colour) we then placed them into a ‘vahze’, and arranged them accordingly to where they would sit, which ended up on the piano for the moment. But they were a little bare so we added left over cranberries from the garlands into the ‘vahze’, and it looked much better.

Ours of course does not look like the photograph, but it has a country feel to it, and everyone else likes it so I suppose we can keep it. We currently have three cards upon it.

(Click on the picture to see it a little better)

I thought I would post these two pictures of our own Winter Wonderland

The leaf left behind.

Our six year old puppy Jenna Hope romping in the snow…and it looks like she is smiling.

For about a month or so, I have been cutting strips of fabric and tying them together to form a ball of fabric/string so I could crochet them into a bag, because Mom makes bags out cut up plastic bags from the store…a great recycle idea by the way. So after countless ’second tries’ I finally finished the bag…somewhat disappointed am I. The handles are a bit too long…okay they almost touch the ground on a short person like I, however it looks great on Mom, someone tall.

And, after my horrible experience with trying to see without my glasses, and a somewhat undesirable visit to the eye poofer/ puts the light WAY too close to my eyes/ doctor, I have finally got my new frames. I am still a little wary about them, but I guess they will do. At least I can distinguish my letters…it was horrible…like learning to read again.

These are the OLD frames:

These are the NEW frames: