The Road Goes Ever On and On

Hello everyone. It has been a while since my last post, and because it is the Christmas season I  thought that it would be fun to do an activity. Paper Snowflakes! Last Christmas I posted a post about Advent, which I would love for you to read! Here is it:  Advent  Here are the tools you will need: White or Light Blue Paper Scissors Tape                              Being by folding the corner of the bottom paper to the top.                           Here is a video on how to do that:  https://youtu.be/b2m-qRkUD5Q   Then cut off the extra paper. Fold the square into a triangle from corner to corner And then again Next, cut in any pattern you like. (be creative) And... unfold. Lastly you can hang them up around the house! You can make up what ...

This week I have been working on a poem which I wrote in memory of a part of our farm. This place is by our pond where I like to visit alone. I've tried to capture a picture in my mind, and hope that it can do the same to you.  Wilderness Song! Where the water splashes crookedly On rock, stone, or moss, And a sound from the tree above, And a crack from a twig beneath. As I stand there the rock crumbles and falls From the edge of the clay filled cliff, The wind strokes the rocky shore, And the sun beats like never before. I stand in the midst of beauty, Declining light and wildness, Pure light from the heavens Pours forth from cloudy sky, And for the last time it brings That warm and open feeling, of light.  The birds swing for the last time Making sounds of movement, While the heron flies out from the edge Of the glory of the water. Dusk approaches rapidly Calling all to their rest, Away, away is call...

A couple weeks ago Kingdom Pen, a website for christian writers, ( http://kingdompen.org/ ),  sent out an email for a short story contest with a limit of 250 to 500 words. This picture is what the writers had to base their stories off of, and I hope that you enjoy my story.  A wave crashed over the deck of the Black Ibis. She heaved over the pounding waves and battled the strong winds. Adeline and Beatrice held their swords in one hand standing on the Forecastle Deck. They were both sisters who had grown quickly into women, and stood side by side guarding a chest of gold. These sisters had come from a rich family of France who had come to trade gold for rubies to an old man who lived in a town on Ireland. But of course, with winds and lighting guarding there way they could not reach the cost. The boat heaved and fell back “We will have to tell father that we cannot reach the island!” Cried Adeline.” Her voice was horse, and she could barely hear her own words th...

Have you ever lived on a farm and raised chickens, or ducks? It is full of surprises, and eggs. In March, we bought some ducks and brought them home in our car. They were really cute baby ducks and waddled every where they went. After we introduced them to their new home, our baby ducks all huddled together every where they went. They would have to get used to the 12 chickens, and two geese who also dwell on our farm. Ducks lay eggs, and this is one of the reasons why we bought them, but we would have to wait many weeks before they would lay. After four months of waiting, the first appeared. How wonderful it looked when me and my sister Sophie brought it inside to show our family. It was really exciting to get bigger eggs, but the excitement was soon ended when days passed without us finding any eggs. We looked all around the chicken coop, the field, the woods, and by the water. There were no eggs to be found. We wondered what could be the matter. We thought that maybe I was not fee...

 On August 21, a solar eclipse occurred in my country, the United States. A solar eclipse is when the moon travels in front of Earth, blocking the Sun and casts a darkness over the land for a couple of minutes. If you live in a state that gets full totality then you will probably know what is happening when suddenly the day turns to night! I’m sure it is quite exciting. Although Mineola Texas, (where I live) did not get full totality this year, which  means that we could not see the moon block the whole sun, it was still really  cool. Me and my family charted the eclipse and as we had solar eclipse glasses, we could look straight up at the sun. We invited some friends over, and turned on the TV where we could watch live, solar eclipses from other states that have full totality. It got a little darker and cooler in Mineola, but still it was not as great as full totality is. As we charted the moon and sun, we saw all of its stages. With the glasses o...

    Oceans, Hillsong Psalm 95:5 The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. Psalm 107:29 He caused the storm to be still, So that the waves of the sea were hushed.  Genesis 1:9-10  Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.

This week the Mineola Memorial Library hosted an open house. They were showing an R.C. Hickman photo exhibit. R.C. Hickman was a young, black man who was born and raised Mineola, Texas. As a young man Hickman served as a photographer in WWII. He enjoyed being behind the camera, and seeing the subject from a different perspective. After the war, he worked in Mineola at a family owned grocery store named Bar-20. He fell in love with Ruth Johnson and they married and moved to Dallas, Texas. Hickman worked as the photographer of the Dallas Star Post  which was an African-American-owned newspaper and he was the official photographer of the NAACP. In 2007 Hickman died, but he left us his important and moving pictures that show what black life was like during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. This pool had been opened to only whites. Now, it is open to all people, white or black. This was an exciting moment for all people in the civil rights movement. ...

"Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it." -L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables I have been reading the wonderful book Anne of Green Gables. If you have not yet read this book, and you do not want spoilers, you may want to stop reading here. In 1908 Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, published this classic. Anne of Green Gables tells us about a young, sprightly, red headed girl who lives in an orphanage for most of her young life. Eventually, she is adopted by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert who are brother and sister. There she grows up on a beautiful farm which is called Green Gables, and there she lives happily for the rest of her childhood. Although she lives peacefully away from the orphanage, she does have a burden that takes away some of the contentment in her life. She is vain and would do anything to change her long, red hair. She dyes her hair green during the book, showing her unhappiness with it. Anne's vanity grows out of c...

When the sun is shining, I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome. -Wilma Rudolph Have you ever been in the great mountains of North Carolina and felt the cool breeze of the early morning? I have and will be in just a few weeks! My grandfather has 3 brothers and 2 sisters and together they add up to one big family! This family takes a week long vacation every three to four year to spend time together and catch up. When I was little we would travel to Florida. Our last vacation we visited the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina, and this year we will return to these beautiful mountains! Summer in Texas is hot, and it will be so nice to get some cool weather. We will be staying in some really big cabins where there will be balconies, a pool and checkers table, a hot tub, and a beautiful view! We will be going on some long hikes up the mountains, Gem mining, and water Rafting. It will a a great adventure, and I can't wait to see my family. o...

How many strawberry plants do you think it takes to grow an abundant crop? This spring I learned! At the beginning of 2017 my mom challenged me and my sisters to choose a Farm Project to work on. I have many interests on our farm such as gardening, raising a new animal for the farm, and building projects such as pens for the animals or trellises for the garden. I had so much to choose from. My sister Olivia chose gardening. She planted a bountiful garden full of lettuce, cabbage, beets, and tomatoes! My other sister, Sophia had a different project in mind. She has always been interested in yarn and fiber. This year she has been earning money and saving it up to buy a spinning wheel. Her project is raising a male and female sheep. She will raise them, have them sheared, and use their fiber for spinning. Then she can crochet with her hand spun yarn. On her blog: Courageisfoundinunlikelyplaces.blogspot.com , she has a crocheting project which you can use! Go see it, and you may lov...

The Lord of the r ings is a wonderful book by J.R.R. Tolkien. There is also a movie for it that you can watch. (Making sure to read the books first.) This is a part of the book made me feel  very inspired by. It is so meaningful, and makes me smile every time I read it!  It is beautiful, and I hope it brings the same feeling to you. Enjoy! Frodo: "I can't do this, Sam..." Sam: "I know... It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here... But we are... It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the ending, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant s...

One beautiful Sunday morning this spring, as we were hopping in the car to leave for Church, Sophie looked over to the box where our favorite cat Brandi (Brandoch Daha) lay, to find a big surprise. One baby kitten lay nursing from Brandi’s side. It was striped, and had little marks all over its tiny body. We had been waiting for weeks for her to have her babies, and even more excited were we, when we came home to find two more striped kittens. Later that day, the fourth, and last baby was born. He was black with white mittens, and a white nose. Brandi is Sophie’s cat, and being generous because me and my sister’s cats ran away, she let us have two, and gave the other two, to our friends. I chose the kitten with the black body, and Olivia, one of the striped girls. There are two girls and two boys, and we are keeping one boy and girl. One day before we were leaving for the afternoon, we put the kitties in our chicken coop to run around and play. They were still small, and would enj...

I have a great passion for music, and enjoy playing my guitar and singing with my sisters. We have been playing piano for a little over seven years now, and love to include this in our songs as well. When I play music, it makes me happy, and I especially love to do this with my sisters. This year my sisters and I have been busy practicing songs on our guitars. Sometime around June, my mom, me, and my sisters all went down to Hawkins. We were slowly growing out of our old, mini Yamaha Guitars, and were in need of new and bigger guitars. There was an old music store down there called Action Sound, and we wanted to get Olivia, my sister, a new guitar, and that is how we found our way in the shop of Kelly Barber. Mr. Kelly is the owner of Action Sound, and he, and his friends helped Olivia pick out a very nice Bedell guitar. Sophie and I needed to get our guitars fixed, so one of Kelly’s friends helped us with that as well. We also were looking to buy some cases for traveling with our...

By Zoe Donnelly  Up upon the hay I climb, Up into the sky I gaze. The sun upon the grass does shine,  And the chill wind beats upon my face. The golden straw beams against the trees, The sparkling water glistens; The birds do dance upon the leaves While I sit awhile and listen. When the water breaks, and the trees wave, Against the wind of Fall, The blue jay in her nest does sing While I sit awhile and listen. Hope you have enjoyed this poem of mine. If you would like to view more of them, you can click on this link below! Our Imagination The Harbor Dock

This is a Lord of the Rings soundtrack that I love to listen to. I hope you enjoy it as well :)

This is some of the artwork that I have been working on in the past year. I really enjoy drawing Lord of the Rings and Hobbit artwork and I think that it is fun to draw the characters. I hope you like these pictures, enjoy! Thorin's key to the Lonely Mountain (The runes are in Dwarvish!)  The leaf of Lothlorien! I will be posting more drawings on a new post when I get them down loaded!

I have many hobbies, but one of my favorite ways to spend my afternoon is to ride our hoses. We have two horses and their names are Turbo and Stormy. Stormy is a Palomino horse which means  that he is a cream color, with some white spots, while Turbo is a bay horse which means that he is dark brown with a black mane, tail, and stockings. Our hoses are beautiful and I love to ride them. Sometimes it is hard to get outside in the hot sun or the cold rain, but when the weather is nice it is very enjoyable. My sisters and I ride western style which includes, barrel racing, roping, and trail rides. Most western riders do not jump on western horses, but we are learning how. When jumping a horse, there are some challenges. Horses try to use shortcuts when they are asked to do something which takes a lot of effort. Sometimes if we do not put the jump high enough, and we do not kick or squeeze hard enough, the horses will just stop right before the jump and walk over it or take a sharp...