"'Tho We've Gotta Say Good-Bye For the Summer"

That King Charming and Me...

We're always coming up with crazy ideas and doing weird things. 

I think our friends must wait to see what new crusade we'll be on next. 

So here's our latest: 

We're winding back the clocks to the dark ages. 

We're turning off our TV. 

We're turning off our Internet. 

We're craving a memory-making, nostalgic, and active summer without technology to distract us or steal away our time.  So we're taking a vacation from technology until September. 

We plan on having a family movie night once a week, and we can get on the Internet any time we are willing to ride our bikes to the library to do it.  Other than that it will be an old fashioned summer.  I might even write a few snail mail letters.  : ) 

I'm definitely planning on reading a lot of good books and hopefully writing a rough draft of a novel.  There will be Otter Pops, BBQ's, slip and slide, sprinklers, etc.   

I thought the kids would throw a fit when we announced our plan, but their response was, "You mean you guys can't be on your computers?" (said with shocked faces)  They just couldn't believe they get to have a whole summer of our undivided attention.  (Talk about convicting) 

I'm going to miss you all.  You may have noticed how infrequent my blog posts have already been this spring.  I think making the decision we made for summer has prompted us to be on the Internet a lot less already.

I'll check my email as often as I can at the library and may even be able to sneak in a few blog posts.  Otherwise, I'll see you all in September!

Have a great summer! 

Love,  

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The Persevering Pen

Born a scribe and given the gift to pen,
She dreams of painting stories with her words-
Masterpieces that entertain, elicit laughter,
          Even tears.
Portraits of adventure and beauty
The medium of words pointing to the
          Master Storyteller.

Her dream is pure while she is small
She writes on scraps and in notebooks-
Lists of characters with fancy names, fragments of plotlines and
          Fantasy places.
Mere scratchings of a little girl
The simple, innocent words revealing
          Sweet Dreams.

Growing older, and tasting life,
She clings to her pen but doubts her words-
Voices from within and without, voices of truth,
          Voices of lies.
Messages of ‘not enough’ and ‘too hard’ bombard
The world and her fear invite her to quit before
          She Fails.

Born a scribe and given the gift to pen,
She writes through the fear and the failures words that-
Sometimes fall flat, sometimes soar high, but always come from
          Her Heart.
Running the race marked out for her she remembers
The One who gave her the pen and calls
         
          Press On.


 
I wrote this poem today for a contest Rachelle Gardner (literary agent) is hosting on her blog.  I think she was looking for something a lot lighter and with more humor, but this was what came out of me today.  I decided to share it on here, too, because I know a lot of you share my dream for writing, and that others of you have your own dreams.  I just wanted to encourage us all to not let voices of doubt or fear keep us from running after the dreams God has written on our hearts.  I need this message as much as all of us.  : )  
 
Have a wonderful weekend!  
 
Love,  

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Introducing the Van Cluck Sisters

We have some new fluffy babies around here- 

Chickens!  : ) 

We may have been slightly influenced by a certain royal wedding last week when we named our girls. 

We each picked out a chick of our own and decided they needed very aristocratic names.  Prince Charming had a little help naming his chickie.  "Bird" just didn't seem fancy enough.  : )    


Meet the Van Cluck Sisters:

"Goldie"
Lady Goldia Rosemary Van Cluck

Goldie is a Golden Sex Link chicken and belongs to Youngest Princess

"Angeline"

Lady Angeline Ann Van Cluck

Angeline is an Ameracauna chicken.  She will lay pastel Easter colored eggs.  She belongs to Oldest Princess.  

"Lady Di"

Lady Diana Van Cluck

Diana is a Rhode Island White chicken and belongs to King Charming. 

"Ramona"

Lady Ramona Augusta Caroline Van Cluck

Ramona is a Golden Sex Link chicken and she belongs to Prince Charming.

"Bea"

Lady Beatrice Anastasia Adelaide Van Cluck

Beatrice is also a Golden Sex Link chicken and she's mine!!  : )

We are so excited to have fresh eggs.  They should be laying for us before school starts again in the Fall.  Right now they are still in their brooder, but King Charming is hard at work designing and building "Cluckingham Palace" (a.k.a. The Coop).   

As soon as they establish their pecking order, and we can see who is the boss, we will know which of the ladies will receive the title of "Her Majesty the Queen".  After that we'll decide who will become our princess, duchess, countess, etc.   We're not having fun at all.   : )

I originally titled this post "Meet Our Newest Family Members" but King Charming put the kabosh on that.  He has told us over and over again they are not family members, to not get too attached, and to remember these chickens are food providers, might die, and might end up in soup.  We're prepared for the worst, but still having so much fun.  I can't believe how fast they are growing and changing.  On Saturday they were puffballs.  Now they are already getting their feathers.  

I like being a chicken farmer!  : )   

Want to vote on which one you think will end up Queen? 

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Backward Thinking

I've been doing a lot of studying the Bible lately for teaching Sunday School and for a retreat I'm speaking at in May, and one of the themes that keeps popping up is the idea of how much we can't trust our own hearts and minds to tell us the truth, and how much the things that seem right and true in this world are really backwards or upside down thinking.


My cousin Katy posted this on Facebook today, and I thought it was such a cool picture of how backward we can have it:



Thanks for sharing, Kate! Love ya!


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Small

Big-
You are Big
Maker of stars so enormous
Earth appears as a speck of dust
Designer of galaxies beyond our reach
Sculptor of mountains too high for me to summit
Big-
You are Big.

But today it is your smallness
That steals my breath
And fills me with awe
And sends me to my knees.


Small-
You are small.
Your signature stamped on the minutest cell
Aware of each hair upon my head,
Your tiny jar
Collecting every,
     individual tear that


f


a


l


l


s


Small enough to know our hearts,
You see
me.

I am not lost on this speck of dust
I am known.
You saw my Micah,
Lost to me before she was big enough to see
But not lost to You who held her in Your hand and ushered her to Your side
The day she flew to be with
You.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?

Small-
You are small.





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My Latest Good Reads

I do love to get lost in a good book, and I've gotten lost in some good ones lately. 

It's interesting how different the types and genres of books I've been reading are from one another.  You'll see from my list that they vary from YA Fantasy to Contemporary Christian Fiction.  None of these were perfect, but all of them were entertaining, and I didn't want to put them down.  

Young Adult Fantasy/ Fairy Tale:

I stumbled on this one at the library and maybe I enjoyed it so much because I didn't know what to expect.  It was such  a pleasant surprise.  It's the first of a trilogy called "The Chanters of Tremaris" and I really enjoyed this fantasy world.  I've already been to the library for Book Two and Book Three in the series so I can keep going. 

This one is a fairy tale and a sequel to Goose Girl. I didn't like it as well as Goose Girl, or her other books like Princess Academy and Book of 1,000 Days, but as always, Shannon Hale is a master with words and I liked being back in Bayern. It has a little bit of a slow start, but by the middle I was hooked again

 

Christian Fiction:

This one caught me from the beginning and had enough adrenaline to keep me reading after the Hunger Games Trilogy ruined me.  My only complaint is it is obviously the first of a series (that hasn't been written yet) and left me hanging at the end, waiting for the next book.  (Did I mention it hasn't been written yet?  Hurry up, Joel!)  : )
 

I have been following Jody Hedlund's writing blog for awhile, so it made this book,her debut novel, extra fun to read.   The Preacher's Bride is the one for you if you are in the mood for some good Christian historical romance. 



Verse Novel:

And of course you all had to know I'd be reading another verse novel.  This one didn't disappoint me.  : )  I'm still in love with the genre and really enjoyed this book:

Question For You:  Do you stick to one genre of books or do you like a variety?  Have you read anything great lately? 

Happy Reading! 

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My Website is Finished!

I'm celebrating today because my website is finished! 

The URL www.BeckyAvella.com has been forwarding to my blog while I waited for the website to be finished, but starting today that address will take you directly to the new website.  Please stop by and check it out  I'd love your feedback.  : )

The next two things on my to do list are a blog makeover- it's long overdo- and getting And Then You Were Gone released on Kindle.   

I hope you all are having a blessed Monday!  

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