2017 Reading Challange

Below is a list of categories and books I will be reading as part of the 2017 reading challenge I am participating in!

       A new year. A new challenge.

• A classic
• Jane Austen: Seven Novels
• The Story of King Arthur and His Knights
• Star Trek: The Classic Episodes (I know it is not a classic but still)
• A book with a main character whose name you really like.
• Waning Moon (This has a lawyer named Jarrod in it! For those of you who like the Big Valley, you will understand!)
• A trilogy
• Lord of the Rings Trilogy
• Amish County Crossroads
• Inkheart Trilogy
• Lee’s Lieutenants: A Lesson in Command
• The Civil War Trilogy
• The Civil War: A Narrative
• A biography about a person you respect/admire/want to learn more about.
• No Higher Honor: A Tribute to My Years in Washington
• Lee Considered
• A book about or including a Biblical figure you admire.
• A Reluctant Queen
• One of your favorite books in the Bible.
• Psalms
• Proverbs
• A book over 400 pages long.
• The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics
• A reread.
• Rescuing Hope
• Ahsoka
• Circles in the Snow
• The Tamarack Murders
• The Hobbit
• Horses Never Lie About Love
• The Mustang Who Loved Me

• A book set in your favorite time period.
• Team of Rivals
• Battle Cry for Freedom
• For Cause and Comrades
• The Civil War in the American West
• Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
• A history book.
• Undaunted Courage
• We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers
• Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich
• Crazy Horse and Custer
• D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II
• Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
• Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
• The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45
• The Supreme Commander: The War Years of Dwight D. Eisenhower
• JFK and the Reagan Revolution
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• In Flanders Fields
• Pearl Harbor
• Undaunted Courage - Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, And The Opening Of The American West
• Americans at War
• A book about a hobby or career you want to pursue.
• Confederates in the Attic
• To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian
• A book in your favorite genre.
• A Home For My Hear
• The Bluebird and the Sparrow
• Carve The Mark
• Underworld
• A book by an author you’ve never read any other works by.
• Adam
• The McKinleys Trilogy
• A book with a title you really like.
• Fear Fighting
• Chosen By a Horse
• A book a family member or friend chooses for you. (No options!) P.S.-Two of these are books I borrowed upon recommendation from friends last year that I feel like I need to read XD
• Agent 146
• Big Valley
• Cold Comfort Farm
• A book that you buy at the bookstore – one that you haven’t had on your TBR list and haven’t decided on buying (a.k.a. spontaneous purchase!).
• Three Rivers Ranch Romance Box Set
• A book you’ve seen the movie-version of (but haven’t read before).
• A Christmas Carol
• Lonesome Dove

In With The New

Happy 2017 one and all! Let's hope this year is better than the last one.

Now, for my New Years planning I do a combination of setting goals and picking out one word to be sort of my word of the year.

I suppose I shall start with the goals first, as that would help me to explain my overall reasoning for picking the word I did for this year.

1. Spend more time in the Bible and praying. This has been such a big thing I have struggled with since about halfway through high school. I really want to spend this year focusing on growing in my relationship with God and therefore, have a more fulfilling life living out His will and purpose for me. The more fulfilled you are in your walk with God, the more fulfilled by this life you will be.

2. Jornal more. Journaling, especially my prayers or thoughts and reflections during quiet time, helps me to be more calm and focused. I will actually have a post about the benefits journaling has had for me and the different ways you might be able to go about journaling in the coming days.

3. Read for FUN. Emphasis on the word FUN here. I used to read for fun all the time, and still like to do so. The trouble is, I lack the time and the motivation to do so as a college student. I am graduating this coming May though, and anticipate having quite a bit of free time during this summer. So, hopefully, I will succeed in this goal and complete a reading challenge I have decided to take part in, which I will describe at a later post.

4. Write more consistently. Doing NaNo this last November really

helped me in a sense to get a jump start on this goal. It also helped me to realize I could keep up with my schoolwork and write at the same time. Even if it is only a few hundred words a day, that is still making progress on a story, as well as making writing everyday a habit. A later post I have planned will also describe some of the story ideas I have that I want to potentially try and write this year.

5. Become more focused on my studies for my last semester of college and (eventually) grad school. I have been slacking in this area of my life in particular as I have been so beyond ready to be done with school. Due to this, I have been focusing on my future, and not on my studies here and now as they should be.

6. Manage my money better. I don't think this one in particular needs much elaboration. I am going to be graduating soon, so this is even more important of a skill for me to learn.

7. This goal is slightly more silly and more fun than the others. I want to rewatch the entire series of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Voyager. Part of the reasoning behind this is that I have not seen either of these series in a while. The other part of this is that I have an idea for a massive fanfiction that pretty much crosses Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, and I want to re-watch these two series in particular to come up with some ideas.

So there you have it, my goals for 2017. This leads me to the next part of the post, which is my word for the year.

My word for 2017 is *drumroll*...

DEDICATE 

Which is defined as to devote (time, effort, or oneself) to a particular task or purpose.

I suppose I chose this word as I wanted to show more dedication in the activities in my life, starting most importantly in my relationship with God, and trailing down from there. I feel as though I need to be more focused and dedicated here and now to the task currently assigned to me by God, and not always be wishing for the next stage in life thinking it will be better.

So there you have it my fellow readers! My 2017 goals and word of the year. Comment below on what some of your goals are for the coming year. I would love to hear from you.

Out With the Old

This is it people! As of the publishing time of this post there is officially only 24 hours left of 2016 *cheers*.

I think I can agree with social media's general consensus when I say that this year really was not a great one. It was a year of growth, to be sure, but also a year full of many ups and downs.

I dealt with some growing pains when it comes to learning to be grateful where I am at, no matter how bored I get of something and how much I desire to move on to the next level. This is going to be something I will probably continue to struggle with into the New Year, as I am very tired of school and my job right now.

My family and I were also forced to move AGAIN! We have moved around the same city four times now. This is all because we either rent from missionaries, or in the last scenario, rent from a retired pastor who had to have his house back due to unforeseeable circumstances. God is good though, and we ended up finding a house both closer to the college my brother and I attend (like, within walking distance) as well as almost within walking distance of my dad's work as well. We even had help from a dear friend of mine and her family, when my dad was "lucky" enough to sprain his ankle during the move. We never would have gotten it done without their help, which just goes to show that God is always a provider when things seem bleak.

I also have a bigger bedroom, and a new full size bed, (not new per se, but new to me at least). Sometime this coming month I will be sure to take you on the long-promised bedroom tour.

Do I dare even mention the election on here? With me being a political science minor, and with as much of a drama and upset as this last, I feel as if I sort of have to. I just want to say though, that if you could vote, or whatever preference you had, our country needs to have a time of peace during this transition. Pray for President-Elect Trump and Governor Pence as they and their advisors take office, and pray that all this strife, division, and turmoil in our country can be healed.

Christmas was a fun time. It was great getting together to celebrate the Savior's birth, and to spend time with friends and family. My Uncle and Aunt got a new dog named Spencer (seen sitting on my lap in the image below). The crazy thing is, he liked to bark and growl at me for like the first half hour we were at my Uncle and Aunt's. Then, he suddenly hopped up on my lap, tail wagging, and refused to really move for the rest of the afternoon as he kept licking my hands to death. He was super sweet, and that probably ended up being the highlight of my Christmas.

However, around the Monday before Christmas, things ended up being not so fun. I had my first hospital stay, as I was admitted to the hospital with a blood clot in my right arm. Pretty scary to go through, especially if you hate Doctors and hospitals to begin with.  I am fine now though. The clot is gone and I am on blood thinners until further notice. Thank you to all who prayed for me during this time!

I also have started to write more consistently, all thanks to NaNoWriMo. My goal is to hit 45-50k before I go back to school on the third of the month. I still have NOT quite gotten to the point where I am writing consistently on a daily basis, but that is something to work on. I am hoping to have my first book TOTALLY finished by the time Camp NaNo rolls around in April. *Crosses fingers*

Well, there you have it guys, a kinda sorta recap to my year! Stay tuned, as in 24 hours my New Years Goals post is going live!

Never Forget

No matter how old you were, or what your current view on politics is, it is important to never forget what happened on this day fourteen years ago. Only twice has America been attacked on her home soil, at Pearl Harbor and on 9/11. The  images of smoke billowing from the twin towers, from the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania have become engraved in our Nation's history, images that we have been determined to never allow to take place again.

Yet, these images can teach us something on a personal level. It can teach us to live out each day as our last, because we can truly never know when our last day will come. So I encourage you today to do a few things:

1. Pray for wisdom for our Nation's leaders-this is something we should be doing now more than ever.
2. Pray for the families of the victims of 9/11, who are still dealing with their loss fourteen years later. Also pray for victims suffering from various illnesses from the attacks.
3. Pray and ask God if there is something he wants you to do right now, today, that you have been putting off for too long.

Lastly, here is a song by Alan Jackson, titled Where Were you When the World Stopped Turning, to commemorate this day:

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day to all my wonderful readers! I hope you are having a fun and safe Fourth of July with your families.

Almost all of you know the significance of this day in American history. Yet, since this is supposed to be a blog about history, I wanted to share some facts about the history behind the Declaration of Independence that you might not have known.

The Continental Congress actually voted for independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. The actual Declaration of Independence was adapted on the date we know as July 4, 1776, but only two of the fifty six of the Declaration's signers actually signed it on that day. The other fifty-four men signed it almost one month later, on August 2, 1776

After the British surrendered, the people of the new country of America celebrated July 4 as Independence Day mostly because that was the date written on the Declaration itself. John Adams, however, was of the opinion that Independence Day should be celebrated on the 2nd of July since that was the day the formal vote took place to declare independence form Britain.

Since I learned about how John Adams wanted Independence day on the 2nd instead of the 4th, I got to winding how he would have reacted since he did not get his way on when the day should be celebrated. The following story is the result of my musings ;).

"This is an outrage!" John Adams cried, storming into the parlor where his wife, Abigail, was thoroughly engrossed in her embroidery.

"What is, dearest?" she asked, not bothering to look up from her work.

"The people of this new country!" he yelled as he started to pace to and fro in front of her. "They don't understand when the day of liberty should be celebrated! They insist that is is the fourth of July!"

Abigail now lifted her eyes from her work to study her husband. "But dearest, the fourth of July was the date that was written on the Declaration of Independence, was it not?" she stated.

John snorted with disgust. "Yes, but the actual vote to declare independence from the tyranny of Britain took place on the second!"

"Yet the people are not aware of it. They are only aware on the Declaration that was published on July fourth," Abigail calmly pointed out.

John gave her a withering look. Abigail tried to hide her smile by intently studying the rose she was working on embroidering. Most of the time, he was the most doting and devoted of husbands. Yet, when times like these arose and he was being pig-headed about an issue, she liked to get him wound up even more. Besides, he looked more handsome when he was wound up.

"My dear," he said, as he stopped pacing by the mahogany mantle of the fireplace. "Must you always be the logical one out of the two of us?'

"When it comes to making you see reason, yes. If you wanted the people to celebrate our independence from Britain on the second of July instead of the fourth, you should have sent notice of the vote for independence in the papers," she said, sticking her needle in the cloth to finish the rose as if to make her point.

John harrumphed, snatching his pipe and tobacco off the mantle. "I think I will someday run for president. Then I will make sure the day of liberty is celebrated on the second!"

"You do that, dearest," Abigail called after him as he stomped out to the balcony with his pipe.

Once he was gone, a smile graced the cheeks of Abigail. She never once tired of her husband's antics. Knowing him, he was very likely to become second president of this new country. Yet, whatever he decided to do, she thought as she trimmed the thread on the rose she had just completed, she would be by his side every single step of the way.

There you have it. I hope you like it. Please be sure to comment and subscribe to my blog!