…when it works. When it doesn’t, it is really annoying. Take the past week for example; I haven’t been able to get on the web because my modem is out. I am taking advantage of the public library’s Wi-Fi in order to post this. I am very sorry that there won’t be any posts for a little longer, but it can’t be helped.

P.S. if any of you notice a spelling and grammar errors, please let me know about them! I am trying to get better at catching those, but unless someone points them out to me, I have a hard time seeing my mistakes.

Ladies and girls, please allow me to introduce you to some new characters on our blog Mary Beth, Anna Joy and Maria Rose. They will be the stars in a new show on this blog which I have yet to title (I would love some suggestions). I thought that it would be fun to tell stories about the issues that we will be discussing instead of just writing articles about an issue. So, though the help of Mary Beth, Anna Joy and Maria Rose, I hope that we can both have great conversation and some fun.

In order to really begin the yet-to-be-named saga of Mary Beth, Anna Joy and Maria Rose, I have to tell you a little bit about each of them.

Mary Beth is a twenty year old girl who is going to school online and has a part time job to pay for online courses. She has a few friends but she does have a lot on her plate so she can’t spend as much time with them as she would like. Mary Beth is shy, sweet and cares deeply for those in need. She is the second child of five siblings and her greatest pleaser is being with her family.

Anna Joy, is a fifteen year old girl who is just tiring to survive high school. She loves being homeschooled but is overwhelmed by the amount of schoolwork and extracurricular activities that leave her little time for anything else. Anna Joy is part of a every growing family (number eight was born recently) and is close to her older sister but wishes she had time to have friends outside the family.

Maria Rose is 18 and is going to act a lot like me in all the stories because that is who I am modeling her after me (poor Maria). Maria has just finished school and has a passion for writing. Maria is very lonely and feels left out at times. Her family has never been involved in co-ops or extracurricular activities so that they could do things as a family and have time for people. Maria Rose’s life has not been an easy one but it has been a good one.

Now for the first episode of…uh…. The show I really need a name for.

It was a cold Sunday morning and Mary Beth dragged herself out of bed. She had watched a movie with her family and then she had it finish a paper that was due tomorrow therefore she had stayed up to late. She didn’t really feel like going to church but it was what she needed to do. Mary Beth hoped that her make-up would hide the bags under her eyes if anyone even noticed her.

Anna Joy grabbed the youngest of the family, Kate, and hopped out of the van. They always seemed to be late for church but how could they help it? Her older sister and brother were a drama group that met on Saturday afternoons and then the whole family was in a Bible study in the evening. It was hard to get out of bed before nine and get dressed and to church by ten. If Anna Joy was totally truthful with herself, she would have admitted she didn’t really care for church. It wasn’t that she didn’t thing that it was important, it was just that she wished that she could have one day a week that she did have to do anything.

Maria Rose tried to keep her concentration on the sermon but it was very hard. She had quite time every morning, or at least tried to, and had evening devotion with her family ever evening. Wondered idly what the pastor would say if she told him that her family had gone over the same passage the night before in preparation for this sermon and had gotten the same things out of it plus some. Maria Rose hated that she, an adult, could not seem to keep her focus on the sermon. If only she could learn some magic cure to keep her mind from wondering to her stories, the weather and the people around her would she ever learn?

What do you think was the point of the stories I just told you? We will discuss it tomorrow and maybe by then I will have a name for the show.

I wanted to take a break from writing Saturday, even though I a subject I was going to write on, to thank all of you for your prayers. My mom is doing much better and is getting around quite well. It was hard for about two weeks because she couldn’t walk on them without pain but she is doing much better. Sorry that is took me so long to give you guys an update.

Thank you all who have voted so far and hope everyone who is reading this blog will take the few seconds it takes to vote.

Good morning everyone! I am so glad that you are here because I need your help. One of the things that want to do is have more interaction with my readers so that we can discuss ideas and get to know one another. I have a couple of ideas for doing that and I would like all of you to help me pick which one we do.

If we do the message board I would have it password protected and only give the password to people I knew a little something about (such as the people that has who have commented on the blog).

If you guys have any other ideas, I would love to hear about them.

Hello to all my readers. If you have been reading my blog for a while and stopped by to see how things were going, things are changing. If you are new, please come back again because this blog is about to look much better. Now that I have all of you wondering how late I stayed up last night, what I have been drinking, and totally confused, I will tell you what is going on. Last night I starting thinking about how hard it was becoming to write blog posts, and how bad my writing seemed (at least on this side of the blog). So, like every good person faced with such a problem, I decided to do some research. I pulled out just about every book we had on writing that we had and sat down on the couch to read. I had read for about five minutes when I read the phrase; “know your audience.”

Okay so that is nothing new. Sometimes it takes me a while to really learn something well. Anyway, I sat down and wrote what I did know about my audience (thank you to those of you who have commented so I had a clue) and I now have a new direction for this blog.

As far as I know, all of you are Christians. Most of you are homeschooled. Most of you want to be married someday. Many of you are not totally sure what you are going to do between now and when Mr. Right shows up. Most of you are living your lives differently from the norm. Some of you are lonely and don’t have many friends. In short, most of you are like me; watching your God given destiny unfold and want to share that with others (or at least know that you are not the only one out there who is like that).

As the next few days unfold, I hope that you will be inspired, touched and moved by what you read. I hope that we can become a tight knit community of girls that helps each other learn how love and serve our God, our families and each other. That, I hope, is the new destiny of this blog.

Ever year in a small town in Texas, a church puts on a production called Main Street Bethlehem. For several evenings during the Christmas season, you can go through a set that they have built and watch people make rope, candles and bread. You can visit the inn, a rich person’s home, a jail and a living nativity. It really made you feel like you are in the real Bethlehem. One of my favorite parts about the whole thing is that as you walking along looking at the brass shop a shepherd might come and talk to the brass dealer about angles that appeared to them and told them about the birth of the messiah.

It was a lot of fun and a wonderful reminder of what Christmas is truly about.

By:Jessica
From...http://younghomemakers.blogspot.com/

I have a list printed out for me which my wonderful mother found on the internet and gave to me a few years back. It is a list of Writing Warm-Ups. Although I rarely use it before I begin to write, a lot of people find writing warm-ups very helpful.

It's kind of hard to explain exactly what a writing warm-up is. It's like warming up your voice before singing, or warming up before you play the piano by doing your scales and such. Or when you stretch before you go jogging. It gets you to warm-up your brain before you write.

Most people do writing warm-ups before writing. This is good for what I wrote above... getting your mind active before you sit down to write. It helps you to think about things. Some are warm-ups like *describing what a knight from old would buy in a modern day supermarket. Or writing a short news article about a pair of pink fuzzy socks that have gone missing*. It could be absolute nonsense! It doesn't matter. It just gets you writing and using your brain in a way that will help you when you write.
* I came up with these myself spur of the moment just as I was writing this. You can do them if you want and your can modify them to be whatever you want. Like changing the supermarket one to a man in a mascott chicken suit instead of a knight! LOL!

For me, I tend to use writing warm-ups on days when I either don't feel much like writing, or when I am in a creative dry spell. There is no rule as to when or what you have to do as a writing warm up. It is there simply to get those creative juices flowing. Do whatever works best for you.


Here are some writing warm-ups off my sheet and some that I made up myself. You don't have to stick only to the ones I list below. In fact, try to come up with some of your own. You can even do some writing warm-ups with another person.

Writing warm-ups are there, just for the fun of it. So let your imagination go wild!

1. The two minute drill- Write as many words as you can relating to a certain category such as flavors of ice cream, colors, states, presidents, restaurants, etc. (do this one with a friend and see who can think of more in the span of two minutes)

2. Unrelated words- Write two unrelated words down on a piece of paper and then write a few sentences using these words. example: Turkey and basketball. (weird, huh!) ( you can also do this with another person. Write down the words and then switch and write sentences for the words the other person came up with.)

3. Write a silly want add for a pretend newspaper- "Boy to trace gasoline lines with lighted candle. Must be willing to travel" (I didn't come up with this one, it was on the paper)

4. Write a silly home remedy for... Baldness, a common cold, etc.

5. Find and cut out a headline from a newspaper- write your own article using the headline you cut out.

6. Write a sentence that has at least four t's- or any other letter!

7. Write a tongue twister

8. Make up a news headline and then write an article for it.
( This one is really fun with other people. I have done it with my two younger brothers and we had a blast. We each wrote a headline and then handed it off to the person next to us. Then we wrote an article for the headline we had received. My younger brother came up with this hilarious one... "Nuclear Fallout in a Closet!" At the time, I didn't really know what nuclear fallout was [but my younger brother did. LOL!] It was really funny because I made up a whole story about what I guessed it was! We cracked up laughing!)

9. Describe something in nature. Go into details by using the senses. Smell, taste, touch...etc.
example. A waterfall. write about the noise it makes, how it makes you feel, what it reminds you of...etc.

10. Pick a letter in the alphabet and write as many words as you can think of that start with that letter. (I do this all the time when I am practicing my handwriting- something I do to slow myself down and relax. Not to mention it gets my creative juices flowing because it helps me with my writing and also helps me with my handwriting.)

So there you have it! Some ideas to get you started. You could probably look up "Writing Warm-Ups" on the internet and find a bunch of different lists and ideas.

Hope this helps both with your writing and creativity!

Happy Writing,
Jessica

One of the things that we do during the holiday season is to pull out all our Christmas movies and of those cold yucky days we like to curl up as a family a watch them together. Most of the time you family reads or plays dominos together because we don’t think that sitting staring at a box together really counts as quality family time. So watching movies as a family is a special treat.

So what are our favorite holiday movies? First on our family list would probably have to be the Santa Clause movies with Tim Allan. Our family has never as into Santa or anything but these are fun movies. Other movies would include Mary Christmas (yes, it is Mary not merry), It’s a Wonderful Life, among others.

What are some fun things that your family does around Christmas?

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. My mom’s toe is recovering slowly but surely so thank you all for your prayers. We have had a lot of little irritating things have been happening lately like the car breaking down, our bee hive dying, and many other things like that. It is in times like these that it is hard for me to keep my focus of what is truly important. I get so easily bogged down in all the little irritations that I become cranky and start snapping at my siblings.

When will I learn to look to God and trust that he has everything under control? When will I stop letting my emotions dictate my actions? When will I ever learn that no matter what happens, God is still in control?

Well, I will start working on doing that today and hopefully I will learn to do all of that soon. Have a great day!

Good day to all of you. I hope that all of you are having wonder days. On Friday night, my mom dropped a lazy Susan and broke two of her toes. I and my siblings are trying to keep the house running smoothly while mom has some down time. It is in times like these that I realize how much that my mother really does for us and how hard it is to get along without her. If I don’t post regularly this week, it probably means I am busy keeping the house going without moms amazing help. I guess, it is good training for running a home of my own.

Oh, and thank you Mom, for all the things you do for us.

Hello Y'all!
My name is Jessica from over at Younghomemakers.blogspot.com.
This is my first article for the "Writing Saturday" which Sarah is holding. I am starting off with the subject of story leads. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these, I'll tell you what they are.
A lead is the first sentence of a book, article, essay, etc. which has the main purpose of grabbing the readers attention right off the bat and making them want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

Here are some examples of leads...
1. The question- "What is going on over there?"
2. The statement- Katy is very sad.
3. The exclamation- "Oh No!"
4. The problem- Amanda's foot was caught between two beams.
5. Use a quote- '"Do you believe?" He cried."' (this was taken from the book "Peter Pan" by:James M. Barry)
6. Show Action- Thomas pulled hard on the thick rope.
7. Start with dialogue where characters are talking about a specific problem- "If we don't do it, the cave will fall in on us." Willis said. "But I'm scared." Ruby whined.
8.create a sense of foreboding. Like something important is about to happen.- Mandy walked the the silent halls with chills running down her back. Something didn't feel right. She couldn't put a finger on it, but something was out of place.
9. Make something funny happen.- Caroline ran to the laundry room only to discover the washer was overflowing with soap suds.

This is what the lead should do...
1.Capture the readers interest.
2.Introduce your subject or problem
3.Move smoothly into the body of your piece.

Depending on what you are writing, you will want to pick different leads. Different leads will grab your attention more than others and make your piece have different vibes to them.


Now let's look at the same story with several different leads versus not having one at all.

1. (Exclamation)
Amazing! Derek had never seen Mount Rushmore, and the thrills it brought him were beyond imagination. He just loved history. Derek had been saving for this trip for three years. Now that he was here, he had a hard time putting it all into perspective.

2. (The Question)
"Are you a tour guide?" A woman wearing a red hat asked him.
"No." Derek replied politely. "I believe that they stop doing tours around five o'clock. It's 6:30 now."
"oh, well thank you."
Derek looked back at Mount Rushmore to let it sink in once more. He was finally here. After three years of saving, he had finally saved enough money to make the trip. He sighed with sadness. He should be getting back to the hotel. It was getting late, and He had a flight to catch in the morning.

3. (Showing action)
Derek leaned over the rail to get a better view. Mount Rushmore. No matter how many times he had wished to come here in the past, Derek had never actually believed it would come true. He sighed with contentment. It felt so good to be here.

4. (None)
--- This one turned out to be really difficult for me. I am so used to writing with leads, that even just trying to make one boring with a simple statement was considered a lead. Here is my attempt.

Derek visited Mount Rushmore. He had saved for three years. even though he had dreamed of coming for years, he hadn't actually ever believed it would come true. A nice lady in a red hat asked him if he was a tour guide. Derek answered, no. Soon it would be time for him to get back to his hotel. He had a plane to catch in the morning.

Do you see the differences? Which one did you enjoy reading the most? Which one made you want to keep reading to find out what happened next?

Did you notice how boring number four was compared to numbers one-three? Also, did you notice how different leads can tell different sides of a story?

So that is the basics of a lead. Grabbing a readers attention, no matter what you are writing, is very important. A lot of times, the lead is what makes a person unconsciously decide whether they are going to continue reading. Some people may pick up a book read a few sentences and put it back down. They probably don't really know why they don't want to read it, they just know that it doesn't interest them or grab them in a way that they can't put it back down until they find out what happens next. They aren't curious about it.

Hope this gave you all some great insight and ideas!

Blessings,
Jessica P.

Tomorrow, my family and I are hosting a Christmas party at our house. My sister Rose, the office cookie maker in our house, has been hard at work all week to make several different types of cookies over the past week. We have been busy cleaning and getting the house ready for all the guests. Now, all is ready and tomorrow we will spend the better part of the day with the people we know.

If you were to come to our party tomorrow, you would see an interesting group of people. There will be some people from our church that will fit in real nicely. But as you looked around the room you might also see people from the local Wal-Mart and bank. If you talked with these people, you will find that they have different religious and political persuasions.

Way were all these different people here? Some of them are our friends and many of them are people who God has placed in our lives to minister to. So many people in this world are lonely because no one has the time for them. Many of the people that are coming tomorrow are people that have been forgotten by family and have few friends because everyone is too busy.

Take some time this Christmas season to make some of those forgotten people feel special and wanted.

I like being informed about what is going on in the world around me. One of the problems I have faced though is that it is hard to find places to get news that isn’t full of inappropriate subject matter. I listen to a talk radio some but where I get a lot of my news from is World magazine. World magazine is a Christian news magazine that is put out Bi-weekly and if full of news from a godly perspective.


Where do you get your news from?

Ah, it’s December and Christmas is drawing near. My family loves Christmas, but we celebrate it very differently than most people. First, we, the kid’s in the house, never know when Christmas is going to be. My mom and dad said that you never know when a baby is going to come, and babies rarely come on their due dates so why should we celebrate the birth of Jesus on the same day every year?

Christmas day is celebrated very differently as well. We don’t open all our gifts first thing in the morning, we space them out so that it takes all day. And so mom doesn’t get stuck in the kitchen, she sets out a bunch of special snack food and we eat all day long, no big fancy meal.

What is my favorite thing about Christmas? We spend the whole day doing fun things as a family.

What are some special traditions for Christmas or the Christmas season in your family?

Okay, I have to admit it. This morning I had no idea what I was going to post on. So, I thought until I came up with the idea to start a new blogging game. You are all probably familiar with the blogging game where you tell your readers some random things about yourself and then tag some other bloggers to do the same. Well, today, I am starting a new blogging game where people will be asked to tell the six to ten things that they do on a daily basis. Here are the rules for this game.

*Post the six to ten things that you do on a daily basis
*Link to the person who tagged you.
*Tag five other people
*Leave a comment on the blog of the person that tagged you letting them know that have posted this to your blog.
Okay, so here are some things I do on a daily basis.

1.I get on the web and look at my blog (now, if only I could learn to post that often).
2.I hug my siblings and parents.
3.I take a walk outside (having five, wooded acres to roam on makes this very pleasant.
4.I read something, anything to fill my built in need to read.
5.I talk to myself. Okay, this is not the best of habits I suppose but is one that I can’t break (besides, my best ideas for writing have come when I’m talking to myself).
6.I listen to classical music. I love the soothing or inspiring music while I go about my work.
7.I pray, I always make the time to talk to my heavenly father.

One thing that is sadly missing from this list is Bible reading. I am horrible at remembering to read my Bible on a daily basis.

I am going to tag, Victoria, Jessica /, Rachel, Anna, Miriam, and The Girlhood Gazette.