This month has been a wonderful month, even if it didn’t go as planned.

Next month looks full and a little overwhelming, put I know it is in HIS hands.

Lately, I have felt nervous and excited at the same time about the journey God is taking us on. I know that God can handle my doubts and is excited about what he has in store for me

Today I have a lot I want to get done, but I pray that I will enjoy this day even if I don’t get any of that done.

Right now, I am so thankful for what I have and am able to do, I hope I never forget how blessed I really am.

For a little over a week, our family has been doing a lot of fall cleaning. All of us have been working hard to get the house really clean for over a week. On Saturday Mom and Dad surprised us by taking us to the zoo!

We spent the whole day walking around the zoo, seeing some of the most amazing creatures of God’s creation. I sorry that I don’t have the time or patience to upload pictures right now (it takes me five to ten minutes per picture) but maybe the next time I get on high speed internet I will upload them for you.

For all of you who read MOHL I would like to encourage you to start writing guest posts for our upcoming guest post week. It doesn’t have to be long or something that will impress the world. It just has to be about something that God has been teaching you or laid on your heart to share.

Have a great day!

Good Morning all, I hope that this post finds you all well. The past few days I have really been struggling with allergies so haven’t done a lot on my computer. Yesterday was the worst day; I didn’t even get on the web yesterday. Thankfully we got some medicine that seems to be working.


Praise God for all the rain that we have gotten here! Over the past two weeks we have gotten about six inches of rain! It isn’t enough to get us out the extreme drought we are in (we need a lot more rain so that the lake levels rise) but we are well on our way.

Please keep my sister Rose in your prayers. She went to the dentist and they found that she had six cavities and she is going to have to have braces to prevent future ones from forming (her teeth are so crowded that she can’t clean them properly right now).

Well I guess that is all for right now. Have a wonderful day!

We had yet another wonderful Sunday. We spent the morning playing board games and having some time as a family. We had a great discussion on answers to prayer that got us all to thinking and laughing (we do a lot of that at our house).


In the afternoon, we went to a friend’s house who has a monthly fellowship so we went there and had a really good time. I sat in a roomful of girls sharing funny stories of things that had happened to us and laughed harder then I have in a long time. It was so fun to be in a roomful of girls who all at least know what is and is not appropriate to talk about, so you can just relax and enjoy yourself.

Yesterday really got me to thinking about starting a home school Alumni group in my area so us Alumni girls could get together and form friendships and have fun like this more often.

Well, I guess that is all for today. How was your Sunday?

I am embarking on a new adventure in my writing. I will be placing my book, The Destiny of One on to a blog for some of my friends to read and give their suggestions on. The goal is to get my book to publishing quality in the next year. If any of you are interested in reading it, email me and let me know. Please understand though that I will only be letting people who I know and who have been commenting on my blog for at least six months.

Everyone in my family writes; it has become a family hobby, and we are looking in to self-publishing some of our books. We are still just in the dreaming stages, so who knows what God has planed? If any of you have had personal experience with a self-publishing company, I would love your reviews.

As for other writing news; I got an article accepted to one of the largest homeschooling magazines! Next year, in May, I will have an article about my home school experience in Homeschool Enrichment! I am really excited about this writing opportunity!

What has been going on in your writing world lately?

I wanted to give you all an update today, but I am so tired that I am not sure how much I will be able to write. A neighbor of ours had their mega base system going, which means I can’t sleep. That is one of the disadvantages of the country, no sound limits, so you can’t make them turn it off. Then again, one of the advantages is that we have enough land between us and the neighbors that it didn’t bother most of the kids.


This may sound stupid, but ever since I was one year old it has been that way; if a mega bass system was going I couldn’t sleep. Is that not too strange?

Now that I have rambled and complained for a while I guess I better end this post while it still makes sense.

Have you ever just felt like you were doing so many little things that you were doing nothing well? That is how I am feeling right now. Between chores, writing, blogging, election training, the journey, home school group and everyday life I just have to prioritize some things and cut back.


One of the things that I have decided is to start posting here only three to four times a week. This will alleviate some of the pressure I have placed on myself and also have more meaningful posts. I hope that you all will still come by.

If you have a question or have something you would like me to post on, you can email me. I will be checking my email everyday still.

Do you have a story that you just can’t seem to finish? Someone asked me about this in an email, so today I would like to offer you some tips for solving some basic problems.


Problem 1; I hit a wall; I just don’t know what to do next.


Sometimes you will come to a point and you get stuck, you’re not sure how to go on. One thing that has helped me is to take a break, I mean a long break. Don’t even look at it for a couple weeks. The other thing you can do is a writing warm-up. This might get your brain working.


Problem 2; How do I end this book?


If you are having a hard time coming up with an ending, think about your main character. What lessons do you want him to learn in the end? Has he/she changed at all? If so think of an ending that would showcase that change or lesson learned.


Problem 3; I just don’t feel like finishing my story.


Keeping the motivation to finish you story can be hard, but here are some things I do. I finish a story before I start another. If I come up with a great idea I write it down and then set it aside until I have finished my current project. This is hard sometimes, because I get excited about a new story, but it is important to get your projects done. I also sometimes just sit down and start writing even when I don’t feel like it.


Problem 4; I just don’t feel like I am doing a good job.


I wish I could show you my first rough draft of my first book. It is horrible. There are so many misspellings; it is boring; and none of you would probably like it. It takes time to hone your skills as a writer, and the best way to do that is to keep writing.

It is hard to imagine that it has been eight years since that life-changing day. I was eleven years old, and suddenly the world that had felt so safe was scary and full of evil. September 11, 2001 is a day that I will never forget, and I hope that you won’t forget it either.


That morning had started like so many others; we were watching the weather when they broke in to say something had hit the World Trade Center. We watched for several minutes, adding our own speculation to the mix. Then came one of the most horrifying moments of my life; a plane came onto the screen, crashing into the second tower. That image and feeling are burned in my brain. I don’t think that I could ever forget.


Where were you on September 11, 2001?

We have a fifty to sixty percent chance of rain for almost the entire week! Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

If I had the patience to upload pictures today, I would show you the pictures of our land in desperate need of water. Most of the grass had died, some of the trees are already starting to lose their leaves, and everything looks dry. We are very thankful for the chance of rain.

I have gotten most of the work done for our kick-off party for our homeschool group, and tomorrow we are going to distribute flyers for it. I will let you all know how that goes.

The only other thing that is really going on in my life is that I am getting ready to take some training, so that I can work the upcoming elections. It is a nice way to make some extra money, and I enjoy the work. If you are interested in working, contact your local elections office.

I have been talking about some of the changes that have been going on in our home lately and the journey that God has started us on. I thought that you all might be interested in learning a little more about it, so I am going to give you the web site that has really helped us. Here, you will find free audio downloads with some very powerful messages that have really challenged us to walk closer to our God.

As you listen, know that I don’t think this guy is infallible. I disagree with some of the things he says, but for the most part he is right on. If you have questions about this, please let me know by either leaving me a comment or emailing me at thedestinyofone@yahoo.com

I meant to post this Saturday, but I didn’t finish it and get it posted. Sorry about that. I hope it is helpful to you now.

How do you create many different characters to make your book come alive? What are some of the things needed to make a character that the reader will identify with or connect with? Today, I would like to share some of the things that I have learned with you by introducing you to some of my characters.

The first character I would like you to meet is Winter. She has a supporting role in one of my books as a girl who has a lot of issues, but in the end ends up embracing the faith. The two things that define Winter’s character are her beauty and her way of speech. Here is a sample.

“Well, like, thank you. Come Maria, we must get home before mother begins to worry what has happened to us,” Winter said with one last smile to the USF officer, then she quickly led Maria out into the street again.

“Security checks are, like, so annoying,” Winter said, flipping her hair off her shoulder then giggled; “It’s a good thing that I know how to get out of them.”

“What? Do you always leave your ID card at home?” Maria asked, a little annoyed with Winter's performance.

“Like, no. I have to have it with me all the time. It is right in my purse where I always keep it,” Winter said.

Maria stopped dead in her tracks, and Winter turned to see what was wrong.

“You mean you lied to that guy?”

“Like, yeah,” Winter said without a hint of regret.

“Why?”

“Do you know how many stupid times a week that I get stopped for a ‘random’ security check? At least five, sometimes more. The only thing that they are checking for is if I am open for a date.”

Notice how she dropped the word "like" into every sentence and how her beauty has affected her life and character.

Next, I would like you to meet is another supporting character. His name is Daniel, and he is a brother to the main character.

“Well, gang; let’s get to our boarding gate. We don’t want to miss our flight,” Maria’s father said, staring down the long hallway on which the boarding gates were.

“What number are we looking for?” Daniel asked.

“Let’s see here,” Stephen said, looking down at his communicator which held all the fight information. “We are looking for boarding gate 2-0-0-9.”

“Come on, Richard, let’s go find it,” Daniel said, and the two boys started to run ahead.

“Daniel, Richard, come back here,” Linda called. The boys reluctantly waited for the others to catch up and then walked just in front of them

“There it is!” Daniel shouted. “Gate 2-0-0-9.” Sure enough, there was a steel colored door just to the right of them, and it had black numbers that read 2-0-0-9. Daniel jumped over to the door and pulled hard to open it.
*******

“Welcome aboard the space plane Solar Flare,” a woman greeted as she scanned their passports to make sure that they had purchased tickets for this flight. “Thank you,” the woman said handing them back their passports and waved them on. As they entered, Maria cast one longing look toward the cockpit.

“I want to see inside there someday,” she whispered to Daniel.

“You will,” he said confidently. “When I get my pilot’s license and have my own spaceship, I’ll give you a tour.”

“Daniel, you’re not taking flying lessons and you’re not even working and saving money so that you can go to the flight academy. How do you think you are ever going to get a spaceship?”

“You sound too much like Mom sometimes,” Daniel said plopping down in his seat. Maria shook her head. Sometimes she wondered about her brother. What did he think was going to happen? That someone would just suddenly give him his own spaceship and a scholarship to the academy?

Daniel still has a lot of kid in him and, if you didn’t notice, he doesn’t like people telling him what to do.

The last character I would like you to meet is Anna, Daniel and Maria’s sister.

“Leah, look at your dress. I told you that you ought to go to your house and change. Now it’s stained red from the Martian dirt,” Anna, said to her ten-year-old cousin. Leah looked down at her red stain and then looked back up at Anna, her eyes pleading.

“Anna, do you think you can get it out? Mommy won’t be happy if she sees it.”

“Well, she is going to see, but I will try to get it out for you. Bring it to me later today, and I will see what I can do,” Anna replied.

*****

“Are you okay?” Anna asked. Maria didn’t even open her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to figure out what to do.”

“You’ll do the right thing, I know,” Anna encouraged. Maria looked at her sister and smiled.

“I don’t think I could do any wrong in your eyes. According to you I always make the right choices,” Maria said with a smile.

“I was just saying that…” Anna began.

“Anna, it’s okay. It’s just that you never seem to see any wrong in me, and I find that funny.”

As you see Anna is a sweet and sensitive girl who likes everyone to be happy. It is important to give all your characters different personalities and different struggles. That is what makes a book good.

There are to other aspects that I don’t have any really good examples for right now, but you should keep in mind, the first being a character shaped by their past. What was their life like as a child, what kind of friends they had, and/or any major event in their past can have a lot to do with how they act in your book.

Another thing to keep in mind is fears. All of us have at least one fear in our life, and so should your characters, whether that is fear of failure, fear of heights, fear of bugs, or something unusual like fear of mountains or snow.

Wow, this ended up being a long post, but it is by no means exhaustive. Do you have anything that you would like to add?

This week, we have had a nice break from the 100 degree weather. It has been nice to wake up to a 72 degree world and be able to get some work done before it gets hot.

Thank you all for your prayers for rain. With all that has been going on lately I forgot to tell you that one day about a week and half ago an isolated thunderstorm dropped two and half inches at our house. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

I know I asked ya’ll this not too long ago, but I didn’t use your answers at the time, so I am asking again; is there anything you would like me to post on?

What makes a Christian a Christian? This is one of the things that the book, “So You Don’t Want to go to Church Anymore” asked us to review. The answer seems like it would be so simple, so easy, but in fact this question led us to one of our most life changing realizations. The reason for this: we had fallen into the same trap that the Pharisees had fallen into. We did so many good things for God - like wearing dresses, homeschooling, going to a Bible Church, giving to missionaries, etc. However, we had lost sight of the only thing that really matters; having a growing personal relationship with the God who loves us.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think doing good things are always bad (we haven’t stopped giving to missionaries and all the other stuff I mentioned). However, we need not to become like Pharisees and get so hung up on good moral lives that we lose sight of the God who loves us and wants a relationship with us.

I don’t mind discussing this issue if you have questions or concerns about this issue. I don’t feel like I did the best job addressing this issue that is so close to my heart right now, but I felt led to share it with you.