Hi guys

Remember me? Yeah, it's been a while... I'm here to let you guys know that I did NOT die of sickness last year, LOL. Nope, I'm still here, but I totally abandoned this blog.

I think I'm gonna make a comeback here. Not really on a regular schedule, because I have way more other things to deal with, but I really need a space here where I can just write about anything. Now that all my other online projects have themes and such.

Particularly, I would like to vent some of my thoughts on the new movie God's Not Dead. Hopefully I'll actually write down a sort of review before I've completely forgotten what happened in the film. (I had the same problem with Grace Unplugged... planned a review, never did it.)

I honestly tried before to blog about things that weren't media (movies, books, music, etc.), but quite honestly, it was mostly forced. I feel like I express myself best through stories and songs. And if my goal with this blog is to share the real me, and this road that I'm on, I don't think I should exclude the musical, story-telling me from my writing.

So back to God's Not Dead... have any of you readers seen the movie yet? What did you think of it?

Regardless of my opinions on it (which are predominantly negative, unfortunately), I highly recommend that everyone go see it and form their own opinion on it. Despite everything, it was a great conversation starter. My dad and I talked about it the whole ride home from the theater; and where I live, that's a pretty long ride. :P

P.S. In case anyone wanted to know, I am doing great personally right now. God has been slowly but surely helping me grow in my faith and confidence, and I am in a much, much better place than I was a year ago. I will do my best to pray for all of you frequently, and I hope that you'll pray for me, too. The road of life is a long one, but it's worth it. So let's walk down together, and help each other out, okay? :)

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone, this is a brief post to say happy 2013! I'm very sick right now so I will not be able to wrap up my December resolutions at the moment (one word: fail!), but I will get back to it as soon as I have recovered! My goal for 2013 is to not waste as much time. I want to do something worthwhile with my life! I'm going to have to pray a lot to make this happen, because God knows I am the worst excuse maker, LOL.

Okay, I'm sorry this is so short, but I just can't write very well when I'm sick. I hope you all have a good January and 2013! Do you have any resolutions for the year?

Love you all!

<3

Cheap but Cute Christmas Gifts

(LOL, that's a lot of c's in the title)

Hello to all my fellow last-minute Christmas shoppers! I thought I'd share a video posted on a blog I've been following for a little while now, called Project Inspired.



I'm always on a tight budget during Christmastime, and my family normally gets cheap little gifts from me. I don't really have much of a job besides working for my dad's business, which only pays minimum wage and I never actually know when I'm working. Anyway, it occurred to me recently that I'll also have to buy something for my best friends who I will be visiting in January! Yeah, it's a little late, but I feel like I owe them something.

Besides being low on money, I always have trouble with deciding what to get people. I never know what they'll like. In this video, however, Nicole gives some great ideas for gifts that almost everyone will like, and they all cost less than $10!

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty "inspired"! Hopefully with these tips I'll be able to get a little something for all my BFFs!

Happy December!

...or should it be Merry December? Actually, I think I like Joyful December. It really represents the spirit we should have during the month of Jesus' birthday, whether we're happy or not. :)

Anyway, I've been inspired by Kelli from She Learns As She Goes to do monthly resolutions (even if I'm a few days late!). I'll try to limit it to just a few. (I'm not the best at keeping my own personal goals, so I don't want to overdo it, haha)

1. Catch Up on School

Definitely the #1 thing I need to work on this week before holiday break. For those who don't know, I'm homeschooled (in high school), so I don't necessarily get in trouble for turning in schoolwork late, but it is a pain in the butt to have to catch up. :D So I only have a couple of weeks to do it, but I'm already halfway there, really. The main thing I really need to work on is Japanese, in which I'm a couple of weeks behind.

2. Exercise

Soccer season ended last month, so now I need to really motivate myself to be active. We have a Wii game called NFL Training Camp (it's my sister's, actually), and it sounds stupid that I would use the Wii to do this, but it really is a workout! And it's great during the winter so I can stay inside when it's cold. :) We also have an elliptical in the garage (not sure how cold it gets in there), and on warmer days maybe I can try this whole jogging thing that I've been wanting to do since September.

3. Write Something

I've been getting re-interested in writing again lately. I've had a few ideas for stories floating around my head for the past few days, so I want to at least write a little bit this month, even if I can only write a chapter of a series. I write both original and fanfiction, by the way.

4. Keep Up with My Journal

I've been keeping a journal for a little while, but lately with my dog needing constant care (she had back surgery and cannot move her back legs) and just pure laziness, I fell a little behind. I want to write at least 10 entries by the end of the month. That's a pretty easy goal, I think.

Also, even though I'm not adding it to my list, I hope to keep up with this blog a little bit. But if I don't blog until the end of the month, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

Let's Try This Again...

Well, I've realized that my blog is just far too... depressing. I mean, it pretty much started that way -- it was always a way for me to vent my feelings, and I have a tendency to be an over-emotional person (though most people wouldn't know this because in public I cope with it by laughing... but that's a completely different story).

So I'm gonna try to be a little more upbeat here! I've set all my old posts as drafts and I'm starting fresh! Hmm... so what do I do now?

Well, first, I should probably find a new layout/background, because this is just... dull. And bleh. I mean, I only picked the background because it has a road, and kono michi means "this road". But now it's probably time for me to pick something with just a little more color and personality.

Next, I want to figure out... well, what I'm going to blog about! I've always wanted to have a blog about me and my life, but I've been afraid to share my life with the internet... and I still am, actually. But I'm going to try a little harder to be okay with letting people know how I live my life -- and I love how I live my life, and if other people don't like it, then tough!

What else... I'm not really sure. I mean, is there anything you guys (my readers... okay, I have one follower, but maybe there's someone out there that occasionally checks in) want to see?

I don't know, I'm still scared to do this. Like I said in my last post, I'm scared of everything. But I'm going to try, so let the fun begin!

EDIT: I planned on doing the new template tomorrow, but I decided to go ahead and get it done. What do you think?