Project 365 Update

Here are all the project 365 photos I've taken since my last post of them. Sorry I haven't posted in what, a month? I've been busy finishing school up and all that jive. I also took a hiking trip to Utah. (Post on that coming sometime. Promise. And my Resolutions in Review post.) I'm almost done with school and my summer plans incorporate 3 days a week for writing (mostly on my novel but I'll force my self to make 2 posts per week during that time...) so I hope to be around here more often coming very soon.

But for now, you just get some pictures, k?

Resolutions in Review (3 of 12)

Okay. Sorry this is a little later in the month rather than at the end of March. But anyways, here we go with the list of my resolutions and how well I kept them in March.

- Read 10 chapters of my Bible a day.
Well, interesting story as far as this one goes. See, my mom and I had a competition to see who could read the most chapters of Bible in a month. (Silly, I know, but motivational, too). Annnnnddd..... I won! By reading 10 chapters of my Bible every single day! So, the status of this resolution for March is: Completed perfectly. Hurrah for the grace to grow!

- Do Project 365: take a photo a day.
Let's peek into the March photo archives and see how I did. I took 10 pictures, which gives me a 32% success rate. Still, a fail (grading it school-style) but better than last month.

- Work on my Latin.
Every time I come to this one my answer is short: ha! I'm laughing because it's such a hopeless goal (really). I don't even thing I want to begin to tell you how much I'm failing.

- Continue working on my piano skills and pick up the organ.
Part one: piano. I've just got back in to my hour-a-day routine and I'm seeing even more progress! I have a recital coming up in May, and I'm really, really enjoying the piece I picked to do (which is Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat Major; I'll share it on here sometime).

- Finish my book.
You can read my comment on last's month's post for the full story on this.

- Try wearing my hair in some way other than down.
Fail.

- Get well associated with the fashion world.
Still doing.

- Blog more and comment on other's blog's more.
Probably my greatest point of fail. But still, I saw a little progress. Oh well.


So 4 resolutions kept well, and 2 somewhat-kept and 2 not kept at all. That's pretty good, but still not ideal. I  press on!

Good Friday

Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him,crucify Him!”
Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.”
The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”
Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.
Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”
Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.”
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!”
Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”
Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away.

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

My burden in Thy Passion, Lord, Thou hast borne for me,
For it was my transgression which brought this woe on Thee.
I cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot;
Have mercy, I implore Thee; Redeemer, spurn me not!

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.

The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

1. “Man of Sorrows!” what a name
   For the Son of God, who came
   Ruined sinners to reclaim.
   Hallelujah! What a Savior!
2. Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
   In my place condemned He stood;
   Sealed my pardon with His blood.
   Hallelujah! What a Savior!
3. Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
   Spotless Lamb of God was He;
   “Full atonement!” can it be?
   Hallelujah! What a Savior!
4. Lifted up was He to die;
   “It is finished!” was His cry;
   Now in Heav’n exalted high.
   Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that washewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.

And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

(Passages: John 19, Luke 23, Matthew 27)

(Songs, O Sacred Head, Hallelujah, What a Savior, When I Survey)

Periodic Table

On Saturday, for my church's creation conference lunch, I had the pleasure of heading up an interesting project. We made 103 cupcakes (actually 127 total: extras in case of a mishap), frosted them in five colors, and labeled each with the symbol of an element of the periodic table.

It was a sweet, sticky and very fun project; one of those thing you've just gotta do, a check-off-the-bucket-list sort of thing.

Huge thanks to Serena and Alisa for helping me bake the cupcakes; to my dad for helping me make the frosting; and to Serena, Alisa, Karen, Dianne, Lily, Jennifer, Chelsea, Anna, Jackson, Tryg and Nick for helping me put them together and set them out for the lunch.

Project 365: March

Photo Challenge: Animals

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Today I'm entering in Mina's photo contest. The theme is animals, so this is a picture of my cat:

Sadly, at the time of the writing of this post (Monday) that cat has been missing for a few days and we are pretty sure he has died somewhere. :( He was 12 years old, and a full-time outdoor cat.

Resolutions in Review (2 of 12)

P365 #2.11

Wow. I so have not at all posted in like forever! Ahh! It's already time for my February resolutions wrap-up. Here we go:

Last month's resolution to pinpoint:

- Do Project 365: take a photo a day.

Wow, let's see I took 5 daily pictures in February. Ummm, yeah. That's 5/29 or a 17% success. Worse than last month... *cringe* I think the old Nikon* is getting a little rusty, eh?

This month's resolution to pinpoint:

- Blog more and comment on other's blog's more.

A very obvious one to pick, as you can see I have not posted much. So, here goes nothing!

Also, random note, I re-did my blog design. I think the fresh look is going to help remove this post creativity block I have been having. And, if you're in a reader, click on over to check the new design out. Thoughts?

A completed resolution:

- Finish my book.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I did really truly complete my book, And Island of Grief in a Sea of War, the past month. You may be surprised I didn't do some all-caps-and-exclamation-points post here or on my writing blog. But for some reason, the second I finished it, I felt this huge weight lifted and wanted nothing more than to set it aside for a few months (or maybe years, who knows?) and to also take a break from creative writing. Alas, my fingers are again itching to get back at it. (Not the book, but creative writing as a whole.) I was in the mood to do a little short story tonight. Who knows? But I'm pretty sure I won't want to work on my book for a while...

P365 #2.15

The rest of the resolutions:

- Read 10 chapters of my Bible a day.

Yep, done. Me and my mom now have a completion of sorts with this. And I've bested her twice now and therefore revived a box of amazing Oreos. :)

- Work on my Latin.

Ha.

- Continue working on my piano skills and pick up the organ.

Hey, it's not my fault I've been missing piano lessons! And let's not even talk about my fail at playing offertory for church. (I went up to play wearing my glasses and therefore couldn't read and therefore failed miserably. Yeah.) At least the spring recital went over well...

- Try wearing my hair in some way other than down.

Well, no.

- Get well associated with the fashion world.

Yayzers, Ma'am.

O...kay... I'm getting a little funny right now. I'd better get off before I say something real weird. Byes, y'all!

P365 #2.19

*Thing #1 is congrats for reading this far. :) Thing #2, what the asterisk is about, is the fact of my camera's name. I always thought it dorkee** in the extreme to name tech stuff, but I just thought of a good name for the camera, so I will name it. So, I now christen it Nikaea; which is a spin-off from the brand name of Nikon and the Greek word Nike, which means victory, and is also an old alternate spelling of Nicaea. So there.

** I always thought it would be an improvement on the word dorky if we made the spelling dorkier. Hence dorkee. Your welcome.

Postalscript: This is just the greatest post anywhere in a long time. I just had to share.