The Life of a Monarch, Part 1

Throughout my homeschooling experience, I've learned a great deal of things. My mother has a PhD in Microbiology, and is always eager to teach us about things in Creation. One thing I've been able to witness is the metamorphosis of a Monarch butterfly.Metamorphosis is the process where the caterpillar turns into the butterfly; an amazing change. In the past, we've grown milkweed plants (the only plant Monarch caterpillars eat, and the one adult Monarchs lay eggs on). We watch for the butterflies to come, then if we see one, we run out and check to see if there are any eggs.

Oops, wrong pedal...

My Mom really doesn't like hearing that when I'm driving. :P I have my permit now, and I took a drivers ed class, and now only have a few more drivers ed sessions to do until I'm done! It's all very exciting, but a little scary.


School is back! I've been trying to get back into the groove of doing school, so that when my online classes start, I'll be able to handle them along with my other stuff. I'm super dooper excited about an art class I'm doing online. The teacher is really really really good. And my friends who've had his class say he's the bomb. :D So I'm really looking forward to that. :) I'm also doing Spanish 2 with the best Spanish teacher in the world. :) Then I'm taking Rhetoric 1, which gets my stomach churning a little; I've never been to great at thinking things out in a way that makes sense to others, but maybe my teacher will cure me of that. ;) And then there's Omnibus. With the greatest teacher ever. It will be awesome.


So with school and driving, lots of things have been changing! It is so hard for me to believe that I (Lord-willing) will be in college in three years. I don't know where I want to go, or what I want to study. And even though three years seems like a long time, it will fly fast for me. The few colleges I've been thinking about are New Saint Andrews, Hillsdale College, and Patrick Henry College. I need to expand my horizon, because I'm sure there are a lot more respectable colleges out there. But seeing as I don't know what I want to do, it makes a decision hard. I truly have so many interests I don't think I could pick one to major in! The major that's been on my mind lately is architecture... but I don't know if I really want to do that. :)


Talking about colleges brings up the subject of whether or not girls should go to college. Some families (homeschoolers usually, but not always) say boys should go to college in order to have a way to provide for their families. I agree with that. But then they say girls really don't need to go to college, because they'll probably get married before the time comes and not need to worry about an education. I think that it is important for girls to go to college (and not for the purpose of finding a husband). When a girl gets married and has a family, the husband should be the one providing for the family. But there is no guarantee that something won't happen, prohibiting your husband from working. What would you do? It's hard to depend on others for help in a situation like that, but if you had a college degree, and were able to get a reasonable job to provide, that's a good thing. I do not think that moms should work if dad has a decent job that supports the family though. Mom should be home, where her main duties lie. Hopefully that makes sense. :)


Anywho, it's getting late, and I need to be up earlier tomorrow than I have been the past few days. :)


AO

Short Trip to the Mountains

This past Sunday my Mother, sisters and I left for the lovely mountains on NC to visit my aunt and cousin. My aunt has a farm up there where she keeps her horses, and has over 200 acres of grass, trees and trails. I got to go on the most exciting trail ride ever while I was there. My aunt has a hired helper to take care of the horses when she leaves, and this helper is an endurance rider. That means, she rides her horse in races 50 miles long, and she even did one 100 miles long. It's amazing. I don't know how she does it. But she offered to take me on a trail ride while I was up there, and it was really fun. I rode one of her two horses, Nacho, and he's a very sweet horse. He is an Arabian- bred for endurance and speed. Most of the time we walked or trotted on the trail, but her horses kept wanting to canter. And once, on a very steep hill going up, the horses started going really really really fast and the horse in front of me was kicking up clay (so I had clay on my face when I got back) and she yelled to me to grab hold of the mane while we were going so fast so I did. I could hardly see anything because I closed my eyes so they clay wouldn't get in them, so I really had to trust the horse to not let me fall. :) When we finally got to the top of the hill, she said we had just galloped. So of course I was super excited that I galloped; I'd never done it before. That is definitely the highlight of my trip. The rest of the time we were just walking around, eating, or just talking with family. :) It was such a fun trip!

her beautiful driveway

the buds

the bloom

a little mushroom. i like mushrooms lol

an old graveyard on her property. a little creepy, but i think it's cool. :P

our dog Maggie slept in my room, and one morning she couldn't stop looking at the cat

a bit of her property

my aunts horse Crystal

my cousins horse Bugsy

my aunts helpers horses, Nacho on the left, Shadowfax on the right

Some of the pictures aren't that great of quality, but at least you know what it's about. :P I'd love to hear if y'all have any favorite pics or anything... :)

AO

Crazy kinda lovin'

I like country music. And if you listen to country music even just a tiny little bit, you would know that 98.5% of the songs are about love. Most of the songs are either woes, or happy songs. One day, I heard a song on the radio and was very excited to hear a song I might actually pay 99 cents for on iTunes. So I bought it, and still when I hear it on the radio or my iPod, I love it. I turn it up. It tells the story of how love works. You do not sit around waiting for it, you do it; you love. The song is called Love Like Crazy by Lee Brice (who happens to be a SC native). {if you haven't noticed, all good country singers are from SC} =P I'll put the lyrics here in the post, but I highly encourage you to go listen to it before reading through it because the song is so much more inspiring than the words themselves.

Love Like Crazy - Lee Brice

They called him crazy when they started out
Said seventeen's too young to know what loves about
They've been together fifty-eight years now
That’s crazy

He brought home sixty-seven bucks a week
He bought a little 2 bedroom house on Maple Street
Where she blessed him with six more mouths to feed
Yeah that’s crazy

Just ask him how he did it; he'll say pull up a seat
It'll only take a minute, to tell you everything
Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I love you
Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense
Never let your prayin' knees get lazy
And love like crazy

They called him crazy when he quit his job
Said them home computers, boy they'll never take off
He sold his one man shop to Microsoft
They paid like crazy

Just ask him how he made it
He'll tell you faith and sweat
And the heart of a faithful woman,
Who never let him forget

Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I love you
Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense
Never let your prayin knees get lazy
And love like crazy

Always treat your woman like a lady
Never get too old to call her baby
Never let your prayin knees get lazy
And love like crazy

They called him crazy when they started out
They've been together fifty-eight years now

Ain't that crazy?

I hope you like the song as much as I do. And if you do, go buy it. It is definitely worth it. :)

AO

New Orleans, fireflies and froggies

Ok Val, I might as well share my passion for princess movies (especially the Princess and the Frog). So yes Valentine, that movie is amazingly good. When we saw it in theaters, I wasn't expecting it to be really good, but it was, and it fits right in with all the other Disney classics, if it's not better.

It takes place in New Orleans 60 or so years ago... I'm not sure the actual time. :) The music is great too. I could watch this movie over and over again. The only part in it I wasn't too fond of it the voodoo, but at least they present it as a bad thing. :) And my favorite character in the whole, entire movie is the firefly Ray.

Yes. I like love The Princess and the Frog. :) You really should watch it. Or even better, come visit me and we could watch it together. =P

AO

A tag!

Miss Valentine has tagged me! So... Originally it said to list 5 favorite authors and 5 favorite movies. Valentine did books instead of authors, but since I think i know of 5 authors I like, I'll do that. :)

Authors (not in any particular order):
P.G. Wodehouse
C.S. Lewis
N.D. Wilson
J.K. Rowling
Dr. Seuss :P
(yes, I do like authors without abbreviated names) :P


Movies (not in order):
The Princess and the Frog
Napoleon Dynamite
Singin' in the Rain
High Society
Ramona and Beezus




There you have it. I tag my sister Grayce, and anyone else who wants to do it. :)


AO

Strong Wrists

Yes, that is an odd title. But I'm talking about piano playing, so it should make a little more sense. :) I might have mentioned that my aunt and uncle gave me piano music books for my birthday. One of them was an old Keith Green book. And, if you didn't know this, Keith Green is one of my favorite pianists ever. He was amazing; music, his testimony of faith. His story means a lot to me. He wrote most of the music he played, if not all of it, and the piano of those songs is simply amazing. If you want to listen to a song, 'Stained Glass' is a great one. Anyway, I've been trying to play the song "Soften your Heart" that's in my book, and boy does it make my wrists hurt! :) I need to do some more push ups to help my piano playing. ;) His songs are really fun to play, even though they are difficult. So. If you've never heard of Keith Green, go look him up. :)


AO

Why I love Picnik.com

I've never thought myself a good photographer, or for that matter, an editor (of photos). But Picnik is amazing. This picture of fireworks on the 4th that I took, wasn't that great originally. But, with a few clicks on Picnik, I think it looks quite a bit nicer. I'm thinking about spending some dough to get Picnik Premium, but I might not.... :)

AO

ah....summer. :)