2015 Challenges

It is going to be 2015 tomorrow ya'll! (unless you're Wild Horse, it already is January 1st.)

I want to give myself 15 challenges that I will hold up to.

And hopefully on December 31, 2015 I can come back here and say I completed them all.

My 15 Challenges for 2015

 

1. Read through my Bible

2. Edit Underground

3. Finish 8th grade and go to the international school in the fall

4. Pray constantly

5. Blog when possible (and not about nonsense)

6. Read more than 30 books (I epically failed that one this year)

7. Make new friends

8. Complete my 3rd NaNoWriMo while doing school

9. Focus my entire next Christmas on the One Who started it.

10. Pause and take in all of God's glorious creation around me

11. Stand up for what's right

12. Surrender myself to God and let His Will be done in my life

13. Write another novel in a short period of time

14. Take a photo every day of the year, a year in memories

15. Buy only Christian music

 

15 challenges of 2015. *rubs hands* Let's see if I can uphold to them.

 

What are challenges that you will be taking during 2015?

Hi. I am Alive. Even if you don't believe it.

I'm back from the dead.

haha, jk. I never died.

But I haven't been around here much.

Or at all.

I've tried I tell you! And I really was working on those posts (I SWEAR) that I kept promising I was working on...

So guess what.

Today is December 29th, 2014.

And that means there are two days left in 2014.

WHHHHHAAAAT.

2014 JUST GOT HERE.

IT CAN'T ALREADY BE TWO DAYS UNTIL 2015.

Is it just me that screams this?

If yay, ok then.

If nay, high fives to everyone who screams that it can't be 2015.

And now. I shall do lists, because every person does lists at the end of the year (and actually, they're quite enjoyable)

Top Ten Things of This Year

1) Getting to see my family after three years in Indonesia.

2) Traveling to many many (like twenty. Forrealsdoe) states to see my friends that I had not seen in longer than 3 years. We made new memories. And terrible pictures. Terrible I tell you. jk

3) Growing closer to God.

4) I went to a weekend somewhat like Disciple Now. IT WAS AMAZING

5)  I FINISHED A QUILT TOP (after having the fabric for like twenty million years (two amounts to that, right?) AND I'M ALMOST DONE WITH ANOTHER ONE.

6) I grew closer to my friends (online and uh, inline? lol)

7) I wrote two and a half novels! YAY. Totaling up to: 143,831 words this year!

8) Having the access to talk to my friends back home in Papua. :)

9) Books. When I was able to read, I realized just how great, and amazing, and wonderful, and incredible, books really are. :)

10) Having good times. Laughing. Making good, lasting memories.

(the embarrassments were worth it, lol jk)

 

Top Ten Worst Things of 2014

1) I had to leave Papua in order to come to America (Ironic, I know)

2) I had to say goodbye to my friends in Papua. *sobs* I miss them so...

3) I got to see a lot of friends, and we reacquainted... but then, we had to say goodbye. :(

4) Not reading my Bible more.

5) Not writing enough

6) Blogging next to never

7) Wasting time on things that never matter

8) Not talking about what really matters in life.

9) Not going to all the different youth groups simply because I didn't know anyone.

10) Missing my home. Wanting to know just when we will go back. I miss it so much.

 

My Top Five Favorite Characters of 2014

1) LIAM. LIAM. LIAM. LIAM IS MY FAVORITE EVER. He is a secondary character from my NaNo 2014 novel , BUT WHO CARES. I LOVE HIM. Sure he's a jerk at the beginning of the novel, but he grows out of it.

2) Catrinity, who remembers that name? :) Painted Skies was definitely my favorite novel I ever wrote. Catrinity was the main character with green dreadlocks and a curse. (Hence the green dreads)

3) Anaya, no I never talk about Slaved.  (I never talk about Underground either, but hey Liam's my favorite character ever so it makes up for it.) Anaya is more of a butt. (forgive my potty mouth) But with being a slave and American and both parents dead, it's kind of hard not to be. (I'm not saying that all Americans are butts, but it kind of seems to be that teenagers aren't very nice except to people way up in the status. But Anaya, *sighs* characters are like your children. You love them even when you know they do everything wrong. And you tell them what to do and they do the complete opposite.

4) Manic. Manic. Manic. He was also from Painted Skies. He was one of Catrinity's friends. Of whom sent her on the whole journey. Like if she didn't go, he was killed. And ya'll, unlike Anaya, she's got a heart. But Manic, how he acted. How he talked. And his brotherly love for Catrinity. I love it. :)

5) Scarlett. I love Scarlett so much. I was writing Slaved one day when I realized I was writing Scarlett instead of Anaya. *headdesk* I feel ashamed because Scarlett is NOTHING like Anaya, she's sweet and tries hard to love everyone (even Liam. I must be the only one to enjoy his jokes, I don't think there were many in the actual book, but I talk to him, we make funny ones. It's not as frightening as it sounds.). Scarlett has been the easiest first person POV ever. And I really enjoy that (HEY WHO DOESNT!?). Scarlett is this good kid, btw, she did what I told her to do--just about the entire time BELIEVE IT OR NOT. I love her so much. :)

 

Some of My Favorite Pictures from the Past Year (I have decided to hold back some of the really strange pictures. )

 

 

This was my birthday cake made by my amazing aunt! LOOK AT IT.

In August, I got to meet my critique partner, Mary, and her family! It was such an awesome day! :D

While we were in NC/SC, we got to see Sonny (pronounced Sony, like the company.)!! He was on his way up north to do some training. (He lives in Papua and works with my dad.)

 This is with our pastor and his wife (who was my Sunday School teacher for what feels like forever, like 3rd and half of 4th grade.). We love them to death and wish they hadn't retired from the church *sobs*

uh. We're weird, I guess. We were having fun at the pool side.

 Here we are again! :D Such lovelies we are. :)

  Our friends from Papua who now live in NC, it was SO much fun to see them again, even though I was sure it would be extremely awkward. Nope. We started playing and talking like we'd seen each other the day before.

 I got to go to Disney World for the second time! It's such a pretty place. And hot. It's very hot in September down in Orlando.

 Loved seeing these girls again! :)

 We're so sweet, and then I have a brother. She understood. She has one too. lol

 WE WENT AND SAW THE ARCH. AND IF YOU HAVE NEVER GONE AND SEEN IT OHMIGOSH IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST COOLEST THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE THANK YOU

 These are also our friends from Papua! (The two girls, far left and the dark headed one resting her chin on my head) It was a ton of fun to get to see them again!

 I hadn't seen these girls in LITTERALLY 7 years. And none of us had stayed in touch (like for reals, I learned it was my fault. :/ ) All three of us were five when I moved, but we got there and talked and acted like I'd lived there the past seven years. I only got to see them twice while we were there (we were in that town of Ohio for five days) but it was a fun two times. Including hiking and squeezing through a small part of a cave that made me think I was fat.

  I CARVED A PUMPKIN. Emily helped me. BUT HEY YA'LL. I've never even been allowed to touch a knife to a pumpkin around Halloween!

 When we were little, the two older boys in the back (or near the back), John, and I were close to best friends. ;) The moved to PNG, and we moved to Papua. And, again, didn't stay in touch. (Guess who's fault that is.) They moved back to America. And we got to go see them. The night we arrived it was REALLY awkward silence. Like really awkward. Like we said nothing. At all. Day 2. They went to school. We went to a chocolate factory. We got back right after the kids got off the bus. I know how I go about getting to talk to old friends. I play a game with them. Hey they like soccer too? We divided into teams. And hey it took us no time. When we walked in laughing and talking and pretty much out of control, our dads said something like, "I think they re-met."

  WE WENT TO THE OLDEST PRETZEL FACTORY IN AMERICA. SOFT PRETZALS YA'LL ARE AMAZING.

 

 We went to Washington DC. IT WAS SO COOL. And beautiful, everything was gorgeous. And I don't know if it was just me or not, but I pointed out every place that Nicholas Cage found a clue.

  My family says that they did not force me into doing this. They thought my hair would stick straight up. Lucky for me I condition it well. And. It has a natural wave to it. :)

 We got to be in TN for my cousin's 15th birthday! fun!

 I am the cute, annoyed teenage babysitter who must babysit the rather annoying baby. jkjkjkjkjkjk I love her to death :)

 

  On the far left is my eldest cousin, when I say we did this and that at my cousin's house, usually I'm referring to her because it's her and her husband's house. She was a Dalmatian (really?) because her husband is a fireman. It was cute. :)

Are we cool or what?

 So that DN (Disciple Now) like thing I was talking about, this was my small group from the weekend (yah, it was something real small, we had the largest group out of 300 teens) I had a ton of fun with the girls! We stayed up half the night talking about potatoes and squashes and Hank Murphy (he was the worship leader) and about how good Hank Murphy's music was and Instagram and more nonsense. (Yes we really did talk about potatoes and squashes.)

 This is my cousin and I with Hank Murphy! It was an awesome weekend! (And please, forgive my hair! I apparently only got ten hours of sleep in three days and cared not of what I looked like because there were three hundred others kids there that got the same amount of sleep)
But the album ONE by Hank Murphy is amazing. Like they are some well written songs. Ohmygosh, they are cool and really are some good worship songs.  

 

 LOOK. LOOK. WE MET LOVE & THE OUTCOME. We saw them at the Klove Christmas Tour. AHHHHMAZZZZING. I loved every moment of it and cared not that they went 20+ minutes over time. :)

 *squeals with delight* It is my second quilt top! My first is already quilted and binded, and my Granny is getting this one quilted. So excited!

on Christmas Eve, we played Dirt Santa, my eldest cousin had a talent of picking up little boy toys  

 LOOK. IT'S TOOTHLESS. AND HE ROCKS AN ANTHEM LIGHTS NEW ERA CAP. PLUS A BRACELET THAT SAYS "I CAN'T SHUT UP". He's just like his mama. I am so proud.

 

 

So hey 2014 was one of the best years I've had, but, who's to making 2015 even better?! I AAAMMM!

 

Editing my NaNo novel?! Whoo! Ha, not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not.

 

BTW, any advice on getting through a really hard to write novel? (Slaved is getting rather difficult.)

 

It was fun writing this post. :) I quite enjoyed it. If you made it to read this sentence, thank you for enduring my weirdness. :)

 

abrielle lindsay

Counted Worthy: A Book Review

Counted Worthy by Leah E. Good
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received Counted Worthy yesterday afternoon, started reading immediately. Kept me up until eleven.

Today, practically all I've done is read Counted Worthy.

What did I expect?

An AMAZING debut by my friend, Leah, that not only was dystopian, but Christian.

What did I get?

A do hard things story.
And exactly what Brett Harris said that is printed on the cover, "[A] PHENOMENAL DEBUT."
I knew for sure that it would be awesome, but not as awesome as this.

It was gripping. And I cried.

Another thing I would like to say is that the beginning reminded me a LOT of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Read the sample on Amazon, you'll understand.

And I couldn't believe this was Leah's debut! The writing is incredible!

I love her writing voice so much.

The story amazes me.

Inspires me.

Heather lives in fear of repeating her past. She steals Bibles from the sorting center. Then one day the police trace a Bible back to her house, her world just starts to crumble.

This story, it has inspired me to trust in God completely, even when I am scared.

I recommend this book to absolutely everyone.

I would thoroughly like to thank Leah for sending me a copy of Counted Worthy. I cannot wait to lend it to my cousin. ;)

I cannot wait for more of Leah E. Good's books to release, especially Counted Worthy's sequel!

View all my reviews

Update

Worst blogger goes to me, put your hands down.

My life has just been EXREMELY busy.

I'm working on some picture posts.

But so, we've finished traveling. WE'RE DONE. The next time we move is back to Papua (hopefully).

It's NaNoWriMo time! Whoo!

I'm writing Underground, an idea that was on my idea a lot during September.

Here's my back cover blurb:

It's only 2028.
But there's been a few changes.
Anyone who worships God, has gone Underground. And they've lived there peacefully for a couple months.
But when one girl and her friends find a site where some Jews were living, has been replaced with blood.
So now the people are on the run. Not to mention all the struggles that are on their shoulders with just be Underground with hardly any food or drink.
And when someone betrays them to the Communists, what will happen to the Christians?
Will they as people believing in God be able to withstand this? Or are we waving good-bye to men who let their light shine before men?

I'm 18k into that story, which reminds me, I need to go get 20k.

My "baby" brother, Jeremy, will be turning 2 soon!! :D

My cousin and I are going to go to something like Disciple Now one of these November weekends. So I'll probably be taking a Internet break for a day. ;)

Anthem Lights is amazing, by the way. *cough cough*

Annnnd that might be all, really.

Pray that our visas come through soon. :)

What's up with ya'll?! :D

abrielle lindsay

Monday's Minutes Challenge

YES I STILL HAVEN'T POSTED ANYTHING ELSE. I'll try to get that done soon though...

I will be doing this prompt:

Here is my entry:

I sighed.

He took a drink from his coffee, “Rebekah, it was a lie I forced myself to believe all my life--until today.”

I picked up the LIFE magazine. There we were. As I fiddled with the magazine, looking for the wanted article about us.

There it was. Rebekah and James Reyes wanted.

Rewards.

Keep a look out.

I glanced up at James, “What do you mean it was a lie you’ve forced to believe until today?”

“The fact that you really aren’t my sister. That you really are only here because you are desperate for money. For anything but what you were given your whole life.”

I stood up, my chair falling backwards.

I glared at him.

He just sat back and relaxed.

I reached across that table and grabbed his throat.

“You are going to keep believing that lie for all you’re worth. Even if it kills you, you will continue believing in such a thing.”

He nodded, and I let go and sat back down. I took his gun  so he didn’t get any ideas.

But why would he do anything if it was me on the other side? He was smarter than that.

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My entry is 197 words. Shorter than usual...

I hope ya'll like it :) And I promise a catch up post soon. :)

abrielle lindsay

Monday's Minutes Challenge

I know, I am the worst blogger ever. Like let us not even talk about how bad I am. It's just that I am desperately trying to not look at Anthem Lights on Pinterest (and I am quite failing), trying to write a couple posts for something that I'm doing with the gals over at RaWD, trying to finish Slaved, trying to plan some of my NaNo novel, TRYING REALLY HARD to do school, AND balancing out my already busy life of seeing every person my parents have ever known. ;) So that's why I have been a REALLY bad blogger of recent.

And I hope to get an update up here EXTREMELY soon.

But for now.

I'm going to do my MMC.

My prompt:

I KNEW I HAD HEARD SOMETHING, BUT WHY WAS EVERYONE AROUND ME SO RELAXED?

Hope ya'll like it :)

I knew I had heard something, but then why was everyone around me so relaxed?

Chitter chatter still floated around. Laughing went on as usual. No one fidgeted. No one looked the least bit suspicious.

I stood and walked down to the hall.

No one was in the hall.

What was going on?

I trotted down the hall and into the foyer.

Mrs. Kilendy was at her desk.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“What do you mean, Scarlett?” She glanced up at me with the most innocent eyes ever.

“Something is going on, I know it.” My stomach tied itself into knots.

“You can come look out the window if you’d like,” She smiled.

I nodded and looked out her window.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I jerked towards her, “Why this? Why now?”

“You knew Christians were going under ground sooner or later, girl.” All innocence was gone from this woman’s face.

I breathed hard.

She grabbed my wrist and jerked it behind me.

I winced with the pain.

She grabbed a walkie talkie of some sort, “I’ve got one. Get her out of my office as soon as you can.”

The only thing that flew through my mind was why.

Why would God allow something like this? Doesn’t He want the world to know just Who He is?

I jerked away from the woman, “Deep down, you all already know the truth.”

I raced down the hallway and into several different classrooms, declaring my statement, even if none were in the room.

It would be recorded.

It would be listened to.

But I knew all too well how soon my words would be forgotten.
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274 words. :) Hope ya'll like it. :)

abrielle lindsay

Monday's Minutes Challenge

I know I stink so bad, but I am trying to do some things. And it's a lot like TX again here in FL, seeing people everyday--plus we're trying to balance some school into the mess of it. But I WILL TRY MY VERY VERY BEST TO DO SOME MAJOR CATCH UP POSTS A.S.A.P.!

This week I am doing the three object prompt (that I surprisingly submitted...) Which is:

SCISSORS
PASSPORT
WANTED POSTER

Let's see how I do...

OH YES, and by the waaay, Go Teen Writers is hosting it's fourth 100 for 100 Challenge. You can zoom over there (after you finish reading, of course, lol) and check it out... maybe sign up with me? :D

Anyway, I have an entry:

I look around the airport. He’s not here. Good.

I walk in the opposite direction of everyone else, pushing past men and women of all ages. I clutch the passport.

Keeping my head down, I reach my destination, where my flight waits. I pass my wanted poster. I pass the flight attendant, flashing my ticket in her face.

I did it.

I’m ok.

And I still have them.

I settle into my seat, a sigh of relief escapes.

My bags wait above me.

I can only hope no one took those last tickets next to me.

People shuffled down the row.

But no one shuffled down my little row.

I sat back and relaxed, it was just a moment before we were going to take off.

That’s when a momma of two boys came up, I could see the stress pouring from her eyes.

“Um, could we go by sir?” She asked.

My whole insides were yelling no, but I couldn’t make them go somewhere else. I stood up and they sat down in the two seats.

The baby in her lap, and the at least twelve year old next to me.

“What’s your name, Mr?”

I turned to the boy.

“Jenkins.” I mumbled, pushing my hat down a little further.

“That’s like a book series my momma likes to read.” He grinned.

I tried to smile, my whole insides were screaming against this.

He stopped talking to me and soon the plane was in the air and I knew it was time. But how could I get past it with this momma and her two little boys?

I pulled out the small scissors from my pocket and hoped for the best—but the worst for everyone on the plane.

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It's 290 words, and I hope ya'll like it! :)

abrielle lindsay

Monday's Minutes Challenge

This week I am going to do the object prompt and sentence prompt. :) I'm really sorry for the lack of posting, and hope to catch up very, VERY soon :)

OBJECT PROMPT: piano, rose, necklace 

SENTENCE PROMPT: I jumped at the sound of a door slamming downstairs. Where could I hide?

Hope ya'll enjoy!! :D ::

I fingered my necklace. The rest of the girls laid in their beds already fast asleep. Why couldn’t I fall asleep too?

I sighed and rolled on to my side.

Lydia’s red rose was on the floor again. I rolled my eyes and set it back on her nightstand.

I finally decided to get up and go to the bathroom. I hurried through and was near the stairs when I came out.

I jumped at the sound of a door slamming downstairs. Where could I hide? 

It was them. Who else would come here at this time? I looked up and down the hall. Ms. Smith would still be sleeping.

I heard their boots.

Their boots clumping all around downstairs.

I heard a crack. A loud one. Too loud. The piano. I needed to go somewhere now.

Grasping my necklace, I raced down the hallway to Ms. Smith’s room. Their boots chasing me.

Once I was in her room, I slammed the door without a second thought and locked it. Then backed towards the wall.

Ms. Smith was still sleeping.

But there was no time to wake her when the door was being tried to open.

I grasped my necklace harder, cutting through my skin. I wasn’t going to fail Grandma.

The ax blade went through the door. Ohmygoodness. It was all going to end there.

I slid against the wall to the floor.

It was too late, I was going to fail Grandma.

I saw the ax blade slide through the door again.

Breathing hard, I knew what I had to do, even if it was a risk.

I jerked the necklace, the chain broke immediately. I threw it when they burst into the room.

“Where is it?”

“I-I don’t know.”

And the next thing I knew was darkness

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And this has nothing to do with Slaved ;) lol

It's exactly three hundred words long :) Hope ya'll like it!!

abrielle lindsay

#that'swhoiam

I saw someone do something like this and I always think they're fun so I was just going to do one. An di am going to get those other posts up soon! :)

Gonna stop now. :) Hope ya'll liked this!! :)

abrielle lindsay