A short narrative of Christmas... My Christmas.

It's 6:30am Christmas morning.  You wonder why you don't hear your little sister squealing with delight downstairs.  You roll over and peer down from the trundle bed at what appears to be a snoring lump, but it's hard to tell through the early morning light.  It's the kind of light that has some rays of the darkness from the night, but is slowing deciding to lighten up into morning.  You reach down and feel the lump. Yup, it's your little sister alright, sound asleep on Christmas morning.  So much for her boasting the night before about how early she'll rise!  How typical of her.  Well, I suppose I'll have to wake her up.  After all, no one is allowed to sleep in on Christmas! No one!  You stumble out of bed and start jiggling her awake.  Her eyes flicker open, and with an expression of confusion, delight and sheer excitement, she leaps to her feet.  She takes your hand and starts pulling you down the hall, down the stairs, and takes a quick stop to awaken the guinea pig Phineas, after all, no one is aloud to sleep in on Christmas, no one!  Down the next flight of stairs she pulls you, but you don't resist the pull of her hand, no, you go most willingly, for you too are filled with excitement.  The kind of excitement that only Christmas morning can bring.  After examining everything under the tree, you run to the fire place and look to where you hung your stocking but lo what is this? No stocking do you see!
Your eyes wander to the bottom of the fire place and you see five stockings all lined up.  Too heavy with loot to be hung on the designated pegs on the mantle.  You give a contented sigh and wander back to the living room where you plop down on the couch and... you read until everyone else finds their way to the room with the warm glow, and the brightly colored presents.  You then hear a roar and you know your oldest brother just arrived in his sweet ride.  By that time, your sister has already opened her stocking, but you like to wait for everyone to gather around on the couches.  Afterward, it's time to get ready for the morning church service.  When you come home, everyone starts the preparations for dinner, and once everything is cooking, you settle back down with the family to hand out the gifts you bought for them.  Your ears are filled with the sounds and exclamations of happiness, thankfulness, and glee.  The rest of the day is filled with the happiness that family brings to you.  That night some of the brood go to the movies to see War Horse.  What a good movie it was!  The clock reads 1:00 am and you can't believe how late the movie got out.  You start looking forward to a good night's sleep.  As you crawl back into bed that night with weariness,  (the kind you get from spending the day laughing, smiling, tearing paper off of gifts, and eating an enormously delicious meal) your mind is playing back the day and you give a shudder of contentment.  You start to whisper your prayers in the dark and you thank God for the greatest gift of all.  His son, Jesus Christ, born that we might yet live.   "Aahh it was a good day", you think just as your eye lids close and you fall into a deep sleep, not to awake from until 11 o'clock the next morning. : )

~ Lydia Catherine

Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ ... to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ!  — Romans 16:25-27 

Hope ya all had a nice Thanksgiving!  My family had a wonderful meal together, and  afterwards,  I took a nap while all the guys watched the football game.  Later that evening I took a slice of pumpkin pie but was disappointed with it.  BJ's pumpkin pie was false!  Ick, it tasted bad.  A warning to all, never be deceived by pies being sold at BJ's.  They may look scrumptious, but they're really foul tasting.

Because Mum is working tonight at the hospital, I made dinner for everyone.  I hunted up some cook books and found one called The Pampered Chef.  I flipped through the pictures till I found one that looked promising.  It was called Lasagna Chicken Alfredo.
It was super good and I enjoyed making it.  Everyone else liked it too. Well, everyone except Sarah but she hasn't learned to appreciate good food.

I've almost completed my Christmas list for others so, now I will put up my 5 things that I hope to see under the Christmas tree. Hee,hee that rhymed. : )

1. Permission slip from parents to go on a mission trip.
2. An I Love Lucy T-shirt, (or anything I Love Lucy!)
3. Music.
4. Elf ears/anything elfish or faerie-ish.
5. Books and then some more books.

Odd combination off stuff, I know.  Specially want number 4. : ) My BFF, Renee, told me on the phone I need to stop living in my books.  ; ) Ha-ha yeah right! Speaking of Renee... She's coming back to the Cape next summer! YAHOO!!!  I am very psyched with this news and am already counting down the days.  Summer could never come fast enough for me.... Ahh anywho, Mum's working late tonight and I plan on staying up to greet her when she comes home and to offer her some late night dinner, well more like super early breakfast.  So, that means reading O Pioneers by Willa Cather till she comes home. : ) Fun.

Good night ya all!

~ Lyddie Catherine ~

On Wednesday my family went out to TGIF, (Thank God It's Friday). I love that restaurant.  I got chicken that was encased with melted cheese, fried red peppers and onions.  I had creamy potatoes on the side.  

 The other day I heard Sarah calling me to come help her.  I walked into the room and I couldn't see her face because Phineas was on it!  She yelled, "Help! Get him off!" So, I picked him up with much protesting from the pig and I put him on the ground and he shot away like a rocket into the living room under the couch.  So I'm thinking, "Okay he's under the couch. He's not likely to leave that room."  A couple minutes later I hear, ''Hey, Phineas is in my room.'' Apparently Phineas likes exploring all the rooms in the house.  I went into Dave's room and sure enough, Phineas was under his bed.  Ha-ha.  I bribed him out with lettuce.  : ) 

Thanksgiving is next week!  I've got a lot of things to be thankful for.   Here's some verses on thankfulness. 

"In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thes. 5:18  

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, his steadfast love endures forever." Psalm 107:1

"Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!" 2 Cor. 9:15

 I've got to go... Phinny just bit Sarah on the stomach.  I think he was trying to nibble the chickens on her shirt.  : ) 

I won't be blogging again until after Thanksgiving.  So, I hope you all have a wonderful day with your families on Thursday! 

~ Lyddie 

Delight In God. 

"Delight yourself in the Lord--and He will give you the desires of your heart!" Psalm 37:4

Sin has taken our attention off of God--and fixed it upon ourselves, and the things around us.
Grace calls our attention off of everything else--to fix it upon God. It directs us to . . .
  look to the Lord,
  come to the Lord,
  trust in the Lord,
  wait on the Lord,
  hope in the Lord, and
  even delight in the Lord.

"Delight yourself in the Lord." Take delight--not in health, or wealth, or position, or friends, or in anything that is changeable--but in the unchangeable Lord. 

Delight yourself in His glorious character--as gracious, merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. 

Delight yourself in Him, as . . .
  the father of the fatherless,
  the friend of the friendless,
  the hope of the wretched,
  and the Savior of the lost.

Delight yourself in His gracious covenant, which . . .
  anticipates your needs,
  provides for your needs,
  limits your trials, and
  provides strength for the day, as every day's work requires.

Delight yourself in His paternal relation. He is not only your God--but your Father! 
  He cares for you, with a father's care!
  He loves you, with a father's love!
  He pities you, with a father's pity!
  He will receive you to Heaven, as to your father's house!

Delight yourself in His precious promises. They are but drops from His ocean of love! They are intended to . . .
  show His love,
  display His grace,
  manifest His care,
  draw out your confidence,
  banish your fear, and
  assure you of all necessary supplies.

Delight yourself in his special providence. A providence that . . .
  marks your steps,
  directs your paths,
  measures your troubles,
  bounds the rage of your enemies,
  numbers the very hairs of your head, and
  makes all things work together for your good!

God in His providence, superintends all your affairs, even the most minute--so that nothing can happen to you by 'chance', or inadvertently do you harm!

Delight in creatures--only produces disappointment, dissatisfaction, and discomfort.
Delight in God--ensures satisfaction, comfort, and certainty. 

To delight in God, is only to prefer . . .
  the ever-flowing fountain--to the shallow stream;
  the glorious sun--to the dim candle!

This is a Grace Gem I got a couple days ago. 

Here's some really cool facts that I read from google. 

• It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
• By law, every child in Belgium must take harmonica lessons at Primary school.
• More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.
• • Rats and horses can't vomit.
  • Most lipstick contains fish scales.
  • • If you keep your eyes open by force, they will pop out.
    • The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

if you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. 

A duck's quack doesn't echo anywhere, and no one knows why.

In the course of an average lifetime you will, while sleeping, eat 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders.

Barbie's full name is Barbara Milicent Roberts.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

A crocodile can't stick its tongue out.

A shrimp's heart is in their head. 

In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand (or attempted to do so). 

People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, you're heart stops for a mili-second. 

I have no idea how much of this stuff is true, so don't go believing it all. : ) But they are pretty cool to read.

It's November now and therefore time for me to start my Christmas making list.  It seems my list gets bigger every year and my amount of money gets smaller every year.  Even though I enjoy hand making my gifts, it still takes money to buy the supplies.  And that's where parents step in.  : ) I've gotten a lot of fun ideas from different websites, so I think I'll be making a large portion of presents for friends and family.   I am very ecstatic about the fourth and final Inheritance book that came out last Tuesday.  I started the series about two years ago and they are one of my all time favorite book series.  I've been waiting two years for the last book to come out and the wait felt so long!!  Here's what the book covers look like. I own all of them of course. : ) 

The first one was written by the author when he was only 15!  And he was home-schooled. : ) 
Since I'm talking about books here's what I'm currently reading:

The last three are for school.  Looks like everyones out side but me so I'll log off now and go down to the pond and bogs for a sketching session. 


~ Lyddie 
"There's a reason why we're born with brains in our heads, not rocks." - Brom from the Inheritance Cycle  

Just When I thought My Dental Woes Were Over...

Without saddle. Aka going native. 

With western saddle.

And this is Sarah on the lunge line riding Willow. (Willow is in the line from Secretariat).

This is a cute Oreo cookie pop my mom made.  She got the idea from a cool website called pinterest.

It's an Egyptian mummy. : )
So, last night being October 31, I had this LOTR night planned.  I had never seen the extended editions for  all three movies.  I started them at 6:30 pm and ended at 6:00 am the next morning.  It took me 12 hours just about to watch them all!!  I can't believe I went through the night.  It was really fun though.  There were a ton of scenes in the movies that I had never seen before.  I also made Elven Lembras bread.  I made the leaf out of fun foam.  : ) Oh, I also cooked a buffalo dip which is outrageously delicious.

Last Thursday I had the misfortune of having my wisdom teeth extracted.  I didn't think it would be so soon but apparently it is better and easier to have them out before the roots grow too deep.  I was put on anesthesia so I don't quite recall much about what happened.  I do remember having my IV put in, my heart monitor, breathing monitor, and blood pressure attached to me as well.  When I started breathing in the gas I had the funny feeling that my body wasn't there and I felt all floaty.  All went well, thank God, and I came home safe and sound.  The good part is I got to relax for 3 days on the couch reading, and watching movies and eating a ton of ice cream. : ) The bad part; I had enormous chipmunk cheeks for almost a week.  Yeah, there was a lot of swelling on my jaw.  Not fun. : (

Okay this eraser is so cool.  We bought it at Job Lot.  Mom says we bought it for Caleb. *snicker, snicker*

Okey dokey that's all!

A Bedroom Composition

Here's a school composition I wrote today for a Grammar lesson.

Grammar Unit 9 The Paragraph Exercise 2. Describe your bedroom, putting the details in space order.

Lyddie's Bedroom

Where to start? Hmm how about right by the door and I'll go around the room.  Standing in the door way looking to the right would be my vanity. It's white, and has no mirror and is covered with miscellaneous things such as, fifty bottles of nail polish, my earring rack, a jewelry box filled with necklaces I never seem to wear, another box with silly bands, a bubble gum container holding my hair things, and other things that a girl can't live without. Well, I could probably get along without them fine. Next would be the drawers inside the vanity. I honestly have no idea what I keep in those. I think perhaps some note pads, phone numbers, and addresses.  Adjacent to my vanity is a tall, white, book case. The shelves on it are too small to store regular size books, so I keep small objects and very short books on it.   Next is my window overlooking the flat roof which is fun to climb up on. Yes, I've climbed up there a hundred times to over look the neighborhood. It's fun... but dangerous.  I have another book case on the other side of the window.  The top shelf accommodates my red stereo and C.D. rack which is full of... yes, you guessed it! C.Ds.  Now onward to the next shelf!  My all time favorite books have the place of honor there and on the third shelf as well. This shelf is situated at the foot of my day bed.  My day bed has a purple comforter, and is called a day bed because in the day time it is made up to look like a couch, sort of.   This makes it a sumptuous place to read.  In fact I've read more then half my books on my bed, (and looking at my book charts, that's a lot of books) but that is irrelevent to what I'm writing about.  The bed sheets are teal and I like the way this color contrasts with my purple comforter.  It's made to match my purple and teal walls.  With purple silk pillows all along the bed border, my bed looks inviting. Underneath my bed is Sarah's bed.   It rolls out and can be lifted to the hight of my bed.   On the floor in front of the beds is a flower patterned rug with a red paint stain in the upper left hand corner.  On my slanted ceiling, around the skylight, are cute faeries and butterfly wall stick-ons. To the left of that wall is Sarah's bureau and on it is a picture rack, and on the wall in front of that is a hanging picture bulletin board. Adjacent to all this is my closet, where I hang all my clothes, keep my shoes, and store a chest with my purses. On top of the chest, a card board box entitled, “Books to read for school” is filled with droves of classic books. If you explored deeper into my closet, you would find bins of my American Doll collection and a wooden door that leads into a small attic. Emerging from my closet to the left is a light switch, and yet another white book case.  This brings you back to my white door with the tattered Chronicals of Narnia poster. There, that completes the tour of my cluttered, but cozy bedroom. 

  ~ Lyddie 

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20

I've been assigned my part for the Shakespeare play!  I will be acting out Hermia, a main character.  I've got a lot of lines to memorize, so I'll be kept busy with that...

It's been real scary riding in the car now that Caleb has his permit.  But it's also sort of a relief,  because he got real annoying from talking about getting his permit for the last two years!!  But when you drive with him, then you start wishing he was 14 again. : )  I don't like driving with people who have less then 3 years of driving experience.  So, just a warning to you all, if you ever have a chance to drive with Caleb.... Don't take the chance.  Ha-ha, just joking.

I made my own T-shirts this week!  It was a lot harder then I had envisioned it to be.  I put an Owl City picture on one of them and then drew over it with fabric paint.  Despite the time it took to make it, it was fun!


With the help of my Aunt Ginny, I made this woodland faerie cake!

It's called a pumpkin roll and it's one of my favorite desserts.  The cake is suppose to look like a fallen tree log.  : )

~ Lydia
P.S I probably won't be blogging for awhile due to a full schedule this and next month.

I thought that when you get your braces off it would be the end of orthodontics appointments.  How wrong I was....I had to go pick up my third retainer today!   Anywho.... I'm doing this Shakespeare class with the homeschool group.   We're working on doing a Midsummer's Night Dream.  This winter we'll be putting on the play, but right now we're just reading through the book and doing different things each week.  As much as I hate acting, I'm loving it!   My favorite character is Titania, queen of the faeries.  I like her just because she's a faerie, not the character she plays.

I decided to go without meat for a whole month.  The day I pronounce my decision, Mom makes a turkey dinner.  : / This is going to be hard.  : )  My Aunt Ginny was over visiting yesterday along with other family.  She gave me a cute, yellow, smiley face mug.  I had a delicious cup of pumpkin spice coffee this afternoon in it.  One can't help but be cheered by this mug!

Moi riding Alfie.  I don't usually ride him, but I love cantering him, because it's like a slow motion canter.

Sarah picking Gorge's hoofs and grazing him.

This is the main barn where people board their horses.  Last Tuesday we gave baths to a couple of horses!  We got soaked, but it was all part of the fun.
My mom's co-worker gave us a black velvet riding helmet, crop, dressage whip, black britches, and cute horse socks. : ) We were very excited to receive them.

Ha-ha that's drôle!  French for funny. : )

~ Lyddie

Celebraces Time!

My dad and I filled these balloons with helium and I had to tie the knots in them.  Yes, my fingers were very sore afterwards.  

We had so much candy!  But hey, it was a braces off party!  We made up Sarah's playhouse to look like a sweet shoppe.

It looked really cool when it got darker outside because we put colorful lights on it.

Cute cupcakes eh?  I was so sugared-out that I didn't have one till the day after the party.

We played spoons out in the screened in canopy room outside.  Instead of using spoons for the game spoons, we used candy pieces.

Caleb, grilling our dinner.  He did a great job too.  Everything was superb.  Thanks, Caleb!

I had music playing during the party.  I made a mix of music, here's a couple of songs I  played.

Concerning Hobbits, ( song from LOTR.)
Star Wars theme song
Amazing Grace by Susan Boyle
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
Rescue Aid Society song from the cartoon movie The Rescuers.
 A bunch of songs from Annie Get Your Gun.  And a Shirley Temple song, Animal Crackers in my Soup.  Quite a mix, huh?!

I planned a lot of fun games, and we went down to the field in my neighborhood to play two of them,  Ultimate Frisbee and Chicken Run.  Chicken Run's real game name is called steal the bacon, but since we  use a rubber chicken so we call it "chicken run".  And seriously, who uses real bacon to play that game anyway?  And if we did use bacon, I'd probably just eat it before I got it to my teammates!

One game we invented ourselves was played using my dental elastics (that I no longer have to wear...YA!).
It was a relay game, and the first team to stretch the elastics to spell the word "smile" won.  Oh, did I mention that the players had to ride stick horses back and forth, just to make it more silly.

We also played a version of "hot-potato" using chattering teeth & the music was Cantina from Star Wars.  We all decorated yellow t-shirts, most had a smiley theme.

I sent my guests home with party favors which consisted of toothbrushes, floss & toothpaste, so that their parents wouldn't be mad at us for feeding them so much candy.  : )   

Okay enough about the party.  Because I haven't blogged for a very long time I do have some events to talk about but that would take me a long time of typing and I don't have that time right now.  So I'll just end with this. My brother Caleb was baptized last Sunday at Craigville Beach!  It was a wonderful time and I was very happy for him.  Okay I'll be sure to blog again soon, I won't let it get to be a whole month  before I blog next time! ; )

~ Lydia Catherine
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20

 Sarah and I had a fun afternoon playing and fooling around outside.

 She put soap in the little pool because she was washing the van.

Then I picked up the hose and gave her a little "rinse." : )

Dad, Sarah, and I roasted marshmallows last night and this is the one I roasted to perfection.

But I also cooked the insides of it out as you can see from this picture.

Ha-ha.

Sarah and I play police when she rides her bike.  I'm making the symbol for her to stop but she usually ignores me and zooms right by.  : ) 

These are old movie posters I colored in.  

Gotta go now! 

~ Lydia 

Barnstable County Fair

 A billion little crabs...

These are some pictures of Rowan and me last Wednesday at Sampson's Island. We had the whole island to ourselves! We saw a billion little fiddler  crabs and it was so amazing to see them move so quickly into the beach grass. They were really loud, too.  We had a blast together.  

Last Thursday Dad, Dave, Josh, Caleb, Sarah, Sarah MacDonald, and I went to the Barnstable County Fair!  We saw a bunch of different animals and Sarah and I rode a camel!  It rocked back and forth with every step. : ) 

Here's pictures of all the animals we saw. 

 Kangaroos

 Cows

 Box Turtles

Sheep

 Bob Cat

Baby goat

 Beautiful horse with lamas.

 Funny monkey.

 I think this is a goat.  Dave and Sarah were feeding it.

400 hundred pound piggy. 

  It's a crocodile.

And some parrots.  Looking at the animals was a lot of fun and you could feed some of them but I would never do that.  You don't know what kind of germs and diseases they spread.  

We arrived at the fair at around 6 and left at 10:30.  After looking at the animal's pens we went to get some fried dough, which is very, very unhealthy, but delicious, food.  : )

 I also bought a dress made in India and some earrings from one of the vender's tents.  

 This is the dress. For some reason the picture is side ways...  When my mom saw this picture, she thought I had been raptured!!  LOL

And these are the earrings I bought.  

After eating, we headed to the midway aka where all the rides are. 

There were lines for every ride, so we had to wait 5 to 10 minutes every time.  Sarah and Dave went on the first ride, the Polar Express, which is a very loud ride!  The second ride Josh, Sarah, and I went on which was the Sizzler.  Sarah and I crushed Josh on that one, because he took the out side seat and we were thrown to the out side, therefore banging into Josh's side.  I always go on that ride, every year!

 Sarah McD and I on the Orbiter

Behind them is the Orbiter.  It rises in the air and spins you really fast.

Josh, Caleb and I.  Caleb not feeling too good about the ride, ( Pharaoh's Fury.)  That one was funny because Caleb was told that the ride doesn't give you the "sinking feeling" well, ha-ha it kinda does.  As soon as the ride started going up higher and higher he started freaking out and was having seizures.  He ended up passing out sometime in the middle of the ride.  He was fine as soon as he got off though.  ; )

Those are all the pictures!

Last week Dave and I went golfing.  It was my first time ever on a real golf course.  My first few swings, I missed the golf ball entirely.  I was just hitting up wads of dirt and moss.   It took me a while to get the hang of it.  We played an 18 hole game.  I really enjoyed it and would love to continue the sport.  Last night, ( Friday night) Caleb, Dave, Sarah MacDonald, and I went to the movies to see Cowboys and Aliens.  I loved it!  I'm pretty sure I jumped out of my seat for a couple of suspenseful scenes, and for some unexpected scenes, too.  : )

Some random photos...

Sarah snoozing..

That's just about it.  Nothing else to write about.

~ Lydia