Happy St. Patrick's Day!

             May the road rise up to meet you,

           May the wind be always at your back

           May the sun shine warm upon your face,

          May the rains fall soft upon your fields,

          And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

~Traditional Irish Blessing

                     

May brooks and trees and singing hills

Join in the chorus too,

And every gentle wind that blows

Send happiness to you.

~Traditional Irish Blessing



      Happy St. Patrick's Day, my dear friends! :-) I hope you all have a delightful day doing whatever it is people do on St. Patrick's Day! I like to use this day as an excuse to indulge in my love of all things Irish and I am currently celebrating by listening to Dolores Keane's version of my favorite song, Down by the Salley Gardens.

          Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet

She crossed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the trees

But I, being young and foolish, and with her could not agree.

In a field down by the river my love and I did stand

And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs

But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears. 



    I absolutely loooovvvvee Irish and Celtic music, and a lot of my favorite songs are traditional Irish ballads, like this one....

    And this one....

   And this one....

   

    (You may recognize this song from Cranford-- it's the one Jack Marshland sings at the ladies' Christmas party.)

  For the great Gaels of Ireland

Are the men that God made mad,

For all their wars are merry,

And all their songs are sad.

~G.K. Chesterson

       This quote made me giggle, because it's so true! Ireland does have a very tragic history, and a lot of their songs are very sad. This is the most tragical song I have ever heard:

   It's soooooo saaaadddd!!!!! :-(

     And now let's have something a bit brighter. :-)



 Oh dear, that's not much brighter, is it? Hmm. How about this one:

    There, that's better, isn't it? :-)

    I'm not sure if this song is actually Irish, but I love this version sung by Lisa Kelley of Celtic Woman:

     And do I have to say yet again that I adore their dresses? No? Yes, I assumed you already knew. :-P

     I am only part Irish, and the greater part of my heritage is Swedish, but I feel like I'm Irish at heart. At least for today, anyway. Hehee. :-)

  Deep peace of the running waters to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the smiling stars to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the watching shepherds to you.

Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.

~Traditional Gaelic Prayer

   I am going to celebrate the day by drinking tea, wearing green, listening to Celtic Woman, and watching Downton Abbey later this evening. :-)



       (Soary, I couldn't resist. :-P Actually, I'm not sure I endorse this: as dashing as Branson is, he can be quite a handful!)


     Have a lovely St. Patrick's Day, my friends! :-)



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Happy Valentine's Day!

      Happy Valentine's Day, my dear blogging friends! :-)

      I hope you're all having a wonderful day and taking the opportunity this holiday gives to remind your family and friends how much you love them! I'd like to celebrate this special day of love with some romantic quotes and scenes from some of my favorite couples in period dramas.

   "I have thought about you, every day, every hour, every minute that I have been in here."

                                                               ~Little Dorrit

     "I felt myself bound to you, by honor, by affection, and by a love so strong that nothing could deter me."
                                                               ~Northanger Abbey

  "I'm so sorry! I thought I was going to lose you!"

  "I don't think he was a very good shot."

  "Why did you do it? You're so stupid, why did you do it?"

  " I had two very good reasons. First, I am replaceable and you are not."

  "You are not replaceable, not to me!"

  "Second, you're the only wife I've got or ever will have. You are my whole existence, and I will love you till my last breath."

                                                      ~The Young Victoria

             "My dearest, most beloved...If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."
                                                                         ~Emma

  "I went searching for my ideals outside of myself. I found it's not what the world holds for you, it's what you bring to it. The dreams dearest to my heart are right here."

 "Well, I hope you keep on dreaming. It'll be three years before I finish medical school. Even then there won't be any diamond sunbursts or marble halls."

  "I don't want diamond sunbursts or marble halls. I just want you."

                                                    ~Anne of Avonlea

                          "I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is that not strange?"

                                                         ~Much Ado About Nothing

                                                 "My heart is, and always will be, yours."
                                                              ~Sense and Sensibility

          "There's so much to say, I cannot find the words. Except for these: I love you."

                                                            ~Somewhere in Time

    One of my favorite proposal scenes is the Northbound Train scene from North and South. It's sooooo beautiful and romantic and I get chills every time! (That is, I've only seen it once, but I'm sure that if I were to see it again, it would be even more beautiful than the first time because that's just the way things are with me. :-P)

 

    A proposal as only John Thornton can give it!

   And of course the epic prison scene from The Scarlet Pimpernel! This is my absolute favorite scene in the movie, because it's so touching and romantic and I just looooovve it.......

       Edward's proposal in Sense and Sensibility (1995) is one of my very favorites as well. By the end I'm just as teary as Elinor! : )

      I hope you all have a very special day with lots of yummy chocolate and lots of love! If I could, I would send you all chocolates and flowers, but I daresay they would get quite squashed in the mail so that probably wouldn't be a good idea. So, my dear readers, I wish you a happy Valentine's Day, and God bless!

     "Let me not to the marriage of true minds
      Admit impediments. Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds,
     Or bends with the remover to remove:
     O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken.
     It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
     Whose worth's unknown, although his his height be taken.
     Love is not time's fool, although rosy lips and cheeks
     Within his bending sickle's compass come;
    Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
    But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
    If this be error and upon me proved,
    I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

                ~Shakespeare's Sonnet no 116

      "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angles, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  

                                                             ~Romans 8:38-39

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New Years' Tag....and Happy New Year!

   Hey everyone! Christmas has come and gone, and the the new year is here! Wow, it doesn't seem like so very long ago that it was 2012, and now here it is 2014. What?! Where has the time gone? 2013 has been a  very eventful and special year for me and I'm rather sad to see it go, but I'm also excited about what the Lord has in store for 2014!
   Since this is my first "New Year" having a blog,  I've decided to do this fun New Years' tag to kind of reflect upon the year. So here goes!

What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?

    - I started writing a blog
    - I was in the Snow, Flower and Merlaton corps in The Nutcracker
    - I helped with a three and four-year-olds' Sunday school class :-)
    - I sang at a memorial service
    - I started singing in a college choir
    - My sister and I hosted a tea party for our friends
    - I auditioned for a summer intensive (but didn't get accepted)
    - I went to a summer dance intensive (of a much smaller and less grand scale than the one I auditioned for :-P)
    - I found out that I'm gluten-sensitive

Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make one this year?

   I've never been in the habit of making resolutions and I didn't make any last year (or the year before or the year before.) I probably won't make any this year either-- it's just not something I do. : P

Did anyone close to you give birth?

   No, I don't think so.

Did anyone close to you die?

   No one in my immediate family, but some close friends experienced loss this year, yes.

What countries/states did you visit?

   Except for the usual trips across the stateline into Pennsylvania, I didn't visit any other states. I pretty much stayed in the New York/Pennsylvania are the entire year, which is totally fine with me. : P

What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?

    Honestly, there's nothing really that I "lacked" this past year. I have everything I need and much more, but one thing I would like to get sometime this year or the next is a laptop.

What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory?

   The week between Palm Sunday and Easter was pretty memorable: our computer died so we didn't have internet for about two weeks and I read Julie Klassen books and watched Horatio Hornblower and listened to Mark Knopfler-- good times. : ) Also August 19th, our tea party, April 5th, when my cousins and sisters and I did a program for a group at my aunt's church, and April 24th because it was just such a wonderful day.

Our tea party spread

Did you move anywhere?

  Nope, and I'm glad of it too!

What was the best month?

  February, March, April and May were among some of the best and have some very fond memories, but I really don't think I can pick a best month.  

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

   Um, *clears throat* well, I read East of Eden, which I definitely consider to be a big achievement! Hehe. Landing decent parts in The Nutcracker, working more at our family business, starting a blog, making new friends, growing in my relationship with the Lord.

What was your biggest failure?

    Not having matured as much as I'd have wanted since this time last year, not being as socially adept, not always being very tactful.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

   No, not really, unless you count severe allergic reactions as illness.

What was the best thing you bought?

    I bought a very nice bookcase to put all my new books on, which was definitely the biggest thing I bought. The best thing I bought was probably either my Lizzie Searches For Love trilogy or the Gods and Generals soundtrack.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

   My parents, my grandparents, my family.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

    A lot of people, unfortunatley. *Sigh*

Where did most of your money go?

  Christian Book Distributors. Seriously, if I wasn't careful, basically all my life's savings could go to CBD. After that, probably Amazon.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

   I was really excited about going to see Les Mis in the theatre last January. (At the time it wasn't all that I had hoped, but it was still exciting.) I also got really excited when my Atonement piano book came in the mail. Honestly, though, this year hasn't been epic as far as excitment-- it's been a great year and I've been very happy and content, but there hasn't been a whole lot of things I've gotten really excited about.

I'm not sure if I hold this to be true, but I thought the picture was very cute. : )

What was the best concert you've been to this year?

   This summer my mom took us girls to a concert by the Five Browns, five siblings who are all amazingly talented pianists. That was a really great concert (and they played Atonement!), although I'm not sure it was the best. Hmmm. In December my sister Sadie was in a production of The Living Christmas Tree that our community does every year, and that was really wonderful too.

What song/album will always remind you of 2013?

   The Gods and Generals soundtrack will always remind me of the summer mornings when Sadie and I would connect our computer to the stereo and listen to the soundtrack on Youtube while we ate pancakes and played checkers. :-) As for songs, there are so many, but the three I thought of first are In the Sky by Mark Knopfler, Piper to the End by Mark Knopfler and Your Song by Elton John.


Compared to this time last year, are you:
1. happier or sadder? Happier.
2. thinner or fatter?  "Well, I ain't measured it."  -Loren Bray in Dr. Quinn
3. richer or poorer? Considering I was fifty dollars "in the hole" last year after Christmas, I'd say I'm personally richer. Not that I'm really all that rich or anything.

What do you wish you'd done more of?

    Writing. I began writing a novel this summer, but gradually I stopped working on it and nothing really came of it. This year I'm going to try to write more, and I have a new idea for a novel that I'm very excited about.

What do you wish you'd done less of?

    Complaining. *Sigh* It doesn't help anything, and as Lady Grantham says, "it's very middle-class."

What was your greatest musical discovery?

   Definitely Les Miserables. I saw the movie shortly after its release in January, and while I wasn't exactly thrilled with the movie at first, I completely fell in love with the music. (Before you start throwing rotten tomatoes, though, let me say that I AM coming around in regards to the movie. Slowly. I really need to watch it again. ; P) The musical is now one of my top favorites, and I would absolutely love to go see it one day! Also, I discovered Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, who are now some of my favorite musicians.

How did you spend Christmas?

   At home with my family! :-)

How are you spending New Year's?

  Same as Christmas, at home with my family. We don't usually do anything fancy on New Years', just spend the evening at home and watch a movie and then sometimes we go to visit family on New Years' day.

Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?

   I don't really talk on the phone at all, mostly due to the fact that they make me uncomfortable (yes, yes I know, it's silly, but I just don't like them.) Taking messages from hay customers is about the extent of my phone activity. Probably the person I actually talked to the most, though, was my Grandma.

What was the best book you read?

  I've read so many good books this year-- you can't seriously expect me to name just one. : P I read a lot of new books for the first time, but I also read a lot of my favorite books over again for the second or third times. : ) Some of the best books I read for the first time were:

- A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin
-True Grit by Charles Portis
- The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen
- The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by Julie Klassen
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich
- Christy by Catherine Marshall

Did you fall in love in 2013?

  No, I didn't. (Excuse me, but I'm 14.) Unless you count Matthew Crawley and other fictional characters. In that case, yes, yes I did. I fell hard. :-)

What was your favorite TV show?

 Dr. Quinn: Medecine Woman. Forever and always. <3

What did you want and get?

    The Atonement score piano book, several wonderful soundtracks and lots of wonderful books. It would seem that this was a year for building my collections. :-)

What did you want and not get?

   There were a few little things I had wanted for Christmas that I didn't get, but nothing really important. :-)

What were your favorite films of this year?

  Well, I have several top-favorites that always remain the same, but I'll just list a few of the best movies that I saw for the first time in 2013.

- North and South (2004)
- Bleak House (2005)
- The Adams Chronicles (1970-something)
- East of Eden (1982)
- Little Dorrit (2008)
- Lonesome Dove (1987)
- Martin Chuzzlewit (1994)


What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

   I turned 14 on February 2nd and had a lovely day with my family. We didn't do anything really special on my actual birthday, but the day after we went to my absolute favorite restaurant which was very nice because it's sort of far away and we don't get to go there very often. I also received a book I'd been wanting, Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester, and we watched a couple episodes of Northern Exposure. It was fun. :-)

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?

   Um.... it really depends on my mood, actually! :-) Classic 1930s, '40s and '50s style, sort of vintage. Full skirts, flowered patterns, ruffles, Victorian jewelry. Kind of a mix of several different eras. :-)
  
What kept you sane?

   My family, God's goodness, sunshine and flowers, popcorn, Dr. Quinn.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy most?

   This gentleman, Mr. John Schneider.   

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

  Less stress. Most of which, of course, probably wasn't neccessary.

What political issue stirred you the most?

   Honestly, I didn't pay much attention this year because nothing really big was going on.

Who did you miss?

   Friends who have moved away and the ones I don't see any more.

Who was the best person you met?

  The best person? I've met several lovely people this year and quite a few as a result of starting this blog, but I'm not sure I can say who the best person I met was.  

Tell a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.

  Be open-minded-- never assume the worst about someone, and don't think that they're assuming the worst about you either. Don't be afraid to take chances now and then. And just because cleanliness is next to godliness, that doesn't mean dirt is diabolical. :-P

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

  They say there's a place where dreams have all gone,
  They never said where, but I think I know
  It's miles through the night, just over the dawn
  On this road that will take me home.

  Love waits for me 'round the bend
  Leads me endlessly on
  Surley sorrows shall find their end,
  And all of our troubles will be gone.
  And we'll know what we've lost,
  And all that we've won,
  When the road finally takes me home.
  I'm going home, I'm going home.


      ~Going Home by Mary Fahl

Five personally significant events of 2013:

- I went to a big audition in a big city
- I started writing a novel
- I started writing a blog
- I read East of Eden, the biggest book I've read to date and the first real classic.
- I made new friends

Five things I want to do in 2014:

- Go to see Wicked live in January : )
- Write and FINISH a book
- Be in a musical
- Read a Charles Dickens novel
- Make new friends!

Five people I'd like to know better in 2014:

   My readers! Also the girls in my ballet class and some people in my homeschool group whom I don't know very well or haven't met yet.

    Happy New Year, everyone! I'm so grateful for all of you and I hope you  have a happy and blessed 2014!

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My Christmas in Pictures

  Hello, dear readers!

    I hope you all had a very merry Christmas with your families and friends! I had a wonderful Christmas at home with my family, and received many pretty things from my dear parents and sisters.
    Today I thought I would write a nice long post with lots of pictures from Christmas and the days preceding (because, um, I kind of took a lot of them,) so this will kind of be a review in pictures of my Christmas.
   

  

These are some of the Christmas cards that we received from family and friends, and below is a picture I took of our tree when it was getting dark, so you can see how pretty the lights look. :-)

These are the blackberry jam stripe cookies that Sadie made, one of my favorites! : )

   Christmas Eve was mostly spend baking and cleaning and wrapping presents. I basically spent the day running around the house singing Christmas songs and cleaning here and there and torturing playing with Oliver, but I also tried to be somewhat useful in preparations. :-) Sadie and I also dressed up the dolls in their finest attire for Christmas, and Sadie did their hair very nicely too.

   This picture shows a little better the style Sadie did on Millie's hair, which was very pretty. She also put some baby's breath in it from one of my Nutcracker bouquets. : P

   Also, my copy of The Dancing Master arrived on Christmas Eve! I had ordered it back in October and they said it wouldn't ship until January, so when the box came I thought it was a Christmas present and I wasn't supposed to open it. Then when my mom came home she said it was probably my book, and I'm afraid I went quite wild--you see, I've been waiting for this book for quite some time. It was such a wonderful surprise! And just in time for Christmas! I just finished the last book I was reading the day after Christmas so I've just started it and am not very far yet, but I hope it shall be as good as Julie Klassen's other books that I've read.

From the Dr. Quinn episode "Mike's Dream...A Christmas Tale".

   On Christmas Eve we had a quiet dinner at home, and then we watched a Waltons Christmas episode followed by a Dr. Quinn Christmas episode before going to a late Christmas service at a church in town (since our own church doesn't have a Christmas Eve service, which I think is a crying shame.) :( But anyway, the service was very nice, but I was very tired when we got home at around 12:30 and went straight to bed in anticipation of the day to come. :-)

   On Christmas day we got up early to a beautiful snow-covered morning and opened presents. Here are some of the things I got:

    From my parents:  In my stocking I found a lovely set of flowered stationary, a new pen, a beautiful jewelled hairclip, a pair of striped socks that promise to be darn tough (and have an unconditional lifetime guarantee : )), a set of bayberry taper candles, a little flowered flashlight and some maple sugar candies. I also received a new piano music book that has lots of popular classical songs and a beautiful new pink nightgown!

  From my sister Sadie:  I was very much looking forward to opening Sadie's gift because she had put it under the tree several days before Christmas (she always does), and I could tell by the shape that it was a book and CD, so for a while I had been speculating on what it could be! When I opened her package I found a beautiful copy Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and the gorgeous Out of Africa soundtrack! :-)

   From my sister Molly: Molly gave me a very nice large box with maps and postal marks from France all over it. It has clasps and a handle so it can also be carried like a suitcase.

    The box is just the right size to store all my old letters from pen pals and stationary, so that's what I decided to use it for. Here's a picture of all of my letters and cards in it.

Me with my new hairclip

  My friend and former babysitter gave me this lovely white infinity scarf, which is very cozy and warm and I have been wearing it around the house, it's so comfortable! These are all the rage with the girls I was in the Nutcracker with, so now it's kind of nice to have one of my own to wear. Makes me feel a bit frou-frou. :-P

Oliver was tuckered out from all the excitement and decided to take a nap under the Christmas tree. :-P

    From my parents, Sadie received a DVD of the gospel-musician family, the Collinsgworths. Some of our relatives introduced us to their music a few years ago and gave us one of their DVDs, and even though gospel music isn't usually my favorite, I really enjoy their music. We watched the DVD after breakfast and then we watched parts of it again later when my grandparents came over for dinner. Their DVDs are a lot of fun to watch and I especially enjoyed their music on this one!

   The Collingsworths have actually come to my aunt's church a few times in the past, and just the other day we heard from her that they're coming again this November! My mom said of course we'll go see them, and we might even be able to meet them since my aunt works at her church and has "connections". How exciting!

Oliver, looking rather panicked after just having a piece of wrapping paper tossed onto him. : P In this picture you can also see my "darn tough" socks.

   My grandparents came over in the afternoon for dinner and we gave them their presents and my sisters and I played some of our new music. Then in the evening we watched Home Alone, which my mom bought last year but I had never seen before. I wasn't expecting to like it very much, but it was actually hysterical and I liked it more than I thought I would. But the poor kid! Being left home alone while his family went to France?!? That would definitely be scary. Also I didn't expect to like the kid as much as I did, but I kept finding myself thinking, wow, he's really smart! And the robbers, though perfectly horrid, were absolutely hilarious too. I was surprised how much I actually enjoyed it!

  Tomorrow we are doing music at our church and then in the afternoon we have a Christmas party that my mom organized for her side of the family. There's going to be a gift exchange and I still haven't gotten a gift for it yet! Yikes! I'd better find something quick! Also, my Grandma has commissioned me to sing the old Irish song Galway Bay, because my Grandpa and his relatives are Irish. Here's a video of Chloe Agnew from Celtic Woman singing it.

                                             

    Isn't it gorgeous? Grandma gave me a recording of Bing Crosby singing it so I could learn the words, but even as much as I adore Bing Crosby, I think this version is probably my favorite.

   So! There's been a lot going on in the past weeks! There are also a few things coming up in the remainder of December and January of the new year that I'm looking forward to, including a New Years' Ball that my family has been invited to, my annual works-in-progress dance recital (at which I am performing the dance of the Sugar Plum fairy from the Nutcracker-- I can't wait! : )), and my sister's birthdays (and mine, come February). Also, there is a production of Wicked coming to a city not too far from where I live, so there is a chance, albeit a veeeery tiny one , that I may be able to go to see it! Now THAT would be exciting! : ) I've never seen the musical before but I've heard lots of good things about it (and plus it's a musical, so the odds are I'm going to like it), and I would really love to go see it live.

  I hope you are all having a blessed and joyful Christmas season! Have a happy New Years' and may the Lord bless you in 2014! : )

 What did you do on Christmas?

 Do you have any special plans for New Years'?

  

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