Grace Writing

Book: To Kill a Mockingbird Author: Harper Lee I recently read To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee for school and I decided to do a book review on it. So here's a quick description of the story, in case you haven't heard much about it:    Living in a small town called Maycomb and experiencing the fun of summer and the sufferings of school, a young girl named  Scout Finch watches her father  Atticus Finch,  an attorney, risking everything - his job, reputation and even his life - to prove the innocence of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of a crime he didn't commit.  The characters - Atticus Finch, Scout Finch, Jem Finch and Calpurnia, as well as others - were well-rounded and had a sense of reality to them that I know as a writer I struggle to create. They spoke, acted and thought like one would think them to, but not in an overdone or annoying way. I loved the perspective on the story that it had. Written in light of the events of the C...

      The world seems much nicer at first glance than it does when you look deeper into it.    It looks like a fairy tale when you first see it. It feels welcoming and loving when you're a child, and then the older you get the more you recognize the evil that inhabits it.    When I visited Thailand on our vision trip, I saw that evil for the first time in my life. I was around eleven.    I remember walking into the Buddhist temple, having left my shoes outside as they were not allowed to be worn indoors. I walked quietly over the cold marble floor through the dark room and lowered myself to the ground, looking around me in awe. I came as a tourist, but others came to worship.    What did they worship?    A green statue. The Emerald Buddha, it's called. All around me Thai people bowed low to the floor as medieval peasants would in front of a king, their hands palm-down on the floor in front of them in wor...

   One of the toughest things I struggle with when writing my blogs (or my books, or anything else, really) is that I don't have a very "tough skin" yet. This means that it hurts me when people don't like a post, or when someone offers critique on one of my stories. It's not that I don't believe what they're saying in those critiques of my stories or posts, it's that it hurts to hear them say it!    At the same time, with my blogs, I struggle when one post doesn't get as many views as another. This mostly hurts me because my posts about MK life/life overseas get tons of views, but when I write about what really is important to me (my stories) they don't get half as many views.    I've had to keep some things in mind when I look back over critiques or look at the amount of views of my posts. 1) I'm not writing to please other people, I'm writing to please me    I don't write my blogs to see how many views they get, I writ...

For those of you who don’t know, I am an MK (missionary kid). People tend to enjoy reading my posts about my life as a missionary, and are confused when I don’t write about that. After all – I’m a missionary! Why shouldn’t I write about my thrilling life living in a tropical climate spreading the word of Jesus? There’s only one answer for that, really: It’s not thrilling. Okay, this is true... Believe it or not, my life is no more exciting than yours. I spend my days doing school and trying not to die of the heat. Don’t believe me? I’ll give you a quick run-down of my day today. 1.      Manage to get out of my bed and go downstairs; hopefully pretend to be awake enough to eat breakfast 2.      Eat cereal and do devotions with family 3.      Do some school 4.      Take a nap 5.      Do more school 6.      Eat lunch 7.      M...

Because of recent events in America – getting a new president – (I mean, it wasn’t THAT long ago that Barrack Obama was starting his second term . . . right?) I have begun to realize that I go through my day acting like no time is passing at all. Then the day comes to an end. The sun rises again. I go back to doing basically the same thing I did yesterday . . . again hardly realizing that time is passing.  Things move so slowly in my head, but when they’ve ended it feels like I was completely robbed of the day. It feels like the year went by in no time. I often think about my life in the United States – remembering a time that seems so recent. Back when I lived in another country. When I saw the world differently. When I had loads of friends that I’d known my whole life, and when my dad was a pastor. I know that I haven’t lived there for two years, but it seems like it was yesterday. It feels like that time was robbed from me and I didn’t get to enjoy it enough. Or . . . mayb...

My older sister has returned from the United States! I can’t even tell you how thrilling it is to have her back. I didn't fully realize how much I love her until I didn't have her around to hug anymore.  We’ve done quite a lot since her arrival, and I wouldn’t trade any of the time I have with her for anything. Just yesterday, we went ice skating . . . Well, I say we , but I really mean they . I don’t enjoy ice skating, so I skated with my older sister for the first half-hour, and decided that my ankles were beginning to hurt and that I was done. So, I sat back and spammed my older sister’s phone with photos. She’ll thank me later . . . probably . While I was filling her phone, I looked up to see my younger sister on the ground out on the ice skating rink. I hop up and watch her come over, crying. Now, normally she would not cry. She’s a very strong girl. But, she’d been run over by an out-of-control skater and had fallen, trying to stop herself by using her han ds. Ouc...

It almost doesn’t seem right That another Christmas season is taking flight More people go around Shopping and singing of snow on the groun d Yet another season will pass With people forgetting the reason we celebrate We come together Not for gifts Or for singing Or for watching Christmas movies We come together to smile And thank the Lord for sacrificing A life in heaven for a life on earth And saving us from our sins So terrible and dark And for loving us with all His might A love we don’t deserve So, as you open all your presents On Christmas day Don’t forget the reason why We celebrate that way

A couple posts ago, we talked about the Ten Greatest Things About Homeschooling . But, let's face it: not everything can be perfect. Today, let's talk about t he Ten Worst Things About Homeschooling. 1. A LOT of family time… 2. Mom always knows who did it… always 3. There’s no “the dog ate my homework” excuse… especially if you don’t have a dog 4. People ask questions like, “Do you have any friends?” 5. When you try to tell people that you do have friends, they ask thing like, “Where do you get your friends?” 6. People ask other questions like, “Do you ever leave the house?” 7. People look at you like, “What is this strange creature in front of me?!” 8. When someone asks you where you go to school you have no idea how to answer it, because you know if you say “I’m homeschooled” the conversation will automatically turn against you 9. Your mom (or at least mine) wakes you up at 8 in the morning anyway, even though you can get all your work done in less t...