Yoda and Reading

No, not the little green Jedi. My car. It's a twenty-four year old Toyota Camry, so I named it Yoda, and it's blue, not green.

Anyway, I had some excitement this past week. Something I had hoped to never experience.

My car dying in the middle of the road.

Not only the middle of the road, but on a very busy road.

During rush hour traffic.

And at the time, I didn't know that my hazard lights weren't working.

Ah yes...that was exciting.

After an eighteen wheeler almost ran me over, lots of praying, and another big pickup truck helped push me off the road, we found out that my alternator quick working which caused my battery to die.

So much excitement...

Thankfully, we were able to find a new one for my car and now she drives wonderfully!

And I am so thankful that God kept me safe.

Sunrise one morning

Also this past week, I went on my very first double date with my Handsome Gnome. That was so much fun! We went with my best friend from my childhood and her new fiancee. It was a lot of fun and can't wait to do it again!

I took my sister to see Cinderella and just to hang out. It was fun to get to hang out with her on my day off.

This week is a bit hard. I was supposed to be packing this week, preparing to go back to the UK, but God had other plans for me. There is the small part of me that is really disappointed, but there is some reason that He has for me to be here.
Today, I read 1 Peter 1. It is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. This part really encouraged me today:

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
-1 Peter 1:6-9

It reminds me that God is in control. God knows what I am going through. This is why I am here.

Planning and Studios

That time is coming....
I know that June is so far away, but I like being prepared.

June is when I am going to really kick off my soaps, and I just want to make sure I am prepared and things run smoothly. I have started setting up an Etsy shop, which you will see a link for on my sidebar. I'll post more about it when I actually have it done! There isn't much to see at the moment. I'm hoping that it'll raise awareness for my soaps, and maybe help people that I meet in June to find me again, or tell their friends about me!

So that is something I've been working on, but I have also made myself a studio! I have been wanting my own space to do my scrapbooking and writing. I just finally decided to clean up and do it.

Oh yes, look at me being an adult. I have organized my closet and dresser. I have also started tackling the mess that is the top of my dresser...that's been quite a task, but not as exciting as my studio.

So, a bunch of kids used this room the night before, and made it very exciting.

You just can't really experience the full aroma and sticky-ness of this place. Yes, the floor looks clean, but I was stuck too it.

It was intense.

Let's just say I never knew that I had this love/hate relationship with applesauce.

So, after sweeping away cheese square crumbs and mopping the floor FOUR times, I finally got this:

Yes, the picture is a bit blurry, but it was with my phone and it's dark. Anyway, you get the point. I was able to get the place clean.

Then it was time to set up my desk stuff. Handsome Gnome's brother gave me this desk and I am so excited to finally have somewhere to put it!! I still have to move a reclining chair in here, and also organize everything, but I wanted to go ahead and get everything in here.

So now, yay! I have a writing/crafting studio to work in!

Hunny Nut Bubbles, Embeds, and Chapter 8

Ah, so much snow. The past few weeks have been crazy. We have gotten a total of 13 inches of snow and an inch of ice over the course of two weeks. For this area, that's kinda crazy.

But, it allowed me to get a ton of editing done on my story!! I had writer's black for the longest time, but when I was stuck in the house, sitting by the fire, I made it to chapter 8!! Which was great progress. So much writing, and then a whole page marked out in red. That was a sad moment... There is just something heartbreaking about looking at a scene and cutting it out of my book. But, it was horrible. It had to go...

Farewell, little scene...

Anyway, I have also had more time these past weeks to keep working on more soap combinations! I also bought colors to make colored soaps, those should be coming today.

This one is my Hunny Nut Bubbles! It has honey, almond oil, and oat meal in it. The base is Shea Butter base, and all of this makes it a very moisturizing soap! And it has definitely helped these lizard hands of mine. I also tried doing this as a loaf mold. I won't be doing that again. It made for weird lines and strangely shaped soap. Maybe one day I will try again, maybe when I get a silicone one instead of a metal loaf pan lined with wax paper.

 I have also been trying a few techniques, including embedding things in my soap.
Such as rubber ducks!!

I tried to make it look like it was swimming in a pond by putting dill into the soap. Makes for a very interesting smelling soap.

Now that June is getting closer, which will be Lovely Gnome's Essentials debut, I am going to start posting in a new section for my soaps. It is crazy how quickly this past month went, and I have a lot to think about....

Recent Gnomely Happenings

Well, some news.

I'm still making soaps and have tried many many many different things!

I have one major thing that I need to remember though, and also tell you.

Note: Never use real fruits or their juices in soap (with the exception of lemon juice).

It rots.

Anywho, other than this, I have found many things that do work! Like coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice.

OH!!! And I got two new molds. This rectangle one you see below, and an oval one just like it.

Coffee, Strawberry, and Cinnamon

Chamomile Tea

Orange Slices, Rosemary, and Blueberry

Vanilla, Poppy Seeds, Dill, Lemon

I also tried poppy seed. It seems to be popular, but I personally do not like it...it is the black speckled soaps in the last picture.

I'm having a lot of fun with this new idea, and new hobby. It is very relaxing after a day of work, and editing.

Talking about that, I am considering starting a writer's platform for myself, to raise awareness of my book so hopefully I'll be able to be published some day. I still have a long way to go on my book, but maybe I can do it...

I am definitely going to be praying about this sort of thing. I have a lot of decisions coming up, and I am very good at worrying.
Handsome Gnome is good at reminding me to trust God through this.
And I know that He is in control...
Sometimes I just need to sit back and see where He is leading me...I've had to do that this year already, trusting Him. He closed a door, and now I'm waiting for His guidance again.

So, all that to say, trust God. :) He always knows what He is doing, even if we can't always see the big picture...

Now, back to editing!

A New(ish) Hobby

 So, a new(ish) hobby.
What does that mean?

Well, I needed something to do when I'm taking breaks from editing my story. Editing and rewriting is very difficult and time consuming, so I really need to take breaks. My brain loves getting fried after editing four pages over the course of two straight hours...

This hobby isn't exactly new, I did it a long time ago, but I decided to try it out again!
This is also a hobby that could bring in some more income. ;) If I get good enough at it to make something worth selling!! (I will definitely keep you, my readers, up to date on that.)

Soap Making.

Yep! I decided to try out making soaps! I loved doing it when I was younger, and I thought I'd try it again.
A couple of pictures of some of my equipment and test soaps:

 

Right now, I am just trying to remember how to make soaps using the 'melt and pour' soap bases. I am not nearly confident enough to try making soap base from scratch. The whole lye thing intimidates me a little bit. Maybe one day, but I can get pretty high-quality melt and pour soap base from many stores. I got these particular bases from Hobby Lobby. They had a great online sale going on, so I ordered 10 pounds. That was fun to get in the mail.

More to come later!

New Year's Resolution

Harumph.

I have forgotten about you again, blogging world.

I got busy writing, working, and preparing.

And I forgot about you again.

HOWEVER. This will be remedied. This is something I really want to do and accomplish. It is something to help me for writing, for working, and help me just relax sometimes! Writing helps me relax.

So, this is my New Year's Resolution, to pay more attention to my blog.

Now, to catch you a little up on my current life happenings.

I did it!!! I wrote 50k words in one month. I won NaNoWriMo and started a new series of books, based off of one I wrote when I was thirteen.

AND.

I finished the first draft of the Mystery Knight!!!!!! So, the editing and rewriting of that is in process. I made it to 55k words by the end. So, I now have over 100,000 words of novel written, and I'm not done with the Winning Novel series yet, and just started the editing process of the Mystery Knight. I will definitely try to keep you updated on that.

I am also working on something else, something that I am going to save for another time.

So, here we go again, dear blog. Let's see what 2015 has in store for us!

The Happenings of October

Wow...
I've been really bad at this...
Again...

SO....

The good news is that I don't have a torn meniscus. In my knee, the knee I hurt?

The bad news is.........no one has any idea what is wrong with it. My knee is super weak, so I'm going through physical therapy to see if that helps.
And let me tell you, physical therapy hurts like crazy.
So, three more weeks of this and then we'll see if it helped.

So, what else did I do this month? I know there are still four more days, one of which is Halloween, but that will be its own post. ;)

It was my brother's 19th birthday. So I took him to see Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day.

Then I took the Handsome Gnome on a Celebratory Date!!! He got an amazing grade back on a paper, so, I decided that was a good excuse to go eat good food and watch a movie. 

We went to see The Judge. A very interesting movie. It was good, though it did make me cry, several times.

Also this month, I got a haircut. And my sister did it for me. Yes, I was nervous, but I think she did an amazing job. :)

And probably a highlight of my month was when Handsome Gnome surprised me with flowers before we went to church!!! I loved them so much. :)

Then, the state fair. Woohoo!! So much fun. I went with my brother and sister, and Handsome Gnome and his brother. We had a great time! This makes three years since I became friends with this handsome guy, and they have been the three best years of my life so far.

These scrumfy things are jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese and barbecue, wrapped in bacon, and then fried. They were amazing. AND! They were 'fancy' fair food. They were made locally instead of in a traveling food truck.

Also this month, I have been able to write a lot in my story! I finally hit 50,000 words, and I think I'm on the last two chapters. It'll hopefully be soon!!
I'm also doing this writing contest thing where you write a 50,000 word novel in one month, the month of November. I'm not sure if I'll make it to 50,000, but I'll be completely happy if I make it to 20,000 words in one month! That'll be the most I've written in one month. :)

So, more to come later! I'm going to try to not get distracted again and write more. Hopefully...

Weekly Happenings: Beach, Knees, and Mothers

Hello peoples!!

Wow....long long long week. There has been a lot of stuff going on! This would be why I haven't sent in a blog post since last Friday.

So, beach retreat!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ohmygoodness one of the best weekends of my life so far! I made a few new friends and strengthened my relationship with my old ones. The focus of the week was what relying on God might look like.

 My small group for the weekend. :) Such a great group of people!

People who got pies in the face. ;)

 Such a beautiful place.

So, after this weekend, I got reallllllly busy. My mom had surgery on Monday and I had my appointment on Tuesday.

So...the big question. What did I find out? What is wrong with my knee?

The doctor is quite confident that I have a torn meniscus. Yay... I've been hobbling around on a torn meniscus for almost a year now. And its just been slowly tearing worse.

I have an MRI scheduled for Wednesday just so we can make sure that is exactly what it is. Then, an appointment to talk about the next step. (Probably surgery...AHHHHHHHHHH....)

So. With taking care of my mom, my appointments, work, and the retreat, I've had a pretty busy week. :) It hasn't necessarily been a bad week, but it has been long.

Okay, I'm going to try to post more often, but it may be easier for now to do a post on the weekends. I don't know, but we will see!

Until next time. :) Farewell!

Knee Updates and New Chapters

Hey peoples!! Woohoo! The weekend is almost here! I survived another week at work. And I hope you have too!

I have my next appointment on Tuesday!! Yes, I am pretty nervous. I have never had an MRI before and I'm very claustrophobic... However, they told me since it's just my knee, I shouldn't have to go all the way in, just my legs. 😊 So that is reassuring.

My story!! I had been working on the same chapter for three days. It was hard getting back in the groove of writing after not writing or looking at my story for two years. However!! After much editing and writing, I finished another chapter!! 😃 I finally finished it and I'm pretty sure my groove is back. I forgot how much I love writing. I didn't have the time in college, so now that I'm done, it is so much fun remembering how much I do!! So, be ready to here more about my story in the next few weeks.

Now, I'm going to be gone for a couple of days again. I am going to the beach!!!! I love the beach. I'm going with my college Bible group. So, I get to make new friends and bond with my old ones and also learn about God and worship! I think it's going to be an amazing weekend and I'll be sure to tell you about it when I get back!

I'm still working on the post about 1 Peter. Trying to figure out how to break it up and such. I will definitely have it ready by next Monday! It is something I'll be working on this weekend as I relax on the beach. Because of my knee, Handsome Gnome has made me promise to just sit and not do anything else.... Humph is what I have to say... But I accidentally ran last night because I thought I was burning the lasagna I made for supper. And of course, my knee hurts a little worse. So, sit I shall. No running through the sand for Lovely Gnome....

Anywho... I hope y'all all have an amazing weekend and I'll tell you about mine on Sunday!!

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," -1 Peter 1:3

Picture!!!

Yes, I know I already posted today, but I just finished fixing supper (which I haven't done in awhile) and wanted to share!!!

It's called Summer Risotto and I also grilled zucchini and brought out turkey for a bit of protein.

So tada!!! :D Summer Risotto and zucchini. Everyone that ate it thought it was yummy, so I call that a success.

Doctors, Cars, and Risotto

Yes, I was unable to go to my training today. My knee was killing me so I had to cancel. Two hours on my feet would have caused me to be in a lot of pain.

So instead, I went to my grandparent's house!! A couple of weeks ago...wait. Did I tell you about the award I earned a couple of Sunday's ago??? No? Well, not this past Sunday, but the Sunday before I earned an award. I changed my third tire in the span of 5ish months. That has to be some sort of record. Anyway, my tire was flat as I drove down the highway and a car pulled up beside me to let me know it was. (THANK YOU RANDOM GUY!!) I was driving 70mph down the highway on a flat tire....needless to say I would have smelled the hot rubber in about five minutes because the smell knocked me out when I pulled over and got out of my car. So, I had made it to the point to where I was attempting to get the lug-nuts off of the tire when a man pulled up to help me. (Once again, thank you random other guy.) Lovely Gnome's way of getting said lug-nuts off of a tire is hopping up and down on the wrench. I'm only 5'2"...and let's just say Handsome Gnome says I weigh .7lbs when holding a 50lb weight. So, hopping up and down on a wrench is the only way I can get the lug-nuts off. However, the man pulled over and I got to sit and watch him change my tire. I was also in my church clothes so that didn't help either.

Anywho, this story leads me to today's story. My grandpa and I went to the tire shop to get my car realigned and a new tire put on it so I could have a spare again. I have been a super cautious driver this week without a spare...

After that, I finally went to the doctor about my knee, and got referred to a specialist. I will probably end up having to get a MRI. SCARY. I am so claustrophobic. But apparently all I'll have to do is put my legs in, not my top half. That makes it a bit better.

Now, I am sitting here writing this blog post and thinking about my next Bible post. There wasn't one for last week, sorry about that. Finding out that we are going through John threw me off a bit so I'm studying 1 Peter for them now. I am working on it though!!! I love this first part of 1 Peter. It is all about the hope we get from knowing Jesus. Without Him, we have no hope, but with Him we do!!! There is a little preview. ;)

Also, to help my mom out a bit, I am fixing a supper dish that she wanted to try. She is feeling a bit tired so I thought I'd tackle the dish for her. It is a summer risotto which sounds delicious. Wish me luck dear readers!!

I may have an update for you on my book tomorrow. :)

This Week's Happenings

So, if you can't tell, this week has been pretty busy. Started Tuesday and finally ended today! So now, dear readers, I am back to tell you about it.
Also, I get a bit distracted. If I'm not listening to music or something, I tend to not keep my focus on what it is I am trying to accomplish. Which is something that I figured out in school.

Anyway...

Where did I leave off? Monday night? So, first off is Tuesday.

Tuesday was my training and introduction to the garden where I am volunteering!! Hopefully I will be able to pursue this and it will help me figure out what to do in the future. I go to another training session tomorrow and then I will be ready to head out into the garden to help!!

Wednesday.
Ah, Wednesday. Small group! We started our Bible study that night. You'll never guess what we are studying!!!! JOHN!!! So, it was pretty amazing. It was alot of fun and I learned new things. This is something I like about studying the Bible with other people. I can see things I might not have seen before, or I can show them the things I see. It was alot of fun getting to know the girls a bit more and studying John 1:1-18 with them. I look forward to this week and the next installment of John!!
Because of this, I will be doing a different book of the Bible in my weekly Bible posts. Perhaps 1 Peter, another one of my favorite books of the Bible.

Thursday. What was Thursday? OH YEAH!!! I went on a wonderful date with Handsome Gnome. :) We ate Applebee's  and watched the Expendables 3. Yes, I watched it before I watched the second one, but he said I wasn't going to be confused by anything. I wasn't and the movie was great!! Jason Statham and Antonio Banderas are some of my favorite "shoot-em-up" movie actors. And they are in it. But probably the highlight of the movie was Harrison Ford. He ranks right up there in the top ten of my favorite actors. I love the Indiana Jones movies and I like Han Solo, so...yes. He ranks way on up there.
I always enjoy going on dates with Handsome Gnome. Since he is back in school, it is harder for us to go on them.

Friday and Saturday, a conference!! I went to this college Bible conference hosted by my church. It was an amazing experience!! I went with Handsome Gnome and a few other of my friends.

 Yes, the guys sat on the ground to stretch their legs out. It was great.

I learned a lot this weekend. Lots of amazing speakers and messages. We are sent and meant to go and spread the Word. Whether it is nationally, internationally, in the workplace, or a village. God sends us anywhere and everywhere.

Sunday was a normal Sunday. Early to church, brunch with my friends, and hanging out with my family. I did go to the mall with my mom and sister and found a pair of $50 jeans for $17. Yes, I did. Don't judge...this isn't normal. I don't do this often. I had a gift card and decided to go get a new pair of colored jeans.

Today, Monday. This was a long work day, but I survived!! I also decided on going to a beach retreat with my college Bible group. I know some of my small group people are going and it will be a good time for me to get to know them a little better. Plus, its the beach. I love the beach. I want to stay at the beach forever. Sorry, sidenote. I just love the beach. And the weather is supposed to be nice!!!

So, yes. I didn't fall off the face of the earth! I have just been really busy. I had a great week, and a great time at the conference.

Now, off to watch Person of Interest with the family.

Getting Close!

Hello peoples!

So, I've been working on my book. Guys. I'm almost done!! After editing and reading it to remind myself what my 16-17 year old self was envisioning has been difficult. However, I think I'm close!! I will still have major editing to do, but I'm almost done with the writing process. I plan on publishing it, so, I will definitely let you know when I do!

So, in addition to my job and writing, I'm trying out teaching. I'd love to be able to teach kids, but whether or not I can actually do it is the big question. I know I'd like to write a study guide/plan for teaching environmental science, but I want to see the kids actually see and understand what they are learning. This is why I would want to teach and why I want to teach my kids one day. I was homeschooled and loved the experience.
Anyway, tomorrow I head out for volunteer training at an outdoor garden. I get to be one of the people I always wanted to be in high-school! However, this will be my first real experience at teaching. Tomorrow is just the training, but I am still nervous. This volunteer work will help me see if this is what I want to do though, which is good! I would love prayers as I try and figure this out.

I also just finished reading Mockingjay this morning, part of the Hunger Games trilogy. And oh my word....I haven't recovered. It was emotionally traumatizing. I have been waiting because everyone I knew that had read it said it made them miserable....but, I survived. I'm not sure what I am going to do when the movie comes out.

I also, for some odd reason, have started playing solitaire on my computer. Its the only game on my computer, so...when I want to waste time, it is what I do. My sister thinks it is really odd. I guess I am a bit odd.

OH! This weekend we went to the lake and I rode on the tube. It was so much fun, however...
I injured my knee while playing volleyball so I have been unable to do a lot of things. I thought that riding the tube would not mess with it, it wasn't like I was kneeboarding or anything. Not only are my legs sore from doing a couple of tricks, my knee won't support my weight very well if I bend it a certain way.
Riding the tube was a lot of fun, but I think I'll be feeling this for awhile.
And don't worry little reader, I am going to be going to the doctor soon about my knee. I went to a nurse practitioner and she told me I only had inflammation... Needless to say I'm going to the professionals this next time. I'm sure I have tendonitis in my knee (I have it in my wrist and elbow) but I'm not sure what else.

Well, this has been one of my longer posts. Until next time!!

Week's Happenings So Far

This week, I had Wednesday off. So!! I went to Handsome Gnome's university campus and got to experience being a large university student. I have only attended (and FINISHED!!) community college. So this was fun! I got to visit a class and watch him as he worked on homework and such.

That night, I went to my small group's first meeting of the semester! This was great and I got to meet a few new people. I'm looking forward to getting to know these girls and study the Bible with them this year.

I got a new computer!!! That's probably one of the things I'm most excited about this week. My old computer did not having more than one tab open, running dvds, and crashed often. It especially did this when I opened up Word and tried typing. This wasn't good because, I am a writer. I could only type when I was online and that was hard when I didn't have wifi to use.
So!! New computer. :) I'm very excited about it.

Because of this, I have started working on my story that I have been writing since 2010. I haven't even really touched it in the past two years because of school. The past few days, I focused on editing it. Now that I finished that part, today starts the writing process again!! I am pretty excited about it. I love writing and this is a great way to keep me busy.

My new space. :) Now I only have my writing materials and my teaching materials around me. I am currently exploring the idea of writing a home-school environmental science curriculum.

Today, heading to the lake and working on next week's Weekly Bible Post. And drinking yummy and delicious coffee...

Labor Day Rescue!

Labor day. A great day off to do whatever you want. So what did we do? We went to the lake!!

So I, my family, my grandparents, and Handsome Gnome went on an adventure!

The day was beautiful, though maybe a little on the warm side. The water felt great! And the company was wonderful.

However, what does my title mean?? Well...there were two rescues that need mentioning.

First rescue, ours.

We just finished floating around in the water and taking pictures. Everything was going great! And now, it was time to sail off again and find somewhere a bit shadier for lunch. The ignition key was turned, the engine started, then nothing.

Nothing.

We were in the middle of the lake and our engine wouldn't crank. So, my dad and grandpa started digging around and tugging at wires.

A blown fuse.

You can catch those on the end of a fishing line, right?

Anywho, they tried figuring out how to make it work long enough to get us back to the marina. A boat drove by to see if we were ok. YAY!!! He had the kind of fuse we needed at his dock and brought it back to us and a boat to boat hand-off was performed.

We set off again and everything went great!

As we were floating around, cooking supper on the onboard grill, we saw a suspicious looking scene. In the middle of this little cove was a raft with someone on it waving something. There were other boats around, so we were going to keep going, but no one seemed to be paying attention to the rafter.
Deciding to check it out, we found this little older couple whose engine had given out. The lady was the one on the raft trying to signal for help since their waving and boat honking wasn't bringing anyone to their aid.
So, we hooked their boat to our boat and pulled them back to the docks.
I'm so glad we saw them and decided to stop! I will definitely be watching out better for these type of people now that I have been on the receiving end. So many people had passed them by before we finally stopped.

So, those are the rescues of Labor Day Rescue! Exciting, right?

Hope everyone had an amazing Labor Day!

Gnomely Weekend

Its been pretty chill this weekend in the life of Lovely Gnome.

Saturday, I took a real day off. I didn't do much at all except lounge about. Really productive, right? Although, I did work on my first Weekly Bible Post. It should be ready by tomorrow!! Woohoo!!

Today was a bit more exciting!

First off, went to church with Handsome Gnome and some of our friends. This is always fun! I enjoy getting to spend time with these people.

This morning, my pastor preached on Psalms 88-89. Have you ever read Psalms 88? Talk about depressing. It was really interesting though! My pastor mentioned how Psalms is written like a Christian's walk through life. We have the up times, and we have the down times. Psalms 88 is apparently a down time. But, there are also the good times, like Psalms 89.

After church and a bit of brunch from Bojangles, we headed back to college campus to watch Inception! I was the only one out of the four of us who hadn't watched it, so...it was for my benefit.

What did I think?

Well...it didn't confuse me, sorta, which kinda confuses me. It was a very interesting strange movie. I'd have to watch it again is what they all tell me. ;) Apparently it gets easier to understand as you go along. One of my friends saw something he hadn't seen before, and this was his 7th time watching it...so who knows.

This was another movie marked off Handsome Gnome's (and my) list of movies we need to watch. :) Here is the list so far and the ones marked off that I have now watched:

- Dark Knight
- All of the Harry Potter movies
- Inception
- Hitched
- Expendables 2
- Troll 2 (Best worst movie I've ever watched....)
- Letters to Juliet (This is my addition!)
And finally,
- The rest of Arrow (Superhero TV show)

So, we've watched most of the list. Only a couple more to go! And yes, we love action movies. That is my kind of movie. When people think we are nuts, I give proof to it by mentioning that Handsome Gnome took me to see Robocop for our first official Valentine's Day together. (And yes, I LOVED it. Romantic movies are nice, but nothing beats a good superhero/action movie. ;) ) But if you look at the list, two of them are chick flicks. His favorite and my favorite.

Now!! This afternoon and evening, I went to the lake with my family and grandparents. That was fun! We scooted around on the lake and grilled supper on the boat. (Portable grill, not a campfire. Silly people.) And I get to do it again tomorrow!! Yay for a day off to spend with my family!!

Anywho, this is Lovely Gnome, heading out. Time for much needed sleep.

Random Day in Lovely Gnome's Life

These posts are simply just 'Normal Posts'. :) They will contain thoughts and experiences for that day or several days (depending on how well I keep up with it).

So, today was pretty much an average day. I worked. I drank coffee. That's what my days almost always consist of. :)

However, there is something new I've started today! I began working on a 'Weekly Bible Post'. This will be another category here on my blog.

 

This is my work space. It has my crafting and teaching stuff all within reach of my chair.
I'm working on the 'Weekly Bible Post' in this picture. I have my caramel coffee, my notebook, and my extra large ESV study Bible. (And yes, that is an Avengers pen...)

I also had a huge blessing this afternoon. About mid-week, I realized that money was tight. I had signed up to go to a college conference, drove a lot, and had other random expenses this week. On my drive to work this morning, I talked to God about it. This afternoon I had a sweet note from my employer (I'm a nanny) with a gift card. A little extra gift this week. It meant so much to me.


I'm thinking about crafting a bit tonight. I mostly use these things called SMASH*books, though I do scrapbook a little. I'm just not the most organized person in the world. I know I'm definitely going to work on my schedule for this Nature Study class I'm helping teach, but more about that later! On a day I'm actually teaching it.

Tonight, I am hanging out with my family, watching a new tv show that we like called 'Person of Interest' and eating hot dogs. Yes...very healthy. Though they are organic, so not as bad as they could be. ;)

Today has been a very good day!

My verse today comes from my favorite Psalm, chapter 103.
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!" Psalms 103:1

Hello Blogging World!

Hello Friends!

I am the Lovely Gnome. Yes, not my real name, but who puts their real name anyway? I am attempting to try my best at blogging. I've been a sporadic blogger in the past, but I hope to fix that now!

Some of you may be readers of my previous blog, Teen Jesus Follower. To you I say, welcome back!! My life has been pretty hectic as I transitioned from my teenage years to adulthood. But now here I am! I'm out to try again.

This blog is going to be my place to write about my experiences, my stories, and of course, about my walk with God. For those of you who read my previous blog, you know things have been rough and I have had my struggles throughout college. Now that it is in my past, however, I am striving to strengthen my relationship in Him and follow what He wants me to do in my life!

Why 'the Lovely Gnome'? I'm glad you asked. It was the idea of my wonderful boyfriend, the Handsome Gnome. I was having problems coming up with a name, and this is what he suggested!

A little more about myself before I end this post.
I am a writer, scrapbooker, and very much a nerd. You will soon find out that I am a die-hard Marvel fan and I love pretty much anything BBC.
God and my family are huge and crucial parts of my life. They have helped me through so much and I love them all immensely! This, you will also find out.

Anything else will probably be revealed in later posts. These are just the major things I can think of at the moment!

So...here we go! Are you ready? I think I am. Its time to start over. To start a new blog!! And to brave through adulthood with God, family, and friends by my side.