Decorations

Yesterday while babysitting we pulled out all of our Christmas decorations and decorated the house! It was so much fun to have Keagan (the little boy I babysit) help us put everything up. I went and took a few pictures of my favorite things today. 90% of the decorations are the same ones we have had since I was little. Christmas is very much about being together as a family for us, so it's nice that we can still use all the old decorations.

The first picture is of our tree. We have a fake one because it's less of a problem to put up, maintain, and take down. I would prefer a real one, I love the smell they give the whole house, but I'm not going to complain that there are no needles to clean up. A lot of the stuff on the tree is home made, or gifts from people.

These are the stocking my sister and I were given at birth. The hospital we were born at gives them to all babies born in December. They are HUGE. Mine is the one on the left with the white ribbon, my sister's is on the right and has a green ribbon.

This is LEON! We've had this for so long. It's a joke in our family. It's supposed to spell NOEL, but we always put it backwards.

There's the little tour of our holiday decorating. We don't put things out in the yard (who wants to take them down in the snow?), we don't have tons of garland everywhere, we don't have a wreath either. I've always wanted a wreath, but we forget to buy one every year. It isn't much, but I love what we do for our house.

Giving What I Can

Today was a busy day. I babysat until 11:30 last night and then woke up this morning and babysat again. After he left at 1:00 my Mom and I went shopping! I spent any money had just made. Wanna know what I spent it on? This:

It's all food and toys for those boxes at school. I feel so good about finally doing this! Through the years I have been raiding our cupboards for a few cans to put in the box. This year I spent a bunch of money and bought bags of food. My Mom did help, luckily, because I think I got a little carried away. I picked two of the kids off the list at school to buy for. One was a 16-year-old boy who wanted puzzles. That big box has 10 puzzles in it. I also got a book of word searches, sudoku, and cross word puzzles. The other was a 1 1/2 -year-old boy. I got him 5 coloring books and a big box of crayons. We have no clue who these toys are going to, but I hope whoever they are loves them.

After shopping, my mom and I went to Pizza Hut where we had a really fun dinner. There was a problem with something in the back so we ended up waiting an hour to get our food. It gave us time to talk and just hang out. It was nice. If it had been a whole family out to dinner thing, there would have been some yelling and we probably wouldn't have had such a nice conversation with our waitress. I am so tired now with all the running around. I didn't have the chance to wreck my journal today. Hopefully I will have time tomorrow in between doing the homework I haven't had time to do.

Updates & Wreck This Journal

Brrr! My cat is sick, so I am keeping my bedroom door shut do she doesn't throw up on my bed like last time she was sick. This means barely any heat is reaching my room. I don't like sitting up here in the cold. xD I'll be on this weekend, just not as much.

I will be babysitting tonight and tomorrow during the day. Hopefully I will get to go to Keene sometime this weekend. My school has adopted 6 needy families (20 kids) to buy toys for. I signed up to buy a couple of the gifts. We are also doing a feed the thousands box at school. All that food is going to help the community. And then we have a pet food box! I want to buy a few items for each of those boxes as well. It's nice to be able to help.

I've been wrecking my journal! I even wrapped a friend's gift in the page that said "Wrap something with this page" It was fun to decorate the paper. I'm finding that this journal is already helping me! I'm drawing and not caring if it's not perfect. I'm enjoying myself.

Because it's getting close to Christmas time In decided to draw a Christmas tree and some presents. It looks like something a 7-year-old would draw, but you should have seen how much fun I was having.

Poems

Today we had to read two poems. I didn't mind! The first was one that I have never read before, but I liked it very much. It says a lot about poets. The second was by Robert Frost, one of my favorites. I have an old copy of Collected Poems that was in my grandmother's basement. This poem makes me look forward to the soft and lovely snow. The world seems so beautiful and quiet in winter. We should be having a blanket of snow any day now!

Catch

by Robert Francis

Two boys uncoached are tossing a poem together,

Overhand, underhand, backhand, sleight of hand, everyhand,

Teasing with attitudes, latitudes, interludes, altitudes,

High, make him fly off the ground for it, low, make him stoop,

Make him scoop it up, make him as-almost-as possible miss it,

Fast, let him sting from it, now, now fool him slowly,

Anything, everything tricky, risky, nonchalant,

Anything under the sun to outwit the prosy,

Over the tree and the long sweet cadence down,

Over his head, make him scramble to pick up the meaning,

And now, like a posy, a pretty one plump in his hands.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Wreck This Journal and More!

I didn't get the chance to do much to my journal yesterday, I did more doodling and coloring today. Here's the pictures!

Today is my little sister's birthday. Happy birthday, Tia! I can't believe she's 13. A friend at school told me she remembered when Tia was little and jumping up onto her back for a piggyback ride at my 13th birthday party. Wow! How did 5 years go by so fast?

I got what I ordered in the mail today! I ordered a couple presents for some friends from The Hunger Site. I can't post pictures or say what in case those friends decide to stop by my blog. There are amazing things you can buy off the Hunger Site, though. If you want to buy gifts for someone and help feed those in need, going there is a good option. What I received is the same quality (and price) as what I could buy at a store.

Poem!

Today's poem was Because I Could Not Stop For Death by Emily Dickinson.

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

We slowly drove,

he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

We passed the school,

where children strove

At recess, in the ring;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;

The dews grew quivering and chill,

For only gossamer my gown,

My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity.

I've mentioned before that she is one of my favorite poets. We were talking about her in class one day and someone mentioned something I think is absolutely hilarious. Almost every Emily Dickinson poem can be sung to "The Yellow Rose of Texas"! There is a YouTube video out there that shows this, but it isn't very good so I didn't want to post it. Every time I read an Emily Dickinson poem now, I hum it to "Yellow Rose of Texas" in my head.

Yay, A Poem!

We finally began reading poetry in my AP English class! We are assigned a poem to read every day. Most of the other kids in my class hate poetry, and think I'm nuts because I do. I decided that if I like the poem I'm going to post it here so you can read it, too. The best part of all this is that reading poetry will probably inspire me to write again.

Hope

by Lisel Mueller

It hovers in dark corners before the lights are turned on, it shakes sleep from its eyes and drops from mushroom gills, it explodes in the starry heads of dandelions turned sages, it sticks to the wings of green angels that sail from the tops of maples.

It sprouts in each occluded eye of the many-eyed potato, it lives in each earthworm segment surviving cruelty, it is the motion that runs the tail of a dog, it is the mouth that inflates the lungs of the child that has just been born.

It is the singular gift we cannot destroy in ourselves, the argument that refutes death, the genius that invents the future, all we know of God. It is the serum which makes us swear not to betray one another; it is in this poem, trying to speak.

December Is Here! And Wreck This Journal

And the countdown begins! December is such a busy month for everyone I think. My family just seems crazy! The 3rd is my sister's birthday (13 already!?), the 14th is mine (can't wait to finally get that tattoo), the 22nd is a friend of mine's birthday, then Christmas Eve (my favorite day of the year) and Christmas, then finally we have the New Year! There is so much energy and magic in the month of December, I can't help but love it. It's the best time to just sit and watch movies on TV. Sure you've seen all the Christmas movies before, but I know I can't help but watch them again.

I began wrecking my journal today. It was fun and heartbreaking. I almost cried when I bent the

cover. Of course my friend Amy thought I was nuts, but I've never done something like that to a book. Emeline agreed with me and almost had a heart attack when I bent it. They both helped by drawing poops all over my inside cover. I had fun coloring things in. You can't see much in the pictures, but I'm already grieving for this poor book. It's going to go through so much worse. The last picture is the This Book Belongs To page. I wrote my name 5 or 6 different times in different ways. Covered up are my address and phone number. Under them it says "* NOTE: IF FOUND, FLIP TO A PAGE RANDOMLY, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, THEN RETURN." We all laughed at it.

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Enjoying this? I am! My friend Amy and my sister both want one now, so I know what to do for Christmas presents! I guess Keri Smith knew what she was doing when she thought this up. She has to be making a ton of money!

Quest Beyond The 28 Days

Soul Coaching has been a great experience! I know that what I learned in the past 28 days will stay with me. I can't put into words what I've learned from this. (I guess that means either I learned something that is actually indescribable, or I'm a crappy writer.) Anyway, I've had fun and let amazing people into my life. I hope a lot of these people decide to stay in touch. I plan to. I am subscribed to a bunch of blogs, and I need to go find a few more that I missed.

I will continue to listen and learn from the universe. I promise to shine and try my best to radiate that love I missed out on yesterday. I'm having a much better day today and my mood is back to normal. I plan on starting my new project tomorrow. I think it's going to be just as helpful as this past month has been. Good luck to everyone!

New Project! Wreck This Journal

Deep down we all have this little perfectionist who just yells and screams at us every time we do something and it's not just right. Mine gets annoying sometimes, and lately I just can't shut her up. I found this amazing book at Borders yesterday that I think may help me squash those negative perfectionist comments. It's probably going to be just as helpful as Soul Coaching has been.

Wreck This Journal is by Keri Smith. Inside there are instructions on every page for how to wreck the book. How she think of this idea? I really wish I knew. Here is a picture of my journal before I begin destroying it. One reason I know I need this project right now- I probably spent 10 minutes taking pictures because I wanted a perfect one. Luckily I got this one right before I started getting mad.
Anyone want to join me? I'd love the company! =) I'm probably going to do a page a day. I'll take pictures and post them here so you can see the destructive process. I'm excited for my new unexpected project. Let's see what I learn from it!