Top five favorites of the year!

My favorite things/events of the year!


Favorite song: "Heartbeat" The Fray. I wish I had a playcount of how many times I've listened to this song, but after my computer crashed I had to re-install everything and lost all that info. I'm sure it's easily 100+ I love, love, love this song!

Favorite moment:  June 1st. When my book came out! Admittedly, not in the way I wanted and hoped for, but still, self-publishing was awesome!

Favorite picture: This was pretty much impossible to choose, but I'm going with this one for now.

Favorite book: This was about as hard as choosing a favorite picture. I liked most of the books I read this year, which was a lot, seventy-five to be exact. This was my first year with a Kindle, and I definitely made it count. One of my favorites this year was definitely The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. OH! And Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. And Insurgent, by Veronica Roth wasn't too shabby either. See, I told you I couldn't choose.

Favorite movie: The Dark Knight Rises. YESSS. Also, one of the two movies I saw in the theater this year. Yay me.

How about you?

Can't shake it...

I know this is "the topic" on the blogs today, with good reason. It seems that everyone is brokenhearted and saddened over the tragic events this past Friday.

I was a teenager when both the Columbine shootings and the 9/11 attacks took place, and though I remember being sad when they happened, they didn't quite affect me the way the Newtown  shootings have. Matthew and I have spent a lot of time talking about this and why. The first reason is simple: I'm a parent now. Not only that, my oldest is the same age as most of the children who were killed. The shootings happened just miles from where we currently live. It makes it all too easy to put myself in the shoes of those parents, though I'm trying hard not to.

No matter how hard I try, I just can't shake the awful feeling inside when I think of it all. Matthew and I emailed back and forth all day on Friday about the unfolding events. And it just got worse and worse. Never before in my life have I been so happy to be a homeschool mom. My six year-old, my second-grader, was sitting right beside me doing his schoolwork when this all happened. He remains wonderfully oblivious and I'm grateful that I don't have to try and explain what happened and why. Well, there is no why, is there?

I mentioned to Matthew when he got home that I was glad to be a Christian on a day like Friday. Not because it's easy to reconcile why these things happen (no one can), but because I'm a firm believer in Hell and eternal punishment for people who do things like this to innocent children.

And also because I believe in Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted."

So as I plan my Christmas holidays with my family, my thoughts and prayers are never going to be far from those who are without theirs this year. It's all I can do.