Books of 2017

     Okay. Okay. *deep breath. It's New Years Eve. *freaks out. It's almost 2018!! And this is my last post in two categories... First, it's my last post in 2017, and it's my last post on this blog. I started this blog almost exactly nine years ago, and I'm now putting it (mainly it's name, though) to rest...

Christmas Future - a sermon

     So today is Christmas! Merry Christmas, everyone! Since today is the big day, you're going to get a shorter post than usual. I'm just going to share a link to a really good sermon...

My Favorite Christmas Movies!

     It's getting closer, guys! I'm excited, but also a little unready for Christmas and then the new year. 2018?!? That's freaky. Today I'm going to be sharing a few of my favorite Christmas movies. Fair warning - I haven't seen a whole bunch of Christmas movies. In fact, the below list is basically all the ones I've seen (or that I remember seeing).

Christmas Facts

     Can you believe it's December?! The year has flown by... It's so weird. Every year goes by a little faster than the year before. Well, since Thanksgiving has passed and all the Christmas decorations have been broken out (except for the few places that put them up before Thanksgiving - shame!) I thought I would throw some fairly random Christmas facts at you to think about. :)

Thankfulness: What's it All About? (originally published on Desiring God)

     The Gobbler Games are over! Check out my post at TAJ for more on that... But with Thanksgiving under our belts (probably unbuckled a few notches to accommodate some added weight from all that food - I regret nothing!) I thought I'd talk about what Thanksgiving really means and what genuine thankfulness is. This is an article from DesiringGod.org. Here it is!

PEH: Thanksgiving Edition

     Guys! I actually managed to do a Picture Every Hour without missing an hour!! And it was on Thanksgiving, too. Probably one of the busiest days of the year. This proves I have no excuses. XD

My Baptism

     Guess what guys? One year ago today I was baptized! It was a really fun (cool? Fun doesn't seem exactly right...) experience. And a bit nerve-wracking too. So I thought today I'd just recap how my baptism went/how I remember it. Because I'm not sure if or where I wrote stuff down right afterward, so I had better save some record of my thoughts. ;)

My First Vlog?!?

     Oh yeah, guys. I'm going all out today! :) This is my first ever vlog! It was pretty fun to film (even though coming up with a topic/idea was harder than I thought it would be, especially since an "introduction to me" type vlog wouldn't really work since y'all know basically everything about me. ;)

Where are the bones of Christopher Columbus?

     Welcome everyone! Today I'm going to be doing a bit of a different type of post. What follows is basically a school paper/report I did recently that I thought was interesting and thought I would share. (Basically - I didn't want to write the blog post I had "scheduled" so I'm doing this instead.)

The Reformation: #500

     Guys. The history nerd in me is freaking out. Tommorrow is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation! (Or more specifically, the day when Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg. But who was being specific? Not me!) That is so cool. I don't know what it is about nice round anniversary numbers, but they make me happy. And number 500? Eeek!!

Bible Time Update: October 2017

     So this is when I again moan about how busy my life is. Haha. Basically - the time I allot to Bible time has gone down by quite a bit. But I have been doing some stuff. This post might be a little shorter (again), but I'll just go through what I'm doing and probably ramble a lot, too. :)

PEH: Birthday Edition (sort of)

     And I'm sixteen! And this is an hour (or three?) too late... Hehe. Sorry 'bout that. I also didn't actually take a picture every hour on my birthday, so this is a bit of a different PEH post - if you can even call it a picture every hour, since there aren't any pictures.

Life Update

     My birthday is on Saturday! That's only five days away. Only five days and I'll be sixteen. That's sort of crazy. These past few weeks have been a little crazy/hectic. My family was out of town (except for my dad and me), then my dad and the boys were out of town, and I've gotten a little behind on school (hehe).

How I Blog

     So! I thought I'd show you (or tell you) the behind-the-scenes of how I blog. It really isn't that interesting, but I thought it would be fun for me to do... Maybe it will be interesting? I'm quite proud of how consistent I've been over the past year and a half-ish.

School & School

     Time for my slightly belated Picture Every Hour! Sorry again that this is late... So this PEH is from last Wednesday, September 21. It was a very lazy day, and I basically just stayed  home and did school (which you may gather from the title). Anyway! On to the pictures...

My School Playlist

     Hello everyone! I'm supposed to post a Picture Every Hour today, but I did not do a very good job taking pictures on the day I was going to take them, so today you're going to get a post I was planning to do next week. I'll be back with a PEH next week. Enjoy! :)

Five Useful Phrases in German

     Hello all! I know I've mentioned several times that I really enjoy German. I think I'd enjoy any language I'm learning, but German is so cool and old and the country has an amazing history. So I really like German. :)

Why I Love the Lord of the Rings

     Hello, everyone! It's September. Do you know what that means?? Yes, school is going on, and my sister's birthday is happening, and I'm starting marine biology - but that's not what I'm thinking of. Way more important than any of those things is this fact: Hobbit Day is on September 22nd, which means it's Lord of the Rings month!

A Brief History of Neuschwanstein

     Welcome everyone! Today I'm going to whip out my historian Anna outfit (or costume... either works) and talk about some history. And not just any type of history either - this is some German history. (Two of my favorite school subjects mashed into one wonderful item.) I'm going to be talking about a famous castle in Germany called Neuschwanstein.

PEH: First Day of School Edition

     Welcome one and all! This past Monday (which is now last week) we started school. As you may have noticed (here, here, and here) I was and am very excited to have something to do all day. Of course, since my workload is so light (I'll be starting three more classes - one a college duel enrollment class - by the beginning of September) I still have a lot of time to burn. (But I'm never bored, because if I was my mom would give me some chores, and let's avoid that at all costs.)

Reverse Bucket List

     Hello everyone, and welcome! In case you couldn't tell from the title, today I'm going to be doing this little thing called a reverse bucket list. Everyone knows what a bucket list is (and if you don't, how do you not?). A reverse bucket list is essentially that: what I have done that is bucket list worthy.

Life Update #8

     Hey all! This is the last of my life update series, because it's the last Saturday in the summer (for us, at least). If you want to read the previous ones - here's a link to all of them. I'm sort of sad that summer is ending, but I'm mostly excited and ready for school to start.

A Break from the Usual...

     Welcome to Anna's Family Blog! How lame of a title is that, isn't it? Proof I named it when I was seven. :) I thought it was eight, but I just went back and checked, and I was actually seven. That was almost nine years ago, guys! Crazy, isn't it?!

Life Update #7

     Well, everyone. We've come to the second to last Saturday of summer, which means - joyful adulation!! School is almost heeerrrrreeeeee! (You will be kind enough not to remind me of this in approximately four months, when I am sick and tired of school - thank you.) But it's also the beginning of my last week of summer, so I'm going to enjoy it.

Five Reasons Why I Love Norco

     Welcome, everyone! I've been back home for a week now, and am getting into a groove, which is nice. I'm also becoming insanely bored (don't tell my mom though - she'll give me chores). Enter a lot of coloring my Bible verse coloring books and listening to an insane amount of music and occasional World and Everything In It podcasts.

Bible Update: Summer Camp 2017

     So as I said in my last Bible update, I was planning on doing Romans over the summer. Let us simply say that, along with my reading through the Bible in a year plan, that has been kinda trashed. I'm still trying to do it, but I haven't been doing it every day.

Life Update #6

     I know, I know. I missed the past few update posts. For good reason! Family vacation week (July 1st - 7th) wasn't very busy, but there was a lot of hanging out with family and not a lot of screen time. Which I was fine with, but it doesn't exactly help with the whole 'post once a week' thing. :)

Stars and Whales

     Hullo, everyone! Today is a kind of short post, mainly because I'm on vacation and didn't have time to put anything more comprehensive together. So I'm basically just sharing a video I saw a while back that amazes me. Be sure to watch all of it!

My Family: Luke

     Hullo everyone! Guess what? Tomorrow is the Fourth of July!! We're at our Family Vacation, and I'm having a blast! If you want to check out a more 'Independence Day themed' post, see this one I posted last year. Whelp... My family member for today is Luke.

Life Update #5

     This is late, again... And I don't have any pictures from where we are staying, so this will have to do. These are the pictures from week two (June 25th to 30th -ish) We saw a lot of things and did a lot of things, all super fun.

My Family: Leah

     Welcome all! Can you believe it's almost July?!? Geez. If you've been following my Saturday posts (and how could you not! I mean...) you'll know exactly what we're up to. Hooray for road trips!! Today I'm continuing my series on my family. Next up is my sister Leah.

My Family: Jack

     Welcome back, one and all!! And if it's your first time... Welcome! (I'm trying to get creative with my intros... Can you tell?) Today we'll be discussing my wonderful little brother Jack. And since I have no more small talk to do, on we go!

Life Update #4

     We're on the road trip! Here's some pictures: (Sorry, I'm not going to write a ton, since I don't have a whole bunch of time to be on here.) :) And also, this was supposed to be yesterday, but I've kinda lost track of the days. Usually I wouldn't post on a Sunday, but my normal routine has obviously been interrupted. :)

VBS & Vacation

     I was going to title this 'VBS & Piano' (you'll see why in a second) but I couldn't pass up the double 'v's. And besides, by the time this is up (7:00 AM PT) we'll be an hour gone on the road! Hopefully, that is. So the title is accurate...

Life Update #3

     Welcome, everyone! This is my promised life update post... A lot happened the past two weeks, so here's the run down:

Sorry...

     I've been really busy recently and forgot to put the answers in my dad's post... So I took it down. I'll probably skip this week, and just pick up with Jack next week. At some point, I might get around to finally getting those answers in there, but maybe not. I have no idea. XD

My Family: Mom

     Hello, everyone! Welcome to my blog... This post is going to be part of a series I'm doing on all five of my family members: Dad, Mom, Jack, Leah and Luke. I keep on forgetting to type down the answers for Dad, so you're gonna get Mom first. Hopefully Dad's will be typed in by next week.

Life Update #2

     So much for life being less busy after school ended. I kid not, Friday was only the third day in ten days when I didn't leave the house. And it was never a quick trip when I did leave the house. Several hour trips... Whew. I'm really looking forward to vacation.

Bible Time Update: May 2017

     Welcome, everyone! I've been with you all a lot recently (last Monday, Wednesday and Saturday - eek!) so I'm sure you're all really bored of me. Or hopefully not? I like to flatter myself and think these posts are somewhat interesting. But I suppose even if they aren't, I'm still having fun doing this. :)

Movie Reviews

     First off - sorry there's no PEH. I was too busy and forgot. Hehe. Again - sorry. So, instead of that, I'm going to go with something that I've kinda been wanting to do, but haven't been able to do because my "schedule" was all full. I've seen quite a few movies the past few months, almost all of which I really liked, so today I'm going go through them, and introduce you to some movies to watch. :)

Life Update #1

     As I promised in the last post, I'm going to be starting a little series about what I'm doing this summer. Fair warning - until the road trip in late June this might be pretty boring. XD This week was probably one of the more boring weeks.

Favorite Books of the School Year

     Hip, hip, hooray for a bonus post! :) As I promised in Monday's post, I'm going to go through my favorite books of this school year and give a little review on each. Like I said, I read a ton of great books this past school year. I also read some not-my-favorite ones, but we'll ignore those for now. :)

The End of School!

     Joy to the world, the Lord is come!! Haha. Meaning - I'm done with school!! Blessed summer!! No responsibilities!! (Just kidding.) *switches to very professional self* In this post, I will be summarizing the school year. I was a sophomore in high school, and here's how it went...

My Pets

     Welcome! In case you didn't know, May is national pet month. Now you're enlightened. In honor of said "national month" (or whatever you want to call it), I'm going to show you pictures of all my pets. (All one dog and ten chickens.)

Get to Know Me!

     So tomorrow will be the one-year anniversary of me starting up blogging again. I think that out of the last fifty-two weeks I've posted at least fifty times (on this blog). That's pretty good! Throw in TAJ posts, that's about sixty posts! And I've scheduled seventy-two posts for 2017 (that's TAJ and this blog). Whew!

Easter & Family

     Whup, whup! Number four of my little "Picture Every Hour" series. As you may have noticed, yesterday was Easter. The day before, April 15th, was my parent's seventeenth wedding anniversary, so we went to hike the trail that my dad proposed to my mom on, and that they spent a lot of time hiking.

Room Tour

    Hello everyone! Today I'm going to be inviting you into my room for a cup of tea. (A virtual cup, that is.) As you could probably tell from the title, I'm going to be giving y'all a tour of my room. I hope this isn't too boring and is at least slightly interesting. :)

Piano Teaching Update (plus games!!)

     Welcome! Today (as you may see from the title) I'm going to be giving an update on my piano teaching progress, as well as sharing some of the games I'm playing (or am planing to play) with my students.

Bible Time Update: March 2017

     Welcome to my blog!! :) Today I'm fulfilling my promise to keep you updated on my Bible time. It's been going really well! I'm in the middle of 1 Samuel in my Bible Project plan. I'm almost done with the Beauty in the Heart book (which is really good!) and am about halfway through the Psalms.

Grandparents & Laziness

     It's the third Monday of the month!! Y'know what that means?? Another installment in my Picture Every Hour series! :) I did this one on Saturday, March 18th... So here goes...

Saint Patrick's Day

     Happy (early) Saint Patrick's Day!! This post kinda follows in the vein of my Valentine's Day post back in February. As you may or may not know, I am fascinated with history, especially stories that you don't often hear about. Anybody every heard of Boudica? I think not! But that's the kind of stuff I love to learn about.

Bathroom Renovation: Part Three

     This is the final post in my three-part bathroom renovation series. Yippee! It took me a while to get used to the tile and the lack of counter on our new vanity, but I'm settling into a groove. Our organization isn't very far along yet, but I'll show you what's happening so far.

Bathroom Renovation: Part Two

     The bathroom renevation story continues! In this post, I'm gonna show y'all the finished product (basically). This will include paint, trim, toilet, vanity, and some hanging stuff. Hope you enjoy...

Bathroom Renovation: Part One

     Hello all! As you may have gathered from the title, I'm going to be talking about a bathroom renovation. Specifically - our bathroom renovation. We did a lot of stuff (which you will see in the next few weeks), and I really like how it turned out!

Sleepovers & School

     Hello y'all! This is my second post in my Picture Every Hour post series. Here's the first one if you didn't see it. :)

Valentine's Day

     Welcome!! As you probably know, Valentine's Day is tomorrow. So this week's post is going to have a little video explaining the history of Valentine's Day. I think it's really interesting to learn about all the history behind the holidays. And Valentine's Day is not just about lovers and candy and hearts.

My (kinda) Planned Life

     Welcome! This year, I'm trying to keep my life a little bit more organized. (That's one of my 2017 goals: number eight.) Today I'm going to show you a bit of my process. I am by no means a expert, but I love to organize, and I love to have things organized. So this is what works for me, as well as little bit of a glance into my life. :)

Only What's Done for Christ will Last

     Welcome! Today I'm going to be talking about a man who gave nearly his entire adult life in service to the Lord, and who also gave us a beautiful poem I've loved since the day I heard it quoted by our youth pastor. Introducing… (drumroll) C.T. Studd!!