Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Today I thought that I would share some of the traditions that we have in our family. We usually don't set up the Christmas tree until the first week of December, but this year we set it up a little early. It was super fun. We did it with a few of our Turkish friends/neighbors that happened to be over that day. Every year, each of us kids gets a new ornament. This year my mom and I found these adorable animal ornaments. I got a hedgehog, my brother got a fox, and my sister got a squirell. This year we are also doing advent again. Advent, if you don't know what that is, is where you read a timeline of stories from the creation of the world up to Jesus' birth. We started this past Sunday, and we read one story every night. Four years ago we also made ornaments from clay that go along with each story. So for the creation there is the picture of a globe, and for the fall there is the picture of a snake. The word advent means coming, and the whole thing is about awaiting not only Jesus' first coming, but also his second coming. I am also reading a book called Jotham's Journey to my little sister. It is also an advent book, but instead of reading from the Bible, it is a story. However, it does have scripture and a little devontional at the end of each chapter. On the 16th, we are also having a concert. We usually do something small for Christmas in this way. I will try to document at least some of it to put on here.

Here are some picture that I took, hope you enjoy!

Our Christmas Tree

My Ornament from two years ago

This years ornament

Last years ornament

Best friends - and some thoughts on them

Have you ever had a best friend? You know, that person that understands you, laughs with you, knows your secrets, and your dreams? If you haven't, then you are missing out on an amazing feeling. I have one of these friends. I've known her since I was born, because she's my cousin. I'm sure that sounds a little different; you usually don't become best friends with one of your relatives. But that doesn't really matter; the person you click with can be someone you've known since your birth (aka a relative,) or it could be someone that you just met three days ago. Also, they don't have to be exactly the same age to be your best friend, mine is a almost two years older than me.

I've discovered that I have a special connection with my cousin; but it didn't used to be as strong as it is now. When we were little, as we sat on the floor in our grandmother's house coloring in barbie coloring books, we were forming a bond, and building a friendship that would never be broken. When were in our teens, as we sat in my house drawing pictures together, we were strengthening that bond, building up our friendship higher and higher. 

In January of 2015, my cousin and her family moved into a house right down the street from me. Of course we were both thrilled. You have to understand what this meant to us, our families had never lived in the same country together, ever. We saw each other almost every day. This was the time where we built the strongest part of our relationship. We would spend hours just sitting and talking about life. We strengthened our bond so much, simply by being together. This moment in our lives is a very special time to me; I cherish it, and hold it tight in my heart. However, like all things in this world, it came to an end. Our friendship though, did not, and still has not, and never will come to an end.

In June 2016, after a year and a half of living beside my cousin, she moved back the the United States. It wasn't that hard for me at first, but this was because my family and I were going back to the United States for a few months at the end of June. So it didn't really sink in until we got back that November. I was sad of course, and the first few months were quite hard, but I had no idea how hard it was going to get. This spring, I really began to miss her, and there were times when I really wanted her by my side. During the rest of the spring and summer, I began to want her more and more. 

One night, we were texting, and we were having a very sentimental talk. I don't remember what we said, but I do remember that I started crying. I couldn't help myself, I missed her so much that it hurt. I felt the pain very strongly that night, and its been getting stronger ever since. My parents realized that I desperatly wanted to see her, and so they bought her a ticket to come to Turkey for two weeks in December. This December. In one month. I am SO excited, and I simply can not wait. As each day passes, my excitement grows.

Dear friends, I do hope that you have experienced the wonderful feeling of having this friend, or will some day. I believe that we all need someone to have that bond with. If you haven't found your best friend yet, don't worry, you will find them at some point in your life. Just keep an open mind, and probably when you least expect it, you will stumble upon them. If you do have a best friend, and you are far from them, just remember that you can still be best friends with them, even if they're half-way acrossed the world.

Friends are there to help on this dangerous and scary journey called life. They are there for us to lean on, and we are there for them. If you have a best friend, or even if you don't, you should always try to encourage each other. One of the ways that I especially like to do this is to write letters. Actually write them, not just send an email. You can make someones day by just writing them a short handwritten note.

The reason that I wrote all of this was simply to encourage you. Whoever is reading this, wherever you are, remember that you can be a light who can brighten someones life. Other people are not just there to help you, you are also there to help others. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't lean on your friends and let them help you, not in the slightest is that what it means. All I am saying is that you should also encourage your friends when they need you, and let them help you when you need help. We all need a helping hand now and then.

Here is a song that has been very encouraging to me. Music is one of my friends that I tend to get a lot of encouragment from. The first one is Vanilla Twilight by Owl City. This song is about missing a dear person. It doesn't specify friend or lover, but personally I think it can be either, whichever you want it to be. I simply love it, and I listen to it several times a day.

Dear readers, if you need encouragment, then come back to my blog once a week. Every week, for the next few weeks, on Thursday, I am going to post a bit of encouragement. Each week will be a different topic, but they are all subjects that have been on my heart.

Till next week,

Sarah

Ben Hur

         The new Ben Hur just came out a few weeks ago, and I went to see it with my family last week. It. was. amazing. I absolutely loved it. They did a really, really good job on it; you could tell that the people working on it were Christians. I've seen the really long, really old movie, and I read the book in 6th grade, so I knew the story a little bit; but they did change the story up a bit.

      The messege of the story and the way that they delivered it was very powerful. The messege was about revenge and forgiveness. In a very powerful and moving way, they showed how destructive revenge can be. They showed how different two people can be when one forgives while the other has a lust for revenge. The one who forgives is content and happy. However, the one who keeps revenge in his heart never rests until he gets revenge, and even then he is not satisfied.

      One thing about this movie was that in some parts it was really hard to watch. This was because they depicted the Roman Empire very realistically. There was so much cruelty and sadness. It was especially sad how the Romans believed that the life of a Jew was not nearly as valuable as a Roman's.

  If you haven't seen this movie yet, then I strongly reccomend you to go and see it. It really is one of the best movie's to come out this year.

Welcome Back!

Well, summer's over, school has started,, and it's time for me to start writing again. I didn't really do much this summer, but I did read quite a bit. I finished several free reading books from last year, and started on some books for this year. I read the Hornblower series, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Scaramouche, Jane Eyre, and I started Wuthering Heights. All of these books were amazing, and I would reccomend all of them. Other than reading, I swam a lot and started exersizing. I started riding my bike a lot with my Dad, and I'm going to the gym a couple days a week now.

Now that I'm in 10th grade, school has gotten a lot harder. However, I love all of the books that we get to read this year. Such as Up from Slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Les Miserables (which I have been waiting for two years to read!)

I will be posting every week now, so come back regularly!

Life

Have you ever felt like the world is moving too fast? Well I felt like that the other day. It wasn't the type of fast where I don't think that I'm cherishing moments; it was more as if the world was going to fast and I can't keep up with it. (If that makes any sense to you.) Sometimes I feel like I just want the whole world to stop for a few hours so that I can just catch my breath. There are so many things that I would love to pursue, that I wish I had more time for and that I could just spend all day doing. Things like drawing, baking, dancing, singing, writing my book, playing my instruments, taking walks in the woods, and going on bike rides with my dad. One thing that seems to get in my way a lot is school. I mean, I spend so much time doing it. I know it's important, but sometimes I wish that it wouldn't take so long.  I get up at 5:45 every morning except for Fridays when I get up at 6:30. I also have something going on almost every day of the week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I give English lessons; and on Wednesdays and Fridays I have music lessons. This week I did get a bit of a breather from my music lessons; and it felt AWESOME! I'v been preparing for a music exam that only occurs once a year, and it's quite an important exam. However the exam was earlier this week, and after practicing for five months, I'm finally finished! So this yesterday when my singing teacher came, we didn't do a lesson, we just sang and played the piano for almost three hours. It was so much fun! Sorry, I'm rambling a little bit. However, the point of this story is that I got to slow down and take a deep breath before being plunged back into the sea of life. If you read the whole of this rambling session, thank you. I think that everyone needs to just ramble on sometimes. This is the corner of my world where I can just pour out my heart.


I know I promised weeks  ago to post the next chapter of my story several weeks ago, but I've just been so busy. It might be awhile before I can get it finished and posted. 

Spring is here!

Well, my dear readers, spring is fianlly here. The flowers are blooming, the grass is growing, and it's getting warmer. Every year when spring comes around, I love to go out and take pictures of different things in nature. I like to use different filters, and I'll also edit them sometimes. I thought that I would post some of my pictures from last year.

Oracles of Fire

I have recently been reading a book series entitled Oracles of Fire by Bryan Davis. It's a continuation of another series called Dragons in our Midst. The first series was about a boy whose father is a former dragon but his mother is a human, and so the boy (Billy) is part dragon and part human. All the books are very exciting and interesting. Bryan Davis is an incredible writer. I'm in awe of people who can create whole worlds; like C. S. Lewis and Tolkien. The first book of the second series starts right before Noah's Flood, and it continues all the way up to modern times. What I especially love about this book is that Bryan Davis takes a well known bible story and puts a twist on it. He adds dragons, evil spirits, and many other things. All throughout the book he slips beautiful Christian truths; different things about God's love, prophets, and despair with hope. I would definetely reccomend these books, they are just incredible, inspiring stories.

I have been working on my own story very little in the past few weeks but I will try to get the next chapter up sometime before the end of this week.