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Abby E. Smith

/ abby's journal

Abby’s Journal // a p r i l

 

//Out-of doors. . .
In the air is the aroma of freshly clipped grass, the honeyed twinge of blossoms blooming, and the ready warmth of continuous sunshine. It’s been in the upper 60s and 70s here in Middle Tennessee the past few days, and every spare moment will find me on the front stoop, getting my reading in (and just a wee bit of fresh air).

//Busy working on. . .
Uncountable amounts of school! I am picking up my pace to finish this leg of the race of my senior year with endurance, joy, and diligence. It’s hard. A bit trying. Itching with excitement to finish and move on. But never without a lesson learned when the day is through.

//Currently reading. . .
Jesus on Every Page by David Murray
Peace Child by Don Richardson
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamot
Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White

//At the Desk. . .
Speech assignments! Learning the art of preparing speeches and executing them in a way so that my audience won’t be snoring! It’s harder than it may seem, but rewarding in many ways.

//Beyond the Desk. . .
Besides the house tasks and personal responsibilities here at home, I have so been enjoying the time I can spend outside (barefooted or flip-flopped) with my siblings. Quite a few bike rides and shooting baskets have occupied my time!

//In the Evening. . .
Journal writing, family time, munching dark chocolate, and catching up on free time reading.

//Reflecting on. . .
Being constantly amazed at God’s goodness of each and every day he gives, knowing that we are here for only a short while, but being convicted to live each day to His glory and realizing each moment is a beautiful gift!

//Through Scripture. . .
Reading through Exodus and Matthew in the mornings, Romans at night with the family.
It is an amazing thing to be reading through both the old and new testaments in the same sitting, and seeing God’s sovereign hand through it all!

//Happy About. . .
/That spring is here and summer is on the way!
/That I am about to embark on another part of life’s journey by finishing up my “formal schooling”
/A steaming mug of earl grey in the morning.
/A chuck of dark chocolate when I break from school in the afternoon.
/Hearing occasional stories from my wonderful Granddad, that always inspires my pen.

//Inspiring Quote. . .
“To love means loving the unloveable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.”
~G.K. Chesterton

 

/ heart writing

{Yet Again} The Year in Review

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” // T.S. Elliot
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Another year, another page. We are here yet again at the starting line of new year, a fresh slate, a clean stack of parchment paper built upon the foundation of last year’s providences whose surfaces are yet to be scratched, but are already told.
Our Lord alone knows what words will adorn these pages of two thousand and fifteen, what joyous words of a happy heart and perhaps tearful drops of a hurting one will etch those pages. We can trust in the fact that we do not write this story of a new year ourselves, but that it has been written from the foundation of the world by a Creator and Lord who is a better author than we can ever hope to be.
What a year 2014 has been! How I love looking back over these past blog pages of the year, seeing their variety and truly the opportunities the Lord has given!
I truly do look forward with the upmost excitement to a new year, to many more days of scribblings, and for more opportunities and adventures to recount!
But, as the new year commences, I not only like to look forward but to look back as well at all that the former year has brought, for it is looking back that gives us the foundation of the new year, and encourages us.
In light of this, let’s remember our bookish endeavors of the year past.
I seem to remember a hopeful book list for 2014 I posted on this little nook a year ago. So, without further ado, I would be delighted to share what my list actually looked like! Prepare yourself. I strayed from my original list so much, it’s almost embarrassing!  🙂

Books Completed 2014

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader   // C.S. Lewis
Apostate  // Kevin Swanson
Holiness by Grace  // Bryan Chapell
The Scarlet Letter  // Nathaniel Hawthorne
Uncompromising  // Hannah Farver
The Uncivil War  // Rebecca Clark Cornwell
Assumptions That Affect Our Lives  // Christian Overman
Co. Aytch  // Sam Watkins
Uncle Tom’s Cabin  // Harriet Beecher Stowe
The New Answer’s Book Three  // Ken Ham
My Heart in His Hands  // Ann Judson
A March on London  // G.A. Henty
Growing Up Duggar  // The Duggar Girls
In Freedom’s Cause  // G.A. Henty
A Very Violent Rebel  // Daniel E. Sutherland
The Sinking of the Titanic  // Bob Garner
The Silver Chair  // C.S. Lewis
The Red Badge of Courage  // Stephan Crane
The Horse and His Boy // C.S. Lewis
The Magician’s Nephew  // C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle  // C.S. Lewis
Billy Budd, Sailor  // Herman Melville
Growing Up Christian  // Karl Graustein
Beric the Briton  // G.A. Henty
Unplanned  // Abby Johnson
The Scarlet Pimpernel  // Emmunska Orczy
The Laughing Caviler  // Emmunska Orczy
Let’s Study 1st Corinthians  // David Jackman
The First Sir Percy  // Emmunska Orczy
Radical  // David Platt
Sense and Sensibility  // Jane Austen
1776  // David McCullough
The Bronze Bow  // Elizabeth George Speare
The Eagle of the Ninth  // Rosemary Sutcliff
Johnny Tremain  // Esther Forbes
Treasure Island  // Robert Louis Stevenson
Equipped to Love  // Norm Wakefield
Feminine by Design  // Scott Brown
The Portrait of a Lady  // Henry James
Life Together  // Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Call of the Wild  // Jack London
Sergeant York and the Great War  // Tom Skeyhill
The Hour that Changes the World  // Dick Eastman
To Kill a Mockingbird  // Harper Lee
One Thousand Gifts  // Ann Voskamp
Jacob Deshazer  // Janet and Geoff Benge
God Owns My Business  // Stanley Tam
The Old Man and the Sea  // Ernest Hemingway
I Dared to Call Him Father  // Bilquis Sheikh
Joni  // Joni Eareckson Tada

Ahem, so as I tallied away, I calculated that I read nine of the books that I had listed for my 2014 list. I completed more books than I had originally listed but I put my 2014 booklist to utter shame. Let’s hope I can be more disciplined in 2015 not to be diverted from my list by all the other amazing titles out there! *chuckles*
As to my favorites from this year’s bookshelf, those would have to include The Scarlet Pimpernel (why, oh why, wasn’t I introduced to this sooner!) The Bronze Bow  and In Freedom’s Cause. These were such stirring tales and gave me such inspiration as only a good book can to a writer’s eyes.
I do indeed have a book list for 2015 as well, some of the same titles from 2014 are being carried over because, well, their titles still are desired to read.
I will post that when another time avails itself of the opportunity.
Oh dear, I sincerely hope I haven’t bored you. Reading long lists of fifty two titles can create boredom in some minds, I do apologize if I have done so.
My desire has been that this has inspired you to compile your own list of many titles for the year, it’s such a grand thought to have a direction laid in place for our bookish minds to steer in!
~
I would be so interested to hear what you have read in 2014!
What titles do you hope to add to this new and forthcoming year?

Photo Courtesy: pinterest.com

/ heart writing

Thankfulness: That Sweet Refrain

EUCHARISTEO

A Greek word meaning thanksgiving, to be thankful.

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Thanksgiving.
That sweet refrain. That strum that strikes that harmonious chord in our hearts.
That simple utterance of more than a feeling, more than a statement, more than a day.
It’s a lifestyle.

As the days of November come to a close, a soft conclusion as the last leaflet of a book, our hearts are turned ever always towards the prospects of Thanksgiving. A time of family. A time of feasting. A time of reflection on our many blessings.
But how often are our hearts turned toward Thanksgiving as a life-long commitment? A living of the day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute?
For indeed, we are not guaranteed the morrow! That simple word, that seemingly small recognition of a blessing, the pouring out of our gratefulness to the Lord daily; this is living thanksgiving.

Hence, as this winsome time of year is hereabouts, let us grasp in our hearts what it means to be truly thankful,  for it is indeed something to embrace each and every day!

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.”
~2 Corinthians 9:15

 

*A special recognition to the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. It’s sturdy and renewing words woke me up to the wonderful reality of truly desiring to live Eucharisteo every day! 

/ heart writing

Rust-colored and Leaf-strewn

“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all.”
~Stanley Horowitz 

rust colored

The vibrant tint of crisping leaves paints itself on the beautiful canvas of autumn once again. Vivid wonderland the sun rays create on a crispy day is an enchantment to the eye; picturesqueness has a hold on ones mind and tongue, filling the mind with wondrous thoughts as the shorter days are drawing nigh.
Autumn seems almost magical. Such crunch, briskness and snappiness fill the air, all the while complemented by the enjoyable remembrance of the summer so soon departed.
Autumn holds a new promise, something different and strange, new and exciting, daring and sweet. It’s unpredictable in the loveliest of ways.

The scenery takes on rust-colored hues, as if seeing the world through golden glasses, wondrous to behold. The textures beneath our shoes is no longer the soft and velvety substance of green turf, but instead is the rustling of leaf-strewn earth. One has only to listen with attentive ear to hear the acorns dropping and soft patter of the leaves falling to the brick path; such sounds are unique to this autumnal world.

Yours truly is looking forward to many a bonfire with golden brown marshmallows (the burnt ones just won’t do), many a mug of apple cider warming my palms, many a bowl of carmel corn twanging my tastebuds, many a rainy day with a book in hand, and many an autumn afternoon taking a stroll adorned with plaid and rosy cheeks.
I fully intend to enjoy this delightful season to it’s fullest! For after all, tis’ only a season and will last only until the winds of November usher on it’s way.

Three jolly cheers for October and the autumnness that it brings in it’s wake!
Three cheers for the merry times this brilliant season brings in it’s ever-changing fashion!

Here’s to a rollicking October, my friends!

 

/ lifestyle

Flowers for Mother’s Day

This past Sunday, the celebrated day when we honor our mothers, serve them, and show them our love and gratitude that we have been feeling all year long in our hearts, I was shown that constant love, devotion and honor doesn’t necessarily stop with death’s intrusion, but that love can indeed continue, even when our loved ones are no longer present.

IMG_7736My granddad, who is entering his 79th year this August, has always been a man who shows respect and honor ever since I can remember. He has always recounted to us stories of his growing up years, and whenever he mentions his mother it is with a tender smile and sweet reminisce playing on his features. His mother was one who he looked up to and honored.

IMG_7743Every Mother’s Day since her death in 1973, he goes to the cemetery and plants her favorite flowers, not frippery or showy, by her grave. He doesn’t go because he has to or because he desires praise, but because he truly takes Exodus 20:12 to heart.

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IMG_7751This year, Drew and I took the opportunity to tag along. Perhaps I was a bit sleepy-eyed from a long night the night before, but I realized later that day, that I wouldn’t have traded this experience for any amount of sleep in the world! I saw a glimpse into my granddad’s heart that day, a window that revealed self-sacrifice, honor and humility.

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IMG_7766After our flower planting was done, fingernails were well dirtied, and we had a moment of silence, we then headed to another cemetery where my great-great-grandparents and great-great-great-grandparents were buried.

IMG_7769What a wonderful day of learning and history! Many a life lesson was learned!

“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
~Exodus 20:12~