Busy, Busy, Busy…oh, and Internet Problems!

I must sincerely apologize for leaving my blog for so long. It’s been nearly a week since I published my last blog post!

The past few days have been super busy for me. I’ve been quite preoccupied with getting ready for college. On Friday, I officially registered at Bermuda College. Then I returned to the college yesterday to just walk around campus and get a feel for  where all my classes are located while running a few errands there.

In addition to college registration, I’ve been busy studying for the GED test that is coming up in just 3 weeks. Math is my weakest subject so I’ve been working through an Algebra book to brush up on my Math skills. It’s not fun but I’m trying to enjoy it as these are also the last few weeks of homeschool for me. Yes, I’m graduating next month too!

And to make it even more difficult to blog here, I’ve been having some problems with my internet lately. I’m hoping to get it all fixed later today but for now I’m writing this post from the hotel’s lounge where they have a WiFi service.

Oh, and blogging isn’t the only thing that has taken a “back seat'”. Emails, craft projects, and a ton of other stuff have been getting neglected. :( Well, I guess I shouldn’t ramble on about how busy I am…I’m sure you all can relate at some time or another.

I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying this autumn! Since I don’t have comment moderation turned on, your comments will be published automatically –regardless of if I have internet or not. So go ahead and say hello! Tell me what you’ve been up to and what’s been keeping you busy. I can’t wait to hear from y’all.

Blessings!

God Will Make A Way

Thursday evening, I had the opportunity to play “God Will Make A Way” on piano for Back To The Bible’s annual talent night. You might be familiar with Dr. Woodrow Kroll’s radio program and ministry. Each year, Dr. Kroll brings a group to Willowbank Hotel for a week of both relaxation and spiritual refreshing. We first met him last year and we were pleased to be able to meet with many of the same people who visited last year.

Sara filmed me playing so I can share it with all of you. Thanks, Sara! And Mom {in the green blouse} came up with me to turn the sheet music. Thanks, Mom!

I hope that all of you are enjoying this wonderful day that God has made!

Blessings!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today’s my Mom’s birthday! We are blessed and thankful to God for giving us such a wonderful mother.

She’s committed the past 12 years or so to homeschooling us and making sure we get a good Christian education.

To me, she’s a great example of the Proverbs 31 woman and she is a wonderful encouragement to all of us.

Happy Birthday, dear Mom! I pray that God blesses you with many more birthdays!

{Honestly, she’s the best Mom in the world!}

“Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.”
~Proverbs 31: 29, 30

Featured!

…in the Feelin’ Feminine’s magazine, that is!! My dear friends at FF decided to have my sister Sara and I as the featured feminas of the month. :)

Click on the magazine cover below to read our interview and all the other great articles in this month’s issue!

 Blessings!

Happy 12th Birthday, Leah!

My little sister, Leah’s birthday is today! Twelve years ago, she joined Sara and I and made a family of five.

She’s a sweet girl with a cheerful, serving spirit. I can’t imagine what our family would be like without her! She’s truly a blessing from God for our family.

L oyal

E arnest

A ppreciative

H umble

 

Praise God for granting Leah 12 years of life here. May God bless her with many more to come!

We’re All Safe!

Just wanted to thank you for all your prayers! We’ve been truly blessed and spared. The worst of the storm passed us late last night…and the winds were HOWLING! It was amazing to listen to the huge amounts of energy that was being released by that hurricane!

I’m delighted to report that we never lost electricity during the storm! We woke up this morning to see the fan still spinning and the clock was telling the right time. :) Our house has sustained no damage and everyone in my family is safe! –even our two kitties, Onyx & Opal are fine! ;)

The large majority of our island is without electricity. We have one power company that provides the island with electricity and they reported that 30,000 of their 35,000 customers are without power this morning. I’m so AMAZED that we didn’t lose our power! Praise God!

The local Government has reported that there have been no deaths or major injuries! We do see lots of branches that have been blown over and even a few trees. I’ll try to take photos to share with you later. It’s still quite windy outside and raining off and on and the Police have asked that the public stays off the roads so that they {and other organizations/companies} can properly assess the damage. But the weather will only continue to improve and tropical storm force winds should ease by this afternoon. My family and I are observing Yom Kippur today and will be fasting until sunset so I won’t be online to chat or tweet but just thought to update everyone here!

Once again, it’s obvious that God has answered the prayers of His people! I cannot begin to thank you all enough for praying for us!

Have a blessed day! {and look out for my blogoversary post later today!}

My Daddy

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! I love you very much! I'm so blessed to have a father like you. May God bless you as you continue serving Him and leading our family!

Dad & Mom

"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him."

Psalm 103:13

Friendship Afghan!

Now that my hand is much better, I'm having fun getting back to knitting and crocheting. I thought of a cool idea earlier today! I was wondering if you all would be interested in joining me to make a friendship afghan. Each of us can crochet afghan squares (number of squares made will depend on number of participants) and mail a square to each friend that's participating, keeping one for ourselves. Once we receive squares from participating friends, we can stitch them together to make a friendship afghan and would be a great keepsake to remember our blogger friends by! :-) We can keep everyone updated on the progress of our squares by blogging about it or leaving a comment here.

Before starting, I need to make sure there are enough friends interested to go through with the exchange. I'd like to have 12 participants so we can make 12 squares each. Once I have enough participants signed up for the afghan, we can select a yarn and pattern and begin!

I've been making some progress on the baby throw that I started for the KCA (Knit/Crochet Along) a couple of months ago. Five out of nine squares have been finished so far and it's been a lot of fun to work on this project! The yarn is soft and has an interesting texture making it a pleasure to work with.

Ideally, I'd like to start the friendship afghan squares on the 15th of June so please comment below if you're interested and be sure to tell your friends too!

Blessings,

Hurricane Hunters

A couple of weeks ago, we had the opportunity to join other home-schoolers to meet the Hurricane Hunters and have a tour of their aircraft. If you're not familiar with the Hurricane Hunters, they are a squadron of the US Air Force who fly into hurricanes and tropical storms to get updated weather data. They play a crucial role in providing important information to local weather stations who, in turn inform the public on the nature of the storm.

We were glad to be able to meet these brave airmen(and women!) who fly directly into violent storms on a regular basis. They were friendly and answered all the questions we had regarding their job and the plane they fly. We are grateful for the work that they do to keep us well-informed on storms that may be threatening Bermuda or the coastal regions of the United States.

 Jude really enjoyed the outing!

If you would like to read more about the Hurricane Hunters, you can visit their website by clicking here.

As a quick side note: I've added a poll in the right sidebar, and I encourage all of you to vote for your favorite topic that I write about. Thanks in advance!

A Visit to Commissioner's House

Last week, we visited Commissioner's House for a field trip.  Commissioner's House was designed and built to be multi-purpose. It was constructed in 1822, and served as private quarters for the civilian commissioner of the Dockyard, as well as hosted functions and official ceremonies. After years of neglect and decay during the second half of the 20th century, the Bermuda Maritime Museum transformed it into a wonderful museum. Now, Commissioner's House features a wide variety of exhibits ranging from coin collections to shackles recovered from slave ships.  

~Commissioner's House from the water~

{We forgot to take an outside picture of the house so I found this pic on Google images.}

~Looking over the Dockyard from the first deck~

~The Portuguese make up around 10% of Bermuda's population~

~Wheel hoe used by Portuguese farmers, circa 1900~

~Diagram showing how slaves were packed into ships~

~Shackles recovered from slave ships~

~Jude by model of sail ship~

~Wash basin from Jamaica~

~New currency released in Jan. '09 is displayed in the money exhibit~

~Bermuda $1 bills printed in 1914~

~Real gold coins dating back to the 1600s~

~Wall mural painted by Graham Foster depicting 400 years of Bermudian history~

~Another view of wall mural~

~Leah enjoying a minute by the fountain~

~The children taking a break in front of the fountain~

(Left to Right: Eden, Leah, Jude, & Sara)

~Sara helping her little brother to look at an exhibit~

~Leah taking a peek through the wheel for a cannon~

(Sara's green iPod is between the spokes!)

 ~Sheep grazing along a wall; according the the museum's website the

sheep are their "trusty lawnmowers" :-) ~

~A sheep getting a nibble to eat~

~Dad and Jude hanging out by a cannon~

~Cute dollhouse exhibit~

 ~A cloudy day, but still a great view from the second veranda~

~Another view looking towards the pier for the cruise ships~

~Mother perched on a large window~

~Plaque outside Commissioner's House giving it's latitude/longitude~

~The outdoor grounds feature several tunnels and subterranean rooms~

~Small boat moored at the water's edge of a small pond~

We had lots of fun and learned new things by reading the informative displays located by each exhibit. We took lots of photos and hope to return another time!

Blessings,