April 27

We have to leave the house in an hour if we are going to make the bus to the city. That doesn't give me nearly enough time to do everything I wanted to. I wanted to be able to write up a new stoy on Charlie, but now I might have to do that on the train.

In fact, there is so little time that I haven't even turned on my notoriously tempermental laptop. I'm blogging from the main computer instead.

My little brother got a whiteboard today. Itt should be easier for him to do Maths now, because he can work it all out on a white board instead of on paper. Sometimes paper just isn't big enough. It's so much more fun to scribble wildly, as big as you need, without having to continue equations over the page. Sometimes I have to take up three pages of my maths book with one equation! My writings are pretty well spaced.

My sister is playing the keyboard. Fortunately, she's stopped with the Christmas Carols. I am so glad of that. She hasn't done any for a while. However, she does play 'Can you feel the love tonight', which always sounds so sad. She doesn't agree with me and my older brother. She tells us that it is a happy song, all about true love. I don't care if it has true love in it, that doesn't change that it is a sad song. The music is sad, and some of the lyris are sad too.

It is really cold today. It's really starting to feel like winter. That's not really a bad thing, because my birthday is in winter. Somehow, my birthday feels like it is just around the corner, even though it is over a month away. I couldn't possibly start counting down until May.

March 29

My laptop is being stubborn again, so I am once again writing on the family computer. I woke my computer up early this morning, so I could do maths before we went out, and it was wonderful. It woke up quickly, did what it was told, and stayed alert the whole time. Now, it's being incredibly stubborn.

My sister had the colours on her brace changed today. They are now pink and teal. I think they look nice.

My mother thinks I should use proper touch typing techniques while on the computer. The thing is, I can't! If I try to touch type on this computer, I end up with about five letters that I didn't mean to put in!

We went to the Brisbane Square Library today. I returned eight books, borrowed seven, and somehow my bag was heavier afterwards! I got a whole lot of heavy books. One of the books was so good, I read all 377 pages this afternoon, and then reviewed it for the newsletter my sister produces. I'll post the review here.

Adam Canfield: The Last Reporter
by Michael Winerip
The Slash, Harris Elementary/Middle School's newspaper, has been shut down for exposing the town's most powerful family's shady business dealings. But the co-editors, Adam and Jennifer, are determined to keep going. With the help of the Amache brothers, tow outrageous kid entrepeneurs, they attempt to collect the money to become an independent newspaper. A suspicious school election, and unusually high test scores, round out this funny and mysterious book.
I rate this book 5 stars.

The miracle for today is cool. Once again, these miracles are not mine. I just read about them, and are inspired by them, so I post them here.

Smiling Face
Author Unknown

One of my girlfriends had dropped off her 3 year old son at daycare.  The weather was very cold and there was predicted to be a snowstorm later that day. 

Mid-morning she received a call from the daycare to pick up her child.  The snowstorm was approching  much faster than previously anticipated.  She picked up her son, and as they were on the way home, the snow began falling heavily and the roads became icy. 

The car hit a patch of ice, and her car spun several times.  He son was safely strapped in the the safety seat in the back.  The car spun off the road, and somehow landed safely between a stand of several trees.  My girlfried, shaken, turned to check on her son in the back seat. 

Her son looked up at her and asked in his little 3 year old voice... "Mom... when we were going around and around and around... who was that man looking in the window?" 

Puzzled, my friend ask her son, "What did the man look like?". 

Her son replied, "He just smiled at me".

March 28

Dinner will be served in approximately 2 minutes, so I have to be incredibly fast. Today has been busy. My brother and I had a maths exam, that happened to cover nothing of what we'd been covering for the last few weeks, and only what we covered in January and February. Annoying! I also had other assignments to complete. Dinner is served! Have to go in a sec. My brother had even more than me to do because we'll both be out most of tomorrow, and he'll be gone all of Friday.

March 23

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I simply forgot. In the ruckus around my brother leaving, I forgot to blog.

I finished my Maths assessment today! I thought it would be really hard, but it actually was pretty easy, and didn't even take too long. I still have lots of Maths to do, but at least the assessment is finished.

We go out to youth group tonight, and I'm really looking forward to it. I like youth group. We do all sorts of fun stuff, and I get to hang out with my friends.

My sister is doing her vocal exercises. She sounds like she's pretending to be a ghost! It involves all sorts of sounds, and it really does sound like she's trying to be a ghost.

I love reading about miracles, or people who do amazing things for a cause they believe in. I read recently about the bringing of Bibles into China, and it sounded amazing. Part of me wishes that I could've been there first hand, and done it too. Even just hearing about it first hand would be so cool.

I have another miracle today. As I have said before, these are not my miracles. They just inspire me, so I write them down, to inspire others.

The Language I Know

By Rosemary Jackson

I volunteer at a soup kitchen in Santa Fe where you are as likely to hear Spanish as English. Many times I've wished I could speak Spanish, especially with two of my favorite regulars, whom I'll call Juan and Miguel. Luckily Juan's English is good enough that he can translate for Miguel, who speaks none at all. 

"Hey, how's it going?" I asked them one day.

Juan told me that he and Miguel had been looking everywhere for work. "No luck," he said. They'd run out of money and were sleeping in a nearby park. I could only imagine how tough it was to find work, especially when you are homeless. 

"Why don't we pray about it?" I suggested and waited for Juan to translate for Miguel. Then we all held hands and asked God to help them find jobs. 

After that I didn't see Juan and Miguel for a while. I figured they might have had to go out of town to find work. Then one day they were back. 

"We want to thank you," Juan said. Miguel smiled and spoke in Spanish as his friend translated for him: "Miguel says, 'Prayer really works. We both have jobs!'"

"Let's give thanks," I urged. I bowed my head and said a short prayer of thanksgiving aloud. After saying "Amen," I opened my eyes to find my friends staring at me.

Miguel spoke in an urgent tone, then Juan explained for me. "My friend says it and I say it too. That was a beautiful prayer. Thank you. Your Spanish is flawless."

Flawless? I don't see how. For I had said that prayer in English, the only language I know.


That is so amazing. I, likewise, only speak one language, but the language of God is universal.

March 15

I have decided that my habit of talking to myself while working out maths problems is a really bad one. I've been working on my maths for the past hour, and now my throat is sore from talking too much! Thankfully, I can still blog, and that doesn't hurt my throat.

Did you know I dream a lot about libraries? I'm serious, I really do. About half my dreams involve libraries, where I invariably find the coolest books, that I have never seen before. I never visit the same dream library twice though, and I haven't visited any of them in real life.

We went shopping today, and my mother bought heaps of flour. She'll be baking this afternoon, but until then we have a wall of flour in our cupboard. It's kind of cool.

Now to today's miracle. I found this on a website, and it sounded so cool! This will be today's miracle. God is amazing in what he can do.

February 17

My sister is sitting right beside me, so I'm going to have to be careful what I write. She could look over my shoulder and see my writing something, and then tease me about it for days, or at the very least, hours. She's really good at teasing, especially about secrets. Either that, or I'm not very good under questioning. I have kept some secrets though, so I'm guessing that she's just good at interrogating.

My little brother, sister and I have been busy all day on Mathletics. It is mega fun. My sister and I have a similar skill level, at least on the easy levels, so we can play against each other. She's faster than I am, but that is partly due to the fact that she, on a desktop, has a number pad, while I, on a laptop, do not. It's also because I'm missing the enter button on my keyboard. As a result, she wins more than I do, but I have a better accuracy, so we are still pretty evenly matched.
We have to go really soon, so I'll have to stop writing. About...now!

February 14 (Valentine's Day)

Firstly, Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all enjoy/ed it.

Wouldn't you love to be a tech whiz, and be able to hack computers and do all sorts of stuff like that? I don't think I ever will be, but I think it would be so cool. One day I want to be able to design websites, but that, though really cool, isn't quite tech whiz level.

My sister is on the keyboard. She is not playing carols, but actually seems to playing something really gloomy. I don't know it. It sounds really nice though.

My little brother is a maniac in training. He's on Mathletics, and talking about himself in the third person, narrating his competitions. It is so funny! He's got the whole crowd, aka himself with different voices, cheering him on. With support like that, how could he lose?

I didn't get any Valentines today, and I couldn't even wear red or pink, because it's my policy to always wear a blue polo shirt on Tuesdays. Tuesdays we volunteer at the library, so I like to wear polo shirts then, and blue is my favorite.

We'll have to sell some of our baby guinea pigs soon. Truth, Salvation and Gideon are almost old enough, and by Friday they will be. I'm pretty sure they will be sold next Monday. Even though they will soon be gone, at least we will have the rest of the babies, until they too have to be sold.

February 10

Last night, because my older brother was away, we watched Little Women, and it is such a great story! Sad, but funny, and just amazing. It wasn't a really accurate depiction of the movie, but it was still a great movie. My little brother and sister have never read the book and they still really enjoyed it!

When you read a book, is it like you are just reading the words on a page, or is it that you are looking through a window into the bookland, or is it that you are actually walking around, living the book with the characters. One way of putting it is that a story is like a door. Some people read like they are looking at a shut door. Some people read like they are looking through an open door. I read like I'm through the door and walking around. I don't know anyone else who reads like that. I know a few that read like looking through the door, but no one who goes through the door. Then again, I haven't asked many people. My little brother might by a walk through the door person if he read more, and read longer books with more in them, but he doesn't, so I can't tell yet. I'm hopeful.

I have not actually read any fiction yet today. I've been really busy with schoolwork, especially Maths. Maths is one of my most disliked subjects. It can be interesting, and some bits are awesome fun, but some bits are just so long and boring. Still, it's not too bad, just boring.

Have you heard the song Reality by Newsboys? One of my favorite lines is "Can you find a better photo for the milk carton backs?". It's awesome.

February 8

Post 100! This is my 100th post! And the weather is celebrating by being the wettest weather for all of this week. Yippee, just how I wanted to celebrate my 100th post.

Mathletics is really fun. My brothers and I are really enjoying it, and being able to play against each other in math competitions. That's really cool. I like chance, data, and graphing. Those are my favorite maths subjects, along with algebra.

I cannot think of any way to celebrate my 100th post, except this

100th POST!!!